Chair, Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences,McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario and Director of the McMaster High Throughput Screening Laboratory. 

Dr.Brown received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry in 1992 for studies of proline utilization in bacteria and spent 2 years as a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Christopher Walsh's laboratory at Harvard Medical School researching bacterial cell wall biosynthesis.  He worked for three years in the Boston pharmaceutical sector with Myco Pharmaceuticals and Astra Research Center Boston before joining the Department of Biochemistry at McMaster in 1998 and receiving a Medical Research Council of Canada Scholarship.  Dr. Brown's research interests are in phenotypic and physical studies of core conserved processes and physiology of bacteria.  These include studies aimed at understanding the synthesis of the cell wall and surface of Gram-positive bacteria as well as efforts on conserved but uncharacterized bacterial proteins with vital roles in cell physiology.  In conjunction with the McMaster High Throughput Screening Lab, Dr. Brown's research is also directed at the discovery and development of small molecules as probes of cell physiology.  Dr. Brown has been the recipient of a variety of investigator awards including a Canada Research Chair in Chemical Biology and the Merck Frosst Prize.  He has consulted and served on the advisory boards of a variety of biotech companies as well as national and international societies and associations.  Among his current roles are Editor of the Journal of Biological Chemistry and Past President of the Canadian Society of Biochemistry, Molecular and Cellular Biology.