Jay Duffner
Director & Head of Discovery Biology Frontier Medicines
Jay Duffner is Director, Head of Discovery Biology at Frontier Medicines, a clinical-stage precision medicine company pioneering covalent drug discovery and chemoproteomics to develop medicines against previously undruggable proteins. Jay leads the discovery biology function, where his team applies biophysical and biochemical approaches to characterize covalent small molecule-target interactions, drive target engagement strategies, and advance pipeline programs from hit identification through to clinical candidate nomination. He brings over two decades of experience in drug discovery and molecular pharmacology, with prior roles at the Broad Institute, Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Janssen, and Faze Medicines, and holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Tufts University and an M.S. in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology from Northeastern University.
Seminars
- Balancing throughput, cost, and data quality when selecting kinetic potency assay for early-stage covalent discovery
- Designing kinetic and dose-response assays to support efficient lead generation across diverse activity profiles
- Adapting assay platforms throughout lead optimization to accurately evaluate increasingly potent covalent compounds
