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Scientific Advisors
Dr. Kurt BeamProfessor Dr. Kurt Beam is Professor in the Department of Physiology & Biophysics at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and currently serves on the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. He has held a position on the Editorial Board of the Biophysical Journal and held faculty positions at University of Iowa and Colorado State University, where he served as a Director of the Molecular, Cellular and Integrative Neuroscience Program. Dr. Beam's expertise concerning calcium channels includes the regulation of membrane excitability in nerve and muscle cells, particularly as it relates to muscle contraction in both normal and diseased states such as muscular dystrophy. He received his PhD at University of Washington and completed his postdoctoral training at Yale University. In 2002, Dr. Beam was recipient of the prestigious Cole Award from the Biophysical Society. Back to Top Dr. William CatterallProfessor and Chair
Department of Pharmacology Dr. William Catterall is Professor and Chair of Pharmacology at the University of Washington and is renowned for his groundbreaking discoveries concerning voltage-gated sodium and calcium channels. The work has contributed crucial advances towards defining the molecular basis of electrical signaling and in understanding the key pharmacological properties of ion channels in the nervous and cardiovascular systems. A member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) and the Institute of Medicine, Dr. Catterall is the recipient of numerous awards including the Passano Award, the Basic Science Prize of the American Heart Association, the National Institutes of Health Mathilde Solowey Award in Neuroscience, and the H.B. Van Dyke Award in Pharmacology from Columbia University. In 2003, he received the Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Neuroscience Research. Dr. Catterall received his Ph.D. degree in physiological chemistry from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1972 and his postgraduate training as a Muscular Dystrophy Association postdoctoral research fellow with Dr. Marshall Nirenberg at the National Institutes of Health. Back to Top Dr. David DolphinUniversity Killam Professor Emeritus Dr. David Dolphin is University Killam Professor Emeritus in the Department of Chemistry and the QLT/NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Photodynamic Technologies at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Dolphin is an internationally recognized expert in porphyrin chemistry and biochemistry and has been instrumental in the development of drugs for photodynamic therapy. Dr. Dolphin is the creator of Visudyne, the world's most widely used ophthalmic drug, which has saved the vision of more than 500,000 people. He is the author and editor of 18 books on spectroscopy, chemistry and biochemistry, has published over 400 research papers, and holds more than 160 patents, including 50 U.S. patents. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Chemistry, The Chemical Society (London), Royal Society of Canada and Royal Society (London). The recipient of many awards and distinctions, Dr. Dolphin is a winner of the Prix Galien, a prestigious award in the field of pharmaceutical research, and has also been designated a Hero of Chemistry, the highest award of the American Chemical Society. In 2005, Dr. Dolphin was awarded the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering, widely recognized as the country's most prestigious science award, the medal coming with a $1,000,000 research prize; and in 2007, he was Recipient of BC Biotechnology Award for Lifetime Achievement. Dr. Dolphin obtained his PhD at the University of Nottingham in England in 1965, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard with Nobel laureate Robert Burns Woodward. Dr. Dolphin was a faculty member for 10 years in the Chemistry Department at Harvard before joining the University of British Columbia in 1974. Michael A. Foley, Ph.D.Director, Chemical Biology Platform and Dr. Foley is currently Director of the Chemical Biology Platform and Director of Medicinal Chemistry at the Broad Institute, a research collaboration of MIT, Harvard and its affiliated hospitals and the Whitehead Institute. Dr. Foley is one of the scientific founders of CombinatoRx and a leading expert in solid-phase synthesis of stereochemically complex small molecules and medicinal chemistry. Dr. Foley was previously Vice President of Chemical Technologies at Infinity Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Foley was a fellow at the Harvard Institute of Chemistry and Cell Biology (ICCB), a joint academic institute between Harvard Medical School and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Foley served as the Head of Chemical Technology for the ICCB. Prior to his academic faculty appointment, Dr. Foley worked in the pharmaceutical industry for more than 10 years, building up his base of expertise in medicinal chemistry at Bristol-Myers Squibb and Glaxo Wellcome. Dr. Foley earned his Ph.D. in chemistry at Harvard University in the laboratories of Dr. Stuart Schreiber, researching the interface of chemistry and biology. Back to Top Todd Golub, M.D.Director, Cancer Program, Broad Institute and Dr. Golub is currently Director of the Cancer Program of the Broad Institute, the Charles A. Dana Investigator at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, and Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Dr. Golub received his medical degree from the University of Chicago, followed by clinical training in oncology at Harvard. He has served on numerous committees, including the pharmacy and therapeutics committee of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, has co-chaired National Cancer Institute progress review groups, and serves on multiple editorial and advisory boards. Dr. Golub is the recipient of numerous awards, including The Daland Prize of the American Philosophical Society, Discover Magazine Inventor of the Year (Health Category), and the American Association for Cancer Research's Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cancer Research. In addition to CombinatoRx, Dr. Golub serves as an advisor to several innovative biotechnology companies including Ardais Corporation and Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Back to Top Curtis T. Keith, Ph.D.Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Keith, co-founder of CombinatoRx, is Chief Scientific Officer for Harvard University's Office of Technology Development Accelerator Fund. Prior to joining Harvard, Dr. Keith served as a member of the CombinatoRx management team from 2000-2008, most recently as Senior Vice President of Research. Dr. Keith completed his Ph.D. in chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard University. Dr. Keith also holds a B.Sc. in biochemistry from McGill University. Back to Top Dr. Lester Mitscher University Distinguished Professor Dr. Lester Mitscher is University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at Kansas University. His academic studies have centered around spectroscopy, synthesis, screening and structure determination primarily of naturally occurring antimicrobial, antimutagenic agents and herbal products. Dr. Mitscher has published actively in the quinolone field since 1965. He consults extensively in the pharmaceutical industry and has been a member of the National Institutes of Health Drug Discovery and Antimicrobial Resistance Study Section. His research awards include the Smissman Award in Medicinal Chemistry (American Chemical Society), the Volweiler Award (American Association for Pharmaceutical Education), the Research Achievement Award in Natural Products Chemistry (American Pharmaceutical Association), the Award in Medicinal Chemistry (Medicinal Chemistry Division, ACS), The Norman Farnsworth Award for Research (American Society for Pharmacognosy), and he is an Elected Fellow American Association for the Advancement of Science and a Member of the Medicinal Chemistry Division, American Chemical Society, Hall of Fame. Dr. Mitscher received his PhD in Chemistry from Wayne State University where he worked on the structure of coffee oil diterpenes and on optical rotatory dispersion. He continued his work on natural product chemistry at Lederle Laboratories where he rose to group leader in antibiotic discovery until becoming an Assistant Professor in Natural Products Chemistry at The Ohio State University in 1967, rapidly rising to the position of Professor. He joined the Faculty of Medicinal Chemistry as University Distinguished Professor and Departmental Chair in 1975, a position that he held until returning to the faculty in 1992. He has published over 260 research articles and seven books on medicinal chemical topics. Back to Top Dr. David J. Triggle SUNY Distinguished Professor and SUNY University Professor Dr. David Triggle is SUNY Distinguished Professor and SUNY University Professor in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He received his education in the United Kingdom with a BSc degree in Chemistry from the University of Southampton and a PhD degree in Chemistry at the University of Hull. Following post-doctoral work at the University of Ottawa (Canada) and the University of London (UK) he assumed a position at the School of Pharmacy in Buffalo. His research interests are in the broad area of drugs active at pharmacological receptors and ion channels. In particular, his emphasis has been on voltage-gated calcium channels. Dr. Triggle is the author of several books dealing with the chemical pharmacology of the autonomic nervous system and drug-receptor interactions, of some 400 scientific publications and has delivered over one thousand lectures world-wide on his research. Together with John Taylor he is the editor of the just published Comprehensive Medicinal Chemistry, a treatise in 8 volumes. He is currently the President of the Center for Inquiry Institute where he directs a program on science and the public. Dr. Triggle's recognized achievements include the Volwiler Research Achievement Award from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, the Educational Citation of Honor from the National Columbus Day Committee, the George Koepf Award from the Medical Foundation of Buffalo and the Otto Krayer award from the American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. He has served as Chairman of the Gordon Conference in Medicinal Chemistry and currently serves in many educational and scientific capacities at universities in the Middle East, India and China. Dr. Triggle holds honorary degrees from a number of institutions including the University of Camerino (Italy) and the University of Hull. He also serves on the editorial boards of a number of journals, including Drug Development Research where he is Diversity Editor, and Biochemical Pharmacology. Formerly he was the Perspectives Editor of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry and he was the Founding Editor of Pharmaceutical News. Back to Top Dr. Gerald ZamponiProfessor and Canada Research Chair Dr. Gerald Zamponi is Professor and Canada Research Chair in Molecular Neurobiology in the Departments of Physiology & Biophysics, Pharmacology & Therapeutics and Cell Biology & Anatomy, at the University of Calgary. He is also an AHFMR Scientist and Research Director at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute. An author of over 120 refereed papers, Dr. Zamponi's major research activities focus on the biophysics, molecular biology, modulation, and pharmacology of calcium channels and their roles in neurological disorders. He holds over two dozen issued and pending patents concerning novel calcium channel blockers. Dr. Zamponi's many awards include the Alta Pharm Senior Scientist Award from the Canadian Society for Pharmacology, an Investigator Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, an Independent Investigator Award from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, and the prestigious EJLB Scholarship. Dr. Zamponi received his undergraduate Training in Engineering Physics at the Johannes Kepler University, his PhD at the University of Calgary and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Biotechnology Laboratory at the University of British Columbia prior to taking a faculty position at the University of Calgary. Back to Top |
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