John C. Chabala, PhD, Scientific Advisor

Dr. Chabala has over thirty years of experience as a medicinal chemist and research executive in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Since 1995 he has served as a scientific advisory board member or as an independent consultant for 25 biotechnology companies, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and the Hereditary Disease Foundation. Dr. Chabala is a founder of Pharmacopeia, Inc., where he served as President from 1993 to 1996 and Chief Scientific Officer from 1993 to 1997. Before joining Pharmacopeia, Dr. Chabala was Vice President of Discovery Chemistry at Bristol-Myers Squibb from 1991 to 1993, where he supervised worldwide medicinal chemistry research. From 1975 to 1991 he was with Merck Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories, ultimately as Executive Director of Basic Chemistry, where he supervised a variety of medicinal chemistry programs as well as Biophysical Chemistry and Natural Products Chemistry. He is a co-inventor of ivermectin, one of world's largest-selling parasiticides, for which he received the Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award in 1987.

Neal Rosen, MD, PhD

Dr. Neal Rosen is a Member in the Department of Medicine and in the Molecular Pharmacology and Chemistry Program at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where he serves as Head of Developmental Therapeutics. He is also a Professor of Pharmacology, Cell Biology and Medicine at Cornell University Medical School. His major interests are the identification and study of key molecular events and growth signaling pathways responsible for the development of human cancer and the use of this information for developing mechanism-based therapeutic strategies. Currently his laboratory work focuses on using pharmacologic and genetic approaches to develop a detailed understanding of feedback and cross-talk among oncogene-activated pathways in order to develop rational combination therapy for refractory breast and lung cancer, melanoma and other tumors. Multiple novel clinical trials based on the work of the Rosen laboratory are being tested at Memorial Sloan-Kettering and other cancer centers in the United States and internationally. Dr. Rosen received his undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Columbia College and an MD, PhD in Molecular Biology from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He completed a residency in Internal Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and post-doctoral training and a fellowship in Medical Oncology at the National Cancer Institute. He was on the senior staff of the Medicine Branch at the NCI prior to joining the faculty of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Nicolas Winssinger, PhD

Dr. Winssinger had been professor of chemistry at the Institut de Science et Ingénierie Supramoléculaires at Louis Pasteur University since 2002 where he directs a program aimed measuring and modulating protein activity on a proteomic scale with a particular emphasis on proteases and kinases. This work has led to the identifications of several inhibitors against targets relevant to the NF1 and NF2 pathology. Prior to that, he worked at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Foundation and Sphinx Pharmaceuticals, a division of Eli Lilly.

Scientific Consultants/Collaborators

Glioblastoma:

Al Charest
Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery
Department of Neurosurgery & Molecular Oncology Research Institute
Tufts Medical Center Boston, MA

Neurodegenerative Diseases:

Heather D. Durham, PhD
Professor, Department of Neurology/Neurosurgery
Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University
Montreal, PQ

J. Paul Taylor, MD, PhD
Associate Member, Neurology/Neurosurgery
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Memphis, TN

Neurofibromatosis:

Jonathan Chernoff, MD, PhD
Director, Tumor Cell Biology
Fox Chase Cancer Center
Philadelphia, PA

Marco Giovannini, MD, PhD
Director, Neural Tumor Research
House Ear Institute
Los Angeles, CA

Bruce Strober, MD
Associate Director, Dermatopharmacology Unit
Department of Dermatology, NYU School of Medicine
New York, NY

Autism Spectrum Disorders:

Thomas A. Jongens, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Genetics
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine Philadelphia, PA