NEW YORK and LONDON, April 7, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Celsus Therapeutics Plc (Nasdaq: CLTX ), an emerging growth, development-stage biotech company, announced today the formation of a new Dermatology Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). The SAB is comprised of:
Jonathan Wilkin, MD, founding director (retired) of the Division of Dermatology and Dental Products at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA);
Amy Paller, MD, Walter J. Hamlin Chair and Professor of Dermatology, Professor of Pediatrics, and Principal Investigator of the NIH-funded Skin Disease Research Center at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine;
Carle Paul, MD, Chairman of the Department of Dermatology at Paul Sabatier University, Toulouse, France;
Lawrence F. Eichenfield, MD, Chief, Pediatric and Adolescent Dermatology, Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine (Dermatology), Rady Children's Hospital, San Diego, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine; and
Emma Guttman-Yassky, MD, Associate Professor of Dermatology & Immunology and Director of the Center for Excellence in Eczema and the Occupational/Contact Dermatitis Clinic and the Director of the Laboratory of Inflammatory Skin Diseases in the Department of Dermatology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.
"We are excited to have these world-renowned dermatologists, scientists and regulatory experts join our new Dermatology Scientific Advisory Board at Celsus," said Dr. Gur Roshwalb, Chief Executive Officer of Celsus Therapeutics. "As we advance MRX-6 through clinical trials, we look forward to working with this team of outstanding clinicians and advisors to help guide our clinical development program in order to provide patients suffering with atopic dermatitis additional treatment options."
Scientific Advisory Board Member Biographies:
Dr. Jonathan Wilkin remains active in regulatory matters after over 12 years of FDA service which included membership on the FDA's Dermatology Drugs Advisory Committee. Before going to the FDA, he was Director of Dermatology at the Ohio State University and Professor of Pharmacology and Medicine. He has over 130 publications in dermatology and clinical pharmacology. Dr. Wilkin received his BA and MS in zoology from Ohio State University in Columbus, followed by his medical degree from the Ohio State University College of Medicine. After a year of residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Louisville, School of Medicine in Kentucky, he completed a residency in dermatology at the University of Tennessee Health Science in Memphis, where he was Chief Resident. Dr. Wilkin has served as chairman of the medical advisory board for the National Rosacea Society from 1998 to 2012 as well as having chaired their Expert Committees on the Classification and Staging System for Rosacea. He also serves on the American Academy of Dermatology's (AAD) Ad Hoc Task Force on the Academy's Efforts with FDA and on their Environment and Drugs Committee. Dr. Wilkin has been active in the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, having chaired the Dermatologic and Allergic Diseases Section and the Constitution and By-laws Committee for several years, as well as serving in other capacities. Dr. Wilkin is a fellow of the AAD, a member of the American Dermatological Association and board certified by both the American Board of Dermatology and the American Board of Clinical Pharmacology.
Dr. Amy Paller is the Walter J. Hamlin Chair and Professor of Dermatology, Professor of Pediatrics, and Principal Investigator of the NIH-funded Skin Disease Research Center at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. She received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Brown University and her medical degree from Stanford University. Dr. Paller completed residency training in Pediatrics and Dermatology at Northwestern University and her postdoctoral research fellowship at University of North Carolina. She served on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Dermatology and the American Dermatological Association, and on both the Board of Directors and as President of the of the Society for Pediatric Dermatology, Society for Investigative Dermatology, and the Women's Dermatologic Society. An author of more than 350 original publications, Dr. Paller is an NIH-funded investigator who conducts both laboratory-based and often landmark clinical investigations, particularly related to inflammatory skin disease and genetic skin disorders.
Dr. Carle Paul is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Dermatology at Paul Sabatier University, Toulouse, France. The department is the Dermatology reference center for the 3 million people of the Midi-Pyrenees region and includes inpatient, day-care center and outpatient clinics, a clinical research center (phase I to IV) and teaching facilities. The department comprises 10 full time physicians, 6 residents and 8 part time dermatologists. He completed his dermatology training in 1988-1994 in Paris, including a one-year research scholarship in the immunology laboratory of JF Bach at Paris Descartes University and INSERM U25 working on apoptosis induction and mechanism of toxic epidermal necrolysis. Professor Paul holds a master in Fundamental Immunology and a PhD in Pharmacology. He was Board member of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (2007-2012) and is currently Secretary General of the EADV (2012-2016). He was appointed Junior Lecturer in Dermatology and Director of the Clinical Pharmacology Unit in 1994–1997 at Saint Louis Hospital and Paris VII University. In 1998–2005, he worked in pharmaceutical research in Basel, Switzerland, while maintaining part-time clinical appointment at the Department of Dermatology, Mulhouse, France. Professor Paul is co-inventor of 8 patents and author of over 200 peer reviewed publications. His areas of research interest are inflammatory skin diseases, mainly atopic dermatitis and psoriasis, pharmacology and clinical drug development.
Dr. Lawrence F. Eichenfield is Chief of Pediatric and Adolescent Dermatology at Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego, and Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine (Dermatology), at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine. He earned his medical degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, was a pediatric resident and chief resident at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and completed dermatology training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He has been board certified in pediatrics, dermatology and pediatric dermatology. He is Editor-in-Chief of Pediatric Dermatology and serves on the editorial boards of multiple journals and periodicals. Dr. Eichenfield has published more than 250 journal articles, chapters and abstracts, and books, and is senior editor of Neonatal & Infant Dermatology, published by Elsevier, and The Eczemas published by Summit Communications. He is Director of Rady Children's Hospital Eczema & Inflammatory Disease Center and the Vascular Lesion & Birthmark Center. He is past president of the Society for Pediatric Dermatology, has served on the Board of the American Academy of Dermatology, and served as Chair for the 69th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology. Dr. Eichenfield is a founding board member and President of the American Acne & Rosacea Society, and is Co-Chair of the Pediatric Dermatology Research Alliance (PeDRA), a collaborative research network.
Dr. Emma Guttman-Yassky earned her medical degree from the Sackler School of Medicine at the Tel-Aviv University, and a PhD degree from the Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel. Dr. Guttman completed her first dermatology residency at the Dermatology Department at the Rambam Medical Center/Technion Institute in Haifa. After obtaining her Israeli Board certification in dermatology, Dr. Guttman moved to the U.S. to pursue a two-year postdoctoral fellowship as a clinical scholar at The Rockefeller University in the Laboratory for Investigative Dermatology. Upon completion of her fellowship, she became board-certified by the American Board of dermatology after obtaining her second dermatology residency training at the Weill-Cornell Medical College, in New York. Dr. Guttman's major clinical focus is atopic dermatitis/eczema and contact/occupational dermatitis. She is the recipient of the prestigious Young Investigator Award (2011) from the American Academy of Dermatology, the 2011 recipient of the Dermatology Foundation's Physician-Scientist Career Development Award, and the Everett C. Fox Award for best clinical research at the Residents & Fellows Symposium of the American academy of dermatology in 2004.
About Celsus Therapeutics Plc
Celsus Therapeutics is an emerging clinical stage company focused on the development of a new class of non-steroidal, synthetic anti-inflammatory drugs termed Multi-Functional Anti-Inflammatory Drugs or MFAIDs. Celsus's MFAIDs represent a new therapeutic platform for the treatment of a broad array of inflammatory diseases, such as allergies and autoimmune diseases. Presently, the Company's lead drug candidate in its clinical pipeline is MRX-6, an MFAID topical cream treatment under development for treating skin inflammatory disorders, specifically allergic contact dermatitis and atopic dermatitis, also known as eczema. Other potential treatments in preclinical development include OPX-1 for ocular inflammation, CFX-1 for cystic fibrosis, and MRX-5 for inflammatory bowel disease.
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