Bio
Prior to joining the faculty and Office of Research at Duke-NUS, David M. Epstein was the New York Site-Head, Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer for Oncology Research at OSI Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for leading the cancer drug discovery and clinical-translational research efforts conducted by around 140 staff and scientists. David led OSI's cancer research program from 2006-2013, which was focused on targeting key drivers of cancer development and disease progression. OSI’s research effort was built upon the foundation provided by the cancer drug erlotinib, an EGFR-directred tyrosine kinase inhibitor, developed and commercialized by OSI, Genentech and Roche in 2004. Under David’s stewardship, the OSI team developed an oncology pipeline of four novel small molecule kinase inhibitors along with corresponding patient response biomarkers each of which are in various stages of clinical development to treat lung, ovarian, prostate and other cancers. OSI Oncology Research under David’s mentorship was widely acknowledged for its industry-leading expertise in personalized medicine approaches to cancer care, its numerous academic collaborations, and for uncovering mechanisms through which the mesenchymalization of tumor cells, through the process of epithelial-mesenchymal transition, provides novel routes for resistance to targeted cancer therapies. OSI was acquired in 2010 by Astellas Pharmaceuticals, and Dr. Epstein led the integration and expansion of the OSI and the NY campus into Astellas-Japan research and global development.
Prior to joining OSI Oncology, David was a principal founder and Vice President of Archemix Corp (2001-2006). While in this capacity, David facilitated the development of two therapeutic aptamers currently in late-stage clinical development for treating wet and dry macular degeneration. David has 20 years of leadership experience in both the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, leading wide-ranging efforts in oncology, ophthalmic and cardiovascular drug discovery.
Currently, David provides consulting work to biotech, pharmaceutical and venture capital enterprises, and is involved several early-stage biotech start-ups in the New York area.
David completed his postdoctoral fellowship in structural biology at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, in which he led a collaboration between the laboratories of Dr. Stephen Benkovic (Pennsylvania State University) and Dr. Peter E. Wright: David studied the relationship of protein dynamics to catalysis using the enzyme dihydrolfolate reductase (DHFR). Specifically, we examined the DHFR-Folate complex by N15 and C13 NMR relaxation dynamics, and utilized the kinetic insights previously developed in the Benkovic lab to build an hypothesis which linked protein dynamics to enzyme catalytic function. We showed that key aspects of DHFR mechanism and catalytic function could be proscribed by protein motion and dynamics at specific residues and within secondary structural elements. This work led to the refinement and development of a multi-year collaboration between the Benkovic and Wright labs, which further delineated the relationship between protein dynamics and enzymatic catalysis in DHFR. David completed his Ph.D. work in The Graduate Department of Biochemistry at Brandeis University under the mentorship of Dr. Robert Abeles, where he studied the mechanism of catalysis of a bacterial elastase which was cloned and then analyzed via the kinetics of mutated enzymes, synthetic substrates, and mechanism-based inhibitors. David obtained his B.Sc. in Chemistry in 1981 from Lewis & Clark College, a liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon.
Education
Doctor of Philosophy
Brandeis University, United States
Bachelor of Science
Lewis & Clark College, United States