CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Genstruct Inc., a biotechnology company translating the complexity of human biology to develop new successful therapeutics, announced today that Dr. Keith O. Elliston, its co-founder, president and CEO, will giving a presentation on Mechanistic Pharmacology at the Cambridge Healthtech Institute’s Ninth Annual Applying Systems Biology Conference. This event is being held as part of the Beyond Genome Conference in San Francisco June 21-22, 2007.
Dr. Elliston’s presentation will focus on “Mechanistic Pharmacology: An Integrated Systems Approach to Oncology Drug Development”. It will be held on Friday, June 22 at 11:45 a.m. This presentation will describe Genstruct’s current and future initiatives that use its Causal System Modeling platform to define the on-target and off-target effects of drugs and that can assess the toxicity risks associated with these mechanisms.
“This conference is an excellent opportunity for us to share Genstruct’s current progress and future plans in the area of systems biology,” explained Keith O. Elliston, Ph.D., president and CEO of Genstruct. “My presentation will provide details on our mechanistic approach to pharmacology, how it integrates with cell-based screening, mutation analysis, xenograft studies and RNAi into a single, mechanistic view of drug action.”
Additionally, Genstruct’s Scientific Advisory Board member, Josh LaBaer, M.D., Ph.D., director of Harvard Institute of Proteomics at Harvard Medical School will participate in the Opening Plenary Panel Discussion at 9:15 a.m. on June 21, focusing on the most compelling advances and challenges in the post-genomic era, the application of new technologies for drug development and the potential interplay between wet-lab research and modeling approaches.
Dr. Elliston is an invited speaker at many biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry events. He is an experienced entrepreneur and intrapreneur who has dedicated his career to the development of leading-edge technology for drug discovery and drug development. Dr. Elliston spent over 10 years with Merck Research Laboratories, where he served as the Director of Bioinformatics, and the scientific director of the Merck Gene Index project. He then joined Bayer Pharmaceuticals where he founded their global genomics and bioinformatics efforts, and was the section head of Genomics and the worldwide head of Bioinformatics. In 1997 Dr. Elliston joined Gene Logic as Chief Scientific Officer and pioneered the development/application of molecular profiling to drug discovery. He was responsible for the development and management of six pharmaceutical research partnerships representing over $350 million in potential revenues. In 1999, Dr. Elliston founded Viaken Systems, where he was Chairman, President and CEO. He has been an advisor to Oak Investment Partners, Atlas Ventures, and other biotechnology venture capital groups, and has participated in the early stage development of a number of successful biotech companies. Dr. Elliston received an M.S. in genetics from the University of Minnesota, and a Ph.D. in molecular genetics from Rutgers University.
About Genstruct
Founded in 2002, Genstruct is a biotechnology company focused on elucidating the complexity of biology for the development of successful therapeutics. By modeling of the components within the whole biological system, Genstruct delivers a deep molecular understanding of diseases and drug action, as well as mechanistic biomarkers to accelerate drug discovery and development programs. Genstruct engages in internal discovery and external development partnerships with top tier pharmaceutical companies, which apply systems biology in the areas of oncology, metabolic disorders, cardiovascular diseases and inflammation. The privately held company is based in Cambridge, Mass. For more information, please visit www.genstruct.com.
Genstruct and the Genstruct logo are registered trademarks and Molecular Epistemics, Knowledge Assembly, and Epistemics Engine are trademarks of Genstruct, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are properties of their respective owners.
Karen Higgins A & E Communications for Genstruct (610) 831-5723 khiggins@aandecomm.com
Genstruct Inc.
CONTACT: Karen Higgins of A & E Communications, +1-610-831-5723,khiggins@aandecomm.com, for Genstruct
Web site: http://www.genstruct.com//
