Dr. Andreas Wissmann

Biography

Andreas Wissmann, Ph.D., specializes in pharmaceutical drug discovery through the use of model animals and technologies related to medical education. He completed his PhD studies in Erlangen, Germany, where his work laid the foundation for the Tet-on/Tet-off gene regulation system which is widely used in inducible eukaryotic gene expression studies. After a brief period in Boston, he moved to the University of Calgary for further post-doctoral studies. During his time at Calgary, he identified genetic mutations in Rho-kinase and mapped the genetic pathways in which this gene plays a crucial role. Rho-kinase has since been shown to be potentially involved in multiple human pathologies including brain injury, hypertension, spinal cord injuries, and cancer. In 1998, he relocated to San Francisco to join Axys Pharmaceuticals (which later became Celera Genomics), where he developed a high-throughput, whole animal-based screening for compounds that inhibit Rho-kinase pathway activity. These screenings led to the identification of several new chemical entities that displayed effects in mammalian cells consistent with reduced Rho-kinase pathway activity. In 2001, he co-founded NemaGain Research LLC, focused on using whole animal models for drug discovery, and later co-founded NemaRx Pharmaceuticals in Calgary in 2003, which concentrated on identifying chemical enhancers of antidepressants based on shared mechanisms of SSRIs and tricyclics. His research has implications for developing new cancer therapeutics and enhancing cellular resilience in stress responses.

Research Interests

Experience