Ectoparasites

Dr. Charles Q. Meng earned his PhD degree in Organic Chemistry from the University of Zurich in 1991. Upon completing postdoctoral research at Roche (Basel) and the University of Montreal he worked for Allelix Biopharmaceuticals (Mississauga, Ontario) on migraine drug discovery and AtheroGenics (Alpharetta, Georgia) on cardiovascular drug discovery. In 2007 Dr. Meng joined the pharmaceutical discovery and research group of Merial, a Sanofi company then and part of Boehringer Ingelheim now, focusing on antiparasitic drug discovery for animal health. He is an inventor of 25 issued US patents and an author of over 30 publications of original research, reviews, commentaries and book chapters. Dr. Ann E. Sluder earned a PhD in Biochemistry from Duke University in 1988 studying transcription biochemistry in Drosophila melanogaster. During postdoctoral studies at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital she initiated a research program focused on nuclear receptor transcription factors in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, which she expanded to include parasitic nematodes while an Assistant Professor of Cellular Biology at the University of Georgia. From 2000-2014 Dr. Sluder worked in drug discovery for antiparasitics, orphan neuromuscular diseases and viral and fungal infections at two biotechnology companies. In 2015 she joined the Vaccine and Immunotherapy Center of the Massachusetts General Hospital, managing preclinical development programs in infectious diseases, cancer, and diabetes. Prof. Dr. Paul M. Selzer studied Biology, Parasitology, and Biochemistry at the University of Tubingen, Germany, where he also received his PhD in Biochemistry. He spent three years at the Molecular Design Institute and the Tropical Disease Research Laboratory at the University of California, San Francisco. During his career he has worked as a researcher and scientific manager for several pharmaceutical companies, and is currently holding a management position in antiparasitic drug discovery at Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health. He is also a visiting professor at the Interfaculty Institute of Biochemistry of the University of Tubingen, DE and an honorary professor of the Department of Infection, Immunity, and Inflammation at the University of Glasgow, UK.