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- Nicholas Cosford
Board of Directors
Michelle Arkin, PhD
PRESIDENT
Michelle Arkin is the Associate Director of Biology at the Small Molecule Discovery Center and Associate Adjunct Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at UCSF. She directs the high-throughput screening facility at the SMDC and engages in grant-funded small-molecule discovery research. Dr. Arkin's research interests are in developing innovative approaches to tackle challenging targets (such as protein-protein interfaces and allosteric enzymes) and orphan/neglected diseases (including infectious and neurodegenerative diseases). She is co-PI for the Fragment Discovery Center of the Chemical Biology Consortium at the NCI. Dr. Arkin received her PhD in chemistry at Caltech and then held a Daymon Runyon Cancer Foundation postdoctoral fellowship at Genentech. She was among the first scientists at Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, where she helped to develop fragment-based approaches for inhibiting protein-protein interactions and biophysical tools to characterize protein/small-molecule interactions. Her teams developed the first nanomolar inhibitors of interleukin-2, and an LFA1 antagonist (SAR1118), currently completing phase 3 trials for dry-eye. From 2005 to 2007, she was the Associate Director of Cell Biology at Sunesis and led the translational science team for Vosaroxin, an anti-cancer agent in phase 3 clinical trials for acute myelogenous leukemia.
Cheryl Arrowsmith, PhD
Founding Director
Cheryl Arrowsmith is a Senior Scientist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and Professor in the Department of Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto, where she holds a Canada Research Chair in Structural Genomics. She received a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Toronto and carried out postdoctoral research at Stanford University in the area of protein NMR spectroscopy. Dr. Arrowsmith's research focuses on the use of structural and chemical biology methods for understanding the structure-function relationships of proteins and their role in cancer. Dr. Arrowsmith is the Chief Scientist of the Toronto Node of the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC), a European-Canadian public-private partnership that supports the discovery of new medicines through open access research.
Nicholas Cosford, PhD
Dr. Cosford obtained his B.Sc. in chemistry from the University of Bath in England and his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Emory University in Atlanta. As a medicinal chemist with more than 25 years of experience leading small-molecule drug discovery and hit-to-lead optimization projects, he worked in both biotech and big pharma prior to joining SBP in 2005.
Stephen Frye, PhD
Stephen Frye is Professor and Director of the Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery at UNC-Chapel Hill. His research focuses on oncology drug discovery and the chemical biology of chromatin regulation. Before joining UNC in 2007, he served as worldwide Vice President for High Throughput and Discovery Medicinal Chemistry at GlaxoSmithKline. During his 20 years at GSK, his creation and leadership of a department focused on oncology and protein kinases resulted in the discovery of several marketed drugs and he is also the inventor of Avodart, GlaxoSmithKline's drug approved for treatment of benign prostate disease.
Matthew Hartman
Matthew Hartman is Director, Business Development for the Brain Science Institute at Johns Hopkins, as well as a contract negotiator for the Johns Hopkins Technology Transfer Office. Matthew has been with Johns Hopkins for four and a half years, the last four of which were with Johns Hopkins Technology Transfer, negotiating with both academic and corporate partners. His experience in technology transfer, combined with his J.D. and M.B.A. from the University of Baltimore, allow him to effectively bridge the worlds of industry and academia. He is currently licensed to practice law in the state of Maryland. Matthew can be reached at legal@addconsortium.org or by phone at 410-614-2075.
Colleen Niswender, PhD
SECRETARY
Dr. Niswender is the Director of Molecular Pharmacology for the Vanderbilt Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery and is involved in many aspects of the drug development process, with a focus on drug development for neurological and psychiatric disorders, particularly schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease, Fragile X syndrome and Rett syndrome.
Julen Oyarzabal, PhD
VICE PRESIDENT
Dr. Oyarzabal received his PhD in Organic Chemistry, extraordinary prize, in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Basque Country (Nov 1998). After finishing his PhD he moved to the Pharmaceutical Chemistry Department, University of California San Francisco (USA); and later joined the University of Southampton (UK), supported by a Marie Curie individual postdoctoral fellowship, where he worked in Computational Medicinal Chemistry.
He has been working in drug discovery for the last 15 years: from big pharmaceutical company (Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical R&D) to governmental (Spanish National Cancer Research Center, CNIO) and academic environments (Center for Applied Medical Research (CIMA), at the University of Navarra) where he set up the small molecule discovery platform and led the Molecular Therapeutics Program. In addition, from 2013 to 2018, he was also director of Translational Sciences leading scouting activities, at the University Hospital and CIMA, as well as de-risking drug discovery processes; as a result, several collaborations have been established, as well as a license agreement, with big pharmaceutical companies. In 2018, he joined Columbus Venture Partners as partner and CSO.
Dr Oyarzabal is co-inventor of more than 25 patents and published more than 95 peer-reviewed scientific articles; he (co-)led publications in prestigious journals such as Nature Comm, Angew Chem, or J Med Chem. In addition, from 2012, Dr Oyarzabal is member of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) expert’s panel.
Michael Pollastri, PhD
Prof. Pollastri’s research focus is discovery of new therapeutics for neglected tropical diseases, using an approach which repurposes approved or investigational drugs as starting points for optimizing new antiparasitic agents. In one approach, called “Target Repurposing,” he identifies parasitic targets of importance that have been previously biochemically validated, with a further focus on those targets with human homologs that have been pursued in human drug discovery.
Barbara Slusher, PHD
Dr. Slusher is the Director of Johns Hopkins Drug Discovery at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She leads a 20-member veteran drug-discovery team consisting of medicinal chemists, assay developers, pharmacologists, toxicologists, and pharmacokinetic/drug metabolism experts. The team is engaged in identifying novel drug targets arising from JHU faculty's research and translating them into new drug therapies for neurological disorders.
Prior to joining Hopkins in September 2009, she spent 18 years in the pharmaceutical industry, including several years as a Senior Vice President of Research and Translational Development. Dr. Slusher's extensive experience in drug discovery spans through Phase I/IIa clinical development, participation in multiple FDA meetings and both IND and NDA regulatory filings. She is an inventor of over fifty issued patents and applications and has published over 120 scientific articles, reviews and book chapters. She has been an invited speaker at many national and international scientific meetings and has served on the Board or as a scientific consultant of multiple biotechnology companies.
Dr. Slusher received her undergraduate degree from Dickinson College where she graduated valedictorian, majoring in Chemistry. She received her Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences from John Hopkins School of Medicine while simultaneously earning her Master's degree in Administrative Science from Johns Hopkins School of Continuing Studies.
Karen Gottlieb, CMP
Executive Manager
Karen Gottlieb is the CEO of TLC Events Group, an independent meeting planning and non-profit management company with 20+ years of experience in the industry. Karen is a Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) and has been a conference organizer for 20+ years, with experience in the corporate, medical and association markets. She is a member of the South FL Chapter of Meeting Professionals International (MPI) and Events Industry Council, and specializes in nonprofit associations, event branding, custom theme creation/implementation and marketing communications. Karen has organized hundreds of smaller local events in addition to organizing large annual meetings for several national scientific associations. Karen is also passionate about community service and outreach. She is a member of the Junior Orange Bowl Parade Planning Committee and the leader of a Girl Scout troop in South Miami. LinkedIn