Dr. Joshua Pierce

Howard J. Schaeffer Distinguished Professor of Chemistry

University Faculty Scholar
NC State University, College of Sciences

Dr. Joshua Pierce was born and raised in northwestern Pennsylvania and obtained a B.S. with Honors in Chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh.  Upon graduation he continued with graduate studies under the direction of Professor Peter Wipf.  During these years his research was focused on organometallic methods development, natural product total synthesis and medicinal chemistry.

After defending his thesis in the fall of 2008, Dr. Pierce moved across the country to begin Postdoctoral studies with Professor Dale Boger at The Scripps Research Institute.  Research interests centered around complex natural product analog synthesis, semi-synthesis and antimicrobial compound development centered on the natural product vancomycin.

Together these research experiences provided an appreciation of the important role complex molecule synthesis can play in organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry and chemical biology. In 2012 Dr. Pierce joined NC State’s Department of Chemistry and has been focused on addressing problems at the chemistry/biology interface.  In addition to developing his research program he has also become involved in the Comparative Medicine Institute at NC State where he is Co-Director and was named a NC State University Faculty Scholar in 2017, LORD Corporation Distinguished Scholar in 2019 and Howard J. Schaeffer Distinguished Professor in 2023.  In 2018 Dr. Pierce founded Synoxa Sciences, Inc. to pursue the commercialization of antimicrobial and anti-biofilm technologies. To date, Synoxa Sciences has secured two STTR grants from NIAID to pursue commercialization of their novel antibiotics from two distinct natural product classes. Several other technology platforms are also under development.

Photo Credit: John Joyner/NC State Veterinary Medicine

We are working to solve one of the most serious problems facing human health.

Multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterial pathogens have become an area with significant unmet need in the clinic – and are continuing to be on the rise.  The World Health Organization has identified MDR as one of the top-three threats to humanity and there is an increased awareness that for some infections we may be on the brink of entering a ‘pre-antibiotic era’.  Biofilm-related resistance is increasingly being recognized as an underlying factor in many chronic infections and there are no effective single small molecule treatments for many of these pathogens.

We are developing first-in-class treatments with efficacy against a wide panel of MDR bacterial pathogens, including those in the biofilm state.  Primary therapeutic areas are orthopedic infections, endocarditis, burn wound infections and Gram negative pathogens lacking effective treatment options. 

Natural products have historically been the predominant source of small molecule antibiotics.  Although semi-synthetic modification of natural products has been a go-to method to generate new generations of existing antibiotics, we are committed to leveraging efficient and scalable chemical synthesis to prepare natural products from readily available building blocks to develop new classes of antibiotics.  Based on our platform published in Angewandte Chemie in 2018, we are developing 4-oxazolidiones as novel compounds for the treatment of infectious disease. More recently, we are developing next generation vancomycin conjugates that overcome resistance and tolerance.

Synoxa Sciences, Inc.

Raleigh, NC 27607

Contact us: jgpierce@synoxasciences.com

www.synoxasciences.com