SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD
Charles S. Craik, Ph.D., Chairman
Dr. Charles Craik is a Professor in the Departments of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Cellular & Molecular Pharmacology and Biochemistry & Biophysics at the University of California at San Francisco. He is also the director of the Chemistry and Chemical Biology Graduate Program. He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Columbia University in New York and carried out his postdoctoral research at UCSF with Dr. William Rutter. He joined the UCSF faculty in 1985 and has published over 200 research articles on various biochemical topics. He has co-authored two books, and served on advisory panels for the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the National Academy of Sciences and the Department of Energy. He has organized several international meetings on topics including Protein Engineering, Drug Discovery, and The Biology of Proteolysis. The current research in the Craik lab focuses on the chemical biology of proteolytic enzymes and their natural inhibitors. A particular emphasis of his work is on identifying the roles and regulating the activity of proteases associated with infectious diseases, cancer and development. These studies are providing a better understanding of both the chemical make-up and the biological importance of these critical proteins.
Shaun Coughlin, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Shaun Coughlin is the Professor of Medicine, Professor of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, and Director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the University of California at San Francisco. He received his undergraduate and graduate training at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. After internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, he moved to the University of California at San Francisco for Cardiology and postdoctural fellowships and joined the faculty there in 1986.
Dr. Coughlin's laboratory has made important contributions to our understanding of how thrombin and related proteases regulate the behavior of platelets and other cells. Thrombin, a protease that is generated when blood vessels are damaged, instructs blood cells called platelets to stick together. Platelet aggregates help stop blood loss after wounding, but they also block diseased blood vessels to cause heart attacks and strokes. In 1991, the Coughlin laboratory's landmark discovery of a thrombin receptor, now known as protease-activated receptor-1, provided the first real understanding of the molecular process by which thrombin, a protease, can regulate the behavior of platelets and other cells like hormones do. The laboratory's characterization of PAR1 and its subsequent discoveries of other members of the PAR family have led to a greater understanding of how cells sense and respond to tissue injury as well as insights into the development of blood vessels and the control of inflammatory signals. These findings have provided new strategies for the development of therapies against thrombotic diseases, including heart attack and stroke.
Marc Pelletier, MD, MSc, FRCSC
Dr. Marc Pelletier is originally from New Brunswick, Canada, where he attended Mount Allison University, obtaining a Bachelor’s of Science Degree with honors in chemistry. During this period, he was named Junior of the Year, received numerous scholarships and bursaries. He then attended Dalhousie University, where he obtained his Medical Degree in 1994. He subsequently entered into a General Surgery residency at McGill University where he obtained a Master’s Degree in Science, in the field of Experimental Surgery. Dr. Pelletier’s work focused on Laser Transmyocardial Revascularization and its role in promoting angiogenesis. He then entered the Cardiac Surgery Residency program, successfully passing his exams in 2000 with the highest mark in Canada. Dr. Pelletier was accepted into the fellowship program at Stanford University, where he spent one year performing cardiac surgery for heart failure, including heart, heart-lung and lung transplants, and numerous ventricular assist device implants.
In July 2001, Dr. Pelletier joined Sunnybrook & Women’s College Health Sciences (SWCHSC) as staff surgeon and member of the Schulich Heart Centre. He was also appointed Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto and as Associate Scientist in the division of Clinical Integrative Biology at the Sunnybrook Research Institute. In January 2004, Dr. Pelletier returned to California and now serves as Assistant Professor at Stanford University, Medical Director of Cardiac Surgery at El Camino Hospital and staff surgeon at Stanford Medical Center and Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital. The joint venture between El Camino Hospital and Stanford Cardiothoracic Surgery offers an exciting new challenge.
He is an author on 34 peer-reviewed publications and 4 book chapters. He has been an author on 58 abstracts and scientific meeting presentations, in addition to 57 invited talks. His research interests have focused on myocardial regeneration with mesenchymal stem cells, stem cell migration, intraoperative imaging of coronary bypass grafts, long-term effects of uncorrected mild-moderate mitral regurgitation and the use of radial arteries in patients with left ventricular dysfunction. His clinical interests include heart and lung transplantation, multi-arterial grafting in bypass surgery, aortic surgery and stent-grafting of the thoracic aorta, surgery for heart failure and aortic/mitral valve repair/replacement.
Jim Wells, Ph.D.
Dr. Jim Wells is the Harry W. and Diana Hind Professor in the Departments of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at the University of California at San Francisco. From 1998 to 2005 Dr. Wells was a co-founder, Director, President and CSO of Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, a drug discovery and development company using a novel site-directed drug discovery technology. Prior to Sunesis, he held the position of Staff Scientist at Genentech for 16 years where he helped build the Protein Engineering Department and developed technology for designing second-generation protein therapeutics. Dr. Wells' current research focuses on protease signaling pathways and site-directed chemical biology, a new field that systematically interrogates the roles of specific sites on proteins in cells using small molecules.
Dr. Wells received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Washington State University in 1979 and was a Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Post-doctoral Fellow in the Biochemistry Department at Stanford University prior to joining Genentech in 1982. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed scientific papers, and been named inventor on more than 60 patents issued or filed. He has won a number of research awards including, most recently, the Hans Neurath Award presented by the Protein Society in 2003, the Cutting Award Lecture at Stanford University in 2005 and the Perlman Lecture Award of the ACS Biotechnology Division in 2006. In 1999 he was elected Member to the National Academy of Sciences, USA.
