Dr. Steven D. Young ’78 Reflects on Chemistry, Stevens and His Work to Revolutionize Drug Treatments
For as long as he can remember, Dr. Steven D. Young ’78 has been passionate about chemistry. Young’s curiosity, creativity and determination, along with the problem-solving abilities he honed at Stevens, put him on track to develop some of medicine’s most innovative treatments.
Dr. Steven D. Young ’78 was only five years old when he received his first chemistry set. A gift from his dad, the set introduced Young to what would be his life’s work. “From that point I knew I wanted to go to a science and engineering school,” he says. “I also needed to stay close to home. My dad passed away when I was 13, and it was important to be able to take the train home on weekends to give my mom a hand.”
“As a kid playing in the lab, I wanted to make rocket fuel,” Young continues. “When I got to Stevens, the professors educated me about organic chemistry and pharmaceuticals. They cast light on what is possible in the field. They pointed out that although science had made progress against bacteria, much work was still needed on how to deal with viruses. They put that challenge into my mind.”
After graduating from Stevens with a B.S. in chemistry and biochemistry, Young studied organic chemistry UC Berkeley, earning a Ph.D. as well as the Amoco Foundation Doctorate Fellowship in Chemistry. He began his career as a senior research chemist at Merck & Co.’s medicinal chemistry department and moved steadily ahead until he became vice president of the department in 2005.
Young’s team at Merck sought to identify drug candidates for a variety of disease targets, including agents for the treatment of Hepatitis C infection, endocrine problems, sleep disorders, depression, pain, migraine, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease. His work on antiviral medicines helped to revolutionize the treatment of HIV/AIDS.
Working in conjunction with the antiviral research group, Young’s efforts to discover an effective inhibitor of HIV integrase for the treatment of HIV/AIDS led to the first clinical proof of concept for this mechanism in 2002. Continued work led to the discovery of raltegravir (Isentress™, Merck), which gained regulatory approval in 2007.
“Isentress™ moved the needle in HIV/AIDS treatment,” Young says. “Patients could be treated with one pill taken once a day, rather than having to navigate the complicated drug cocktails that had, to that point, been the norm.”
Young received the 2013 American Chemical Society Hero of Chemistry Award for his work on Isentress™. By that time, he had retired from Merck and abandoned his idea to spend the bulk of his retirement years scuba diving and honing his skills in undersea photography. Instead, he was helping to launch BioGene, a China-based start-up that is working to develop better drugs for treating cancer.
“So many of the existing drugs had a lot of problems,” he says. “We came up with zanubrutinib (Brunkinsa®). We were careful in the design work to target the cancer without hitting beneficial enzymes, such as those that manage blood clotting. This enabled us to limit harmful side effects. During clinical trials, we went head-to-head with the current standard of care and put 82% of the patients into remission. We brought these results to the FDA and were fast-tracked into breakthrough therapy status. Zanubrutinib was approved in the U.S. in just three months – before it was approved in China. It is now a leading treatment for chronic lymphocytic leukemia.”
In his post-Merck years, Young has also served as a member of the Board of Directors of Agile Sciences, Inc.; a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Novira, Inc.; a member of the Board of Directors of Open Eye Scientific, Inc.; and as a consultant and expert witness for Patterson, Belknap, Webb and Tyler LLP. He has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Chemistry, the Scientific Board of Advisors of UC Berkeley’s College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, and the Editorial Board of the peer-reviewed journal, ChemMedChem.
Currently, in addition to his role as scientific consultant and Scientific Advisory Board member at BioGene, Young is a senior consultant on Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Discovery for The Blueprint Neurotherapeutics Network at the National Institutes of Health. He also volunteers his time as president of a local animal shelter.
Young’s 34 patents and numerous published papers further demonstrate his passion for his work. “Research, by nature, mentors the next generation,” he says. “I gained so much from the opportunities I had to work closely with professors and colleagues at Stevens. Whenever possible I returned the favor by connecting Stevens students and graduates to internships and jobs.”
Because Young is as enthusiastic about his field today as he was about that first chemistry set, he is likely to encourage those around him to find and follow their own passion projects. “If you’re going to spend your career doing something, find what you love and put your heart into it,” he advises.