Hernan Navarro Takes Helm of NCCU's BRITE

Hernan Navarro, Ph.D., retired chief scientist for RTI International’s Center for Drug Discovery, has returned to the workplace to direct the Biomedical Research Institute and Technology Enterprise (BRITE) at North Carolina Central University in Durham. 

Navarro leads the institute and its two dozen faculty members as they conduct drug-discovery and biomanufacturing research related to diseases such as diabetes, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and other metabolic disorders. The institute also is an important training pathway in North Carolina for development of a wide range of science workers skilled in biomanufacturing and pharmaceutical manufacturing from the community colleges’ associate degree programs through the universities’ Ph.D. levels.

“I want BRITE and NCCU to offer our students the option of laboratory or non-laboratory training tracks to provide them different scientific career paths and to address the diverse workforce needs of the private sector,” said Navarro. “Scientists not only support laboratory operations, but also clinical research, risk assessment and quality management.”

Furthermore, he explained that the institute actively solicits feedback from the corporate sector and incorporates it into development of its coursework and training programs. This relationship between companies and academia is one of North Carolina’s most attractive life science economic development and recruitment assets.

“Dr. Navarro is a talented scientist, administrator and thought leader with a wealth of experience,” said Eun Park, Ph.D., associate provost and dean of research and sponsored programs at NCCU. “He has a proven track record in establishing innovative partnerships between universities and the biomanufacturing industry, and I am confident that he will make a valuable contribution to BRITE and lead the program to the next level.” 

Navarro's charge is to work collaboratively with the director of NCCU’s Julius L. Chambers Biomedical/Biotechnology Research Institute and deans of academic units to foster sustainable research collaborations, and further increase national awareness of research conducted at NCCU. BRITE owns a library of 475,000 chemical compounds – the largest academic collection in the United States.

Navarro retired from RTI in November 2017. He started working for the organization in 1990 as a research pharmacologist, and served as vice president for discovery sciences from 2012 to 2016.

A native of Washington, D.C., Navarro earned a Bachelor of Science degree in botany from Duke University in 1981 and a doctorate in anatomy from the University of Kentucky, Lexington, in 1987.

He earned a National Research Service Award to conduct postdoctoral research in the Department of Pharmacology at Duke University Medical Center from 1986 to 1990, where he examined the effects of prenatal drug exposure on infants’ central and peripheral nervous systems.

Navarro has published more than 100 works of research and holds a number of patents. He was an adjunct professor in integrated toxicology at Duke University from 2003 to 2012 and served as an adjunct for the University of North Carolina Department of Medicine from 2014 to 2018.