The 2025 ISSX Distinguished Accomplishments in Drug Discovery and Development Award Presentation

Donglu earned his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry under Professor C. Dale Poulter at the University of Utah in 1990, studying the biosynthesis of archaebacterial membrane lipids. He continued his postdoctoral work at Utah, refining his skills in cloning and purification techniques, and then joined the FDA, where he first explored drug metabolism in microbial systems. Throughout his career, Donglu has combined scientific rigor with creativity, co-inventing mass defect filtering, a tool that revolutionized metabolite identification and has been widely adopted across mass spectrometry platforms.

Donglu’s achievements span decades and have had global impact. He was a key scientific lead in the development of Eliquis (apixaban), one of the top-selling drugs in the U.S., and contributed to the development of Polivy, an antibody-drug conjugate. His work on gemfibrozil glucuronide and atazanavir led the FDA to adopt these compounds as standard probes in clinical drug-drug interaction studies, directly shaping regulatory guidance. He has published more than 136 papers, authored numerous book chapters, and holds patents that have advanced the science of drug metabolism.

At both Bristol-Myers Squibb and Genentech, Donglu has been recognized for his ability to bridge discovery and development. He is known internationally for his expertise, invited as a keynote speaker at the Gordon Research Conference on Drug Metabolism, and has inspired countless colleagues with his commitment to “Science without Borders.”