Jörg Zeller, Ph.D.

BIOGRAPHY

Jörg Zeller has significant experience in lead discovery and preclinical development of therapeutic antibodies. He was a research team leader at Rinat Neuroscience and Rinat/Pfizer where he was responsible for the delivery of two drug candidates for chronic and inflammatory pain conditions. He also was involved in the preclinical development of Rinat’s anti-NGF antibody (tanezumab). Since June 2008 he has been an independent consultant for Pfizer and has recently founded a company intending to discover novel therapies for tuberculosis. Jörg Zeller performed his graduate studies about neuromuscular connectivity in a genetic animal model system at the University of Pennsylvania.

KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Delivered two antibody drug candidates
Authored three patent applications for therapeutic antibodies
Eight years hands-on experience with therapeutic antibodies from lead discovery to IND

Drug discovery expertise for therapeutic antibodies:

Leading antibody based drug discovery programs from lead identification to IND (Methodologies: hybridoma cell culture, ascites production, recombinant expression in E.coli and mammalian cells, purification and characterization of antibodies using binding and functional assays)
Drug assays: development of PK and ADA (anti-drug antibody) assays
In vivo: Identification and management of CROs for animal models (migraine, osteoarthritis, cancer pain, cardiovascular function)

Preclinical drug development expertise for therapeutic antibodies:

IND: Planning of IND enabling studies, identification and management of CROs for PK, TK and drug manufacturing, preparation of IND documents and investigator brochures

EDUCATION

PhD, Biology, University of Tübingen, Germany, 2001
MS, Biochemistry, University of Tübingen, Germany, 1997