BURLINGAME, Calif., Feb. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- BioSeek, Inc. today announced that W. Michael Gallatin, Ph.D., and Roy A. Whitfield have joined the Company's board of directors. Dr. Gallatin has also joined BioSeek's scientific advisory board, and Mr. Whitfield will serve as a business advisor to the Company. Dr. Gallatin and Mr. Whitfield have extensive operational experience in successful biotechnology organizations, and will assist BioSeek in accelerating the development and commercialization of its BioMAP(R) human disease model systems.
"Mike and Roy bring to BioSeek experience in innovative drug discovery, management and deal-making in highly productive biotechnology companies," commented Peter D. Staple, chief executive officer of BioSeek. "We welcome them to the BioSeek team and look forward to drawing on their considerable expertise as we expand the use of our BioMAP systems in alliances with pharmaceutical and biotechnology company partners."
Michael Gallatin, Ph.D. was most recently vice president and scientific director of ICOS Corporation, a leading biotechnology company that he joined at its founding in 1990. At ICOS, Dr. Gallatin led the company's research programs in urology, inflammation and oncology. Before joining ICOS, he was a faculty member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and an affiliate faculty member of the Department of Microbiology at the University of Washington. Dr. Gallatin has engaged in extensive research in the areas of immunology and cell adhesion. He received his Ph.D. in immunology from the University of Alberta (Canada) and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University.
"I've been really impressed with BioSeek's innovations in selecting drug candidates based on important functional distinctions that would not be made using standard profiling technologies," Dr. Gallatin remarked. "I'm excited to be working with the BioSeek team as the applications of this technology expand."
Roy Whitfield most recently served as CEO and Chairman of Incyte Corporation, a genomics company he co-founded in 1991. Incyte pioneered the commercialization of high throughput and information technology in pharmaceutical and medical research. During Mr. Whitfield's tenure at Incyte, the company completed the first initial public offering of a genomics company and subsequently raised over $700 million in financing. He received the 1997 Northern California Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Life Sciences and the 1996 Best of Biotech Award for Most Creative and Significant Strategic Alliances. He serves on the boards of Incyte, Nektar Therapeutics, and several private companies, and in the past has served on the boards of Aurora Biosciences and the Biotechnology Industry Organization. Mr. Whitfield received an A.B. degree from Oxford University and an M.B.A. from Stanford University.
Mr. Whitfield commented, "I have long believed that an integrative approach to biology such as BioMAP has the potential to fundamentally improve the drug development process, and I look forward to working with BioSeek as it makes this advance a commercial reality."
Dr. Gallatin and Mr. Whitfield join BioSeek's existing board members, Robert Beardsley, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Kereos, Inc. and member of SImile Investors LLC; Eugene Butcher, M.D., BioSeek founder and professor of pathology, Stanford University; Fred Craves, Ph.D., managing director and founder of Bay City Capital; Peter Staple, chief executive officer of BioSeek, Inc.; and Blake Winchell, managing general partner of Fremont Ventures.
About BioSeek
BioSeek is committed to improving the success rate of pharmaceutical development by integrating human biology from the early stages of drug discovery through preclinical development. Our BioMAP(R) systems incorporate predictive human cell-based disease models that generate uniquely informative biological activity signatures for each potential drug, yielding actionable data to drive the selection and development of new drug candidates. We are leveraging our BioMAP technology in collaborations to enhance the productivity of our pharmaceutical partners' pipelines, and in our internal programs to identify promising compounds for proprietary development in the fields of inflammation, cardiovascular disease and related indications. Our vision is to harness the predictive power of integrative cell systems biology to improve human health.
For more information, go to www.bioseekinc.com.
BioSeek, Inc.CONTACT: Peter D. Staple, Chief Executive Officer of BioSeek, Inc.,+1-650-552-0728; or Kari Watson of MacDougall Biomedical Communications,+1-508-647-0209, or kwatson@macbiocom.com, for BioSeek, Inc.
Web site: http://www.bioseekinc.com//
