Dr. Walls received a B.S. in Chemistry from Millersville University of Pennsylvania where he was awarded both the Board of Governor’s Scholarship for Science and Technology as well as Departmental Honors in Chemistry. Dr. Walls then received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Virginia while working under Dr. Milton L. Brown, the Director of the Drug Discovery Program at Georgetown University Medical Center. While completing his research, Dr. Walls served as a Mentor in the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology Mentorship Program which pairs exceptional high school students with scientific researchers for 6-7 months. Dr. Walls was admitted to practice before the USPTO in 2010.
Dr. Walls has extensive laboratory experience in the fields of organic and medicinal chemistry, small molecule drug design, multi-step organic synthesis, and molecular modeling (e.g. 3D-Quantitative Structure Activity Relationship Analysis, Comparative Molecular Field Analysis (CoMFA)). The bulk of Dr. Walls’ work has been in the development of fluorescent small molecule inhibitors of the voltage-gated sodium channel and histone deacetylase proteins. Dr. Walls also developed fluorescent probes that were utilized in the treatment and study of cancer, neuropathic pain, and epilepsy.