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SENOMYX, INC. ANNOUNCES FORMATION OF SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY GROUP
LA JOLLA (May 9, 2000) – Senomyx, Inc., announced today the formation of a distinguished group of scientific advisors that will work closely with Senomyx management to support the company's scientific and business strategies.
Dr. Lubert Stryer, Chief Scientific Officer and Chairman of the Board said, "We are delighted to bring together the talents of such an accomplished group of scientists and leaders in a range of disciplines relevant to our work in chemosensation. The collective expertise of our outstanding scientific advisors will help guide the company in its discovery of new compounds for the consumer world."
The following investigators will consult exclusively with Senomyx in the field of chemosensation:
Dr. Denis Baylor, Professor of Neurobiology at Stanford University, has pioneered our understanding of how light activates retinal rod and cone cells. He has devised ingenious methods for monitoring membrane channel activity and detecting the electrical responses of neuronal arrays. Dr. Baylor is a founder of Senomyx.
Dr. Catherine Dulac, Associate Professor and Howard Hughes Investigator at Harvard University, discovered two classes of novel seven-helix receptors in the mammalian vomeronasal organ and mapped the corresponding neuronal projections in the brain. She has developed new ways of cloning genes from single neurons.
Dr. Michel Goldberg, Chief of the Cellular Biochemistry Unit at the Institut Pasteur, has provided a deeper understanding of how proteins fold and how multisubunit proteins are assembled. He is also an expert on the renaturation of eukaryotic proteins expressed in bacteria and restoration of their functional activity."
Dr. David Julius, Professor of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco, is a leading neuropharmacologist. His group has cloned a number of neurotransmitter receptors and ion channels, including the capsaicin receptor, an integrator of multiple pain-producing stimuli.
Dr. Lawrence Katz, Professor of Neurobiology and Howard Hughes Investigator at Duke University, has used optical techniques to probe and perturb neural circuits in the cortex. His elegant studies have illuminated our understanding of the development and organization of cortical circuits. He has recently used optical imaging to visualize the pattern of odorant-triggered activation of the olfactory bulb.
Harold McGee, an internationally recognized authority on food chemistry, is author of two widely acclaimed and influential books, On Food and Cooking and The Curious Cook. He brings to Senomyx a keen awareness of how the food world can be enriched by new technologies rooted in chemosensory biology. Mr. McGee is a founder of Senomyx.
Dr. Tobias Meyer, Associate Professor of Molecular Pharmacology at Stanford University, has advanced our understanding of signal transduction processes mediated by calcium and other second messenger and elucidated their role in activating protein kinases. His current work combines imaging and modeling approaches to unravel the dynamic properties of complex cellular signal transduction networks.
Dr. Peter Mombaerts, Assistant Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Developmental Biology and Neurogenetics at the Rockefeller University, has devised novel genetic approaches to trace the connections that neurons make with their targets in the brain. He has enriched our understanding of how olfactory and vomeronasal sensory neurons are able to project with high precision and specificity to sites in the olfactory bulb, the first relay station along the olfactory pathway.
Dr. Randall Reed, Professor of Molecular Genetics and Howard Hughes Investigator at Johns Hopkins University, discovered a key molecule in olfaction, the olfactory-specific G protein. He has recently crafted a promising reporter cell system for determining which ligands activate a particular olfactory receptor, a key step in elucidating the olfactory code.
Dr. Edmund Rolls, Professor of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, has carried out innovative electrophysiological studies of how the brain responds to smell and taste. His recent book The Brain and Emotion contains incisive accounts of how chemosensory signals are processed by the brain and control behavior.
Dr. Charles Stevens, Professor of Neurobiology and Howard Hughes Investigator at the Salk Institute, has contributed richly to our understanding of membrane channels, synapse formation, neurotransmitter release, and synaptic plasticity. He is now exploring how populations of neurons in the cortex of the brain encode signals.
Dr. Roger Tsien, Professor of Pharmacology, Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Howard Hughes Investigator at the University of California, San Diego, has designed many highly informative fluorescent reporters of signaling and gene expression in live cells and has creatively used them to elucidate fundamental mechanisms of calcium signaling and synaptic plasticity. These fluorescent probes make possible a wide range of high-throughput screening assays and explorations of cell function. Dr. Tsien is a founder of Senomyx.
Dr. Charles Zuker, Professor of Neurobiology and Molecular Genetics, and Howard Hughes Investigator at the University of California, San Diego, has deepened our understanding of vision, taste, and other sensory processes by his incisive use of genetics. He has recently opened new vistas in taste transduction by cloning the first G-protein linked receptors for bitter tastants and demonstrating their activity in a reporter cell system. Dr. Zuker is a founder of Senomyx.
Senomyx is dedicated to becoming the world leader in the discovery and commercialization of products and services relevant to the biology, genomics, and chemistry of chemosensation in a broad range of markets including consumer food, fragrance, cosmetic, therapeutic, household, agricultural, and industrial applications. The Company is assembling a matrix of technologies including proprietary chemoreceptors involved in the detection, quantification, signal transduction, and perception of mediators and modulators of taste, olfaction and other sensory modalities.
Senomyx has exclusive agreements with Harvard University and Medical School, The Johns Hopkins University, Rockefeller University, and The University of California regarding various enabling technologies in the field of chemosensation. Senomyx will utilize a range of recent advances in cellular and molecular biology, genomics, combinatorial chemistry, biomolecular screening, informatics, and other areas to create a new type of company. If developed to their full potential, these technologies will enrich the quality of life for consumers.
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