Mark Sacchetti Joins Station as Scientific Director
Mark Sacchetti's return to his alma mater started with a bang. He spent his first hours of University employment standing in front of a full class of industry scientists gathered from around the world to attend the first "Applied Drug Development II" short course whose contents were largely based on his own industry knowledge and experience. Sacchetti's career derived from his interest in the application of physical chemistry to the study of systems of pharmaceutical interest. After graduating summa cum laude in chemistry from Temple University, Sacchetti moved to Madison to earn his MS ('90) and PhD ('92) in Pharmaceutics from the lab of Prof George Zografi, a key Zeeh Station founder. His research probed the two-dimensional physical-chemical behavior of monolayer films at the air/water interface.
Sacchetti has spent most of his pharmaceutical industry career at Glaxo Wellcome/GSK where he mastered the many techniques required to characterize, understand and control the physical chemical behavior of new molecular entities in their pure solid state and their derivative types of solid dosage forms. His experience there appealed to Genentech who recruited him to California to help them develop their new small molecule program. After a good but relatively brief dose of leading a group responsible for "CMC"--Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls, including in-house solids characterization and the technical leadership of outsourced contracts, Sacchetti returned to GSK. His responsibilities broadened to include leadership of not only the discovery phase of solid state characterization, lead optimization and salt selection, but also setting specifications needed in product development, and ultimately writing key regulatory documents leading to final product submission to the FDA. This work won him GS''s 2005 Exceptional Scientist Award.
The Zeeh Station welcomes this exceptional scientist "home," and looks forward to the scientific leadership he will bring to the Station and its clients, in the classroom and in the laboratory, over many years to come.
Lynn Van Campen to Retire
When Lynn Van Campen (MS '79, PhD '81) returned to Madison in 2003 as Director of the new Zeeh Station, she embraced the founders' mission of the enterprise (see "Summer 2004" issue) with fresh energy and long term pharmaceutical development experience in large and small pharma, traditional and biotech. Three and a half years later she sees her single most important objective fulfilled: to leave the Station in the best hands for its long term future, in the lab and at the helm. Van Campen takes greatest pride in bringing top-notch knowledge, skill and experience to the Station. Within the first 18 months she hired laboratory scientist Karen J. Jones (ex-Lilly), who soon thereafter hired Annie Schuelke (ex-Merck). In April 2006 she brought in Ed Elder as Associate Director; and then early this summer, Mark Sacchetti--both acknowledged pharmaceutical industry leaders. One of Van Campen's favorite stories comes from her conversation with Jones a couple of years ago, who said, "We'd met with a new client, and at the end of the meeting, you said, 'Yes, we can do this project for you.' When Annie and I went back to the lab, we looked at each other, and said, ¡®How?! We've never done this kind of work before!' But you know, we did succeed with the project, and the client's pleased?that's really neat!" Van Campen claims that tale could have been told many times over the short years of the Station's operation, and credits them both for their skills, smarts, ability to learn quickly, and confidence in taking on new challenges that have played a major role in the Station's success to date.
With the Station's future insured, Van Campen will enjoy "a little more home life" along with her unabated interests in travel (whether by recumbent bicycle, Cessna, or Boeing), sports, education, and keeping a part-time hand in the professional career she has enjoyed so much for so long.
Dr. Van Campen will remain involved with scientific oversight of the Station having accepted an invitation to serve a three year term as a member of the Station Advisory Board.
Ed Elder Becomes New Director
Growth and progress at the Zeeh Pharmaceutical Experiment Station is palpable these days. On July 1st Lynn Van Campen, Director of the Zeeh Station since its inception in December 2003 (see "Summer 2004" issue), handed off the baton to Ed Elder, Associate Director of the Station since April 2006 (see "Summer 2006" issue). Joining Elder as key to the Station's new leadership team is UW alumnus, Mark Sacchetti (MS '90, PhD '92), new Scientific Director for the Station as of June 25th.
Anticipating the succession plan now implemented, Van Campen had asked Elder when he joined the Station to take on a share of both business and technical leadership, to ensure that he would become familiar with all aspects of the Station's operations. Geared to fulfilling the mission of the Zeeh Station, these operations include both the educational programming as well as the provision of pharmaceutical development laboratory services.
On the educational front, Elder began working with Sacchetti (then still with GSK), Prof Lian Yu, and Nita Pandit (MS '78, PhD '80) who together designed and served as instructors for the new "Applied Drug Development II" short course offered jointly by the Zeeh Station and Extension Services in Pharmacy for the first time this past June.
With regard to the Station's business of offering fee-based development services, Elder has supported his full share of technical guidance and management for client programs this past year. Some of the Station's new clients, on-campus as well as off-campus, come from his own network of industry contacts collected over his years with Glaxo and more recently, Dowpharma. His experience at Dow leading the technical aspects of their "solubilization technology" unit has been especially relevant to the Station's early-stage development projects. While his leadership has already accumulated a list of highly satisfied clients external to the School, he has also taken time to develop good business practices for the Station in coordination with the internal business office.
Not incidentally, Elder and Sacchetti knew each other when both were employed with Glaxo Wellcome/GSK in the mid-90's. For years each had privately harbored the dream of finding his way into academia some day--a non-trivial hurdle for industry scientists to jump. While alum' Sacchetti has been a friend of the Zeeh Station since its inception, neither he nor Elder would have predicted their paths would cross again at our School of Pharmacy. Says Van Campen, "Because Ed and Mark already knew each other, I took advantage of the unusual opportunity to solicit and to receive from each of them an enthusiastic 'nod'' on behalf of each other's hiring! Their strengths and interests complement one another's in a way perfectly suited to the Station's mission."
As the Station grows Elder expects there to be an increasing "business" effort required of his new role. With the new Scientific Director on board, he expects to spend a greater proportion of his effort on increasing the effectiveness with which the Station drives and provides pharmaceutical development education and service across campus, Wisconsin, and beyond.