David Armistead

David M. Armistead earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry from Virginia Tech in 1977 and 1979, respectively. He went on to earn a doctorate degree from the University of South Carolina, in synthetic organic chemistry, followed by a National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University.

Dr. Armistead began his medicinal chemistry career in 1986 as a Senior Scientist at Merck and Co. He then cofounded Vertex Pharmaceuticals in 1989, pioneering structure-based drug discovery. He left Vertex to cofound Kinetix Pharmaceuticals in 1997, a company dedicated to the design of selective inhibitors of protein kinases. When Kinetix was acquired by Amgen in 2000, he served as Vice President and Cambridge Site Head. Following Amgen, he moved to the venture group, Oxford Biosciences in 2003, as an Executive in Residence. While at Oxford he assumed the role of CSO of the portfolio company CGI Pharmaceuticals which was ultimately acquired by Gilead Sciences in 2010. Dr. Armistead then joined Third Rock Ventures in 2010 where he was an Entrepreneur in Residence. While at Third Rock he cofounded and was founding CSO of Blueprint Medicines, a company focused on personalized medicines in oncology.

Armistead holds over 70 U.S. patents and has contributed to various biotech companies’ Scientific Advisory Boards and Boards of Directors. He currently serves as a member of the External Advisory Board for the Virginia Tech Center of Drug Discovery (VTCDD). Alongside his wife, David has generously committed to supporting the Armistead/Stansfield Endowed Scholarship Fund, providing aid to southwest Virginia undergraduate students at Virginia Tech. They also established the David and Sharon Armistead Endowed Professorship at Virginia Tech, supporting an outstanding faculty member associated with VTCDD. Additionally, they support the Beyond Boundaries Scholars Program and are members of Virginia Tech’s Legacy Society and 1872 Society.