Fraser Glickman, PhD, is a scientist and research administrator with more than two decades of experience in translational drug discovery in academia and the pharmaceutical industry. He currently serves as Director of the Fisher Drug Discovery Resource Center (DDRC) and as a Research Associate Professor at The Rockefeller University.
Throughout his career, Dr. Glickman has focused on enabling collaborative discovery efforts and providing scientists with access to the tools, guidance, and infrastructure they need to move promising ideas toward therapeutic development. In his current role, he leads a team that supports investigators across more than 70 laboratories in developing and executing small-molecule discovery campaigns.
Under Dr. Glickman’s direction, the DDRC has grown significantly in both scope and technical capacity. The Center’s screening library has expanded from 70,000 to over 600,000 small molecules, and a range of new technologies have been adopted, including fragment-based and biophysical screening, cheminformatics tools, and automated high-throughput platforms. Dr. Glickman and his team have helped initiate and optimize over 100 assay-based discovery projects involving a wide variety of biological targets and disease areas.
Several of these efforts have focused on neuroscience-relevant applications, reflecting the Center’s broader mission of supporting early-stage discovery across multiple therapeutic areas, including central nervous system disorders. Recent projects include collaborating in the investigation of novel inhibitors that impact Alzheimer’s disease-related pathology, as well as studies involving the development of small molecules that modulate chemokine receptors associated with neuroinflammation. In earlier studies, Dr. Glickman’s team helped develop imaging assays to assess neurotoxicity in primary neurons, and they also participated in efforts targeting muscarinic acetylcholine receptors.
Dr. Glickman’s academic collaborations have led to over 120 co-authored publications in journals such as Nature, Cell, PNAS, and Cancer Discovery. He has contributed to numerous patent filings and helped secure external and philanthropic funding to support research infrastructure and technology development, including support from the Metropolitan Anti-Viral Drug Accelerator (MAVDA).
Prior to joining The Rockefeller University, Dr. Glickman held research leadership roles at the Novartis Institute for BioMedical Research and at Pharmacopeia, Inc., where he guided high-throughput screening efforts, assay development, and lead optimization programs in oncology, infectious disease, and neuropsychiatric research. He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, an M.S.P.H. from the University of North Carolina, and a B.S. from Duke University.
