Chair, Presidential Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Utah
Dr. Glenn D. Prestwich, Presidential Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at The University of Utah since 1996, holds adjunct appointments in the Departments of Chemistry, Biochemistry, Bioengineering, and Surgery. He is the Director for two Utah Centers of Excellence for technology commercialization: Center for Cell Signaling, and the Center for Therapeutic Biomaterials. He chaired the Department of Medicinal Chemistry from 1996-2002, and is currently co-Program Leader for the Experimental Diagnostics and Therapeutics Program of the Huntsman Cancer Institute. From 2001-2004, he served as Chief Scientific Officer of Echelon Biosciences, Inc. (Salt Lake City, UT), which he co-founded in 1997 and which was acquired by Aeterna Zentaris in 2005. In addition, he served as Chief Scientific Officer for Sentrx Surgical, Inc. (Salt Lake City, UT), which he co-founded from 2004-2005. Sentrx was “reborn� in December 2005 as Carbylan BioSurgery, Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA), a venture syndicate-funded drug/device company with a focus on devices for scar-free healing and wound repair; Dr. Prestwich is Senior Scientific Advisor and chair of the Scientific Advisory Board. Two additional companies, Sentrx Animal Care, Inc. and Glycosan BioSystems, Inc. are being started up in Utah from this technology in 2005-06. His university research programs now include (i) new reagents for lipid signaling in cell biology and cancer treatment, and (ii) biomaterials for wound repair, cartilage repair, tissue engineering, scar-free healing, and toxicology and xenograft models.
Dr. Prestwich graduated with a B.Sc. (Honors) in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology in 1970, he earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Stanford University in 1974, followed by three years as an NIH postdoctoral fellow, first at Cornell University and then at the International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology in Nairobi, Kenya. From 1977 to 1996, he was at The University at Stony Brook in New York, as Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Biochemistry & Cell Biology, and Director of the New York State Center for Advanced Technology in Medical Biotechnology. He co-founded Clear Solutions Biotechnology, Inc. (Stony Brook, New York) to commercialize hyaluronan biomaterials. He is a recipient of Alfred P. Sloan Research and Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Awards, and was honored with the 1998 Paul Dawson Biotechnology Award of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. He was elected as a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in 2005 and was selected as a V100 Top 100 Venture Entrepreneurs in Utah in 2005.
Dr. Prestwich has published over 500 technical papers and book chapters, including popular articles in National Geographic and Scientific American. He has trained over 69 graduate students and 52 postdoctoral scientists during the past 30 years. He is an inventor on over 39 patents and patent applications, including the enabling technologies for his start-up companies. He is a photographer, a private pilot for Angel Flight, and a first tenor in the Utah Symphony Chorus.
Dr. Prestwich CV (link)
Contact
gprestwich@pharm.utah.edu | 801.585.9051
