Dr. Daniel A. Harki

DANIEL A. HARKI, PH.D., FRSC, attended West Virginia University (1995-99) where he earned an undergraduate degree (B.A.) in biology and chemistry. At WVU, Dr. Harki performed research in the laboratory of Prof. Kay Brummond (1998-99) where he pursued the synthesis of an analogue of hydroxymethylacylfulvene, an anticancer compound. Concurrently, Dr. Harki was a Biological Sciences Laboratory Technician at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (1997-99) as a member of the immunotoxicology laboratory under the direction of Dr. Michael Luster. Dr. Harki pursued graduate studies in (organic) Chemistry at the Pennsylvania State University working on the development of synthetic, antiviral nucleosides in the laboratory of Prof. Blake Peterson and in collaboration with Prof. Craig Cameron (Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at Penn State). While at Penn State (1999-2005), Dr. Harki was awarded Dalalian and Braucher Fellowships from Penn State Chemistry, and a predoctoral fellowship from the American Heart Association (2002-05). In 2005, Dr. Harki moved to the California Institute of Technology for postdoctoral studies. As a Postdoctoral Scholar in Chemistry at Caltech under the mentorship of Prof. Peter Dervan (2005-09), Dr. Harki worked on the solution-phase synthesis and in vivo imaging of DNA-binding pyrrole-imidazole polyamides. Dr. Harki received fellowships from the Friedreich’s Ataxia Research Alliance and the California Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program to support his postdoctoral studies.

Dr. Harki then began his independent academic career at the University of Minnesota as an Assistant Professor in 2009, and he was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2016. In 2019, Dr. Harki was a Visiting Professor at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule – Zürich (ETH Zürich). In 2020, Dr. Harki was named a Northrop Professor by the University of Minnesota, and in 2021, Dr. Harki was promoted to Professor with tenure. In 2024, Dr. Harki was named the Margaret Harvey Schering Land Grant Chair for Cancer Research. Currently, Dr. Harki serves as the Associate Department Head for Research in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, the Director of Graduate Studies for the Medicinal Chemistry graduate program, and co-Leader of the Cellular Mechanisms Program for the University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center.

Research in the Harki laboratory focuses on the development of small molecules to serve as mechanistic probes and therapeutics for applications in anti-cancer and anti-viral research. Dr. Harki and collaborators developed the first-in-class small molecule inhibitors of the APOBEC3 family of DNA cytosine deaminases, which promote drug resistance mutations in virus and cancer genomes. Dr. Harki was the Deputy Director of Medicinal Chemistry for the recently concluded Midwest AViDD Center, which was developing orally bioavailable drugs to treat viruses of pandemic concern. There are also significant efforts in the Harki laboratory to developed targeted degraders against several “difficult to drug” protein targets in cancer research.

Dr. Harki has received several awards, including being named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC, 2025) and voted Professor of the Semester by UMN PharmD students (2x, 2025, 2013). Dr. Harki has received two American Association for Cancer Research – Bayer Innovation and Discovery Grants (2021, 2019), been elected to Rho Chi Pharmacy Honor Society (2016), and named a V Scholar from The V Foundation for Cancer Research (2012). Dr. Harki is involved in national and international service to the discipline of medicinal chemistry. He is the Chair of Membership and International Relationships, and a member of the Executive Committee, for the American Chemical Society, Division of Medicinal Chemistry. He has also served on the organizing committee for several national and international conferences on medicinal chemistry.