Dr. Kozikowski, trained at Michigan, Berkeley, and Harvard, began his career as an organic chemist at the University of Pittsburgh. Following his interests in the applications of chemistry to biological problems, he moved on to the Mayo Clinic, and then assumed a position at the Georgetown University Medical Center as Director of the Drug Discovery Program. After a decade at Georgetown, he led a research group at the University of Illinois at Chicago in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry.
Specifically, Dr. Kozikowski’s continued efforts to identify possible treatments for Alzheimer’s disease have resulted in the advancement of the natural product huperzine A to the clinic. He has also developed a new PET imaging agent for use in prostate cancer diagnosis, which is in the clinic. Other novel inventions have been created, with a number of these moving into the clinical realm. A new company Apotheca Therapeutics Inc. has been founded to advance small molecule kinase inhibitors for the treatment of brain cancers.
Dr. Kozikowski has experience running biotechnology companies including CEO of Starwise Therapeutics developing novel HDAC6 inhibitors for use in Fragile X syndrome, Charcot Marie Tooth disease and Rett therapy. Dr. Kozikowski was also president of Vela Therapeutics focused on rapidly advancing therapies for these orphan indications.
Dr. Kozikowski is world renown for his work on psychoactive substances including novel analogs of PCP and cocaine which showed potential to decrease harm to users.
Over 550 publications and over 100 patents.
