Pharmaleads for botulinum detection and toxin assay

Professor Bernard Pierre Roques Vice-President & Scientific Director Bernard P. Roques earned degrees in pharmacy and pharmacology at René Descartes University, Paris, France, and a Ph.D in Physical Chemistry at the Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, where he was Assistant Professor from 1970-1976, and then Professor of Pharmacochemistry at René Descartes University (Paris) and Director of the Departement de Pharmacochimie Moléculaire et Structurale associated with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) from 1976-2001. His laboratory designed the first DNA polyintercalators, in addition to discovering potent and selective agonists of the d-opioid receptor and subsequently demonstrating their potential interest as antidepressants. In 1980, he showed that the interruption of the messagers conveyed by endogenous opioid peptides, enkephalins is ensured by two zinc metallopeptidases, aminopetidase (APN) and neprilysin (NEP). Bsed on these findings Bernard P. Roques and coll. developed selective inhibitors of enkephalin-inactivating enzymes, one of them Tiorfan® being on the market as antidiarrheal agent. NEP and APN belonging to the same class of enzymes, Bernard P. Roques and colleagues proposed the concept of dual inhibitors for the complete protection of enkephalins and its extension to metallopeptidases involved in cardiovascular diseases.  In 1997 he patented the first worldwide used antidiabetic agent (metformin stagid®) showing a long duration of action. Bernard P. Roques is a member of the French and European Academies of Sciences and of the Scientific Council of ANRS (French National Agency against AIDS). .
Thierry Bourbié Chairman & CEO He is a graduate from Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole des Mines in Paris and a doctor in geophysics from Stanford University – California. For the last ten years, he has held the highest responsibilities in the water field for the Suez Group, the world leader in this area. During these periods, he has been a member of the Board of Directors for companies quoted on the New York and Madrid stock markets. He has managed a large number of international and national projects in the water area Previously, he worked for the Schlumberger Group where he held commercial and marketing responsibilities world-wide in the area of transducers and water and electricity meters. Earlier, he had worked for the French Institute of Petroleum and in the U.S. in the area of oil exploration and production. .	.
Jean-Pierre Rogala Chief Operating Officer Jean-Pierre graduated with a major in biology and data analysis (ingenieur Agro). He then obtained a PhD in computer sciences for the research he conducted with IBM. He later on developed various research projects as R&D Manager at  the IBM Scientific Center for ten years on topics such as image processing, robotics, pattern recognition, natural language understanding, very large databases. After the completion of an executive MBA on the Management of Technology at the MIT Sloan School (Cambridge, Ma), he joined Suez-Lyonnaise des eaux where he held several senior level management positions at the headquarter or as managing director/VP in  several business areas including worldwide operations support,  R&D division,  performance improvement, operations and investment delivery, business development (new business start-up, M&A), in several countries. Jean-Pierre and his family lived in the USA, UK, Kenya, and France. .
Professor Marie-Claude Fournié-Zaluski Deputy Scientific Director Marie-Claude Fournie-Zaluskie earned a PhD in chemistry from University Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France. She was then named Professor of Bio-organic chemistry at Pierre et Marie Curie University (Paris). Prof Fournie-Zaluski developed her research in the INSERM unit 266 headed by Prof Bernard P Roques. She was in charge of the group of synthesis in which she managed the solid phase peptid synthesis, the synthesis of inhibitors for various peptidases activities (such as aminopetidase (APN) and neprilysin (NEP), APA and dual inhibitors). Her group also developed selective inhibitors of enkephalin-inactivating enzymes, one of them Tiorfan® being on the market as antidiarrheal agent. She worked in retrovirology on the nucleocapside protein NCp7: structural analysis, development of analogs and design of competitors. She participated with the structural analysis team of U2666 to the elucidation of peptide structures by NMR studies (enkephalins, CCK8 and CCK fragments) and with the biochemical team to structural and functional studies of various peptidases. Marie-Claude Fournie-Zaluski is currently deputy scientific director of Pharmaleads; she heads the development work of Pharmaleads in the field of metallopeptidases (design of substrates and inhibitors more secifically for ACE, ECE, NEP, APA, APN).