Daniel Santi

Dr. Santi received a Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from SUNY in 1967 and an M.D. from UCSF in 1981. He was Assistant Professor of Chemistry at UCSB from 1968 to 1974, then joined the UCSF faculty in 1974 as Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics, and of Pharmaceutical Chemistry until 2000.

Dr. Santi has published over 300 scientific papers and is co-inventor on over 40 US patents. He was a member of the original Scientific Advisory Board of Chiron Corp. and has co-founded five biotechnology companies. In 1988, he founded and was Chairman of the peptide-combinatorial chemistry company Protos Corp., which merged with Chiron in 1992.

Career history

• Co-founder of Parnassus Pharmaceuticals
• Co-founder of Prospect Genomics (merged with Structural Genomix in 2001)
• Co-founder and CEO/Chairman of Kosan Biosciences (1996–2006; acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb)
• Interim Director of the UCSF CTSI and Director of Translational Research at QB3 (2007)
• Associate Dean of External Relationships, UCSF School of Pharmacy (2009)
• Co-founder and currently Chief Technical and Scientific Officer at Prolynx

What Daniel Santi could bring to his Chief Technical and Scientific Officer role at Prolynx: Prolynx is developing a proprietary platform for sustained drug release and half-life extension chemistry designed to enable monthly and quarterly dosing for obesity and metabolic therapies. With his track record founding five biotech companies, deep expertise in peptide chemistry and drug delivery, and proven ability to advance compounds through clinical development and public markets, Santi is uniquely positioned to drive the scientific strategy and technical innovation that will advance Prolynx's portfolio of ultra-long-acting metabolic therapies toward IND enablement and commercial viability.