Dr. Jair Lage De Siqueira-Neto, Ph.D.
Associate Adjunct Professor
Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Prounouns: He|Him|His
Dr. Siqueira-Neto’s has 15 years of international experience in discovering and developing therapies for infectious diseases, including SARS-CoV-2, causing agent of COVID-19. His participation in discoveries have brought drug candidates to pre-clinical (Pyronaridine for Chagas Disease) and clinical stages (SLV213, aka K777, for COVID-19) of development. The Siqueira-Neto Lab is focused on the validation of screening assays enabling interrogation of large libraries of small molecules and natural products for the identification of hits with relevant biological activity to treat human diseases, especially but not limited to infectious diseases. The lab also investigates the interaction of host and pathogens to further understand disease pathogenesis and to identify new druggable targets.
Dr. Siqueira-Neto has recently given talks to the non-scientific public to explain about COVID-19 and the principles of immunization through the vaccine.
Education: B.S. in Biological Sciences (2003) University of Campinas, SP - Brazil; Ph.D. in Genetics & Molecular Biology (2007) University of Campinas, SP - Brazil; Postdoctoral Fellow (2007-2009) Institut Pasteur Korea - South Korea.
Awards and Honors: Outstanding Mentor of 2017 – UC San Diego Faculty Mentorship Program Award (2017); National Center of Leadership in Academic Medicine Award (2016); Finalist of the Brazilian Diaspora Network Award in Health Sciences (2015); Sage Scholar (2015); GSK Fastrack Competition (2013); DNDi Project of the year (2010); CAPES International Scientific Interchange Program Fellowship – Korea (2006); CAPES Doctor of Philosophy Fellowship (2003-2007); Brazilian Corporation of Agricultural Research (Embrapa) Fellowship (2001-2003); FAPESP Fellowship for Scientific Initiation (2000-2001)
Leadership Experience: Team Leader and Drug Discovery Program Coordinator at Institut Pasteur Korea (2009-2012); Director of the Center for Discovery and Innovation in Parasitic Diseases (CDIPD.org) (2013-present); Assistant Adj.Professor at SSPPS, UC San Diego (2014-2018), Associate Adj. Professor at SSPPS, UC San Diego (2018-present), and UC San Diego Screening Core Director (2017-present). Dr. Siqueira-Neto is also a member of the UC San Diego Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee since 2017, member of the SSPPS Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, Co-Chair of the SSPPS Office of Admission and Outreach, and serves as a counselor and mentor for Scouts BSA science projects (Nova Award and Supernova Award).
- Advanced the field of drug discovery and development against Chagas disease and leishmaniasis, identifying new chemical structures, some of which have advanced to clinical candidates
- Advanced the field of drug discovery and development against viruses of pandemic potential, including flavivirus (Zika) and coronavirus (COVID-19).
- Contributed in the field of new therapies for glioblastoma
- Molecular targets of interest include protease inhibitors and RNA polymerase inhibitors
- Contributed with methods to identify molecular targets of novel active compounds and study the therapeutic mechanism of action.
- Merllott DM, et al. (2021) A Clinical-Stage Cysteine Protease Inhibitor blocks SARS-CoV-2 Infection of Human and Monkey Cells. ACS Chem Biol. 16;16(4):642-650.
- Gawriljuk VO, et al. (2021) Machine Learning Models Identify Inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2. J Chem Inf Model.61(9):4224-4235.
- Li L, et al. (2021) Self-Masked Aldehyde Inhibitors: A Novel Strategy for Inhibiting Cysteine Proteases. J Med Chem. 64(15):11267-11287.
- Dean DA, et al. (2021) Spatial metabolomics identifies localized chemical changes in heart tissue during chronic cardiac Chagas Disease. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 15(10):e0009819.
- Qiu Z, et al. (2021) Transcription Elongation Machinery Is a Druggable Dependency and Potentiates Immunotherapy in Glioblastoma Stem Cells. Cancer Discov. candisc.1848.2020.
- Shiratsubaki IS, et al. (2020) Genome-scale metabolic models highlight stage-specific differences in essential metabolic pathways in Trypanosoma cruzi. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 4(10):e0008728
- Bernatchez JA, et al. (2020) Drugs for the Treatment of Zika Virus Infection. Journal of medicinal chemistry. 63(2):470-89.
- Zhu Z, et al (2019) Zika Virus Targets Glioblastoma Stem Cells through a SOX2-Integrin alphavbeta5 Axis. Cell Stem Cell. 26(2):187-204.e10
- Boudreau PD, et al. (2019) Design of gallinamide A analogs as potent inhibitors of the cysteine proteases human cathepsin L and Trypanosoma cruzi cruzain. Journal of medicinal chemistry. 62(20):9026-9044.
- Bernatchez JA, et al. (2019) Activity of Selected Nucleoside Analogue ProTides against Zika Virus in Human Neural Stem Cells. Viruses. 11(4):365
- Mack SC, et al. (2019) Chromatin landscapes reveal developmentally encoded transcriptional states that define human glioblastoma. J Exp Med. 216(5):1071-1090
- Beck S et al. (2019)Mechanism of Action of Methotrexate Against Zika Virus. Viruses. 11(4):338
- Siqueira-Neto JL, et al. (2018) Cysteine proteases in protozoan parasites. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 12(8):e0006512
- Bernatchez JA, et al. (2018) Development and Validation of a Phenotypic High-Content Imaging Assay for Assessing the Antiviral Activity of Small-Molecule Inhibitors Targeting Zika Virus. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 62(10):e00725-18
- McCall LI, et al. (2018) Experimental Chagas disease-induced perturbations of the fecal microbiome and metabolome. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 12(3):e0006344
- Moon S et al. (2014) An Image-Based Algorithm for Precise and Accurate High Throughput Assessment of Drug Activity against the Human Parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. Plos One. 9(2):e87188
- Siqueira-Neto JL et al. An Image-Based High-Content Screening Assay for Compounds Targeting Intracellular Leishmania donovani Amastigotes in Human Macrophages. Plos Neglected Tropical Diseases. 6(6):e1671.
- Freitas-Junior LH et al. (2012) Chatelain E, Kim HA, Siqueira-Neto JL. Visceral leishmaniasis treatment: What do we have, what do we need and how to deliver it? International Journal For Parasitology-Drugs and Drug Resistance. 2:11-9.
- Siqueira-Neto JL et al. (2010) Antileishmanial High-Throughput Drug Screening Reveals Drug Candidates with New Scaffolds. Plos Neglected Tropical Diseases. 4(5):e675
- Drug discovery for infectious diseases
- High-Throughput, High-Content Screening assay development