Will Barnes
Executive Director & Head of GPCR Biology Iambic Therapeutics
William G. Barnes, PhD, is a GPCR pharmacologist with 20 years of experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry and currently serves as Executive Director and Head of GPCR Biology at Iambic Therapeutics. He has led multidisciplinary in vitro and in vivo teams at Ionis Pharmaceuticals, the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation, and Neurocrine Biosciences, advancing small-molecule, peptide, and RNA-based therapeutics for metabolic, renal, liver, respiratory, and cardiovascular diseases with a strong focus on GPCR targets. Dr. Barnes earned his PhD in Neuropharmacology and Neuroscience from Albany Medical College and completed postdoctoral training with Nobel Laureate Dr. Robert J. Lefkowitz at Duke University, where he studied β-arrestin–mediated GPCR signaling. He has authored numerous publications in GPCR biology and translational pharmacology and now leads Iambic’s non-oncology drug discovery programs from target identification through entry into clinical development.
Seminars
- Exploring the complementary roles of NeuralPLexer and Enchant to combine proteinligand structural modeling with multimodal property prediction in GPCR drug discovery
- Applying predictions, uncertainty estimates and experimental feedback across the design-make-test-analyze cycle to prioritize compounds and experiments while balancing potency, selectivity and ADME properties
- Sharing lessons learned from connecting AI-guided design with experimental pharmacology and iterative compound optimization to support GPCR discovery programs
