Trevor M Twose BSc, PhD, Chief Executive Officer: Trevor Twose is a Founder and CEO of Mithridion. Dr Twose has more than 30 years of biomedical business and research experience, covering general management, R&D, business and corporate development, and finance in start-up, development-stage and established pharmaceutical, diagnostics and biotechnology companies.
Prior to founding Mithridion, he served as the founding CEO and Research Director of Scarab Genomics LLC, a 'synthetic biloogy' spin-out from the University of Wisconsin. Previously, he was Chief Executive of Medical Solutions plc, a $25 million turnover London Stock Exchange-listed medical products group. Prior to that, he was a founder and first CEO of a cancer therapy company EPTTCO (now Proacta Therapeutics, Auckland, New Zealand and Delaware, USA), which brought together science and technology from leading UK and New Zealand cancer researchers. For six years he was with Xenova Group plc, a listed biopharmaceutical company, latterly as a main board director and Chief Financial Officer. During his tenure, he played pivotal roles in raising over $90 million in US and European capital markets, completing the company’s IPOs on Nasdaq (symbol: XNVA) in the US and on the London Stock Exchange (symbol: XEN). Earlier in his career, he was as an independent consultant, with a wide range of US and European clients in the pharmaceutical, diagnostic and biotechnology industries. He was a founder of a new diagnostics division of ICI Pharmaceuticals (AstraZeneca) and played a pivotal role in launching its subsidiary Cellmark Diagnostics in the USA and Europe to commercialize DNA fingerprinting technology. This technology revolutionized forensic medicine. The business is now part of Orchid Cellmark (Nasdaq: ORCH). Dr Twose spent the previous 11 years at ICI (now AstraZeneca) Pharmaceuticals, where he led multidisciplinary teams of arthritis, inflammation and immunology researchers, genetic engineers and medicinal chemists based in the UK and France.
Dr. Twose is a board director and was Treasurer of BioForward, the Wisconsin state biotechnology association, and a founding board director of Thrive, the Greater Madison economic development organization. He served as a member of the UK government Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology & Devices Technology Foresight panel, and as a director of BIA, the UK national BioIndustry Association. He was awarded his PhD and BSc in Biological Chemistry by the University of Manchester, UK, and he trained as a postdoctoral researcher in the Laboratory of Molecular Biology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI in the USA.
Bruce G. McCarthy, MD MBA. VP Drug Development and Chief Medical Officer. Bruce has 20 years of post-graduate experience in medicine, clinical research and drug development, specializing in neurology. He previously held senior clinical reserarch and drug development positions at Pfizer, most recently being Vice President, Neuroscience Development. Prior to this he was at Abbott Laboratories, as Global Project Head and Venture Leader for neuroscience projects, and previously served as Medical Director. Bruce was awarded his MBA by the Kellog School of Management, and earned his Doctor of Medicine degree at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and his BSc in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. Bruce undertook post-doctoral research work at UCSF. He is is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, and licensed to practice medicine in Illinois and California.
William S. Messer, Jr. PhD, Chief Scientific Officer. Professor and Chair of Pharmacology, The University of Toledo. Bill Messer received his B.S. in biology from Springfield College in 1979. He did his graduate work in the Center for Brain Research at the University of Rochester, where he received an M.S. in Neuroscience in 1983 and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience in 1985. After completing his doctoral work, he joined the faculty at The University of Toledo in 1985 as Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry. In 1990, Bill was the recipient of a five-year Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health. He was awarded tenure and promoted to Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in 1990 and to Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in 1995. He served as Interim Chair of Pharmacology for the 2000-2001 academic year before being named Professor and Chair of Pharmacology in 2001. Dr. Messer has taught courses in medicinal chemistry, pharmacology and neuroscience for undergraduate and graduate pharmacy students. Dr. Messer also has directed the dissertation research for four Ph.D. students, four M.S. students, and eleven honors students. He has served The University of Toledo in many capacities, including chair of the Graduate Council. He also has played a leadership role in the College of Pharmacy, where he served as the director of the Honors Program from 1993-1998. Dr. Messer has received more than $1.6 million in support from the National Institutes of Health for multidisciplinary studies of muscarinic receptors. In addition, Dr. Messer has worked with the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries on the development of new treatments for neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and chronic pain. He has published more than 50 papers in refereed journals and presented over 90 abstracts of his work as poster or slide presentations at national and international meetings. He also holds eight U.S. patents and several international patents for compounds that improve memory function. In 1997, he received the Outstanding Faculty Research Award from The University of Toledo. In January, 2001, Dr. Messer co-founded Cognitive Pharmaceuticals Ltd., a small pharmaceutical company based in Toledo, OH focused on developing new treatments for neurological and psychiatric disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia.
Franklin P. Bymaster: Senior Scientific Adviser - CNS Drug Research and Development. Frank was appointed a Senior Scientific Adviser to Mithridion in June 2007. Frank is a CNS drug R&D expert. He was 33.5 years with Neuroscience Research Division, Lilly Research Laboratories, Indianapolis, IN. His final position was Research Advisor. Frank retired in Dec. 2003. During his career, he made significant contributions in drug discovery, pharmacological characterization, regulatory preparation and commercialization of 5 marketed drugs (Prozac, Zyprexa, Symbyax, Strattera and Cymbalta). Frank also worked on xanommeline, a first generation, subtype-selective muscarinic agonist drug for AD. He is author of more than 120 scientific publications, book chapters, etc, and is an inventor on more than 20 US patents.
Wayne Hoss PhD: Director and Head of Toledo Operations. Dr. Hoss has been doing research work at the University of Toledo for the past 15 years. Prior to that he did extensive brain research at the University of Rochester in New York. He obtained a Bachelor's degree from the University of Idaho, and his PhD from the University of Nebraska. The Blade reported that successful tests of the formula in animals and cell culture convinced Dr. Messer, chairman of UT's pharmacology department, and Dr. Hoss, associate dean of the school of pharmacy, to form a private company, Cognitive Pharmaceuticals Ltd.
Paul Weiss, PhD, MBA. Director. Paul joined Venture Investors in 2006 as a Managing Director of Venture Investors LLC. He is assuming an active role in the Venture Investors Igniter program in the firm's Healthcare Practice. Paul worked as a part-time analyst for Venture Investors from 1989 to 1992 while receiving his MBA, and has been a member of the firm's Investment Advisory Committee since 2001. Paul has over 17 years of operating experience in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. His last role prior to joining Venture Investors was as President of the Gala Biotech business unit of Cardinal Health, a division that was established when the Venture Investors portfolio company, Gala Design, Inc., under his leadership was acquired. He began his involvement with Gala when he joined John Neis on the Board of Directors at the time of the initial investment by Venture Investors. He assumed the role of President at a time that the company was struggling to remain in business. Gala is now part of Catalent Pharma Solutions, and Paul led the sale of Gala to The Blackstone Private Equity Group, when Blackstone acquired a number of businesses from Cardinal Health that included Gala. Prior to joining Gala, Paul served as Vice President of Business Development of 3-Dimensional Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (3DP), a venture capital-backed biotechnology company with a drug discovery platform that successfully completed an Initial Public Offering during his tenure with the company. 3DP was subsequently acquired by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) based on deals Paul worked on in both a technology (J&J, R&D) and product (Centocor) licensing capacity. Prior to that, Paul worked as Director of Licensing for Wyeth-Ayerst Pharmaceuticals, which was a division of American Home Products (now Wyeth Pharmaceuticals), where he identified and pursued product licensing, co-marketing, co-promotion, strategic alliance, and other new business arrangements, including specific opportunities in Japan. Earlier, he served as Director of Business Development and Research for the Scientific Protein Labs (SPL), also a division of american Home Products (SPL now an independent company). He began his career in industry as the Director of Operations of Columbia Research Labs, a small publicly held company (NASDAQ:COB) that developed and marketed prescription and over-the-counter products to address women's health issues. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Alfacell Corporation (NASDAQ:ACEL), which has a compound in late stage clinical trials for treatment of certain cancers. He has also served on the Board of Directors for the Wisconsin Biotechnology and Medical Devices Association (WBMA). Paul received a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from Carleton University, and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and a MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also worked as a postdoctoral research associate. Currently Paul serves on the Board of Directors of several Venture Investors portfolio companies, either as a Director or an Observer, and also serves as interim CEO as necessary
Patricia A Twose, BSc. Operations Director, Secretary and Treasurer. Patti Twose has 30 years of experience both as an entrepreneur in manufacturing industry and in pharmaceutical and academic research. Previously she developed a successful brand of specialist outdoor clothing, having responsibility for all aspects of market research, design, development, identification of and liaison with Far Eastern textile, fabric and clothing manufacturers. Prior to this, she founded and built up her own specialist outdoor clothing company before selling it to an international company. Patti was a researcher in ICI (now AstraZeneca) Pharmaceuticals and in the McArdle Cancer Research Center, UW (Madison, WI). She was awarded her BSc degree (equivalent to a US MS degree) in Biological Chemistry by the University of Manchester (Manchester, UK).
Richard R. Copp, PhD. Vice President, Chemistry. Dr Copp was appointed VP, Chemistry at Mithridion in February 2006 Dr Copp is an experienced organic chemist. Recently he managed chemistry programs at Quintessence, PanVera and Tetrionics, all in Madison, WI. Dr Copp was Senior Research Scientist at Abbott Laboratories (Deerfield, IL) for 10 years from 1990 to 2000, where he was twice a recipient of the Scientist of the Year Award. Dr Copp was awarded his BS by the University of Illinois, his PhD by the University of Montana, and he did post-doctoral research at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD).
Professor Dan Rich, PhD: Senior Scientific Adviser - Medicinal Chemistry. Dr. Rich is a Senior Scientific Advisor to the company. Dr. Rich is the Ralph F. Hirshmann Professor of Medicinal and Organic Chemistry in the School of Pharmacy, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI and is an international authority on peptide and peptidomimetic chemistry. He recently retired from his full-time professorial role at UW. He is recipient of numerous national and international awards, is author of several book chapters and is an author of more than 220 scientific papers. His research interests are in the design and synthesis of inhibitors of therapeutically important enzymes; synthesis and conformational analysis of cyclic peptides; and new methods for peptide synthesis. Dr. Rich served on the Bioorganic and Natural Products study section for the National Institutes of Health from 1981-1985 (Chairman for the final two years of his term), served as Associate Editor for the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry from 1988-1992, and chaired the Division of Medicinal Chemistry for the American Chemical Society in 1992, served as Associate Editor of the new ACS journal, Organic Letters, and an elected 6-year term on the American Peptide Society Council. Dr. Rich received his BS from the University of Minnesota, his PhD from Cornell, did post-doctoral research with Nobel Laureate Vincent du Vigneaud at Cornell, and researched at Stanford University before joining UW in 1970.
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