Advise clients on strategy and tactics for discovery and early clinical development programs, including target selection and validation, lead optimization, in vitro assay development, in vivo models, translational PK/PD and biomarker plans, IND-enabling studies, early clinical development plans, regulatory submissions and peer-reviewed publications..

Managed a group of ~30 scientists, including 10 Ph.D. scientists, responsible for neuroscience discovery efforts at the Kenilworth, NJ site. Oversaw a $3 million budget.Led discovery and early clinical development teams that delivered BACE inhibitors for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (e.g. verubecestat [MK-8931], Ph 3) and A2A antagonists for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and cancer (e.g. preladenant, Ph 2/3).Directed cross-functional initiatives to integrate translational PK/PD and modeling into all discovery and early development programs and to implement structure-based drug design for membrane protein targets.Initiated innovative internal and collaborative discovery programs, including O-GlcNAcase inhibitors for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (collaboration with Alectos, Ph 1) and LRRK2 inhibitors for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease (collaboration with the Michael J Fox Foundation, preclinical).

Held positions of increasing responsibility, ultimately managing a group of ~40 scientists (including 8 Ph.D. scientists) engaged in drug discovery in the neuroscience, metabolic disease and oncology therapeutic areas. Oversaw a $1-2 million budget.Led discovery and early clinical development teams for the NK1 antagonist rolapitant (VarubiTM), which is marketed in the US for the treatment of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting.Led teams that discovered and developed the first BACE inhibitors for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and the first A2A antagonists for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.Chaired the CNS Licensing Leadership Team, which coordinated all neuroscience business development activities.

Successfully cloned and expressed drug discovery targets and developed high throughput screening assays for these targets. Member of the team that discovered the anti-migraine agent avitriptan, which reached Ph 3 clinical trials.Initiated and led a collaborative obesity drug discovery effort involving the Neuroscience and Metabolic Disease groups.