Dr. Babcock has over 15 years of pharmaceutical industry experience leading many drug development and exploratory research projects. He started his career at Elan Pharmaceuticals conducting high-throughput functional genomics and small molecule screens. There, he also applied genetic, histopathology, and cell biology approaches to better understand the connections between lysosomal dysfunction and Parkinson’s disease. After Elan, Dr. Babcock oversaw a group evaluating the cytotoxicity of novel antibody drug conjugates (ADC) targets including anti-SAIL ADCs that were later part of a partnership with Medimmune. Dr. Babcock then joined BioMarin where he led several small molecule drug development projects targeting rare diseases. Dr. Babcock played an instrumental role in executing the preclinical in vitro and in vivo studies that facilitated the selection of optimal small molecule candidates. At BioMarin, Dr. Babcock built his leadership skills and greatly expanded his knowledge of the drug development process for both rare and common genetic diseases.

Dr. Babcock holds a B.S. in Biology from the University of Utah where his undergraduate research on yeast iron metabolism helped to elucidate the pathological mechanisms of Friedreich’s ataxia.   He received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington’s Department of Genome Sciences where he exploited the Drosophila melanogaster visual system to identify molecular components of synaptic transmission. After graduate school Dr. Babcock did a post-doc at Elan Pharmaceutical before continuing in a Scientist position.