Merritt Lab
Director, Medicinal Chemistry Core
Dr. James Merritt is a medicinal chemist with over 25 years of experience in drug discovery. He has previously worked at Pharmacopeia Inc., Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Genesis Biotechnology Group, and from 2010-2022 as associate professor of organic and medicinal chemistry at Kean University where he earned academic tenure. He has led hit to lead optimization efforts in collaboration with Schering-Plough, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Genesis Biotechnology Group resulting in GLP-tox candidates for oncology, autoimmune disease, metabolic disease and schizophrenia. His work on chemokine receptor antagonists led to a Ph. II clinical candidate Navarixin, for COPD and metastatic tumors, and a GLP-tox candidate for rheumatoid arthritis. He joined CDI in 2024 and is overseeing medicinal chemistry efforts and hit to lead optimization for multiple early-stage drug discovery programs. Dr. Merritt is a co-author on over 50 published papers, book chapters, and patents. Since 2013, he has been an invited co-author of the “To Market, To Market” chapter of the American Chemical Society annual publication “Medicinal Chemistry Reviews”. Dr. Merritt earned a B.S. in chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Duke University and was a post-doctoral fellow with Prof. Bert Fraser-Reid at Duke University.
Selected Publications
Dwyer, Michael P.; Yu, Younong; Chao, Jianping; Aki, Cynthia; Chao, Jianhua; Biju, Purakkattle; Girijavallabhan, Viyyoor; Rindgen, Diane; Bond, Richard; Mayer-Ezel, Rosemary; Jakway, James; Hipkin, R. William; Fossetta, James; Gonsiorek, Waldemar; Bian, Hong; Fan, Xuedong; Terminelli, Carol; Fine, Jay; Lundell, Daniel; Merritt, J. Robert; Rokosz, Laura L.; Kaiser, Bernd; Li, Ge; Wang, Wei; Stauffer, Tara; Ozgur, Lynne; Baldwin, John; Taveras, Arthur G. Discovery of 2-Hydroxy-N,N-dimethyl-3-{2-[[(R)-1-(5- methylfuran-2-yl)propyl]amino]-3,4-dioxocyclobut-1-enylamino}benzamide (SCH 527123): A Potent, Orally Bioavailable CXCR2/CXCR1 Receptor Antagonist. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, (2006), 49, 7603-7606. https://doi.org/10.1021/jm0609622
J. Robert Merritt, Jinqi Liu, Elizabeth Quadros, Michelle L. Morris, Ruiyan Liu, Rui Zhang, Biji Jacob, Jennifer Postelnek, Catherine M. Hicks, Weiqing Chen, Earl F. Kimble, W. Lynn Rogers, Linda O’Brien, Nicole White, Hema Desai, Shalini Bansal, George King, Michael J. Ohlmeyer, Kenneth C. Appell, Maria L. Webb. Novel Pyrrolidine Ureas as C-C Chemokine Receptor 1 (CCR1) Antagonists. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, (2009), 52, 1295-1301. 19183043. https://doi.org/10.1021/jm801416q
Yu-Wen Li, Matthew A. Seager, Trevor Wojcik, Karen Heman, Thaddeus F. Molski, Alda Fernandes, Shaun Langdon, Annapurna Pendri, Samual Gerritz, Yuan Tian, Yang Hong, Lizbeth Gallagher, James R. Merritt, Chongwu Zhang, Ryan Westphal, Robert Zaczek, John E. Macor, Joanne J. Bronson, Nicholas J. Lodge. Biochemical and Behavioral Effects of PDE10A Inhibitors: Relationship to Target Site Occupancy, Neuropharm. (2016), 102, 121-135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropharm.2015.10.037
Nazende Zeren, Zobia Afzal, Sara Morgan, Gregory Marshall, Maithrayee Uppiliappan, James Merritt, Salvatore J. Coniglio. The Chemokine Receptor CCR1 Mediates Microglia Stimulated Glioma Invasion. Int. J. Mol. Sci. (2023), 24, 5136-5147. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24065136
Erika Araujo, Bjorn Bartels, Ian M. Bell, Georgette Castanedo, Mingshuo Zeng, T. G. Murali Dhar, Natalie Holmberg-Douglas, Eric R. Welin, Dennis C. Koester, Brian Leon, James R. Manning, J. Robert Merritt, Kevin M. Peese, Anh Tran, and Joanne J. Bronson. To Market, To Market – 2023: Small Molecules, 2024 Medicinal Chemistry Reviews. (2024), 59, Ch. 19. 10.1021/mc-2024-vol59.frn