Team Members

Paul Zimmet is Professor of Diabetes at Monash University and formerly Director Emeritus, Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute. In 1984, he founded the International Diabetes Institute which merged with the Baker Institute in 2008. He is Honorary President of the International Diabetes Federation and has an extensive international record in diabetes and obesity research, particularly in epidemiology and public health.

His research predicted and has charted the evolving global type 2 diabetes epidemic. His epidemiological studies commenced in the Pacific, and later to Mauritius and the United Arab Emirates. In 1999, he designed and led the team that undertook the first national diabetes and lifestyle study, AusDiab. Pr. Zimmet’s metabolic and genetic studies led to important understanding of mechanisms in diabetes and obesity using one of the best animal models for type 2 diabetes. He led the Monash team, with Professor Ian Mackay and Dr Merrill Rowley, to develop the first laboratory assay test (Anti-GAD) for predicting type 1 diabetes in children and an adult form now known widely as LADA. He co-chaired the Federal Government National Diabetes Strategy Advisory Group, which prepared the groundwork for the government National Diabetes Strategy 2016-2020.

He is currently advising Singapore in the development of their national diabetes strategy and its new program, “War on Diabetes”.

Dr. Fleming received his MD and internal medicine training from Emory University, US. He is Founder and Executive Chairman of Kinexum. He is also Chief Medical Officer of Tolerion, a biotechnology company developing disease-modifying treatments for type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases. At the US Food and Drug Administration from 1986 to 1998, he was responsible for the therapeutic areas of diabetes, other metabolic and endocrine disorders, growth and development, nutrition, lipid-lowering compounds, and reproductive indications.

He led reviews of landmark approvals, including metformin and the first statin, insulin analog, PPAR-agonist, and growth hormone for non-GH deficiency indications. He oversaw clinical review of the earliest biotech products, including human insulin and growth hormone. He was assigned from FDA to the World Health Organization from 1991-92. He was a member of the expert working groups on Good Clinical Practices and General Considerations for Clinical Trials of the International Conference on Harmonization (ICH).

He also participated on other ICH committees, including the Common Technical Document working group. Dr. Fleming coined the term “Metabesity,” which refers to the constellation of cancer, cardiovascular and neurological diseases, diabetes, and the aging process itself, all of which share common metabolic root causes and potential preventive therapies.

Dr. Cherrington received his PhD in Physiology from the University of Toronto in 1973 and did Postdoctoral work in the Physiology Department at Vanderbilt University. He currently holds the positions of Professor in the Department of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics and in the Department of Medicine and the Jacquelyn A. Turner and Dr. Dorothy J. Turner Chair in Diabetes Research.

He has received numerous awards including the Lilly Award, the Rachmiel Levine Award and the Banting Award from the American Diabetes Association, the David Rumbough Award from the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, the R.E. Heist Award from the University of Toronto, and the Charles R. Park Faculty Award for Research from Vanderbilt University.

His career has spanned nearly 50 years during which he focused on the regulation of hepatic glucose metabolism by hormones, neural mediators, and substrates. He has published 325 peer reviewed papers, as well as 90 review articles.

Pr. Bruno Kieffer is Head of the Biomolecular NMR group at IGBMC and Professor of Biophysics at Ecole Supérieure de Biotechnologie de Strasbourg. His team is involved in both methodological developments and applications of molecular biophysical approaches to the understanding of biomolecular interactions. He received a Ph.D in biophysics in 1992 from the University of Strasbourg and joined the laboratory of Iain Campbell at the University of Oxford as a post-doctoral fellow.

His research work led to more than 90 publications. He was president of the French Biophysical Society from 2012 to 2016 and co-organised numerous international conferences, such as the 2012 EMBO-FEBS meeting in Paris.

Ken obtained a PhD in microbiology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. After a postdoc studying control of herpesvirus gene expression at the University of California, Irvine, he joined Schering Plough to lead a group investigating novel inhibitors of virus replication. Ken migrated from discovery research to toxicology and expanded his expertise to include the development and safety assessment of biologics and vaccines.

Dr. Draper has worked on teams to help develop vaccine candidates for influenza, parainfluenza, 4 strains of dengue, japanese encephalitis, west nile, and monkeypox/smallpox viruses. Many of these vaccines are in clinical trials or have been marketed successfully. He has provided key scientific input to the development of peptide and protein therapeutics, monoclonal antibodies, and gene and cell therapies for various metabolic and disease indications. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology and brings a considerable amount of relevant toxicology and drug development expertise to the team.

Bob Seevers, Ph.D. has over 40 years of experience in the pharmaceutical research and development of both large and small molecules, including 8 years as an FDA reviewer and Team Leader. Bob’s expertise includes CMC regulatory, Quality and Good Manufacturing Practices, radiopharmaceuticals, cold chain shipping, stability, determining regulatory starting materials, experience with intranasal dosage forms as combination products, setting global specifications, determining product critical quality attributes, quality by design (QbD), global regulatory submissions, and interactions with global regulatory agencies. His knowledge spans all major therapeutic areas with specific expertise in Oncology, Radiopharmaceuticals, CNS, Endocrine, Metabolism, Autoimmune, Pediatric drug formulation and clinical research, and drug delivery systems.

Bob’s experience includes eight years at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a Team Leader responsible for managing a staff of Ph.D. reviewers for the evaluation of CMC sections of INDs and NDAs. Bob’s extensive industry experience includes 16 years with Eli Lilly and Company in Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs, where he led the regulatory CMC submission strategy for drugs in preclinical development through their NDA/MAA submission and the approval process for both small and large molecules. Bob started his career in Nuclear Medicine, leading radiopharmacy operations at Michael Reese Medical Center where he oversaw preparation and dispensing of product, led clinical trials, and served on an institutional IRB.

Bob’s influence within the life science industry includes numerous publications, speaking engagements at national and international conferences, as a member of the United States Pharmacopeia Packaging, Storage, and Distribution Expert Committee, and serving as a World Health Organization (WHO) invited lecturer on drug development, and a recognized expert on drug stability. Bob has a B.S. In Chemistry from Lehigh University and a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Ann Arbor.