Professor Guillaume Lessene FTSE
Cancer therapy designer
Professor Guillaume Lessene is a leader in small molecule drug discovery with a passion for enabling the translation of Australia’s science into world class therapeutics.
His major research focus has been the development of drugs targeting a cell’s death mechanisms, which are faulty in cancer cells. Guillaume was the medicinal chemistry lead in a collaboration between WEHI, Genetech and Abbvie, which led to the drug Venetoclax. Approved by the FDA for treating chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, the therapy has benefitted more than 50,000 patients.
Guillaume also led the establishment of the National Drug Discovery Centre, where 3.5 million chemical compounds have been screened for potential medicinal activity, with potential impacts across more than 20 disease areas.