Te Awamutu College Dux retires after distinguished research career

Professor Bill Denny at the University of Auckland in 2021 when he was made a Knight Companion. Photo / University of Auckland

In 1961 Bill Denny’s name was called to receive Te Awamutu College’s ultimate academic award - Dux Litterarum. He left high school and headed to Auckland University where he completed his Bachelor of Science, Master of Science, and two doctorates.

He then travelled to London to finish his post-doctoral chemistry fellowship at Oxford University.

It was while there in 1972 he got a call to return to his alma mater to join the recently founded Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre. This year he retired.

Professor Denny was at the forefront of anticancer drug research for half a century and a leading cancer researcher and, since 1999, director of the Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre at the university, leading the Medicinal Chemistry Group.

He was a Professor in the Faculty of Medical Health Sciences, an Honorary Professor in the Faculty of Science and a principal investigator in the Maurice Wilkins Centre for Molecular Biodiscovery.

Denny led teams which took 15 cancer drugs from discovery to clinical trials and, in some cases, application in the clinic. Research at the centre led to an anti-tuberculosis drug in 2015 and an anti-leishmaniasis drug in 2017.

He was a co-founding scientist with Proacta Therapeutics in San Diego and Pathway Therapeutics in San Francisco and he has worked with the Global Alliance for TB and Geneva-based Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative.

He also co-founded Kea Therapeutics in 2018, which is developing a range of anaesthetics and analgesics to reduce reliance on opioids and has authored more than 700 publications and is a co-inventor on more than 60 United States patents.

Service and awards include past-President of the NZ Society for Oncology and the NZ Institute of Chemistry, a Rutherford Medallist of the Royal Society Te Apārangi, Adrian Albert Medallist of the UK Royal Society of Chemistry, a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry, a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and in 2016 he was inducted into the American Chemical Society Division of Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame.

In 2011 Denny was named an Officer of the NZ Order of Merit for services to cancer research and in 2021 he was named a Knight Companion for his continued cutting edge work.

Recently retired Professor Sir Bill Denny.

Denny told it was an easy decision to retire after 52 years, but he is keeping his hand in the game by keeping his extracurricular jobs editing two chemistry journals, American Chemical Society and Tetrahedron.

Denny said funding was always a major part of his work. He appeared in a 2004 story about the cancellation of a research contract by the Drug Company Pfizer and its impact on research and the ability to attract and keep talented scientists in New Zealand.

The funding was vital as Pharmac had also cancelled a contract at the time.

In 2008 Denny headed a team on a drug development project for New Zealand drug company, Pathway Theraputics Ltd, which had raised A$10 million from Australian Venture Capitalists.

Professors Bill Denny and Peter Shepherd in 2008 when the pair were leading a research team to help develop an anti-cancer drug with private funding from Australian Venture Capitalists. Photo / NZME

He also credits funding, such as philanthropy and grants as vital to maintain the life-saving work, but also grassroots fundraising through local Cancer Societies, such as the gold coins dropped in buckets all over the country each Daffodil Day.

He says in a handful of decades cancer drugs have surged in efficacy, which is why continued funding and research is so important.

“Drugs have been gone from ‘this is a drug for cancer, let’s try it’, to ‘this is a drug that has been designed for this particular cancer’, so drugs are much more effective than they were,” he told The Post.

Tomorrow is Daffodil Day. Donations can be given to volunteer street collectors, any ANZ branch or online at daffodilday.org.nz