Stephen Hsu

Dr. Hsu is the Founder, CEO and Chief Scientific Officer of Prometheon Pharma, LLC, a resident company of the Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator (named #1 incubator in the world, 2013) of the University of Florida. Dr. Hsus international academic career as a clinician-scientist and administrator of multiple clinical and graduate training programs spans more than three decades. He received a combined MD-PhD degree in Molecular Pharmacology as a Scholar of the NIH Medical Scientist Training Program at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. His studies on the molecular genetics of the mdr (P-glycoprotein) genes were done in the laboratory of Susan Horwitz, whose group identified the mechanism of action of bleomycin and taxol. He completed his Internal Medicine Residency and Nephrology Fellowship Training at the Massachusetts General Hospital, during which he co-edited the first textbook of evidence-based medicine. He held his first academic appointments at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (National University of Singapore) and the Genome Institute of Singapore (Biopolis), where he developed research programs in the molecular genetics of kidney diseases and prostate cancer. As the Director of Research for the National Kidney Foundation of Singapore, he developed a disease prevention program and expanded his expertise to population-based and genetic epidemiology through the development of a nationwide screening program for the detection of early disease. He also continued to practice clinical nephrology during the SARS epidemic in Singapore at the National University Hospital where he held the distinction of being the youngest member in the history of the hospitals Medical Board. In 2005 he was recruited to the Renal Unit of the Brigham and Womens Hospital (Harvard Medical School). In 2007, he was recruited to be the first occupant of the R. Glenn Davis (DCI) Endowed Chair in Clinical and Translational Medicine, and the Director of the MD-PhD Training Program at the University of Florida College of Medicine where he held joint appointments in the Departments of Medicine and Molecular Genetics and Microbiology. He is the first recipient of an inaugural award for Innovations in Research Training and Education by the American Association of Medical Colleges. He was named a Scholar of the Clinical Translational Science Institute at the University of Florida in 2009.

Research Interest

Dr. Hsu is the Chief Scientific Officer for Prometheon Pharma, LLC, setting the direction for their research and development efforts in a proprietary transdermal patch platform technology for peptide/protein drug delivery. He also leads a research team in further determining the basis for resistance to diet-induced obesity in a TRIP-Br2 knockout mouse model he developed (Nature Medicine, January 2013). This effort is the basis for a drug discovery and development program aimed at identifying lead compounds for novel classes of anti-obesity and anti-cachexia drugs.

Awards

• (1992) Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society
• (1992) Up John Achievement Award for outstanding achievement in molecular pharmacology research
• (1992) Award for distinguished performance in research (1st Prize), The Associated Medical Schools of New York
• (1999) Best Basic Science Poster Award, 3rd NUH Faculty of Medicine Annual Scientific Meeting
• (2000) The Pharos Editors Prize for the essay On Being a Scientist
• (2001) Royal Society of Medicine Library Prize (2001) for textbook Evidence-Based On Call: Acute Medicine. Editors S. Straus, S.I.-H. Hsu,C.M. Ball, R.S. Phillips, Harcourt-Brace, UK
• (2002) Singapore Biomedical Research Council Young Investigator Award
• (2003) Merit Award, Basic Science Poster Contest, 4th Combined Scientific Meeting (Life Sciences in Singapore: Integrating Multidimensional Perspectives)
• (2003) Blue Ribbon Poster Award, World Congress of Nephrology, Germany
• (2004) Best Clinical Science Poster Award Finalist, NUS-NUH annual scientific meeting, Singapore
• (2004) Doctor Award Finalist, National Healthcare Group Annual Scientific Congress, Singapore
• (2005) National Kidney Foundation Clinician-Scientist Award, USA
• (2005) American Society of Nephrology Gottschalk Award, USA
• (2009) Clinical Translational Science Institute Scholar Award, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
• (2010) Excellence in Teaching Award, Department of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
• (2010) Donald Etzweiler Visiting Scholar, International Diabetes Center, Minneapolis, MN
• (2011) Semi-Finalist (Sweet Sixteen), 2nd Annual Cade Museum Prize for Innovation Award (USA)
• (2012) Finalist (Final Four), 3rd Annual Cade Museum Prize for Innovation Award (USA)
• (2012) Inaugural Award for Innovations in Research Training and Education (American Association of Medical Colleges, USA)
• (2014) Grand Prize, MIT-CHIEF Business Plan Competition from among 200+ applicants worldwide (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, MA)

Companies

• Chief Executive Officer Prometheon Pharma, LLC (2011)
• R Glenn Davis (DCI) Chair in Clinical and Translational Medicine University of Florida (2007 — 2012)
• Co-Director, TL-1 Pre-Doctoral Training Program (Clinical Translational Science Institute) University of Florida (2007 — 2012)
• Director, MD-PhD Training Program University of Florida (2007 — 2012)
• Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School Brigham and Women's Hospital (2005 — 2007)
• Group Leader, Population Genetics Genome Institute of Singapore (2002 — 2005)
• Assistant Professor of Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine National University of Singapore (1998 — 2005)
• Research Assistant Professor, The Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology National University of Singapore (1998 — 2004)
• Clinical and Research Fellow Massachusetts General Hospital (1996 — 1998)

Education

• MSc, PhD, MD (Scholar of the NIH Medical Scientist Training Program) Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University (1984 — 1992)
• BSc (summa cum laude) Seattle University (1981 — 1984)
• Freshman (transferred to Seattle University due to family illness) Williams College (1980 — 1981)