Steering Committee
Role of the Steering Committee
The TMRC Steering Committee is comprised of a senior representative from each of the Universities and NHS Boards comprising the Collaboration, Scottish Enterprise and TMRI. Three Senior Wyeth representatives complete the Steering Committee.
The TMRC Steering Committee meets on a quarterly basis and has three main roles:
- Providing strategic input to the Collaboration
- Approving the overall TMRC Business Plan and Annual Operating Plan and Budget
- Providing an escalation route for issue resolution.
Steering Committee Members
Mrs Rhona Allison
Scottish Enterprise
As Senior Director of Life Sciences at Scottish Enterprise, Rhona has responsibility for setting and delivering Scottish Enterprise's Life Science strategy to support the economic growth and development of the Life Sciences sector in Scotland. Scottish Enterprise's Life Science strategy is closely aligned to, and has been developed in line with, the requirements of the Scottish Life Sciences sector as articulated in the Scottish Life Sciences Strategy. Rhona has over 18 years experience of working in, and with, the Life Science industry in varying roles, and from both a commercial and economic development perspective. Rhona has significant experience of working in a global, highly regulated international business environment and within the Scottish public sector. Rhona's direct private sector experience includes working with Ethicon (a medical technology company) and for a number of companies within the CRO sector - ranging from heading up the largest department and core business unit of a young SME start-up to heading a team responsible for all aspects of global clinical research activities for designated projects/programmes from a wide international client base, for a one of the largest CROs in the world. Whilst at SE, Rhona has focused on further developing strong relationships with academics, NHS and industry, to assist in increasing the commercialisation of Scotland's world-class research base and help foster an environment to stimulate greater industry/academic collaborations eg Scottish Bioinformatics initiative, Translational Medical Research Collaboration and Edinburgh BioQuarter.
Professor David Barlow
University of Glasgow
Professor David Barlow is Executive Dean of Medicine, and Professor of Reproductive Medicine at the University of Glasgow. He was formerly, until January 2005, Nuffield Professor and Head of the Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Oxford.
He has extensive experience of research and clinical practice in relation to reproductive and infertility services, postmenopausal health, hormone replacement therapy and osteoporosis. He has played a prominent role in national and international developments in these fields.
He is President of the European Menopause and Andropause Society, is past-Chairman of the UK National Osteoporosis Society and past-Chairman of the British Menopause Society. He Chaired the UK Department of Health Advisory Group on Osteoporosis Report (1994), edited the UK RCP Guidelines on Osteoporosis (1999) and is now Chairing the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) Guideline on Osteoporosis (current).
He was Editor-in-Chief of the influential journal, Human Reproduction, and served three terms as a member of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) which regulates assisted reproduction in the UK, and was chair of the NICE Guideline on Infertility Services (2004) which set the current framework for IVF provision in England.
Mr Steven Bjornson
Wyeth Research
Mr Steve Bjornson has been with Wyeth for six years and currently directs the Discovery Research Strategy and Communications Team. He is also a member of Wyeth Research's Discovery Executive Council. Steve's group is responsible for managing a diverse series of functions including business planning, academic and outsourcing partnering initiatives, process improvement efforts, and internal & external communications for Wyeth Discovery Research. Prior to joining Wyeth, Steve held roles in product management, corporate strategy, and quality at Genuity Solutions, Inc., Sprint Corp., and Baxter BioSciences respectively. Steve holds a BS in Microbiology from Oregon State University and an MBA from Cornell University.
Mr Charles Dormer
Wyeth Research
Mr Charles Dormer has been with Wyeth for five years and has been part of the Discovery Business Team for four of these. This team has responsibility for supporting portfolio decisions across all five therapeutic areas in Wyeth Discovery. Prior to joining the Discovery group, Charles was Director, Research Planning, a role involved in implementing breakthrough initiatives in Wyeth R&D. Prior to joining Wyeth he had an 18-year career at SmithKline Beecham and GlaxoSmithKline and held a wide variety of business redesign roles and line positions within R&D.
Doctor Ellie Dow
NHS Tayside
Doctor Dow developed interests in Diabetes and genetics whilst completing her Ph.D at Imperial College London. She returned to Scotland after postgraduate medical training in London and is Consultant in Biochemical Medicine at Ninewells in Dundee, and NHS Tayside R&D Director, with clinical interests in type 2 diabetes and metabolism.
Doctor Giora Feuerstein
Wyeth Research
Doctor Feuerstein is the Assistant Vice President of Translational Research at Wyeth. Before joining Wyeth he was the Executive Director of Cardiovascular Diseases at Merck, and prior to that Head of Cardiovascular Disease at DuPont Pharmaceuticals, and subsequently the Director of the Cardiovascular Pharmacology Department at SmithKline Beecham, where he led the Carvedilio (Coreg) program. Prior to joining industry, Dr. Feuerstein was the Director of Neurobiology Research at USUHS, Bethesda, USA.
Doctor John Hall
Chairman, TMRI
Doctor Hall co-founded Leader Partners in 2008 to provide a platform for the delivery of consulting and training services to the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and contract research sectors. He has over 30 years' international experience in these industries at a senior executive level.
John's most recent role was at AAIPharma Inc. where he was President, European Operations, responsible for the development and growth of preclinical and clinical services across Europe and South Africa. Prior to joining AAIPharma, John served as Senior Vice President of Corporate Development for PharmaBio Development, Inc., a subsidiary of Quintiles Transnational Corp. In that role he worked on a broad range of corporate development, investment and strategic partnering ventures including the spin-out of facilities and teams from pharmaceutical companies to form units of CROs.
Doctor Joanne Killinger
Wyeth Research
Doctor Killinger is Senior Vice President of Drug Safety and Metabolism at Wyeth Research. She is responsible for the oversight and direction of Wyeth Research’s technical and scientific activities for Drug Safety and Metabolism at four sites in the U.S. and one in Italy with a staff of approximately 490 in Drug Safety, Bioanalytical, Biotransformation, and Operations. She held various positions in biochemical pharmacology, metabolism, pharmacokinetics, and toxicology at Ortho Pharmaceutical Corporation, Stauffer Chemical Company, Battelle and Sandoz, where she advanced to Head of Drug Safety in Basel, Switzerland. She joined Wyeth in 1996 as Assistant Vice President, Toxicology, Drug Safety and was promoted to Vice President, Drug Safety in 1999 and Senior Vice President, Drug Safety and Metabolism in 2005. Dr. Killinger received a B.S. degree in Chemistry from Marquette University, a M.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Purdue University. She is a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology and is a member of the Society of Toxicology and the PhRMA Preclinical Safety Steering Committee (DruSafe).
Professor Irene Leigh
University of Dundee
Professor Irene Leigh is a graduate of the London Hospital Medical College. After graduation she gained a Lecturership in medicine at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. In 1979 she returned to the UK and worked as a Senior Registrar at St John’s Hospital for Diseases of the Skin. Professor Leigh joined the London Hospital four years later as a Consultant Dermatologist. She went on to become a Senior Lecturer and then Professor of Dermatology in 1991.
She was Director of the Cancer Research UK Skin Tumour Laboratory and Head of the Centre for Cutaneous Research at Bart’s and the London, Queen Mary’s School of Medicine and Dentistry from 1983 until 2006. The Research Centre’s laboratories comprise multiple research teams focusing on: keratinocyte differentiation, connexins and keratin mutations; non melanoma skin cancer and molecular mechanisms; human papillomavirus and cellular mechanisms; hair biology; keratinocyte migration and extracellular matrix; stem cells; prostate cancer; cutaneous viruses; tissue engineering and skin equivalents.
In 1997 she was appointed Dean for Research, St Bartholomews and the Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry. In 1999 she was awarded a DSc, became a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and became Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine. In 2002 she became Joint Director of Research and Development for Barts and the London Trust/School of Medicine and Dentistry. She was awarded an OBE in the 2006 Birthday Honours List for services to medicine, became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2009 and will be President of the Association of Physicians for UK and Ireland in 2010.
In 2006, she became Head of the College of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing at the University of Dundee and continues to research into skin cancer and genetic disease, in collaboration with an existing group led by Irwin McLean, and was instrumental in the move of the Cancer Research UK Skin Tumour Laboratory to Dundee.
Professor Stephen Logan
University of Aberdeen
Professor Logan is the Senior Vice-Principal of the University of Aberdeen and has published more than 100scientific articles and has served on Research Council, Wellcome Trust and Health Department Advisory Panels. He isa director of two University spin-out companies TauRx pte and Wista pte. He has held appointments as Chairman ofGrampian University Hospitals NHS Trust, and as a member of NHS Grampian and the Scottish Higher EducationFunding Council.
Doctor Evan Loh
Wyeth Research
Evan Loh, MD, FACC, FAHA is Vice President, Clinical Research & Development. Dr. Loh is responsible for leadership and strategic oversight of clinical development efforts across multiple therapeutic areas in Clinical Research & Development (Hematology, Oncology, Cardiovascular, Infectious Diseases, Metabolism, Immunology/Internal Medicine, and Inflammation). He also is responsible for oversight of Clinical Translational Medicine and the Medical Research group based in Japan. Dr. Loh received his A.B. from Harvard College and his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He completed his Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular fellowship training at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, MA. His clinical responsibilities included attending physician, Cardiovascular Division/Cardiac Transplantation Program and Medical Director, Heart/Lung Transplantation Program. As a faculty member at Harvard Medical School, he received National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for his basic research interests in beta-adrenergic receptor-G-protein coupled signal transduction alterations in heart failure and denervated myocardium. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Diseases. Prior to joining Wyeth in 2000, Dr. Loh was Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. His clinical responsibilities included Medical Director, Heart Failure & Cardiac Transplantation Program; Director, Coronary Care Unit; and Interim Division Chief, Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Health System. In 1996, he was named one of the 50 most positive physician role models in the United States. His clinical research interests included studies in predictors of survival in patients with heart failure, mechanisms of pulmonary vascular control in humans, and molecular epidemiology approaches to the identification of disease-modifying loci in subjects with heart failure. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles, multiple review articles/book chapters and has edited a book entitled, “Heart Failure: A Clinician’s Guide to Ambulatory Diagnosis and Treatment” (vita attached). He has served as a reviewer for multiple peer-reviewed journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, Circulation, The Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Circulation Research, and JAMA. He is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and Fellow of the American Heart Association.
At Wyeth, he has been involved in the oversight and strategic clinical development of compounds from phase 0 to IV. He is the 2006 recipient of the Heroes of Chemistry Award from the American Chemical Society for his leadership role at Wyeth for the clinical development of Tygacil, a novel glycylcycline broad-spectrum antibiotic. His interests in enterprise-wide strategic change on behalf of Wyeth R&D has included leadership roles for: 1) design and implementation of the Learn and Confirm Clinical Development model; 2) Project Impact Research Optimization Initiative; and 3) R&D TA/DA Optimization project.
Professor Alison MacLeod
NHS Grampian
Professor MacLeod is professor in the Department of Medicine & amp; Therapeutics in Aberdeen, Scotland and an Honorary Consultant Physician and Nephrologist at the Grampian University Hospitals NHS Trust in Aberdeen. In these roles she sees patients with renal diseaseand is also part of a group of physicians who receive acute medical emergencies into Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
Professor Andrew Morris
University of Dundee
Professor Morris is the Professor of Medicine of Diabetic Medicine at the University of Dundee and leads a translational research Group at the University of Dundee that focuses on the epidemiological and molecular aetiological basis of diabetes complications. He also has a major interest in how managed clinical networks can improve patient care across geographical boundaries. His research has had major implications for the care of people with diabetes. Andrew is chair of the Scottish Diabetes Group and is Lead Clinician for Diabetes in Scotland.
Professor David Newby
NHS Lothian
Professor Newby graduated from the University of Southampton in 1990 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Cellular & Molecular Biology, and in 1991 with a Bachelor of Medicine degree. Following clinical positions in Southampton and Newcastle-upon-Tyne, he undertook his general professional training in the South East of Scotland before taking up a British Heart Foundation Junior Research Fellowship in Edinburgh. He was then appointed to Clinical Lecturer and Senior Lecturer posts in Cardiology during which time he attained a Doctorate in Medicine at the University of Southampton and a Doctorate in Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. He was appointed Clinical Reader in 2003 before attaining his personal chair in 2005. Professor Newby is funded by the British Heart Foundation and is currently Professor of Cardiology at the University of Edinburgh, Director of the Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility and a Consultant Cardiologist at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and the Western General Hospital, Edinburgh. Professor Newby’s principal research interests are in endothelial and vascular biology, acute coronary syndromes and heart failure.
Professor Chris Packard
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde
Professor Packard has spent most of his postgraduate years in the Institute of Biochemistry at Glasgow Royal Infirmary and during this time he has been active in the study of cholesterol metabolism and its relationship to ischaemic heart disease. This activity has resulted in over 250 publications. He is also the Research Director for Glasgow Royal Infirmary University NHS Trust. Outside of his home base in Glasgow he has spent time pursuing research in the USA, France, Switzerland and Finland. He lectures widely to both General Practitioner and specialist
audiences on cholesterol and heart disease.
Doctor Menelas Pangalos
Wyeth Research
Doctor Pangalos, Executive Vice President and Head of Discovery Research and a member of the Wyeth R&D Executive Committee. As Head of Discovery Research Dr. Pangalos oversees an organization of over 1200 scientists in the US and Europe with a focus on basic research for diseases of high unmet medical need in five core therapeutic areas; Inflammation, Metabolic Disorders, Musculoskeletal Disorders, Neuroscience and Oncology. Therapeutic area research efforts are supported by core science disciplines; screening, chemistry, protein therapeutics and translational medicine. Prior to assuming this role Dr. Pangalos was Vice President of Neuroscience Research at Wyeth and previously served as Group Director and Head of Neurodegenerative Research at GlaxoSmithKline in Harlow, United Kingdom. Dr. Pangalos completed his undergraduate studies with first class honors in Biochemistry from the Imperial College of Science and Technology and earned a Ph.D. in Neurochemistry from the Institute of Neurology, both at the University of London. He subsequently worked in the Psychiatry Department at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York, at Bristol Myers-Squibb in Connecticut and with Janssen Pharmaceutica in Belgium.
Dr. Pangalos is an Adjunct Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania and a Visiting Professor at King’s College London. He is an executive editor for Neuropharmacology, on the editorial boards of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience, and The Scientific World and on scientific advisory boards for the Wolfson Centre for Age Related Diseases (King’s College London), Rider University and the National Association for Mental Illness, NJ. He has previously served on the BBSRC Molecular and Cell Biology council and is a member of the American Society for Neuroscience, British Pharmacological Society and an Associate of the Royal College of Science.
Dr. Pangalos has edited the book “Understanding G-protein coupled receptors in the CNS”, as well as a number of journal issues focused on drug discovery in the CNS. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles in journals such as PNAS, Neuron, Journal of Neuroscience, Nature Neuroscience, The Lancet, British Journal of Psychiatry and Journal of Biological Chemistry. In 2008 Dr. Pangalos was recognized as one of 6 “Notable People in R&D” by R&D Directions. The New York Academy of Sciences also awarded Dr. Pangalos the inaugural “Innovation in Industry” award for his efforts in Neuroscience, and specifically Alzheimer’s disease, research.
Professor Sir John Savill
University of Edinburgh
Professor Sir John Savill is the first Vice Principal and Head of the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine in October 2002. He is an Honorary Consultant Physician and Nephrologist with the Lothian University Hospitals Division. He is a member of the Lothian Health Board and serves as Chair of its Service Redesign Committee. He currently serves as Chairman of the Physiological Systems and Clinical Sciences Board of the Medical Research Council as well as a full member of the Council itself. He has a particular interest in research and development, and the career structures necessary for this, having chaired the Academy of Medical Sciences Working Party on Clinical Academic careers.
Doctor Gary Stiles
M.D., F.A.C.C.
Wyeth Research (SC)
As Chief Medical Officer at Wyeth, Doctor Stiles is responsible for the Clinical Research and Development, Global Medical Affairs and Global Health Outcomes Assessment organizations. As CMO, he plays a critical role in shaping clinical research strategy to support both the scientific and commercial vision of the company.