Matt Labenski PhD

Matt Labenski is the Senior Director of Proteomics and Chemical Biology at the Boston-based biotech Jnana Therapeutics. While at Jnana, he co-invented a ligand discovery technology called RAPID, a novel chemoproteomics platform that enables the identification of lead-like small molecule binders to any target of interest within a living cell. Jnana is leveraging RAPID to unlock historically difficult-to-drug targets, including the solute carrier (SLC) family of metabolite transporters, transcription factors, and phosphatases.

Before Jnana, Matt worked at Avila Therapeutics, where he built the chemoproteomics and covalent warhead reactivity platforms to evaluate targeted covalent inhibitors of kinases. He then moved on to work in the biochemistry group at Celgene, where he built several clinical biomarker assays, utilized chemoproteomics to understand small molecule interactions with protein targets, and employed mass spectrometry to help solve a variety of drug discovery-related issues. Matt obtained his PhD in pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Arizona under the mentorship of Serrine Lau.