Kurt Brunden, PhD, University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Kurt R. Brunden received his B.S. degree from Western Michigan University, with dual majors of Biology and Health Chemistry. He obtained his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Purdue University, and did a post-doctoral fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. Dr. Brunden subsequently joined the Biochemistry faculty at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, with a research focus on the regulation of myelination. He was later recruited to the biotechnology sector, where he advanced to VP of Research at Gliatech, Inc. and later served as Sr. VP of Drug Discovery at Athersys, Inc. In these positions, he oversaw projects in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), cognition, schizophrenia, inflammation and metabolic disease. Several of these programs were partnered with or acquired by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. In addition to his oversight of drug discovery programs, Dr. Brunden was responsible for the preparation of patents, the management of patent portfolios, and the preparation of IND/CTA documents. In 2007, Dr. Brunden became Director of Drug Discovery in the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research (CNDR) at the University of Pennsylvania, where he presently oversees drug discovery programs in the areas of AD, frontotemporal lobar degeneration and Parkinson’s disease. Dr. Brunden also serves as the chair of the NSD-C translational research study section for the National Institutes of Neurological Diseases and Stroke, is a reviewer for the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation and an ad hoc reviewer for several scientific journals. He has over 65 publications, a number of issued U.S. patents and several pending patent applications.

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Chair:

Early Phases of Drug Discovery

Lecturer:

After HTS: Solubility, Selectivity, Safety and Stability in Addition to Potency

Neil Buckholtz, PhD, National Institute on Aging  

Neil S. Buckholtz, Ph.D., is Chief of the Dementias of Aging Branch of the Neuroscience and Neuropsychology of Aging Program at the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Maryland.  This involves overall programmatic responsibility for development, coordination, and implementation of basic and clinical Alzheimer’s disease research.  Specifically Dr. Buckholtz is the program administrator for the areas of diagnosis and treatment and management of Alzheimer’s disease.  Dr. Buckholtz holds a doctorate in physiological psychology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and was a faculty member at the Medical University of South Carolina, Department of Psychiatry, from 1970-1983, before coming to NIH. 

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Lecturer:

Resources at the National Institute of Health

Laura Chico, PhD, Robert W. Baird & Co.   

Dr. Chico is currently a healthcare research analyst at Robert W. Baird & Company and holds an adjunct faculty position at Northwestern University.  Previously, Dr. Chico was the founder and president of privately-held LKC Pharma Services, a consulting firm focused on the development of proprietary computational algorithms for pharmacological and chemical sciences to facilitate client “Go/NoGo” decisions or project prioritizations in drug discovery and early-stage product development, rendering significant time and cost savings in the short term and major risk reduction at later stages.  She received her PhD in pharmacology and MS in computational biology from Northwestern University.  Dr. Chico’s past research contributions facilitated advancement of novel small molecule drugs into late stage drug development for CNS disorders and the discovery of new classes of small molecule drug candidates for cancer therapeutics.

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Lecturer:

Designing Small Molecules with Increased Potential for CNS Penetration

Kathleen Denis, PhD, Rockefeller University

Kathleen A. Denis, PhD, is the Associate Vice President of Technology Transfer at The Rockefeller University, a premier biomedical research institution located in New York City.  She is a Past President of the Licensing Executives Society USA/Canada (LES), and has served on the Board of Directors of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) and the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Association.  She is a Certified Licensing Professional. Specializing in the management of intellectual assets in the life sciences, she has worked with academic institutions and industry clients to manage intellectual property portfolios, evaluate new technologies, market and license technologies and start new technology-based businesses. Dr. Denis is active in numerous professional organizations and speaks frequently about early stage technology evaluation, formation of start-up companies, conflict of interest and other issues of academic technology transfer.   Dr. Denis holds a Ph.D. in immunology from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. in Human Genetics from University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and an undergraduate degree in genetics from Cornell University. 

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Chair:

 Issues in Technology Transfer: Interactions and Intellectual Property

Lecturer:

Working Effectively with Your TTO: Technology Evaluation Process and IP Protection

Rebecca Farkas, PhD, National Institute on Neurological Disorders and Stroke

Dr. Rebecca Farkas is a program director in the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) at the NIH. Dr. Farkas oversees the Medicinal Chemistry for Neurotherapeutics Program, which is part of the NIH Blueprint Neurotherapeutics Network. The Blueprint Neurotherapeutics Network provides researchers with their own “virtual pharma,” offering research funding and access to a full range of industry-style drug development services and expertise. Dr. Farkas also provides leadership on translational research training initiatives and efforts to advance translational projects toward commercialization. Dr. Farkas received her Ph.D. in Developmental Biology at Stanford University School of Medicine and her B.A. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University. She served as a science policy analyst in the NINDS Office of Science Policy and Planning for seven years before joining the NINDS Office of Translational Research.

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Lecturer:

Resources at the National Institute of Health

Howard Fillit, MD, Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation

Howard Fillit, MD, a geriatrician and neuroscientist, is the founding Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of Aging, Inc. as well as its affiliated public charity the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, both of which are dedicated to funding drug discovery for Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Fillit was formally the Corporate Medical Director for Medicare at NYLCare Health Plans (now a division of Aetna, Inc.), where he was responsible for over 125,000 Medicare members in 8 regional markets. He has also had a distinguished academic career at The Rockefeller University and The Mount Sinai Medical Center (NY), where he is currently a clinical professor of geriatrics and medicine and a professor of neurobiology. Dr. Fillit has received many awards and honors, including the Rita Hayworth Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Alzheimer's Association. He is a fellow of the American Geriatrics Society, the American College of Physicians, the Gerontological Society of America, and the New York Academy of Medicine. Dr. Fillit is the author or co-author of more than 250 publications, including the leading international Textbook of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology. He served as a consultant to a variety of individuals, managed care organizations, health care systems, and pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

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Course Director

Lecturer:

Overview of Drug Discovery for Neurodegenerative Diseases

Brian Fiske, PhD, Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research

Dr. Brian Fiske is a Director of Research Programs at The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. He earned his PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Virginia with a focus on the neurobiology of brain development. After a postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University, Dr. Fiske joined the editorial staff of the journal Nature Neuroscience, before arriving at The Michael J. Fox Foundation in late 2004. Dr. Fiske’s responsibilities include managing a large and growing grants portfolio, as well as developing strategies to facilitate and streamline research and drug development efforts in Parkinson’s disease.

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Chair:

Case Studies

Marcie Glicksman, PhD, Harvard NeuroDiscovery Center

Marcie Glicksman is Senior Director, Leads Discovery Group at LDDN. Dr. Glicksman has extensive experience in assay development, high throughput screening, chemical databases, animal pharmacology and preclinical development. Her bachelor’s degree is from Brown University and Ph.D. from Washington University.  Before joining LDDN in 2004, she had been in industry for thirteen years. Previously, she was at the start-up company, Descartes Therapeutics focused on imaging techniques. Before this, she was Director of Leads Discovery at Cubist.  Before this, she was at DuPont-Merck and at Cephalon, Inc. She led the assay development and screening program for a cell-based protease project, and numerous G-protein coupled receptors, many of which were continued when Bristol Myers Squibb bought DuPont Pharmaceuticals. At Cephalon, she was co-inventor of CEP1347, a neuroprotective agent directed at a novel kinase, currently in Phase III clinical trials.  She also consults for industry.  She is a board member of the non-profit drug discovery organization Society for Biomolecular Screening and currently serves as the Chairman.

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Lecturer:

Academic Models of Drug Discovery Services & Utilizing CROs

James  Inglese, PhD, National Institute of Health Chemical Genomics Center

Dr. Inglese is currently establishing the Laboratory of Assay and Screening Technology Development focused on rare and neglected diseases in the newly formed NIH Center for Translational Therapeutics (NCTT). He is also co-founder of the NIH Chemical Genomics Center (NCGC) and Associate Investigator of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). Dr. Inglese received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the Pennsylvania State University and completed post-doctoral training in the laboratory of Prof. Robert J. Lefkowitz at Duke University Medical Center. Dr. Inglese has led research teams at the Princeton-based biotech Pharmacopeia and Merck Research Laboratories before coming to the NIH. Over the past two decades Dr. Inglese has contributed to over 150 publications and patents and has made major contributions to the early drug discovery process through the development of novel assay formats and high throughput screening paradigms. Dr. Inglese is the Founding Editor (2002) and Editor-in-Chief of the journal, ASSAY and Drug Development Technologies.

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Lecturer:

Basics of High Throughput Screening (HTS)

Frank E. Koehn, PhD, Pfizer Inc.

Frank E. Koehn is Research Fellow and Head of the Natural Products Laboratory at Pfizer Worldwide R&D. Dr. Koehn obtained his B.S. degree in Chemistry from Butler University, Indianapolis Indiana in 1977, and did his Ph.D. research on marine red tide neurotoxins at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, USA.  Following postdoctoral work in plant natural products at the University of Pennsylvania, he joined the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution in Fort Pierce, Florida, USA, where he spent the next decade identifying biologically active molecules from marine macro and micro-organisms. Intrigued by the therapeutic potential of natural product-based drug candidates, Dr. Koehn joined the Natural Products and Analytical Chemistry program at Lederle Laboratories in 1994, which subsequently became Wyeth Research. In 2010 he joined Pfizer as Natural Products Laboratory head. At Pfizer, Dr. Koehn’s research group is focussed on the discovery and application of  microbial natural products to address unmet medical need.

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Lecturer:

Natural Products as Drug Starting Points

Frank Longo, MD, PhD, Stanford University 

Dr. Longo received his MD in 1981 and PhD in Neurosciences in 1983 from the University of California, San Diego. Following an internship in medicine at NYU/VA, he trained as a resident in neurology and fellow in neurobiology at University of California, San Francisco. While at UCSF he created the Neurogenetics Clinic which was the first West Coast site in the U.S. to offer DNA testing for families with Huntington’s disease. He also led the creation of a national referral center for deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease and contributed to the development of programs in dementia, epilepsy and other areas. At UCSF he became professor and vice chair of the Department of Neurology and in 2001 he was recruited to become chair of the Department of Neurology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. While at UNC, Dr. Longo launched or expanded programs for Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, stroke, epilepsy, sleep disorders, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. In January 2006, Dr. Longo became chair of the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford where he is focused on building and expanding multidisciplinary programs in neurology and neuroscience. In 2006 he was named a Stanford Fellow. Dr. Longo’s research team focuses on elucidating novel mechanisms that prevent neural degeneration and promote regeneration. He and his colleagues have pioneered the development of small, drug-like, molecules that target neurotrophin receptors to delay onset of or slow progression of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative disorders.

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Lecturer:

Neurotrophic Factor Mimetics: Target Validation to Lead Optimization

Vicki Nienaber, PhD, Zenobia Therapeutics, Inc.

Vicki Nienaber, Ph.D. is President, CSO and founder of Zenobia Therapeutics.  She is known for her pioneering work in the field of drug discovery using fragment-based screening and structure-based drug design. Vicki has managed both drug discovery and development programs giving her a unique perspective on the specifications of early lead compounds that will yield high-quality clinical candidates. Vicki was most recently the Chief Scientific Officer at ActiveSight, a division of Rigaku Americas Corporation, where she built a diverse team of protein biochemistry, X-ray crystallography and drug discovery experts. Before that, she was the Senior Director of Lead Discovery and Crystallography at SGX Pharmaceuticals, where she oversaw strategic drug discovery and structural biology alliances with Novartis and Eli Lilly and initiated their internal kinase lead discovery project. While at Abbott Laboratories, she was the lead inventor of crystallographic fragment-based screening, co-inventor of the ACTOR robotic system for automated crystal sample handling and a leader in structure-based drug design methods. Vicki has written numerous peer-reviewed scientific publications and patents and has been recognized with several awards including the Commitment to Excellence award while a post-doctoral fellow at DuPont-Merck and the Chairman’s Award for significant contributions while at Abbott Laboratories.

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Lecturer:

Structure Assisted Ligand Design

Steve Perrin, PhD, ALS Therapy Development Institute

Dr. Steven Perrin is currently the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer at the ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI) in Cambridge, MA. He earned his Ph.D. at Boston University Medical Center studying the transcriptional regulation of genes during adipocyte and myocyte differentiation. Dr. Perrin moved into the pharmaceutical industry in 1997 holding positions at the Hoechst-Ariad Genomics Center, Aventis Pharmaceuticals and more recently as Director of Molecular Profiling at Biogen Idec. Dr. Perrin joined ALS TDI in 2007 as part of historical collaboration between the Muscular Dystrophy Association, Augie’s Quest and ALS TDI to develop effective therapeutics for ALS patients.  Since joining ALS TDI Steven has spearheaded the development of computational biology capabilities and information management systems to more clearly understand the molecular mechanisms associated with disease onset and progression in neurodegenerative diseases. He has expanded ALS TDI’s drug screening program to include expertise in the generation and assessment of gene therapy vectors and protein biologics in preclinical models of neurodegeneration. He has developed a business plan to facilitate pharmaceutical partnerships for rapid clinical development and commercialization of promising targets for ALS patients.

Dr. Perrin is a frequent participant in international conferences in computational biology, genomics, drug development, and neurodegeneration.

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Lecturer:

The Limitations and Value of Animal Models for Neurodegenerative Disease 

Suzana Petanceska, PhD, National Institute on Aging

Dr Suzana Petanceska received a B.S. degree in molecular biology and physiology from the University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia and a Ph.D. degree in Pharmacology from New York University. Following her postdoctoral training at Rockefeller University (1995-1998) and at the Nathan Kline Institute of NYU (1998-2000) she became an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Pharmacology at the Nathan Kline Institute of NYU (2001-2005).  Her research focused on the role of disrupted sterol metabolism in the development of Alzheimer’s disease amyloidosis and the mechanisms by which estrogens and cholesterol-lowering drugs might exert neuroprotection.  In 2005 she joined the Neuroscience and Neuropsychology of Aging Program at the National Institute on Aging where she serves as a Program Director covering research areas that address the role of metabolic and vascular factors in normal brain aging and in Alzheimer’s disease.  She also facilitates the development of NIA’s drug discovery and preclinical drug development initiatives for AD, mild cognitive impairment and age-associated cognitive decline.

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Chair:

Resources and Services For Advancing Drug Discovery

William Potter, MD, PhD, Merck (Retired)

Bill Potter earned his B.A., M.S., M.D., and Ph.D. at Indiana University, after which he functioned in positions of increasing responsibility and seniority over the next twenty-five years at the National Institutes of Health focused on translational neuroscience.  While at the NIH, Bill was widely published and appointed to many societies, committees, and boards; a role which enabled him to develop a wide reputation as an expert in psychopharmacological sciences and championing the development of novel treatments for CNS disorders.  Bill left the NIH in 1996 to accept a position as Executive Director and Research Fellow at Lilly Research Labs, specializing in the Neuroscience Therapeutic Area and in 2004 joined Merck Research Labs as VP of Clinical Neuroscience, then the newly created position of Translational Neuroscience in 2006, a position from which he retired in January of this year. His experience at Lilly and MRL in identifying, expanding and developing methods of evaluating CNS effects of compounds in human brain cover state of the art approaches across multiple modalities. These include brain imaging and cerebrospinal fluid proteomics (plus metabolomics) as well as development of more sensitive clinical, psychophysiological and performance measures allowing a range of novel targets to be tested in a manner which actually addresses the underlying hypotheses.  Bill has become a widely recognized champion for the position that more disciplined hypothesis testing of targets in humans is the best near term approach to moving CNS drug development forward for important neurologic and psychiatric illnesses.

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Lecturer:

What Makes a Clinical Candidate?

John E. Sagartz, DVM, PhD, DACVP, Seventh Wave Laboratories

John E. Sagartz, DVM, PhD, Diplomate, ACVP is President of Seventh Wave Laboratories, LLC.  He received his PhD from The Ohio State University, Department of Veterinary Biosciences, Columbus, OH, completed his Residency in Veterinary Pathology at Ohio State University, Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, Columbus, OH, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Kansas State University, College of Veterinary Medicine and his BS from Kansas State University, College of Agriculture in Manhattan, Kansas. From 1997 to 2003 he held positions as a Investigative Pathologist, Section Head, Assistant Director, Director and Site Head, Pharmacia Fellow Manager at Global Investigative Toxicology, St. Louis, MO. John has been the recipient of numerous honors and awards including recognition as a Pharmacia Fellow in 2003. The Pharmacia Fellow Program recognizes individuals who demonstrated outstanding proficiency and accomplishment in their field and a strong record of technical leadership.  In addition, Dr. Sagartz received the W.E. Upjohn award in 2001 which is granted to individuals with sustained high impact contribution to the performance of Pharmacia Corporation.  Further, Seventh Wave Laboratories was awarded the 2009 Outstanding Entrepreneur Award by the St. Louis County Economic Council. Past Professional Activities include Chair, American College of Veterinary Pathologists Endowment Committee, Endocrine Pathology Program Planning Committee, American College of Veterinary Pathologists annual meeting, 1999.  Dr. Sagartz is a member of the Society of Toxicologic Pathologists, Society of Toxicology, American Society of Investigative Pathology, American College of Veterinary Pathologists, and American Veterinary Medical Association. He has authored and coauthored numerous publications related to experimental and spontaneous disease.

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Lecturer:

Importance of Toxicology

Diana Shineman, PhD, Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation

Diana Shineman, PhD, is the Assistant Director for Scientific Affairs at the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, where she is responsible for developing and managing all aspects of the Foundation’s drug discovery research programs. 

Dr. Shineman earned her PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Pennsylvania (Penn).   At Penn’s renowned Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research led by Drs. Virginia Lee and John Trojanowski, she studied signal transduction pathways that alter amyloid generation in Alzheimer’s disease.  Dr. Shineman also worked with the Center’s Drug Discovery Group to perform high-throughput screening using cell-based assays.  In addition to her dissertation research, Dr. Shineman was as an Editorial Intern for the Journal of Clinical Investigation and was an active member of the Penn Biotechnology Group.  Dr. Shineman received a BA in Biology with a Nutrition concentration from Cornell University, where she was named a Howard Hughes Undergraduate Research Scholar.  She is also a member of the Society for Neuroscience and an author on numerous peer-reviewed publications.

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Chair

BEYOND SMALL MOLECULES: NATURAL PRODUCTS, BIOLOGICS AND REPURPOSING

Joao Siffert, PhD, Ceregene, Inc.

Dr. Siffert has been Chief Medical Officer of Ceregene since October, 2007 and oversees the clinical development activities in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. Previously, Dr. Siffert served as the Chief Medical Officer at Avera Pharmaceuticals, a CNS specialty pharma company. Prior to joining Avera, Dr. Siffert held positions with Pfizer as the Worldwide Medical Team Leader in areas of pain and epilepsy of various products including Relpax, Lyrica and Neurontin. He was also instrumental in the Phase 3b/4 program development and global launch of Lyrica. Prior to Pfizer, Dr. Siffert held academic positions at Beth Israel Medical Center, where he served as director of the Adult Neuro-Oncology program, and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he was assistant professor of neurology. During his tenure at Beth Israel, Dr. Siffert was actively involved in clinical research of novel therapies for patients with brain and spinal cord tumors. He completed residencies in pediatrics at New York University School of Medicine and in neurology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Siffert was certified by the American Board of Neurology and Psychiatry. He holds an M.D. degree from the University of São Paulo School of Medicine as well as an M.B.A. degree from Columbia University Business School.

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Lecturer:

Neurotrophic Factors for Alzheimer's Disease: Unique Challenges and Promise

Alan Snow, PhD, ProteoTech, Inc.  

Dr. Alan Snow is Chairman, President and Chief Scientific Officer of ProteoTech Inc., a private Company that is developing a pipeline of drugs targeting amyloid diseases including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, systemic amyloidosis and type 2 diabetes. He previously served as a Research Associate Professor of Pathology at University of Washington (Seattle, WA) and is a world-recognized authority on amyloid diseases. He holds a B.S. degree in Biology/Chemistry from Bowling Green State University in Ohio, a M.S. degree in Anatomy from University of Western Ontario (Canada), and a Ph.D. in Pathology from Queen's University (Canada). His Ph.D. research led to new discoveries pertaining to the pathogenic role that proteoglycans play in amyloid diseases. Dr. Snow founded ProteoTech and left the University of Washington in 1999 to serve as the Company's first CEO. Currently, two small molecule drugs are in human clinical trials that were developed at ProteoTech:

1) Exebryl-1^® targeting both beta-amyloid protein and tau protein for Alzheimer's disease and

2) Systebryl^TM targeting AA amyloid for systemic AA amyloidosis. Other drugs in ProteoTech's pipeline in late pre-clinical development include the small molecule Synuclere^TM targeting alpha-synuclein aggregates in Parkinson's disease, and the small D-amino acid peptide, Pepticlere^TM targeting beta-amyloid protein for Alzheimer's disease.

Since being at ProteoTech Dr. Snow has acquired over $15 million in grant funding, and is an inventor on over 100 issued patents pertaining to the development of new drugs for different amyloid diseases.

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Lecturer:

Novel Ways to Reduce Protein Aggregation

Edward Spack, PhD, Fast Forward, LLC

Edward Spack, PhD received his doctoral degree from The Johns Hopkins University and his postdoctoral fellowship in cellular immunology at Stanford University.  He worked in Bay area biotech companies for 14 years developing therapies for autoimmunity, cancer, and infectious disease spanning discovery and preclinical development through Phase III trial support.  At SRI International, Dr. Spack directed the PharmaSTART program, a consortium of SRI, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, and UC San Francisco chartered to support translational development.  His responsibilities included designing preclinical development plans for academic researchers, foundations, NIH programs, and start-up companies.  He consulted with the NIH translational core services committee and several individual NIH institutes on preclinical development and served as an advisor on the NIH Regional Centers of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Produce Development Working Group. As Sr. Director of Business Development for SRI’s Bioscience Division, Dr. Spack was responsible for alliance management, in-licensing, and out-licensing of drug candidates.  He has served on scientific advisory boards, grant review boards, or national board of directors for several foundations, and is currently a managing director at Fast Forward LLC, supporting a translational development program advancing therapeutics for the prevention/reversal of neurodegeneration in multiple sclerosis in partnership with EMD Serono.   

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Chair:

Pre-Clinical Proof-of-Concept & Development

Lecturer:

Requirements for an IND

John S. Swartley, PhD, University of Pennsylvania

John S. Swartley, MBA, PhD, is Senior Director of New Ventures at the Center for Technology Transfer at the University of Pennsylvania, where he leads a team that fosters the formation of new ventures based on Penn technologies and faculty expertise.  Prior to joining Penn in 2007, Dr. Swartley served as Senior Vice President and Partner of BCM Technologies (BCMT), the venture capital investment subsidiary of Baylor College of Medicine.  Dr. Swartley joined BCMT in 2003 from the Yale University Office of Cooperative Research where he served as Associate Director of the Medical Campus. Dr. Swartley has participated in the formation and oversight of more than two dozen university spin-out companies that have collectively raised nearly one billion dollars of investment capital. He holds a B.S. in Biology from Bates College, an MBA from the Goizueta School of Business at Emory University, and a Ph.D. in Microbial & Molecular Genetics from Emory University.

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Lecturer:

Should You Start a Biotechnology Company?

D. James Surmeier, PhD, Northwestern University

Dr. James Surmeier is the Nathan Smith Davis Professor and Chair of the Department of Physiology at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University and Director of the Morris K. Udall Parkinson’s Disease Research Center of Excellence at Northwestern University. Dr. Surmeier received his Ph.D. in Physiology and Biophysics from the University of Washington in 1983. He trained with leaders in the field of neurophysiology, including Dr. Arnold Towe, Dr. William Willis and Dr. Stephen Kitai. In 1998, he moved to the Department of Physiology at Northwestern University and assumed his current position in 2001. Dr. Surmeier’s research program focuses on the mechanisms underlying neural activity in the basal ganglia and how it changes in disease states, like Parkinson’s disease. He has pioneered the application of modern patch clamp, single cell gene profiling and optical approaches to understanding basal ganglia physiology, authoring over 125 peer-reviewed publications in journals such as Science, Nature, Neuron, Nature Neuroscience and the Journal of Neuroscience. He has served in several advisory capacities to the National Institutes of Health, including chairing study sections for NINDS and acting as a Councilor for NIAAA. He also serves on the scientific advisory boards of the Hereditary Disease Foundation, the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation, the Hartman Foundation, and the Bachmann-Strauss Dystonia and Parkinson’s Disease Foundation. He also serves on a number of editorial boards, including those of Neuron and Current Opinion in Neurobiology. He has received many scientific awards including the NARSAD Established Investigator award, the Riker Award and the Jacob Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award.

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Lecturer:

The Road to Repurposing a Drug: Isradipine

D. Martin Watterson, PhD, Northwestern University  

Dr. Watterson holds the John G. Searle Endowed Chair in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at Northwestern University and is Professor of Molecular Pharmacology and Biological Chemistry at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. He has published extensively in the areas of drug discovery, signal transduction, structural biology, pharmacology and medicinal chemistry, and has developed immunodiagnostics and novel small molecule therapeutic candidates licensed to industry. Dr. Watterson has worked successfully with major pharmaceutical and biotech companies in diverse areas of drug discovery, participated actively in bringing new drug candidates to clinical development, served on the Board of Directors for technology companies, and assisted colleagues and various government agencies with science and technology development. Related to the latter advisory and administrative experience, he founded one of the first academic-based drug discovery programs in the country in 1996, the Drug Discovery Program at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, which later became the university-wide Center for Drug Discovery and Chemical Biology and is currently the Center for Molecular Innovation and Drug Discovery. This premier drug discovery program serves as a model for other academic institutions. He serves on diverse NIH, foundation and international advisory committees in the areas of drug discovery and signal transduction.  Dr. Watterson’s doctoral training in chemical sciences was at Emory University, followed by postdoctoral training in biochemistry/bioorganic chemistry at Duke University Medical Center where he was supported by a National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Watterson held faculty positions at The Rockefeller University, where he was an Andrew Mellon Fellow, and at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he was Professor of Pharmacology and Howard Hughes Investigator, before moving to Northwestern University. At Northwestern, he has served as a Department Chair, Drug Discovery Program Director, and Co-Director of a University Center.

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Chair:

Basics of Medicinal Chemistry

Lecturer:

Medicinal Chemistry Rules of Thumb, Myths and Realities in CNS Drug Discovery

Ted Yednock, PhD, Elan Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Dr. Yednock is Executive Vice President, Head of Global Research for Elan Pharmaceuticals. During Dr. Yednock's tenure at Elan, he initiated research on Multiple Sclerosis which led to the development of Tysabri as a drug for treatment of MS and Crohn's disease.  Since that time, Dr. Yednock has contributed to the invention or progression of more than a dozen drugs in the areas of Alzheimer's, Alzheimer's immunotherapy, Parkinson's disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Crohn’s disease.   He earned his BS in Biology and Chemistry from the University of Illinois, his PhD in Anatomy and Cell Biology from UCSF as well as postdoctoral work in Immunology from the same institution.

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Lecturer:

Development of Tysabri for Multiple Sclerosis

Berislav Zlokovic, MD, PhD, University of Rochester  

Berislav V. Zlokovic, PhD, MD, is Dean's Professor, Professor of Neurosurgery and Neurology,  and Director, Center for Neurodegenerative & Vascular Brain Disorders at the University of Rochester. He earned M.D. (1975) and Ph.D. (1983) from the University of Belgrade. Zlokovic received postdoctoral training in Transport Biology at Queen Elizabeth College and Neurobiology/Blood-Brain Barrier Transport Physiology at King’s College London with Hugh Davson. He has conducted research in the neuroscience field for more than 30 years. He provided original insights into Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis and treatments by discovering that brain vascular genes and receptors control reductions in brain microcirculation, cerebral blood flow and faulty amyloid beta-peptide clearance at the blood-brain barrier preceding neuronal injury and loss. He works on protein C pathway in brain that has therapeutic implications for several neurological disorders such as stroke, brain trauma, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and others. His accomplishments have earned him a MERIT Award from the National Institute on Aging (2004) “in recognition of his sustained contribution to aging and his leadership and commitment to the field”; the ISOA/Elan award (2006) “for novel approaches to drug discovery for Alzheimer’s disease”; the MetLife Award (2006) which is given to “neuroscientists who made significant contributions to our understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and who bring us closer to a cure”; the Javits Award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (2007) for “his distinguished record of substantial contributions in a field of neurological science”; the Potamkin Prize from the American Academy of Neurology (2009) “in recognition of his outstanding achievements in research of Alzheimer’s and related neurodegenerative diseases”; and the McCune 10th Annual Award (2009) “which is given to a researcher who has made a difference in Alzheimer’s disease”
 

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Keynote Presenter:

The Neurovascular Unit: Biology of Blood Brain Barrier in Neurodegenerative Diseases