CNS and Ageing Speakers
Speakers
Mo Alavijeh, Pharmidex
John Connell, ICON Development Solutions
Professor John Hardy FRS, Institute of Neurology
Tim Herpin, AstraZeneca
Christopher Holloway, ERA Consulting
Yves Joanette, University of Montreal
Michael Leach, CenTrion
Keith Martin, Apitope
Philip Oliver, Eli Lilly
Michael O’Neill, CEO, EOLAS
Alan Palmer, MS Therapeutics
Tim Sharpington, Phytopharm
Pamela Shaw, University of Sheffield
Lars Sundstrom, SARTRE
Mark Treherne, Senexis
Mark Tricklebank, Eli Lilly
Ian Wilson, GE Healthcare
Dr Susan Windham-Bannister, Massachusetts Office for Life Sciences
Speakers
Mohammad Alavijeh
Managing Director, Pharmidex
Mohammad Alavijeh is a science entrepreneur with over 20 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry, having responsibilities as wide-ranging as R&D and innovation, business development and strategic alliances. His experience covers most therapeutic areas, notably CNS, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular, infection, cancer and inflammation (asthma and arthritis). Dr. Alavijeh is now a world leading authority in CNS DMPK, with distinctive competence in neuro-pharmacokinetics.
Prior to co-founding Pharmidex in 2003, a company that has grown into a world leader in CNS solutions powered by NeuroPK®, Dr. Alavijeh was head of drug metabolism, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic (DMPK/PD) at Vernalis Research, before which he was DMPK team leader at Aventis Pharma. On the academia front, Dr. Alavijeh worked within the Clinical Neurology Department at the Institute of Neurology, University College London. Dr Alavijeh is also a board member of The International Medical Education Trust and a committee member of The Society for Medicine Research.
Dr John Connell
ICON Development Solutions
Dr John Connell completed his PhD at the University of Manchester in 1996 and has over 20 years experience in Clinical Research. The majority of his research has been focused on the application of specialist scientific techniques, including healthy volunteer pharmacodynamic models, in early clinical development. He has worked with ICON Development Solutions for 13 years and is responsible for establishing the Clinical Pharmacodynamics Department whose focus is on the validation and development of reliable surrogate markers of drug activity. His group has contributed to over 200 studies at the Manchester CPU, covering a wide range of therapeutic indications.
Prof. John Hardy
Department of Molecular Neuroscience and Reta Lila Weston Laboratories, UCL Institute of Neurology UK
In 1991 whilst John Hardy was a lecturer at Imperial College, he led the group that found the first mutation in the amyloid gene which caused Alzheimer’s disease. He moved to the US in 1992 and by 1998 was part of the consortium which identified mutations in the tau gene in Pick’s disease. During 2001 now at NIH, he was part of the group which found triplications in the synuclein gene caused Parkinson’s disease. He returned to the Institute of Neurology (UCL) in 2007.
His research is recognized by many awards: the Anna Marie Opprecht Prize for work on Parkinson’s disease and several others for Alzheimer’s disease. Recently in 2011, the Khalid Iqbal Lifetime Achievement Award and IFRAD European Grand Prize.
He is an elected member of the Academy of Medical Sciences, received an Hon MD University of Umea an FRS from the Royal Society in 2009 and DSc from the University of Newcastle 2010.
Photo copyright The Royal Society
Timothy Herpin
Vice-President, Strategic Partnering and Business Development for CNS and Pain, AstraZeneca
Timothy Herpin, Ph.D. recently joined AstraZeneca as Vice-President, Strategic Partnering and Business Development for CNS and Pain. In this role, he leads a team of business development professionals involved in all aspects of deal making for the Neuroscience franchise. Prior to this role, Tim spent eight years in the business development organization at Bristol-Myers Squibb covering both search and evaluation as well as transaction execution in multiple disease areas. Before his business development career, Tim worked in R&D at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Aventis and Pharmacopeia. Tim grew up in Paris and is a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique in France. He also holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from University College London and an MBA in Finance from NYU Stern.
Chris Holloway
Group Director of Regulatory Affairs at ERA Consulting
Chris Holloway is Group Director of Regulatory Affairs at ERA Consulting, with overall responsibility for the company’s operations in Germany, London, Washington, DC, and Australia. He has worked in regulatory affairs, specialising in biotech products and other biologics, for more than 20 years, since leaving academia where he was Professor of Clinical Biochemistry at Hannover Medical School in Germany. Chris graduated in 1971 and obtained his Ph.D. in 1975, after which he held a Royal Society European Research Fellowship at the Max-Planck-Institute in Germany. He then moved into university, and was awarded the venia legendi in 1982. Chris is particularly interested in regulatory strategies for novel therapeutics/platforms, interacting wherever possible with regulators to define expedient routes towards marketing authorizations. He has worked on more than 350 different products, contributing particularly towards approaches to manufacturing and control as well as early non-clinical and clinical development. His team has compiled complete dossiers, and Chris authors expert reports for European submissions.
Yves Joanette 
University of Montreal
Dr. Yves Joanette is the Scientific Director for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Aging and the Executive Director of the International Collaborative Research Strategy for Alzheimer’s Disease (a CIHR Strategic Initiative). He is a professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Montreal where his principal research interests focus on the aging process and cognitive deficits in the elderly. From 1997 to 2009, Dr. Joanette was Director of the Centre de recherche de l'Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal. From 2009 until recently, he was President and CEO of the Fonds de la recherche du Québec–Santé. Yves Joanette is a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.
Dr Keith F Martin
Chief Executive Officer, Apitope
Keith Martin has 25+ years’ experience in large pharma and biotech with senior positions in R&D, corporate & business development, executive and non-executive Board positions in UK, Belgium, USA & Spain. He has raised > € 15 million for early stage companies and developed products from bench to market and completed significant licensing deals.
CEO of Apitope since 2006, he has grown the company in UK & Belgium to > 20 staff.
Previous positions include: BTG’s Global Director, Life Sciences, Deputy Head of Biology at Knoll, Wellcome Trust Fellowship in Mental Health Nottingham University & NATO Exchange Fellowship, Princeton University.
Mike Leach
Technical Officer of CenTRion Therapeutics
Dr. Mike Leach was a former Section Head of Neuropharmacology at Wellcome Research Laboratories (WRL) and is co-founder and Chief Technical Officer of CenTRion Therapeutics Ltd. At WRL he contributed significantly to the discovery and development of the antiepileptic agent Lamotrigine, a known sodium channel blocker. He then led the discovery of the neuroprotective agent Sipatrigine which entered stroke clinical trials. He gained his PhD at the Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London; is a member of the British Pharmacological Society, Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and Reader in Pharmacology and Drug Development at the University of Greenwich.
Tim Sharpington
CEO, Phytopharm
Tim joined Phytopharm as CEO in July 2010 with more than 20 years experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech arena. Past companies include Pfizer, Sequus Inc, Arakis and Serentis. A clinical development professional by background, Tim has held leadership positions in private and public companies in both the US and Europe. He has led public and private fund-raising rounds, a number of M&A and product licensing deals and has led a number of products through development to registration. In addition to his position at Phytopharm Tim is a Non-Executive Director with Clinical Force, a clinical trials software company, and advises a number of small, emerging companies.
Pamela Shaw
Professor of Neurology, University of Sheffield
Pamela Shaw is a clinician scientist in Neurology and formerly a Wellcome Senior Clinical Fellow. Supported by long-term programme funding from the Wellcome Trust, she has since 1991 led a major multidisciplinary programme of research investigating genetic, molecular and neurochemical factors underlying neurodegenerative disorders of the human motor system and evaluating potential neuroprotective agents and improvements in symptomatic management in the clinic.
In 2000 she was appointed as Professor of Neurology, University of Sheffield, Consultant Neurologist, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, and Director of the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN). She is Associate Director and Chair of the Motor Neurone Disease Clinical Studies Group for the UK Dementia and Neurodegenerative Diseases Clinical Research Network (DeNDRoN). Awards made to Professor Shaw include: the Association of British Neurologists Sir Charles Symonds Prize; American Academy of Neurology Sheila Essey Award; elected Fellowship of the American Neurological Association; the Royal College of Physicians Jean Hunter Prize; elected Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences; and the International ALS/MND Alliance Forbes Norris award.
Prof. Lars Sundstrom
Director, SARTRE
Prof. Lars Sundstrom is Director of the Severnside Alliance for Translational Research (SARTRE) at Cardiff and Bristol Universities and Professor of Translational Medicine at Bristol University. His research interests are in the development of new in-vitro tools for profiling new therapeutic drug candidates and particularly the use of organotypic 3D tissue culture systems as tools to predict efficacy of compounds in-vivo. Prior to moving to Bristol Lars was the Director of the Division of Clinical Neurosciences at Southampton University where he was involved in several drug development programs for CNS disorders.
Mark Treherne
CEO, Senexis
Dr Mark Treherne obtained his PhD in neuropharmacology from Cambridge and was formerly at Pfizer, where he was responsible for neurodegenerative diseases research. Mark set up Cambridge Drug Discovery in 1997 as Chief Executive, which was sold to BioFocus (now Galapagos) in 2001 and then joined Senexis as Chief Executive in 2002, where he has focused on disease-modifying therapies for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Senexis is developing novel small molecule inhibitors of amyloid aggregation to inhibit and reverse the pathogenic process of protein misfolding, amyloid-related toxicity and inflammation.
Mark Tricklebank
Senior Research Fellow in Psychiatric Disorders Drug Hunting Team and Director of the Lilly Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience
Mark Tricklebank is a graduate of the University of London (BSc Psychology and Biochemistry; MSc Neurochemistry) with a PhD in developmental neurobiology from the University of Manchester. Following a post-doc at the Institute of Neurology, London, he entered the pharmaceutical industry in 1982 when he joined the Department of Pharmacology of the Centre de Recherche Merrell International, Strasbourg, France. He moved to Merck Sharp and Dohme on the opening of their Neuroscience Research Centre in 1985 in Harlow, UK. In 1995, Mark left Merck to join Novartis (initially Sandoz) in Basel, Switzerland as Head of their Mental Health Unit. Mark Joined Lilly in Erl Wood in 2000 as Director of In Vivo Pharmacology. He is currently a Senior Research Fellow in the Psychiatric Disorders Drug Hunting Team and Director of the Lilly Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, an academic-industrial post-doctoral programme of collaborative research focussed on improving the predictive validity of preclinical research in the area of cognition.
Ian Wilson studies at Manchester University, obtained a First class honours BSc degree in Biochemistry. Ian received a PhD in Cellular Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge; the focus of these postdoctoral studies was examining the role of glycolysis in cancer growth.
Ian has worked for GE Healthcare Medical Diagnostics for the last 16 years holding numerous positions with the R&D group. Most recently as the Head of Biology, GE Healthcare he has responsibility for implementing discovery and development Biology activities, including preclinical GLP studies to enable clinical development of new imaging agents. In addition Ian oversees the discovery strategy and leads development and delivery of the molecular imaging Research Portfolio strategy.
Ian Wilson
Head of Biology, GE Healthcare
Ian Wilson studies at Manchester University, obtained a First class honours BSc degree in Biochemistry. Ian received a PhD in Cellular Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge; the focus of these postdoctoral studies was examining the role of glycolysis in cancer growth.
Ian has worked for GE Healthcare Medical Diagnostics for the last 16 years holding numerous positions with the R&D group. Most recently as the Head of Biology, GE Healthcare he has responsibility for implementing discovery and development Biology activities, including preclinical GLP studies to enable clinical development of new imaging agents. In addition Ian oversees the discovery strategy and leads development and delivery of the molecular imaging Research Portfolio strategy.
Susan Windham-Bannister
First President and CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center
Dr. Susan Windham-Bannister is the first President and CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, a quasi-public organization charged with administering the 10-year $1 billion life sciences initiative enacted by the Massachusetts Legislature in June 2008. The Life Sciences Center is the hub for all sectors of the state’s life sciences community – biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, medical diagnostics and bioinformatics.
Since assuming the executive leadership of the Life Sciences Center in July 2008, Dr. Windham-Bannister has been responsible for the overall implementation of the life sciences initiative, including staffing the Center, developing policies and procedures, creating a brand, and formulating the investment strategy. The Center’s portfolio of investments is promoting economic development, catalyzing innovation, strengthening Massachusetts’ global leadership position in the life sciences, and accelerating the commercialization of promising treatments, therapies and cures.