About

David W. Andrews, Ph. D.

Dr. David Andrews is director of and senior scientist in Biological Sciences at Sunnybrook Research Institute (SRI), Professor of Biochemistry and Medical Biophysics at University of Toronto and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair. His research comprises, the molecular mechanisms by which Bcl-2 family proteins regulate apoptosis, the assembly of proteins into membranes, high-content screening and development of new microscopes for fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) and hyperspectral imaging. Dr. Andrews uses fluorescence spectroscopy and automated fluorescence microscopy to study interactions between proteins in membranes, protein localization in cells and the effects of drugs on cells. He has established a facility for image-based high-content cellular analysis at SRI that includes instrumentation for automated imaging and analysis of cells in monolayer and 3D cultures. His lab has discovered and characterized small molecules that have application to cancer and regenerative medicine. Dr. Andrews is active in the private sector where he has participated in the start-up of two companies, consults for several other companies and performs contract research for a variety of biotech companies. He holds licensed patents in areas such as translational regulation, in vitro evolution and peptide display technologies.

 

Current Academic Activities

 

Commercial Activities

1995 Founding Partner, MBI Fermentas Inc. (Sold to ThermoFisher)
1996-1998 Board of Directors, MBI Fermentas Inc.
2000-2002 Scientific Advisory Board, Isogenica Inc.
2001-2006 Scientific Advisory Board, Genome Prairie
2002-2003 Consulting, Office of the Auditor General of Canada
2006 Consulting, ThermoFisher
2006 Consulting, Apoptosis Research Centre
2008 Consulting, Qbiotx
2012-Present Consulting Prosetta anti-viral
2014-2015 Scientific Advisory Board, TDS, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics
2017 Consulting, Cancer Care Manitoba
2018 Consulting, Igan Partners
2019-Present Scientific Advisory Board, Vasomune

 

Contract Research

1994-1997 Connaught Research Laboratories,”High Efficiency Translation of Recombinant Proteins”
1995-1997 MBI Fermentas Inc. “RNA and protein combinational libraries”
1998-1999 Biochem. Pharma, “In vitro evolution of Bcl-xl and Bel-2″
1998-2000 Actinova Ltd., “Development of P2A based combinatorial libraries”
2000-2002 Isogenica Ltd. “Application of covalent display technology to combinatorial peptide libraries”
2008-2012 PerkinElmer, “High content cell based genetic screens”
2010-2011 Abbott Laboratories and Genentech Inc., “Develop FRET FLIM assays for analyzing drug responses in live cells”
2010-2011 Abbott Laboratories, “Development of liposome-based assays”
2014-2017 Eli Lilly, “The Development of Fluorescent Biosensors for Cell-based Models of Target Engagement by Preclinical Therapeutics”
2016-2018 Eli Lilly, “Long Wavelength FRET biosensors to measure drug target engagement in vivo”  PI: Steven Haney/ David Andrews
2016-2017 Lattice Biologics, “Conditional reprogramming of epithelial cells”
2018-2019 Celgene Corporation, “Improving Therapy In CLL With CC-122”
2018-2021 CSTS Health Care, “Novel cell based drug delivery systems”
2018-2019 Sanofi, “Protein-protein interaction screen”
2021-2024 Novartis, “Identifying inhibitors of MYC binding to TFIIF”