Rate My Professor David Fairlie

Professor David Fairlie is an NHMRC Research Investigator Fellow (Level 3) and Professor at the University of Queensland's Institute for Molecular Bioscience, serving as Group Leader of Chemistry and human therapeutics, Head of the Centre for Drug Discovery, and one of four Centre Directors. He previously headed the Division of Chemistry and Structural Biology at the Institute since 2009, held NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow positions (2012-2021), ARC Federation Fellowship (2006-2011), ARC Professorial Fellowship (2002-2006), and served as Scientific Director and Chief Scientific Officer of a startup company. An Affiliate Professor in the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, his academic background encompasses undergraduate studies at the University of Adelaide, postgraduate studies at the Australian National University and University of New South Wales, and postdoctoral studies at Stanford University and University of Toronto.

Fairlie's research integrates organic, medicinal, and biological chemistry; biochemistry of enzyme inhibitors and protein-protein interactions; molecular pharmacology and signalling in disease models; and immunology of innate immune cells and T cells. His group designs novel compounds to modulate proteins, receptors, and cellular processes, applying them in models of inflammatory and respiratory diseases, metabolic disorders including type 2 diabetes and obesity, cancers, viral infections, and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's. A Highly Cited Researcher according to Clarivate Analytics with over 37,000 citations, Fairlie has collaborated with major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and led nodes in ARC Centres of Excellence for Innovations in Peptide and Protein Science and Advanced Molecular Imaging. Notable publications include "A novel inhibitor of class IIa histone deacetylases attenuates collagen‐induced arthritis" (2024), "MAIT cell heterogeneity across paired human tissues reveals specialization of distinct regulatory and enhanced effector profiles" (2024), "Potent immunomodulators developed from an unstable bacterial metabolite of vitamin B2 biosynthesis" (2024), "Achiral derivatives of hydroxamate AR-42 potently inhibit class I HDAC enzymes and cancer cell proliferation" (2020), and "The molecular basis underpinning the potency and specificity of MAIT cell antigens" (2020).