Clinical / Scientific Advisors

Stephen J Benkovic, PhD

Dr. Benkovic is a reknown chemist and enzymologist who is currently the Evan Pugh Professor and Eberly Chair in Chemistry at Pennsylvania State University. He received his B.S. degree in chemistry from Lehigh University in 1960, and his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Cornell University in 1965, successively becoming Full Professor in 1970, and Evan Pugh Professor of Chemistry in 1977, and University Professor, Eberly Chair in Chemistry, in 1986. His work has been recognized by a long series of awards and fellowships including the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, and NIH Career Development Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry, an Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, the Gowland Hopkins Award, an Alfred Bader Award and the Repligen Award for Chemistry of Biological Processes. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the National Academy of Science. He has served on a number of scientific advisory boards, including SmithKlineBeecham (now GlaxoSmithKline) and Pathogenesis, Inc.

Geoffrey Block, MD

Dr. Geoffrey Block serves as head of Ren Pharmaceuticals’ clinical advisory board. He is the director of clinical research at the Denver Nephrologists Workgroup. He serves on KDIGO Global Bone and Initiative committee which is the internationally recognized committee in nephrology for defining clinical guidelines for renal patient care worldwide. Dr. Block has been involved in the clinical development of major drugs in the renal space including Renagel and Renleva (Genzyme), Zemplar (Abbott), Sensipar (Amgen) and Feromoxytol (Advanced Magnetics).

Bill Boyle, PhD

Dr. Boyle is a founder of Anaptys Biosciences and serves as President and Chief Science Officer. Bill has focused his career toward the biopharmaceutical industry for the last 16 years, and has developed gene-based inventions into protein drugs that are currently being evaluated in late stage clinical trials. Before Anaptys, he was the Chief Scientific Officer for Auxeris Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on development of mechanism-based treatments for bone diseases. Before that, he was Vice President of Biology at Protein Pathways, a computational biology company that utilized genomic information to help elucidate disease pathways for target identification and validation. Prior to that role, Dr. Boyle was at Amgen, Inc. for over eleven years, and was involved in the discovery and development of novel protein and small molecule candidate therapeutics. He was formerly Director of Discovery Research and the Biosystems technology platforms at Amgen, and led a basic research effort as part of the preclinical and clinical development of OPG and derivative RANKL antagonists. His research in this area helped to define the RANK-RANKL signaling pathway, and led to the isolation and characterization of AMG 162 (Denosumab®), a monoclonal antibody therapeutic in late development for osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis and bone metastasis. Dr. Boyle was instrumental in organizing and leading the research effort behind their rheumatology franchise, and in developing a corporate partnership with Abgenix, which resulted in the isolation of AMG 162, Amgen’s first antibody IND filing. Dr. Boyle holds a Doctoral degree in Experimental Pathology from the UCLA School of Medicine, and was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Postdoctoral Fellow of the Life Sciences Research Foundation, at the Salk Institute in La Jolla.

Thomas M. Coffman, MD

Dr. Thomas Coffman is James R. Clapp Professor of Medicine and the Chief of the Division of Nephrology at Duke. A national leader in the field of nephrology, Dr. Coffman has served on several NIH review panels and advisory boards, and serves on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Physiology, Physiological Reviews, and Cell Metabolism. He is also a member of the Nephrology Subspecialty Board of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM), the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the American Association of Physicians and serves as a councilor for the American Society of Nephrology. He is an AHA Fellow of the Council for High Blood Pressure Research and the Kidney Council, and served as Chair of the AHA Cardio-Renal Study Section. Dr. Coffman graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania and obtained his M.D. from the Ohio State University School of Medicine. He undertook his internal medicine and nephrology training at Duke. Dr. Coffman’s research interests include the renin-angiotensin and prostanoid systems and their role in regulating blood pressure, kidney function, and renal inflammation. His laboratory work is supported by grants from the NIH and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.

Gary Desir, MD

Scientific Founder, Ren Pharmaceuticals

Gary Desir is the scientific Founder of Ren Pharmaceuticals. He and Jianchao Xu, M.D., PhD. discovered renalase while investigating the link between chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular disease. He is a Professor of Medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine. He received his BS degree in biology from New York University, and his MD degree from Yale University. After completing a residency in Internal Medicine, and a fellowship in Nephrology he joined the Yale faculty in 1988. He served as Chief of the Nephrology Section at VA Connecticut from 1997 to 2003. In 2003, he was appointed Chief of Medical Service at VA Connecticut. He is the recipient of career awards from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Veterans Administration. He is an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha Omega Alpha, and of the Association of Professors of Medicine. His research interests include the molecular physiology of voltage-gated potassium channels, and the mechanisms mediating the interactions between the kidney and the cardiovascular system.

Brian Periera, MD

Dr. Brian Periera current serves as CEO of Advanced Magnetics, a publicly traded company with a phase 3 injectable iron product for chronic kidney disease. Prior to joining Advanced Magnetics, he was President and CEO of New England Health Care Foundation, a physician’s group at Tufts-New England Medical Center from 2001 to 2005, and held various other positions at Tufts-New England Medical Center from 1993 to 2001. He is a Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine and at the Sackler School of Biomedical Sciences of Tufts University. A nationally-recognized expert on kidney disease and nephrology, Dr. Pereira has served on the editorial board of twelve scientific journals, is the Editor of the widely read textbook, "Chronic Kidney Disease, Dialysis and Transplantation", and has over 200 scientific papers to his credit. Dr. Pereira served as President of the National Kidney Foundation from 2002 to 2004. He also serves as a director of the National Kidney Foundation, Satellite Health Care Inc. and Wellbound Inc. In addition, Dr. Pereira is a member of the advisory boards of Amgen, Inc. and Sigma-Tau Pharmaceuticals, Inc. along with several other organizations. Dr. Pereira is a graduate of St. John's Medical College, Bangalore, India and has an MBA from the Kellogg Business School, Northwestern University.