Dr. Struntz’s research program can be characterized as an archetypical Chemical Biology program focusing on small molecule chemical probe discovery. This spans a large range of practices including high-throughput screening, hit-to-lead chemical optimization, target validation, and molecular mechanism of action studies. His expertise in utilizing the small molecule microarray (SMM) platform to target ‘undruggable’ proteins provides a unique opportunity to survey tractability of historically challenging targets within the tumor-immune microenvironment (TIME) with the ambition to overcome resistance to immune checkpoint blockade inhibitors in certain contexts. Ongoing projects include the identification and evaluation of small molecule modulators of the transcription factor Foxp3, the 'master regulator' of regulatory T-cells and their immunosuppression, to enhance the anti-tumoral state of the TIME overall and in combination with immune checkpoint blockade inhibitors.

Dr. Struntz received his B.S. in Chemistry, Biochemistry, & Molecular Biology from the University of Minnesota-Duluth in 2009. There he worked under Viktor Nemykin synthesizing novel porphyrins and phthalocyanines for use in molecular electronics, redox-switchable fluorescence imaging, and bio-imaging. In 2016, he received his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Minnesota where he worked with Daniel Harki to develop several novel DNA-based and small molecule-based probes to investigate the biochemistry of transcription factors and their signaling pathways. Upon graduation, he started postdoctoral research with Angela Koehler at Massachusetts Institute of Technology focusing on identifying small molecule binders to ‘undruggable’ targets or complexes in a mechanistically unbiased manner utilizing the SMM platform. Then in 2020, he started as an Investigator at GlaxoSmithKline, where he had the opportunity to progress projects spanning many indications in early clinical development, culminating with the build of an internal antibody-drug conjugate platform and expanding the toolbox of the Cytotoxicity Targeting Chimeras (CyTaCs) technology, now licensed to Solu Therapeutics.