Dr. Brian Paegel Appointed as UC Irvine School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences Associate Dean of Research

The University of California, Irvine School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences has appointed Dr. Brian Paegel as the new Associate Dean of Research.

“In this role, Dr. Paegel will provide leadership to develop and implement strategies supporting faculty research within the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Department of Clinical Pharmacy Practice,” said Founding Dean Jan Hirsch. “A major focus of his role will be to cultivate mutually beneficial research opportunities and partnerships within the UC system and our external industrial organizations and private foundations.”

“I look forward to contributing to school leadership,” Dr. Paegel added. “I will be working to enhance the sustainability of graduate and postdoctoral fellow research training and unite our basic and clinical research units to build translational capabilities within the school and across the campus.” 

Dr. Paegel joined UC Irvine in 2019 as a professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. He also holds courtesy appointments in chemistry and biomedical engineering. Dr. Paegel earned his PhD in Chemistry from UC Berkeley and his BS in Chemistry from Duke University. He is a recipient of the NIH National Research Service Award (F32), NIH Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00), NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, and NSF CAREER Award, among others. He has also co-founded four biotechnology and drug discovery companies.

Dr. Paegel’s laboratory develops next-generation drug discovery technologies, building off his early career experience working on the Human Genome Project.

“My laboratory studies and applies the principles of miniaturization, which have driven revolutions in computing and genome sequencing, to chemical synthesis and analysis,” he stated. “We can synthesize libraries of hundreds of thousands of compounds that fit in a tiny test tube and screen those libraries with a microchip the size of a credit card. The laboratory has been highly collaborative in deploying these technologies to tackle difficult drug targets, a spirit that will be reflective of my activities in the role of Associate Dean of Research.”

Dean Hirsch shared, “With his research expertise and passion for all missions of our school, Dr. Paegel will be a valuable member of the leadership team. I look forward to working with him as he spearheads initiatives to create a high-value translational research continuum within the school from target identification, drug discovery and diagnostics, evaluation of toxicology and pharmacology, through to clinical practice and patient populations.”