DERMAXON FOUNDERS
Philippe Diaz, Ph.D.
Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Diaz leads the drug discovery department of DermaXon’s projects. He has more than 20 years of experience leading small and large teams of research scientists within both academics and industry.
He started his career in Galderma R&D where he held senior leadership roles in the in the drug discovery department. In those roles he was responsible for the design and synthesis of small molecule drugs and the management of projects in drug discovery for a variety of skin disorders. Philippe then decided to be more connected with patients and physicians to design new effective medicines that address significant unmet medical needs. He was senior scientist at Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston where he became interested by the complexity of neuroscience and the design of small molecules drugs to treat neurological disorders.
Philippe joined the University of Montana where he was promoted Associate Professor. He has been collaborating with 18 academic researchers in 5 different universities or university-affiliated medical centers such as the University of Washington and MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Philippe has worked on several target classes and on several neurological and dermatological diseases. Philippe holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Aix-Marseille and an engineering degree in Chemistry from ENSSPICAM (now Ecole Centrale de Marseille).
He has authored more than 33 peer-reviewed publications and is co-inventor of more than 26 patents.
Fanny Astruc Diaz, Ph.D.
Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer
Dr. Astruc Diaz is co-founder and COO of DermaXon. She directs all drug delivery aspects and preclinical development. She has more than 22 years of experience working in development and delivery of new chemical entities. The vast majority of her career has been devoted to the design of innovative drug delivery systems to support drug discovery, clinical research and development for a variety of skin, oncological, immune and neurological disorders, including human Phases 1-2 clinical studies.
Dr. Astruc Diaz started her career at Galderma R&D and headed a formulation team dedicated to early formulation, to support drug discovery efforts and clinical trials of new chemical entities. Then, Fanny held a position of senior scientist at the University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center where she was leading the regulatory and formulation aspects of research and development projects at the Pharmaceutical Development Center.
Prior to founding DermaXon, Fanny joined the University of Montana where she is Research Assistant Professor. She received her Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Strasbourg and her Ph.D. in chemistry at University of Lyon 3.
She is co-author/co-inventor on over 18 scientific papers and patent applications.