Neurion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Appoints Michael C. Sanguinetti, Professor of Physiology at the Univ. Utah and an Expert in Ion Channel Pharmacology, to its Scientific Advisory Board
PASADENA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 12, 2003--Neurion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (www.neurionpharma.com), an ion channel drug discovery company targeting central nervous system (CNS) diseases, announced today that it has appointed Michael C. Sanguinetti, Ph.D., to its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB).
Dr. Sanguinetti is Professor of Physiology at the University of Utah, in Salt Lake City. He is a leading expert on ion channel structural biology and a recognized authority on the HERG potassium ion channel, a known source of drug-induced cardiac toxicity. Prior to academia, Dr. Sanguinetti was a research scientist at NPS Pharmaceuticals, Merck Research Laboratories and G.D. Searle Research and Development. He serves on the scientific advisory boards of ChanTest, Hydra, ICAgen and International Life Sciences Institute. He currently serves on the editorial boards of Biophysical Journal, Circulation Research, the Journal of Clinical Investigation and the Journal of Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics. Dr. Sanguinetti is the recipient of numerous NIH research awards and a co-inventor on five patents. He received his B.A. cum laude from Humboldt State University in 1976, his M.A. from San Jose State University and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis.
Dr. Henry Lester, co-chairman of Neurion's SAB and a scientific co-founder of the company, said "We are delighted that Mike Sanguinetti has agreed to join our SAB. His insights into ion channel pharmacology will contribute greatly to the development of Neurion's NP2 drug discovery platform as it applies to the design of drugs free from unwanted HERG interactions."
Dr. Sanguinetti said, "I am looking forward to working with Neurion's scientists to help develop a better understanding of the mechanistic determinants of ion channel-related drug toxicity. The results of this work may be of great value to pharmaceutical companies seeking to avoid HERG toxicity."
Unintended blockade of the HERG ion channel by certain classes of drugs, including many CNS drugs, is associated with a potentially life-threatening cardiac rhythm disturbance, known clinically as drug-induced long QT syndrome. Better understanding of drug-HERG ion channel interactions can lead to the design of new and safer drugs, or the "rescue" of existing drugs that are known to block HERG. Neurion announced an agreement with Pfizer Inc. in January, 2003 to evaluate drug-HERG binding interactions.
Neurion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., of Pasadena, California, is an ion channel drug discovery company focused on the design of novel drugs for the treatment of CNS diseases. The company applies its Neurion Precision Neurochemistry Platform to design focused chemical libraries of drugs targeting specific receptors in the brain. The company was spun out of the California Institute of Technology in January, 2002 with an investment from Convergent Ventures, a Los Angeles-based life science venture capital firm.
