Provid contd.
Some bios from the website -
Gary L. Olson, Ph.D, President, CEO, Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Olson is a leading medicinal chemist in the fields of peptide mimetics and structure-based drug design. He received his A.B. from Columbia College in 1967 where he worked with Prof. Gilbert Stork and obtained his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1971 under the direction of Prof. William S. Johnson. He joined Hoffmann-La Roche in 1971 where his early career included process research on vitamin synthesis and medicinal chemistry in the central nervous system area. Dr. Olson initiated the field of peptide mimetics research at Roche, with basic research as well as therapeutic projects aimed at mimetics of thyrotropin releasing hormone (for cognitive deficits), interleukin-1 inhibitors and MHC class II antagonists for arthritis. Dr. Olson held a series of research positions at Roche, leading to responsibilities for chemistry in the Departments of Inflammation/Autoimmune Diseases and Oncology where he was Research Director.
In 1998, he joined Praecis Pharmaceuticals as Senior Vice President of Chemistry Research and Development and was President of Praecis' chemistry division in New Jersey. He founded Provid Research, LLC (now Provid Pharmaceuticals Inc.) as an independent company in April 2001.
Dr. Olson has published over 40 papers in scientific journals, holds 26 U.S. patents, and has lectured widely. He has been a visiting scientist at F. Hoffmann-La Roche headquarters in Basle, at Jilin University in China, and at Oregon State University. He is currently Adjunct Professor at Rutgers in the School of Pharmacy, and a member of the board of the Residential School on Medicinal Chemistry at Drew University. He is Editor-in-Chief of Drug Design and Discovery, and a member of editorial boards of several scientific journals.
Christopher R. Self, Ph.D. Vice President, Medicinal Chemistry
Dr. Self has broad experience in the pharmaceutical industry and expertise in organic and medicinal chemistry applied in the fields of inflammation, autoimmune diseases, and oncology. He received a B.Sc. in chemistry from Imperial College, London in 1977, and his Ph.D. at the University of London under the direction of Prof. Stephen Ley. Following a postdoctoral appointment at Wisconsin with Prof. Barry Trost, he joined Roche Products Ltd., UK, in 1982 as a senior researcher in the Department of Inflammation, and from 1995 held the position of Research Leader at Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., USA in the Department of Inflammation/Autoimmune Diseases.
His early career led to the discovery of Romazarit, a disease modifying anti-rheumatic drug which Roche took into Phase I clinical trial. Other research areas he has been involved with include: interleukin-1 response modifiers; interleukin-1 antagonists; CD4 antagonists; SH2 domain antagonists and protein kinase inhibitors. He had been at the forefront of the structure-based drug design efforts and projects relating to high throughput screening and inter-research center collaborations in the area of immunomodulation.
In 1998, Dr. Self became Vice President, Medicinal Chemistry of Praecis' New Jersey division, and became a co-founder of Provid in 2001 where he is currently Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry. He has 16 publications in scientific journals and 5 patents, and he serves as assistant editor of Drug Design and Discovery.
Charles M. Cook, Ph. D. Vice President, Information Science
Dr. Cook is a leading computational chemist in the field of industrial molecular modeling. He received an A.B. in chemistry and computer science from Cornell University in 1976, and his Ph.D. in chemistry from Princeton University where he worked with Prof. Leland Allen. He joined Hoffmann-La Roche in 1983 in the Department of Physical Chemistry in the molecular modeling group.
His expertise in molecular modeling and computational methods includes ab initio and semiempirical quantum approaches, molecular mechanics and dynamics, protein homology modeling, docking methodology, pharmacophore determination, conformational analysis, force field development, and structural database technology. He held a number of research positions at Roche including supervisory responsibility as a Research Leader for the Molecular Modeling and Mass Spectroscopy groups as well as managerial responsibility for analytical and biostructural computing within Roche chemistry.
Dr. Cook joined Praecis' New Jersey division in 1998 as Vice President, Computational Sciences, and co-founded Provid in 2001 where he serves as Vice President, Information Sciences. He has published 15 scientific papers in the field of drug design and modeling.
Ralph F. Hirschmann, Ph.D. Co-Chair, Scientific Advisory Board
Dr. Hirschmann is the Rao Makineni Professor of Bioorganic Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his B.A. from Oberlin College and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Hirschmann is known for synthesis of molecules with specific biological and medicinal functions, producing breakthroughs such as a new class of anti-inflammatory steroids and a new approach to the treatment of insulin-requiring diabetics. He came to the University of Pennsylvania as a Research Professor in 1987 from the Senior Vice Presidency/Basic Research of Merck & Co. Inc., where he had spent the first 34 years of his career. His area at Merck discovered and developed Vasotek, Lisinopril, Primaxin, Ivomec, Mevacor, and Proscar, and his research team achieved the first total synthesis of an enzyme in solution.
In collaboration with Professor Amos Smith at Penn, Dr. Hirschmann has pioneered the field of non-peptide peptidomimetics, using sugars as replacements of the peptide backbone and in developing the novel pyrrolinone system as an alternative to the peptide backbone.
Professor Hirschmann is one of the most honored and respected scientists in his field. Among many honors, he has received the American Chemical Society's Arthur C. Cope Award, and was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received the National Academy of Sciences Award for the Industrial Application of Science in 1999 and the National Medal of Science in 2000 from President Clinton. He has received many other honors, including honorary degrees from Oberlin College, the Medical University of South Carolina, and the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
Amos B. Smith, III, Ph.D. Co-Chair, Scientific Advisory Board
Dr. Smith is the Rhodes-Thompson Professor of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania and Member of the Monell Chemical Senses Center and the Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter (LRSM). He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Bucknell University and Ph.D. from the Rockefeller University.
He is widely recognized as one of the world?s leading synthetic organic chemists and has broad knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry gained through consulting and training of many industry scientists. He joined the faculty at Penn in 1973 after a year as a Research Associate at Rockefeller University. From 1988 to 1996 he served as Chairman of the Department. In addition, he is a Visiting Director at the Kitasato Institute (Tokyo, Japan).
Smith's research interests encompass three diverse areas: natural product synthesis, bioorganic chemistry and materials science. To date more than 75 architecturally complex natural products have been prepared in his Laboratory. In addition, Smith, in collaboration with Ralph Hirschmann, has executed the design and synthesis of non-peptide peptidomimetics of protease enzymes via the design and development of the polypyrrolinone scaffold to mimic ß-turns, ß-strands/sheets, and helices, and, also with Stephen Benkovic (Penn State), haptens for the production of catalytic antibodies capable of peptide bond formation.
Smith has been a Visiting Professor at both Columbia and Cambridge Universities. He has also served on the NIH Medicinal Chemistry A Study Section as Member and as Chair and as Chair of the Executive Committee of the Organic Division of the American Chemical Society. Currently, he is a Member of the Board of Directors, Organic Reactions. In 1998 he became the first Editor-in-Chief of the new ACS journal, Organic Letters. He is co-author of over 400 publications and has delivered over 520 invited lectures. His honors and awards include the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (1985), the Kitasato Institute Medal (1990), the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award (1991), the ACS Ernest Guenther Award (1993), the University of Oregon Creativity Award (1997), the ACS Award for Creativity in Organic Chemistry (1997), Honorary Membership in the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan (1999), and Honorary Member, Kitasato Institute (2001).
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