Dr. Mary Lynn Trawick

Dr. Mary Lynn Trawick serves as associate professor of biochemistry in Baylor University’s College of Arts and Sciences and is also a member of the Institute of Biomedical Studies. A graduate of the University of Michigan (BS) and Case Western Reserve University (PhD), she also held a postdoctoral research fellowship at the National Institutes of Health.

As director of the Trawick Group at Baylor, Dr. Trawick focuses on drug discovery and development through target selection for anticancer agents, the design and evaluation of new compounds as therapeutic agents, pharmacokinetic studies, and the mechanism of action of bioactive compounds for predicting potential off target effects, and as an opportunity to explore potential new targets along the bioactivity pathways. Working in collaboration with Dr. Kevin Pinney and other national and international collaborators, she is exploring small-molecule anticancer agents that bind to the protein tubulin and inhibit microtubule structures, resulting tumor cell death and tumor vasculature collapse. The group is also investigating prodrugs with enhanced specificity for the tumor microenvironment. Another major area of research is the application of enzyme inhibitors to interfere with the process of cancer metastasis. Recent and current research funding includes grants from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Mateon, Inc.

Dr. Trawick has taught biochemistry at the graduate and undergraduate level at Baylor since 1983 and is the author of numerous of peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and several patents.