Lynn Silver is the owner of the independent consultancy LL Silver Consulting, where she advises the pharmaceutical industry on antibacterial discovery and preclinical development.
Lynn is an expert in antibacterial agents, screen design and execution, microbiological evaluation of hits and leads, and studies of mechanism of action and resistance.
Lynn set up her consultancy business in 2004, after taking early retirement following 21 years at Merck Research Laboratories. There she held various roles in research and supervised groups in the discovery of new antibacterials in both natural products and chemical collections.
She participated in the discovery of the novel antibiotic platensimycin and the first published inhibitors of LpxC. She was a member of several drug-development project teams including that of the carbapenem INVANZ®.
Throughout her career, Lynn has authored significant research papers and reviews covering bacterial genetics, physiology, and biochemistry, as well as the discovery and analysis of antibacterial agents. These include: ‘Challenges of Antibacterial Discovery’, Clin Microbiol Rev. 24:71-109.; ‘Multi-targeting by monotherapeutic antibacterials’, Nat Rev Drug Discov 6:41-55 and ‘A Gestalt approach to Gram-negative entry’, Bioorg Med Chem 24:6379-6389.
She is a member of the editorial boards of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy and ACS Infectious Diseases and has been a member of many scientific advisory boards and National Institutes of Health (NIH) study sections. She has spoken at, and chaired, numerous meetings focused on antibacterial discovery.
Lynn received her BA in biology from Brandeis University and her PhD in molecular biology and microbiology from Tufts University. She did her postdoctoral work in the Département de Biologie Moléculaire at the Université de Genève and the Laboratory of Biochemical Pharmacology at NIH.