Trustees Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Sanford Burnham Prebys

Daniel J. Epstein has served on the Sanford Burnham Prebys Board of Trustees since 2011.

He is founder of the San Diego-based ConAm Group (1975), one of the largest and most respected privately owned multifamily real estate investment firms in the nation, owning and managing approximately 55,000 apartments throughout the United States.

Epstein’s community and philanthropic interests and investments are diverse and widespread. He is a board trustee at the University of Southern California (USC), and a member of the school’s real estate development and engineering committees. He also sits on the foundation boards at the University of California San Diego and California State University San Marco, where multiple gifts have benefitted the university’s veterans and music programs.

He is a member of the Chief Executives Organization and the Young Presidents’ Organization, a global leadership community of chief executives.

Epstein has a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from USC.

David W. Down has served on the Sanford Burnham Prebys Board of Trustees since 2013.

Down joined KPMG, a multinational professional services firm, in 1987, becoming a partner in 1987 and managing partner of the San Diego office in 1994. He served in that last role until he retired in 2014.

He has been an active member in several local groups and institutions, including CONNECT-San Diego, YMCA of San Diego County, Rancho Santa Fe Community Foundation, San Diego Theatre Group, The Boys and Girls Club of San Diego and the Old Globe Theatre.

Down has a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in accounting from San Diego State University.

William A. Roper has served on the Sanford Burnham Prebys Board of Trustees since 2019.

He is president of Roper Capital Company, a private investment firm that provides management services and growth capital to help small-to-midsize businesses, offering significant leadership experience in operational and financial management, mergers and acquisitions, capital raising and strategic restructurings across a broad spectrum of industries and markets.

Roper has held a number of executive positions throughout his career, including chief financial officer of Human Longevity, Inc., president of ADS, Inc, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Leidos (formerly known as SAIC) and president and CEO of VeriSign, Inc.

He has been board chair of the San Diego Convention Center Corporation and a trustee of the San Diego County Employee Retirement System.

He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics from the University of Mississippi and graduated from Southwestern Graduate School of Banking at Southern Methodist University. He also completed the Financial Management Program at Stanford University.

Katherine Chapin has served on the Sanford Burnham Prebys Board of Trustees since 2021.

A native of Champaign, Illinois, Katherine has held a variety of executive positions for Fortune 500 companies, including Mattel, The Limited, and General Mills. In her various responsibilities, she has spearheaded all aspects of creating new businesses, overseen product development for 325 specialty retail stores and helped re-position the beloved Barbie doll brand.

Currently, Chapin is co-founder and general partner at Chapin Ventures, a boutique private equity fund, investing in self-run and other start-ups.

Chapin has Bachelor of Science and Master of Business Administration degrees from the University of Illinois. She studied Japanese at Konan University in Kobe, Japan. She speaks both Japanese and Greek. She is also a former professional dancer and has performed around the world.

Other Areas of Involvement

University of California San Diego (UCSD) Division of Arts and Humanities
La Jolla Music Society, Chairman of the Board (formerly held)
San Diego Youth Symphony
Boys and Girls Club of Carlsbad (Honorary)

Lonna J. Williams Stolper has served on the Sanford Burnham Prebys Board of Trustees since 2023.

She is currently director of the Rady Children’s Institute for Genomic Medicine, the UCLA Health Advisory Board and former CEO and director of Ridge Diagnostics, with previous experience in managing early-stage companies involved in early life cycle diagnostic and pharmacogenetic product and market development, and in collaborations with such companies as Glaxo-Wellcome and Eli Lilly. She assisted in the founding of Alastin Skincare, acquired by Galderma, a Swiss-based pharmaceutical company, in 2022.

Stolper previously served as a director of the International Bipolar Foundation and other for-profit and non-profit boards.

She has a Bachelor of Science degree from Colorado State University and completed graduate studies at the University of Colorado and the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Ted Roth has served on the Sanford Burnham Prebys Board of Trustees since 2024.

Roth is vice chairman of ROTH Capital Partners, a privately owned investment banking firm based in Newport Beach, CA, and chief executive officer of ROTH Canada, an affiliate of ROTH Capital.

Roth has served in many leadership and advisory roles in the San Diego community. He is currently a member of the board of trustees at Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego (former chair), a member of the Board of Overseers of Scripps Research and an advisor to the Board of the National Conflict Resolution Center.

Previously, he served as chair of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce and the California Democratic Leadership Council. He is a past member of the Board of Directors of the San Diego Padres Baseball Team.

Roth has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Iowa Wesleyan College, a Juris Doctor degree from Washburn University School of Law and a Master of Laws degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Nicholas Cosford, PhD has served on the Sanford Burnham Prebys Board of Trustees since 2023. He is the first faculty member to do so.

Cosford joined the Sanford Burnham Prebys faculty in 2008 as an associate professor. In 2013, he became a full professor. His lab investigates the interactions of small molecule compounds with therapeutically important proteins and cellular signaling pathways. With a specific focus on the discovery and optimization of compounds that might treat cancer, central nervous system diseases and infectious diseases.

Prior to joining Sanford Burnham Prebys in 2005, Cosford worked in both the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. At Sibia Neurosciences and at Merck Research Laboratories, he directed multidisciplinary research teams focused on small-molecule hit-to-lead optimization and was responsible for moving several lead compounds through to the clinical phase, including a nicotinic agonist (Altinicline) from research to Phase II clinical trials for treating Parkinson’s disease.

He is an author of more than 90 peer-reviewed, published scientific papers, and has been issued more than 40 issued patents, with an additional 40 patent applications pending.

Cosford has a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from the University of Bath in England and Doctor of Philosophy degree in organic chemistry from Emory University in Atlanta, GA.

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Alzheimer’s Disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), Bone Mineralization Disorders, Breast Cancer, Cancer, Neurodegenerative and Neuromuscular Diseases, Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders, Ovarian Cancer, Pancreatic Cancer, Prostate Cancer

We are interested in investigating the interactions of small molecule compounds with therapeutically important proteins and cellular signaling pathways. One aspect of our research emphasizes the use of medicinal chemistry and chemical biology approaches to probe intracellular pathways that regulate cell survival and cell growth. Another area of active research is the development of synthetic chemistry methodology using microfluidic technology for the rapid synthesis of biologically active small molecules. Therapeutically, we are primarily focused on the discovery and optimization of compounds that have the potential to treat cancer, CNS diseases and infectious diseases.

Select Publications

Showing 3 of 3

Small Molecule Inhibition of the Autophagy Kinase ULK1 and Identification of ULK1 Substrates.

Egan DF, Chun MG, Vamos M, Zou H, Rong J, Miller CJ, Lou HJ, Raveendra-Panickar D, Yang CC, Sheffler DJ, Teriete P, Asara JM, Turk BE, Cosford ND, Shaw RJ

Mol Cell 2015 Jul 16 ;59(2):285-97

Characterization of Potent SMAC Mimetics that Sensitize Cancer Cells to TNF Family-Induced Apoptosis.

Welsh K, Milutinovic S, Ardecky RJ, Gonzalez-Lopez M, Ganji SR, Teriete P, Finlay D, Riedl S, Matsuzawa S, Pinilla C, Houghten R, Vuori K, Reed JC, Cosford ND

PLoS One 2016 ;11(9):e0161952

Design and synthesis of systemically active metabotropic glutamate subtype-2 and -3 (mGlu2/3) receptor positive allosteric modulators (PAMs): pharmacological characterization and assessment in a rat model of cocaine dependence.

Dhanya RP, Sheffler DJ, Dahl R, Davis M, Lee PS, Yang L, Nickols HH, Cho HP, Smith LH, D’Souza MS, Conn PJ, Der-Avakian A, Markou A, Cosford ND

J Med Chem 2014 May 22 ;57(10):4154-72

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Leadership Type: Trustees

Other Areas of Involvement

Small Molecule Inhibition of the Autophagy Kinase ULK1 and Identification of ULK1 Substrates.

Characterization of Potent SMAC Mimetics that Sensitize Cancer Cells to TNF Family-Induced Apoptosis.

Design and synthesis of systemically active metabotropic glutamate subtype-2 and -3 (mGlu2/3) receptor positive allosteric modulators (PAMs): pharmacological characterization and assessment in a rat model of cocaine dependence.

Biography

Biography

Biography

Biography

Other Areas of Involvement

Biography

Biography

Biography

Research

Select Publications

Small Molecule Inhibition of the Autophagy Kinase ULK1 and Identification of ULK1 Substrates.

Characterization of Potent SMAC Mimetics that Sensitize Cancer Cells to TNF Family-Induced Apoptosis.

Design and synthesis of systemically active metabotropic glutamate subtype-2 and -3 (mGlu2/3) receptor positive allosteric modulators (PAMs): pharmacological characterization and assessment in a rat model of cocaine dependence.