College of Pharmacy welcomes Dr. Christopher Rice

The College of Pharmacy is pleased to welcome Dr. Christopher Rice as a new Assistant Research Scientist for the Center for Drug Discovery (CDD). In his role, he will be responsible for interacting, consulting and managing existing and new collaborative projects for the discovery of new chemical entities as potential therapeutics for combating various diseases. “My goals in this position will be to allow easier collaborations between chemists and biologists within and out with our facility for their drug discovery needs; teach, train and inform new interested partners’ relevant drug discovery techniques and methodology and continuously work to streamline, improve and innovate any of these services to customers,” commented Dr. Rice.

Chris received his doctorate from The University of the West of Scotland in 2014. He was then hired as a Postdoctoral Fellow by Dr. Dennis E. Kyle at the University of South Florida to lead his amoeba drug discovery project. In this role, he developed high throughput screening methodology for the discovery of novel therapeutics for the brain eating amoeba, Naegleria fowleri. Throughout his Postdoc he developed similar phenotypic high throughput screening methodology for two other diverse pathogenic free-living amoeba, Acanthamoeba species and Balamuthia mandrillaris. He transitioned to UGA with Dr. Kyle in 2017 where he has been lead optimizing many of the hits the amoeba team discovered throughout their discovery phase via secondary assays for the prioritization of these molecules. This has been fundamental in the discovery and development of posaconazole as a combination partner drug for the treatment of Primary Amoebic Meningoencephalitis caused by N. fowleri.

Beyond work, Dr. Rice enjoys travelling, socializing, and playing video games competitively (Halo series or Fortnite).

Dr. Rice’s office is located in the R.C. Wilson building, Rm. 357; he can be reached at christopher.rice@uga.edu. Please stop by and welcome him to the College of Pharmacy!


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