Scientific Advisors
Dr Errol De Souza is an internationally recognised leader in central nervous system (CNS) research and development. He is the former President and CEO of leading US biotech company, Synaptic Pharmaceutical Corporation and is currently President and CEO of the US company Archemix Corporation. Prior to these roles, Dr De Souza held senior management positions within Aventis (NYSE:AVE) and its predecessor Hoechst Marion Roussel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Most recently, Dr De Souza was Senior Vice President and Site Head, US Drug Innovation and Approval (R&D), at Aventis where he was responsible for the discovery and development of drug candidates through Phase IIa clinical trials for CNS and inflammatory disorders and was a co-founder and former Chief Scientific Officer of Neurocrine Biosciences. Dr De Souza is also currently an Adjunct Professor at the Centre for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience at Rutgers University in New Jersey and has served on multiple Editorial Boards, NIH Committees as well as on the Board of Directors of several companies.
Professor Paul Fitzgerald is Professor of Psychiatry, Deputy Director and Consultant Psychiatrist at Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre, a joint research centre of Monash University and the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne. He is a qualified psychiatrist, has a Masters of Psychological Medicine and research PhD. He runs a substantive research program utilising brain stimulation and neuroimaging techniques including transcranial magnetic stimulation, functional and structural MRI, EEG and new infrared spectroscopy. The program has focussed on the conduct of investigative studies of brain function / dysfunction as well as the conduct of a variety of novel clinical trials in Mood, Anxiety, Psychotic and Developmental Disorders. He has published over 90 papers and received grant funding from the NHMRC and a number of US based organisations including a NHMRC Practitioner Fellowship. He is on a variety of local and international committees including the scientific and review committees of Neuroscience Victoria.
Dr Tim Harris is currently Director of the Advanced Technology Program at SAIC Frederick. From March 2005 to September 2006 Dr Harris was President and CEO of Novasite Pharmaceuticals in San Diego. Prior to joining Novasite, Dr Harris founded SGX Pharmaceuticals (formerly Structural Genomix) where he built the company to >130 employees, raised >$85M, and generated >$20 million pa in revenue over a six year tenure as CEO. Before founding SGX, Dr Harris was SVP, R&D at Sequana/Axys. Dr Harris started his industry career at Celltech (now UCB Pharma) in the United Kingdom as a Senior Molecular Biologist and subsequently spent five years at Glaxo Group Research as Director of Biotechnology. He received a PhD in Virology and a BSc with honors in Biochemistry from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom.
Dr Ann Hayes worked for 22 years for GlaxoWellcome, initially in research, with particular expertise in the areas of CNS and pain. Before the GSK merger, she was a Director in Drug Discovery, and was involved in determining long-term Discovery strategy, in portfolio management and in discovery project management. Ann left GSK in 2001 and set up a business as an independent pharmaceutical consultant. In this capacity she has co-founded three companies, Ionix Pharmaceuticals which has been bought by Vernalis, Therasci which has been bought by CeNeS, and Theradeas. Ann is a non-executive director for Curidium plc and Plethora Solutions plc, and a member of the advisory boards for CeNeS and Lectus. She has also held non-executive director positions at Therasci, Ionix and Sirus (which was sold to Arakis). She currently consults regularly for CeNes and Shire, as well as doing ad hoc consulting for a number of small companies and VCs.
Mr Richard Morgan has over 25 years experience in pharmaceutical research and development, many as an R&D executive at GlaxoWellcome where he was International Head of Toxicology and Preclinical Outsourcing. Over his career he has been responsible for the preclinical safety evaluation of over 100 new chemical entities (NCE's), covering all major therapeutic areas. Products he has contributed to include Lamictal (Epilepsy), Zomig (Migraine), Malarone (PCP/Malaria), Atracurium (NMB), Wellbutrin (Anti-depressant), Zovirax, Zidovudine, Lamivudine (Anti-Virals) and Exosurf (Infant RDS). Richard operates his own consultancy company (R&B HealthCare Ltd), providing advice on drug development and toxicology. He is a member of the Board of Cogstate Ltd and Advisory Boards of a number of Australian biotech companies.
Dr Christopher J Sweeney received his medical degree from the University of Adelaide, South Australia in 1992, and completed an internship at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. From 1994 to 1997, Dr Sweeney was an Internal Medicine resident at Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center, La Crosse, Wisconsin, and from 1997 to 2000 he was a Fellow in Hematology / Oncology at Indiana University Medical Center. Dr Sweeney is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology. He is a member of several professional societies, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group and American Association for Cancer Research. He has authored and co-authored more than 60 peer reviewed articles, as well as several monographs and book chapters. He has focused his academic career on cancer drug development by performing (1) phase I dose escalation trials with pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic endpoints including multiple anti-angiogenic drugs (2) phase I trials of new chemotherapeutics in patients with renal or liver dysfunction (3) pharmacogenetic and biomarker discovery studies (4) trials of targeted therapies with a focus on bladder and prostate cancer and (5) drug discovery in the laboratory. Dr Sweeney has served as the Associate Director for Clinical Research for the NCI-designated, Indiana University Cancer Center and the Co-Leader of the Experimental Developmental Therapeutics Program of the NCI designated Indiana University Cancer Center. In 2005 Dr Sweeney was elected Chairman of the Hoosier Oncology Group. Dr Sweeney has served on the Program Committee and the Cancer Education Committee of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and is on the Editorial Board for ASCOs "Journal of Clinical Oncology". He has peer reviewed funding from the PhRMA Foundation (Faculty Development Award), the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense. He joined the RAHCC and Director of Clinical Trials in January 2008.
