Natchez native Mark J. Mulvihill will present a paper Thursday at a conference in Boston that centers on new research in cancer drugs.

Mulvihill is associate director of cancer chemistry at OSI Pharmaceuticals.

In his current role, he leads a group of medicinal chemists and an external contract research organization in drug recovery efforts focused on small molecule molecular targeted therapies for oncology indications.

The conference presents the latest technical advances in cell-based and biochemical assays.

Topics will include major drug discoveries that eliminate bottlenecks associated with traditional cancer screening.

Mulvihill is project leader for a program using a novel, proprietary, highly potent and selective clinical compound and designing and synthesizing it through medicinal chemical methods.

Mulvihill also manages external chemistry collaborations with several universities, including Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and St. John’s University.

Prior to his role as associate director, Mulvihill served as assistant director of cancer chemistry from June 2005 to December 2006 and research investigator from June 2001 to June 2005, where he led medicinal chemistry efforts on multidisciplinary oncology programs.

Prior to joining OSI, Mulvihill worked as senior scientist at Rohm and Haas for three years.

A graduate of Cathedral High School in Natchez, he received his B.S. degree in chemistry from Millsaps College in Jackson and his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Notre Dame.

He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Mulvihill of Natchez