Early Stage Development Team

Doug MaeNeil, Ph.D.

Early Drug Discovery and Development

Dr. MacNeil has extensive experience in Early Drug Discovery and Development at major pharmaceutical companies. During his research career he rose from a bench level scientist to Director of In Vitro Sciences where he was responsible for in vitro assay support to over 40 research programs at Merck’s NJ research sites. He was a Team Lead or Biology Lead on multiple Drug Discovery and Development projects for obesity, hypertension, diabetes, NAFLD, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson disease. He has a proven record of delivering development compounds, including expertise in target identification, target validation, project support, and discovery team leadership. Dr. MacNeil initiated seven programs that delivered compounds for development; four achieved clinical proof of concept. He has deep capability in G-protein coupled receptors (GPCR), neuropeptides, energy homeostasis, neurodegeneration, and metabolic diseases. He is an expert at optimizing internal and external in vitro assays to support Lead Identification and Lead Optimization. He was responsible for 13 GPCR programs including agonist, antagonist, inverse agonist, allosteric modulators, and biased ligand projects. Dr. MacNeil has successfully managed international collaborations with partners in Japan, India, China, Germany and Denmark. He is recognized as an expert in cell-based assay development, assay validation, and CRO selection. As a Drug Discovery Consultant, he has provided guidance and advice to multiple universities, Foundations, and Biotech companies to help bring forward novel therapies into development. Dr. MacNeil holds M. Sc. and Ph. D. degrees in Bacteriology from the University of Wisconsin, and two B. Sc. Degrees from MIT in Chemistry and Life Sciences. He has lectured on Early Drug discovery projects at multiple national and international conferences, has published over 90 publications, and is an inventor of 15 issued US patents.