Daniel L. Flynn, PhD

Daniel L. Flynn PhD is recently retired from Deciphera Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a company he founded in 2003.  While at Deciphera during 2003-2023, he held positions of Chief Executive Officer and more recently Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer. He has 40 years of experience within the pharma and biotechnology industry.  His research interests are focused on therapeutic agents to treat cancer and immunology diseases.  At Deciphera, Dr Flynn invented a kinase inhibitor platform called Switch Control Kinase Modulation.  This unique platform led to the advancement of eight kinase modulators into clinical trials,  of which two have led to regulatory approval:  QINLOCK® for the treatment of gastrointestinal stromal tumors, and ROMVIMZA® for the treatment of tenosynovial giant cell tumors.

Before founding Deciphera, Dr. Flynn held senior roles with various biotechnology and pharma companies, including Senior Director of Chemistry with Millennium Pharmaceuticals; Director, Medicinal Chemistry at Amgen Inc.; Director of Medicinal Chemistry, Combinatorial Chemistry and Research Fellow at the Monsanto Company, G.D. Searle Unit; and Research Associate, Department of Chemistry at Warner Lambert/Parke Davis.  Dr Flynn has authored or co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications and listed as an inventor in over 120 patent applications.  Dr. Flynn received both his B.S. in pharmacy and Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry from the University of Kansas, and completed post-doctorate training in synthetic organic chemistry at Indiana University.

Dr. Flynn is currently Adjunct Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Kansas-Lawrence, has served as the National Chair for the Division of Medicinal Chemistry of the American Chemical Society, is an American Chemical Society Fellow, and Founder of the Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Foundation.