kgannon@externalpharma.com

• Scientific and Business Development Advisor

Kimberley Gannon is an advisor to External Pharma, with over 15 years of drug discovery and development experience at major pharmaceutical firms (Eli Lilly and Company, SmithKline Beecham, Hoffmann-LaRoche) as well as start-up ventures (CereMedix, Acretia, Predix, EPIX). Dr. Gannon led a team of in vivo pharmacologists at Eli Lilly and Company in Neuroscience Drug Discovery and was the lead behavioral scientist for Alzheimer’s disease programs.
At EPIX Pharmaceuticals, she served as Senior Director of Biology and was responsible for external global outsourcing, drug development research collaborations and assisting in business development activities. Her work has supported a total of seven clinical candidates that advanced into the clinic. Dr. Gannon has broad-based expertise that spans assay development and behavioral pharmacology, target selection validation, early drug discovery and late stage product development, business development, and executive management. A large focus of her career has been on global external research alliances, outsourcing strategies for drug development, commercialization of emerging technologies and business development strategies for start-up companies.

• Professor
• Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology
• University of Texas Medical Branch
• Galveston, TX

Dr. Chung is a Professor in the Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology, University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB). He earned his Ph.D. in Physiology from Loyola University in Chicago in 1977. After postdoctoral training at UTMB and a brief faculty appointment in Korea, he has been in his current position since 1981. Dr. Chung's main research interests include the pathophysiological mechanisms of neuropathic pain and neurobiological mechanisms underlying acupuncture analgesia. To investigate the mechanisms of neuropathic pain, Dr. Chung’s lab has developed an experimental rat model that closely mimics behavioral signs of chronic pain in human patients with neuropathic pain. This model is one of the most popular neuropathic pain models used throughout the world for investigative research and new analgesic drug development. Recent findings from Dr. Chung’s lab indicate that reactive oxygen species (ROS), the primary source of cellular oxidative stress, act as critical cellular signaling molecules in the spinal cord, mediating various types of chronic pain. Dr. Chung is a recipient of a Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (1985-1990), and has served as a member of numerous NIH grant review boards. He has received uninterrupted research grant support from the NIH throughout his career. He has published more than 130 papers in peer-reviewed journals. They have been cited more than 6,700 times. Dr. Chung is serving as the director of the Gulf Coast Consortium for Translational Pain Research.

• President of the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society
• Full Professor, Associate Chair
• Department of Psychology
• University of Toronto @ Mississauga

Dr. Gerlai’s research has been focussing on the biological and genetic mechanisms of behaviour. He is most known for his work on behavioural phenotyping and the use of genetically engineered mice. Dr. Gerlai has published over 100 papers in refereed scientific journals and several book chapters. He is a member of the editorial board of Cognitive Processing, and of Genes Brain and Behavior. He has been serving as a scientific referee for more than 50 scientific journals. Dr. Gerlai is currently the President of the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society (IBNS), has served as Chair of several committees of IBNS in the past, and became Fellow of IBNS in 2005. He is the founding member of the International Behavioral and Neural Genetics Society, IBANGS, past-treasurer and member-at-large of this society.

Dr. Gerlai received his Ph.D. from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences with the highest distinction in 1989. He has held numerous academic positions in Europe and North America (Eötvös University of Budapest, Mount Sinai Hospital Research Institute of Toronto, Indiana University Purdue University, University of Hawaii) and he also held leadership positions in the US biotechnology and pharmaceutical research industry working as a senior research scientist and Vice President (Genentech Inc., Eli Lilly & Co., Saegis Pharma) before joining University of Toronto in 2004 where he is now Full Professor and Associate Chair of the Department of Psychology.

• Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Pharmacology
• Director of the Behavioral Psychopharmacology Laboratory in the Department of Psychiatry
• Director of the Training Program in Neuropsychopharmacology
• University of Pennsylvania, PA

Dr. Lucki’s research focuses on the neural mechanisms associated with anxiety and mood disorders and the behavioral effects of antidepressants and anxiolytic drugs, as well as the development of new therapeutic approaches leading to improved psychiatric medications for treatment of behavioral disorders. He has conducted basic and clinical pharmacologic research studies and receives research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), private foundations, and the pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Lucki is the Director of the National Cooperative Drug Discovery Group conducting integrative studies on mood and affective disorders at the University of Pennsylvania with investigators from Wyeth Neuroscience. His research methods have included the use of genetically altered mice to study models with specific serotonin receptor deficiencies or synthetic enzymes for monoamine transmitters and the use of behavioral genetics to identify traits associated with abnormal behaviors or pharmacogenetic predisposition for antidepressant drugs.

Dr. Lucki has served as Chair of the Integrative, Functional, and Cognitive Neuroscience Committee, which is an NIH grant proposal review group. He has served on Scientific Advisory Boards for the National Association for Research in Schizophrenia and Affective Disorders (NARSAD), Purdue University, Tufts University, University of Pittsburgh Center for Geriatric Psychiatry, Vanderbilt University, Wyeth Neuroscience and others.

Dr. Lucki has authored more than 140 publications, is Principal Editor for Psychopharmacology and is on the editorial boards of Neuropsychopharmacology and the Journal of Psychopharmacology. He is a fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and the American Psychological Association.