Cornerstone is a privately held pharmaceutical company uniquely focused on the discovery and development of innovative cancer therapies that exploit the metabolic pathways that are common to different cancer types but different from normal cells and tissues.
They believe that their approach, i.e. understanding and addressing what is similar to cancer types rather than the differences of each, offers the best opportunity to have a profound impact on the clinical treatment of a variety of cancers.
Dr. Shorr is the Chief Executive Officer at Cornerstone Pharmaceuticals.
Prior to joining Cornerstone, Dr. Shorr served as Chief Scientist for United Therapeutics (NASDAQ: UTHR). Dr. Shorr was responsible for the discovery of a longer acting form of Prostacyclin.
Dr. Shorr also spearheaded business development activities for the Center for Advanced Technology (CAT), in biotechnology established by the State of New York at SUNY Stony Brook.
Previously Dr. Shorr served as Vice President Science and Technology and as Vice President for Research and Development at Enzon, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENZN). At Enzon, Dr. Shorr was responsible for management of the co-development, with Schering Plough, of a longer-acting, less-frequent dosing form of alpha interferon. The product, PEG INTRON A, is approved in the US and Europe. Dr.
Mr. Rodriguez has over 25 years of experience in the strategic, technological and financial development of several life sciences related entrepreneurial ventures.
Mr. Rodriguez has held key management positions at Enzon, Inc., a drug delivery and recombinant engineered antibody company and Sienna Biotech, Inc., a medical diagnostic systems company that served as the basis for American Standard Inc.s Medical Products business unit.
Mr. Rodriguez has also served as a consultant to a number of companies regarding strategic and business development-related issues, including Principia Pharmaceutical Corporation (acquired by Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: HGSI)) and Peprotech, Inc. Mr. Rodriguez has also negotiated and consummated numerous in-licensing and out-licensing agreements with major pharmaceutical companies as well as smaller biotech companies and universities, including multi-national agreements with Rhone-Poulenc Rorer and Bristol-Myers Squibb in the oncology field.
Mr. Straub is a financial executive with significant experience in the pharmaceutical industry. His background includes strategic and operational planning and execution, and various finance activities.
Mr. Straub started his career at Ernst & Young, where for over 13 years he was an independent auditor for numerous companies, both public and private. After leaving Ernst & Young, Mr. Straub held key financial positions in several public companies including Pharmaceutical Formulations, Inc., an over-the-counter generic drug manufacturer and marketer, and West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (formerly Paco Pharmaceutical Services, Inc.), a contract packaging and manufacturing services company primarily serving the pharmaceutical and personnel healthcare products market. As the CFO for Paco, he successfully completed Pacos initial public offering and subsequently negotiated the sale of Paco to The West Company.
Mr. Straub received his BA in Economics and Accounting from Upsala College.
David A. Polinsky joined Cornerstone in 2002, as Vice President and General Counsel. Mr. Polinsky is responsible for the management of all legal matters affecting or involving Cornerstone, including corporate governance, financings, intellectual property, licensing, and mergers and acquisitions.
Prior to joining Cornerstone, David served as Vice President and General Counsel for the New York-based investment and management company, Square Management Co.
Prior to his role at Square Management Co., and in partnership with the Honorable Edward I. Koch, former Mayor of New York City, David founded a company that licensed and developed TheLaw.com, a website that offered marketing services to lawyers and information to consumers. TheLaw.com received national and international acclaim and was featured in The New York Times. Mr. Polinsky has interned for Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY); Chief Bankruptcy Judge Conrad B.
Randall K. Johnson, Ph.D, has over 30 years of experience in government and industry. Dr. Johnson has worked in all aspects of cancer drug discovery and development. This experience ranges from target validation, through screening technologies, basic research on mechanisms of drug action, assessment of efficacy in preclinical tumor models, to clinical development plans and regulatory strategies. He has put many oncology drugs into clinical development and is credited with bringing topotecan to market.
Dr. Johnson is currently a consultant to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, focused on anticancer drug discovery and development. Previously, Dr. Johnson was Group Director of the Department of Oncology Research at GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. Dr. Johnson earned his Ph.D. in pharmacology from George Washington University, Washington DC.
Prior to his twenty year tenure at GlaxoSmithKline, Dr.
Patrick S. Wilmerding is a co-Founder of Althea Partners LLC, which consults with and invests in early stage companies. Althea Partners led the Series B-4 Preferred investment in Cornerstone.
Prior to co-founding Althea Partners, Patrick was a co-Founder and Director of the Narragansett Bay and Pawtucket Insurance Companies beginning in 2005. He is currently on the board of Cole Management and remains active with various technology companies.
Patrick received a MBA from the Boston University Graduate School of Management and holds a BA from Northeastern University.
Robert Weinberg, Ph.D. is a pioneer in cancer research who is most widely known for his discoveries of the first human oncogenea gene that causes normal cells to form tumorsand the first tumor suppressor gene. Weinberg, who received his PhD in biology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1969, has held research positions at the Weizmann Institute and the Salk Institute. In 1982, Weinberg helped found Whitehead Institute, joined the faculty as a professor of biology at MIT, and published his landmark paper Mechanism of Activation of a Human Oncogene in the journal Nature.
In 1999, another major paper, Creation of Human Tumor Cells with Defined Genetic Elements, was also published in Nature. Dr. Weinbergs awards include Scientist of the Year by Discover magazine (1982), Bristol-Myers Award for Distinguished Achievement in Cancer Research (1984), Member of the U.S.
Gregg Semenza, M.D., Ph.D. is one of todays pre-eminent researchers on the molecular mechanisms of oxygen regulation; Dr. Semenza has led the field in uncovering how cells adapt to changing oxygen levels. He has identified and studied the HIF-1 (hypoxia-inducible factor 1) protein, which controls genes in response to changes in oxygen availability.
Dr. Semenza received his M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, completed his residency in pediatrics at Duke University Medical Center and postdoctoral research in medical genetics at Johns Hopkins and is on the faculty at Johns Hopkins since 1990.
Participation by Dr. Semenza as a Scientific Advisory Board member does not constitute endorsement by the Johns Hopkins University or the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System.
Joseph Stern is the founder, owner, president and chief executive officer of Eastern Properties, a commercial and residential real estate company in Cranbury, NJ. His dynamic management and leadership style has been critical to the success of the company in its overall development since its founding. His primary responsibility is the acquisition of land and the approval process including directing the professional consultants, i.e. architects, engineers, etc. for the land improvements and the constructions of the buildings.
Mr. Stern is probably better known locally for his commitment and involvement in education as well as other philanthropic causes. He serves as Chairman of the Board of the 200 year-old Yeshivas Mir International, the largest talmudical college in the world as well as the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School, the first Jewish parochial school founded in America in 1899.
Patrick P. Zaretski has been the Director of Intellectual Property for Cornerstone Pharmaceuticals since 2007. He is responsible for patent preparation and prosecution for the companys anticancer drug platform technologies and also manages Cornerstones trademark portfolio. In addition, Mr. Zaretski assists in legal matters pertaining to corporate affairs and engages in scientific literature research regarding Cornerstones drugs mechanisms of action.
Mr. Zaretski has over ten years of experience in domestic and international patent preparation and prosecution for biochemical, biomedical, and molecular biological technologies. He has worked in private practice and as an associate in the Life Sciences Group in the New York office of Greenberg Traurig, LLP. Representative clients include Novo Nordisk AG, Nippon Shinyaku Co., Ltd., and the University of Missouri.
Mr. Zaretski holds an M.S. in Molecular Biology from Montclair State University, a J.D.
Zuzana received her MS.c. in Microbiology from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. in Genetics from Stony Brook University. She has worked in fields of pathogenic microbiology, molecular genetics and drug discovery.
Her major contributions include the discovery of the role of transposons as general mutagens in metazoans, discovery of new properties of enhancers in transcriptional regulation, discovery of gene expression auto regulation at the level of pre-mRNA splicing and the discovery of new features in the organization of nuclear architecture and its role in RNA transport.
During the last seven years, her research efforts have focused on cancer chemotherapy. This work, done in collaboration with her colleague, Dr. Paul Bingham, has led to the discovery of drugs which make use of a fundamentally new approach to killing cancer cells.
H. Gilbert Polinsky has been Chairman of the Board since March 2002. Mr. Polinsky is an attorney with over 40 years of practice in the fields of commercial and business law and is self-employed. He is a member of the New York State Bar and Brooklyn Bar Associations.
Mr. Polinsky is admitted to practice law in the Appellate Division, Second Department, State of New York, the Eastern District of the United States of America, Southern District of the United States of America and the Supreme Court of the United States of America.
Mr. Polinsky holds a Juris Doctorate from Brooklyn Law School.
Aaron Drillick is vice president and chief financial officer for Eastern Properties, where he has worked since 1985. He is responsible for all financial aspects of the company including financial reporting, construction and permanent financing. In addition, he works closely with the president in all aspects of land procurement and planning and development.
Prior to joining Eastern Properties, he was a manager at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, responsible for the capital and operating budgets at the Bank. He had ongoing reporting responsibility to the president and senior officers of the Bank on all financial matters.
Mr. Drillick has a bachelors degree from Brooklyn College and masters degree from the New York University School of Engineering and Science.