Overview

Gender

male

Dr. Kirk has held numerous positions in target and drug discovery as well as preclinical development in the biotechnology industry.

He is currently the Vice President of Research at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in South San Francisco, CA, which acquired Proteolix, Inc. in 2009.

At Proteolix, Dr. Kirk played a key role in the discovery and early development of carfilzomib, a proteasome inhibitor currently in Phase 3 clinical trials, ONX 0912 (formerly PR-047), an orally bioavailable proteasome inhibitor currently in Phase 1 testing, and ONX 0914 (formerly PR-957), a first-in-class selective inhibitor of the immunoproteasome.

Prior to joining Proteolix, Dr. Kirk held positions in drug discovery in inflammation at Affymax, Inc. and in target discovery in inflammation and oncology at Deltagen, Inc.

Dr. Kirk is listed as an inventor on over 40 patents and has authored publications in several select journals including Nature Medicine and Nature Reviews.

Dr. Kirk received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1999.