Dr Daniel Nielsen

mRNA Drug Discovery

Dr. Nielsen is a distinguished early career researcher and expert in biomolecular drug discovery. His exemplary contributions to the field have earned him numerous academic awards and a highly regarded publication record. After earning his Ph.D. from the University of Queensland in 2016 under the mentorship of Prof. David P. Fairlie, he was awarded a grant to pursue independent research at the University of Copenhagen with Prof. Morten Meldal.

In 2018, Dr. Nielsen founded a drug discovery consultancy, leveraging his expertise before transitioning into the biotech sector. As the Head of Peptide Chemistry at San Francisco-based SyntheX, he led pre-clinical drug discovery projects in oncology and played a pivotal role in securing over $750 million in funding.

Returning to academia this year, Dr. Nielsen is now focused on advancing mRNA drug discovery and development programs, continuing his commitment to driving innovation in the field.

Key Publications

Nielsen, D.S.; Shepherd, N. E.; Xu, W.; Lucke, A. J.; Stoermer, M. J.; Fairlie, D. P. Orally Absorbed Cyclic Peptides. Chemical Reviews, 2017, 117, 8094-8128.

Nielsen, D. S.; Hoang, H. N.; Lohman, R.; Hill, T. A.; Lucke, A. J.; Craik, D. J.; Edmonds, D. J.; Griffith, D. A.; Rotter, C. J.; Ruggeri, R. B.; Price, D. A.; Liras, S.; Fairlie, D. P. Improving on Nature: making a cyclic heptapeptide orally bioavailable. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2014, 53, 12059-12063.

Nielsen, D. S.; Lohman, R.; Hoang, H. N.; Hill, T. A.; Jones, A.; Lucke, A. J.; Fairlie, D. P. Flexibility versus rigidity for orally bioavailable cyclic hexapeptides. ChemBioChem, 2015, 16, 2289-2293.

Wang, C. K.; Northfield, S. E.; Colless, B.; Chaousis, S.; Hamernig, I.; Lohman, R.; Nielsen, D. S.; Schroeder, C. I.; Liras, S.; Price, D. A.; Fairlie, D. P.; Craik, D. J. Rational design and synthesis of an orally bioavailable peptide guided by NMR amide temperature coefficients. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2014, 111, 17504-17509.

Lohman, R. J.; Hamidon, J. K.; Reid, R. C.; Rowley, J. A.; Yau, M.; Halili, M. A.; Nielsen, D. S.; Lim, J.; Wu, K.; Loh, Z.; Do, A.; Suen, J. Y.; Iyer, A.; Fairlie, D. P. Nature Communications, Exploiting a novel conformational switch to control innate immunity mediated by complement protein C3a, 2017, 8, 351.

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