Dr. D. Martin Watterson has published articles in peer-reviewed journals in the areas of drug discovery, signal transduction, structural biology, pharmacology and medicinal chemistry. His PhD training was in the areas of biophysical chemistry and biochemical pharmacology at Emory University, followed by postdoctoral training at Duke University Medical Center supported by a National Research Service Award in Neurosciences from the National Institutes of Health 1975 to 1977.

From 1978 to 1982 Dr. Watterson held the positions of Assistant Professor and Associate Professor at The Rockefeller University, where he was an Andrew Mellon Fellow. He later was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and Professor of Pharmacology at Vanderbilt Medical Center before moving to Northwestern University in 1994.

In his role as Co-Director of the Center for Drug Discovery and Chemical Biology, Dr. Watterson has facilitated the development of novel compounds emanating from Center investigators. These compounds span the range of the drug development spectrum, including lead discovery, lead optimization, preclinical IND-enabling studies, clinical trials, and FDA approval.