Founding Director: Andrej Luptak, PhD
Our Vision: Drug Discovery
Imagine a place where brilliant minds unite across health disciplines to pioneer drug design and discovery to transform the landscape of healthcare. In the Molecular Innovation Center, this vision becomes a reality. UCI’s molecular engineers are poised to develop next-generation therapeutics and complementary and alternative therapies through collaborations that span from cancer biology and integrative health to neuroscience and infectious diseases, fortifying a continuous cycle of medical advancement.
Embedding the Molecular Innovation Center within the dedicated research hub of the Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Innovation Building will foster dynamic collaboration between molecular engineers and investigators leading discovery biology. Our teams will harness the value creation of newly discovered targets in disease-specific centers by generating first-in-class therapeutics for cancer, neurodegenerative conditions, viral and bacterial infections, childhood diseases, and maladies of the developing world. It has been selected as one of 12 high-impact research programs that will be located in the Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Innovation Building.
In This New Facility
World-renowned scientists will partner with pharmaceutical industry leaders to develop an essential pipeline for innovative therapeutics.
Interdisciplinary teams will expedite advanced drug discovery, creating a direct path from laboratory bench to patient bedside.
Future leaders will be trained in molecular design and synthesis to meaningfully address a wide range of unmet medical needs.
Indoor and outdoor gathering spaces for events, speakers and presentations will further discussion and share new insights.
Our Competitive Advantage
Empowered by the distinctive One Health approach of UCI Health Affairs that transcends disciplinary boundaries, the Molecular Innovation Center comprises faculty and staff from the Susan & Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences (encompassing schools of medicine, nursing, pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences, population and public health) and UCI Health, our regional healthcare system which includes the pioneering Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute. With brilliant minds working together instead of in silos, our teams will push the boundaries of innovation and facilitate fundamental discoveries in molecular therapeutics.
Leveraging UCI’s international reputation in organic synthesis, medicinal chemistry, and molecular design and evolution, the Molecular Innovation Center will expand the horizons of molecular innovations, encompassing everything from the creation of small molecule drugs to the complex development of supramolecular assemblies. Growing and elaborating on partnerships from its roots in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, this center will become a hub for top-tier academic drug discovery in California, promising a transformative future in medicine.
Current Team
Along with future recruits, the Molecular Innovation Center will include internationally renowned faculty:
Andrej Luptak, PhD
Professor and Chair, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences; Professor, Chemistry, School of Physical Sciences; Professor, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, School of Biological Sciences
Shaista Malik, MD, PhD, MPH
Associate Vice Chancellor, Integrative Health; Executive Director, Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute; Susan Samueli Endowed Chair, Integrative Medicine; Medical Director, Preventive Cardiology and Cardiac Rehab
Brian Paegel, PhD
Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences; Professor, Chemistry, School of Physical Sciences; Professor, Biomedical Engineering, The Henry Samueli School of Engineering
Darci Trader, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences
Join Us in Making an Impact
We are seeking philanthropic partners to establish a home for the UCI Molecular Innovation Center in the Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Innovation Building, and to support our programmatic funding to achieve transformational discoveries.
Named Spaces Within the Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Innovation Building
The overall design of the Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Innovation Building allows UCI to foster dynamic alliances that move discovery from inspiration to practice. There is the opportunity to name the new home for the Molecular Innovation Center, as well as custom-designed laboratories and gathering spaces. As a philanthropic partner, you will ensure our scientists have the space, resources and facilities needed to perform their life-changing work.
Endowed Research Grants
Research endowments provide continuous support for our investigators who are reshaping the future of science and healthcare because external grants cover only a portion of costs. Moreover, endowed funding is particularly important to underwrite the most innovative discoveries and novel strategies because it provides the flexibility to follow the science that leads to breakthroughs. All this important work will be done under the name of our philanthropic partner. Named endowed scholarships underwrite the training of future generations of lead investigators and care providers in perpetuity.
Endowed Chairs
When you join us as a philanthropic partner naming an endowed chair, you will forever link your legacy to UCI’s distinguished experts. Ultimately, advances in biomedical research will lead to innovative therapies. Philanthropic funds for endowed chairs, research and scholarships live in perpetuity. These funds create the ability to recruit and retain top-tier faculty who will be critical for UCI to remain a world-class center of excellence for emerging therapies. Endowed chairs are so powerful because they establish a perpetual annual support stream for the chairholder to focus their efforts on aspirational research.
Partner With Us
Please join us as we make our vision of the Molecular Innovation Center a reality. To learn more about exclusive naming opportunities for this transformative initiative, and for associated spaces within the medical innovation building, please contact:
Caroline Pereira, MBA
Associate Vice Chancellor of Health Advancement
caroline.pereira@uci.edu | 949-824-5577
