Piazza leading pharmacy’s innovative Cancer Research Center at Auburn University

For most academic scientists conducting biomedical research, the possibility of advancing a new medicine from the lab to the clinic is, at best, an aspiration. Despite the odds, Gary Piazza and his research team in the Auburn University Harrison College of Pharmacy (HCOP) have discovered a highly potent and selective anticancer treatment and are collaborating with investigators at the University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB) O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center to advance a new drug candidate to clinical trials for patients with the most fatal of cancers.

Piazza joined HCOP in 2021 as the W.W. Walker Professor and head of the Department of Drug Discovery and Development. A highly respected cancer investigator, Piazza came to Auburn as a UAB graduate with more than 35 years of research experience, including 10 years as a professor at the University of South Alabama Mitchell Cancer Institute in Mobile and 10 years as a principal scientist with Southern Research in Birmingham.

Along with his administrative responsibilities, Piazza continues his groundbreaking research as director of the newly created Cancer Research Center at HCOP.

A team of scientists who started to collaborate while at Southern Research also made the move from MCI to Auburn, including Xi Chen, a medicinal chemist; Adam Keeton, a cancer biologist; Yulia Maxuitenko, a pharmacologist; and Kristy Berry, a lab manager with expertise in mouse tumor models.

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“We share a common interest in cancer research but have very different skill sets,” said Piazza. “Having a multidisciplinary team with diverse scientific expertise has allowed us to solve many technical problems as we seek to advance our experimental drugs to the clinic.” 

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