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Speaker Biographies

Nikolaus Machuy leads a team of the platform for automated RNA interference applications at the Max-Planck-Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin. In addition he is a consultant for RNAx, a biotech company providing RNAi-based services.

Before he started to spend most of his time on loss-of-function screens, from 1998-2001 he did his PhD at the MPIIB identifying the proto-oncogene c-Abl to be a caspase substrate. Nik Machuy studied Biology at the Universities Gießen and Potsdam, where he got his Diploma in 1998.

J. Julio Martin is currently working at the Molecular Discovery Research automation facility of GlaxoSmithKline in Tres Cantos (Spain). This R&D centre is devoted to the industrialisation of HTS operations. As manager of one of groups, he is responsible for ultra-HTS campaigns from screen development to dose-response and preliminary SAR.

He holds a PhD degree in Biochemistry from University of Madrid. Prior to his current position, he was working at the R&D Department of Glaxo in Madrid from 1990 until 2001. As Head of Biochemistry, he managed programmes for discovery of new antimicrobial leads, contributing to the elucidation of the mechanism of action of Sordarins, a novel class of antifungals.

Lorenz M. Mayr, Ph.D., is working a a Senior Unit Head/Executive Director, Head BioChemical Screening, at the Novartis Lead Discovery Center (LDC). His unit is responsible for tool production, assay development and high-throughput screening of all biochemical assays at the Novartis Lead Discovery Center, Basel/Switzerland.

Graeme Milligan obtained a Ph.D. from Nottingham University in 1982. Following a period of post-doctoral training at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda MD he has been based at the University of Glasgow, where he is currently Professor of Molecular Pharmacology, since 1986. His research centres on the function, regulation and structural organisation of G protein-coupled receptors and their interacting proteins.

Oliver Nayler majored in biochemistry at the ETH Zürich/Switzerland and performed his thesis at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology / Cambridge / UK. He held a postdoctoral and laboratory leader position at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried / Germany before joining Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd as Head of Molecular Biology: At Actelion, he is a project leader of several Drug Discovery Programs and his team is responsible for many aspects in Molecular Cell Biology including genomics, bioinformatics and cellular HTS.

Dr. Sarah Payne gained a PhD from the University of Reading after researching the structure/function relationships of ligands acting at the Dopamine D2short receptor. With industry experience working on Matrix Metalloproteinases at Pfizer Central Research (UK) and UCB Pharma (UK) designing screening assays for GPCR programmes, she then accepted a position at Cellomics Europe as an Application and Support Scientist. Her role was to support sales and customers using the ArrayScan HCS Reader. From here she moved to a similar position at Guava Technologies Inc. and now holds a Product Manager position for the Acumen range of Laser Scanning Cytometers at TTP LabTech Ltd.

Dr. Hans Pirard has been active in the Life Sciences community for more than 30 years. He has been working in sales, marketing and business development with both reagents and instrumentation for the Life Science market. The last couple of years he is actiove as Technology manager uHTS Imaging Systems in the high throughput screening field. The isntrument patforms he is currerntly covering include the ViewLux(tm) ultraHTS Microplate Imager, CellLux (tm) Cellular Fluorescence Workstation, and recently LumiLux, Cellular Screening Platform.

Dr. John Printen is Business Segment Director, Cell Signaling, at Invitrogen Discovery Sciences, located in Madison, WI.

Prior to joining Invitrogen in January 2003, Dr. Printen held the position of Associate Director, Enabling Science and Technology, at AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, UK (1998-2003). Dr. Printen did his post-doctoral training in the Signal Transduction Department, Parke-Davis (Ann Arbor), after receiving his Ph.D. degree in Molecular Biology at the University of Oregon in 1995. Dr. Printen received a MS degree in Microbiology (1990) and a BS in Biochemistry (1986) from Colorado State University.

Stephen Rees leads the Cell Biology Unit within the Screening and Compound Profiling Department at GlaxoSmithKline. This group is responsible for both hit identification through the application of high throughput screening techniques and compound profiling to support lead optimisation, using a range of cell based screening technologies against multiple target classes. Steve has many years experience in assay design and compound screening at targets expressed in mammalian cells.

Dr. Rosario M. Sanchez-Martin graduated in Pharmacy in 1997 from the University of Granada ( Spain ). Afterwards she started her PhD in Prof. Espinosa’s Group in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at Granada University where she worked in the design, synthesis and evaluation of novel inhibitors of the Ras/Choline Kinase pathway, as potential anti-cancer drugs. During her PhD she joined Prof. Barbe of Faculty of Pharmacy at Marseille (France) where she worked on the synthesis and evaluation of heterocyclic compounds as antimalarial drugs and Prof. Bradley’s group at the University of Southampton (UK), where she worked in the synthesis and evaluation of peptoids as carrier systems, as a visiting researcher. In 2002, after completing her PhD at Granada University , she took on a position as a post-doctoral researcher in Prof. Bradleys group where she worked in the synthesis of transporters, capable of being able to be taken up by cells, and their subsequent functionalization with biomolecules for development as carrier systems. Recently, she started her own research project in collaboration with Prof. Bradley at the University of Edinburgh (UK) after she was awarded a Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship by the Royal Society for developing cell-based HT screening assays.

Program team head for cardiovascular research program related to GPCR signaling in the heart. Acquired knowledge in cardiac pharmacology and disease. Initiation and coordination of program activities at various research sites and in different departments. Transfection of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and reporters in mammalian cell lines. Development of cellular assays for GPCRs and ion channels, and pharmacological research. Primary and secondary assay screening, selectivity profiling, hit-to-lead optimization, and data analyses. Interaction across multiple disciplines (in vitro and in vivo biology, chemistry, in silico, IT, engineering). Evaluation of novel cellular assay systems. Established desensitization of GPCRs as a novel tool for agonist discovery. Found novel G16-related signaling characteristics for human sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) receptor. Research on novel fluorescent techniques to study GPCR-Rho signaling and GPCR internalization. Filing of patent for novel GPCR-Rho pathway assay ongoing. Project management. Group coordinator for the respiratory disease projects. Training and education of young researchers.

Management of laboratory with one Postdoctoral fellow, one student, one research associate, two technicians, and one apprentice.

Dr. Simeonov is currently a group leader at the NIH Chemical Genomics Center. His research interests include novel detection chemistries and techniques, assay miniaturization, and novel approaches to screening. Prior to joining NCGC in November 2004, Dr. Simeonov was a senior scientist at Caliper Life Sciences, a leading developer of microfluidic technologies, where he was responsible for both basic research on novel assay chemistries and development of microfluidic products. Dr. Simeonov’s doctoral research was focused on mechanistic enzymology of nitrogen fixation. His postdoctoral research at the Scripps Research Institute in the labs of Prof. Richard Lerner and Kim Janda was in the areas of catalytic antibody generation, directed protein evolution, and biophysical characterization of antibody binding.

Pirthipal Singh graduated from Leeds University in Biochemistry and started his career in industry, (December 1978), at the Alderley Park laboratories of ICI Pharmaceuticals (latterly Zeneca Pharmaceuticals and now AstraZeneca). He has worked primarily in the area of biochemical assay development, for medium and high throughput screening, where he has had a longstanding interest in the evaluation & implementation of ‘new’ technologies and assay design, into Drug Discovery programs.

Berend Snijder was born in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, on August 31st 1981. He studied Medical Biology at the University of Amsterdam and obtained his Masters' degree with honours in 2006. Berend joined the Pelkmans lab at the Institute of Molecular Systems Biology, ETH Zurich, in January 2006 where he develops and applies high content image analysis tools for the HT screening of virus entry and endocytosis.

Assistant Director, Oncology Biology, GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals

M.B.A. degree, Saint Joseph’s University, Information Systems Management

M.A. degree, University of Nebraska, Biology

B.S. degree, University of Nebraska, Biology