PHENOMIX APPOINTS DRS. STEPHEN FODOR & JOHN TODD TO SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD
Internationally Recognized Experts Join World Class Scientific Team.
San Diego, CA - October 28, 2002 — The Phenomix Corporation, a privately held company focused on using forward genetics as a technology tool in the discovery and development of novel drugs, announced today the appointments of Stephen P.A. Fodor, Ph.D. and Professor John Todd, Ph.D. to its Scientific Advisory Board. The addition of Fodor and Todd will be instrumental in advancing the company's scientific development and guiding the direction of its platform technology. They join a team of internationally renowned scientists from the biotechnology and academic communities who collectively have the range of expertise necessary to position the company as the leader in forward genetics research and discovery.
"We are extremely honored to have Drs. Fodor and Todd join our advisory board," stated Laura K. Shawver, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Phenomix. "We have carefully chosen members who understand not only the core strength of our technology, but also its application and commercial value. Dr. Fodor's experience in technology innovation and commercialization and Dr. Todd's expertise in human genetics will complement our existing advisors' knowledge of our core technology and its potential."
"Their addition to the board is a tremendous asset for Phenomix in guiding our scientific strategy and continued growth toward drug discovery," said Dr. Steve Kay, Senior Vice President, Chief Technology Officer and founder of the Phenomix Corporation. "Their collective expertise in both genetics and genomic research is unparalleled. We are looking forward to their active contributions."
Fodor is the Scientific Founder of Affymetrix, Inc. where he is currently the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. At Affymetrix, Fodor's development and use of DNA chip technology has led to broad commercial applications in many areas of basic and clinical research. Prior to Affymetrix, Fodor held various positions at the Affymax Research Institute where he developed the DNA microarray platform, the centerpiece of which is the GeneChip® array. Most recently, he founded Perlegen Sciences, Inc. that will apply the chip technology to focus on uncovering the basic patterns of human diversity. The adoption of the technology by both commercial and research institutions for these and other applications continues to grow rapidly.
Fodor received his B.S. in Biology and M.S. in Biochemistry from Washington State University and his Ph.D. in Chemistry at Princeton University. He serves on the Board of Directors for EOS Biotechnology, Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Perlegen Sciences and the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Institute of Washington. Fodor is also on the Scientific Advisory Board for the College of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley.
Todd is Professor of Medical Genetics at Cambridge University in the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research. Todd's research centers on the molecular basis of Type 1 diabetes; his group uses an integrated combination of genetic information from large collections of diabetic families, statistics, genome informatics, data mining, gene expression and function studies. In 2000, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (United Kingdom) partnered with the Wellcome Trust to fund the Diabetes and Inflammation Laboratory (DIL) directed by Todd at Cambridge University. Todd and his research team have already contributed to the discovery of three of the genes involved in the risk for developing Type 1 diabetes. Their aim is to further understand the functional consequences of disease-associated genes, as well as to identify other genes in the search for therapeutic opportunities based on disease mechanism and genotypes.
Prior to joining Cambridge University, Todd was Professor of Human Genetics at Oxford University and Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow. He has pioneered genetic analysis of common diseases and has been awarded several major prizes for his research. He received his B.Sc. from Edinburgh University and Ph.D. from Cambridge University.
Fodor and Todd join existing advisory board members Dr. Chris Goodnow (founder and Chief Scientific Officer of the Phenomix Corporation and director of the Medical Genome Centre at the Australia National University), Dr. Allan Bradley (Director of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute), Dr. Colin Fletcher (Assistant Professor Cell Biology at The Scripps Research Institute and Program Head at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation) and Dr. Monica Justice (Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular and Human Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine).
About Phenomix
Phenomix was founded by three of the world's premier forward genetics programs contributing an exclusive commercial license to much of their relevant technology: the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) in San Diego, the Medical Genome Centre of the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, Australia, and the Department of Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.
Phenomix takes a "forward genetics" approach to biomedical discovery by starting with a physiological model of the human disease of interest and then, in a single step, identifies and validates the genes or drug targets involved in that disease. Phenomix combines target discovery, target validation and generation of relevant models for the disease into one efficient platform. Phenomix's corporate headquarters are in San Diego with additional operations in Canberra, Australia.
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