Dr. Southan is a nationally-renowned pharmaceutical development leader. A synthetic chemist by training, he has an extensive publication record and experience in nitric oxide (NO) synthase (NOS) and in the chemistry of NOS inhibitors, NO adducts, and NO donor compounds. He has spent 3 years with the Nobel Laureate Sir John R. Vane, FRS at the William Harvey Research Institute in London, England to study the biochemistry of NO and NO synthases.
Dr. Southan also served at the National Cancer Institute in the laboratory of Larry Keefer, a leading group in the development of novel NO adducts. Dr. Southan has successfully identified, synthesized, and characterized a wide variety of novel NOS inhibitors as well as NO donor compounds. Dr. Southan is the author of reviews and an invited speaker at international meetings on the topic of NOS inhibitors. He is involved in studies on the biochemistry of NO and NOdonors, and continues his effort in order to develop NOS inhibitors. Prior to joining Radikal Therapeutics, Dr. Southan served for 12 years as Executive Vice-President of Chemistry at Inotek Pharmaceuticals Corporation. In that capacity, he led numerous pharmaceutical projects based on new chemical entities invented by his group, from the point of discovery into Phase 2 clinical trials. As a supervisor of 70 chemists and support personnel, and the leader of a GMP manufacturing facility and quality control laboratories, Dr. Southan had broad experience in the pharmaceutical development process. As Vice-President of Research at Radikal Therapeutics since 2010, Dr. Southan leads a group of senior chemists, biologists, and pharmacologists to identify, discover, in-license, and develop innovative life science technologies.