Michael A. Zasloff, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Zasloff is currently Dean of Research and Translational Science at the Georgetown University Medical Center. Dr. Zasloff received his MD and PhD in 1973 from New York University School of Medicine. He completed residency training in Pediatrics at the Boston Children's Hospital. In 1975 he joined the National Institutes of Health as a Research Associate in the National Institutes of Arthritis, Metabolic and Digestive Diseases, and concurrently completed a Fellowship in Human Genetics at Johns Hopkins with Dr. Victor McKusick. From 1982 until 1988, Dr. Zasloff was Chief, Human Genetics Branch, National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development, at the National Institutes of Health. In 1988 Dr Zasloff founded Magainin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. a publicly traded biotechnology company. At the same time Dr. Zasloff served as the Charles E.H. Upham Professor, Departments of Pediatrics and Genetics, at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and Chief, Division of Human Genetics and Molecular Biology, at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. In July 1992 Dr. Zasloff joined Magainin on a full time basis, and served as Executive Vice President and President of the Magainin Research Institute, a basic research division of the Company. Dr. Zasloff remained affiliated with Penn as Visiting Professor, Department of Biochemistry ands Biophysics. From July 1996 through November 2000 Dr. Zasloff was Vice Chairman of the Board of Magainin Pharmaceuticals. In January 2002, Dr. Zasloff assumed the newly created position of Dean of Research and Translational Science at Georgetown University.

Over the past 15 years Dr. Zasloff's scientific interests have centered on the innate immune systems of animals. While at the NIH he discovered that frogs produced powerful antibiotics in their skin, which he called Magainins, based on his observations of the remarkable healing properties of these animals after surgery. Along with Hans Boman in Sweden, and Robert Lehrer at UCLA, Dr. Zasloff established the widespread existence of antimicrobial peptides throughout nature. His work has led to the discovery of epithelial antimicrobial defenses in vertebrates including the discovery of the magainin peptide family in amphibia, and comparable systems in mammals. With colleagues at Penn Dr. Zasloff discovered the underlying basis of pulmonary infections in Cystic Fibrosis to be a malfunctioning of these newly described antimicrobial peptides in the airway of the individuals with cystic fibrosis. Dr. Zasloff and his team have been responsible for the discovery, clinical and commercial development of several compounds, including Pexiganan, a synthetic antimicrobial peptide developed for the treatment of infections in diabetics, the first entirely new class of antibiotic to be developed as a therapeutic in 30 years. In 1993, while at Penn, Dr. Zasloff and his group discovered squalamine in tissues of the dogfish shark, the first of a novel class of steroids, called aminosterols. Subsequently his group discovered squalamine to be a potent antiangiogenic compound with activity against solid tumors. He guided its development into clinical trials. Squalamine is currently in Phase II clinical trials being evaluated for treatment of non-small cell lung cancer and refractory ovarian cancer. Recently his group reported on the discovery of another aminosterol isolated from the shark, called Produlestan, which was shown to act centrally in mammals to control food intake; this compound will enter clinical trials in late 2001. Dr. Zasloff is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Kilby Award for Creativity and Innovation, and the Berson Award in Basic Science from New York University. He is the author of over 100 original peer-reviewed publications, and 40 US and international patents.

http://macpost.odr.georgetown.edu/