Benjamin E. Blass
Assistant professor
Moulder Center for Drug Discovery Research
Temple University
United States of America
Biography
Dr. Blass received his B.S. in Chemistry from Emory University in 1990 and his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry in 1994 from the University of Rochester under the direction of Andrew S. Kende. Upon completion of his doctoral program, Dr. Blass pursued a career in drug discovery and development with Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals (Cincinnati, OH 1994-2006) and Wyeth Research (2006-2010). Over the course of his industrial career, Dr. Blass conducted research on a wide range of disease states through the careful application of medicinal chemistry strategy and drug design principles. He and his research teams produced novel chemical matter to address chronic pain, inflammation, cancer, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, diabetes, osteoporosis, obesity, arthritis, heart failure, peripheral artery disease, acute coronary syndrome, and atrial fibrillation, producing multiple pre-clinical and clinical candidates. He is the principle author or co-author on fifty patents, publications, and invited lectureships and is registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office as patent agent.
Research Interest
His research interests are developing novel chemical matter to address chronic pain, inflammation, cancer, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, diabetes, osteoporosis, obesity, arthritis, heart failure, peripheral artery disease, acute coronary syndrome, and atrial fibrillation, producing multiple pre-clinical and clinical candidates.
Publications
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Blass BE, Fensome A, Trybulski E, Magolda R, Gardell SJ, et al. (2009) Selective Kv1. 5 blockers: development of (R)-1-(methylsulfonylamino)-3-[2-(4-methoxyphenyl) ethyl]-4-(4-methoxyphenyl)-2-imidazolidinone (KVI-020/WYE-160020) as a potential treatment for atrial arrhythmia. Journal of medicinal chemistry 52:6531-4.
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Blass BE, Coburn K, Fairweather N, Fluxe A, Hodson S, et al. (2006) Synthesis of 1-aminoimidazolidin-4-one and 1-aminoimidazolidin-2-one based compounds: an interesting divergence in methodology. Tetrahedron letters 47:7497-7499.
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Cassel JA, Blass BE, Reitz AB, Pawlyk AC (2010) Development of a novel nonradiometric assay for nucleic acid binding to TDP-43 suitable for high-throughput screening using AlphaScreen® technology. Journal of biomolecular screening 15:1099-106.
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Jackson CM, Blass B, Coburn K, Djandjighian L, Fadayel G, et al. (2007) Evolution of thiazolidine-based blockers of human Kv1. 5 for the treatment of atrial arrhythmias. Bioorganic & medicinal chemistry letters 17:282-284.