Therapeutic Workshops
Resisting the Enemy Within - Keeping Score on the War Against Autoimmune Disease
October 29, 2009
2:00 - 3:00 p.m.
Twin Peaks South
Arthritis, lupus, gout and other debilitating inflammatory conditions are chronic autoimmune illnesses characterized by an immune system that has become misdirected. An estimated 43 million people in the United States alone develop autoimmune rheumatic conditions. By 2020, there will be 60 million diagnosed. Unfortunately, many patients do not fully respond to available treatments and those treatments that are available are known to cause further complications, such as PML. With the discovery of new molecular targets and pathways, companies are advancing new classes of medicines for autoimmune inflammatory diseases, including oral kinase inhibitors in RA and monoclonal antibodies in lupus. The current pipeline may hold the answer for millions of patients. Companies with late-stage compounds for arthritis and inflammatory diseases, key opinion leaders and advocates will provide insights on experimental new autoimmune therapies, clinical need and application and the development landscape.
Moderator:
- Liana Moussatos, Ph.D, Senior Healthcare Research Analyst, Wedbush PacGrow Life Sciences
Panelists:
- C. Garrison Fathman, MD, Chief Division of Immunology and Rheumatology, Stanford University School of Medicine
- John A. Hardin, MD, Chief Scientific Officer, Arthritis Foundation
- Sandra C. Raymond, President and CEO, Lupus Foundation of America
- Alan M. Solinger, MD, FACP, FACR, Vice President of Clinical Immunology, XOMA
- Peter A. Thompson, MD, FACP, President & CEO, Trubion Pharmaceuticals
Who's Who
C. Garrison Fathman, MD
Dr. C. Garrison Fathman, Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Immunology and Rheumatology at Stanford University School of Medicine, also serves as Past Chairman of the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS) and Director of the Center for Clinical Immunology at Stanford (CCIS).
Dr. Fathman’s contributions in translational medicine in the areas of cellular and molecular immunology, as well as adoptive cellular gene therapy, have brought him international recognition. In particular, he is acclaimed for his establishment and exploitation of the technologies of antigen-specific T-cell cloning and adoptive cellular gene therapy, accomplishments that have facilitated a remarkable series of subsequent advances in understanding conventional immune response and treating autoimmune diseases.
As Founder and Past Chairman of FOCIS, Dr. Fathman led an extremely successful international effort to acknowledge and develop the field of clinical immunology. As Director of the CCIS, the Stanford-based FOCIS Center of Excellence, Dr. Fathman has initiated multi-disciplinary studies to generate novel approaches for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, including insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis. He has also developed state-of-the-art technologies of genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics to integrate approaches to diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy of these diseases.
After receiving his undergraduate degree from the University of Kentucky and his M.D. from Washington University in St. Louis, Dr. Fathman did his residency training at Dartmouth Affiliated Hospitals and completed a fellowship in Immunology and Rheumatology at Stanford University. He then spent four years doing research, first as a Clinical Associate at the Immunology Branch of the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health and subsequently as a member of the Basel Institute of Immunology in Switzerland. He returned to the United States to join the faculty as Associate Professor of Immunology at the Mayo Clinic in 1977 and was recruited to Stanford University School of Medicine in 1981.
John A. Hardin, MD
Dr. Hardin is Professor of Medicine and Microbiology and Immunology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and of Orthopedic Surgery at the Montefiore Medical Center. He is a graduate of the Medical College of Georgia, and received postdoctoral training at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NY, the National Institutes of Health, and the Massachusetts General Hospital. He was a member of the faculty of Yale University School of Medicine (1976-1991) and subsequently Professor and Chairman of the Departments of Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia (1991-2000), and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine 2000- 2002). He now serves as the Arthritis Foundation’s Chief Scientific Officer where he is responsible for leading the Foundations Research Program that over the years has funded over $400 million dollars of arthritis related research and sponsored training for over 1200 Postdoctoral Fellows.
Hardin’s research interests have been focused on gaining an understanding of the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases. With collaborators at Yale, Drs Joan Steitz and Michael Lerner, he participated in studies that identified SNURPS (small nuclear ribonucleoprotein Particles) and SCURPS (small cytoplasmic nucleoprotein particles) as important targets for aberrant immune responses in patients with lupus and other autoimmune diseases. Their efforts were recognized with the Arthritis Foundation’s first Lee Howley prize in 1984. After a sabbatical year in Cambridge, where he worked with Dr. Jean Thomas, Hardin extended these studies to the role of chromatin as a dominant autoantigen in patients with lupus. These studies established the current concept that selected nucleoprotein particles selectively induce autoimmune responses as a central pathogenic event in lupus. His subsequent studies led to the initial description of the Ku autoantigen which was subsequently identified by Drs William Dynan and Steve Jackson as the regulatory subunit of the DNA repair and recombination enzyme known as DNA dependent protein kinase. His current studies are focused on understanding how environmental factors such as vitamin D deficiency contribute to autoimmunity.
Through the years, Hardin has served in many roles at the NIH, the Arthritis Foundation, the American College of Rheumatology, and the American Board of Internal Medicine. This year he was named a Master of the American College of Rheumatology.
Liana Moussatos, Ph.D
Dr. Moussatos came to Wedbush PacGrow Life Sciences from UBS Global Asset Management where she was director and portfolio manager of the UBS Global Biotech Funds for five years. Previously, Liana was with Bristol-Meyers Squibb where she was a manager in University and Government Licensing, External Science and Technology. Liana has also worked with Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute in the office of Industrial Affairs and the National Cancer Institute in the Office of Technology Development. Liana received her BS in Entomology and her MS in Zoology and Biochemistry from Clemson University, her Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from the University of California, Davis and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in cellular and molecular Physiology at the Yale School of Medicine.
Sandra C. Raymond
Since 2002, Sandra Raymond has led the development of the Lupus Foundation of America, the nation’s foremost voluntary health organization dedicated to finding the causes of and cure for lupus, and providing support and services to the more than 1.5 million Americans with lupus and their families. The organization energetically pursues its mission through programs of medical research, education, and advocacy, and is comprised of more than 300 chapters, branches, and support groups across the country.
Prior to joining the LFA, Sandra was the founding CEO of the National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF). Under her direction, the NOF became the preeminent national authority on osteoporosis, and the disease was advanced to the top of the women’s health agenda. Her efforts helped to raise more than $100 million in private and public funds to support biomedical research on osteoporosis. In addition, she raised more than $70 million to support comprehensive osteoporosis education programs nationwide.
During her career Sandra has developed numerous innovative health education programs, authored articles that have appeared in major publications, and lectured on health issues worldwide. She has received numerous awards for her efforts, including the National Women’s Health Advocacy Award from the Society for Women’s Health Research, the Exceptional Achievement in Women’s Health Advocacy Award from the National Association of Women’s Health Professionals, and the Outstanding Leadership Award from the National Osteoporosis Foundation.
Alan M. Solinger, MD, FACP, FACR
A worldwide expert in the development of interleukin 1 (IL-1) drug compounds, Alan Solinger drives clinical trial design and implementation for XOMA 052, a high-affinity monoclonal antibody targeted to IL-1 beta advancing into Phase 2 clinical studies for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Alan serves as Vice President, Clinical Immunology of XOMA (US) LLC.
Dr. Solinger has been involved with projects focusing on IL-1 for more than 20 years. Prior to joining XOMA, he was a medical director at Amgen in the Inflammation Medical Affairs Department, where much of his work involved the clinical development and approval of Kineret (anakinra), the first anti IL-1 drug to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration. He also has held medical director positions at PARAXEL International, where he was responsible for rheumatology, immunology and AIDS projects, and at CIBA-GEIGY, where he focused on clinical development in the Anti-Inflammatory/Pulmonary Group.
Dr. Solinger received his bachelor's degree in chemical biology from Columbia University and his medical doctorate from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at the University of Missouri Medical Center, in Columbia, MO. Additionally, he has served as a research associate for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Lab of Immunology and as a fellow at the University of California, San Francisco, Division of Rheumatology-Clinical Immunology of the Department of Internal Medicine. Dr. Solinger is currently a clinical professor of medicine at the Division of Rheumatology of the University of California, San Francisco, College of Medicine.
Peter A. Thompson, MD, FACP
Peter A. Thompson, MD, FACP, is one of our founders and has served as our president and chief executive officer since May 2002, as our treasurer since December 2002, as a member of our board of directors since February 2002, and as the chairman of our board of directors since March 2006. From 2003 to 2006, Dr. Thompson served as a venture partner at ATP Capital, a venture capital firm. Previously, Dr. Thompson served as chief executive officer and chairman of the board of directors of iMetrikus, a healthcare technology company, which he co-founded. Prior to iMetrikus, Dr. Thompson served as vice president and general manager of Chiron Informatics, and prior to Chiron, he served as vice president, research and technology development at Becton Dickinson Immunocytometry Systems. Dr. Thompson is a board certified medical oncologist and internist who received an M.D. and a Sc.B. from Brown University. In 2007, Dr. Thompson received the distinguished Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year award in the Pacific Northwest Region, in the category of Life Sciences.