Zoran Rankovic

Zoran is a Professor of Chemical Biology and Director of the Centre for Protein Degradation (CPD) at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), London.

Prior to joining the ICR, Zoran was Director of Chemistry at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, USA. There, Zoran instigated and directed development of a Targeted Protein Degradation program, which delivered several notable contributions, including the development of alternative cereblon warheads for the design of PROTACs with improved overall properties, and orally bioavailable potent and selective molecular glue degraders of GSPT1 and CK1a proteins.

The GSPT1 degrader has been recently out licensed for clinical development. Zoran’s current research interests focus on expanding and leveraging targeted protein degradation approaches to study cancer biology and develop novel cancer treatments.

Before joining St. Jude, Zoran was medicinal chemistry director and research fellow in Organon, Schering-Plough, Merck, and Eli Lilly. During his industrial career Zoran directed teams that delivered multiple clinical candidates over a range of therapeutic areas including oncology, neurodegeneration, psychiatry, and cardiovascular disorders.

Zoran earned his PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Leeds, under the guidance of Professor Ronald Grigg. He serves on various scientific committees and advisory boards, including the NCI Chemical Biology Consortium for the Division of Experimental Therapeutics (NExT) Program, and is a co-lead of a cross-industry and academia Targeted Protein Degrader Safety Committee coordinated by the Health and Environmental Science Institute. Zoran authored and co-authored over 100 scientific publications, patents, book chapters, and edited two books on drug discovery topics.