Lee F. Allen, MD, PhDTitle: Cambridge site head, vice president, clinical research and development, oncology therapeutic area.
Organization: Wyeth Research, Cambridge, Mass.
Education: BS, chemistry (1973), City University of New York, Brooklyn, N.Y.; PhD, pathology (1983), University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, N.J.; MD (1987), UMDNJ, Newark, N.J.; resident, internal medicine (1988-1990), fellow, hematology/oncology (1990-1993), Duke University Medical Center.
Background: Dr. Allen most recently was a director with Pfizer Global Research and Development for its oncology programs. Before that, he was with Knoll Pharmaceutical Company, a unit of BASF.
Research interests: Human prostate carcinogenesis, G-protein-coupled receptors as proto-oncogenes, physiologic effects of adrenergic receptor overexpression, adrenergic receptor-mediated mitogenesis and transformation.
Lee E. Babiss, PhDTitle: Vice president, preclinical research and development
Organization: Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., Nutley, N.J.
Education: PhD, microbiology (1982), Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York. Postdoctoral work at the Rockefeller University, New York.
Background: Babiss develops and directs oncology and metabolic diseases research strategy for the Roche’s Nutley site. In addition, he is a member of the International Research Management Team, which develops the company’s global research strategy and is chair of the Roche Biomarker Leadership Team, which oversees a cross-divisional effort within the company’s pharmaceuticals and diagnostics divisions aimed at developing and implementing a biomarker strategy.
Before Roche, Babiss was vice president of Biological Sciences and Genetics at Glaxo Wellcome where he focused on the development of antisense technology and cancer therapeutics, headed the Department of Molecular Cell Biology, and played a key role developing and implementing the Cell Cycle Program. Babiss also served as a member of the US Research Senior Management Team, which formulated and implemented Glaxo’s US research strategy and was involved in creating the Glaxo Wellcome Corporate Genetic Strategy.
Babiss currently serves on the board of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), the board of the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine at UMDNJ, the R&D Council of New Jersey, the Finance Board of the American Society of Microbiology and on the Scientific Advisory Board of CuraGen Corp.
David BoathTitle: Partner in the Health and Life Sciences (H&LS) Practice, Philadelphia office.
Organization: Accenture, New York.
Education: MBA, accounting, New York University, New York; BS, honors in physics with physical electronics, University of Bath, UK.
Background: Boath leads the Research and Development Service Line within H&LS, and he leads Accenture's Clinical Data Management Services operation, as well. He spent the last 10 years helping pharmaceutical companies increase their productivity by working with them to build the processes, technologies, and organizations they need. Clients include Aventis, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, Takeda, and Wyeth.
Before joining Accenture, Boath was a partner in PA Consulting's pharmaceutical practice. He started his career as a research physicist and has spent most of his life working in the R&D environment. He is a published author in the area of reengineering and total quality management of the product development process. Several of his articles appear in Scrip Magazine, Applied Clinical Trials, and Pharmaceutical Executive.
Frank K. Brown, PhDTitle: Senior Research Fellow and team leader of Computer Aided Drug Design and Chemoinformatics.
Organization: Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development LLC (J&JPRD), Raritan, N.J.
Education: PhD, physical organic chemistry, University of Pittsburgh, 1985; Postdoctorial studies, biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, 1985-1987.
Background: Brown has a diverse background in computational chemistry, chemoinformatics, and information management. He has lead CADD teams since 1989 and started the first chemoinformatics group in the industry at Glaxo Research Institute in 1995. He also launched new software products as vice president for product and business development at Oxford Molecular Group. His current interests are in finding better quality leads and shortening the time to phase I through the unification of computation and informatics.
In addition, Brown has been an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Chair for the ACS subsection Computers in Chemistry; served on NIH study section S-66 for 5 years; and sat on the editorial board for journals and trade magazines. Other past activities include building a strong teaching laboratory at UNC and starting the Chemical Information Exchange Work Group (CIEWG), a group determined to make interoperability between scientific software a reality.
Curtiss Campbell, PhDTitle: Director of
HPLC Organization: Shimadzu Scientific Instruments Inc., Columbia, Md.
Mark Cockett, PhDTitle: Vice president, Applied Genomics
Organization: Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), Pharmaceutical Research Institute, Hopewell, N.J.
Education and Background: Cockett joined BMS in January 2000 and is responsible for functional genomics and bioinformatics applied to preclinical research and development at BMS. His group has strategic alliances with Exelixis, Lexicon, Athersys, Pharmagene, Iconix Pharmaceuticals, and the Broad Institute and is a centralized resource supporting all therapeutic areas at BMS. Before joining BMS, Mark worked for seven years in the Neuroscience group at Wyeth, ultimately as director, molecular and cell biology, and for 10 years in the biotech industry for Celltech Plc., where he worked on mammalian gene expression technology and in oncology. While at Celltech, he obtained his PhD in collaboration with the Strangeway Research Laboratory, Cambridge, UK, working on the involvement of matrix metalloproteinases in tumor cell invasion.
Cockett published more than 40 peer-reviewed articles in the field of recombinant gene expression in mammalian cells, the biochemistry and function of several matrix metalloproteinase enzymes and their role in disease, and more recently in the field of heterotrimeric G protein signaling, and genomics in the pharmaceutical industry.
Richard D. Cramer III, PhDTitle: Senior vice president for science, and chief scientific officer.
Organization: Tripos Inc., St. Louis, Mo.
Education: AB degree in chemistry and physics (1963), Harvard University; PhD in physical organic chemistry (1967), Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Background: Cramer worked for Polaroid Corp. from 1967 through 1969. This was followed by a two year fellowship as a senior member of the computer synthesis group at Harvard University under direction of Dr. E. J. Corey. Cramer joined Smith Kline & French Laboratories in 1971. He was awarded a succession of titles culminating in Associate Director and Fellow, Medicinal Chemistry. He joined Tripos in 1983 as vice president of new products where he formulated the techniques of Comparative Molecular Field Analysis (CoMFA), a patented software technology, at Tripos. Cramer was named vice president of scientific activities in 1988. He also founded STATS, Inc. (now a division of Fox Sports) in 1981 and continued to be active in various senior capacities, notably as chief technical officer, until 1995. Cramer was promoted to senior vice president, science and chief scientific officer of Tripos in June 2000, and is currently occupied with extensions to Tripos' patented ChemSpace/topomer technology which he created for the use in Tripos' chemical synthesis laboratories (Tripos Discovery Research) in Cornwall, UK.
Dennis FranceOrganization: ArQule Inc., Woburn, Mass.
Carol Ann HomonTitle: Associate director in charge of the Biomolecular Screening Group.
Background: With more than 33 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, starting at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals before Boehringer Ingelheim, Homon directs high-throughput screening (HTS), automated assay development, and the chemical repository in North America for Boehringer Ingelheim. She has been an invited speaker at many international meetings presenting on HTS topics including automation, HTS assays, and management of HTS. These meetings include the joint meeting of the Society for Industrial Microbiology and the Canadian Society of Microbiologists in 1993, the 2nd European Conference on HTS in Budapest (1994), SBS meetings, ISLAR, ScreenTech, and LAN among others. Carol has also presented several short courses on Automation for HTS and on HTS for both SBS and ALA. She served on the SBS council from 1995 to 1998 and as chair from 1997 to 1998. In 1999, she received the ISLAR Recognition Award for outstanding achievement in automation and robotics. In 2001, she received Boehringer Ingelheim's highest R&D award, the International R&D Award for her important contributions regarding the innovations and outstanding leadership in automation of biomolecular screening. In addition, Homon received several Vice Presidential awards at BI and SBS awards for her contributions to the society. She is presently co-chair of the Microplate Standards Discussion Committee for SBS/ANSI and a member of the IUPAC committee preparing a screening glossary of HTS terms. She is also an editor for The Journal of Biomolecular Screening.
Kenneth I. Kaitin, PhDTitle: Director
Organization: Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, Boston.
Education: BS, Cornell University; MS, PhD, pharmacology, University of Rochester.
Background: Kaitin has served as director of the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development since 1998, and is an internationally recognized expert on the science of drug development. He publishes extensively on the factors that contribute to the slow pace and high cost of pharmaceutical R&D and the impact of regulatory and legislative initiatives to speed new drug development and review. He also testifies in Congress on drug development issues, and is frequently quoted in the business and trade press on R&D trends in the research-based pharmaceutical industry. Kaitin is a former President of the Drug Information Association and Editor-in-Chief of the Drug Information Journal. Kaitin holds a joint appointment as Associate Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine.
Steven B. Lee, PhDTitle: Associate professor and director of the Forensic Science Program
Organization: San José State University, San José, Calif.
Education: MS from New York University; PhD in molecular biology from University of California, Berkeley.
Background: Lee holds several concurrent positions including a consulting position as Acting Director of R&D at MiraiBio Inc., a small biotech company in Alameda, Calif., Visiting Scholar at University of California Berkeley, and adjunct professor appointments in Biological Sciences at San Francisco State University and Chemistry at Florida International University. He was formerly the director of R&D at California Department of Justice DNA Laboratory from 1994 to 2000 where he served as an expert witness in DNA and conducted DNA training courses. He is a full member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Academy of Forensic Sciences, the California Association of Criminalists, the National Science Teachers Association, and is an American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors Laboratory Accreditation Board certified inspector. He also served on the FBI Technical Working Group on DNA Analysis Methods group from 1994 to 2000. He has taught courses in molecular biology at San Francisco State University (1996 to 1998), Forensic genetics at UC Davis (1997), and most recently forensic DNA Typing of STRs at Florida International University (2003).
Thomas J. Sowin, PhDTitle: Senior Project Leader
Organization: Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, Ill.
Education: BS, chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; PhD, organic chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Background:Sowin joined Abbott in 1988 and currently serves as Senior Project Leader within the Cancer Research area of Drug Discovery. He is responsible for the direction and scientific leadership of chemistry and biology teams working to discover novel drugs for the treatment of cancer. Prior to joining the Cancer Research area, from 1994 to 2002, Sowin was Senior Project Leader of the Medicinal Chemistry Technologies group within the Advanced Technologies area of Drug Discovery. He was responsible for the parallel synthesis efforts in support of lead optimization, the High Throughtput Organic Synthesis (HTOS), and the High Throughput Purification (HTP) groups. From, 1988 to 1994, Sowin was previously in the Discovery Process Chemistry department at Abbott and worked on novel synthetic routes to antiviral and antibacterial clinical candidates before transferring as group leader in 1994 to build the Combinatorial Chemistry department at Abbott. Before joining Abbott, Sowin was a Merck postdoctoral fellow in the labs of Professor A.I. Meyers working in the area of asymmetric organic synthesis.
Berta Strulovici, PhDTitle: Executive director of automated biotechnology.
Organization: Merck & Co. Inc., North Wales, Pa.
Education: PhD, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel.
Background: From 1982 to 1985, Strulovici was a postdoctoral fellow with professor Robert Lefkowitz at the Howard Hughes Institute Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C. From 1985 to 1992, she was at Syntex Corp., Palo Alto, Calif., where she worked on several therapeutic areas, as senior scientist. From 1992 to 1996, Strulovici was the director of molecular pharmacology at Tularik Inc., South San Francisco, Calif., where she established a state-of-the-art HTS facility. She joined Merck & Co. in 1996 where she established the Automated Biotechnology Department, with the specific mandate to build an ultra high-throughput screening (uHTS) operation. Today, her department serves the entire Merck Research Laboratories Global Laboratory in areas of HTS and uHTS.
James B. Summers, PhDTitle: Divisional vice president, advanced technology.
Organization: Abbott Laboratories Inc., Abbott Park, Ill.
Education: BS, chemistry, Denison University, Granville, Ohio; PhD, organic chemistry, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
Background: Summers joined Abbott in 1983 and currently serves as divisional vice president, advanced technology. His area of responsibility includes technologies that enable and accelerate drug discovery, including genomics, proteomics, high-throughput screening, combinatorial chemistry, structural biology, structural chemistry, informatics, and automation engineering. Summers' organization has developed several innovative drug discovery technologies that have been commercialized, including SARbyNMR, µARCS, and ACTOR. Summers previously held various positions at Abbott within the immunologic disease and cancer research areas, including director of inflammation research. He has participated in or led programs that resulted in several drug development candidates, including the antiasthma drug Zyflo.
Alan J. Weiss, PhDTitle: Director of R&D Drug Discovery Products, Life Sciences Division.
Organization: Millipore Corp., Danvers, Mass.
Education: BS, chemistry and biology (1975), University of Miami, Coral Gables, Fla.; PhD, biochemistry (1984), Boston University, Boston.
Background: Weiss has been with Millipore since 1986. As a graduate student and in his first industry position, his work focused on the development of monoclonal antibodies directed at carcinogens and analytes of diagnostic interest. While at Millipore, Weiss developed numerous membrane products that are now commonly used in molecular biology, protein chemistry, and immunodiagnostics. For the past three years, he has directed an R&D group that develops products used by pharmaceutical discovery companies in their secondary screening efforts..
