Kevin R. Lynch, Ph.D.

Professor of Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
University of Virginia

Kevin R. Lynch, Ph.D., is currently professor and vice chair of pharmacology at the University of Virginia, where he is engaged in biomedical research and teaching. He earned a B.S. in microbiology in 1972 at the Pennsylvania State University and earned his Ph.D. in virology from the University of Rhode Island in 1980. After post-doctoral training in molecular endocrinology at Columbia University, he joined U.Va. as an assistant professor in 1983.

Lynch’s research focus has been on receptor pharmacology. In 1993, he began collaborating with Timothy L. Macdonald, Ph.D., professor of chemistry and pharmacology, to bring a chemical biology approach to understanding the nascent field of lysophospholipid mediator signaling. Beginning with lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) and later with sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P), the Lynch-Macdonald partnership has generated and characterized hundreds of new chemical entities that have led to a clearer understanding of receptor ligand structure–activity relationships and the identification of numerous useful tool compounds, including receptor agonists and antagonists as well as synthetic enzyme inhibitors.

For this work, Lynch and Macdonald were honored as the U.Va. Patent Foundation’s 2010 Edlich-Henderson Inventors of the Year. Lynch and Macdonald are co-inventors on about 18 patent families in the LPA and S1P domain, and most of these have been licensed to commercial entities. In late 2008, Lynch and Macdonald co-founded Catena Pharmaceuticals, an early-stage Durham, N.C., biotech company dedicated to commercializing LPA intellectual property developed in their research laboratories.

Lynch’s research laboratory is supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the pharmaceutical industry. He has served as a consultant for a number of companies, including Merck, Aventis, Biogen-Idec and Allergan. Lynch has trained approximately two dozen post- and pre-doctoral fellows at U.Va., most of whom continue to work as scientists, having obtained positions in academia and industry. He has taught in a variety of graduate and medical courses. His service activities include NIH, Veteran’s Administration and private foundation grant review committees and service on medical school and university committees such as the tenure and promotions committee.