Rate My Professor Kent Stewart

Kent D. Stewart, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Basic Pharmaceutical Sciences and Interim Chair of the Department in the Fred Wilson School of Pharmacy at High Point University. He holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Pennsylvania State University (1980) and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles (1984), followed by an NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship at The Rockefeller University (1984-1986). Stewart's professional career includes an appointment as Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Emory University (1986-1988) and industry roles starting as Senior Research Organic Chemist at Burroughs Wellcome Co. (1988-1992). From 1992 to 2014, he progressed at Abbott Laboratories and AbbVie from Research Scientist to Senior Research Fellow, contributing to the discovery of antiviral agents including HIV protease inhibitors ABT-538 and ABT-378 (lopinavir), influenza neuraminidase inhibitors, dipeptidyl peptidase IV inhibitors, and the JAK inhibitor Rinvoq (upadacitinib), approved in over 70 countries for immune-mediated diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease.

At High Point University since 2015, Stewart teaches chemistry lecture and laboratory courses, emphasizing the three-dimensional atomic structures of medicines. His academic interests center on medicinal chemistry and computer-aided structure-based drug design to discover novel compounds with bioactivity against proteases, kinases, DNA-binding agents, and viruses including HIV, influenza, and hepatitis C. Key publications encompass Kempf et al., 'ABT-538 is a potent inhibitor of human immunodeficiency virus protease and has high oral bioavailability in humans' (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 1995); Stoll et al., 'X-ray crystallographic structure of ABT-378 (Lopinavir) bound to HIV-1 protease' (Bioorg. Med. Chem., 2002); Wang et al., 'Design, synthesis, and structural analysis of influenza neuraminidase inhibitors containing pyrrolidine cores' (J. Med. Chem., 2001); and Pei et al., 'Discovery, structure-activity relationship, and pharmacological evaluation of... dipeptidyl peptidase IV inhibitors' (J. Med. Chem., 2006). Stewart received the 2024 American Chemical Society Heroes of Chemistry Award for his Rinvoq team contributions, was named Professor of the Year by HPU pharmacy students in 2019, and delivered a seminar on computer-aided drug design at Johns Hopkins University in 2024.