Contact Thuris Corporation

Thuris Corporation
101 Theory
Irvine, CA 92612
Fax: 949-679-4069

Keith B. Hoffman, Ph.D.
Chief Operating Officer
khoffman@thuris.com
949-417-4623

Key Personnel

Dr. Gary Lynch is a professor-above-scale at the University of California, Irvine, Chairman of the Board and Chief Scientist of Thuris. Dr. Lynch is the author of more than 550 publications, 20 patents, and is the founder of three technology-based companies (Synaptics Corporation [SYNA: NYSE]; Cortex Pharmaceuticals [COR: AMEX]; and Thuris Corporation). He is the inventor of the Ampakine class of CNS compounds (in multiple Phase II trials). Dr. Lynch serves on the executive advisory committee for NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Long acknowledged as one of the world's foremost experts on the brain, Dr. Lynch was officially recognized as a "most cited scientist" by the Information Science Institute.

Dr. Keith B. Hoffman is the Chief Operating Officer and manages business development, funding, and intellectual property matters. Keith was also a founder or co-founder of: Thuris, OLAS Pharmaceuticals (therapeutics for growth hormone modulation), Psych Pain Therapeutics, and Ansuma Biologics (antibodies and reagents supplier). Dr. Hoffman sits on the Board of Directors of MicroIslet [OTC:MIIS] (pancreatic islet cell transplantation for Type I diabetes). His previous intellectual property experience includes advising on over 50 patent filings across varied biologic and chemical technologies. He has been a business development and/or intellectual property adviser to: MicroIslet, Cortex Pharmaceuticals (Ampakine drugs for cognition-related neurological and psychiatric disorders) [AMEX:COR], Akesis Pharmaceuticals (combination therapeutics for Type II diabetes) [OTC:AKES], and Tensor Biosciences (drug discovery and development in partnership with Panasonic). Keith drafted the founding patents for: Ancile Pharmaceuticals, MicroIslet, OLAS, Psych Pain Therapeutics, Tensor, and Thuris. Dr. Hoffman received his Ph.D. from UC Irvine for his work on the neuropharmacology of memory formation and Alzheimer's disease in the laboratory of Dr. Gary Lynch.

Dr. Jeffrey McKelvy is CEO and President of Avera Pharmaceuticals Inc. He has held previous senior R and D management positions in major pharmaceutical companies including Abbott, Ciba Geigy and Merck, and was the founding CEO of Trophix Pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining industry, he was Professor of Neurobiology and Psychiatry at SUNY Stony Brook. He is currently Adjunct professor of Psychiatry at UC San Diego. Dr. McKelvy received his medical and scientific training at Case Western Reserve and Johns Hopkins Universities.

Dr. Kevin Lee is the Harrison Foundation Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Virginia. He is also Professor of Neurological Surgery at the University of Virginia Health System. Dr. Lee is an international leader in the field of cerebrovascular disorders and stroke. He has extensive advisory experience in the Pharmaceutical and Biotech sectors, and is the former Director of the Cerebrovascular Laboratories at the University of Virginia. His cutting-edge studies in the fields of ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke provided the basis for novel therapeutic strategies under development at Thuris.

Dr. Danielle Simmons is Program Manager of Drug Development. Before joining Thuris, she was a Scientist at Cortex Pharmaceuticals [COR:AMEX]. Danielle's past neurobiology research at the University of California, Irvine, focused on neuroendocrinology and behavior and, more recently, on Huntington's and Alzheimer's diseases. Currently, she is responsible for preclinical investigations involving the RapidAging technologies. Dr. Simmons received her Ph.D. in neurobiology at the University of California, Irvine.

Dr. Malcolm S. Casale is Director of Research for the NeuroGraph. A former applied mathematician who is now a neurobiologist interested in neurodegenerative disorders, Dr. Casale also contributes to Thuris' Huntington's Disease and related neurobiology projects. Prior to joining Thuris, he was Vice President of R&D at Knowledge Foundations (knowledge bases for pharmaceutical and other businesses). Prior to this, Dr. Casale served for 18 years, and was chief technologist, at MSC Software (software for large-scale engineering stress and other simulations). Dr. Casale has done computational chemistry work at the University of California, Irvine, in which he studied the aggregation of of the huntingtin protein, and now has an appointment with the University as an Assitant Researcher. In this capacity, Dr. Casale is now using animal models to study Huntington's Disease. Dr. Casale received his Ph.D. in engineering at the University of California, Irvine in 1989.

Board of Directors

Dr. Gary Lynch (see above)

Dr. David Cohen is Vice Chairman of Thuris. He served as Provost at Northwestern University and, until recently, as Vice President for Arts and Sciences and Dean of the Faculty at Columbia University, where he is currently Professor of Biological Sciences and Professor of Psychiatry. He is a past President of the Society for Neuroscience and a past Chair of the Association of American Medical Colleges. Dr. Cohen has been a director on numerous boards, including those of Argonne National Laboratory, the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and Zenith Electronics. He has a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Jeffrey McKelvy (see above)

Dr. Richard Granger is a Director and Co-Founder of Thuris. Prof. Granger received his Bachelor's and Ph.D. from MIT and Yale, and he is Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences, and the William H. Neukom Distinguished Professor of Computational Science, at Dartmouth College. He is a leading authority on computational and basic neuroscience, the author of more than 100 scientific papers and patents, dozens of deployed computational systems for military, commercial and medical applications, and co-inventor of FDA-approved medical devices and drugs in clinical trials, as well as co-founder and consultant to a number of technology corporations and government agencies.

Dr. Vince Simmon is the COO of Merrimack Pharmaceuticals. Vince¹s former positions include: CEO of Cortex Pharmaceuticals, CEO of Alpha One Pharmaceuticals, and Vice President of WR Grace. Vince has a Ph.D. from Brown University.

SAB and Advisors

Dr. William Bunney,  the head of the Thuris Scientific Advisory Board, is the Della Martin Chair and a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, Irvine, Medical School.  He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and is Executive Vice President of the National Academies Corporation.  He has served on the Mental Health Advisory Council for the World Health Organization (WHO).  He has served as President of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP), and the international psychopharmacology organization the Collegium Internationale Neuro-psychopharmacologicum (CINP).  William received his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Jeffrey McKelvy (see above)

Dr. Kevin Lee (see above)

Dr. Irwin Kuntz, Director of the University of California at San Francisco¹s Molecular Design Institute, a Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, and a co-inventor of the Thurinex technologies;

Dr. Christine Gall, a Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy at UC Irvine, and a co-inventor of the RapidAging technologies; and

Dr. Charles Glabe, a Professor of Molecular Biology & Biochemistry at UC Irvine and a leading world expert on the effects of amyloid on the brain.