Advisors

Dr. Michael J. Gresser Ph.D.Chairman

Dr. Gresser is an expert in drug development and the advancement of lead compounds into clinical trials. Most recently he served as Vice President of Research for Inflammation at Amgen, Inc. Previously, Dr. Gresser was the Executive Director of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Merck Frosst Center for Therapeutic Research, where he was involved in the development of Singulair® and Vioxx®. Dr. Gresser was a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the Simon Fraser University, a postdoctoral fellow at the Molecular Biology Institute at UCLA, and received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Brandeis University. Dr. Gresser is currently the Chief Scientific Officer at Oxford BioTherapeutics, a Visiting Scholar at the Molecular Biology Institute at UCLA, and a principal with Clarity Therapeutics Consulting.

Dr. C. Geoffrey Davis Ph.D.

Dr. Davis, currently President and CEO of Angelica Therapeutics, was a founder and the Chief Scientific Officer for Abgenix, Inc., where he led the development of the XenoMouse® technology, was involved in the research and development of Vectabix®, a fully human monoclonal antibody approved for colorectal cancer, and guided the discovery of 11 other antibodies currently in clinical trials. Prior to founding Abgenix, Dr. Davis was a faculty member at the University of California, San Francisco, an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Director of Immunology at both Repligen Corp. and Cell Genesys, Inc. Dr. Davis received his Ph.D. in immunology from UCSF and completed his postdoctoral work at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He is the author of 37 publications and is an inventor on 12 issued patents.

Dr. Richard Lavery Ph.D.

Dr. Lavery is a world-renowned expert on the development and application of molecular mechanics, molecular dynamics, and conformational analysis on nucleic acid and protein systems. He is the author of over 170 peer-reviewed articles, 15 book chapters and the co-editor of 5 books. He is currently the Head of the Department of Molecular Biostructures at the Institut de Biologie et Chimie des Protéines (IBCP) in Lyon. Dr. Lavery is also the recent President of the International Society of Quantum Biology and Pharmacology and a member of the EPSRC Peer Review College (UK). Additionally, he serves on the editorial boards of prestigious journals such as The European Journal of Chemical Physics and Physical Chemistry (ChemPhysChem), the Journal of Computational Chemistry, Theoretical Chemistry Accounts, and Open Chemical Physics Journal. Dr. Lavery was a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge University, UK and Director of the Theoretical Biochemistry Laboratory at the Institute de Biologie Physico-Chimique in Paris. Dr. Lavery has a doctoral degree from the University of Paris and Ph.D. and B.Sc. degrees from the University of Manchester, UK.

Dr. Mihaly Mezei Ph.D.

Dr. Mihaly Mezei is a world-renowned expert in the areas of statistical mechanics and simulation methodologies and has authored over 100 scientific publications. Dr. Mezei is presently an Associate Professor and Director of Molecular Modeling Core for the Departments of Physiology and Biophysics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York University, where he is developing and implementing novel computational techniques for the prediction and analysis of complex molecular systems in aqueous environments. Dr. Mezei received his Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Theoretical Inorganic Chemistry from the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary.

Dr. Bruce Tidor Ph.D.

Dr. Bruce Tidor is Professor of Biological Engineering and Computer Science and is a member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT. With over 100 peer-reviewed publications, Dr. Tidor’s prolific research centers on the use of molecular modeling and computation to understand protein and nucleic acid structures, functions, and interactions. One of his recent highly regarded studies described the use of rational design to optimize monoclonal antibodies Avastin® and Erbitux®, leading to the opportunity to use similar approaches to develop second-generation protein therapeutics. Dr. Tidor graduated summa cum laude with an A.B. in Chemistry and Physics from Harvard College, earned a M.Sc. in Biochemistry at Oxford University’s Wolfson College as a Marshall Scholar, and received his Ph.D. in Biophysics from Harvard. He was a Whitehead Fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and currently serves as the founding co-Director of MIT’s Computational and Systems Biology Initiative.