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Icagen Announces New Members of Drug Discovery and Development Expert Panel

Posted on: Friday, 1 June 2007, 09:00 CDT

Icagen, Inc. (NASDAQ: ICGN) announced today the expansion of its drug discovery and development expert panel with the appointment of three distinguished academicians. The purpose of Icagen's drug discovery and development expert panel is to provide ongoing advice and guidance on key scientific and clinical development issues related to the Company's portfolio of drug discovery programs. The academic members joining this panel are William Catterall, Ph.D., Christine Sang, M.D., M.P.H. and Cheryl Zimmerman, Ph.D.

Dr. Catterall has been Professor and Chairman, Department of Pharmacology at the University of Washington since 1984. Dr. Catterall's laboratory played a leading role in the application of biochemical approaches to the study of voltage-gated sodium and calcium channel proteins, which are responsible for generation of electrical signals in the brain, heart, skeletal muscles, and other excitable cells. Their subsequent work has contributed much to understanding the structure, function, regulation, and molecular pharmacology of these key cell signaling molecules. Dr. Catterall was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1989, where he served as Chair of the Section of Physiology & Pharmacology from 1998 to 2001, and to the Institute of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2000. He served as editor-in-chief of Molecular Pharmacology from 1985 to 1990, was a founding member of the editorial board of Neuron, and has been an editorial board member of several other professional journals. He has also served on numerous scientific advisory boards, including those for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Vollum Institute. Dr. Catterall's laboratory has published over 300 research papers and 30 reviews on voltage-gated ion channels, and has been recognized with several professional awards. Dr. Catterall received his B.A. degree in chemistry from Brown University, his Ph.D. in physiological chemistry from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and performed his postdoctoral training in neurobiology and molecular pharmacology at the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Sang is currently the director of the Translational Pain Research Program at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Sang is board certified in both anesthesiology and pain management, and is an attending physician at both the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Children's Hospital, Boston. Dr. Sang's research has been focused on the clinical evaluation of novel potential analgesics, which target selective mechanisms of pain. Dr. Sang is a director of the National Spinal Cord Injury Association, the founding chairman of its Medical Advisory Committee, and a founding member of the Neuropathic Pain Institute, and has recently completed her term as director-at-large of the American Pain Society. Dr. Sang serves on the editorial boards of Current Pain and Headache Reports, Journal of Neuropathic Pain & Symptom Palliation, American Pain Society Bulletin, and Pain Medicine. She actively consults in the discovery and clinical development of novel analgesics, clinical trial design, and management of central and peripheral neuropathic pain syndromes, serves on several scientific advisory boards, and is a special government employee with the Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Sang received her medical degree at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, her Master of Public Health degree at Harvard University, completed her clinical training in anesthesiology at John Hopkins Hospital and Children's Hospital, Boston, and her postgraduate clinical research training at Harvard Medical School and the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Zimmerman is currently Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Pharmaceutics at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Zimmerman's research interests include among others understanding drug absorption and metabolism in relation to improving oral drug delivery, and studying the effects of carcinogens and organ-specific tumorigenesis in order to develop pharmacokinetically appropriate chemoprevention strategies. She has published extensively on a wide variety of topics in preclinical pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism and has been the recipient of numerous teaching awards. Dr. Zimmerman served as a member of the Food and Drug Administration Advisory Committee for Pharmaceutical Sciences, and recently completed a three-year term as member-at-large on the Executive Council of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists. She is also a member of the editorial review boards of Drug Metabolism and Disposition and the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Dr. Zimmerman earned her B.S. in pharmacy from the University of Wisconsin and her Ph.D. in pharmaceutics from the University of Washington.

Mark Suto, Ph.D., Vice President of Chemistry at Icagen, stated, "We are delighted to announce the addition of Drs. Catterall, Sang and Zimmerman to our drug discovery and development expert panel. Each of these distinguished individuals brings an unique expertise to our panel, and complements the strengths of the previously announced pharmaceutical industry members, Drs. Cimarusti and Skidmore. We look forward to benefiting from the experience of our panel as we continue to evaluate and advance our pipeline of novel ion channel-focused drug discovery and development programs."

About Icagen

Icagen, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel orally-administered small molecule drugs that modulate ion channel targets. Utilizing its proprietary know-how and integrated scientific and drug development capabilities, Icagen has identified multiple drug candidates that modulate ion channels. The Company is conducting research and development activities, in some cases in collaboration with leading pharmaceutical companies, in a number of disease areas, including epilepsy; pain; inflammation; sickle cell disease; atrial fibrillation; dementia, including Alzheimer's disease; and attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. For this purpose, any statements contained herein that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Without limiting the foregoing, the words "believes,""anticipates,""plans,""expects,""intends," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations described in these forward-looking statements are set forth under the caption "Risk Factors" in the Company's most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, filed with the SEC on May 9, 2007. These risk factors include risks as to the Company's history of net losses and how long the Company will be able to operate on its existing capital resources; the Company's ability to raise additional funding; the Company's ability to maintain compliance with NASDAQ's continued listing requirements; whether the Company's products will advance in the clinical trials process; the timing of such clinical trials; whether the results obtained in preliminary studies will be indicative of results obtained in clinical trials; whether the clinical trial results will warrant continued product development; whether and when, if at all, the Company's products, including senicapoc, will receive approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or equivalent regulatory agencies, and for which indications, and if such products receive approval, whether they will be successfully marketed; and the Company's dependence on third parties, including manufacturers, suppliers and collaborators, including McNeil, the Company's collaborator for its sickle cell disease program. We disclaim any intention or obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of developments occurring after the date of this press release.

Source: Business Wire

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