Rate My Professor James Leahy

James W. Leahy is Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemistry at the University of South Florida, within the College of Arts and Sciences. He holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Molecular Medicine at the Morsani College of Medicine and serves as a faculty member of the Florida Center of Excellence for Drug Discovery and Innovation (CDDI) and the Center for Global Health and Inter-Disciplinary Research (GHIDR). Leahy received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of South Florida, followed by postdoctoral studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He launched his independent academic career as Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1992 to 1998. He then held industry positions as Director of Chemistry at MetaXen from 1998 to 1999 and Senior Director of Chemistry at Exelixis Inc. from 1999 to 2011, where he assembled a team of over 100 chemists and contributed to the discovery of more than two dozen novel drug candidates. These efforts led to four approved drugs: Cometriq and Cabometyx for the treatment of medullary thyroid cancer and advanced kidney and liver cancers, Cotellic for melanoma, and Minnebro, a non-steroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist approved in Japan for hypertension.