Phosphodiesterases and Their Inhibitors

Spiros Liras is the head of the cardiovascular metabolic and endocrine diseases (CVMED) medicinal chemistry department at Pfizer R&D in Cambridge, MA (USA). Previously, he was Senior Director of medicinal chemistry in Neuroscience at Pfizer, working on treatments for addiction, depression, schizophrenia, cognition and Alzheimer's disease. In Neuroscience he worked on multiple PDE targets for the treatment of neuropsychiatric diseases including PDE10, PDE9, PDE2 and PDE1. Dr. Liras obtained his PhD in organic chemistry in 1989 from Iowa State University. He joined Pfizer in 1994 after postdoctoral studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a coauthor in more than 70 publications and patents. Andrew Bell was with Pfizer for over 30 years, following studies at York University (UK). He spent his early career working on PDE inhibitors leading to the inotrope/ vasodilator (PDE3) candidate, nanterinone, and the PDE5 inhibitor, sildenafil (Viagra, Revatio). Soon after the launch of sildenafil in 1998, he was given responsibility for File Enrichment, as part of Pfizer's collaborations with ArQule and Tripos. He has subsequently applied the results of the File Enrichment investment to generate new lead series for multiple projects, including novel series of selective PDE- 4,5,8 and 9 inhibitors. He is currently involved in research into parasitic diseases at Imperial College, London.