Featured Speakers

Yuan-Cheng Fung, Professor Emeritus of Bioengineering, University of California, San Diego (back to program)

- Fondly known as the father of biomechanics, and 2000 recipient of the President's National Medal of Science, the nation's highest scientific honor.

- "Dr. Fung was one of the first visionaries to recognize that quantitative and analytical engineering principles and technologies could be used to develop innovative ways to diagnose, treat and prevent human disease," said UC President Richard Atkinson

- "He is a truly unique individual, and that is evidenced by his being one of only a handful of people who have been elected a member of all three national academy branches: the National Academy of Science, the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine." said Robert Conn, Dean of the Jacobs School of Engineering, UCSD.

Lin Zhi, Director, Ligand Pharmaceuticals. (back to program)

Lin Zhi received his B.S. and M.S. in chemistry from Beijing University in China. He obtained his Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry in 1990 from Emory University under the supervision of Prof. Albert Padwa and his thesis is "Tandem cyclization-cycloaddition reactions of rhodium(II) carbenoids and its application for the synthesis of heterocyclic molecules". After the postdoctoral training with Prof. Barry Trost in Stanford University, he joined Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. in 1992 and has worked in the area of small-molecule drug discovery targeted at intracellular/nuclear receptors. Currently, he holds the director position in medicinal chemistry, 40 publications, and 39 issued US patents.

Yun He, Associate Director of Medicinal Chemistry at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF). (back to program)

Dr. He has been working on drug discovery programs in infectious disease, inflammation and oncology. Prior to joining GNF, he was a Group Leader at Ibis Therapeutics, a division of ISIS Pharmaceutical Inc., where he worked on drug discovery programs in infectious disease by targeting RNAs. He also carried out drug discovery researches in neuroscience at Abbot Laboratories for several years. Dr. He received his Ph.D. from the Scripps Research Institute.

John Kozarich, President and CEO, ActivX. (back to program)

Dr. Kozarich joins ActivX with over 20 years experience in academic and pharmaceutical research. Most recently, he was Vice President at Merck Research Laboratories, where he was responsible for programs including antimicrobial drug discovery, enzymology, 5a-reductase biology, lipid biochemistry, nuclear receptors, ion channels and structural biology. He has been involved in a number of Merck drug programs, including Propecia, Type-1 5a-reductase inhibitor, and MRSA carbapenams. He also has had primary responsibility for a number of Merck collaborations with biotechnology companies, such as Aurora Biosciences, Cubist and KaroBio. In addition, he has played a major role in Merck's acquisition of SIBIA and in the development of its new Boston Research Center. Previously, Dr. Kozarich held faculty positions at the University of Maryland, College Park, and Yale University School of Medicine. He also served as Vice President, Research and Development at Alkermes, a biotechnology company that develops products based on sophisticated drug delivery technologies. Dr. Kozarich is internationally known for his work on enzyme mechanisms and on the chemistry of DNA cleaving antitumor drugs. He was an American Cancer Society Faculty Research Awardee and in 1988 received the Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry of the American Chemical Society for his unique and broad research contributions. He has also served on numerous government and academic committees. Dr. Kozarich has authored over 125 primary scientific publications and holds three patents.

Nigel Beeley, Vice President, Arena Pharmaceuticals. (back to program)

Dr. Nigel R. A. Beeley obtained a BSc. Honours (Class 1) degree in chemistry from the University of Liverpool, UK followed by a Ph.D. from the University of Manchester, UK on prostaglandin synthesis (supervisor Prof. J.K. Sutherland). He then spent two years as a Royal Society Overseas Research Fellow in Prof. A. Eschenmoser's laboratory (ETH, Zurich, Switzerland) on the synthesis of macrolide antibiotics. His industrial career began at Reckitt and Coleman, Pharmaceuticals Division, UK working on opiates followed by several years in the cardiovascular group of Synthélabo Recherche, Paris, France working on ACE inhibitors, dopamine agonists and calcium antagonists. Returning to the UK in 1988, he joined Celltech as Head of Oncology-Chemistry, contributing in particular to programs on antibody targeting to tumour antigens and inhibitors of matrix metalloproteinases. In 1994 he became Senior Director of Chemistry at Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. San Diego, USA working on peptides and proteins related to amylin, leptin and exendin along with small molecule amylin antagonists, activators of mitochondrial uncoupling protein (UCPs) and anti-atherosclerotic compounds. In early 1999 he joined Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. where he is Vice President and Chief Chemical Officer. His current research interests include the identification and optimization of ligands for both known and orphan G-protein coupled receptors.

James P. Edwards, Research Fellow, Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development. (back to program)

James P. Edwards is a California native, born in Concord, CA. After an undergraduate education at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, CA, he moved to the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. At UIUC, he pursued his doctorate in the laboratories of Professor Scott Denmark, studying organocerium additions to imine derivatives and later the structure of zinc-based cyclopropanation agents. Upon attaining his Ph.D. in 1991, Jim performed post-doctoral work on the preparation of densely functionalized aromatics derived from cyclobutanones in the laboratories of Professor Lanny Liebeskind at Emory University, under an NIH post-doctoral fellowship. He began his career in the pharmaceutical industry at Ligand Pharmaceuticals, where he helped discover novel non-steroidal progesterone, androgen, and glucocorticoid receptor modulators. At the beginning of 2000, he moved to the (then) R.W. Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute, now Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development, where he is a Research Fellow and chemistry Team Leader of the Immunology Team. He is the co-author of 23 published research papers and is a co-inventor on 42 issued U.S. patents.

Ben Munoz, Director, Merck Research Laboratories, La Jolla. (back to program)

Dr. Munoz received his undergraduate training at Brock University and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Toronto in 1991. After completing a post-doctoral stay with Dr. C.-H. Wong at the Scripps Research Institute, Dr. Munoz joined SIBIA Neurosciences, Inc. as Research Scientist in 1993. In 1999 SIBIA Neuroscience was acquired by Merck Research Labs where he is currently Director of Medicinal Chemistry. Dr. Munoz has been actively been involved in numerous central nervous system (CNS) targets over the past 10 years most notably Alzheimer's Disease (AD).

Scott Kahn, Chief Science Officer and Senior Vice President, Research and Development, Accelrys, Inc. (back to program)

Dr. Kahn directs scientific and product research and development at Accelrys, applying over a decade of experience in the computational chemistry industry. Previously a key figure in product development and marketing at BioCAD Inc. and Molecular Simulations Inc., Dr. Kahn has guided the commercial development of some of the world's most widely-used simulation products. He is a strategist and frequent conference speaker on topics relating to the use of information technology to enhance productivity in the discovery of new therapeutics. Dr. Kahn is himself an experienced software developer. His record includes involvement in the SPARTAN program, in developing analysis tools for medicinal chemistry research, and in the creation of a number of widely-used commercial modeling packages. Dr. Kahn received his Ph.D. in Theoretical Organic Chemistry from the University of California, Irvine, after which he did post-doctoral work at Cambridge University, UK. He is also a former Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Cathy Chang, Associate Director, Diversa Corporation. (back to program)

Dr. Chang is currently the Associate Director of Molecular Diversity at Diversa Corporation. Her group is responsible for extracting nucleic acid, and constructing cDNA and genomic libraries, from Diversa’s extensive collection of environmental samples. Prior to joining Diversa, Dr. Chang was a Director at Digital Gene Technologies, where she was responsible for managing the laboratory and robotics for DGT’s proprietary gene expression assay. Her team at DGT also engaged in technology development to advance DGT’s RNA and gene expression methods. Dr. Chang also worked at Stratagene as a Staff Scientist, and she completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the Scripps Research Institute in the Division of Oncovirology. She earned her graduate and undergraduate degrees at Arizona State University and the California Institute of Technology, respectively.

Jian-Bing Fan, Director, Illumina. (back to program)

Jian-Bing Fan, Director of Genetic Analysis, Illumina, has over 10 years of experience in human genome research and array technology development. His research focuses on the genotyping of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), gene _expression profiling/splicing monitoring, and genome-wide DNA methylation detection. He is currently applying all these technologies in a broad spectrum of cancer studies. Before joining Illumina, Dr. Fan was the Manager of Polymorphism Research at Affymetrix where he spearheaded the development of high-density oligonucleotide array technology and its application in large-scale SNP identification and genotyping. Prior to this, Dr. Fan was a senior Research Fellow at Stanford Human Genome Center. He was a key scientist involved in all aspects of the Center's scientific operation, such as large-scale physical mapping and sequencing of human genome. Dr. Fan received his PhD in Human Genetics from Columbia University.

Chi-Cheng Wu, Principal Scientist, Neurome. (back to program)

Dr. Wu is currently a principal scientist at Neurome where his team focuses on optimizing high-throughput morphometric analysis and 3D brain mapping of neurological disorders. In pursuit of the mathematical neuroanatomy, he has incorporated automated 3D neuro-imaging and computational modeling techniques to quantify morphological features of neurons derived from neuropathologic brains. Several of these innovations are currently in the process of patent application. Dr. Wu is also the principle investigator of a FAST track Phases I/II SBIR grant recently submitted to NINDS/NIH.Dr. Wu completed his doctorate training in Physiology/Neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), specialized in neural transplantation of sensory systems. Before joining Neurome, he was as an assistant neuroscientist at the UCSD, leading his team to investigate the plasticity of embryonic visual systems. Dr. Wu also obtained specialized training of cell therapy at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, focusing on in-vivo transplantation for neural regeneration.

Ying Tang, Associate Director, Applied Molecular Evolution, Inc. (back to program)

Dr. Tang has been working in the field of protein engineering for 20-years and is currently interested in applying novel directed evolution technology to improve efficacy and potency of therapeutic proteins including antibodies, cytokines, enzymes and hormones. Dr. Tang received B.S. degree from Hangzhou University, M.S. degree from Shanghai Institute of Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Science, and Ph.D. degree in Macromolecular and Cellular Structure and Chemistry from The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California.

Richard Lin, Scientific Investigator, Ansata Therapeutics. (back to program)

Richard Lin is currently a Scientific Investigator at Ansata Therapeutics, a startup company that is developing novel therapeutics based on cellular transduction technology. Dr. Lin’s group is responsible for the preclinical development of Ansata’s transducible therapeutics using a variety of animal models for oncology and neurodegenerative diseases. Prior to joining Ansata, Dr. Lin was the head of the Physiology Department of Genset Corporation, where he led the efforts to determine the in vivo functions of Genset’s lead therapeutic proteins in the areas of obesity and diabetes. In addition to his role in preclinical drug development, Dr. Lin also actively engages in teaching at the UCSD Extension. He has been an instructor for the class “From Gene to Biological Function” for the last four years. Dr. Lin received his PhD from UC Berkeley, and conducted his postdoctoral research at UC San Diego.

Hongyue "Howard" Zhang, Chairman, President and CEO of Combi-Blocks, Inc. (back to program)

Dr. Zhang has over 20-years experience in synthetic organic chemistry. He founded Combi-Blocks in 1997 and served as CEO in 1998 after resigning from Galderma Research, Inc., where he served as a Principal Scientist. Prior to moving to San Diego in 1995, he was a post-doctoral fellow at University of California, Santa Barbara and also Harvard University. He received his B.S. from Peking University in early 1982 and Ph.D. from Shanghai Institute of Material Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in early 1988.

Eddie Wang Rodringuez, Principal at Fish & Richardson, P.C. (back to program)

Mr. Rodriguez is a principal at Fish & Richardson, P.C. and is the group leader of the corporate and securities group for the firm's San Diego office. Mr. Rodriguez's practice focuses on the representation of both public and private companies in a full range of corporate and securities matters, including corporate formation, mergers and acquisitions, venture financing, technology licensing, and general business counseling. Mr. Rodriguez has extensive experience with counseling companies in the life science, telecommunications, software, hardware, e-commerce and information technology industries in a broad range of transactional matters, including mergers and acquisitions. Prior to joining Fish & Richardson Mr. Rodriguez was a partner at Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison LLP where he headed the mergers and acquisitions group for Brobeck's San Diego office. Mr. Rodriguez received his J.D. from Stanford Law School and his B.A. from the University of California at Los Angeles.

Lei Wu, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of AVIVA Biosciences Corporation. (back to program)

Dr. Wu is a pioneer in the biochip field since he joined the Institute of Biosciences at General Atomics in 1993, where he developed the droplet-based biochip technology. Between 1995 and 1999, Dr. Wu worked at Nanogen where he was instrumental in the development of APEX biochip and instrument. He was the key designer of the Lab-on-a-Chip for Nanogen that was published in Nature Biotechnology with front cover story and selected as Breakthrough of the Year by SCIENCE magazine in 1998. Dr. Wu co-founded AVIVA Biosciences in 1999 with technology transfer from Tsinghua University in China, which has been a feature story in the San Diego Union Tribune as “A Rare Import,” as well as a feature article in Fortune magazine. Dr. Wu has contributed more than 20 patents and patent applications. His planar patch-clamp biochip has won the award of Breakthrough Innovation in Science by BIOCOM in year 2002. Dr. Wu received a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Chicago and post-doctoral training at Massachusetts Institute Technology (MIT).

Henry Li, President and CEO, ChemInnovation. (back to program)

Henry Li is President of ChemInnovation Software Inc. Prior to joining ChemInnovation in 2000, he was Senior Manager of Catalyst and other drug discovery software of Molecular Simulations Inc (now Accelrys). Henry received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from University of Washington Seattle.

Chun Shen, Cofounder, President and COO, Director of EGen Corporation; Vice President of Sinogen international. (back to program)

Dr. Shen co-founded EGen Corporation in 1995, a bridging US-China biotech pioneer. He served COO, Vice Chairman and a Director of the Company since its inception. He became President/COO of the Company in 2000, after completing a $10 million deal of merge/acquisition with Sinogen International which was founded by Palo Alto-based H&Q AP. He led a team of 15 staff, including 7 Ph.D. scientists, to bring recombinant human insulin and human growth hormone from the drug development in the US to the marketplace in China through clinical trials, regulatory approvals, and JV-manufacturing. He was a principle to raise nearly $4 million of equity investment from private investors and US pharmaceutical companies, and to receive research grants from the “863” Biotech program of Ministry of Science and Technology of China. From 1990 to 1995, Dr. Shen involved with increasing levels of technical and managerial responsibilities in 3 biopharmaceutical companies including Chiron. He received his postdoctoral training at the University of California, Los Angeles, Ph.D. in biochemistry from University of Houston, and B.S. from Fudan University, Shanghai.

W. Paul Mar (Wuping Ma), President and CEO, SynChem Inc. (back to program)

Under Dr. Mar’s guidance and with the able management of Drs. Larry Huang and Daniel Fang, SynChem, Inc. has grown from three employees in 1997 to its current 15 employees at the Chicago facility and the establishment of a SynChem operation in Shanghai, China that currently employs 32 scientists. Dr. Mar is not only responsible for establishing and directing the Company’s long term business strategic, daily operating and marketing activities but he is also actively involved in Synchem’s proprietary organic chemistry and drug discovery research. He is a three-time recipient of Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Two of those SBIR awards are from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) and one is for a joint project between the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Dr. Mar’s current focus is on the Company’s strategy for long-term growth and business development while continuing his research in anticancer drug discovery. Dr. Mar was a Research Associate at the Materials Research Center, Northwestern University where he was engaged in organic LED research and prior to this he was a Post Doctoral Fellow at the same school for the investigation and synthesis of capped porphyrins. Dr. Mar received his PhD in Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China in 1990.

Alan Paau, Assistant Vice Chancellor, UCSD (back to program)

Dr. Paau holds a Ph.D. degree in Biological Sciences and a Master of Business Administration degree. He is the inventor to 8 US patents and has contributed thirty peer-reviewed research articles to scientific journals and six invited reviews/chapters to technical books. As a director of intellectual property and a licensing executive, he supervised the execution of over 500 licenses and option agreements and the formation of over 30 startup companies using university innovations. (11/5/01) Prior to UCSD, Dr. Alan Paau was Executive Director of the Iowa State University Research Foundation, Inc. and Director of Intellectual Property & Technology Transfer at Iowa State University (Ames, IA). Previously, he was Associate Director of the Biotechnology Center at the Ohio State University (Columbus, OH) with responsibilities in research administration, technology management, and industry liaison. Dr. Paau held faculty appointments while at Iowa State University in the departments of Preventive Medicine, Immunology & Microbiology, and Genetics & Zoology, and at the Ohio State University in the departments of Microbiology, and Plant Pathology. Before returning to the academic environment, Dr. Paau held various research and management positions in the Cetus Corporation and the W.R. Grace & Co. organization for over 10 years.