Company Overview

Translational Advisory Board

Portola’s Translational Advisory Board reviews selected aspects of the company’s programs that may benefit from a translational approach to drug development. The Advisory Board members assist in identifying novel approaches to the evaluation of lead compounds and clinical trial design to focus on targeted patient populations; delineate differentiating features of preclinical drug candidates; and guide the identification of novel therapeutic targets.

SHAUN COUGHLIN, M.D., Ph.D.
Director, Cardiovascular Research Institute and Director, Daiichi Research Center, University of California, San Francisco

Dr. Shaun Coughlin is Director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute, Director of the Daiichi Research Center and a Distinguished Professor of Cardiovascular Biology and Medicine, all programs that stem from the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Coughlin’s marked accomplishments include his election into the National Academy of Sciences and numerous awards presented by the American Heart Association, including the Basic Science Prize and the Hoeg Award.

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DAVID GINSBURG, M.D.
James V. Neel Distinguished University Professor of Internal Medicine and Human Genetics, and Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Professor of Medicine, University of Michigan Medical School Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator

Dr. David Ginsburg is James V. Neel Distinguished University Professor of Internal Medicine and Human Genetics, Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Professor of Medicine and a member of the Life Sciences Institute at the University of Michigan Medical School. He also is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. For the past 25 years, he has dedicated his career to understanding the components of the blood-clotting system and how disturbances in their function lead to human bleeding and blood-clotting disorders. His lab has studied the molecular basis of the common disorder von Willebrand disease and is identifying modifier genes that control severity for this and related diseases. His lab has also defined mutations in ADAMTS13, an enzyme that processes von Willebrand factor, as the cause of thrombotic thrombocytopenia purpura. Studies of the bleeding disease combined deficiency of factors V and VIII by his lab identified mutations in a novel pathway for the transport of a select subset of proteins from the ER to the Golgi. Dr. Ginsburg is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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FRANK MCCORMICK, Ph.D.
Director, University of California, San Francisco Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
E. Dixon Heise Distinguished Professorship in Oncology and David A. Wood Distinguished Professorship of Tumor Biology and Cancer Research, University of California, San Francisco

Dr. Frank McCormick is an internationally renowned molecular biologist and cancer researcher who helped pave the way toward the development of targeted cancer therapies. He is Director of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and has led the UCSF Cancer Center program since its inception in 1998. He holds the E. Dixon Heise Distinguished Professorship in Oncology and the David A. Wood Distinguished Professorship of Tumor Biology and Cancer Research at UCSF. He is also the Associate Dean of the UCSF School of Medicine and a distinguished Professor in Residence in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology as well as in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics. He is president-elect of the American Association for Cancer Research, an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the Royal Society.

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ERIC J. TOPOL, M.D.
Director, Scripps Translational Science Institute
Co-Founder and Vice-Chairman of the West Wireless Health Institute
Chief Academic Officer of Scripps Health
Professor of Genomics at The Scripps Research Institute

Dr. Eric Topol pioneered the development of many medications that are routinely used in medical practice. Since 2006, he has led the flagship NIH-supported Scripps Translational Science Institute and is a Co-Founder and the Vice-Chairman of the West Wireless Health Institute. He also serves as Chief Academic Officer of Scripps Health and Professor of Genomics at The Scripps Research Institute. He previously served on the faculty of Case Western University, chaired the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Cleveland Clinic for 15 years, and founded the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and is one of the top 10 most cited researchers in medicine.

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