Search
HomeAbout UsNews and EventsResourcesResearch ProgramsIndustry and Partners
Overview
Archives
Sign-up for mailing list
enter your email address to receive the latest updates on symposia, projects and events.
Make a Gift  Make a Gift
biotech


Johns Hopkins Biotechnology 2008 Conference
"Neuroscience Investors Conference: Investing in Brain Research"
September 18, 2008
Marriott Waterfront Hotel
Baltimore, MD

register now

SPEAKERS

BarrettJames Barrett, Ph.D.

Jim joined NEA in 2001 as a General Partner. He specializes in biotechnology and works with members of NEA's healthcare investment group on medical devices, healthcare information systems and healthcare services companies. Present board memberships include Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals, GlycoMimetics, Inc. Inhibitex, Inc. (NASDAQ: INHX), Iomai Corporation (NASDAQ: IOMI), Nucleonics, Inc., Peptimmune, Inc., Ruxton Pharmaceuticals, Sensors for Medicine and Science,  Inc., Supernus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Targacept, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRGT) and Zosano Pharma, Inc.  Jim formerly served on the boards of CoGenesys (acquired by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries), MedImmune, Inc. (acquired by AstraZeneca) and Pharmion (acquired by Celgene). Prior to NEA, Jim served as Founder, Chairman and CEO of Sensors for Medicine and Science (1997 - 2001) where he remains Chairman. Prior to that, he led three NEA-funded companies, serving as Chairman and CEO of Genetic Therapy, Inc. (1987 - 1995), President and CEO of Life Technologies (1985 - 1987), and President and CEO of Bethesda Research Labs (1982 - 1983). Prior to 1982, Jim worked in various divisions of SmithKline. Jim received a PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Tennessee, his MBA from the University of Santa Clara, and a BS in Chemistry from Boston College.




Bromley

Russell L. Bromley, Ph.D.

Since joining the Myelin Repair Foundation (MRF) in September 2003, Mr. Bromley has been instrumental in the creation and evolution of the MRF Accelerated Research CollaborationTM model.  His principal responsibilities include development and execution of the MRF research plan, identification and protection of resulting intellectual property, and development of relationships wtih a broad range of academic and commercial organizations.  Mr. Bromley brings a unique combination of business experience in both academic and commercial research environments.  His expertise includes the creation and protection of innovative technologies, business development, and marketing strategy for high tech and life sciences.  Formerly he was CEO of LabVelocity, Inc., an Internet information portal for the life science research community.  Prior to that he was CEO of Berkshire Holding Corporation, a privately held, multinational manufacturer of contamination control materials for microelectronics and pharmaceutical production.  Mr. Bromley's prior experience also includes 17 years with American Hospital Supply Corporation and Baxter Healthcare, in both the distribution and diagnostics businesses, culminating with seven years as President of the Burdick and Jackson division.  Mr. Bromley holds a degree in Biochemistry from Rice University.



Campbell

James Campbell, M.D.

Dr. James Campell received his medical degree from Yale University in 1973. At that time he came to Johns Hopkins for residency training in Neurosurgery. Upon completing his training, Dr. Campbell joined the full time faculty of the Department of Neurosurgery and quickly rose to the rank of Professor.  Dr. Campbell's research concerns the neurobiology of pain and his work has led to many patents and over one hundred peer reviewed publications. He is currently investigating the mechanisms of neuropathic pain, and PET imaging of the brain's opioid receptors. His research efforts have been funded by the NIH continuously since 1979.  Dr. Campbell sits on the Board of Directors of several biotechnology companies, and he is founder and Chairman of the Board of the nonprofit organization, The American Pain Foundation.



Cochran

Mark A. Cochran, Ph.D.

Mark served as Managing Director of NeuroVentures from its inception in late 2000 through April 2006. He remains active with several NeuroVentures portfolio companies and continues to serve as an advisor to the firm. Currently, he is Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurological Research Institute (BRNI) in Morgantown, WV. BRNI is a non-profit research institute dedicated to the study of human memory. Its primary mission is to accelerate neurological discoveries from the lab, including diagnostic tools and treatments, directly to patients who are suffering from neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's.  Previously, Dr. Cochran worked with MDS Capital Corporation, a Toronto-based healthcare venture capital group where he was responsible for MDS' San Francisco venture business and several MDS invested companies. His prior experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry includes Bayer Pharmaceuticals, most recently as vice president of business development, biotechnology, in Berkeley, California. Other positions held during his tenure at Bayer included project director of Recombinant Factor VIII, and head of molecular biology and biochemistry in Wuppertal, Germany. Before joining Bayer, Dr. Cochran co-founded MicroGeneSys, Inc., a Connecticut-based vaccine company. He is listed as the author on 22 scientific papers, 66 abstracts and six patents.  Dr. Cochran received his Ph.D. from the Department of Molecular Biology and Immunology at Queen's University in Kingston, Canada. He holds a Masters from the University of Guelph and a B.Sc. from the University of Toronto. Dr. Cochran performed post-doctoral research at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD.



Dawson

Ted M. Dawson, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Dawson is the Leonard Madlyn Professor of Neurodegenerative Diseases in the Departments of Neurology and Neuroscience and the Graduate Program in Cellular &Molecular Medicine and the Institute for Cell Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.  He is the Director of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine's Morris K. Udall Parkinson's Disease Research Center of Excellence and Director of the Neuroregeneration and Repair Program in the Institute for Cell Engineering.  Dr. Dawson is world-renowned for his novel contributions on the role of nitric oxice in neuronal injury.  He has a strong background in neuroanatomy, pharmacology, molecular biology, protein biochemistry, and the use of in vivo and in vitro model systems to study pathogenic mechanisms.  When disease causing genes were identified in rare familial cases of PD, Dawson began investigating the biology and pathobiology of the proteins and mutant proteins linked to Parkins's disease, where he has been at the forefront of this work.  His studies are providing major insights into understanding the pathogenesis of PD and are providing novel opportunities for therapies aimed at preventing the degenerative process of PD.


 
Fillit

Howard M. Fillit, M.D. 

Howard Fillit, MD, a geriatrician and neuroscientist, is currently the founding Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of Aging (ISOA), an Estée Lauder family foundation founded in 1998, and the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF), an affiliated public charity founded in 2004. The foundations share a common mission of accelerating drug discovery for Alzheimer’s disease through venture philanthropy. Since 1998, ISOA has provided over $29MM to over 170 academic and biotechnology programs in 12 countries.  Dr. Fillit is a physician-scientist with career experience in academia, industry and private practice. From 1995-1998, he was the Corporate Medical Director for Medicare at NYLCare Health Plans (previously a division of New York Life), with enrollment of over 125,000 lives in 8 regional US markets. Prior to 1998, Dr. Fillit had a distinguished career in academic medicine. He continues to hold the title of clinical professor of geriatrics, medicine and professor of neurobiology at The Mount Sinai Medical Center (NY). He is a fellow of the American Geriatrics Society, the American College of Physicians, the Gerontological Society of America, and the New York Academy of Medicine. He is the author or co-author of over 250 scientific and clinical articles, abstracts, and books including the leading international textbook of geriatric medicine and gerontology.  He has served on the Board of Directors or Scientific Advisory Board of several biotechnology and healthcare companies, has given hundreds of speeches throughout the world and has served as a consultant to numerous individuals, managed care organizations, health care systems, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and investment firms.


 
Griffin

John W. Griffin, M.D.

Dr. John Griffin is Director of the Johns Hopkins Brain Science Institute (BSI), University Distinguished Service Professor of the Department of Neurology, and Professor of the Departments of Neuroscience and Pathology in the School of Medicine. The BSI brings together neuroscientists to solve fundamental questions about brain development and function, to understand the mechanisms of brain diseases, to develop effective treatments, and to take these therapies to patients. His research career has been devoted to the neurobiology and peripheral nerve degeneration and regeneration and to studies of peripheral neuropathies.




 Hefti 

Franz F. Hefti, Ph.D.

Dr. Hefti brings Avid nearly 20 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry and over a decade experience in academia. He led the drug development efforts at Rinat Neuroscience Corporation as Executive Vice President of Drug Development for three years. During his tenure, three antibody drug candidates advanced from the discovery stage to preclinical and clinical development and the success of these programs led to the acquisition of Rinat Neuroscience by Pfizer in 2006. Previously, Dr. Hefti was Senior Vice President of Neuroscience Research at Merck & Co., where he coordinated the company's neuroscience research worldwide, serving as site head for the neuroscience research centers in the U.K. and U.S. While working with Merck, small molecule drug candidates covering six drug targets in the neuroscience area were taken into development. Dr. Hefti was also Director of the Neuroscience Research Department at Genentech and previously spent more than a decade in academia as a Professor at the University of Southern California and Associate Professor at the University of Miami, where he carried out seminal research on therapeutic applications of neurotrophic factors. He has published over 250 papers on neurotrophic factors and topics in neuropharmacology, and a recent textbook "Drug Discovery for Nervous System Diseases" (John Wiley & Sons). Dr. Hefti received a Ph.D. from the University of Zurich and did his postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Max Planck Institute in Munich.



Haas

Michael J. Haas, M.Sc.

Mike, who serves as a Senior Writer at BioCentury, has 14 years of experience as an analytical chemist supporting drug discovery at DuPont, DuPont Merck, DuPont Pharma, and Bristol-Myers Squibb, including seven years as mass spectrometry group leader and one year as an independent consultant. He joined BioCentury as a Senior Writer in September 2007.  At present he writes primarily for SciBX: Science-Business eXchange, which BioCentury produces with Nature Publishing Group.  He holds a M.Sc. in chemistry from the University of Toronto and a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Delaware. He has authored and co-authored seven papers appearing in five peer-reviewed journals, such as Analytical Chemistry and the Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis.



Hoke

Ahmet Hoke, M.D., Ph.D.

Ahmet Hoke is an Associate Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience and Director of the Daniel B. Drachman Division of Neuromuscular Diseases at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Hoke focuses on neuromuscular diseases with a particular interest in peripheral nerve diseases. He has specialized expertise in nerve conduction studies, electromyography and nerve and muscle biopsy reading.  Dr. Hoke’s research interest includes studies on basic biology of peripheral axons and Schwann cells and disorders affecting the peripheral nervous system. He uses in vitro and in vivo models of peripheral neuropathies (HIV-associated sensory neuropathies and toxic neuropathies) to study the mechanism of axonal damage and identify therapeutic targets for drug development. In parallel, he has ongoing basic research focusing on mechanisms of axonal degeneration and regeneration using in vitro and in vivo models. This line of research may lead to therapies aimed to promote axonal regeneration in chronically denervated nerves as seen in many degenerating disorders of the peripheral nervous system such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and inherited neuropathies. In addition, in collaboration with biomedical engineers and materials scientists he is developing nanofiber nerve guides as a replacement for nerve grafts in trauma patients.



Huganir

Richard L. Huganir, Ph.D.

Richard Huganir, Ph.D. is a Professor and Director of the Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience, as well as an Investigator with Howard Hughes Medical Institute.  He has joint appointments in the Department Biological Chemistry and the Department of Pharmacology.


Moses

Hamilton Moses, III, M.D.

Dr. Moses is a management consultant, neurologist, and author. He is chairman of Alerion, LLC, which advises on strategy and governance. Its associated Alerion Institute studies innovation in science, the arts, and the professions. Previously he was a partner of The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), chief of psychiatry of the Partners HealthCare System (Harvard), chief medical officer and COO of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and professor of business at the Darden School of the University of Virginia. His Leading the Unleadable—Bankers, Doctors, Lawyers, and Other Docile Creatures will appear in 2009. Dr. Moses has founded two companies, served on many boards, and advised clients in North America, Europe, and Asia.


Pacifici

Robert Pacifici, Ph.D.

Dr. Pacifici is currently the Chief Scientific Officer for CHDI, Inc. a privately-held, not-for-profit organization that is pursuing a biotech approach to rapidly discover and develop drugs that prevent or slow Huntington Disease. Dr. Pacifici was formerly in Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology sector with Eli Lilly and Company, Xencor and Amgen where he held positions of increasing responsibility including leadership for their automation, high throughput screening, and information technologies groups. Dr. Pacifici received a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Southern California. He holds an adjunct appointment at the University of Southern California’s Department of Molecular Pharmacology and is the Chair for the National Institute on Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) Spinal Muscular Atrophy Project’s Scientific Steering Committee. He currently sits on several additional external boards and advisory committees including the Cooperative International Neuromuscular Research Group, TREAT ALS Steering Committee, SMA Foundation, and the Cure Dystonia Initiative.



Potter

William Z. Potter, M.D., Ph.D.

Bill Potter earned his B.A., M.S., M.D., and Ph.D. at Indiana University, after which he functioned in positions of increasing responsibility and seniority over the next twenty-five years at the National Institutes of Health focused on translational neuroscience.  While at the NIH, Bill was widely published and appointed to many societies, committees, and boards; a role which enabled him to develop a wide reputation as an expert in psychopharmacological sciences and championing the development of novel treatments for CNS disorders.  Bill left the NIH in 1996 to accept a position as Executive Director and Research Fellow at Lilly Research Labs, specializing in the Neuroscience Therapeutic Area and in 2004 joined Merck Research Labs as VP of Clinical Neuroscience, then the newly created position of Translational Neuroscience in 2006. His experience at Lilly and MRL in identifying, expanding and developing methods of evaluating CNS effects of compounds in human brain cover state of the art approaches across multiple modalities. These include brain imaging and cerebrospinal fluid proteomics (plus metabolomics) as well as development of more sensitive clinical, psychophysiological and performance measures allowing a range of novel targets to be tested in a manner which actually addresses the underlying hypotheses.  Bill has become a widely recognized champion for the position that more disciplined hypothesis testing of targets in humans is the best near term approach to moving CNS drug development forward.


Price

Donald L. Price, M.D.

Donald L. Price, M.D., Professor of Pathology, Neurology, and Neuroscience at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, is a neurologist-neuropathologist-neurobiologist, who has made major contributions to the understanding of a variety of human neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.  He has a distinguished record of publications in several fields, including the development and analysis of animal models (especially genetically-engineered models of these disorders) and investigations of experimental therapeutic strategies that prepare the way for translation of basic science discoveries to treatments of humans with neurological illnesses.   Dr. Price is the author of > 500 publications.  He has been recognized by the international scientific and medical communities, as illustrated by his ranking among the top ten neuroscientists as authors of high impact papers in neuroscience during the “Decade of the Brain”, Science Watch (12:102, 2001) (http://www.sciencewatch.com/jan-feb2001/sw_jan-feb2001_page1.htm).  Dr. Price has received numerous honors and awards, including: two Javits Neuroscience Investigator Merit Awards from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; a Leadership in Alzheimer’s Disease Award from the National Institute on Aging; the Potamkin Prize for Alzheimer’s Disease Research from the American Academy of Neurology; and the Metropolitan Life Foundation Award.  He was President of the Society for Neuroscience (2000-2001), and is a member of The Institute of Medicine (National Academy of Sciences).  He is currently Director of the Division of Neuropathology and Director of the Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. 


Quy

Roger J. Quy, Ph.D.

Roger has been responsible for life science investments of Technology Partners since 1989. He specializes in neurotechnology investments. Roger began his career as a post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Queen Square Institute of Neurology in London where he developed the Oxford Medical system for ambulatory EEG monitoring and contributed to Laidlaw and Richens, A Textbook of Epilepsy. Roger earned a BA with honors in psychology and law and a PhD in neuroscience from the University of Keele, England. He received an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. He holds six patents. Roger serves, or has served, over twenty Corporate boards. He is a member of the advisory council of the Neurotechology Industry Organization and of the School of Medicine, University of Hawaii, and is a former director of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists.



Rhodes

Kenneth J. Rhodes, Ph.D.

Ken joined Biogen Idec in May, 2007, after nearly 5 years as a Research Fellow and CNS Team Leader at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development, LLC, and 10 years in Neuroscience Discovery Research at Wyeth.  Ken has lead drug discovery programs in the areas of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy and stroke, among others.  Ken has published original research in scientific journals that include Nature, Neuron, PNAS and the Journal of Neuroscience, and has co-authored review articles and book chapters for the Annual Review of Physiology and Journal of Neuroscience, among others. Ken earned his Ph.D. in Anatomy and Neurobiology at Boston University, and completed postdoctoral training at the National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health.


Ross

Christopher A. Ross, M.D., Ph.D.

Christopher Ross is Professor of Psychiatry, Neurology and Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins, Director of the Division of Neurobiology, and Director of the Huntington’s Disease Center.  He received his M.D. and Ph.D. in Neuroscience at Cornell University School of Medicine, had clinical training in psychiatry at Johns Hopkins, and posdocs in Sol Snyder’s and Axel Ullrich’s labs.  His lab focuses on the neurobiology and neurogenetics of human brain diseases, initially using Huntington’s disease as a model, and more recently also exploring approaches to schizophrenia.  The research in the Neurobiology Division ranges from constructing and studying cell and mouse models of disease and identification of therapeutic targets, to clinical and imaging studies of patients and clinical trials of novel therapeutic agents.  He has been awarded the Milton Wexler prize for Huntington’s disease research, the Guthrie family humanitarian award, and a NARSAD Distinguished Investigator award. 



Rothstein

Jeffrey D. Rothstein, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Rothstein is Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience and a faculty member of the Graduate Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine at Johns Hopkins University.  He is the Director of the Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins, and he is the Co-Director of the MDA/ALS Clinic, and Vice Chairman for Research in the Department of Neurology. He oversees one of the largest ALS clinics in the USA.  His clinical specialization is in Neuromuscular disease, with a particular focus on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Other clinical areas relevant to his laboratory-based research include: epilepsy and spinocerebellar ataxia, and brain tumors. He has received and/or submitted almost a dozen patents applications based on his laboratory research.  He is the Co-Founder of Ruxton Pharmaceuticals, Inc and serves as its scientific advisor.



Todd Sherer, Ph.D.

Dr. Todd Sherer joined the Michael J. Fox Foundation as Associate Director, Research Programs, in April 2004, and was promoted to Vice President, Research Programs, in June 2006. Dr. Sherer earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from Duke University and his PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Virginia. His thesis work focused on neurotrophins and cell death pathways in neurodegenerative disease. Dr. Sherer then worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Tim Greenamyre, a member of the Foundation's Scientific Advisory Board. During his postdoctoral fellowship, Dr. Sherer's work focused on understanding the role of environmental factors in Parkinson's disease and on the development of model systems for Parkinson's disease. As a result of his work, he was awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. Dr. Sherer is the author of over 20 research articles in the field of neurodegeneration with a focus on Parkinson's disease.


Snyder

Solomon H. Snyder, M.D.

Dr. Snyder is presently Distinguished Service Professor of Neuroscience, Pharmacology and Psychiatry.  He is the recipient of numerous professional honors, including the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Biomedical Research (1978), the National Medal of Science (2005); the Albany Medical Prize (2007), Honorary Doctor of Science degrees from Northwestern University (1981), Georgetown University (1986), Ben Gurion University (1990), Albany Medical College (1998), Technion University of Israel (2002), Mount Sinai Medical School (2004), University of Maryland  (2006); the Wolf Foundation Prize in Medicine (1983), the Dickson Prize of the University of Pittsburgh (1983), the Bower Award of the Franklin Institute (1991), the Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Neuroscience Research (1996) and the Gerard Prize of the Society for Neuroscience (2000).  He is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.  He is the author of more than 1000 journal articles and several books including Uses of Marijuana (1971), Madness and the Brain (1974), The Troubled Mind (1976), Biological Aspects of Abnormal Behavior (1980), Drugs and the Brain (1986), and Brainstorming (1989).  Many advances in molecular neuroscience have stemmed from Dr. Snyder's identification of receptors for neurotransmitters and drugs and elucidation of the actions of psychotropic agents.  He pioneered the labeling of receptors by reversible ligand binding in the identification of opiate receptors and extended this technique to all the major neurotransmitter receptors in the brain.  In  characterizing each new group of receptors, he also elucidated actions of major neuroactive drugs.  The isolation and subsequent cloning of receptor proteins stems from the ability to label, and thus monitor, receptors by these ligand binding techniques.  The application of Dr. Snyder's techniques has enhanced the development of new agents in the pharmaceutical industry by enabling rapid screening of large numbers of candidate drugs.  Dr. Snyder applied receptor techniques to elucidate intracellular messenger systems including isolation of inositol 1,4,5,-trisphosphate receptors and elucidation of inositol pyrophosphates as phosphorylating agents.  He has established gases as a new class of neurotransmitters, beginning with his demonstrating the role of nitric oxide in mediating glutamate synaptic transmission and neurotoxicity.  His isolation and molecular cloning of nitric oxide synthase led to major insights into the neurotransmitter functions of nitric oxide throughout the body.  Subsequently, he established carbon monoxide as another gaseous transmitter and D-serine as a glial derived endogenous ligand of glutamate-NMDA receptors.  He has discovered novel mechanisms of cell death involving a nitric oxide-glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase-Siah pathway as well as an IP3-cytochrome C-calcium cascade. 




Frank S. Walsh, Ph.D.




Sponsors:

Platinum: 

  ForestCity

Gold:
Merck               DLAPiper           

Silver:

Edwards

Bronze:

BioCentury

© Copyright 2008, All Rights Reserved,
Johns Hopkins Brain Science Institute
600 North Wolfe Street, Pathology 509, Baltimore, MD 21287
410-955-4504 (phone), 410-955-5459 (fax)