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Speakers 
 Professor Jonathan Arch,
Deputy Director of Metabolic Research, Clore Laboratory,
University of Buckingham
Jon Arch was formerly a director in a drug discovery department of SmithKline Beecham (now GlaxoSmithKline) and he retains many contacts with the pharmaceutical industry. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers, reviews and book chapters and regularly addresses scientific meetings.
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 Dr Nir Barak,
Chief Scientific Officer,
OBEcure
Dr Barak is a graduate of the Sackler School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University, specialized in internal medicine. Dr Barak also trained in clinical nutrition at the University of Chicago Hospital and a earned a Certified Nutrition Support Physician (CNSP) degree from the American Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition. Dr Barak works as an attending physician in the medical service of Rabin Medical Center and is the head of the Obesity Clinic of Leumit HMO. He serves as a member in the Israeli Society of Internal Medicine, the Israeli Society of Clinical Nutrition and the Israeli Society for Obesity Research and coauthored the Israeli guidelines for Total Parenteral Nutrition, Percutaneous Feeding Gastrectomy, and Re-feeding Syndrome.
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 Dr Gordon Brandt,
Executive Vice President of Clinical Research and Medical Affairs,
Nastech Pharmaceuticals
Dr. Gordon Brandt is Executive Vice President, Clinical Research and Medical Affairs at Nastech. In this position he oversees product development from preclinical research through clinical trials and regulatory submissions. He has developed drugs and medical devices for more than 25 years. Dr. Brandt graduated from Yale University, received an M.D. degree from the University of California, San Francisco, and completed a residency in internal medicine at Kaiser Hospital, San Francisco. Dr. Brandt is an author on numerous scientific papers and abstracts and holds five U.S. Patents.
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 Professor Michael Cawthorne,
Director of Metabolic Research & Professorial Research Fellow,
University of Buckingham
Mike Cawthorne is Director of Metabolic Research at the Clore Laboratory, University of Buckingham, where he leads a group of 15 researchers seeking new molecular targets and evaluating pioneering therapies for obesity and type 2 diabetes. From 1968 to 1994, Mike was at Beecham and SmithKline Beecham latterly as Group Director for diabetes and obesity research. Apart from leading the research team that discovered rosiglitazone, he led the biological research that identified the ?3-adrenoceptor as a potential molecular target for thermogenesis and type 2 diabetes. Mike has published more than 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals, is a past Chairman of the Association for the Study of Obesity, was founding secretary of the International Association for the Study of Obesity and received the 2001 award for drug discovery from the Society of Medicines research.
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 Dr Hubert Chen,
Director of Clinical Research,
Amylin Pharmaceuticals
Hubert C. Chen, M.D., is Director of Clinical Research at Amylin, where he serves as Clinical Leader for obesity and type 2 diabetes programs. From March 2004 to September 2006, Dr. Chen was Associate Director of Medical Sciences at Amgen, where he was responsible for creating and executing preclinical and early clinical strategies for type 2 diabetes programs, as well as designing and implementing proof-of-concept studies and biomarker discovery efforts in obesity, osteoporosis, and muscle atrophy programs. Before joining Amgen, Dr. Chen was Staff Research Investigator at the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco, where he investigated the effects of modulating triglyceride synthesis on energy and glucose metabolism in mouse models.
Dr. Chen received his B.A. in political science from Stanford University and M.D. from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He subsequently completed a medical residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and an endocrine fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He currently holds an appointment as Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCSF.
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 Dr Matthew Coghlan,
Candidate Drug Delivery Team Leader, Diabetes and Drug Discovery,,
AstraZeneca
Matthew gained a PhD in insulin receptor signalling from the University of Cambridge in 1994 and then completed a 3-year Royal Society NATO post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School. In 1998 Matthew joined SmithKline Beecham pharmaceuticals where he project managed the GSK3 inhibitor diabetes Lead Optimisation project. In 2001 Matthew joined AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals where he is currently the project manager for the Glucokinase Activator diabetes project.
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 Dr Wesley Day,
Vice President, Clinical Development,
VIVUS
Dr. Day is the Vice President of Clinical Development for VIVUS Inc. Dr. Day is responsible for leading and directing the overall clinical activities for VIVUS, including clinical trials, clinical research, and overseeing the strategies for developing and implementing clinical protocols, data collection systems, and trial site management. Most recently Dr. Day led clinical activities resulting in the submission of an NDA for EvaMist, an estradiol transdermal spray. Prior to joining VIVUS, Dr. Day served in various clinical, regulatory and safety risk management roles within Pfizer, Inc. His most recent role was the Senior Director and Therapeutic Area Head of oncology and ophthalmology for the Safety and Risk Management group. Dr. Day was responsible for phase 2 and phase 3 development of compounds designed to treat women’s health issues including urogenital health and sexual dysfunction. Dr. Day is an inventor on several issued and pending patents for a variety of women’s health treatments. He holds a Ph.D. in pharmacology and toxicology from the University of Maryland at Baltimore, a B.S. from University of Texas Pan American, and is a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology. Dr. Day is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Maryland at Baltimore.
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 Dr Eduardo Dunayevich,
Chief Medical Officer,
Orexigen Therapeutics
Dr. Dunayevich is the Chief Medical Officer for Orexigen Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the treatment of central nervous system disorders with an initial focus on obesity. He was formerly a Medical Advisor in the Clinical Neuroscience Program at Lilly Research Laboratories, where he was responsible for the development of several phase II-III compounds. Additionally, Dr Dunayevich was involved in the support of some Lilly commercialized products, including Zyprexa and Cymbalta. Prior to joining Lilly Research Labs, Dr. Dunayevich had served as Director of the Clinical Psychobiology Program, and the Division of Clinical Trials of the Psychotic Disorders Research Program at the University of Cincinnati, where he was an investigator in numerous clinical trials.
Dr. Dunayevich has authored publications on psychotic, anxiety and mood and personality disorders. He is board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. Dr. Dunayevich obtained his M.D. from the Buenos Aires Medical School where he graduated with honors, and received his residency training in psychiatry at both the Hospital of the Italian Community, Buenos Aires, Argentina and the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
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Jeff Edwards,
Director, Project Management,
Thiakis
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 Dr Christian Elling,
Director of Molecular Pharmacology & Development,
7TM Pharma
Christian E. Elling has established the Department of Molecular Pharmacology at 7TM Pharma and later the company’s entire development activities, as a result of which the first in-house compound was successfully taken into clinical development. He has worked with Prof. Schwartz since 1992 at the University of Copenhagen, where the focus of his research was on the molecular mechanisms of 7TM receptors, particularly how receptors may be turned on or off at the molecular level. He has authored a number of papers including a pioneering report in Nature describing how receptors may be inactivated, with this significantly advancing the understanding of how drugs act on 7TM receptors. He is a member of the steering committee of Biologue, an organization aiming at optimizing the interaction between public and industrial biomedical research in Denmark. Christian Elling holds a M.Sc. in biochemistry and a Ph.D. from the University of Copenhagen.
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Dr Tung Fong,
Director, Metabolic Disorders,
Merck Research Laboratories
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 Dr Douglas Greene,
Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer,
Sanofi Aventis
Dr. Greene was the Vice President of Corporate Regulatory Affairs, and Head of the Regulatory Development Department at Sanofi-Aventis Research, where he was responsible for all regulatory affairs issues related to products in development or life cycle management.
Dr. Greene joined Sanofi in 2003 from Merck where he had been Head of Clinical Sciences and Product Development. Prior to joining Merck in 2000, he was on the faculty of the University of Michigan School of Medicine, where he served as Professor of Internal Medicine, and Chief, Division of Endocrinology & Metabolism since 1991 and as Director, Center for Clinical Investigation and Therapeutics (CCIT) since 1998. He was a member of the Scientific Board of Advisors, Merck Research Laboratories since 1994 and was selected as Chair in 1998. Between 1988 and 1994, he was Chairman of the FDA Drug Advisory Board for Endocrinologic and Metabolic Diseases.
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Dr Uwe Gudat,
Global Brand Medical Director, Dyslipidemia and Diabetes,
Novartis
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 Dr Itzik Harosh,
Chairman and Chief Scientific Officer,
ObeTherapy
Itzik HAROSH, PhD, Chairman and Chief Scientist Officer (CSO).
Itzik HAROSH, founder of the Company, is the inventor of both patents now owned by the company and has a well-established international reputation. Dr HAROSH has a wide experience in drug discovery vision, target identification and validation, assay developments adaptable for HTS, secondary screenings and animal model. In addition, he has in depth knowledge of biochemistry and molecular biology. Dr Harosh did his PhD at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. After completing his thesis, he spent four years of post-doctoral study in Stanford University and Davis University both in California working on DNA repair. After his post-doctoral, he joined the laboratory of Miroslav Radman (CNRS) with a "poste rouge" fellowship and worked on mismatch repair. From there he joined the GlaxoWelcome laboratories in Les Ullis, France, as a group leader and worked on cardiovascular disease and lipid metabolism. He was teaching a new course entitled Drug Discovery in Modern Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Industry that he created specially for graduate students in the Technion, Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
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Dr Alan Harris,
Chief Medical Officer,
Manhattan Pharmaceuticals
Alan G. Harris has 20 years of experience working in clinical drug development in the pharmaceutical industry. He is currently the Chief Medical Officer of Manhattan Pharmaceuticals Inc. after serving as Corporate Head of the Worldwide Medical Endocrine Care group at Pfizer Inc, New York. Before that he served as Vice President Global Healthcare Research & Outcomes and Senior Dir Med & Sci Affairs at Schering-Plough Corp, New Jersey, where he was involved in the joint venture with Merck in the clinical development of the novel cholesterol absorption inhibitor medication, ezetimibe (Zetia ). Other responsibilities at Schering-Plough included research in allergic and respiratory disorders, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases and hepatitis. While at Sandoz (Novartis) Pharmaceuticals in Basel, Switzerland, Dr. Harris developed the first long-acting somatostatin analog, octreotide (Sandostatin ®), approved worldwide for the treatment of gastrointestinal endocrine tumors and acromegaly. He is currently Adjunct Prof Med NYU Medical School and Visiting Professor of Medicine in the Dept Endocrinology Liège University Medical School, Belgium. He received his MD from the Louis Pasteur Faculty of Medicine, Univ Strasbourg, France and Ph.D. in Endocrinology from Erasmus Univ, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. He was Assoc Prof Med UCLA School of Medicine, Dir Div Clin Pharmacology Dept Medicine Med Dir Dept of Technology Devt & Transfer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center/UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles.
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 Dr Michael Hayden,
Chief Scientific Officer,
Xenon Pharmaceuticals
Michael Hayden has served as our Chief Scientific Officer since March 1999 and has been a member of Xenon's Board of Directors since November 1996. He is currently a full professor of Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia, as well as Director of the Center for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics (CMMT) in Vancouver; the CMMT is a gene research center under UBC’s Faculty of Medicine. Author of over 400 peer-reviewed publications and invited submissions, Dr. Hayden focuses his research primarily on genetic diseases, including genetics of lipoprotein disorders, Huntington’s disease and predictive medicine. In association with his colleagues, Dr. Hayden developed the proposal which led to the award of the Canadian Centers of Excellence on the genetic basis of disease. This effort has been furthered by his involvement in the Canadian Genetic Diseases Network; Dr. Hayden has served as the Network’s Scientific Director since its inception in 1990.
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 Dr David Heal,
Director and Vistiing Professor of Pharmacology, Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacology,
RenaSci Consulting and University of Bath
After a career in academic research at the MRC Clinical Pharmacology Unit, Oxford University, he transferred to pharmaceutical R&D in the mid-1980’s. Whilst in pharmaceutical R&D, he led teams which put several novel drugs, including the anti obesity drug, sibutramine, through clinical development. In 2001, he co-founded RenaSci Consultancy Ltd, where he is currently a Board Director. RenaSci is an independent provider of consultancy and experimental services to the pharmaceutical industry in the therapeutic areas of obesity, diabetes and CNS disorders. He has published over 130 scientific articles and reviews and is a Visiting Professor in the Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacology at the University of Bath.
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Mr Pierre Honoré,
Vice President, Strategy and Sourcing, Diabetes Research,
Novo Nordisk
Pierre Honoré is Vice President for Strategy & Sourcing, Diabetes Research Unit at Novo Nordisk A/S. He has gained extensive experience in licensing and third party collaborations from involvement in numerous agreements and collaboration management with pharmaceutical and biotech compa-nies and Academia. Further, he is responsible of the strategy development for the Diabetes Research Unit.
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Dr Reid Huber,
Senior Director, Metabolic Endocrine Drug Development,
Incyte
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Rob Jones,
Director,
RenaSci Consultancy Ltd
After a post doc position in St Thomas’ Hospital conducting research on hypertension, Rob joined the Pharmaceutical Industry in the early 1980’s. He initially worked developing an ischaemic heart disease project and was subsequently made responsible for the preclinical development of an anti diabetic agent at Boots Pharmaceuticals. At Knoll pharmaceuticals he was a project leader responsible for peripherally acting obesity agents and for collaborative antiobesity research projects. In 2001, he co-founded RenaSci Consultancy Ltd, where he is currently a Board Director. RenaSci is an independent provider of consultancy and experimental services to the pharmaceutical industry in the therapeutic areas of obesity, diabetes and CNS disorders. He has published over 40 scientific articles and reviews.
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Dr Guy Kennett,
Senior Fellow Researcher,
Vernalis
Guy Kennett spent nine years in the Department of Psychiatry, SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals working on programmes to develop CNS active drugs. In 1997, he joined Cerebrus Research Ltd, as Director of Neuropharmacology. Cerebrus subsequently merged with Vanguard Medica and British Biotech to form Vernalis. In his current role, Dr Kennett is responsible for CNS and metabolic diseases research at Vernalis including programmes on weight loss agents such as CB1 receptor antagonists. Dr Kennett has published more than 80 full papers, presented widely at scientific conferences and has served on government and learned society committees.
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Dr Peter Kristensen,
Vice President, Liraglutide Management,
Novo Nordisk
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 Dr Nigel Levens,
Chief Scientific Officer,
Innodia
Dr. Levens was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Virginia and was on the faculty of the Department of Physiology at West Virginia University prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry. His 20-year pharmaceutical experience has been directed towards drug discovery in the obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases area. Dr. Levens has held leading roles in metabolic diseases drug discovery as Head of Obesity Pharmacology at Novartis Pharma AG in Basel, Switzerland, Head of Metabolic Diseases Research at The Servier Research Group in Paris, France and Head of Biology at Biovitrum AB in Stockholm, Sweden. Dr. Levens also has experience in preclinical development and investigational new drug (IND) submissions gained while at Hurley Consulting Associates in New Jersey. Dr. Levens holds a doctorate in Physiology from the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom, has published widely and is the holder of 10 patents in the metabolic diseases area.
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Dr Jim McCormack,
Vice President Research and Chief Scientific Officer,
Prosidion Ltd. (a subsidiary of OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc.)
Dr. Jim McCormack joined Prosidion as VP Research & CSO in December 2004, and has been with OSI since June 2002 when he was appointed VP of UK Discovery for OSI Pharmaceuticals in Oxford. Prior to this he was VP for Scientific Affairs at Novo Nordisk in Denmark, where he was previously Director then VP of Target Cell Biology (1998-2001) and Director of Diabetes Discovery (1996-1998). During his pharmaceutical career he has been involved in progressing several compounds from Discovery into Development, some of which have now reached the market. Prior to Novo Nordisk, Dr. McCormack was Principal Scientist and Head of Biochemical Pharmacology at Syntex Research Scotland (later Roche) in Edinburgh (1990-1995), and before that a tenured lecturer in Biochemistry at Leeds University in England (1985-1990) where he was also a Research Fellow of the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine (1988-1990). Dr. McCormack has authored or co-authored over 120 full papers within the field of metabolic regulation and signalling.
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 Dr Dieter Meier,
Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer,
NeuroSearch
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Dr David Morgan,
Team Leader,
Astrazeneca R&D
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 Dr Shridhar Narayanan,
Vice President Biological Research,
Glenmark Pharmaceuticals
Shridhar Narayanan has a Bachelors’ degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from University of Mumbai. He completed his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the Ohio State University in 1996, working on the mechanisms of addiction to drugs of abuse. He went on to do his post-doctoral fellowship at the Neuropsychiatry Institute of the University of California at Los Angeles studying the mechanism and locus of action of orexin, a neuropeptide involved in various physiological functions. Shridhar returned to Mumbai, India after his post-doctoral training and has been associated with new drug discovery in the Indian pharmaceutical industry for the past 4 years working mainly in the areas of diabetes, obesity and inflammation. Shridhar is currently Vice-President, Biological Research and heads the in vivo pharmacology and toxicology groups at Glenmark Research Center.
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Dr Mads Rasmussen,
Study Director,
Novo Nordisk
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Dr Marcus Schindler,
Associate Director, Metabolic Diseases Research,
Boehringer-Ingelheim
Studied Biology in Göttingen, Germany
Phd In Pharmacology at the University of Cambridge (UK) and the Babraham Institute
Research Scientist with Glaxo Wellcome
Laboratory Leader in Cardiovascular Research in Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH
current position: Director, Metabolic Diseases, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH
Head of the in vivo Pharmacology Unit
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Dr Chari Smith,
Program Lead, SGLT2, Department of Biochemical and Analytical Pharmacology,,
Glaxosmithkline
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Dr Mads Tang-Christensen,
Director of Contract Research,
Rheoscience
Dr. Tang-Christensen earned his MD in 1996 from the University of Copenhagen. A postgraduate position at Novo Nordisk in Denmark led to his PhD thesis on appetite suppressant effects of glucagon-like peptides in the central nervous system (University of Copenhagen, 1999). During the course of his PhD studies, Dr. Tang-Christensen spent six months in a laboratory in Portland, OR, USA. In 2000 he was awarded a working grant from the Danish Medical Research Council to continue his internationally recognized work on the appetite-suppressing role of glucagon-like peptide-2. He has also been awarded two Young Investigator awards for this work.
Dr. Tang-Christensen has long-standing experience in animal behavioral studies exploring appetite control and energy expenditure. At Rheoscience he is responsible for the department of in vivo pharmacology. He has published more than 27 papers in high-ranking international journals and serves as a reviewer for several scientific journals. He also has participated as an invited speaker at more than 10 international scientific meetings.
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Dr Antonio Tataranni,
Senior Director, Medical Acomplia,
Sanofi Aventis
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 Dr Ann Taylor,
Director and Clinical Lead for Obesity Early Development,
Pfizer Global R&D
Dr. Taylor is Director and Clinical Lead for Obesity early development at Pfizer Global Research and Development in Groton CT. She joined Pfizer in 2001, where she has done research on food intake methodology, obesity biomarkers, and predictions of long term weight loss from early clinical endpoints, as well as strategic planning for early stage weight loss compounds. Dr. Taylor received her MD from Harvard Medical School. She completed a residency in Internal Medicine Residency and a fellowship in Endocrinology and Metabolism at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Before joining Pfizer, she was Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She was a faculty member in the Reproductive Endocrine Unit with an interest in female reproductive physiology and disorders including pulsatile gonadotropin secretion in the normal menstrual cycle, gonadotropin and metabolic abnormalities in polycystic ovary syndrome, and ovarian function in premature menopause. She is also the past President of the international Androgen Excess Society.
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 Dr Michael Trautmann,
Medical Fellow, BYETTA Global Brand Team,
Lilly Deutschland
Michael E. Trautmann M.D. trained in Internal Medicine and Diabetology at the Universities Goettingen and Marburg, Germany, and Geneva, Switzerland
His clinical research focused on diabetes treatment and endocrine tumors of the gut. In his laboratory secretory mechanisms and cellular differentiation of pancreatic beta cells were investigated. Already since 1987 he has been involved in research around Glucagon-like peptide-1.
In 1993, he joined Lilly Germany as Clinical Research Physician for Diabetes where he was responsible for the clinical development of insulin lispro (Humalog). From 1996 to 1998 he was Global Physician in the Endocrine Therapeutic Area in Indianapolis with responsibilities for early phase development of novel therapeutic approaches in the area of obesity and Type 2 diabetes treatment. Thereafter he moved to the new Lilly Research Laboratories in Hamburg and coordinated early phase clinical programs.
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Dr HÃ¥kan Wennbo,
Vice President Portfolio Strategy - Diabetes and Obesity,
Astrazeneca R&D
MD and Ph.D in Physiology from Goteborg University Sweden. Have been working in different roles in AstraZeneca since 1997. Current role VP Diabetes&Obesity Portfolio and Strategy Discovery Research. The AZ discovery research in Dia&Obe is located in Mölndal Sweden and Alderley Park UK. Before this position I was responsible for Diabetes&Obesity Pharmacology in Alderley Park and subsequent to that different positions in Pharmacology and Molecular Biology in Mölndal. During the last 5 years I have been involved in building the Translational Medicine strategies and capabilities especially in Dia&Obe.
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