Governing Board Peter Agre Peter Agre is currently Director of Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute Bloomberg School of Public Health. A native Minnesotan, Peter Agre studied chemistry at Augsburg College (B.A. 1970) and medicine at Johns Hopkins (M.D. 1974). He completed his residency at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and an Oncology Fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Agre joined the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine faculty in 1984 and rose to the rank of Professor of Biological Chemistry and Professor of Medicine. In January 2008, Agre became University Professor and Director of the Malaria Research Institute at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. In 2003, Agre shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering aquaporins, a family of water channel proteins found throughout nature and is responsible for numerous physiological processes in humans and is implicated in multiple clinical disorders including malaria. Agre is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine for which he chaired and serves on the Committee on Human Rights. In 2009, Agre served as President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Pedro Alonso Dr. Pedro Alonso is currently Director Institute for Global Health of Barcelona (ISGlobal) CRESIB- Hospital Clínic University of Barcelona. He started his career in International Health 25 years ago as a physician working in West Africa. Since then his work has focused in the key determinants of morbidity and mortality in the two most vulnerable population groups in Africa: young children and pregnant women. Building and strengthening human and institutional capacity in developing countries as well as in Spain, together with increasing support for other Global Health initiatives has become a growing area of activity. Some of his most relevant work has been carried out in malaria, leading to the development and testing of new control tools for the prevention or treatment of P. falciparum. He has published more than 200 papers in international peer reviewed journals.
In 1996 he led the creation of the Manhiça Health Research Centre (CISM) in Southern Mozambique. Despite its relative short life, the Centre has become one of the leading research infrastructure in Africa. In 2006, Dr. Alonso contributed to the establishment of the first centre for international health research in Spain, the Barcelona Centre for International Health Research (CRESIB). In 2010, he contributed to the creation of the Institute for Global Health of Barcelona (ISGLOBAL) which aims to consolidate a global node of excellence of International Health research, training, think tank and advocacy in Spain. He has served in several national and international committees, including the chair of the Malaria Vaccine Committee at WHO and chair of the Malaria Eradication Research Agenda (MalERA). Currently, he is a Board member of the Medicines for Malaria Venture, chair of the Tropical Disease Research Program of the World Health Organisation Malaria Disease Reference group and cochair of the Decade of Vaccines (DoV) Collaboration. Leszek Borysiewicz Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz was installed as the 345th Vice- Chancellor of the University of Cambridge on 1 October 2010. The Vice- Chancellor is the principal academic and administrative officer of the University. Sir Leszek was previously Chief Executive of the UK s Medical Research Council (2007-10). From 2001 to 2007 he was at Imperial College London, as Principal of the Faculty of Medicine and later as Deputy Rector, responsible for the overall academic and scientific direction of the institution. He led the development of inter-disciplinary research between engineering, physical sciences and biomedicine. In 1988 he was a Lecturer in Medicine at Cambridge. He went on to be Professor of Medicine at the University of Wales in Cardiff, where he led a research team that carried out pioneering work on vaccines. In particular, his unit in Cardiff conducted clinical trials for a therapeutic vaccine for human papillomavirus (a cause of cervical cancer) the first in Europe. He was knighted in 2001 for services to medical research and education. He was a founding Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1996 and a member of its Council from 1997 until 2002; and he became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2008. 2
Shing Chang Dr. Shing Chang is an independent consultant in drug discovery and development for infectious diseases related to global health. He held the position of the R&D Director at Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), a non-profit R&D organization based in Geneva, from October 2007 until his retirement in May, 2012. In this position, he was responsible for building DNDi s project portfolio and developing partnerships to advance the discovery and development of new treatments for neglected diseases. Before joining DNDi, Dr. Chang was Senior Vice President, Drug Discovery and Chief Scientific Officer at ICOS Corporation. From 1991 to 2006, Dr. Chang held various senior management positions at Abbott Laboratories in diagnostics and pharmaceutical research, including Divisional VP Infectious Disease Research. Prior to that, Dr. Chang worked at Cetus Corporation, one of the first biotech companies, beginning as a molecular biologist, and held the position of VP Preclinical and Development before leaving in 1991. Dr. Chang completed his postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Wisconsin and Stanford University. He received his Ph.D. in molecular biology and biochemistry from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his Bachelor of Science in biology from Fu-Jen Catholic University in Taiwan. Alan Fairlamb Professor Fairlamb is Head of the Division of Biological Chemistry and Drug Discovery at the University of Dundee. He obtained his degree in Medicine and PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Edinburgh (1965-1975). Following postdoctoral studies on the biochemistry and chemotherapy of trypanosomes, leishmania and malaria at the University of Amsterdam, the University of Edinburgh, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the Rockefeller University, he moved in 1996 to the University of Dundee as a Wellcome Principal Research Fellow to become Head of the Division of Biological Chemistry & Drug Discovery. Alan has published over 200 research papers and review articles on the identification, validation and molecular characterisation of novel biochemical drug targets against parasitic diseases. His major research achievement was the discovery of trypanothione, a unique metabolite that is implicated in the mode of action of several of the current, unsatisfactory treatments for African trypanosomiasis, Chagas disease and leishmaniasis. Alan is a tireless advocate of the urgent need for new drugs for the most neglected tropical diseases and has served as a scientific advisor to the World Health Organisation, the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative over the past 25 years. Together with colleagues at Dundee, he played a pivotal role in establishing the Drug Discovery Unit, whose primary focus is on tropical parasitic diseases. Among many prizes and 3
honours, he was awarded a CBE in the Queen s New Years Honours 2005, for services to medical science. Carl Nathan Carl Nathan, MD is R.A. Rees Pritchett Professor and chairman of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College and co-chair of the Program in Immunology and Microbial Pathogenesis at Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciences of Cornell University. After graduation from Harvard College and Harvard Medical School, he trained in internal medicine and oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital, the National Cancer Institute and Yale before joining the faculty of The Rockefeller University from 1977-1986. He has been at Weill Cornell Medical College since 1986, where he has served as founding director of the Tri- Institutional MD-PhD Program, senior associate dean for research and acting dean. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, Nathan serves as associate scientific director of the Cancer Research Institute; a Trustee of the Hospital for Special Surgery and chair of the research committee; on the scientific advisory boards of the American Asthma Foundation, the Rita Allen Foundation and the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research; and since 1988, an editor of the Journal of Experimental Medicine. He received the Robert Koch Prize in 2009 for his work on host defense against infection. In work spanning four decades Nathan established that lymphocyte products activate macrophages, that interferon-gamma is a major macrophage activating factor in mice and humans, and that mechanisms of macrophage antimicrobial activity include induction of the respiratory burst and inducible nitric oxide synthase (inos), which he and his colleagues purified, cloned, knocked out and characterized biochemically and functionally. Although inos helps the host control Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Mtb resists sterilization by host immunity. The biochemical basis of Mtb s persistence is the lab s present focus. Genetic and chemical screens have identified enzymes that Mtb requires to survive during non-replicative persistence, including the proteasome, a serine protease that controls intrabacterial ph, and components of pyruvate dehydrogenase and nucleotide excision repair, along with inhibitors of each. Mel Spigelman Dr. Mel Spigelman is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance). Prior to being appointed President and CEO in 2009, Dr. Spigelman served for five and a half years as the Director of Research and Development at the TB Alliance. A highly regarded expert in domestic and international drug research and development, Dr. Spigelman previously spent a decade managing drug R&D at Knoll Pharmaceuticals (a division of BASF 4
Pharma). As Vice President of R&D at Knoll for eight years, Dr. Spigelman directed clinical development and supervised all R&D activities from basic discovery to regulatory approval and Medical Affairs. He established global R&D processes as part of Knoll's senior R&D management team, oversaw a marked increase in US regulatory filings and approvals, and supervised joint R&D programs with multiple other pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Spigelman received his undergraduate degree from Brown University and his medical degree from the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine where he specialized in Internal medicine, Neoplastic Diseases and Preventive Medicine. Dr. Spigelman holds board certifications from the American Board of Internal Medicine, the American Board's Subspecialty Board of Medical Oncology, and the American Board of Preventive Medicine and was the recipient of the American Cancer Society Clinical Oncology Career Development Award (1985-1988). Dr. Spigelman is Co-chair of the Working Group on New Drugs of the WHO Stop TB Partnership and also serves on the Coordinating Board of the Partnership. Alison Strutt Alison Strutt is a Trustee of the Open Lab and was involved in the development of the charitable model and the formation of the Foundation. She joined GlaxoSmithKline in 2004 to work in the Deal Structuring team, providing financial advice on GSK R&D deals including acquisitions, licensing of third party compounds and academic alliances. Her current role is Head of Finance for Medicines Discovery and Development, which encompasses the DDW organisation in Tres Cantos. Alison is a chartered accountant and prior to joining GSK was a corporate finance adviser at Deloitte, advising clients in the Life Sciences and Healthcare Sector on corporate transactions, including acquisitions and disposals, management buy outs and buy ins, company spin outs and fund raising from banks and venture capital organisations. Prior to becoming a financial advisor Alison gained a PhD in Physical Chemistry at Cardiff University, and spent 7 years in a variety of analytical and development chemistry roles in industry. She is married with 3 children. 5
Patrick Vallance Patrick was appointed President, Pharmaceuticals R&D, in January 2012. Prior to his appointment he was Senior Vice President, Medicines Discovery and Development. He is a member of the Corporate Executive Team. As President of R&D he is responsible for ensuring that GSK maintains a flow of potential new medicines through the R&D pipeline from early discovery through to approval. Patrick joined the company in May 2006 as Head of Drug Discovery. He transformed GSK s discovery engine to focus on therapy areas that are underpinned by the most promising and mature science, and set up small, empowered teams, called Discovery Performance Units, to drive success of potential new medicines in the pipeline. This new approach has led to a number of potential new medicines progressing into late-stage development. Prior to joining GSK Patrick was a clinical academic and led the Division of Medicine at University College London. Timothy Wells Dr Timothy Wells joined Medicines for Malaria Venture in October 2007 as the Chief Scientific Officer. He has responsibility for the Research and Development Portfolio, which covers over 50 projects from screening, through to one launched product and two products currently preparing for registration. Prior to joining MMV, he was Senior Executive Vice President Research at Serono. Prior to this he worked at the Glaxo Institute for Molecular Biology. He has over 180 scientific publications, and several patent applications. He has a PhD in Chemistry from Imperial College, London for Protein Engineering studies on enzyme catalysis, with Sir Alan Fersht. He was awarded a ScD in Biology from the University of Cambridge for his later work on Cytokine Biology. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. 6