Management
John Kozarich, Ph.D, Chairman, President 
Dr. Kozarich joins ActivX with over 20 years experience in academic and pharmaceutical research. Most recently, he was Vice President at Merck Research Laboratories, where he was responsible for programs including antimicrobial drug discovery, enzymology, 5a-reductase biology, lipid biochemistry, nuclear receptors, ion channels and structural biology. He has been involved in a number of Merck drug programs, including Propecia, Type-1 5a-reductase inhibitor, and MRSA carbapenams. He also has had primary responsibility for a number of Merck collaborations with biotechnology companies, such as Aurora Biosciences, Cubist and KaroBio. In addition, he has played a major role in Merck's acquisition of SIBIA and in the development of its new Boston Research Center. Previously, Dr. Kozarich held faculty positions at the University of Maryland, College Park, and Yale University School of Medicine. He also served as Vice President, Research and Development at Alkermes, a biotechnology company that develops products based on sophisticated drug delivery technologies. Dr. Kozarich is internationally known for his work on enzyme mechanisms and on the chemistry of DNA cleaving antitumor drugs. He was an American Cancer Society Faculty Research Awardee and in 1988 received the Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry of the American Chemical Society for his unique and broad research contributions. He has also served on numerous government and academic committees. Dr. Kozarich has authored over 125 primary scientific publications and holds three patents.
Yoh Ito, Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Yoh Ito, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of ActivX, is also the Director of Finance & Accounting of Kyorin Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. He joined Kyorin in 2003 and previously held the position of Senior Manager of Strategies & Business Development Headquarters. Prior to Kyorin, Mr. Ito was Managing Director of Capital Arts, Inc. He received his MBA from Cornell University and graduated from the University of Tokyo.
Lorrie Daggett, Vice President, Corporate Planning & Operations
Ms. Daggett joined Activx in 2006 and is responsible for management of our corporate and legal matters and administrative departments. Lorrie also helps to foster and maintain ActivX's agreement and collaboration portfolio and business development for the ActivX Technology Platforms. Prior to ActivX, Lorrie worked for GHC Technologies as Senior Research Scientist for a Phase I Early Warning Bioterrorism Defense System (IBADS). Lorrie previously worked for 14 years for Merck Research Laboratories/SIBIA Neurosciences. As a Research Fellow, Ms Daggett was project leader of a GPCR drug discovery project and a stroke biomarker project. She also worked on molecular biology assay development and oversaw the HTS development group in support of novel drug candidates for stroke, eating disorders, anxiety, or schizophrenia. Lorrie obtained her Bachelors of Science from the University of California at Los Angeles.
Tyzoon Nomanbhoy, Ph.D., Director of Technology
Dr. Nomanbhoy joined ActivX in April 2001, and is responsible for overseeing the profiling platforms based on the proprietary ActivX active-site probe technology. Prior to ActivX, he conducted his postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Dr. Paul Schimmel at the Scripps research Institute where he used fluorescence spectroscopy to study editing mechanisms in tRNA synthetases. Dr. Nomanbhoy received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology from Cornell University.
Diane Plotkin, Ph.D., Senior Director of Clinical Development
Dr. Plotkin joined ActivX Biosciences, Inc. in October of 2005. She is responsible for clinical development of drug candidates outside of Japan. Her responsibilities include clinical strategic planning in concert with Kyorin, as well as conduct of clinical programs. For the 15 years prior to joining ActivX, Dr. Plotkin held positions of increasing responsibility in clinical research at Merck Research Laboratories. There she designed and directed studies in therapeutic areas of diabetes, dyslipidemia, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome and sarcopenia in multiple phases of clinical development. She was also an active member and leader of various process reengineering teams aimed at increased efficiency, enhanced regulatory compliance and reduced cycle time. Dr. Plotkin earned her BA from Wheaton College in Norton, MA, her PhD in Biology from the University of Chicago, and was a Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University.
Jonathan Rosenblum, Ph.D., Senior Director of Research
Dr. Rosenblum has been at ActivX since January 2001 and is responsible for overseeing profiling of compounds in (pre)clinical development and the biological aspects of the company’s drug discovery programs, including high throughput screening, genomics and proteomics. He was one of the original scientists at the company, and has been involved in many facets of the company’s evolution, from technology development to IND submission. Jonathan also served as the Principal Investigator for an SBIR grant from the National Institutes of Health, and has served as a study section member at the NIH. Prior to ActivX, Jonathan trained as an NIH postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Günter Blobel at the Rockefeller University. While at Rockefeller, Jonathan used proteomics and molecular cell biology to characterize mechanisms of nuclear protein transport. Prior to Rockefeller, Jonathan received his Ph.D. in Macromolecular and Cellular Structure and Chemistry as a National Science Foundation fellow at The Scripps Research Institute. Jonathan received a Bachelor of Arts degree in chemistry, magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was also elected to Phi Beta Kappa, having been a Benjamin Franklin Scholar.
Kevin Shreder, Ph.D., Director of Chemistry
Dr. Shreder joined ActivX in 2001 and is responsible for protease and other discovery chemistry efforts. Prior to ActivX, he was a Senior Research Scientist at Abbott Laboratories. He conducted his postdoctoral work in Dr. Murray Goodman’s laboratories at the University of California San Diego where he designed and synthesized enkephalin analogs which incorporated novel peptidomimetic structures. He received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin.
Helge Weissig, Ph.D., Director of Bioinformatics
Dr. Weissig joined ActivX Biosciences, Inc. in 2002 and is responsible for bioinformatics and IT efforts. Before joining ActivX, Dr. Weissig was Project Manager, Structural Bioinformatics, at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) where he designed, implemented and maintained the query and data analysis functionality of the Protein Data Bank (PDB) website. He did his post-doctoral training in structural bioinformatics at the San Diego Supercomputer Center where he set up the only repository for historical PDB files removed from the public archives. Dr. Weissig also teaches computer and bioinformatics related courses at UCSD and at California State University, San Marcos. He co-edited the textbook "Structural Bioinformatics" and is a founding member of the San Diego Bioinformatics Forum. Dr. Weissig obtained his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Freiburg in Germany.
