Sixth Annual Parkinson's Disease Therapeutics Conference

Speakers

Conference Chair

Kalpana Merchant, PhD

Eli Lilly and Company

Dr. Kalpana Merchant was named the Chief Scientific Officer for Translational Science in Lilly Discovery in January 2010. She played the leadership role in the design of the Translational Science department. The overall objective of Translational Science is to provide drug targets linked to disease biology and biomarkers to facilitate drug discovery, development and patient tailoring for all therapeutic areas of interest to Lilly. To achieve this objective, Kalpana implemented a multidisciplinary approach involving human genetics, functional genomics & cellular research, bioinformatics, molecular pathology, imaging as well as mass spectrometric bioanalytics to gain insights into disease biology at a molecular level. She provides direct oversight of the Translational Science portfolio supporting neuroscience drug discovery research.

Kalpana received her doctorate in neuropharmacology from the University of Utah in 1989. Following a postdoctoral research fellowship at University of Washington, she was appointed as Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at University of Washington. She was recruited to Lilly in 2003 from a position of Senior Research Advisor and Fellow at Pharmacia Corp., where she had contributed to CNS drug discovery research for 10 years.

Kalpana's own current laboratory focus is on new target discovery and validation for Parkinson's disease and neuropsychiatric disorders. She is engaged in the wider scientific community via her service on NIH Study Sections, NIH or IOM workshops and Advisory Panels, scientific advisory board for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research as well as membership in several national and international professional societies.

Speakers

Robert E Burke, MD

Columbia University

Dr. Burke obtained his MD from Cornell University Medical School in 1975, and received training in Neurology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He obtained Postdoctoral training in Clinical Movement Disorders with Dr. Stanley Fahn from 1980 to 1982, and training in Molecular Neurobiology with Dr. Tong Joh from 1985 to 1987. He was appointed Assistant Professor of Neurology at Columbia in 1982 and he is now the Alfred and Minnie Bressler Professor of Neurology and Pathology & Cell Biology. He has served as the Director of Laboratory Research in Parkinson's disease and Related Disorders in the Department of Neurology at Columbia since 1997, and as the Director of the Morris K. Udall Center of Excellence for Parkinson's disease Research at Columbia University since 2003. His current research interests relate to the molecular basis of neuronal programmed cell death, and the neurobiology of axons.

The Burke Laboratory webpage: http://sklad.cumc.columbia.edu/burkelab/.

David John Burn, FRCP, MD, MA, MBBS

Institute for Ageing and Health, Newcastle University

David Burn is Professor of Movement Disorder Neurology at Newcastle University and Honorary Consultant Neurologist for the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals Foundation Trust. He is Director of the University's Institute for Ageing and Health, Director of Newcastle Biomedicine's Clinical Ageing Research Unit and a Senior NIHR Investigator.

He qualified from Oxford University and Newcastle upon Tyne Medical School in 1985. His MD was in the functional imaging of Parkinsonism. He runs the Movement Disorders service in Newcastle upon Tyne which provides a large regional service. Research interests include dementia associated with Parkinson's disease and progressive supranuclear palsy.

He was a member of the Special Interest Committee Task Force of the International Movement Disorder Society for Diagnostic Criteria for Parkinsonian Disorders (2002-3) and the Parkinson's disease Dementia Task Force (2004–6). He was appointed NIHR-DeNDRoN Associate Director/National Lead for Parkinson's disease in July 2010. He was Clinical Reviews Editor for the Movement Disorder Journal from January 2007 before taking on an Associate Editorial role in January 2010. Professor Burn was elected to the International Executive Committee of the Movement Disorder Society in June 2009 and is currently Chair of the MDS Congress Scientific Programme Committee. He has published over 180 articles on movement disorders in peer reviewed journals.

Ethan Burstein, PhD

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals

Ethan Burstein is Senior Director of Biosciences at ACADIA, where he leads drug discovery pharmacology and manages advancement of preclinical leads into IND-track development. Currently Dr. Burstein leads research to develop small molecule drugs targeting G-protein coupled receptors and nuclear hormone receptors to treat neurodegenerative disease, schizophrenia, ophthalmic disorders and neuropathic pain. Dr. Burstein has published over 70 peer-reviewed papers on the molecular pharmacology of receptors and discovery of small molecule receptor ligands, and is one of the inventors of ACADIA's R-SAT® high-throughput screening technology. Prior to ACADIA, Dr. Burstein was a research fellow at the University of Vermont where he received a National Research Service Award Fellowship to study the structural basis of receptor/G-protein signaling. Dr. Burstein received his PhD in Toxicology at the University of Rochester.

John Dunlop, PhD

AstraZeneca

John joined AstraZeneca in March 2012 as Vice President in the Neuroscience Innovative Medicine Unit located in Cambridge, MA responsible for the preclinical neuroscience portfolio. Prior to joining AstraZeneca John was the Chief Operating Officer in the Neuroscience Research Unit, Pfizer Worldwide R&D, Groton, CT, responsible for partnering with the CSO in overseeing preclinical drug discovery efforts in the areas of Neurology and Psychiatry, and leading groups focused on Neuroinformatics, NeuroOpportunities, Discovery Operations and Laboratory Operations. John joined Pfizer as part of the Wyeth integration in late 2009 as Executive Director in the Neuroscience Research Unit and Head of its Enabling Technology Department, supporting efforts in drug discovery in Neurodegenerative and Psychiatric diseases and Autism. Prior to the Pfizer acquisition of Wyeth he held positions as Senior Director and Head of Psychiatry Research, and Acting Head Neuroscience Discovery Research at Wyeth Research in Princeton, NJ. He joined the UK division of Wyeth Research in 1992 and relocated to the Princeton, NJ facility in 1995 and where he assumed positions of increasing responsibility during his 18-year tenure with Wyeth including Director of the Neuropharmacology and Neurophysiology department from 2003–2008.

John completed his undergraduate studies in Biochemistry at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK and obtained a PhD in Neurochemistry from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, UK. Upon completion of his PhD studies he joined Wyeth Research UK. He is a member of the Society for Neuroscience, American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics and Society for Biomolecular Sciences. He has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles in addition to a number of book chapters.

Martin Freed, MD

Civitas Therapeutics, Inc.

Martin Freed is an experienced biopharmaceutical executive physician with over 20 years of experience in drug development spanning a range of therapeutic areas across all phases of development. A Fellow of the American College of Physicians, Dr. Freed received his Doctor of Medicine from Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Nephrology and Clinical Pharmacology. He performed his Internal Medicine residency and Nephrology fellowship at Temple University Hospital and Yale-New Haven Hospital, respectively. Presently, he serves as Chief Medical Officer at Civitas Therapeutics.

Prior to joining Civitas in 2009, Dr. Freed spent nearly 14 years at GlaxoSmithKline and its predecessor, SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, where he served numerous roles including Vice President, Clinical Development and Medical Affairs in the Metabolism Therapeutic Area. Subsequently, he has served executive development roles at Vitae Pharmaceuticals and Adnexus Therapeutics (acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb). Dr. Freed has served as a drug development consultant including roles as strategic advisory and executive operational roles at Taligen Therapeutics (acquired by Alexion Pharmaceuticals) and Avila Therapeutics (acquired by Celgene) and has served as an independent Director at InteKrin Therapeutics. Dr. Freed's clinical drug development experience spans a range of therapeutic areas including metabolic, cardiovascular, dermatologic, inflammatory, and CNS diseases and oncology/hematology including the strategic and operational management of programs from Phase I through Phase IV. He has authored over 100 publications or presentations.

At Civitas, a privately-held pharmaceutical company developing a robust pipeline of inhaled therapeutics utilizing the ARCUS™ dry powder pulmonary delivery platform, Dr. Freed is responsible for the development of CVT-301, an inhaled L-dopa formulation, that is being developed for the treatment of motor fluctuations ("off" episodes) in patients with Parkinson's disease who experience intermittent inadequate response to their standard oral medications.

Howard E. Gendelman, MD

University of Nebraska Medical Center

Dr. Howard E. Gendelman is the Larson Professor of Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Chairman of the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Dr. Gendelman is credited in unraveling the processes for how alterations in mononuclear phagocyte function induce metabolic changes in the brain and ultimately lead to neural cell damage. These discoveries have had broad implications in preventing, slowing or reversing infectious, metabolic and degenerative disorders of the nervous system. As a consequence, immunotherapy and nanomedicine strategies were developed for Parkinson's diseases made possible by the developed therapeutic designs. Dr. Gendelman obtained a Bachelor's degree in Natural Sciences and Russian Studies with honors from Muhlenberg College and his MD from the Pennsylvania State University-Hershey Medical Center where he was the 1999 Distinguished Alumnus. He completed a residency in Internal Medicine at Montefiore Hospital, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and was a Clinical and Research Fellow in Neurology and Infectious Diseases at the Johns Hopkins University Medical Center. He occupied senior faculty and research positions at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Center, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, and the Henry Jackson Foundation for the Advancement in Military Medicine before joining the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Marcy of 1993. He retired from the US Army with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Dr. Gendelman has authored over 350 peer-reviewed publications, edited nine books and monographs, holds eight patents, is the Editor-In-Chief and Founder of the Journal of Neuroimmune Pharmacology along with service on numerous editorial boards, national and international scientific review and federal and state committees. He was an advisor to the Johns Hopkins University Medical Center, the Methodist Hospital-Houston, the Scripps Research Foundation and has been an invited lecturer to more than 200 scientific seminars and symposia and the recipient of numerous national and international honors. These, include, but are not limited to, the Henry L. Moses Award in Basic Science; the Carter-Wallace Fellow for Distinction in AIDS Research, the David T. Purtilo Distinguished Chair of Pathology and Microbiology, the UNMC Scientist Laureate; the NU Outstanding Research and Creativity Award, and the Joseph Wybran Distinguished Scientist Award. Dr. Gendelman was named a J. William Fulbright Research Scholar at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. In 2001, he received the prestigious Jacob Javits Neuroscience Research Award and the Career Research Award in Medicine from UNMC and is listed in the Consumer's Research Council of America, Top Physicians. He is included amongst a selective scientific group listed on ISIHighlyCited.com. Dr. Gendelman has trained more than forty scientists (students and postdoctoral fellows) who have developed independent successful careers. Under his leadership, the department now holds scores of independent R01s or equivalent grants, four program project grants, and shares two CoBRE awards. His leadership is credited with the growth of the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience at the University of Nebraska Medical Center to be amongst the top-like ranked departments (top ten) nationwide.

Stephen Hitchcock, PhD

Envoy Therapeutics

Dr. Stephen Hitchcock is currently Senior Vice President of Drug Discovery at Envoy Therapeutics and Adjunct Professor at The Scripps Research Institute, Florida. Dr. Hitchcock has over 18 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and has held senior leadership positions at Eli Lilly and Amgen. He received a PhD degree in organic chemistry from the University of Nottingham in the UK and then completed a NATO postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University. Dr. Hitchcock's research interests have focused on developing therapeutics to address unmet needs in the areas of pain, neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases as well as the design and development of PET imaging agents. During his career, he has been fortunate to contribute to and lead teams that have developed several clinical development candidates for CNS disorders including Alzheimer's disease and neuropsychiatric indications. He is an author and co-inventor on over 80 patents, papers, and review articles.

Charlotte Keywood, MBBS, MRCP, FFPM

Addex Pharmaceuticals S.A.

Dr. Charlotte Keywood is the Chief Medical Officer for Addex Pharmaceuticals, a Swiss biopharmaceutical company which specializes in discovery and development of novel small molecule drugs to treat CNS, metabolic and inflammatory diseases. She is responsible for the development of dipraglurant (a mGluR5 negative allosteric modulator) for the treatment of levodopa-induced dyskinesia in PD patients. Dr. Keywood joined Addex from inception in 2002. She has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 20 years in biotech and start-up companies in Europe and the US and has extensive experience in all aspects of pre & post registration clinical development and pharmacovigilance activitites. Dr. Keywood acted as Medical Director from 2001 to 2003 for Axovan, a Swiss biotech company that was acquired by Actelion in 2003. From 1996 to 2001 she was Medical Director at CNS company Vernalis, where she was in the team which developed Frova (frovatriptan) which is marketed for acute treatment of migraine in the US and EU. From 1991 to 1996 she was Medical Director of the European subsidiary of US biotechnology company Gensia. Dr. Keywood is a cardiologist who completed her post-graduate training at St Thomas' Hospital, London.

Emer Leahy, PhD

PsychoGenics Inc.

Dr. Emer Leahy received her PhD in Neuropharmacology from University College Dublin, Ireland, and her MBA from Columbia University. She has more than 20 years of experience in drug discovery and business development for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including extensive knowledge of technology assessment, licensing, mergers and acquisitions, and strategic planning. Prior to her appointment as CEO, she was PsychoGenics' Vice President of Business Development. In addition to the aforementioned, Dr. Leahy has served as Senior Vice President of Business Development at American Biogenetic Sciences (ABS), where she spearheaded contract negotiations and licensing agreements focusing on Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy and other neurodegenerative disorders, and Vice President of Business Development, at AMBI Inc. Dr. Leahy serves on the Emerging Companies Section Governing Board for the Board of Directors of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), as well as, the Business Review Board for the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation and the Scientific Advisory Board of the International Rett Syndrome Foundation.

Chester A. Mathis, PhD

University of Pittsburgh

Chester A. Mathis, PhD, is Professor of Radiology, Pharmacology, and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, Director of the University of Pittsburgh Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Facility, UPMC PET Research Endowed Chair, and University of Pittsburgh Distinguished Professor of Radiology. Dr. Mathis has a long-standing interest in applying synthetic radiochemistry techniques to develop PET radiopharmaceuticals to study brain function in vivo. Over the past 30 years, he has focused primarily on the development of radiotracers to image neuroreceptor systems, as well as agents to evaluate other aspects of normal and abnormal function of the central nervous system using PET imaging methodology. Approximately 15 years ago, Dr. Mathis joined efforts with Dr. William E. Klunk of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh to devise a PET radiotracer capable of imaging amyloid-beta plaques in living human brain. This work led to the development of [C-11]-labeled Pittsburgh Compound-B (PiB) to non-invasively assess amyloid-beta plaque load in the brains of humans using PET imaging. The PiB compound is currently used to image amyloid-beta deposits in human brain at more than 70 PET Centers throughout the world and more than 10,000 PIB PET studies have been conducted to date. Drs. Mathis and Klunk devised a longer-lived analog of PiB, [F-18]flutemetamol, which GE Healthcare has licensed and has in Phase III clinical trials as a PET radiopharmaceutical for the detection of amyloid-beta deposits. Dr. Mathis was awarded the 2004 MetLife Foundation Award for Medical Research in Alzheimer's disease, the 2008 Potamkin Award from the American Academy of Neurology, the 2009 Ronald and Nancy Reagan Research Award from the Alzheimer's Association, the 2009 Kuhl-Lassen Brain Imaging Award, and the 2010 Paul C. Aebersold Award from the Society of Nuclear Medicine for basic imaging research and successful use of PiB for amyloid-beta plaque imaging.

Bernard M. Ravina, MD, MSCE

Biogen Idec

Dr. Bernard M. Ravina is Medical Director, Translational Neurology, at Biogen Idec in Cambridge, MA. Dr. Ravina's research focuses on the development of biomarkers and therapeutics for neurodegenerative disorders. Dr. Ravina obtained his MD from Johns Hopkins University and completed residency training in Neurology and a Fellowship in Parkinson's disease and Movement Disorders at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Ravina received a Masters in Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the University of Pennsylvania Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics. After completing training, Dr. Ravina moved to the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke, where he developed a program of phase II clinical trials in Parkinson's disease, and had oversight of clinical trials in stroke and ALS. Prior to joining Biogen Idec, Dr. Ravina was Associate Professor of Neurology, Director of the Movement and Inherited Neurological Disorders Unit, and Associate Chair of Neurology for Clinical Research at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Alastair D. Reith, Ph.D

GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals R&D

Alastair Reith received his PhD in Biochemistry from Imperial College, University of London, UK. He was a NATO postdoctoral fellow at Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, Toronto before leading an academic research team as Assistant Member at Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, University College London. He is currently Visiting Professor, School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, UK. Since joining SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals R&D in 1998 (now GlaxoSmithKline), Alastair has held a range of positions in signal transduction drug discovery, including leading teams in Molecular Neurobiology and Inflammation Pathways disease areas. As Biology Chair, Kinase Target Class Committee at GlaxoSmithKline, Alastair was also responsible for kinase inhibitor drug discovery strategy and operational management globally, for all therapeutic areas — from gene identification to delivery of sustainable lead series. This multidisciplinary team established a highly effective platform for delivery of novel lead series and screening cascade assay packages — from which a number of clinical assets have been delivered for GSK, including a current Phase III asset. Alastair has also been instrumental in disclosure of a variety of tool compounds to facilitate basic research — including highly selective tool inhibitors for each of B-Raf (SB-590885), ALK5 (SB-431542) and GSK3 (SB-216763) kinases — and has a wider track record in forging successful external alliances in emerging areas of kinase signaling technologies with both academic and commercial partners. Alastair leads GSK's LRRK2 inhibitors drug discovery program for treatment of Parkinson's disease.

Jeffry B. Stock, PhD

Princeton University & Signum Biosciences, Inc.

A tenured full professor in the departments of Molecular Biology and Chemistry at Princeton University, he is one of the world's leading experts in signal transduction and global cellular regulation with over 150 original scientific articles in the area. He is an elected fellow of the American Society of Microbiology and a winner of the Humbolt Prize. He is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Biochemistry and BMC Microbiology and he serves on the Centers Review Committee for the National Institute of Drug Abuse. Professor Stock is best known for his seminal work on the biochemistry of signal transduction in micro-organisms. He discovered both the system that regulates PP2A to control the cellular phosphoregulatory networks in higher organisms and the CAAX-tail modification system that globally regulates Ras and other G-Proteins involved in signal transduction.

Per Svenningsson, MD, PhD

Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital, Sweden

Per Svenningsson has received his clinical training at Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital. During his PhD, he studied neuronpharmacological actions of adenosine A2A receptors. He did his postdoctoral studies in basic neuroscience in the laboratory of the Nobel Laureate Paul Greengard at the Rockefeller University, New York, where he studied the serotonin system at a molecular level. He is currently heading a laboratory of Translational Neuropharmacology at the Karolinska Institutet and is serving as Professor of Movement Disorders at the Karolinska University Hospital. His research interests are to identify biomarkers for following disease progression in Parkinson's disease and to develop novel therapies against non-motor as well as motor symptoms of Parkinsons disease. He is investigator of several phase II clinical trials aiming at improving treatments for Parkinson's disease. Professor Svenningsson will present data on a proof-of-concept study showing antidyskinetic properties of Eltoprazine, a 5-HT1A/B agonist, against L-DOPA-induced dyskinesias. This clinical study has emerged from preclinical work conducted by Professor Anders Björklund and colleagues and has been sponsored by the Michael J. Fox Foundation and Psychogenics Inc. The study has been conducted under the direction of Professor Anders Björklund, Professor Håkan Widner and Ms Bavani Shankar and involved clinicians (Professors Svenningsson, Widner and Dr. Carl Rosenblad) at Lunds University Hospital and Karolinska University Hospital.

Jing Zhang, MD, PhD

University of Washington

Dr. Jing Zhang received most of his original education in Shanghai, China. After he came to the US about 20 years ago, he obtained his PhD in Cell Biology at Duke University and completed his post-medical education at Vanderbilt University. He is now certified in both Anatomic Pathology and Neuropathology. In addition, he is also one of the few pathologists who are interested in Ocular Pathology. Dr. Zhang's research interest has been largely focused on oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction associated with diseases of the central nervous system (CNS), including Parkinson's disease. Over the last few years, Dr. Zhang has established a state-of-the-art proteomics research center with emphasis on CNS diseases at the University of Washington, where he is currently a Professor of Neurology, Ophthalmology and Pathology. He has published more than 120 peer-reviewed papers since he came to the United States of America, and has been awarded the Shaw Endowed Chair in Neuropathology since 2009. He has also successfully obtained several NIH grants in proteomic research that are complementary to the biomarker program supported by the Michael J. Fox Foundation.