Research Advisory Council
Robert Young
Simon Fraser University
Bob Young was born in Edmonton, Alberta, but raised in Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia. He obtained a B.Sc. (honours) in chemistry from the University of Victoria in 1967. His graduate studies were carried out at the University of British Columbia under the direction of Professor James Kutney. After completing his Ph.D. in 1971, he was an NSERC postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Professor Sir Derek H.R. Barton at Imperial College of Science and Technology, London. In 1973, he followed another postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, working with Professor David Hamon. In 1975, he returned to a university postdoctoral fellowship at the University of British Columbia with Professor Kutney and in 1976 was a research associate at the Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles (CNRS), Gif-sur-Yvette, France. In 1977, he joined Merck Frosst as a senior research chemist and over the years has been promoted and now holds the title of Vice-President, Medicinal Chemistry, Merck Frosst Canada & Co. Dr. Young's interests are in the areas of natural products' chemistry, biosynthesis, carbanion chemistry and combinatorial chemistry, as well as medicinal chemistry and drug design. His major interests are in the design of novel drugs as treatment for asthma, allergic diseases and inflammation and in the design of cysteine protease inhibitors, inhibitors of phosphatase enzymes and prostaglandins, prostaglandin receptors and prostaglandin mimetics. Dr. Young also has a strong interest in drug metabolism and the application of metabolic analysis to the design of optimized drugs. Dr. Young has been involved in the discovery of a number of important new drugs including Singulair® for asthma and Vioxx® amd Arcoxia™ for inflammation. He has authored or co-authored over 100 publications and review articles and 50 patents.
In 2006 Dr. Young retired from Merck Frosst and formed a consulting company, Promorpheus Consultants Inc., offering services in Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Discovery. In April 2007 Dr. Young took up a postion as B.C. Research Chair at the Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C. pursuing research in Chemical Genomics and Drug Discovery.
Bob was president of the organizing committee for the 9th International Conference on Organic Synthesis (ICOS 1992) held in Montreal June 28 - July 2, 1992. He has also been coordinator for bioscience and technology and medicinal chemistry sections for Pacifichem 1995 and 2000. Bob has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Board and Director of the Administrative Council for the Centre de recherche en calcul appliqué (CERCA), Montreal, and the Biotechnology Research Institute of NRC (BRI), Montreal, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Istituto di Recerche di Biologia Molecolare P. Angeletti (IRBM), Rome, Italy, and has been adjunct professor in chemistry at the University of British Columbia since 1993. Bob has served on numerous NSERC and NRC committees. He is currently a member of the Committee for Institutional Innovation Fund and Regional/National Facility (IIF-RNF) of the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI). He was appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada in 2004.
Beyond science, Bob enjoys activities including golf, sailing, skiing, travel and photography.