Karen Joy Shaw

Karen Joy Shaw is an American microbiologist and discoverer of novel antifungal and antibacterial compounds.  She is best known for her work on aminoglycoside resistance in bacteria as well as leading drug discovery research teams. As Senior Vice President of Biology at Trius Therapeutics, Inc. her work was critical to the development of the oxazolidinone antibiotic tedizolid phosphate (Sivextro) as well as the discovery of the TriBE inhibitors, a novel class of DNA gyrase/Topoisomerase IV antibacterial agents that target both Gram-positive and Gram-negative organisms.^[2]  As Chief Scientific Officer at Amplyx Pharmaceuticals, Shaw was responsible for the preclinical development of the novel antifungal fosmanogepix, a first-in-class broad-spectrum antifungal prodrug that is currently in Phase 2 clinical development for the treatment of invasive fungal infections.  She also discovered APX2039, a unique Gwt1 inhibitor that is in preclinical development for the treatment of cryptococcal meningitis. Provided by Wikipedia