VistaGen Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing new generation medicines for depression and other central nervous system (CNS) disorders, appointed David Rotella PhD, to the Scientific Advisory Board of VistaStem Therapeutics.
VistaStem Therapeutics is VistaGen’s wholly owned subsidiary focused on using its stem cell technology for small molecule drug rescue and regenerative medicine.
Dr Rotella joins Gordon Keller PhD, Director of the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine in Toronto, James Sanders PhD, retired Senior Director and Preclinical Development Leader at Johnson & Johnson, and Ron Wester PhD, retired VP, Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Discovery at Pfizer Global R&D, on VistaStem's Scientific Advisory Board.
Shawn Singh, CEO of VistaGen, said: "We are pleased to welcome Dr Rotella to VistaStem's Scientific Advisory Board. He joins an impressive and highly accomplished team of scientific experts from both the academic research and pharmaceutical industries.
"Dr Rotella's extensive academic research and pharmaceutical industry experience in both medicinal chemistry and drug discovery, including key leadership roles on teams at Wyeth, Pfizer and Bristol-Meyers focused on drug candidates to fight cancer, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases will be a significant factor in advancing VistaStem's small molecule drug rescue objectives and in evaluating other CNS-focused programmes intended to expand our drug development pipeline."
Dr Rotella is currently the Margaret and Herman Sokol Professor of Chemistry at Montclair State University, engaged in drug discovery research and undergraduate and graduate teaching.
From 2005 to 2010, Dr Rotella was a Principal Research Scientist and chemistry team leader for Wyeth Research (acquired by Pfizer in 2009) in CNS drug discovery projects and a key leader for collaboration with Solvay Pharmaceuticals.
During that time, he was instrumental in delivering a clinical candidate and managing chemists in a group that delivered another, in addition to supervising and mentoring group leaders responsible for two programmes in lead discovery.
Prior to this, Dr Rotella was a Senior Group Leader, responsible for multiple drug discovery programmes at Lexicon Pharmaceuticals and Principal Scientist at Bristol-Myers Squibb PRI, here he focused on cardiovascular and metabolic disease drug discovery. Dr Rotella has authored 40 publications and holds seven patents.
Dr Rotella said: "I am extremely intrigued by the drug development and clinical programmes that VistaGen is currently undertaking in CNS, as well as VistaStem's cardiac stem cell technology for small molecule drug rescue of once-promising drug candidates initially developed by others but terminated due to cardiac liabilities.
"Throughout my career, I have studied the central nervous system and cardiovascular elements of the body in both a research and drug discovery capacity, while leveraging the critical role of organic medicinal chemistry for the discovery of new chemical entities. I look forward to applying my experience and relationships with Pharma to add value to both VistaGen and VistaStem."
