Scientific Advisory Board

Jonathan A. Ellman, Ph.D.

Dr. Jonathan A. Ellman was appointed to the faculty at the University of California at Berkeley in 1992, where he is currently professor of chemistry. He also holds a joint appointment in the department of cellular and molecular pharmacology at the University of California at San Francisco. Dr. Ellman’s research emphasizes the development of practical and general synthetic methods and their application to the synthesis of pharmaceutical agents and bioactive natural products. He is recognized for the design and implementation of broadly useful methods for asymmetric amine synthesis and for C-H bond functionalization. His laboratory is also actively engaged in the development of chemical tools to study enzymes, including extensively used methods for small-molecule library synthesis and protease substrate profiling. Most recently, he has developed a substrate-based fragment identification and optimization approach for the discovery of pharmacologically active small-molecule inhibitors of enzymes.

Dr. Ellman is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and currently serves on the editorial advisory boards of a number of journals, including the board of editors of Organic Syntheses, and the advisory boards for Chemistry & Biology, Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry, and Chemical Biology & Drug Design. He has served on the scientific advisory boards of Argonaut, Symyx and Versicor, was co-founder of Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, currently serves on the scientific advisory Board of Ardelyx, Inc., and is a consultant for a number of pharmaceuticals companies.

Dr. Ellman has received a number of awards, including a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Hitchings Award for Drug Design and Discovery (1993), a Sloan Foundation Fellowship (1994), an Eli Lilly Grantee Award (1994), a Burroughs Wellcome Fund New Initiatives in Malaria Research Award (1998), an American Chemical Society Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award (2000), a Society of Biomolecular Screening Achievement Award (2003), a Scheele Award selected by the Swedish Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences (2003) and a Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award (2006).

Dr. Ellman earned his B.S. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. degree from Harvard University. He completed his postdoctoral research at the University of California at Berkeley.

James L.M. Ferrara, M.D.

Dr. James L.M. Ferrara joined the Harvard Medical School faculty in 1987 and remained there until 1998, when he joined the University of Michigan Cancer Center as director of the Combined Adult and Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) Program. Dr. Ferrara’s laboratory investigates the immunobiology of BMT and graft-vs.-host disease, for which he is internationally recognized. His basic research program explores the cellular and molecular mechanisms of cellular immunotherapy and serves as a translational research platform for novel therapeutic strategies for patients with hematologic malignancies.

Dr. Ferrara serves on numerous national boards and committees, most notably as chairman of the steering committee of the national BMT Clinical Trials Network. He has also served as scientific advisor to the National Institutes of Health, the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Amgen and Therakos. Dr. Ferrara has published numerous papers in leading scientific journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Medicine and The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

His scientific contributions have been recognized with several major awards, including the Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Scientist Award, the Leukemia Society of America’s Stohlman Scholar Award, the Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize from the German Republic and the University of Michigan Outstanding Clinician Award.

Dr. Ferrara obtained his M.D. from Georgetown University. He completed his internship and residency in pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital and his fellowship in pediatric hematology/oncology at Children’s and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Douglas Green, Ph.D.

Dr. Douglas Green has been chair of immunology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. since 2005, where he holds the Peter Doherty Chair. Dr. Green is an ISI highly cited investigator and has published over 380 research papers, reviews, chapters and books. His research focuses on the central mechanisms of apoptosis in cancer and the immune system. In 1990, he became the head of the division of cellular immunology at La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology in San Diego, CA. Prior to that, following postdoctoral training in experimental surgery and marine biology, he received a faculty position in 1985 in the department of immunology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

Douglas Green received his Ph.D. in biology and immunology from Yale University.

David J. Mangelsdorf, Ph.D.

Dr. David J. Mangelsdorf is professor and chair of the department of pharmacology at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, where he holds the Beatrice and Miguel Elias distinguished chair in biomedical science. He is also an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and in 2008 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

His research has revealed the existence of novel ligands and physiologic functions for several of these receptors, including a group of orphan receptors that governs nutrient metabolism and is now a therapeutic target for metabolic diseases. Dr. Mangelsdorf’s long-time interests have focused on the study of nuclear receptors, a family of ligand-dependent transcription factors.

Dr. Mangelsdorf’s work has been honored with several awards, including the John J. Abel Award from the American Society for Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics, the Heinrich-Wieland Preis for Lipid Research, the Adolf Windaus Prize for Bile Acid Research from the Falk Foundation and the Richard E. Weitzman and Gerald D. Aurbach Awards from The Endocrine Society.

Dr. Mangelsdorf received a B.S. in biology and chemistry from Northern Arizona University and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Arizona.

Michael A. Marletta, Ph.D.

Dr. Michael A. Marletta was appointed the Aldo DeBenedictis Distinguished Professor of Chemistry in 2002, and in 2005 became chair of the department of chemistry at Berkeley. He also holds an appointment as professor of cellular and molecular pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco and is a faculty scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In 2001, Dr. Marletta moved to the University of California, Berkeley, where he assumed the positions of professor of chemistry, department of chemistry, and professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, department of molecular and cell biology. In 1997, he became an investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Prior to that, Dr. Marletta was on the faculty at the University of Michigan, where he was a professor of medicinal chemistry and biological chemistry, where he was appointed as the John G. Searle Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in 1991.

Dr. Marletta’s primary research interests lie at the interface of chemistry and biology, with emphasis on the study of protein function and enzyme reaction mechanisms. Dr. Marletta has made fundamental discoveries concerning the biological action of nitric oxide. His studies have provided the basis for understanding at the molecular level of this unique cell signaling pathway and the function of nitric oxide in the immune system. He has uncovered several novel structure/function relationships in nitric oxide synthase and guanylate cyclase. His continued studies on NO signaling have recently led to a molecular understanding of general gas sensing mechanisms in biology.

Dr. Marletta was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 1999, to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2001, and the National Academy of Sciences in 2006. He serves as a consultant to a number of pharmaceutical companies and has served on the scientific advisory boards of NitroMed, Inc. and Oxon Medica, Inc. He is also a member of the Fredonia College Foundation board of directors.

Dr. Marletta is the recipient of numerous awards, including the George H. Hitchings Award for Innovative Methods in Drug Discovery and Design (1991), a Faculty Recognition Award from the University of Michigan (1992), the Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award from SUNY Fredonia in (1993), the MacArthur Fellowship awarded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (1995), the Distinguished Faculty Lectureship Award in Biomedical Research by the University of Michigan Medical School (2000), the Michigan Scientist of the Year (2000), the Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award at the University of Michigan (2000) and the Harrison Howe Award of the American Chemical Society (2004).

Dr. Marletta obtained an A.B. degree in biology and chemistry from SUNY, College at Fredonia and a Ph.D. from University of California, San Francisco. He completed his two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

John McCall, Ph.D.

Dr. John McCall is a senior consultant with PharMac LLC. He began his career as a medicinal chemist with Upjohn and has held leadership positions with Pharmacia, Upjohn and Pfizer. Dr. McCall was global head of chemistry for both Pharmacia and Pharmacia & Upjohn. Prior to this, he was head of Upjohn’s CNS unit.

In addition to his responsibilities at Lycera, Dr. McCall currently chairs a National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke development team, serves on eight scientific advisory boards, consults and participates as a National Institutes of Health study section member. He holds 53 U.S. patents and has more than 60 refereed publications.

Dr. McCall received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Wisconsin.

Ruslan Medzhitov, Ph.D.

Dr. Ruslan Medzhitov is an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, as well as the David W. Wallace Professor of Immunobiology at Yale University School of Medicine. In 1997, he identified a human homologue of Drosophila Toll (now known as TLR4). He has since contributed to the characterization of the mammalian TLR family. Currently, his research focuses on the analysis of innate immune system, inflammatory response, innate control of the adaptive immunity and host-pathogen interactions.

Dr. Medzhitov’s scientific contributions have been recognized with several awards, including the William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology from the Cancer Research Institute and the Howard Taylor Ricketts Award from the University of Chicago. In 2000, he was selected as a Searle Scholar.

Following undergraduate studies at Tashkent State University, Dr. Medzhitov obtained his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Moscow State University. He completed his postdoctoral training at Yale University School of Medicine.

Anthony William Opipari, Jr., M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Anthony W. Opipari, Jr., a co-founder of Lycera, is currently an associate professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Michigan Medical School. In addition, he is an attending physician at the University of Michigan Hospitals and member of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

His clinical efforts are concentrated in the areas of lower genital tract diseases related to human papilloma virus infection, colposcopy and the management of immune-mediated lower genital tract diseases. His laboratory research involves studies of cell signaling and metabolic control that are important for cell death and immune responses. His present research includes studies to characterize novel compounds for their anti-neoplastic activity against cancer and to understand their potential to regulate critical signaling and metabolic functions.

Dr. Opipari has received numerous awards and honors, including the Alpha Omega Alpha from the University of Michigan, the Pathologist in Training Award from the American Association of Pathologists Annual Meeting and the Geriatric Research Scholarship from the Hartford Foundation. Dr. Opipari has several peer-reviewed publications, manuscripts and book chapters to his credit and holds several patents related to small molecules, screening strategies and therapeutic applications.

Dr. Opipari obtained an M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

William R. Roush, Ph.D.

Dr. William R. Roush’s research interests focus on the stereocontrolled synthesis of stereochemically complex natural products and the design and development of new reactions and synthetic methods. He is known for his stereochemical studies and synthetic applications of the intramolecular Diels-Alder reaction and his work in the area of asymmetric and acyclic diastereoselective synthesis. He has also made notable contributions on the design and synthesis of inhibitors of cysteine proteases isolated from important human pathogens.

In 2005, Dr. Roush moved to the new Scripps Research Institute in Palm Beach, Florida, as executive director of medicinal chemistry, professor of chemistry and associate dean of the Kellogg Graduate School. Prior to that, he was the Warner Lambert/Parke Davis Professor of Chemistry at the University of Michigan, serving as chair of the department of chemistry from 2002 to 2004.

Dr. Roush has served terms as secretary-treasurer and chairman of the ACS Division of organic chemistry, and as chairman of the NIH Medicinal Chemistry Study Section. He is currently an associate editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, and serves on the editorial boards of Organic Reactions, Organic Syntheses, and Organic Letters. He is also a consultant for several companies, including Eli Lilly and Pfizer.

Dr. Roush has been a fellow of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, an Eli Lilly Grantee, and the holder of the Roger and Georges Firmenich Career Development Chair in Natural Products Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Most recently, Dr. Roush was named the recipient of the American Chemical Society 2004 Ernest Guenther Award in the Chemistry of Natural Products.

Dr. Roush received a B.A. in chemistry from the University of California at Los Angeles and his Ph.D. in chemistry from Harvard University.

Michael E. Weinblatt, M.D.

Dr. Michael E. Weinblatt is the co-director of clinical rheumatology at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and the John R. and Eileen K. Riedman Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. His major research interest is in therapeutics for rheumatoid arthritis and his work on the development of methotrexate therapy for rheumatoid arthritis garnered him the Carol Nachman Prize for Rheumatology and the Arthritis Foundation Virginia P. Engalitcheff Award for Impact on Quality of Life. He also received the American College of Rheumatology Distinguished Clinical Investigator Award.

Dr. Weinblatt is the author of The Arthritis Action Program: An Integrated Plan of Traditional and Complementary Therapies and has authored or co-authored more than 160 published papers, reviews and book chapters on rheumatology. He is the co-editor of the textbook Rheumatology and currently sits on multiple editorial boards for journals including Journal of Rheumatology. Dr. Weinblatt was a member of the rheumatology subspecialty board of the American Board of Internal Medicine and served as the president of the American College of Rheumatology in 2001.

Dr. Weinblatt earned his B.A. from McDaniel College (formerly Western Maryland College) and his M.D. at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where he also completed an internship and residency. He completed a clinical fellowship at Harvard Medical School and a clinical fellowship in rheumatology at Robert B. Brigham Hospital in Boston.