Westlake, Jean Marie

Prior to joining Jones Day in October 2008, Jihong Lou was a group leader, project leader, and associate research fellow in chemistry at Pfizer La Jolla. She joined Pfizer/Agouron in May 2000 as a research scientist I in medicinal chemistry. While at Pfizer, Jihong worked on a variety of drug discovery projects in oncology, diabetes, ophthalmology, and viral diseases therapeutic areas. She designed, prepared, and identified small molecule drug candidates and is the co-inventor for a number of patents on small molecule therapeutic agents. As group leader, Jihong oversaw research conducted by her group across multiple drug discovery projects. As project leader, she led a multidisciplinary team of scientists to advance a research program from the early stage of lead discovery to the delivery of a clinical candidate. Jihong is a recipient of the 2008 Pfizer Achievement Award.

Starting in 1993, Jihong pursued her doctoral degree in chemistry at Columbia University under the guidance of Professor Nakanishi. She designed and prepared synthetic retinal analogs to elucidate the mechanism of action for photoreceptor rhodopsin, a G-protein coupled receptor. In 1998, she received the Pegram Award for meritorious graduate research from the chemistry department of Columbia. Upon obtaining her Ph.D. and before joining Pfizer, Jihong conducted postdoctoral research in the Breslow group at Columbia, where she designed and synthesized esterase mimetics based on a beta-cyclodextrin scaffold. Jihong coauthored several peer-reviewed scientific publications. She is a member of the American Chemical Society.