Quadrant industry speaker series

The Quadrant Industry Speaker Series is designed to provide top level industry scientists an opportunity to visit UCSF, UC Berkeley, or UC Santa Cruz and present a public seminar to students, postdocs and the greater entrepreneurial community about the science that takes place within an established company. Many of the talks detail the optimization process that occurs while going from exciting science to a commercial product. We hope to host speakers throughout the healthcare continuum from the pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device and research tools industries. To keep posted on these events please sign up for our mailing list. Interested in speaking? Email Neena Kadaba.

All talks take place on the UCSF Mission Bay campus unless otherwise indicated. Lunch is provided, but space is limited, so please register to attend.

Sponsors

Upcoming talks


Spiros Liras_0.jpg

Spiros Liras, VP of Chemistry and Head, Cardiovascular Metabolic and Endocrine Diseases Medicinal Chemistry, Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development

“Opioid receptor antagonists for neuropsychiatric disorders”
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
UCSF Mission Bay, Byers Hall, Room 212
Register now

Opioid ligands of the three receptor subtypes mu, delta, and kappa have been implicated in the modulation of several disease states of the central nervous system spanning from addiction and pain, to depression and bipolar disorder. The design, synthesis and pharmacological evaluation of selective mu, delta and kappa opioid antagonists will be presented.

Speaker Bio
Spiros Liras is the head of the Cardiovascular Metabolic and Endocrine Diseases (CVMED) medicinal chemistry department at Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development. His current research interests include tissue targeting and discovery of orally active peptides as therapeutics for diabetes II and cardiovascular disease. Prior to joining CVMED, Spiros was Senior Director of medicinal chemistry in Neuroscience at Pfizer. In Neuroscience Spiros was involved in research aiming to deliver treatments for addiction, depression, schizophrenia, cognition and Alzheimer’s disease. Spiros obtained a Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1989 from Iowa State University where he developed methods for the synthesis of anthracyclines and studied silicon radical mediated cyclizations and unusual patterns of the Diels-Alder reaction. Subsequently, Spiros joined the group of Professor Stephen F. Martin at the University of Texas at Austin as a postdoctoral fellow. At Texas Spiros completed the total synthesis of several natural products including members of the ergot alkaloid family, zaragozic acid, and developed methods for the synthesis of peptidomimetics. Spiros is the author or coauthor for more than 50 publications and patents.