Michael Ossi, MD, Chairperson
Dr. Michael 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.
Karin Musier-Forsyth, Ph.D.
Ohio Eminent Scholar, The Ohio State University
Karin Musier-Forsyth received her B. S. degree from Eckerd College (St. Petersburg, FL) in 1984 and her Ph.D. in 1989 from Cornell University, working with Gordon Hammes. She was an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellow at M.I.T. with Paul Schimmel from 1989-92. She joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota as an Assistant Professor in 1992 and was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in1998 and Full Professor in 2003. At Minnesota she was named Merck Professor of Chemistry (2003) and Distinguished McKnight University Professor (2006). She joined the faculty of the Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry at OSU as Ohio Eminent Scholar in 2007. Other previous awards include the Camille-Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award, 1996-2001, the Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry, 2002, and the Distinguished Women Scholars Award in Science and Engineering, 2004. In 2009 she was named a Fellow of the American Association of the Advancement of Science. She has served as Co-Chair, Nucleic Acids Gordon Conference, 2003; NIH Chemical-Biology Interface Pre-doctoral Training Program Director, 2004-2006; Editorial Advisory Board member, Accounts of Chemical Research, 2006-2009; NIH Molecular Genetics A study section panel member, 2006-2010; ACS Biological Division Executive Committee, 2008-2010. Her research in the area of Biological Chemistry focuses on investigations of quality control mechanisms in protein translation and molecular interactions critical for retroviral replication. Research Page: http://web.chemistry.ohio-state.edu/~musier
Luigi Xerri, Ph.D.
Co-founder & Chief Scientific Officer, Protez Phamaceuticals (a subsidiary of Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation)
Dr. Xerri was previously Director of Antimicrobial Disease Strategy at GlaxoSmithKline. In this capacity Dr. Xerri had responsibility for defining strategic directions in antibacterials, development and valuation of target product profiles based on his knowledge of medical and market needs, appropriate alignment of the discovery and development portfolio, and working with Business Development to fill gaps via in-licensing. Previously, and during his 30 years experience in R & D for antibacterials, he led antibiotic discovery and preclinical as well as clinical development at GlaxoWellcome, made key contributions to the clinical and commercialization strategies for quinolones (ofloxacin, levofloxacin and grepafloxacin) and cepholosporins (cefalexin, cefuroxime and ceftazidime) as well as having broad strategic responsibility for antibacterials. Luigi is recognized internationally as an expert in antibiotics, with his research interest and areas of expertise including bacterial resistance (epidemiology and experimental evaluation), antibiotic pharmacokinetics/ pharmacodynamics and natural host defenses. Luigi holds a Laurea in Biology and Microbiology from the University of Bologna, Italy. http://www.protez.com/
Alexander Tropsha, Ph.D.
Professor and Division Chair, Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products, University of North Carolina Eshelman School of Pharmacy
Alexander Tropsha obtained his PhD from Moscow State University and started his research in computational chemistry in Moscow, Russia, in 1980s. That experience helped him develop an appreciation for the research setting that awaited him when he came to the United States. Tropsha’s intellectual abilities have served him well in the U.S., where he started as a postdoctoral fellow at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1989. Today, he is K.H. Lee Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. Tropsha’s general research interests are in the areas of Computer-Assisted Drug Design, Computational Toxicology, Cheminformatics, and Structural Bioinformatics. Thanks to an innovative Molecular Libraries Initiative and other programs in the areas of chemical biology and toxicology from the National Institutes of Health and Environmental Protection Agency, he is pursuing research projects that combine the latest computational technologies and scientific strategies in an effort to improve drug discovery research in the twenty-first century. His research is supported by multiple grants from the NIH, NSF, EPA, and private companies. Among many grants that support his group of 25 co-workers Tropsha has received two NIH Roadmap grants in 2005. The overarching goals of the Roadmap are to expand our understanding of biology through interdisciplinary collaboration and to encourage rapid medical improvements that can be translated quickly to patient care. His has authored or co-authored more than 130 peer-reviewed research papers and reviews and co-edited two monographs in the areas of computational drug discovery and cheminformatics. He is a member of several editorial boards of scientific journals, permanent member of the BDMA Study Section at the NIH and an elected member of the Board and vice-chair of the international Cheminformatics and QSAR Society.
