Scientific Advisory Board

Richard J. White, PhD (Chairman)
Dr. White is a consultant to the biotech industry. After a post-doctoral fellowship on microbial biochemistry at Oxford, he began a career in infectious disease drug discovery in 1969. The first 28 years were spent in the pharmaceutical industry in positions of increasing responsibility at Lepetit, Glaxo, Lederle, and finally at Bristol Myers Squib. At BMS he was Vice President in charge of Infectious Disease Drug Discovery for 12 years, and was involved with the Discovery/Development of the cephalosporins Cefepime and Cefprozil, and the AIDS drugs Didanosine and Zerit. In 1997 he moved to Biotech taking a position at Versicor in California where he became Chief Scientific Officer. In the ensuing 8 years he played an important role in licensing in and development of Dalbavancin and Anidulafungin, taking Versicor public, merging with Biosearch Italia to create Vicuron, and ultimately achieving a market capital of 1.9 billion dollars when it was sold to Pfizer in 2005. His research interests are on the mechanism of action of and resistance to antimicrobial drugs, and the special role that natural products have played in treating infectious diseases. He was educated in England where he received his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from the University of Manchester, and a Ph.D. in Microbial Biochemistry from the University of Oxford.

William R. Baker, PhD
Dr. Baker is currently at Gilead Sciences, following Gilead's acquisition of Corus in 2006. He joined Corus Pharma as Vice President, Research in June 2002, with more than 20 years of research and drug discovery experience. Prior to joining Corus Pharma, Dr. Baker was Chief Operating Officer and VP Research for Optimer Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he focused on developing novel therapeutics for infectious disease and cancer. Previously, Dr. Baker served as Senior Vice President of Research and Preclinical Development for PathoGenesis Corporation. Prior to PathoGenesis, Dr. Baker was Associate Research Fellow at Abbott Laboratories, where he directed research in cardiovascular and anti-infective drug discovery. While at Abbott his research developed the 11, 12 carbamate reaction sequence and full sugar analogs technology that enabled the ketolide class of macrolide antibiotics. Dr. Baker received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Illinois, Champaign and his BS degree in chemistry from the University of Washington.

J. Carl Craft, MD
Dr. Craft is the Chief Scientific Officer for Medicines for Malaria Venture in Geneva since 2002. During that time MMV has grown from a portfolio of 11 projects to the present portfolio with 20 projects, 3 in phase III clinical trials, 4 in Phase I/II, one in preclinical development and 12 projects in discovery. To date MMV has raised over 250 million dollars to support the largest ever anti-malarial drug development portfolio. Before coming to MMV he was at Abbott Laboratories for 15 years in Anti-Infective Development. Before moving to Industry he was at Tulane University in the Department of Pediatrics Infectious Diseases and Department of Pathology for 8 years. At Tulane he was the Director of Pediatric Closed at the Care Charity Hospital of New Orleans and Director of The Clinical Microbiology Laboratory Tulane Medical Center. He served for 2 years in the Navy with a rank of Lieutenant Commander and was Chief of Pediatrics at the U.S. Naval Regional Medical Center, Guam, M.I.. He was a Research Fellow in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at The University of Texas, Southwestern Medical School, Dallas Texas, under Drs. John Nelson and George McCracken. He did his residency in Pediatrics at Milwaukee Children's Hospital, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He received his MD from The George Washington University, Medical School in Washington, D.C.

Sherwood L. Gorbach, MD
Dr. Gorbach holds professorships in the Departments of Public Health, Medicine, and Molecular Biology and Microbiology at Tufts Medical School. He is also a Professor in the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. He graduated Tufts University School of Medicine in 1962. After internship and residency in internal medicine at Cornell-Bellevue Medical Center, he returned to the New England Medical Center for a fellowship in infectious disease. He received additional postgraduate training in parasitology and entomology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and in gastroenterology at the Hammersmith Royal Postgraduate Medical School in London. He has conducted studies of enteric infections and nutrition in India and Latin America. Based on extensive investigations on the intestinal microflora which were initiated in 1964, Dr. Gorbach began studies of anaerobic bacteria in surgical and gynecological infections in 1969. He introduced clindamycin as an anti-anaerobe drug and showed that it was efficacious in treating intraabdominal infections. He and his colleagues conducted the first randomized, clinical trial of anaerobic infections by studying clindamycin-aminoglycoside versus cephalothin-aminoglycoside in penetrating abdominal trauma. Working with Ron Nichols and Robert Condon, the neomycin-erythromycin bowel prep was devised and tested in patients. He participated in the subsequent VA Hospital multicenter trials that established this regimen as a safe and effective bowel prep for elective colon operations, lowering postoperative wound infections from 39% to 8%. He has participated in many antibiotic drug trials including those involving clindamycin, cefoxitin, cefotetan, amikacin, vancomycin, bacitracin, imipenem, and ciprofloxacin. He and his colleagues at Tufts reported in 1978 that Clostridium difficile was the cause of pseudomembranous colitis and then described the cytotoxin assay which is still used for diagnosis. Dr. Gorbach began research on lactic acid bacteria and fermented milk products in 1964. Along with Dr. Barry Goldin, he undertook a discovery program for improved probiotic strains in 1983. As a result of this effort, Lactobacillus GG (LGG) was discovered in 1985. Research on the beneficial properties of LGG was begun at that time and continues to this day. This probiotic is now marketed in 40 countries as a dairy product or in a tablet form. Since 1969, Dr. Gorbach has been continuously funded as a principal investigator by the National Institutes of Health for research in gastrointestinal infections and nutrition. He was awarded a MERIT Award in 1986 for studies of diet and breast cancer. Currently he is principal investigator on a Center grant for studying nutrition and metabolic issues in drug abusers with HIV in four cities in the USA and in India, Viet Nam and Argentina. Dr. Gorbach has published over 550 papers and has authored nineteen books. He serves as editor of CLINICAL INFECTIOUS DISEASES.

Ronald N. Jones, MD
Dr. Jones is an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts and is President/CEO of JMI Laboratories in North Liberty, Iowa, USA. Dr. Jones obtained his medical degree from the University of Oregon, where he also served an internship and residency in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology. He is board certified in anatomic and clinical pathology by the American Board of Pathology. He is a fellow in the American Society of Clinical Pathologists, the College of American Pathologists, the American Academy of Microbiology, the Infectious Disease Society of America and numerous other organizations. He has served on or chaired numerous committees or subcommittees of the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (formerly the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards) over the last 25 years (recipient of the Eilers Award in 2001, the highest award given by the CLSI), and is also a member of the advisory council for antimicrobial agents of the U.S. Pharmacopeia. Dr. Jones has authored over 1,300 peer-reviewed publications on a variety of topics relating to the comprehensive evaluation of new antimicrobial agents, antimicrobial susceptibility test development, and resistance mechanisms and their phenotypic expression or molecular epidemiology. He has also authored a number of book chapters, hundreds of abstracts, pamphlets, and monographs, sits on the editorial board of several international peer-reviewed journals, and is currently the Editor-in-Chief of Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease, a well known international publication. He has been the principal global investigator for the SENTRY Antimicrobial Surveillance Program and the MYSTIC Programme (1997-present), as well as a regional monitor for other resistance surveillance networks (ZAPS, ZAAPS, SMART, LEADER, SPAR, SCOPE etc).

André G. Pernet, PhD, MBA
Dr. Pernet is currently President of Quark Biotech, a company devoted to the treatment of diabetes, lipid disorders and associated pathologies. He serves on the Board of Directors of Kaleidos Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and ViroChem, representing its major Quebec investors, FSTQ (both companies privately held). He also is on the Scientific Advisory Board of Targanta, a private Canadian firm. In recent years, he was on the Boards of Celeris Corporation, Synsorb, Advanced Pharma and Genescape, and on the Scientific Board of Pathogenesis. Between 2000 and mid-2002 Dr. Pernet served as Chairman&CEO of Genset, a European genomic company which was successfully sold to Serono. Dr. Pernet joined Abbott Laboratories in Canada in 1973 as a research chemist after obtaining degrees in management, chemical engineering, and a doctorate in chemistry. He served in several research management positions after joining Abbott's pharmaceutical products division in Chicago in 1980. He was named divisional vice president of anti-infective research and development in the same division in 1989. In June 1992, Pernet was promoted to divisional vice president to head the worldwide development of pharmaceuticals. Dr. Pernet was elected corporate officer and Vice President, Pharmaceutical Products Research and Development in 1994, heading an organization of 2700 scientists with an annual budget responsibility of $600 million. During his tenure he developed drugs in the areas of schizophrenia, manic depression, analgesia, epilepsy, prostate hypertrophy, anti-infective, and stroke. Among his accomplishments is the worldwide development of the antibiotic Biaxin (clarithromycin), the sales of which peaked at $1.2 billion. He spearheaded the AIDS research at Abbott and developed Norvir, one of the three breakthrough protease inhibitors which together reduced mortality in AIDS patients by 74%, and he initiated the discovery and development of Kaletra, now a major therapeutic tool in HIV treatment. In February 1999, Pernet's team was awarded the Prix Galien International, which is considered one of the highest distinctions for medical and scientific contribution.

Peter S. Ringrose, PhD
Dr. Ringrose was appointed as Chair of the UK Government's Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) in May 2003. In December 2002 he retired as Chief Scientific Officer of Bristol-Myers Squibb and President of the Pharmaceutical Research Institute based in Princeton USA (1997-2002). Prior to joining BMS, Dr. Ringrose was with Pfizer Inc (1982-1996) and became Senior Vice-President for Worldwide Drug Discovery and Medicinal R&D Europe based in Sandwich, UK. Before Pfizer he was Division Director of Chemotherapy, Infectious Diseases and Molecular Sciences at the Sandoz Research Institute in Vienna, Austria (1979-82) and held scientific positions with Hoffman La Roche in Welwyn, UK and Nutley, USA (1970-79). During his time at Pfizer, Dr. Ringrose was responsible for teams involved in the discovery and development of amlodipine (Norvasc), fluconazole (Diflucan), doxazosin (Cardura), sildenafil (Viagra), dofetilide (Tikosyn), darifenacin (Enablex), elitriptan (Relpax), voriconazole (Vfend). At BMS he was responsible for the development of aripiprazole (Abilify), cetuximab (Erbitux), atazanavir (Reyataz), gatifloxacin (Tequin), Entecavir , abatacept, ixabepilone and muraglitazar. Dr. Ringrose gained his Master's degree and PhD from the University of Cambridge (Corpus Christi College) in Biochemistry and Molecular Microbiology (1964-70) and was awarded the Francis Bacon scholarship. Dr. Ringrose has served on numerous scientific and educational advisory committees during his career, including the Policy Advisory Board of the Centre for Medicines Research International, the Science and Regulatory Executive for PhRMA (Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America), the US Council on Competitiveness, past-Chairman of the Hever Group of Pharmaceutical R&D Heads (1999-2002), the editorial board of Expert Opinion on Investigational Drugs, the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine New Jersey, and the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industries (ABPI) Scientific Committee. He was a past Board member of Pfizer Ltd. and of ImClone Systems Inc., and chaired the Europa Bio Congress session on new cancer therapies in Vienna 2003. He currently serves on the Board of Cambridge Antibody Technology as a non-executive director and is Chairman of CAT's Scientific Advisory Board and Remuneration Committee. He is also a non-executive director on the Boards of Astex Technology, Cambridge and Rigel Pharmaceuticals, San Francisco. He is a member of the SAB of Accenture Life Sciences and of Merlin Biosciences. Dr. Ringrose also serves on the Board of Governors of the New York Academy of Sciences, is a William Pitt Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge and Chair of the College Corporate Development Committee, is a member of the University of Cambridge Chemistry Advisory Board and was appointed to the Chancellor's Court of Benefactors at the University of Oxford in 1998. He is a Council Member of the Foundation for Science and Technology UK.

Youe-Kong Shue, PhD
Dr. Shue came to Optimer in June 2000 with extensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh with Professor Julius Rebek, Jr. and was a postdoctoral associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the late Professor George Büchi's lab. In 1983, he joined Abbott Laboratories where he conducted drug discovery research in the neuroscience area, specifically, to develop novel therapies to treat Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. He was an Associate Research Fellow of Volweiler Society, and Chemistry Group Leader of the medicinal chemistry efforts that identified a selective dopamine D1 agonist, ABT 431, as a pre-clinical candidate for Parkinson's disease. In 1993, he joined Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc. as Director of Chemistry to set-up the new company. At Cubist, he initiated and directed drug development projects in the anti-infective research area. In 1996, he joined AstraZeneca R&D Boston Inc., where he led a drug development program to identify novel therapies against Helicobacter pylori. At Optimer, he is leading the clinical development of OPT-80, a narrow-spectrum antibiotic for Cloistidium difficile -associated diarrhea, and OPT-99, a broad-spectrum fluoroquinolone, both are in Phase 3 clinical trials.

Yoshi Ichikawa, PhD - Optimer Representative
Dr. Ichikawa joined Optimer in September 2001 with 19 years experience in both chemical/enzymatic synthesis and biology of small molecules to complex carbohydrates. Before, at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, he was a Professor and worked on inhibitor design for key enzymes, including glycosyltransferases and DNA repair enzymes. At Optimer, he is a senior director of Chemistry and has been overseeing all the chemistry-related programs: discovery of macrolides and aminoglycosides through Optimer's proprietary glyco-optimization technology, arthritis, and cancer vaccine. He also plays a role in company's licensing activities.