Officers

Chairman of the Board of Directors

Phil Dawson, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, Department of Chemistry, Scripps Research

President of the Foundation

Adam Mezo, Ph.D.
Executive Scientific Director, Discovery Biology Research, Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc.

Dr. Adam Mezo is currently Sr. Director, Discovery Chemistry at the Ferring Research Institute in San Diego, part of the global research organization at Ferring Pharmaceuticals.  Since 2017, he has led teams of chemists and drug hunters aimed at the discovery and development of next-generation peptide and small molecule therapeutics across a range of therapeutic areas including reproductive and women’s health, gastroenterology and immunology.

Prior to this role, Dr. Mezo was Sr. Research Advisor and Group Leader at Eli Lilly for 5 years leading teams of peptide chemists that delivered several clinical candidate molecules for the treatment of diabetes.  He started his career in at Syntonix Pharmaceuticals / Biogen Idec, working at the interface of peptide, protein and small molecule chemistry, generating semi-synthetic peptide-Fc fusion proteins, peptide antagonists and small molecules.  Dr. Mezo held a variety of roles, mincluding  Director, Molecular Discovery, where he led a diverse team of chemists, biochemists and molecular biologists in search of novel therapeutics in the fields of hemophilia and immunology.

Dr. Mezo  has over 50 published manuscripts and conference presentations, along with 20 issued US patents.  He received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from Queen’s University (Canada), PhD from the University of British Columbia in organic chemistry, and performed postdoctoral work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the field of bioorganic chemistry.

Secretary

Nick Cox, Ph.D.
Associate Director of Discovery Chemistry, Novo Nordisk

Dr. Cox is the Associate Director of Discovery Chemistry at the Novo Nordisk Research Center in Seattle, WA. He is leading the chemistry department to drive peptide, protein, and other therapeutic discovery efforts targeting chronic conditions including rare endocrine and blood disorders, obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Prior to joining Novo Nordisk, he completed his training as a Postdoctoral Scholar in Stanford’s ChEM-H institute (2014-2016) under the mentorship of Prof. Chaitan Khosla and Dr. Mark Smith, serving as chemistry lead on numerous projects in early-stage drug discovery. Dr. Cox received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from
the University of Washington (2013) in the laboratory of Prof. Gojko Lalic, where he studied organic methodology and transition metal catalysis.

Treasurer

Adrienne Day, Ph.D.
Independent Board Member