Thomas S. Scanlan is a professor of physiology and pharmacology in the department of chemical physiology and biochemistry at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU). He graduated from the University of Oregon with a BS in chemistry in 1984, and he received a PhD in chemistry from Stanford University in 1989. After a postdoctoral fellowship at University of California, Berkeley, he began his independent career as an assistant professor in the department of pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of California, San Francisco in 1991. In 2006, Dr. Scanlan moved to OHSU to spearhead an initiative to develop the chemical biology program there. His research focuses on drug discovery and development of drugs that impact thyroid hormone action, and his recent efforts have been directed at developing agents that penetrate the central nervous system for neurodegenerative diseases including multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s disease.