Trana Discovery Forms Scientific Advisory Board; Taps Pharmaceutical Industry Veteran Mike Ossi as Chairperson
New advisory board to identify assay development opportunities for emerging and drug-resistant infectious diseases…
CARY, NC (June 15, 2009) – Trana Discovery, Inc., an infectious disease drug discovery technology company, today announced the formation of a Scientific Advisory Board that will advise the company on the needs of the infectious disease community and on the development of assays to discover new medicines for the treatment of serious bacterial, viral, and fungal infectious diseases. Pharmaceutical industry veteran Dr. Michael Ossi will serve as the new board's chairperson.
Trana Discovery assays identify new drug compounds that work through a unique mechanism of action: inhibition of the target pathogen’s ability to use transfer RNA (tRNA) essential for propagation. The proprietary technology involves the use of mimics of critical components of naturally occurring tRNA, which in turn can be used as research tools and components in drug discovery assays. The Scientific Advisory Board will focus initially on prioritizing prime disease targets for future assay development and new applications of the technology.
Dr. Ossi earned his MD degree from the University of Maryland and is board certified in pediatric and adolescent medicine and a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. After residency training, he completed a fellowship in infectious diseases at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Beginning in 1977, Dr. Ossi built and maintained a large pediatric practice while concurrently serving as a faculty advisor for the University of Massachusetts Medical School residency program. In 1988, he accepted a position at Glaxo Inc. and spent the next 18 years in clinical drug development at the director and VP levels, managing programs in various viral and bacterial diseases and several oncology programs. During that time, Dr. Ossi held a faculty appointment at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC and served as an attending physician in the pediatric acute care clinic. Dr. Ossi was Vice President, Infectious Diseases, Medicine Development at GlaxoSmithKline before retiring in 2007.
"We are honored to have Mike on board as a scientific advisor," said Steve Peterson, CEO of Trana Discovery. "The formation of the Scientific Advisory Board represents an important step for the company as we prepare to move the technology forward in a very constructive fashion."
Trana plans to identify other board members with expertise in microbiology, medicinal chemistry, and assay development to help guide the company and its technology well into the future.
The use of high-throughput screening (HTS) assays developed by Trana Discovery can provide licensing opportunities for exclusive rights to new drug classes and reduce the cost and time for drug discovery. Trana recently perfected its high-throughput HIV drug discovery assay which is capable of identifying compounds that interfere with the use of tRNA by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the cause of AIDS. An HTS assay for Staphylococcus aureus bacteria is currently under development. Organizations interested in licensing either assay should contact Trana at info@tranadiscovery.com or by calling 866-390-3452 (toll free) or +1-919-342-6192.
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