Gary Glick

Gary D. Glick obtained his Ph.D. degree from Columbia University in 1988 studying organic chemistry with W. Clark Still.  After completing an NIH postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University in the laboratory of Jeremy R. Knowles, he joined the chemistry faculty at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1990, where he presently holds the Werner E. Bachmann chair and is a professor in the Department of Biological Chemistry at the University of Michigan Medical School.  During his tenure at Michigan, Dr. Glick founded the Chemical Biology Doctoral Program, served on numerous local and national boards and committees, and he is presently Editor-in-Chief of Biopolymers, a leading journal publishing in the areas of biochemistry and biophysics.

Dr. Glick’s research currently focuses on metabolic control in the immune system and the development of new drugs for the treatment of autoimmunity and cancer.  He is the author of over 100 peer-reviewed papers and the inventor on 27 issued U.S. patents.  His scientific contributions have been recognized with a number of different awards including, an Arthritis Investigator Award from the National Arthritis Foundation, a Junior Faculty Research Award from the American Cancer Society, a Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation, a Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, a Research Fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and he is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

In 2006, Dr. Glick founded Lycera Corp. to discovery breakthrough medicines for autoimmune diseases and cancer.  Serving first as president, then as chief science officer, Dr. Glick recruited a team of over 20 chemists, immunologists, and physician-scientists and raised over $40 MM in equity financing to support the company.  Under his direction and leadership, Lycera initiated six innovative discovery programs; partnered three of these programs with Merck & Co. in deals collectively valued at over $600 MM; advanced LYC-30937, a modulator of the mitochondrial ATPase based directly on research from his academic lab, into clinical trials for inflammatory bowel disease; and established Lycera’s immune-oncology platform.

Representative Publications

G. D. Glick, R. Rossignol, C. Lyssiotis,  D. Wahl, C. Lesch, B. Sanchez, X. Liu, L. Y. Hao, J. L. M. Ferrara, V. Tkachev, C. A. Byersdorfer, L. Boros, and A. W. Opipari, “T Cells Activated In Vivo Rely on Anaplerosis and Oxidative Phosphorylation in Preference to Aerobic Glycolysis”, J. Pharmacol. Exp. Thera., 2014, 351, 298.

X. Hu, Y. Wang, L.-Y. Hao, X. Liu, C. A. Lesch, B. M. Sanchez, J. M. Wendling, R. W. Morgan, T. D. Aicher, L. L. Carter, P. L. Toogood and G. D. Glick, “Sterol metabolism controls Th17 differentiation by selectively activating RORg”, Nature Chem. Biol., 2015 11, 141.

V. Tkachev, S. Goodell, A. W. Opipari, G. D. Glick, J. L. M. Ferrara and C. A. Byersdorfer, “Programed death 1 (PD-1) regulates apoptosis in murine allogeneic T cells by controlling levels of cellular reactive oxygen species”, J. Immunol., 2015 194, 5789.

S. von Stockum, V. Giorgio, E. Trevisan, G. Lippe, G. D. Glick, M. Forte, C. Da-Rè, V. Checchetto, G. Mazzotta, R. Costa, I. Szabò,^, and P. Bernardi,  “F-ATPase of D. melanogaster Forms 50 pS Channels Responsible for Mitochondrial Ca²⁺-induced Ca²⁺ Release” J. Biol. Chem., 2015, 290, 4537.

S. Maglioni, L. Franchi, A. Hurd, A. Opipari, G.D. Glick^, and N. Ventura, “An Automated Microscopy Phenotype-Based Screening Strategy to Identify Pro-Longevity Interventions Acting Through Mitochondria in C. elegans”, Biochem. Biophys. Acta, 2015 in press.

Research Areas(s)

• Bioorganic Chemistry
  Chemical Biology
  Organic Chemistry

Award(s)

• Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellow
• American Cancer Society Junior Faculty Research Award
• Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award
• National Arthritis Foundation Arthritis Investigator Award
• National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award