Drew Adams

Drew Adams, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He leads the Adams Lab, which focuses on chemical biology approaches to identify drug targets and small molecules for neurodegenerative diseases. His work includes collaborations on remyelination therapies and cancer biology, leveraging high-throughput screening and synthetic chemistry. He directs the Small-Molecule Drug Development Core, a facility enabling chemical library screening.

Education: B.A. in Biochemistry from Swarthmore College (Highest Honors), PhD in Organic Chemistry from Harvard University (under David A. Evans), postdoc at the Broad Institute with Stuart L. Schreiber.

Research: Specializes in small-molecule modulation of cellular processes, particularly sterol signaling in oligodendrocyte differentiation. Key contributions include identifying imidazole antifungals as remyelination enhancers and founding Convelo Therapeutics for myelin repair therapies.

Grants/Awards: NIH R01 (2021), Falk Research Trust Grant (2020), 2019 Folch Pi Prize, and the Thomas F. Peterson, Jr. Professorship (2018).

Labs/Teams: Adams Lab collaborates with Prof. Paul J. Tesar (CWRU) and Prof. Robert H. Miller (GWU) on remyelination mechanisms. Recent work explores sterol landscape modulation and CYP51 inhibition.