Scientific & Medical Advisory Panel
AurimMed Pharma is supported by a number of highly recognized Scientific and Medical Advisors who generously volunteer their time & expertise in order to advance the Company's scientific and preclinical programs.
AurimMed Pharma, Inc. has established long-term, professional collaborations with scientific and medical experts who serve on the Company’s Scientific and Medical Advisory Panel (SMAP). This Advisory Panel consists of a world-class group of scientists, medical doctors, and researchers with expertise relevant to the Company’s areas of product development. Collaborations between AurimMed and the individual advisors are based on mutual scientific, medical, and business interests.
Several of AurimMed's lead candidate compounds have been deemed worthy of undergoing advanced preclinical testing and development through the NIH's Anticonvulsant Screening Program. The promising results that have been obtained so far with the Company's top three preclinical candidates strongly suggest that the selection of a clinical candidate to enter Phase I human clinical trials could occur within as little as 12 months. Therefore, highly regarded scientific and medical experts are needed to help provide professional guidance and advice for the advancement of AurimMed’s scientific programs, as well as for the design and implementation of the Company’s future clinical trials. The professional qualifications of the Members of AurimMed Pharma’s SMAP represent this high level of expertise, and SMAP Members regularly contribute their professional input at a high level to the Company's future evolution and development.
Chris M. Ireland, Ph.D., is the Chief Administrative Officer and Associate Vice President for Research for The University of Utah Asia Campus. He joined the faculty of the University of Utah as an Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in 1983 and most recently was the L. S. Skaggs Presidential Endowed Chair for Pharmacy and Dean.
During his 26 years on the faculty he has established himself as a world leader in the field of natural product drug discovery. Dr. Ireland’s research program has focused on the discovery of antitumor agents from natural product sources including marine invertebrate animals, tropical plants and fungi. He and his co-workers have published more than 170 peer reviewed research articles, eight book chapters and five patents. His research accomplishments and international reputation have been acknowledged in the form of numerous invitations to speak at national and international symposia on natural products research and cancer chemotherapeutics. Dr. Ireland has received additional recognition by serving on a number of review panels at NIH including the Bioorganic and Natural Products NIH study section and most recently as a member of the National Cancer Institute’s Board of Scientific Counselors. Dr. Ireland has served as the Principal Investigator of a National Cooperative Drug Discovery Group consortium funded by the NCI to discover new cancer drugs from unique natural products sources, and is currently serving as the Co-PI of an International Cooperative Biodiversity Group consortium funded by the Fogarty International Center to discover new HIV, Malaria and TB drugs from plants in Papua New Guinea.
Dr. Ireland’s research interests include marine pharmacognosy, natural products chemistry, the structure and mechanism of action of antitumor natural products, marine microbiology, and the structure and neurotoxicity of conotoxins. He currently serves on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Natural Products (1999-present) and the Philippine Journal of Science (1999-present). His professional affiliations include membership in the Organic Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society, the American Society of Pharmacognosy, and the American Association of Cancer Researchers.
Y. Hwan Kim, Ph.D. earned his B.S. in Plant Physiology/Molecular Biology and M.S. in biotechnology at Korea University, Seoul, South Korea. Under the mentorship of Dr. Art Arnold, Distinguished Professor, Neuroscience/Physiological Science at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), he completed his Ph.D. in Neuroscience while studying sex differences in brain. In addition, he has developed extensive scientific expertise in Parkinson’s disease (PD) research as a post-doctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins Medical Institution and Buck Institute for aging research. Twenty-two years of laboratory experience have prepared him well for broad neuroscience research projects. Currently he is an associate professor at Delaware State University responsible for supervising researchers and graduate students, designing experiments, troubleshooting of research projects, and writing scientific manuscripts. The Kim lab focuses on understanding the role of post-translational modification such as SUMOylation and Ubiquitination of alpha-synuclein in the pathology of Parkinson’s disease and developing potential therapeutic combinations for PD.
Stephan Gerhard Thiede, M.D., is a Board-Certified Radiologist [American Board of Radiology (ABR), June, 2003], with additional Certification of Qualification in Neuroradiology from the ABR (November, 2005). He was educated at Oberlin College (Neurosciences/Pre-Med./Economics) and the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC (M.D., 1998), with additional training at the University of North Carolina Hospitals (Internal Medicine, 1998-1999, and Residency in Diagnostic Radiology, 1999-2003) and the University of Utah Medical Center (Fellowship in Neuroradiology, 2003-2005). Dr. Thiede is a contributor to the authoritative book, Diagnostic Imaging: Head and Neck (1st edition, 2005), and his work has also been published in Pediatric Pulmonology, The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, and Academic Radiology. He is in private radiology practice with Radiology Associates, P.C., Eugene, OR.
H. Steve White, Ph.D., earned his baccalaureate degree in Pharmacy and a M.S. in Pharmacology at Idaho State University. He earned his Ph.D. in Pharmacology at the University of Utah where he rose through the academic ranks after joining the College of Pharmacy faculty in 1986. Before joining the University Of Washington School Of Pharmacy as Chair of the Department of Pharmacy, White was the principal investigator and scientific director of the NIH-sponsored Anticonvulsant Drug Development (ADD) Program, established in 1975 to identify novel anticonvulsant drugs using established animal seizure and epilepsy models.
White’s research is focused on understanding the factors that contribute to the initiation, propagation, and amelioration of seizure activity. White has been the recipient of significant research funding from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and he and his collaborators have published over 170 original papers pertaining to the mechanism of action and the pharmacology of antiepileptic drugs. In addition to his academic service, he served as Research Director of CURE (Citizen’s United for Research in Epilepsy), the largest non-governmental provider of epilepsy research funding, from November 2011 until October of 2015, where he assisted in the development of strategic programs that advance transformative epilepsy research that may someday lead to a cure or disease modifying therapy for the patient at risk for developing epilepsy. He continues to serve as a Research Advisor to CURE’s team-science initiatives. He has been a co-organizer of two NIH-sponsored workshops on models of refractory epilepsy and epileptogenesis and currently serves on the organizing committee of the biannual Eilat Conferences on Antiepileptic Drug Development. Additionally, White has been actively engaged as a mentor for the next generation of neuroscientists and epilepsy educators and is frequently invited to speak at national and international congresses.