Anthony W. Czarnik is an American chemist and inventor. He is best known for pioneering studies in the field of fluorescent chemosensors and co-founding Illumina, Inc., a biotechnology company in San Diego. Czarnik was also the founding editor of ACS Combinatorial Science. He currently serves as an adjunct visiting professor at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Czarnik joined the chemistry department at Ohio State University as assistant professor in 1983. He later was promoted to associate professor. Czarnik worked at Ohio State University until 1993, when he was offered a position as director of the bio-organic chemistry group at Parke-Davis Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Czarnik was the founding editor of ACS Combinatorial Science, an academic journal published by the American Chemical Society. In April 1998, Czarnik co-founded Illumina, Inc., a biotechnology company now traded on NASDAQ and specializing in sequencing, genotyping and gene expression with David Walt, John Stuelpnagel, Larry Bock, and Mark Chee. Czarnik served as Illumina's chief scientific officer until 2000. He was terminated from his position of CSO and later filed a wrongful termination lawsuit. The Court ruled in Czarnik's favor, but the company appealed. The appeal court sustained the lower court verdict but in 2005 reduced the punitive damage ordered by the jury. Czarnik later filed a patent law case in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, alleging four counts against his former employer, including reputational harm for correction of named inventor under 35 U.S.C. § 256. In 2001, Czarnik was recruited by Sensors for Medicine and Science, Inc., where he served as chief scientific officer. Since 2003, Czarnik has co-founded a number of biotechnology companies including Deuteria Pharmaceuticals LLC and Protia LLC. Czarnik is a founder of RenoCares, a charity that provides support to alcohol and drug addicts convicted of misdemeanors in the form of financial aid for rehabilitation treatment, counseling, and psychological services. The organization is managed by the Community Foundation of Western Nevada. Since 2016, annual Czarnik Awards are given for exceptional work in the area of chemosensors at the International Conference on Molecular Sensors and Molecular Logic Gates.
Research
While at Parke-Davis, Czarnik directed research early in the development of combinatorial chemistry. His group also conducted the first successful effort to discover small molecule drugs that work by binding to RNA. In 2003, Czarnik gave an outline of a practical method for monitoring how chemosensors can be used to track glucose levels for diabetic patients. According to the University of Nevada, Reno's official website, Czarnik's research interests include "chemical product improvement using deuterium substitution, combinatorial chemistry as a tool for drug discovery, nucleic acids as targets for small molecule intervention, and fluorescent chemosensors of ion and molecule recognition".
Selected publications
Czarnik; A.W. Alcoholic compositions having a lowered risk of acetaldehydemia. U.S. Patent 9,044,423, June 2, 2015.
Jacques, V.; Czarnik, A.W.; Judge, T.M.; Van der Ploeg, L.H.T.; DeWitt, S.H. “Differentiation of antiinflammatory and antitumorigenic properties of stabilized enantiomers of thalidomide analogs” PNAS 2015, 112, E1471-E1479
Chee, M.S.; Stuelpnagel, J.R.; Czarnik, A.W. Method of making and decoding of array sensors with microspheres. U.S. Patent 7,060,431, June 13, 2006.
Mei, H.-Y.; Cui, M.; Heldsinger, A.; Lemrow, S. M.; Loo, J. A.; Sannes-Lowery, K. A.; Sharmeen, L.; Czarnik, A. W. "Inhibitors of Protein-RNA Complexation That Target the RNA: Specific Recognition of HIV-1 TAR RNA by Small Organic Molecules", Biochemistry 1998, 37, 14204-14212
Czarnik, A. W. “Guest Editorial on Combinatorial Chemistry”, Acc. Chem. Res., 1996, 29, 112
Czarnik, A. W. “Desperately Seeking Sensors”, Chemistry & Biology 1995, 2, 423
Czarnik, A. W. "Chemical Communication in Water Using Fluorescent Chemosensors", Accts. Chem. Res. 1994, 27, 302
Books
Integrated Drug Discovery Technologies. Mei, H.-Y., Czarnik, A.W., Eds.; Marcel Dekker: New York, NY, 2002.
Optimization of Solid-Phase Combinatorial Synthesis. Yan, B., Czarnik, A.W., Eds.; Wiley: New York, NY, 2002.
Solid-Phase Organic Syntheses. Volume 1. Czarnik, A.W., Ed.; Wiley: New York, NY, 2001.
Combinatorial Chemistry: Synthesis and Application. Wilson, S.H., Czarnik, A.W., Eds.; Wiley & Sons: New York, NY, 1997.
Chemosensors of Ion and Molecular Recognition. Desvergne, J.-P., Czarnik, A.W., Eds.; NATO ASI Series, Series C: Vol. 492; Kluwer Academic Press: Dordrecht, 1997.
Fluorescent Chemosensors for Ion and Molecule Recognition. Czarnik, A.W., Ed.; Vol. 538, ACS Books: Washington, DC, 1993
