He has more than 30 yrs of medicinal chemistry expertise.  He is currently the Chair, Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Associate Dean for Research at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.  His research has focused on the discovery of novel compounds with potential therapeutic effects in the central nervous system, prodrugs, and peptidomimetics.  In collaboration with Peter Andersen and Mark Scheidelar at Novo Nordisk A/S, Denmark they discovered that the tricyclic benz[e]indole ring system provided the framework for compounds with potent affinity for the dopamine D3 receptor. Over the last 12 years, also in collaboration with Novo Nordisk A/S has been in the development of nonpeptide ligands of somatostatin [somatotropin release-inhibiting factor (SRIF).  Present studies in his laboratory are directed toward microwave-assisted synthesis of novel scaffolds that contain the key structural fragments which are thought to impart binding affinity for family of G-protein-coupled receptors (sst 1-sst 5).

Professor and Vice Chair for Research, Stark Neurosciences Research Institute, Indiana University School of Medicine, and Associate Director, Indiana Alzheimer Disease Center.  Dr. Farlow is a board certified neurologist with broad interests in clinical research and with extensive experience in clinical trials in Parkinson’s disease.

He has more than 15 yrs experience in Medicinal chemistry.  He is currently an Associate Professor and Division Head, Medicinal and Natural Products Chemistry, Dept. of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Experimental Therapeutics at Univ. of Iowa.  His research program is focused on the study of biologically important glycoconjugates and  antibiotic resistance, with emphases on developing inhibitors of bacterial topoisomerases and understanding the structural requirements of select quinolone-class antibiotics for immunomodulatory effects on host cells and to kill non-replicating cells by promoting the release of fragmented DNA from ternary complex.  This work is typical of small molecule drug design where aspects of medicinal chemistry to control target selectivity and to address ADMET are always a major consideration in compound design and testing.

He has more than twenty five years of pharmaceutical experience in medicinal chemistry in the areas of anti-infectives, nuclear receptors, melanocortin receptors (inflammation and diabetes), anti-hypertensives, antiallergy, and Alzheimer’s disease. He has extensive cxperience in antisense drug discovery including sequence selection and nucleoside modification, synthesis and oligo synthesis and in peptide nucleic acid chemistry. He is fully versed in all aspects of preclinical development of chemical leads to clinical candidates. Experience in design and development of enzyme inhibitors, receptor antagonists and receptor agonists. Knowledgeable with respect to SAR, QSAR, and pharmacophore modeling. He is very knowledgeable in chemical synthesis of proteins, protein folding and peptide ligation to create proteins.

Dr. Pandi is an administrator and developer of companies. He founded Axiom Biotechnologies, AmPharm, AmphiMed and Athenese. AmphiMed and Athenese are medical device companies. He was the President & CEO of Axiom Biotechnologies Inc., and led the company for 8 years. Pandi  successfully engineered the sale of Axiom to publicly held Sequenom, preserving the integrity of the technology and the research team. He continued his support as Senior Vice President of Pharmaceutical Affairs at Sequenom.  He has developed drug candidates AXM570 as a lung cancer compound, orally active CNTF mimic for obesity, 5HT4 agonist for the treatment of GERD, and technologies like:  Natural Cell Bank, Pharmacology Screening, Cell-Gene Expression Array, PharmaProfile Database, BioShield, FAST and MAGIC.

Principal Scientist, Head of Biology Research, Calistoga Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Seattle, WA. Dr. Puri has more than 13 years of research and development experience in oncology, immunology, vascular biology, and neurobiology. His work led to the identification of several Drug Development Candidates, three of which are currently being evaluated in clinical Phase I/II studies.