Southern Research Names Mark Suto Vice President of Drug Discovery

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Aug. 12, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Southern Research Institute today announced that pharmaceutical executive Mark J. Suto, Ph.D., has been named Vice President of the Drug Discovery Division. Dr. Suto and his team will focus on basic research and target identification and lead discovery and optimization of new therapies for cancer, infectious diseases and neurological diseases and disorders.

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"Mark Suto has demonstrated outstanding scientific and management skills in his career, and adds tremendous strength to our Drug Discovery program," said Jack Secrist, President and CEO. "He will bring new energy to Southern Research at a time when our clients need help in expanding their drug candidate pipelines, and when we are investing internal research dollars into developing our own proprietary technologies."

Dr. Suto comes to Southern Research from Icagen Inc., where he served as Vice President of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences since April, 2004.  From 2003 until 2004, Dr. Suto was Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of Neurion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a California biotech company and from 1999 to 2002, Dr. Suto held senior management roles at DuPont Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb Company) and Deltagen Research Laboratories, a subsidiary of Deltagen, Inc.  

Prior to DuPont Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Suto held management positions at CombiChem, Inc. and Signal Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and from 1982-1993, held positions of increasing responsibility in the Chemistry Department at Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Dr. Suto received his Ph.D. and his Bachelor's degree in Medicinal Chemistry from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

He is a member of the American Chemical Society and has served on the Editorial Boards for several scientific journals, including Combinatorial Chemistry and High Throughput Screening, Investigational Drugs Section Editor, Expert Opinion in Drug Discovery, and Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Patents.  He currently holds 35 U.S. Patents, and has five additional U.S. Patents pending.

ABOUT SOUTHERN RESEARCH

Southern Research Institute is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) scientific research organization founded in 1941 that conducts preclincal drug discovery and development, advanced engineering research in materials, systems development, and environment and energy research. More than 550 scientific and engineering team members support clients and partners in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, defense, aerospace, environmental and energy industries. Southern Research is headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., with facilities in Wilsonville, Ala., Frederick, Md., and Durham, NC and offices in Huntsville, Ala., New Orleans, La., Washington, DC and Kiev, Ukraine.  

CONTACT: Rhonda Jung
[email protected]
205-337-9634

SOURCE Southern Research Institute