Chimerix

Scientific Advisory Board

Earl R. Kern, Ph.D.

Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Earl Kern is professor emeritus in the department of pediatrics, division of clinical virology, and also holds a position as senior scientist at the University of Alabama Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Center for AIDS Research.  He holds secondary appointments in the department of comparative medicine and the department of microbiology.  Dr. Kern’s areas of interest span chemotherapy and pathogenesis of viral infections in animal models, preclinical evaluation of antiviral drugs, interferon and interferon inducers, immuno-therapy and nonspecific resistance to viral infections, neuro-virulence and latency of herpesvirus strains, herpesviruses as opportunistic infections in immunocompromised hosts, virulence of drug resistant mutants, antiviral screening against herpesviruses and drug development for poxvirus infections.  Dr. Kern received his B.S. degree from the University of Utah in Microbiology followed by his M.S. and Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Utah.  Dr. Kern serves on the scientific advisory board of several organizations of the pharmaceutical industry in the areas of virology and antiviral research.

Douglas D. Richman, M.D.

Distinguished Professor of Pathology and Medicine, University of California, San Diego

Douglas Richman is a Distinguished Professor of Pathology and Medicine at the University of California in San Diego where he is Director of the AIDS Research Institute and the Center for AIDS Research.  He is the Florence Seeley Riford Chair in AIDS Research  Dr. Richman has made major clinical and laboratory contributions to the field of HIV/AIDS, which represent a model of translational medical research.  He helped design and conduct the clinical evaluation of new drugs and treatment strategies, including the first trial of combination antiretroviral therapy and the initial study documenting the value of the strategy of rendering HIV RNA undetectable.  Two areas of his laboratory investigations represent landmark studies in HIV research.  His laboratory first identified HIV drug resistance.  This was the scientific foundation for the development of combination antiretroviral therapies.  Subsequent studies documented the impact of drug resistance on treatment failure, the presence of mixtures of different viral phenotypes and genotypes circulating in the same patient, the pre-existence of drug-resistant mutants in untreated patients, the impact of disease stage and viral replication on the rates of viral evolution, and the independent evolution of different populations of HIV in lymphoid tissues and the brain.  These studies have had a broad impact on the development, evaluation and regulatory approval of drugs, and helped to establish the importance of drug resistance assays in the day-to-day management of infected patients.  His laboratory also documented the existence of reservoirs of latently infected CD4 cells in patients who appeared to be "fully suppressed" on potent antiretroviral therapy. These observations have raised fundamental questions about T lymphocyte biology and viral replication that bridge to a basic understanding of viral pathogenesis.  More recently, his laboratory elucidated the remarkable evolution of neutralizing antibody responses in HIV infection, providing important insights for the development of an effective HIV vaccine.  He plays an authoritative and constructive role as a speaker on both basic and clinical subjects, a lead editor of the major textbook on clinical virology, organizer of major international meetings and chair of national and international committees.

Richard J. Whitley, M.D.

Professor of Pediatrics, Microbiology & Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Richard Whitley is professor of pediatrics, microbiology, medicine and neurosurgery and the Loeb Eminent Scholar chair in Pediatrics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.  He is a scientist at the Cancer Research and Training Center, an associate director of the Center for AIDS research, vice chairman of the Department of Pediatrics and division director of Pediatric Infectious Diseases.  Additionally, Dr. Whitley has been recognized both nationally and internationally.  He is President of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and Chair of the Board of Scientific Councilors for the Centers for Infectious Diseases, CDC.  Dr. Whitley is also an elected member of the Society for Pediatric Research, the American Pediatric Society, the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians.  He has been elected to Council of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is President as well as to Council for the International Infectious Diseases Society.  He is on the board of directors of the International Society for Antiviral Research and was the first president of the International Society for Antiviral Research.  He has held numerous positions at the National Institutes of Health, including serving on virology study section, chairing the NIAID AIDS data safety and monitoring board and the OAR executive committee.  He has received unrestricted research grants from Bristol-Myers Squibb and Glaxo Wellcome.  Dr. Whitley has traced the development of therapeutics, defined the natural history and established diagnostic approaches to HSV encephalitis and neonatal HSV infection individually as well as through the NIAID Collaborative Antiviral Study Group of which he is the principal investigator.

Seth Rudnick, MD, Director

Venture Partner, Canaan Partners

Seth Rudnick's comprehensive experience bringing new medicines to fruition provides invaluable perspective to Canaan. He is passionate about working hand-in-hand with innovative companies to develop and market new drugs to help cure the most nefarious diseases.

Since he joined the firm in 1998, Dr. Rudnick has led investments in Chimerix, developer of orally-available, highly potent antiviral drugs for life threatening diseases such as smallpox and HIV; CombinatoRx, a pioneer in the field of synergistic combination pharmaceuticals (CRXX); Esperion, a biopharmaceutical company developing therapies for the treatment of cardiovascular disease (acquired by Pfizer); Genaissance Pharmaceuticals, a pioneer in personalized medicine through population genomics and informatics (public, acquired by Clinical Data which was acquired by Forest Laboratories); Immunicon, developer of proprietary cell- and molecular-based human diagnostic products (IMMC); Liquidia Technologies a nanotechnology company that designs and manufactures precisely engineered particles and films for life and material science applications; Pozen, a pharmaceutical company developing therapeutic advancements for treatment of acute migraine (POZN); and VaxInnate, a biopharmaceuticals company that is developing novel vaccines for pandemic and seasonal influenza.

Prior to Canaan, Dr. Rudnick led many drug discovery and development projects, gaining deep operational experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. He served as CEO and Chairman of CytoTherapeutics (CTII), a company developing stem cell-based therapies to combat chronic diseases, and also helped start and headed R&D for Ortho Biotech, a division of Johnson & Johnson that provides life-improving products to individuals with chronic illnesses. At Ortho Biotech, Dr. Rudnick was instrumental in creating a portfolio of products that still provide significant Johnson & Johnson revenue today. Dr. Rudnick began his career at Schering-Plough, a global science-based healthcare company, leading clinical trials, and also directed pharmaceutical development efforts at Biogen.

He currently sits on the boards of Chimerix, Liquidia Technologies, ORTHOCON, Pozen, Spine Wave and VaxInnate.