Advisors

Director, Psychotic Disorders Program, University of Illinois at Chicago

Dr. Weiden is the Director of the Psychotic Disorders Program at the Center for Cognitive Medicine of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). His research career has focused on bridging psychopharmacology and public health issues in the treatment of schizophrenia and he has published extensively on the problem of medication nonadherence with antipsychotic medications among persons with schizophrenia.

Prior to joining the UIC faculty, Dr. Weiden was Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Schizophrenia Research Service at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. He completed his medical degree at SUNY at Stony Brook in 1981, and his psychiatric residency at Payne Whitney Clinic–New York Hospital in 1985. He also completed a psychiatric epidemiology fellowship at Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in 1999.

Dr. Weiden’s career has focused on improving clinical outcomes for patients with schizophrenia. He is known for his work on patient and family education addressing treatment of psychosis. Dr. Weiden has received several awards from family and patient advocacy groups and was named an Exemplary Psychiatrist on three separate occasions by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI). Dr. Weiden’s book, “Breakthroughs in Antipsychotic Medications: A Guide for Patients, Families, and Clinicians” received the Ken Johnson Memorial Book Award in 2000 for one of the most outstanding books in mental health. For his research on relapse prevention, Dr. Weiden received NAMI’s Judith Silver Young Scientist Award in 1996.

Dr. Weiden’s current research focuses on developing new pharmacologic and psychosocial interventions to help address medication adherence problems for patients with schizophrenia.

Professor, Stanford University 

Dr. Schatzberg is the former Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Stanford University. He has authored over 600 publications and abstracts, including the Manual of Clinical Psychopharmacology, whose seventh edition was published in 2010. He also co-edited the Textbook of Psychopharmacology whose fourth edition appeared in 2009.

Dr. Schatzberg is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Psychiatric Research and sits on many other editorial boards as well, including the Archives of General Psychiatry, Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, Psychoneuroendocrinology, Biological Psychiatry, and others. He is a Past President of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and the Society of Biological Psychiatry, and has been the Secretary-General of the International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology.

He was awarded the 1998 Gerald L. Klerman, MD Lifetime Research Award from the NDMDA, the 2001 Gerald L. Klerman, MD Award from Cornell University Medical College, the 2001 Edward A. Strecker, MD Award from the University of Pennsylvania, the 2002 Mood Disorders Research Award from the American College of Psychiatrists, the 2002 American Psychiatric Association Award for Research, the Forum Award from the 3rd International Forum of Mood and Anxiety Disorders (IFMAD) in 2002, the 2005 Distinguished Service in Psychiatry Award from the American College of Psychiatrists, the 2005 Falcone Award from NARSAD, and the 2007 Chairman’s Distinguished Scientist Award from Brown University.

In 2003, Dr. Schatzberg was elected into the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He was the President of the American Psychiatric Association in 2009-2010.

Professor of Medicine, Stanford University

Dr. Gardner is a professor of medicine at Stanford University and a partner at Essex Woodlands Health Ventures. She has over 25 years of experience in academia, medicine and industry.

Dr. Gardner began her academic medical career in 1984 at Stanford University, where she has held several positions including Senior Associate Dean for Education and Student Affairs. While at Stanford, she took a leave of absence to work at ALZA Corporation, a major drug delivery company, as a Principal Scientist, Vice President of Research and as Head of ALZA Technology Institute.

She has conducted extensive research in cell biology, including gene therapy, and is widely published in the fields of cell biology and pharmacology. She has received numerous national awards and honors and serves on the Board of Directors of several public and private companies.

Dr. Gardner holds a B.S. from the University of Illinois, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi, and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School, where she graduated Alpha Omega Alpha. She trained in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, followed by a Chief Residency at Stanford University Hospital. She completed research fellowships at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University and University College, London, U.K.

Professor of Business, Columbia University

Costis Maglaras is the David and Lyn Silfen Professor of Business at Columbia University. His research focuses on quantitative pricing and revenue management, the economics, design and operations of service systems, and financial engineering. He is the author of many research articles spanning the theory and application of stochastic modeling in a variety of fields, more recently in pricing, risk management and valuation of multi-unit real estate portfolios, and in the design of portfolio trading systems and algorithms. He holds editorial positions in many of the flagship journals of his fields of study, he is the recipient of several research and teaching awards, and he teaches and serves as faculty director for the executive education course on Risk Management offered by Columbia Business School.

Dr. Maglaras is involved and has acted as an advisor to numerous early stage startups in his areas of expertise. He currently serves as the head of Research and member of the management team at Mismi, Inc., a venture backed broker dealer and alternative trading system that provides technology and quantitative trade execution services. Dr. Maglaras holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

Biotechnology and Drug Delivery Executive and Researcher

Dr. Tzannis is an industry veteran who has held key R&D leadership positions at ALZA Corporation as well as Nektar Therapeutics, two major drug delivery companies. While at ALZA, he was part of the scientific team for Biopharmaceutical & Implant R&D, where he spearheaded the development of an implantable system for the delivery of peptides and proteins.  At Nektar Therapeutics, Dr. Tzannis acted as a team leader overseeing all development activities for a number of biopharmaceutical products, and was an inventor and developer of new drug delivery technologies.

Dr. Tzannis is a recognized expert in both biopharmaceutical product development as well as in the development of drug delivery devices, with emphasis on implantable systems.  Furthermore, his expertise includes protein stability as he has developed stable formulations of proteins and peptides for several development projects during his career.

Dr. Tzannis holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Professor, Departments of Bioengineering and Materials Science, UC Berkeley

Kevin Healy is the Jan Fandrianto Distinguished Professor in Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley in the Departments of Bioengineering and Materials Science and Engineering. Dr. Healy’s work emphasizes the relationship between materials and the cells or tissues they contact. His research program focuses on the design and synthesis of biomimetic materials that actively direct the fate of mammalian cells, and facilitate regeneration of damaged tissues and organs.

Major discoveries from Dr. Healy’s laboratory have centered on the control of cell fate and tissue formation in contract with materials that are tunable in both their biological content and mechanical properties.  Professor Healy also has extensive experience with drug delivery systems and novel bioconjugate therapeutics.

Dr. Healy holds a PhD in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania.