New faces at the Bionomics

Adelaide drug-discovery company Bionomics (ASX:BNO, US OTC:BMICY) has appointed Dr Tim Harris, CEO and co-founder of US biotech Structural GenomiX, to its advisory board.

Harris was director of biotechnology at Glaxo Group Research in the UK, from 1989-93, and senior vice-president of R&D for Sequana Therapeutics from 1993-99. Sequana became Axys Pharmaceuticals in 1998.

The company also announced the retirement of three of its current scientific advisory board members: Prof Mathew Vadas, Prof Erkki Ruoslahti, and Prof Axel Ulrich, whose four-year terms have expired.

CEO Dr Deborah Rathjen paid tribute to Vadas, who was Bionomics' scientific co-founder, for guiding the company's formation, and for recognising the potential of genomics to improve human health.

The company has also announced the appointment of expatriate Australian -- and Adelaidean -- Dr Kerstin Holata, as its director of drug discovery.

A Flinders University graduate and PhD, Holata did postgraduate research at Northwestern University in the US, and has been working for Pfizer, validating novel ion-channel drug targets and establishing high-throughput screening systems for drug discovery.

Bionomics has a major drug-discovery program targeting central nervous system ion channel disorders including epilepsy and anxiety.