Board Members

Phil Dawson is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry, Scripps Research in La Jolla, CA and Dean of the Skaggs Graduate School of Chemical and Biological Sciences. He received an A.B. (1992) in Chemistry from Washington University, and Ph.D. (1996) from Scripps Research under the guidance of Steve Kent. After pursuing postdoctoral work at Caltech, he returned to Scripps as an Assistant Professor. He has served as President of the American Peptide Society, the Board of Directors for FASEB and co-chaired the 22nd American Peptide Symposium and the 2016 GRC. He has published over 180 papers, and has been honored with an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation fellowship, the Vincent du Vigneaud Award, the Max Bergmann Kreis Gold Medal, the Zervas Award and the RSC MedImmune Protein and Peptide Science Award. Professor Dawson is a pioneer of chemoselective ligation methods for macromolecule synthesis and modification and has applied these tools broadly to better understand biological systems.

Soumitra Ghosh is a biopharmaceutical industry consultant and entrepreneur with extensive experience in drug development, technology licensing and in formulating and implementing R&D strategy. He is a co-founder of Avexegen Therapeutics, Abvance Therapeutics and Aquros Bio, start-ups focused on GI indications, diabetes and urological disorders, respectively. His experience includes R&D leadership positions at Amylin Pharmaceuticals and MitoKor, where he led research programs for the development of small molecule, peptide and protein-based drug candidates for the treatment of metabolic diseases and CNS disorders. Multiple drug candidates were advanced to the clinic during his tenure, or were partnered with companies for clinical development. He has been a recipient of several SBIR and California state grants for his work in the industry. He received his MS and Ph.D. degrees in Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology and the University of Chicago, and conducted his post-doctoral work at the Rockefeller University in New York.

Mr. Robert A. Hagopian received his M.S. degree in Organic Chemistry from the University of California San Diego and his M.B.A from San Diego State University. His experience in peptide research and production spans over twenty five years which includes: Telios Pharmaceuticals (Manager, Peptide Production, 3 years) and NeoMPS, Inc. (Director, GMP Production 14 years). In his current position as Director of Business Development (13 years) at PolyPeptide Group, San Diego, Mr. Hagopian overseas the customer support activities for new and existing sales related to pre-clinical, clinical and commercial grade peptides.

TBA

Lutz Jermutus is Product Development Team Leader and Senior Director, R&D, in the cardiovascular, metabolic and renal diseases unit of AstraZeneca. He is responsible for leading novel candidate drugs to clinical proof-of-concept including MEDI0382, a GLP-1/Glucagon dual peptide agonist for the treatment of Type 2 Diabetes.
MEDI0382 was discovered during his previous position as Global Head, Research Technology, overseeing teams in the UK and US. In this role, he delivered and advanced novel biopharmaceutical discovery platforms including the initiation of a peptide discovery team, multi-selective antibodies, antibody conjugates and oligonucleotides. His team also established a phenotypic screening platform that delivered novel antibody leads for the treatment of cancer (oleclumab, an anti-CD73 antibody) and infectious diseases (MEDI3902, a bispecific anti-Psl/PcrV antibody). His responsibilities included numerous biotech collaborations eg. Evotec, Direvo, PeptiDream, Molecular Partners, Silence Therapeutics, Xenome and Retrogenix.
Previously at Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT), until its acquisition by AstraZeneca, Lutz was Director of Discovery Oncology, and Director of Protein Engineering where he developed CAT’s leading protein optimisation platform resulting in a number of clinical leads including (eg. tralokinumab, an anti-IL13 antibody, for the treatment of atopic dermatitis).
Following studies in chemical engineering in Karlsruhe (Germany) and biotechnology in Strasbourg (France), he completed his PhD in biochemistry in Zurich (Switzerland) with Andreas Plückthun.
He was a pre-doctoral Kekulé-Fellow of the German Chemical Industry Association, a recipient of a graduate fellowship at the German National Academic Foundation and in 2009 was admitted as Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. In 2013 Lutz was elected Industrial Fellow at Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge, and in 2015, he was appointed Honorary Fellow in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine of the Royal Colleges of Physicians.
Lutz has published over 60 manuscripts and is an inventor on 16 product and technology patents.

Dr. Liu is the Director of Chemistry at Novo Nordisk Research Center, where he is leading the chemistry department to drive the peptide and protein therapeutics discovery targeting obesity, diabetes and other metabolic diseases. Prior to joining Novo, he was the Director of Chemistry at Calibrium Biotech where he played instrumental roles in building up the company portfolio (2014-2015). Dr. Liu started his industrial career at Eli Lilly (2009-2014) where he led the peptide lead optimization efforts across various disease areas and the establishment of novel insulin chemistries. He has advanced significant number of discovery programs including two into clinical trials and many into preclinical development. Dr. Liu has published more than 60 scientific articles and patents.

Dr. Liu received his Ph.D. from the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry in 2004 followed by a five year stay at the National Cancer Institute as a postdoctoral fellow (2004-2007) and a staff scientist (2007-2009).

Mr. Pankaj Patel has been the guiding force behind the Zydus Cadila’s fast tracked growth. With an experience spanning over 30 years in the Indian pharmaceutical industry, Mr. Patel combines both research and techno-commercial expertise and has published 50 research papers. Mr. Patel is on the governing councils of many national industry associations. He is a member of the Advisory council for developing Human Resources for the Pharma Industry, and is also a part of the Task force on R&D and Drug Discovery, Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Government of India. Mr. Patel is also an industry representative for the ‘Consultative Group on Exports of Pharmaceutical Products’ under the Chairmanship of the Minister for Commerce and Industry, Government of India. Mr. Patel is currently the President of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance and the Chairman of the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) Gujarat State Council. He is the Executive Chairman, Vice President and Trustee of the Gujarat Cancer Society and Chairman of the Gujarat Cancer and Research Institute. Mr. Patel is also on the Governing Board of The Ahmedabad University and the President of the Ahmedabad Management Association. Mr. Patel was awarded the E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year – Life Sciences Award for the year 2009, the M.L. Schroff Memorial National Award in 2009 and the ‘Baroda Sun Lifetime Achievement Award’ for the year 2010 by the Bank of Baroda. Recently, Mr. Pankaj Patel was conferred the Indian Pharmaceutical Association’s ‘Special Recognition Award 2010’ in recognition of his contributions to the growth of the Pharmaceutical Industry, Research and the Profession of Pharmacy.

Dr. Adrienne Day is the Senior Director of Business Development for Ferring Research Institute, Inc. She has more than 20 years of experience in the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industries, and has worked in the non-profit, for-profit and startup environments.

Prior to joining Ferring Dr. Day ran a successful consulting practice. She has previously served as Vice President of Business Development at what is now the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, Vice President of Business Development Conforma Therapeutics, Senior Director of Business Development at Molecumetics Ltd., Associate Director of Corporate Development at Ligand Pharmaceuticals. She was Ligand Pharmaceuticals’ first Project Manager, and began her biotechnology career at Invitrogen Corporation where she held various positions.

Dr. Day received her B.Sc., B.Sc. Honors, and Ph.D. degrees in Biochemistry from the University of Adelaide, Australia. She completed her postdoctoral training at the University of Southern California with Dr. Amy Lee and at the La Jolla Cancer Research Center in the laboratory of Dr. Eva Engvall.