Founders Tales

Speakers:

Phil Chamberlain, CEO of Neomorph

Phil is Co-Founder, President, and CEO of Neomorph. He obtained his BA and D.Phil. degrees from the University of Oxford before traveling to the U.S. to work at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF). At GNF Phil supported and led projects in serious respiratory and inflammatory disease and solved multiple novel structures. Phil joined Celgene, San Diego in 2007 and built and led the Structural and Chemical Biology department, most recently as Executive Director, Protein Homeostasis and Structural Biology. Phil was responsible for several fundamental scientific breakthroughs on the mechanism of action of thalidomide analogs, including the structural basis for cereblon binding and neosubstrate recruitment, the definition of the neosubstrate ‘structural degron’, and a plausible molecular explanation for the thalidomide teratogenicity disaster of the twentieth century. Based on these discoveries, Phil led the construction of the cereblon modulator platform at Celgene, the pioneering drug discovery effort in the ‘molecular glue’ field generating a portfolio of projects. Phil has published work on targeted protein degradation in journals including Nature, Nature Structural and Molecular Biology and Nature Chemical Biology. Phil was the recipient of the John W. Jackson leadership award, the most prestigious achievement award at Celgene.

Joanna Davis, President and CEO of the San Diego Biomedical Research Institute

Joanna Davies is a biomedical research scientist in the field of immune regulation and immune homeostasis in transplantation, autoimmunity, and cancer. After receiving her Ph.D. from the University of Oxford, UK, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Cambridge, before setting up her own research group at UCSD and then Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla.

In 2014 Dr. Davies founded San Diego BioMed where she is currently President & CEO. In addition, Dr Davies continues to be an active biomedical research scientist, and contributes to the scientific community through participation and membership on grant review committees for the National Institutes of Health, and the American Diabetes Association, and by acting as Editor and Reviewer for several scientific journals.

Devon Cayer, Co-Founder and CEO of 1859 Inc.

Devon Cayer, PhD is CEO and co-founder of 1859. Before founding 1859, Devon studied chemical biology and invented novel DNA barcoding technologies as a scientist at The Scripps Research Institute, and developed next-generation sequencing platform technologies at Omniome (acquired by PacBio) and Singular Genomics. 

Agenda:

5:00pm –  5:45 pm Networking and light refreshments

5:45pm –  6:00 pm 30-second pitches and Introduction from SDEE President

6:00pm –  7:00 pm Main Presentation and Q & A

7:00pm -  7:30 pm Continued networking

Free for SDEE Members and non-members, however RSVP required.