Bruce is a Research Assistant Professor of Pharmacology in the School of Medicine and a Senior Director of Medicinal Chemistry in the Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery @ Vanderbilt University. Bruce has served as Editor in Chief of ASSAY and Drug Development Technologies (a Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. journal) since 2017. His areas of expertise include medicinal chemistry, chemical methodology development, natural product synthesis, hit-to-lead, and lead optimization. The theme of his research in the areas of medicinal chemistry and drug discovery has been the development of small molecules which target G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) with high levels of specificity, affinity and potency for the GPCR of interest.

Bruce received his B.S. in Chemistry from Louisiana State University with Professor Robert M. Strongin while working on the synthesis of resorcinarene chromophores as sensors for mono- and oligosaccharides. He received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Notre Dame under the direction of Professor Richard E. Taylor. He developed novel cationic cyclopropanation reactions with high enantiospecificity from enantiomerically enriched sulfonate intermediates. He also investigated biomimetic approaches to cyclopropanes found in polyketide natural products. After successful completion of his Ph.D., he moved to Vanderbilt University to begin postdoctoral studies under Professor Gary A. Sulikowski. He was awarded an NIH fellowship through the Vanderbilt Institute of Chemical Biology to develop novel small molecule inhibitors of the Wnt signaling pathway as it relates to colorectal cancer. Additionally, he synthesized new apoptolidin-rhodamine conjugates to elucidate the biological target of apoptolidin A.

In 2010, Bruce moved to the WCNDD as a drug discovery scientist and worked on the development of novel small molecule PAMs of the M1 and M4 muscarinic receptors for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia. In 2015, Bruce accepted a position as a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and Director of the Chemical Synthesis and Drug Discovery Facility at the University of Notre Dame. While at UND, he also served as Notre Dame Research Navigator for the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, an NIH NCATS CTSA awarded to the Indiana University School of Medicine (ICTSI NIH/NCRR Grant Number UL1TR001108). In 2019, Bruce returned to the WCNDD as a Research Assistant Professor and Project Leader for a collaboration with Boehringer-Ingelheim to develop novel small molecule PAMs of mGluR1 and mGluR3 as treatments for schizophrenia.