Anthony Cerami (born October 3, 1940) is an American entrepreneur and medical research scientist.

Biography

Anthony

Cerami Cerami ( Sicilian: ''Cirami'') is a ''comune'' in Sicily, southern Italy, part of the Province of Enna. The town itself is perched on a mountaintop above sea level. A river also named Cerami flows through this area. Cerami produces cereals, ...

received his undergraduate degree from

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

and received a Ph.D. in 1967 from Rockefeller University, New York, completed postdoctoral fellowships at

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

and at the Jackson Laboratory and served for 20 years as Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Medical Biochemistry, and Dean of Graduate and Postgraduate Studies at Rockefeller. In late 1986 Cerami was a founder of Alteon, Inc. which licensed patents filed by Rockefeller on work Cerami had done there; Cerami took a seat on the board of the company, was on the scientific advisory board, and received research funding from Alteon first at Rockefeller and then at Picower, and later through his consulting company and the "Kenneth S. Warren Laboratories, Inc." In the spring of 1999 Alteon and Cerami terminated the consulting agreement and research agreement with Warren Labs, and Cerami resigned from the board. Cerami was one of 15 Rockefeller faculty who vocally opposed the appointment of

David Baltimore David Baltimore (born March 7, 1938) is an American biologist, university administrator, and 1975 Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine. He is President Emeritus and Distinguished Professor of Biology at the California Institute of Technol ...

as president of Rockefeller in 1989. Due in part to that disagreement, in 1991 Cerami left Rockefeller to found (with

Jeffry Picower Jeffry M. Picower (May 5, 1942 – October 25, 2009) was an American investor involved in the Madoff investment scandal. He was the largest beneficiary of Madoff's Ponzi scheme, and his widow agreed to have his estate settle the claims agai ...

) the Picower Institute for Medical Research on the grounds of

North Shore University Hospital North Shore University Hospital (formerly known as Manhasset Hospital) is a part of Northwell Health, New York State's largest healthcare provider and private employer. It is a primary teaching hospital for the Donald & Barbara Zucker School of ...

. As of March 1998, Cerami was President of Cerami Consulting and was President and Trustee of the "Kenneth S. Warren Laboratories, Inc. The Picower Institute was closed down by Picower in 2001, and early the next year it was acquired by The Institute for Medical Research at North Shore-LIJ. As of 2001, Cerami was the director and lead researcher of the Kenneth S. Warren Institute, and in 2001, Warren Pharmaceuticals was formed to commercialize inventions made at the institute; Cerami was chairman of the board.

Research

Cerami has led research programs into genetic, metabolic and infectious diseases, with the goal of translating scientific discovery into drugs and diagnostic tests. He received funding from the Rockefeller Foundation to study neglected tropical diseases and traveled to Africa, where he became interested in the

wasting In medicine, wasting, also known as wasting syndrome, refers to the process by which a debilitating disease causes muscle and fat tissue to "waste" away. Wasting is sometimes referred to as "acute malnutrition" because it is believed that episo ...

, one of the symptoms of

African sleeping sickness African trypanosomiasis, also known as African sleeping sickness or simply sleeping sickness, is an insect-borne parasitic infection of humans and other animals. It is caused by the species '' Trypanosoma brucei''. Humans are infected by two ty ...

. He developed and validated a measurement of

glycated hemoglobin Glycated hemoglobin, also known as HbA1c, glycohemoglobin, hemoglobin A1c, A1C, is a form of hemoglobin (Hb) that is chemically linked to a sugar. Most monosaccharides, including glucose, galactose and fructose, spontaneously (i.e. non-enzymat ...

to monitor control of blood sugar in people with diabetes, and a paper he published in 1985 using

polyclonal antibodies Polyclonal antibodies (pAbs) are antibodies that are secreted by different B cell lineages within the body (whereas monoclonal antibodies come from a single cell lineage). They are a collection of immunoglobulin molecules that react against ...

against tumour necrosis factor-alpha was important in the field of immunology for demonstrating that TNF-alpha causes disease and blocking it could be a treatment. Work that he did while he was at Rockefeller on

advanced glycation end-product Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are proteins or lipids that become glycated as a result of exposure to sugars. They are a bio-marker implicated in aging and the development, or worsening, of many degenerative diseases, such as diabetes, ath ...

s (AGEs) and protein

cross-link In chemistry and biology a cross-link is a bond or a short sequence of bonds that links one polymer chain to another. These links may take the form of covalent bonds or ionic bonds and the polymers can be either synthetic polymers or natural ...

ing and their roles in metabolic diseases and aging was patented by Rockfeller and licensed to Alteon Inc. in 1987 and in 1992 the company licensed further work that Cerami did on the use of

pimagedine Pimagedine, also known as aminoguanidine, is an investigational drug for the treatment of diabetic nephropathy that is no longer under development as a drug. Pimagedine functions as an inhibitor of diamine oxidase and nitric oxide synthase. It act ...

to reduce AGEs. At the Warren institutes, he led work on

erythropoietin Erythropoietin (; EPO), also known as erythropoetin, haematopoietin, or haemopoietin, is a glycoprotein cytokine secreted mainly by the kidneys in response to cellular hypoxia; it stimulates red blood cell production (erythropoiesis) in the bo ...

derivatives that were called "tissue protective cytokines"; this work was licensed to Warren Pharmaceuticals and through them to

Lundbeck H. Lundbeck A/S (commonly known simply as Lundbeck) is a Danish international pharmaceutical company engaged in the research, development, manufacturing, marketing and sale of pharmaceuticals across the world. The company’s products are target ...

in 2001; the development program was terminated in 2007. He is the recipient of the Luft Award in

Diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...

and the

Frederick Banting Sir Frederick Grant Banting (November 14, 1891 – February 21, 1941) was a Canadian medical scientist, physician, painter, and Nobel laureate noted as the co-discoverer of insulin and its therapeutic potential. In 1923, Banting and Joh ...

Medal for Scientific Achievement, awarded by the American Diabetes Association in recognition of his lifelong work on diabetes.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cerami, Anthony Living people Rockefeller University alumni Harvard Medical School people 1940 births Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Members of the National Academy of Medicine Rutgers University alumni Fellows of the American Academy of Microbiology