Therapeutic Workshop
Neurodegeneration - A Focus on Huntington's and Parkinson's Diseases
Friday, October 31, 2008
9:45am - 11:00am
Telegraph Hill
Damaged proteins and loss of neurons are common to all human neurodegenerative diseases. But explanations for the mechanisms that actually cause cell death have varied widely, leading researchers to ask whether neurodegenerative diseases are related or very different diseases. This discussion will highlight current research for neurodegenerative diseases, with a focus on Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease, and the potential new therapeutic options in development for patients with these unmet medical needs.
Moderator
- William Ho, Vice President and Senior Research Analyst/Biotechnology, Bank of America Securities LLC
Panelists
Industry:
- David T. Hung, MD, President, CEO, and Director, Medivation, Inc.
- Jeffrey M. Ostrove, PhD, President and CEO, Ceregene, Inc.
Clinician:
- Michael Geschwind, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, UCSF Memory and Aging Center
- J. William Langston, MD, Scientific Director and CEO, The Parkinson's Institute
Who's Who
William Ho Mr. Ho is a vice president and senior research analyst in the Equity Research Department at Banc of America Securities LLC, where he covers the Biotechnology Industry.
Ho joined the Company from Piper Jaffray & Co. where he was a research analyst covering Biotechnology & Tools. Before that, he was a senior financial analyst in the Financial Planning & Operational Analysis division of CuraGen Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing applications to treat cancer, inflammatory diseases and diabetes. Earlier, he was an associate in the health care investment banking group at SG Cowen.
Ho received a master of business administration degree from the University of Notre Dame and a bachelor of science degree in biochemistry, with honors, from McMaster University in Canada.
David T. Hung, MD Dr. Hung became president and chief executive officer of Medivation, Inc. and a member of the Board of Directors when the Company acquired its subsidiary Medivation Neurology, Inc. in December 2004. He served as president, chief executive officer and director of Medivation Neurology, Inc. since its inception in September 2003. From 1998 to 2001, Dr. Hung served as chief scientific officer (1998-1999) and as president, chief executive officer and director (1999-2001) of ProDuct Health, Inc., a privately-held medical device company. ProDuct Health, Inc. took its first product (a breast cancer cytological diagnostic product) from a prototype design through a 507 patient clinical trial and through FDA marketing clearance in 16 months. It was acquired in 2001 by Cytyc Corporation for $167 million after having spent only approximately $22 million in total development costs. From 1994 to 1998, Dr. Hung served in various senior positions at Chiron Corporation, most recently as vice president of lead discovery and development and vice president of new projects. Dr. Hung received an M.D. Alpha Omega Alpha from the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, and an A.B. summa cum laude in biology from Harvard College.
Jeffrey M. Ostrove, PhD Prior to joining Ceregene as its first employee in April 2001, Dr. Ostrove was Chief Operating Officer of NeuroVir Therapeutics, Inc., located in Vancouver, B.C. and San Diego, California, and was instrumental in its merger with Medigene AG. Preceding NeuroVir (Medigene), Dr. Ostrove served as Senior Vice President and Chief Scientist of MAGENTA Corporation of Rockville, Maryland; a company he founded as a subsidiary of BioReliance, Inc., where he was also Vice President for Scientific Development. Dr. Ostrove also served on the staff of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health. He holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Florida College of Medicine, and completed his post-doctoral training at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Michael Geschwind, MD, PhDDr. Geschwind received his MD and PhD in neuroscience through the National Institutes of Health-sponsored Medical Scientist Training Program at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. He completed his internship in internal medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center, his neurology residency at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore and his fellowship in behavioral neurology at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center (MAC). He has been an Assistant Professor of Neurology at the Memory and Aging Center since 2003.
J. William Langston, MD Dr. J. William Langston is the founder, CEO, and Scientific Director of the Parkinson's Institute in Sunnyvale, California. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Medicine and was formerly a faculty member at Stanford University and Chairman of Neurology at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, California. Dr. Langston gained national and international recognition in 1982 for the discovery of the link between a 'synthetic herion' and parkinsonism. This substance, known as MPTP, is selectively toxix to the same nerve cells in the brain which die in Parkinson's disease. The discovery of the biologic effects of this compound led to a renaissance of the basic and clinical research in Parkinson's disease.