Peter Nestler

Peter has over 25 years of experience in academic research and pharmaceutical lead discovery focused on the interplay of disciplines and technologies in the context of understanding and modulating biological processes. He has served in leadership roles since 1995 in academia and industry. He held a faculty position at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and led drug discovery project teams, medicinal chemistry groups, and various initiatives.

At the global level, he was heavily engaged in the Aventis Chemical Biology Initiative as the leader of the Chemical Biology Proteases platform. Throughout the years, he has been contributing to a multitude of therapeutic area projects, such as antithrombotics, diabetes, degenerative and inflammatory joint diseases, oncology, and most recently in cystic fibrosis. He has delivered various novel lead and drug compounds to the Sanofi pipeline, such as a Factor Xa inhibitor and a dF508-CFTR corrector. In the process, he was involved in and drives key disciplines of lead generation, including automated chemistry and high throughput purification, computational chemistry and cheminformatics, as well as data management and database design and programming for LIMS, portfolio tracking, and compound registration processes. He co-founded a biotech startup focusing on high-throughput screening of single-cell transcriptomeic responses.

As a Desert Angel, Peter has been supporting young companies and fostering the start-up ecosystem in Tucson and Southern Arizona. He has been involved with Tech Launch Arizona and the University of Arizona Center for Innovation as a Commercialization Partner and a Mentor-in-Residence for more than 5 years.