Thanks to our speakers, panelists, partner organizations and the attendees for making the 2008 Ohio Biz/Bio Event a success!
Dr. John J. Kopchick is an internationally recognized leader in the growth hormone (GH) field. Since 1987, he has held the Milton and Lawrence H. Goll Eminent Scholar Professorship in Molecular and Cellular Biology and directs the Growth/Obesity/Diabetes Section of the Edison Biotechnology Institute at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. He also is Professor in the Biomedical Sciences department in the College of Osteopathic Medicine at Ohio University.
In 1989, Dr. Kopchick and his group were the first to discover and characterize the molecular aspects of GH antagonists, an accomplishment for which he and Ohio University were awarded several U.S. and European patents. He was instrumental in founding a company, Sensus, that applied his laboratory discovery to development of a drug that has been evaluated in clinical trials for acromegaly, a chronic disease caused by excessive secretion of GH by a pituitary adenoma. The drug, Somavert, has been approved for use in the U.S.A and in Europe and is being marketed by Pfizer. Somavert also is expected to be useful in treating diabetic retinopathy and nephropathy as well as breast and other types of cancer.
Dr. Kopchick has been involved in the start up of two additional biotechnology companies. The latest, DiAthegen, focuses on the discovery of diagnostics, therapeutics, and therapeutic targets in the obesity and diabetes field.
Born in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, Dr. Kopchick spent most of his early years in Indiana, Pennsylvania. He received both his bachelor’s degree in biology and master’s degree in biology and chemistry from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. In 1975, he enrolled in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Texas System Cancer Center in Houston, Texas and began research under the supervision of Dr. Arlinghaus, professor and chairman of M. D. Anderson’s Department of Molecular Pathology. While a graduate student at M.D. Anderson, he was awarded a Rosalie B. Hite scholarship that supported his studies. His dissertation described the biosynthesis of Rauscher murine leukemia virus reverse transcriptase. He was awarded his Ph.D. in 1980.
After completing his Ph.D., Dr. Kopchick continued research training as a postdoctoral fellow at the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology where he received a National Cancer Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship award to support his work. He then spent almost five years at Merck Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories. At Merck, he developed a system built around cloning and expression of GH genes, which he continues to study as director of the Edison Biotechnology Institute.
Dr. Kopchick has published more than 240 scientific articles and 220 published abstracts in the area of growth, obesity and diabetes. Twelve patents have been granted based on his work with several more pending. He also has advised 20 Ph.D., 12 M.S. and over 150 undergraduate students. He has served on the Editorial Boards of several journals including The Journal of Biological Chemistry, Endocrinology, Molecular Endocrinology, and currently serves on the editorial board of GH & IGF-1 Research. He is also a member of the Growth Hormone Research Society Council.
