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- Russell J. Howard is an Australian-born executive, entrepreneur and scientist. He was a pioneer in the fields of molecular parasitology, especially malaria, and in leading the commercialisation of one of the most important methods used widely today in molecular biology today called “DNA shuffling" or "Molecular breeding", a form of "Directed evolution". His contributions to malaria research over an 18-year period began in Australia at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, then continued as a tenured Principal Investigator at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD, USA, and continued at the biotechnology companies DNAX (now Schering-Plough Biopharma) and Affymax in California. Thirteen years of his group's malaria research on antigenic variation in malaria culminated in the first molecular cloning of the malarial antigen PfEMP1, a parasite protein that this human malaria parasite expresses on the surface of malaria-infected red cells This antigen represents critical biological functions for the parasite including immune evasion and adherence to microvascular endothelial cells. During this time Howard served on the World Health Organization's Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases and the USAID program for research and vaccine development in malaria. While Howard was President and Scientific Director at Affymax Research Institute, Willem 'Pim' Stemmer conceived and developed DNA shuffling Technology. This revolutionary technology for improving the expressed phenotype of genes, pathways, plasmids, viruses and genomes gave birth to the creation and spinout of Maxygen Inc. where Howard was CEO for 12 years (1997-2009). He took the company public in 1999 and led its growth with 10's of corporate partnerships and technology application programs that led ultimately to the development and commercialisation worldwide of 10's of Life Science products in diverse fields. Maxygen exploited DNA Shuffling technology across the entire Life Sciences spectrum, creating new companies dedicated to Agricultural Products (Verdia) and Industrial Chemical opportunities (Codexis) as well as a Protein Pharmaceuticals Business (Perseid). In 2008, Howard left Maxygen to found Oakbio Inc. in 2009. He remains Chairman of Oakbio Inc. (doing business as NovoNutrients Inc.), in Sunnyvale, California, USA. NovoNutrients uses proprietary microbes for CO2 capture from industrial processes. Industrial CO2 emissions are used as sole carbon source and H2 gas as sole energy source to manufacture bacterial biomass, or single cell protein, a source of high quality protein for aquaculture and in future, for human foods [1]. Upon taking up residence in 2012 in Sydney, Australia, Howard became Executive Chairman of NeuClone Pty. Ltd., a clinical stage biotechnology company dedicated to development of biosimilars of monoclonal antibody drugs. In 2013 Howard joined Prima Biomed Pty. Ltd., based in Sydney, Berlin and Paris, later renamed Immutep Pty. Ltd., as Non-Executive Director. In 2017 he took the role of Non-Executive Chairman and continues today in this role. Immutep develops novel immuno-oncology and autoimmune drugs based on its LAG3 patent estate. He was Commercial Strategy Advisor at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research's Kinghorn Centre for Clinical Genomics in Sydney, 2015–2018. Howard has published over 145 scientific publications in refereed journals and is an inventor on nine issued patents. (en)
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- NIH, DNAX Schering Plough, Maxygen, GSK, Affymax, NovoNutrients, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Immutep, NeuClone, (en)
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| rdfs:comment
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- Russell J. Howard is an Australian-born executive, entrepreneur and scientist. He was a pioneer in the fields of molecular parasitology, especially malaria, and in leading the commercialisation of one of the most important methods used widely today in molecular biology today called “DNA shuffling" or "Molecular breeding", a form of "Directed evolution". Upon taking up residence in 2012 in Sydney, Australia, Howard became Executive Chairman of NeuClone Pty. Ltd., a clinical stage biotechnology company dedicated to development of biosimilars of monoclonal antibody drugs. (en)
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