Keller Thomas Hugo

Biography

"Thomas did his PhD in organic synthesis at the University of British Columbia under supervision of Prof Larry Weiler, followed by post-doctoral studies at the University of Geneva in the group of Prof Wolfgang Oppolzer working on Palladium chemistry. After a second post-doc at the University of Toronto working with Prof Brian Jones on enzyme-catalyzed reactions, Thomas joined Sandoz in 1991. Initially he worked in a group exploring new chemistry for antisense nucleotides and SH2-domain inhibitors and later was promoted to the unit head chemistry position in the Sandoz Respiratory Diseases research group. During the merger between Sandoz and Ciba-Geigy it was decided to locate a new, expanded respiratory disease research group in Horsham, England. Thomas moved to Horsham in 1997 and as unit head chemistry was responsible for the build up of the medicinal chemistry group, including the design of the chemistry labs in the new research building. During his time in Horsham the medicinal chemistry team designed several development compounds, culminating with the long acting -agonist Onbrez/Arcapta that was recently registered in the US and Europe. "

Research Interest

"Since I am working at the Experimental Therapeutics Center as Head of Chemistry, my research activities are limited to PhD students and postdoc. As the Head of Cehmistry of the Experimental Therapeutics Center I am supervising 34 medicinal chemists who work on the discovery new drugs for A*Star. Our approach is similar to industrial R&D, very much aimed at the creation of new drug candidates with publications only as a secondary objective. "