Dr. Alan Olivero received his Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Stanford University in 1980.  He then worked in the lab of Prof. Dieter Seebach at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich as part of a post graduate fellowship from Rotary International.  After his fellowship ended, he returned to the US to pursue his Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry in the labs of Prof. Paul Wender at Stanford University.  Upon completion of his doctorate, he worked at Henkel Research Corporation (6 years) and Genentech, Inc. (25 years) where he focused primarily on the discovery of new drugs to treat cancer.  While at Genentech, he led both research and development teams that brought forward 8 candidates to the clinic - including the brain penetrant PI3K inhibitor Paxalisib for brain cancer.  In 2018, Alan retired from Genentech as Senior Director of Discovery Chemistry and Head of Research Operations. He is still very passionate about finding new therapeutics to treat unmet medical needs such as brain cancer.  Alan currently sits on several scientific advisory boards, consults for numerous biotech/pharma companies (including Genentech/Roche) and is a project scientist in Prof. David Nathanson’s group.

Associated Faculty

David Nathanson, Ph.D.Lab website

  • Ph.D