Entrepreneurial Advisory Board
Our Inaugural PDHC EAB (of ~100 members) includes top scientists across peptide chemistry, biochemistry, structural biology, computational chemistry, pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, metabolism, delivery, toxicology, and drug development (e.g., IND-enabling, manufacturing, regulatory and more) to guide key PDHC Initiatives!
Ashok Bhandari, Ph.D.
Executive Vice President, Chief Drug Discovery and Preclinical Development Officer
Protagonist Therapeutics
Expertise: Peptide Drug Discovery, Pre-clinical development, orally delivered peptide discovery, Peptide stability optimizing strategies, Extended half-life strategies, Early-stage CMC, Development Candidate (DC) selections
David Brayden, Ph.D.
Full Professor of Advanced Drug Delivery
University College Dublin, Conway Institute
Expertise: non-injected peptide administration; gut-permeable peptides, preclinical formulation, translation of peptides to clinical trials, permeation enhancers, nanotechnology and devices for peptides
Hanson Chang
VP/GM Engineering & Instrumentation
CSBio
PDHC Synthesis Innovation Initiative Lead
Expertise: Peptide Synthesizers, peptide synthesis automation, pharmaceutical equipment, engineering, green chemistry, commercial synthesis scale up and manufacturing, peptide synthesis process analytical technologies
Nicholas Holliday, Ph.D.
CSO
Excellerate Bioscience
Associate Professor of Pharmacology
University of Nottingham
Expertise: molecular and cellular pharmacology; in vitro peptide compound profiling; peptide-target mechanism of action including receptors, enzymes, TPD and glues; indications including obesity and metabolism, CV lung, immunology and CNS.
Wes Kazmierski, Ph.D.
Senior Director
Biohaven Pharmaceuticals
Expertise: site-specific antibody drug conjugation chemistry, small-molecule, peptide and protein-based degraders of extracellular and transmembrane proteins, antiviral chemistry, autoimmunity chemistry, binder discovery, DEL libraries, bispecific chemistry.
Ralph Kirk, Ph.D.
Associate Director
Concept Life Sciences
Expertise: Advancing bRo5 (including peptides) through the early-stage drug development pipeline, specializing in structure-based design to overcome chemical and biological modality liabilities, optimize candidate compounds, and increase their chances of clinical success.
Larry Mattheakis, Ph.D.
Advisor/Consultant
Medikine Inc.
Expertise: Ligand discovery technologies using phage and ribosome display. Assay development and screening of peptide and macrocyle candidates. Animal PK models for evaluating peptide exposure after oral and parenteral dosing. Formulations for enhancing peptide absorption after oral dosing. Development of translational biomarkers for evaluating preclinical pharmacodynamic activity and clinical target engagement.
Gerhard Müller, Ph.D.
CSO
Spirochem
Expertise: Beyond-rule-of-5 modalities, Macrocycle design, Cyclic peptides, Conformational analysis, Molecular dynamics, Binding kinetics, Peptidomimetics, Target family-centric medicinal chemistry, Integrin antagonists, GPCR modulators, Kinase inhibitors, Allosteric interaction principles, Phosphatase modulators, Fragment-based lead generation
Vikram Mulligan, Ph.D.
Research Scientist, Co-head of Biomolecular Design Group, Center for Computational Biology
Flatiron Institute
Co-founder, Menten AI
Expertise: Macrocycles, peptide and protein folding, non-canonical amino acids, computational design, software development, rational drug design, quantum computing.
Tom Tucker
Principal Scientist
Merck
Expertise: linear and macrocyclic peptide drug discovery , macrocyclic peptide crosslinking , structure- based drug design , peptide conjugates, peptidomimetics, oral peptides, mRNA Display, cell penetrating and delivery peptides, membrane permeable peptides, non-canonical amino acids, small molecule drug discovery
