Ken Pearce

Ken Pearce is a Research Professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He leads an interdisciplinary team focused on early-stage drug discovery, particularly in oncology and epigenetic pathways.

Education:
No explicit educational details are provided in the text.

Research Interests:
His laboratory integrates reagent production, assay development, high-throughput screening, biophysics, and exploratory cell biology to identify small-molecule chemical probes and therapeutics. Specific areas include inhibition of chromatin methyl-lysine reader proteins, targeting small GTPases (e.g., K-Ras, Gaq), inositol phosphate kinases, and protein–protein interactions involving CIB1 and MAGE proteins. They also pursue phenotypic screens—such as enhancing c-Myc degradation in pancreatic cancer cells—and are advancing DNA-encoded library technologies as a complement to traditional high-throughput approaches.

Publication Trends:
Recent articles (2022–2025) emphasize chemical biology, structure-guided drug design, epigenetic modulators, and immunotherapy. Earlier work (2004) focused on structural characterization of nuclear receptors. The trajectory illustrates a consistent focus on translating biochemical insights into therapeutic leads for cancer, neurodegeneration, and inflammatory diseases.

Funding & Collaborations:
Pearce actively partners with the Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery and multiple groups across the UNC campus, leveraging shared resources and expertise to accelerate translational research.

Laboratory & Teams:
He directs a comprehensive collaborative group housed in Marsico Hall, Chapel Hill, NC, equipped for high-throughput screening, biophysical characterization, and cellular imaging.