Michael Jung
Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Michael Jung received his B.A. in 1969 from Rice University and his Ph.D. in 1973 from Columbia University, where he worked with Gilbert Stork as an NSF Fellow. After a one-year NATO postdoctoral fellowship with Albert Eschenmoser at the ETH in Zurich, he joined the faculty at UCLA in 1974, where he is now a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and the Walter and Shirley Wang Chair in Medicinal Drug Discovery. He is an authority on synthetic organic and medicinal chemistry and has more than 440 patents and/or applications arising from both his consulting activities and his own research. Recently he has expanded his role in medicinal chemistry at UCLA and has more than 10 ongoing collaborations. Two compounds from his lab has been approved and are on the market: 1) Xtandi, approved 8/31/12 for the treatment of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), and 2) Erleada, approved 2/14/18 for the treatment of non-metastatic CRPC. He has supervised 95 Ph.D. and 9 Masters theses and has taught 140 postdoctoral scholars. He has published more than 370 articles and given over 650 lectures on his research. He has co-founded 13 biotech startups and serves on the SAB of several firms. Among his many awards are: International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC)-Richter Prize in Medicinal Chemistry, American Association for Cancer Research Award for Outstanding Achievement in Chemistry in Cancer Research, and his recent induction into the American Chemical Society Medicinal Chemistry Division Hall of Fame.
