Homer Pearce

Homer Pearce received a BS degree in chemistry from Texas A&M University in 1974 and was awarded a PhD in organic chemistry from Harvard University in 1979, the year he joined Lilly Research Laboratories as a medicinal chemist. Pearce held several positions of increasing responsibility at Lilly, all of which were directed at the discovery and development of new drugs to treat cancer. He served as Vice President of Cancer Research and Clinical Investigation from 1994-2002 and became a Distinguished Research Fellow, Cancer Research in 2002. He retired from Lilly in 2006, and now serves in several consulting and advisory roles in the academic, government and biopharmaceutical communities. Pearce’s 27-year career at Lilly was devoted to cancer drug discovery and clinical development. His personal research interests included the use of natural products as models to identify new leads for cancer drug discovery and to probe mechanisms of drug resistance. During this time Lilly’s cancer drug discovery group introduced 25 investigational drugs into clinical trials and 3 new drugs were approved for the treatment of cancer by worldwide regulatory agencies including Gemzar and ALIMTA. A novel protein kinase inhibitor, Enzastaurin, was brought to clinical trials and is now undergoing Phase III trials. Dr. Pearce is a member of the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Chemical Society, and the American Association for the Advance of Science. He is a member of C-Change and served as a consultant to the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society. He is a member of the Board of Consulting Editors for the journal Bioorganic and Medical Chemistry Letters and a member of the editorial board of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics. He served as Vice President and member of the board of directors of the Little Red Door Cancer Agency, as a member of the board of governors of the Indianapolis Hope Lodge supported by the American Cancer Society, and as a member of the board of directors of the American Cancer Society Foundation, Great Lakes Region. In 2001 Pearce was named a Distinguished Graduate of the College of Science, Texas A&M University, and in 2006 he was named a Hero of Chemistry by the American Chemical Society.

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