David and Jane Chu Endowed Chair in Drug Discovery and Development

Balthasar is an internationally renowned researcher in protein therapeutics through the development of innovative mechanistic and physiological models to describe and predict protein disposition. He is the primary investigator on two $1.5 million National Institute of Health grants studying cancer causing agents. In his role as Center for Protein Therapeutics (CPT) director, he administers over $5.2 million in funding from various pharmaceutical industry partners to provide internal funding to SPPS research faculty and CPT fellows.

Balthasar’s work also incorporates mathematic modeling to discover better ways to treat diseases. “Our approach is really to be opportunistic,” says Balthasar. “We look for problems that our strategies can solve.” His novel investigations into life-saving cancer treatments have the potential to improve millions of lives around the globe.

The Chu chair was established with a gift from loyal alumni David C.K. Chu, PhD ’75, and Jane Chu, MS ’75, MA ’74, who are proud to support a researcher who shares their passion for education and research. “Jane and I had an excellent graduate education, which was the basis for our accomplishments in later life,” said David Chu.