Dr. Esther Latres
Senior Fellow, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., Tarrytown,
NY
“New era of drug discovery for Muscle and Metabolic
Disease”
Dr. Esther Latres is a Research Fellow and Discovery Leader in
the Muscle and Metabolism Disease Area at Regeneron
Pharmaceuticals. She earned a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the
University of Barcelona, Spain, with a thesis studying the
relationship between certain genetic abnormalities and the presence
and clinical severity of soft tissue sarcomas (STS) at
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She pursued her post-doctoral
training with Dr. Barbacid at Bristol-Myers Squibb Institute,
working on gene targeting techniques to mutate cell cycle genes,
and with Dr. Pagano at New York University Medical Center,
exploring mammalian ubiquitin-ligase enzymes that regulate cell
cycle. Dr. Latres was recruited to join Regeneron in 2001 to
investigate the role of the ubiquitin-proteasome system during
skeletal muscle atrophy. Presently, she leads a team that
investigates the signaling mechanisms that mediate skeletal muscle
atrophy by integrating different approaches, including in
vitro models of human myoblasts, genetically engineered mice,
gene expression profiling, proteomics, and in vivo pharmacology.
Ongoing studies also include investigating the crosstalk of signals
derived from skeletal muscle and adipose tissue, to identify and
validate molecular candidates for therapies that can prevent the
loss of muscle function and improve glucose metabolism. As a
mentor, Dr. Latres has trained high school students, undergraduates
and graduate students, and has received mentor recognition awards
including a Siemens Westinghouse Competition Award.
Dr. Suresh V. Ambudkar
Senior Investigator, Chief, Transport Biochemistry Section,
Laboratory of Cell Biology, CCR, NCI, NIH, Bethesda, MD
“Development of modulators of multidrug resistance-linked
ABC drug transporters”
Dr. Ambudkar is a Senior Investigator and head of the Transport
Biochemistry Section in the Laboratory of Cell Biology, Center for
Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda,
Maryland. He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Madurai
Kamaraj University, Madurai, India. After post-doctoral training in
biochemistry of membrane transport protein, he joined in 1989 as an
Assistant Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Physiology
at the Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore. Since 1995 he is
working at the National Cancer Institute, NIH on the
structure-function and mechanism of action of multidrug
resistance-linked ABC drug transporters to facilitate new
therapeutic strategies to increase the efficiency of chemotherapy
in cancers. He has published one hundred and seventy original
papers and review articles in peer-reviewed international journals.
Currently he is a member of the editorial board for the Molecular
Cancer Therapeutics, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Molecular
Cancer, Current Opinion in Investigational Drugs and ACTA
Pharmaceutica Sinica B.
Dr. Scott Banta
Associate Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Columbia
University, NY
“Engineering Enzymes to Self-Assemble into Catalytic
Biomaterials”
Scott Banta received his Ph.D. from Rutgers University in
Chemical and Biochemical Engineering and he went on to a
postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Engineering in Medicine
at Harvard Medical School. He is currently an Associate Professor
in Chemical Engineering at Columbia University and his research is
focused on applied protein and metabolic engineering. His group
works on different projects in gene and drug delivery, protein and
peptide conformational behavior, biomolecular recognition,
biosensors, biocatalysis, bioelectrocatalysis, and bioenergy
applications.
Dr. Gunda I. Georg
Professor and Department Head, Robert Vince Endowed Chair McKnight
Presidential Chair in Medicinal Chemistry, Department of Medicinal
Chemistry
Director, Institute for Therapeutics Discovery and Development,
College of Pharmacy University of Minnesota
“Opportunities and Challenges Using Natural Products in
Oncology Drug Discovery”
Professor Georg is the Head of the Department of Medicinal
Chemistry and the founding Director of the Institute for
Therapeutics Discovery and Development at the University of
Minnesota. She holds the Robert Vince Endowed Chair and the
McKnight Presidential Chair. She is a AAAS Fellow and has received
the Sato Memorial International Award of the Pharmaceutical Society
of Japan. She is Co-Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Medicinal
Chemistry, the most cited journal in the field. She is the
co-inventor of Lusedra(TM), which is marketed by Eisa
Pharmaceuticals. She is also a co-inventor of Minnelide an
anticancer agent and Gamendazole a male contraceptive. Both are to
enter phase I clinical trials in 2012. She has published more than
180 papers and book chapters on various aspects of synthetic
medicinal chemistry. Dr. Georg has trained about 100 Ph.D. and
post-doctoral students, most of whom have pursued careers in the
pharmaceutical industry.
Dr. Mark Mulvihill
Director of Chemistry, Oncology, OSI Pharmaceuticals LLC, a
subsidiary of Astellas US, 1 Bioscience Park Dr., Farmingdale,
NY
“The Discovery of OSI-906 (Linsitinib), a potent and highly
selective dual inhibitor of IGF-1R and IR currently advancing
through clinical trials for the treatment of
cancer”
Dr. Mark Mulvihill is currently the Head of Chemistry, Oncology
at OSI Pharmaceuticals. He leads a department of medicinal,
computational, synthetic and analytical research chemists along
with multidisciplinary project teams in small molecule
oncology-directed drug discovery efforts. As a Project Leader, his
efforts have led to the discovery of several clinical development
candidates including OSI-906, a first-in-class selective small
molecule dual IGF-1R/IR inhibitor, currently advancing through
clinical trials for the treatment of cancer. Before joining OSI in
2001, he held positions of increasing responsibility at the Rohm
& Haas Company (1998 - 2001) where his efforts as Project
Leader led to the discovery of the Chemical Control Release
pro-drug technology platform. Dr. Mulvihill received his Ph.D. in
Organic Chemistry in 1998 from the University of Notre Dame under
the direction of Professor Marvin Miller. He has a compilation of
over 155 invited external presentations, patents and peer reviewed
publications.