Sir Menelaos (Mene) Nicolas Pangalos ( el, Μενέλαος Νικόλας Πάγκαλος) is a British

neuroscientist A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist who has specialised knowledge in neuroscience, a branch of biology that deals with the physiology, biochemistry, psychology, anatomy and molecular biology of neurons, Biological neural network, n ...

of Greek descent. Pangalos is Executive Vice President, BioPharmaceuticals R&D at

AstraZeneca AstraZeneca plc () is a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with its headquarters at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in Cambridge, England. It has a portfolio of products for major diseases in areas includin ...

. He is responsible for the company's research and development of new drugs to treat respiratory, inflammation and autoimmune, renal, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Pangalos is the author of over 150 peer-reviewed articles published in scientific journals and serves on the board of the

Francis Crick Institute The Francis Crick Institute (formerly the UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation) is a biomedical research centre in London, which was established in 2010 and opened in 2016. The institute is a partnership between Cancer Research UK, Impe ...

Cambridge Judge Business School Cambridge Judge Business School is the business school of the University of Cambridge. The School is a provider of management education. It is named after Sir Paul Judge, a founding benefactor of the school. The School is considered to be par ...

and Dizal Pharma. He is a Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

and sits on their Science, Industry & Translation Committee. Pangalos was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

in the

2020 New Year Honours The 2020 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebration ...

for services to UK science.

Early life and education

Pangalos was born in

Ealing Ealing () is a district in West London, England, west of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Ealing. Ealing is the administrative centre of the borough and is identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Ealing was histor ...

, London, to a family of

Greek diaspora The Greek diaspora, also known as Omogenia ( el, Ομογένεια, Omogéneia), are the communities of Greeks living outside of Greece and Cyprus (excluding Northern Cyprus). Such places historically include Albania, North Macedonia, parts of ...

which settled in England. His parents were from the island of

Chios Chios (; el, Χίος, Chíos , traditionally known as Scio in English) is the fifth largest Greek island, situated in the northern Aegean Sea. The island is separated from Turkey by the Chios Strait. Chios is notable for its exports of mastic ...

and his mother (''née'' Psarros) was also born there. His extended family on both parents' sides still live in Chios and he spent childhood summers there. He is fluent in

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

. He commenced his scientific studies with a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (First Class Honours) from

Imperial College London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

and a subsequent

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

in Neuropharmacology from

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

. His post-doctoral training was conducted under the tutelage of Prof. N. K. Robakis at the

Mount Sinai Medical Center Mount Sinai Hospital, formerly at times known as Mount Sinai Medical Center, is a 319-bed major urban hospital in Chicago, Illinois, with its main campus located adjacent to Douglass Park at 15th Street and California Avenue on the city's West Si ...

, New York.

Pharmaceutical industry career

Pangalos previously served as Group Director and Head of Neurodegenerative Research at

GlaxoSmithKline GSK plc, formerly GlaxoSmithKline plc, is a British multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with global headquarters in London, England. Established in 2000 by a merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham. GSK is the ten ...

Harlow Harlow is a large town and local government district located in the west of Essex, England. Founded as a new town, it is situated on the border with Hertfordshire and London, Harlow occupies a large area of land on the south bank of the upp ...

, United Kingdom, and has held positions with

SmithKline Beecham GSK plc, formerly GlaxoSmithKline plc, is a British multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with global headquarters in London, England. Established in 2000 by a merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham. GSK is the tent ...

Janssen Pharmaceutica Janssen Pharmaceuticals is a pharmaceutical company headquartered in Beerse, Belgium, and wholly-owned by Johnson & Johnson. It was founded in 1953 by Paul Janssen. In 1961, Janssen Pharmaceuticals was purchased by New Jersey-based American c ...

and

Bristol-Myers Squibb The Bristol Myers Squibb Company (BMS) is an American multinational pharmaceutical company. Headquartered in New York City, BMS is one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies and consistently ranks on the ''Fortune'' 500 list of the lar ...

Wyeth

Pangalos was the Vice President of Neuroscience Research at American pharmaceutical company

Wyeth Wyeth, LLC was an American pharmaceutical company. The company was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1860 as ''John Wyeth and Brother''. It was later known, in the early 1930s, as American Home Products, before being renamed to Wyeth in ...

from 2003 to 2008. He was responsible for overseeing the transition of more than 20 novel drug candidates into clinical development for a number of

neurological Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal ...

and

psychiatric Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry. Initial psychi ...

diseases including Alzheimer's disease,

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social withdra ...

, and pain.

Pfizer

In April, 2009, Pfizer announced that Pangalos would serve as the Chief Scientific Officer for Neuroscience, and that the role would be effective when the merger of Wyeth and Pfizer completed in 4Q, 2009. His time with Pfizer was brief, since Pangalos joined Astra Zeneca in 2010. According to Pangalos' linked-in profile, Pangalos was Senior Vice President at Pfizer from 2008 to 2010. He was responsible for 200 scientists and clinicians taking Pfizer neuroscience programmes from target identification through to proof of concept.

AstraZeneca

Pangalos was appointed Executive Vice President, BioPharmaceuticals R&D at

in January 2019. He previously held the role of Executive Vice President, Innovative Medicines & Early Clinical Development (IMED) Biotech Unit of AstraZeneca from April 2010 to December 2018. Since Pangalos has been working at AstraZeneca, the company's compound success rate from pre-clinical studies to launch has increased from 4% to >19%. This is above the pharmaceutical industry average of 6%. He has overseen the discovery and development of the pharmaceutical industry's fastest-to-market medicines, from first-time in man to launch in just over 2.5 years. This drug – the EGFRm inhibitor osimertinib for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) – is now approved in more than 75 countries. Pangalos is on the AstraZeneca Senior Executive Team and is the Executive Chair of the AstraZeneca Board Science Committee. In May 2020, amid the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, he was appointed to the expert advisory group for the UK Government's Vaccine Task Force, chaired by

Patrick Vallance Sir Patrick John Thompson Vallance (born 17 March 1960) is a British physician, scientist, and clinical pharmacologist who has worked in both academia and industry. He has served as the Government Chief Scientific Adviser (United Kingdom), Chie ...

Academic career

Pangalos was elected a Fellow of the

in May 2022. He is also a Fellow of the

Academy of Medical Sciences The Academy of Medical Sciences is an organisation established in the UK in 1998. It is one of the four UK National Academies, the others being the British Academy, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society. Its mission is to adv ...

, the

Royal Society of Biology The Royal Society of Biology (RSB), previously called the Society of Biology, is a learned society and professional association in the United Kingdom created to advance the interests of biology in academia, industry, education, and research. Fo ...

and Clare Hall, University of Cambridge. He sits on the council of the Medical Research Council (MRC), co-chairs the Life Sciences Council Expert Group on Innovation, Clinical Research and Data and is a member of the UK Life Sciences Industrial Strategy Implementation Board. Pangalos has held Visiting Professorships at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

and

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

. He is on the editorial boards of a number of scientific journals – Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience,

Neuropharmacology Neuropharmacology is the study of how drugs affect function in the nervous system, and the neural mechanisms through which they influence behavior. There are two main branches of neuropharmacology: behavioral and molecular. Behavioral neuropharmac ...

and The Scientific World and is on scientific advisory boards for the

Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases The Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases (CARD) is based at the Guy's Hospital campus of King's College London, England. Research at the Wolfson CARD falls into three main Themes: * Chronic Pain and Migraine * Spinal Cord and Brain Repair * Hear ...

(King's College London University) and

Rider University Rider University is a private university in Lawrence Township, New Jersey. It consists of four academic units: the Norm Brodsky College of Business, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the College of Education and Human Services, and West ...

. Pangalos has edited the book ''Understanding

G protein-coupled receptor G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), also known as seven-(pass)-transmembrane domain receptors, 7TM receptors, heptahelical receptors, serpentine receptors, and G protein-linked receptors (GPLR), form a large group of evolutionarily-related p ...

s and their role in the central nervous system (CNS)'', and a number of journal issues focused on drug discovery in the CNS. He also mentors post doc and PhD students in his role at AstraZeneca.

Personal life

Pangalos married Kelly Charles, a fellow neuroscientist, in 2003 in

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, England.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pangalos, Menelas N. Living people Alumni of Imperial College London Alzheimer's disease researchers AstraZeneca people English people of Greek descent English neuroscientists University of Pennsylvania faculty Academics of King's College London Scientists from London Knights Bachelor Year of birth missing (living people) Fellows of the Royal Society