Dr. Samuel Chackalamannil obtained his Ph. D. in Chemistry from Yale University in 1984 and subsequently worked in drug discovery research at Schering-Plough Corporation and Merck Research Laboratories, where he was a Distinguished Fellow when he left in 2011. Since then, he has been teaching at Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Rutgers University, New Jersey.

Dr. Chackalamannil led the discovery of vorapaxar (Zontivity®), an FDA approved antiplatelet drug for the prevention of heart attack and stroke. His group also discovered a PDE-5 inhibitor clinical candidate dasantafil and an adenosine A2a antagonist clinical candidate for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Dr. Chackalamannil is a two-time recipient of the Thomas Alva Edison Award for Emerging Technology Patent and a two-time recipient of the Presidential Award for Discovery at Schering-Plough Research Institute.

Dr. Chackalamannil is a co-inventor of 61 allowed US patents and numerous patent applications worldwide. He has published 82 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, has co-authored a book and has given numerous lectures at international meetings and academic institutions. Dr. Chackalamannil has served as a section editor for Current Opinion in Drug Discovery and he has chaired several sessions at American Chemical Society National Meetings and Gordon Research Conference on Medicinal Chemistry.

Dr. Rotella earned a PhD in medicinal chemistry from The Ohio State University and carried out postdoctoral research in organic chemistry at Penn State University. He joined the faculty at Montclair State University in July 2011 as the Margaret and Herman Sokol Professor of medicinal chemistry after a successful career in the pharmaceutical industry. He is an expert in the discovery and optimization of small molecule drug candidates for use in metabolic, cardiovascular, cancer, and central nervous system diseases. His current research is focused on discovering new lead compounds for use in parasitic and central nervous system diseases. He has coedited the seventh edition of Burger's Medicinal Chemistry and the third edition of Comprehensive Medicinal Chemistry. He has authored 50 peer-reviewed articles, is an inventor on 8 issued US patents, and has contributed 10 book chapters.

Simon Ward has an MA in Natural Sciences and PhD in synthetic organic chemistry from Cambridge University, UK. He has a wide ranging experience of drug discovery in both large and small companies (BioCrea, GlaxoSmithKline, Knoll Pharmaceuticals, Vernalis, Chiroscience) and specialist experience of discovering and developing drugs for central nervous system indications. He has led multidisciplinary project teams & medicinal chemistry groups from target identification, through to early clinical studies, delivering multiple clinical development candidates across indications. Simon is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Simon is currently Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Sussex, UK and Director of the Sussex Drug Discovery Centre which he established within the University of Sussex in 2010.