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Enabling Drug Discovery in Academia Alvin Stern, PhD, Director of the CHI Biotechnology and DrugDiscovery Laboratory at Stevens Mission: Center for research in the areas of preclinical gene cloning and purification of proteins, assay development and robotic screening for drug discovery Partnering opportunities: • • • • • Faculty affiliates of the CHI Students of SIT Big Pharma Start-up and established Biotechs Incubator for pre-clinical drug discovery projects Origins of Biotech/Drug Discovery Laboratory • Equipment and support from Roche/Nutley • All members are former Roche/Nutley employees • Largest spin-out from the closing of Roche/Nutley Who are we? Ueli Gubler – Head, Molecular Biology Section • Former Head of Biotechnology at Roche/Nutley • Over 30 years experience in the cloning and expression of proteins • Seminal work on efficient cDNA cloning • Major contributions in the field of CCK, GRF, IL-1, IL-12 • Awarded the Roche Research & Discovery Prize for discovery of IL12 • Since 1993, executive editor on the board of Analytical Biochemistry • Co-inventor on 7 patents and is an author on 79 publications Who are we? Kuo-Sen Huang– Head, Assay Development/Screening • Over 30 years of experience in: • protein biochemistry • assay development • high throughput screening • data management • Made crucial contributions to team that developed a potent VLA4 antagonist for Phase I and II clinical studies • Author of 45 publications and an inventor (or co-inventor) of five assay and protein related patents Who are we? Alvin Stern– Head, Biotech/Drug Development Laboratory • Former Head of Protein Biochemistry at Roche/Nutley • Over 35 years experience in the purification of protein using innovative technologies • Pioneering work on the identification and purification of IL-2 • Awarded Roche Research and Development Prize for the discovery of IL-12 • Author or coauthor of over 65 publications and inventor or coinventor on four protein purification patents Who are we? • Wei Chu – Molecular Biologist • 20 years experience • protein expression and vector engineering • Naoko Tanaka – Protein Biochemistry • 14 years experience • purification and characterization of viral proteins • Xiaolei Zhang – Assay development • 20 years experience • Lena Liang – Protein Biochemistry Accomplishments • Active projects • 3 research projects with Roche/Basel • 3 research projects with three biotech start-up companies • Start-up mode • Multi-plexed projects with CRO • Major big pharma company Drug Discovery at SIT/CHI Targeting Mutant Ras for Cancer Therapy: Identification of Ras Inhibitors RAS • The most frequently mutated oncogene in human cancers, associated with poor prognosis and drug resistance • Essential for tumor initiation and tumor maintenance • Previously proven to be an “undruggable” target: many efforts failed If “undruggable” then why now? • Novel chemistry & screening technologies (fragment, PPI libraries & DELT) • Combined with improved molecular modeling & biophysical (NMR and crystallography) capabilities • Better understanding in Ras and downstream pathway biology • Emerging evidences appear to demonstrate Ras’ druggability Ras – Effector Signaling Pathways Location: McLean Room 412 www.stevens.edu/chi/biotech