Daria Mochly-Rosen, Ph.D.
Founder and Chair of the SAB

Dr. Daria Mochly-Rosen received her B.Sc. in Biological Sciences from Tel Aviv University and her doctorate in Chemical Immunology from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot.  She joined the Stanford University faculty in 1993. Dr. Mochly-Rosen is a Professor in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology, and Professor, by courtesy, in the Department of Neurosurgery at Stanford University School of Medicine.  From 2002-2006, she was the Chair of the Department of Molecular Pharmacology. In 2005, she became the Senior Associate Dean for Research for Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Mochly-Rosen was the Reed-Hodgson Professor in Human Biology at Stanford from 1996 to 2001 and was appointed the inaugural holder of the George D. Smith Professorship in Translational Medicine in 2003.  She currently leads the school’s effort in advancing the field of molecular pharmacology and chemical biology and its application to translational medicine.  A biochemist by training, Dr. Mochly-Rosen is focused on medical research.  She studies a family of enzymes called protein kinase C, which, when activated, regulate diverse functions such as heart rate, the response of the heart and brain to stress induced by heart attack, and the regulation of cell growth in normal and cancer tissues.  Her laboratory generated novel isozyme-specific inhibitors and activators.  This research led to the foundation of KAI Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Ronald Burch, M.D. Ph.D

Dr. Burch received a Ph.D. in Pharmacology and M.D. from the Medical University of South Carolina and served as a Medical Staff Fellow at the Nationals Institutes of Health in the Laboratory of Julius Axelrod, NL. Ron has worked within the pharmaceutical industry for more than 20 years: at Nova Pharmaceuticals as Director, Pain & Inflammation; Rhone Poulenc Rorer as Director Immunology and Bone Metabolism; Zeneca Pharmaceuticals as Director, Pharmacology (CNS, Pulmonary and Renal) and Worldwide Head, CNS Therapeutic Area Team; Purdue Pharma as Vice President Scientific Evaluations & Immunotherapeutics and as founder of Purdue BioPharma LP. Ron founded AlgoRx Pharmaceuticals and served as CEO until its merger with Corgentech to form Anesiva. Currently Ron serves on the Board of Directors of Biowave Corp and as Chief Medical Officer of Pacira Pharmaceuticals.

Richard D. DiMarchi, Ph.D.

Dr. DiMarchi is the Linda & Jack Gill Chair in Biomolecular Sciences and Professor of Chemistry at Indiana University. He is a retired Group Vice President at Eli Lilly & Company where for more than two decades he provided leadership for biotechnology, endocrine research and product development. He is a co-founder of the biotechnology companies Ambrx and Inproteo. He previously served as a board member of both the biotechnology trade group BIO and of Millennium Biotherapeutics. His current scientific activities remain focused on the relationship of protein structure and function, with a particular interest in novel methods of macromolecular synthesis and drug delivery. He contributed to the discovery of Humalog® and commercial development of Humulin®, Humatrope®, Glucagon®, Xigris®, Forteo®, and Evista®. Humalog® represents the first biosynthetic hormone optimized by rDNA technology approved as a human medicine and presently registers annual sales in excess of one billon US dollars.

Steve F. Dowdy, Ph.D.

Dr. Dowdy is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and Professor of Cellular & Molecular Medicine at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Irvine, where he studied with Dr. Eric Stanbridge. He did his postdoctoral work with Dr. Robert Weinberg at the Whitehead Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Previously, he was an Assistant Investigator of HHMI and Assistant Professor of Pathology and Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine. His research has revolved around understanding the molecular basis of G1 cell cycle progression, how it is deregulated during oncogenesis and the delivery of experimental anticancer macromolecular therapeutics through protein transduction domains.

Peter A. Kiener, D. Phil

Dr. Peter Kiener is currently the Executive Vice President, Research and Development at MedImmune Inc, which is a subsidiary of AstraZeneca PLC. In this role Dr Kiener has global responsibility for the development of the biologics portfolio for the company. Dr. Kiener holds a bachelor of science degree with honors in chemistry from Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK, and a doctorate of philosophy in biochemistry from the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, Oxford University, Oxford, UK. Prior to joining MedImmune, Dr. Kiener spent 18 years with Bristol-Myers Squibb’s (BMS) Pharmaceutical Research Division, finally holding the position of Director, Immunology, Inflammation, Pulmonary and Oncology Drug Discovery at the BMS facility in Princeton, New Jersey. Before his employment at Bristol-Myers, Dr. Kiener previously served as Assistant Professor at the University of North Texas/Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine’s Department of Anatomy; as a Research Associate at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Massachusetts (Amherst); and as a Postdoctoral Research Assistant, Medical Research Council, Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford. Dr Kiener has more than 100 publications in peer-reviewed journals and is an inventor on six issued patents and 10 published patents, he also serves as a member of the Board of Directors on two biotechnology companies, Virdante and Synovex.