Eric Schadt, PhD
Co-Chair
Eric Schadt is Chief Scientific Officer of Pacific Biosciences and Director of the Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology and Chair of the Department of Genetics and Genomics Sciences at The Mount Sinai Medical Center. He oversees the scientific strategy for Pacific Biosciences, including creating the vision for next-generation applications of the company’s technology, contributing to the evolution of Pacific Biosciences’ transformative sequencing technology, and playing a key role in the company’s strategic relationships. At Mount Sinai, Eric is creating a world-class data analytic center where researchers can query and learn from data using cutting-edge technologies like next generation sequencing to create disease models and ultimately help develop and improve the diagnosis and treatment of patients.
He is also a founding member of Sage Bionetworks, an open-access genomics initiative designed to build and support databases and an accessible platform for creating innovative dynamic disease models.
Dr. Schadt joined Pacific Biosciences in May 2009 from Rosetta Inpharmatics, a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc. in Seattle, where he was Executive Scientific Director of Genetics. Dr. Schadt’s work at Rosetta involved the generation and integration of very large-scale sequence variation, molecular profiling and clinical data in disease populations to construct the molecular networks that define disease states and link molecular biology to physiology in ways that can impact clinical medicine.
Dr. Schadt has contributed to a number of discoveries relating to the genetic basis of common human diseases such as diabetes and obesity, which have been widely published in leading scientific journals. His research has provided novel insights into what is needed to master diverse, large-scale data collected on normal and disease populations in order to elucidate the complexity of disease and make more informed decisions in the drug discovery arena. Prior to joining Rosetta, Dr. Schadt was a senior research scientist at Roche Bioscience. He received his B.A. in applied mathematics and computer science from California Polytechnic State University, his M.A. in pure mathematics from UCLA, and his Ph.D. in bio-mathematics from UCLA.
Jeff Hanke, PhD
Jeff Hanke is currently Senior Vice President, Research, Global Head Biotherapeutics Research at Boehringer Ingelheim where he leads research activities at the company’s Ridgefield, CT, location and oversees biotherapeutics research across the company.
Dr. Hanke joined Boehringer Ingelheim from AstraZeneca, where he served as Vice President of AstraZeneca Cancer Discovery at AstraZeneca R&D, in Boston, MA. At AstraZeneca, he and his team of researchers focus on novel approaches to cancer therapy. Dr. Hanke joined AstraZeneca from Pfizer, where he managed discovery teams in the areas of immunology, inflammation, allergy/respiratory, and cancer from 1993 to 1999. In addition, Dr. Hanke helped to establish Pfizer’s Discovery Technology Center, located in Cambridge, MA, which focuses on applying new technologies to drug discovery. Dr. Hanke received his M.S. in Biology from Fordham University in NY and his Ph.D. in 1986 from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX. He completed his post-doctoral training at Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, TX.
Robert R. Ruffolo, Jr., PhD
Robert Ruffolo is a retired president of R&D at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals where he spent 7 years and still acts as a consultant. He joined Wyeth after 17 years at SmithKline Beecham (now GSK) and 6 years at Lilly Research Laboratories.
During his celebrated career in Pharmaceutical R&D, Dr. Ruffolo played a leading role in the discovery and/or development of a number of now marketed products, including carvedilol (Coreg/Kredex/Dilatrend) for the treatment of congestive heart failure, acute MI and hypertension, dobutamine (Dobutrex) for heart failure, ropinerole (Requip) for Parkinson’s Disease, and eprosartan (Teveten) for hypertension. Dr. Ruffolo received his B.S. degree in Pharmacy in 1973, and his Ph.D. degree in Pharmacology in 1976, both from The Ohio State University.
He has authored nearly 500 full-length publications, and has edited 17 books. He was the Editor-in-Chief of three international pharmacology journals, has served on the editorial boards of 28 other international scientific journals, and on the boards and committees of several industry organizations. Dr. Ruffolo has won numerous prestigious awards honoring his outstanding contributions to the pharmaceutical industry. Most recently, he received the 2008 Scrip Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 2008 Discoverer’s Award for the discovery and development of Coreg (carvedilol).