Michael Powell, Ph.D.,
is a General Partner of Sofinnova Ventures. Previously he was a Group Leader of Drug Delivery at Genentech where his focus was developing new therapeutics. Prior to that, he was part of the founding team of Cytel where he was Director of Product Development. Dr. Powell began his pharmaceutical career at Syntex Research. He was the first scientist from the biotechnology industry to be elected a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, and he is currently Board President of AVAC (AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition), a Vaccine Advisor to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and a Strategic Advisor to OneWorld Health. Dr. Powell received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Toronto, and completed his post-doctorate work in Bio-organic Chemistry at the University of California, where he was subsequently a faculty member.
In addition to being a board member of Trius, Dr. Powell holds board seats on Anesiva (NASDAQ: ANSV), Threshold Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: THLD), Orexigen Therapeutics (NASDAQ: OREX), Ascenta Therapeutics, Ocera Therapeutics, DiObex; Past Boards: Saegis, Seattle Genetics (NASDAQ: SGEN), InterMune (NASDAQ: ITMN)