TECHNOLOGY – SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD
Mark Murcko, PhD (Chair)
Mark is Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder, Relay Therapeutics, senior lecturer in the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT and advisor and consultant for Schrödinger. He has directly contributed to seven marketed drugs and several others currently in mid-stage clinical trials. Previously, Mark was chief technology officer and chair of the scientific advisory board of Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Mark is a co-inventor of the hepatitis c virus (HCV) protease inhibitor Incivek (telaprevir), as well as Agenerase (amprenavir) and Lexiva (fosamprenavir), both for the treatment of HIV. In addition, he guided the early efforts of Vertex’s cystic fibrosis program that later produced the marketed drugs Kalydeco (ivacaftor) and Orkambi (lumacaftor/ivacaftor). He is also a co-inventor of eight other clinical candidates in the areas of cancer, inflammation/immunology and infectious disease, and was responsible for starting many of Vertex’s programs in these and other disease areas. Prior to Vertex, Mark worked at Merck Sharpe & Dohme, where he helped discover clinical candidates against infection and cardiovascular and ocular diseases including dorzolamide, which was commercialized in two products, Trusopt® and the combination medicine Cosopt® (dorzolamide/timolol). Trusopt was the first marketed drug in pharmaceutical history to result from a structure-based drug design program. Mark is a member of numerous scientific advisory boards and corporate boards of directors for a diverse range of organizations. He is a co-inventor on more than 50 issued and pending patents and has co-authored more than 85 scientific articles. Mark holds a PhD in Organic Chemistry from Yale University and a BS, summa cum laude, in Chemistry and Applied Mathematics from Fairfield University.
Atul Butte, MD, PhD
A pediatric endocrinologist by training, Atul is an expert and pioneer in the field of Big Data and its uses in biomedicine. He is the Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Institute of Computational Health Sciences at the UCSF. He is also the Executive Director for Clinical Informatics across the six University of California Medical Schools and Medical Centers. Previously, he was an Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Medicine and Computer Science, at Stanford University and the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. He is the scientific founder of three investor-backed, data-driven companies: Personalis, Carmenta and NuMedi. He has authored more than 200 publications. Atul was elected into the National Academy of Medicine in 2015, and recognized by the White House as an Open Science Champion of Change for promoting science through publicly available data in 2013. He also is a principal investigator of three major programs: the California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine; ImmPort, the clinical and molecular data repository for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; and the California Precision Medicine Consortium. Atul trained in Computer Science at Brown University, worked as a software engineer at Apple and Microsoft, received his MD at Brown University, trained in Pediatrics and Pediatric Endocrinology at Children’s Hospital Boston, then received his PhD from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Eric Schadt, PhD
Eric is Dean for Precision Medicine, Director of the Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology, Chair of the Department of Genetics and Genomics Sciences, and the Jean C. and James W. Crystal Professor of Genomics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY. He is an expert on the generation and integration of very large-scale sequence variation, molecular profiling and clinical data in disease populations for constructing molecular networks that define disease states and link molecular biology to physiology. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers in leading scientific journals, and contributed to a number of discoveries relating to the genetic basis of common human diseases such as diabetes, obesity and Alzheimer’s disease. Prior to joining Mount Sinai in 2011, Eric was Chief Scientific Officer at Pacific Biosciences, and held senior positions at Rosetta Inpharmatics, a subsidiary of Merck & Co., and Roche Bioscience. Eric received his BA in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from California Polytechnic State University, his MA in Pure Mathematics from UC Davis, and his PhD in Bio-mathematics from UCLA (requiring PhD candidacy in Molecular Biology and Mathematics).
Eric Perakslis, PhD
Eric is a R&D leader with nearly 20 years of direct experience in information technology, informatics, research, healthcare, government regulation, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals discovery and development. He is currently Senior VP, R&D Informatics at Takeda Pharmaceuticals International Inc. in Cambridge, MA, and Visiting Scientist in Biomedical Informatics Institution, Harvard Medical School (HMS). His career began with the Army Corps of Engineers, followed by a stint with ArQule, Inc., where he was Group Leader of Scientific Computing. After ArQule, Eric joined the Johnson and Johnson (J&J) companies, serving first as Director of Drug Discovery Global Information Solutions, North America, at RWJ Pharmaceutical Research and progressing to Vice President, R&D Informatics at Centocor and Member of the J&J Corporate Office of Science and Technology, and ultimately to Senior Vice President, Chief Information Officer (CIO) at J&J Pharma R&D and Head of Translational Informatics at J&J Corporate Office of Science and Development. Eric became CIO and Chief Scientist (Informatics) at the FDA in 2011 before moving to HMS to serve as Executive Director at the Center for Biomedical Informatics, prior to his current position at Takeda. Eric received his PhD in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering from Drexel University; he received his BS ChE and MS degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of South Alabama and Mississippi State University, respectively.
Dr. Zemin Zhang
A renowned professor in cancer genomics and bioinformatics, Dr. Zhang is currently an Associate Director at BIOPIC College of Life Sciences, Peking University and Senior Principal Investigator, Peking-Tsinghua University Center of Life Sciences. His current research focuses on using cutting-edge technologies such as single-cell sequencing to understand oncogenesis and cancer immunology.Previously, he spent more than 16 years at Genentech/Roche, leading the cancer genomics and bioinformatics group to discover anticancer targets and biomarkers using new technologies such as machine learning and high-throughput sequencing. An inventor with more than 60 issued US patents, Dr. Zhang has pioneered multiple research directions in computational cancer biology and cancer genomics including the first-ever whole genome tumor sequencing and has directly contributed to the initial finding of the molecular targets of multiple cancer therapeutic agents in clinical trials. He is on the editorial boards for journals including Cell Systems, Genome Medicine and Cancer Informatics. He is a CUSBEA Scholar and also a Cheung Kong Scholar. Dr. Zhang received his bachelor’s degree in Genetics from Nankai University, and a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Penn State University. He received additional training in Information Technology from UC Berkeley and conducted postdoctoral training in Laboratory Medicine from UC San Francisco.
Nicholas Schork, PhD
Nicholas is a Professor and Director of Human Biology at the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI). He is also an adjunct Professor of Psychiatry and Family and Preventive Medicine (Division of Biostatistics) at UC San Diego (UCSD). Prior to joining JCVI, Nicholas was Professor, Molecular and Experimental Medicine at The Scripps Research Institute; Director, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics at the Scripps Translational Science Institute; and, Director of Research at Scripps Genomic Medicine, a division of Scripps Health. Previously, he was a Professor of Biostatistics and Psychiatry, and Co-Director of the Center for Human Genetics and Genomics, UCSD, an Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), Cleveland, Ohio, and an Adjunct Associate Professor of Biostatistics at Harvard University. During his appointment at CWRU, Nicholas took a sponsored leave of absence to conduct research as the Vice President of Statistical Genomics at the French biotechnology company, Genset, where he helped guide efforts to construct the first high-density map of the human genome.
Joel Dudley, PhD
DRUG DEVELOPMENT – CLINICAL ADVISORY BOARD
Samuel Saks, MD, (Chair)
A board certified oncologist, Sam has more than 25 years’ experience developing specialty pharmaceutical products, including serving as founding CEO and Chairman of Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Prior to co-founding Jazz, Sam held a number of senior leadership positions at Alza Corporation (acquired by J&J), including Company Group Chairman, member of J&J’s Pharmaceutical Group Operating Committee and Senior Vice President, Medical Affairs and Group Vice President. He has also held clinical research positions in oncology at Schering-Plough Corporation, XOMA Corporation and Genentech, Inc. He has served as Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine in the oncology division of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Sam has served as interim CMO of Threshold Pharmaceuticals, and serves on the Boards of Directors for a number of companies, including Trubion Pharmaceuticals, TONIX Pharmaceuticals, Auspex Pharmaceuticals and Cougar Biotechnology. He received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Illinois.
Suneel Gupta, PhD
Suneel is currently the Chief Scientific Officer at Impax Pharmaceuticals, having joined them in 2008. Previously, he was with ALZA Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, for nearly 20 years. There, he was responsible for the strategic vision and execution of clinical research and development as Senior Vice President and distinguished research fellow. Suneel’s research interest focuses on the influence of rate and route of drug delivery to discover new indications, as well as maximize clinical utility and/or effectiveness. With extensive experience in the development of drug delivery based products across many therapeutic areas, Suneel has made significant contributions to the development of several therapeutics including Duragesic®, Durotap®, Nicoderm®, Testoderm®, Effidac®, Covera-HS®, Ditropan-XL®, Concerta®, Ionsys®, Jurnista®, Invega® and Priligy®. Before ALZA, he worked at Ciba Geigy (India) where he was responsible for scale-up and manufacturing of several products. Suneel received his PhD from the University of Manchester and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at UCSF. He is a coauthor on more than 200 research publications and co-inventor on more than 40 patents.
Bill Baer, MD, PharmD
Bill is Medical Director of Research and Innovation at Mercy Health and Executive Director of VARI-ClinXus, a subsidiary of Mercy Health. He holds multiple faculty appointments, including Associate Professor, Michigan State University School of Medicine and an adjunct faculty position in pharmacogenetics at the Van Andel Research Institute. He has received numerous honors and awards and serves in various board/medical director capacities with a number of innovative and forward-thinking organizations including Metagenics, Inc., Metabolic Solutions Development Company and Hopen Life Science Ventures. He served as co-Chair of the Translational Medicine Working Group for the FDA Critical Paths’ Predictive Safety Testing Consortium. Bill received his MD from West Virginia University School of Medicine and completed his residency at Michigan State University. He received PharmD from West Virginia University and a BS in Pharmacy from Duquesne University. He is a longtime practitioner of internal medicine at Grand Valley Medical Specialists, Grand Rapids, MI.
Pankaj (Jay) Pasricha, MD
Jay is Professor of Medicine, and Director, Center for Motility Disorders and Digestive Diseases at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Professor of Innovation Management at Carey Business School, Johns Hopkins. Previously, Jay was Professor of Medicine and Surgery, and Chief, Division of Gastroenterology (GI) and Hepatology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He has served on the National Commission on Digestive Diseases, and on the FDA GI Drug Advisory Committee. He has authored more than 200 manuscripts and book chapters, and holds more than two-dozen US patents. Jay has co-founded several companies within the GI space including Apollo Endosurgery, Endopace, EnterRx, FAB and NeurogastRx. Jay received his MD from the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi and is trained in Internal Medicine (Georgetown University-DC General Hospital), Pulmonology (Tufts-New England Medical Center) and Gastroenterology (Johns Hopkins Hospital).