Daniel Kassel, Ph.D.

Vice President, Analytical Sciences and DMPK

Primary Responsibilities:

Dr. Kassel currently serves as Vice President of Analytical Sciences and Drug Metabolism & Pharmacokinetics (DMPK) at Takeda San Diego (TSD). His team focuses mainly in the areas of high throughput analysis, purification, physicochemical profiling, in vitro ADME and in vivo pharmacokinetic profiling of chemical leads. His group is also responsible for PK/PD analysis and preliminary PK/PD modeling in support of late stage drug discovery projects. Dr. Kassel also serves as team leader for Takeda's Translational Medicine Sciences Biomarker Discovery Group. In addition, Dr. Kassel serves as project leader for a metabolic disease program where he and his team are exploring research opportunities in the area of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.

Experience:

Thus far, Dr. Kassel has been associated with two start-up companies: Syrrx, which was acquired by Takeda, and CombiChem, which successfully went public and was later acquired by DuPont Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Kassel was one the early employees at both organizations, and his novel and patented analytical technology has impacted the role of analytical chemistry in drug-discovery organizations worldwide. Just prior to Takeda's acquisition of Syrrx in 2005, Dr. Kassel was a key member of the preclinical development team for Alogliptin (Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor approved in Japan for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes).Prior to TSD, Dr. Kassel served as Senior Director of DuPont Pharmaceuticals Research Labs and previous to that as Director of Analytical Chemistry at CombiChem, Inc. (acquired by DuPont). At CombiChem, he and his research team pioneered the design, development, and implementation of new technologies that revolutionized the analysis and purification processes in drug discovery. In addition, his team developed other cutting-edge, high throughput analytical methods that culminated in the issuance of two key patents. Prior to CombiChem, Dr. Kassel held the positions of Senior Scientist, Research Investigator I, and Research Investigator II at Glaxo Research Institute. There, he published one of the first papers in which mass spectrometry was shown to be successfully applied to identifying and characterizing protein-protein and protein-ligand interactions. In addition, Dr. Kassel established novel mass spectrometry-based technologies and applied the technology to elucidate the role of phosphorylation in protein signaling pathways.

Education:

• Bachelors Degree in Chemistry from Ohio State University
• Ph. D. in Analytical Chemistry from Michigan State University
• Post Doctoral Fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• NIH National Research Service Award Fellow at Harvard University

Boards/Committees/Organizations:

• American Society of Mass Spectrometry
• American Association of Pharmaceutical Sciences
• American Chemical Society

Accomplishments/Awards:

Dr. Kassel was awarded an NIH National Research Service Award fellowship at Harvard University. He has also co-authored over 70 peer-reviewed manuscripts and more than 100 abstracts, mainly in the area of LC/MS and SFC/MS. Dr. Kassel has been invited to speak at scientific conferences both nationally and internationally. He has taught numerous short courses and workshops for the past 15 years for the American Society of Mass Spectrometry and the American Chemical Society. Most recently, Dr. Kassel was awarded the Takeda Global award in 2008 for his work on SYR-322 (Alogliptin). He was also a participant in the Takeda Leadership Institute—the most prestigious leadership program within Takeda.

In my own words:

• Aspirations for the Group I Lead:

  • I would like to see my group members be known as innovators in their field, bringing new technologies, new capabilities, and enhancing processes to make drug discovery more efficient and of a higher quality. I expect that quality is never compromised at the expense of speed. I will always strive for the group to strike the right balance between efficiency and maintaining quality in the work that they provide. Another aspiration of mine is that my team members are passionate about their careers and science and not to view what they do as strictly "service" or "support." Rather, I want them to always strive to be key, contributing members to the discovery and development of novel medicines. Finally, I want my team members to feel that their career development is continually being attended to and I want to motivate them to come into work excited every day.

• Why I Chose My Profession:

  • There were a number of factors that led me to my profession. First and foremost, I was touched by cancer in my family when my father was diagnosed when I was 20 and then passed away a year later. That event solidified for me a sense of wanting to be in a field where I can bring new medicines to bear on debilitating diseases like cancer. I also chose chemistry because I found it to be much more challenging than other subjects. I had a personal drive to do something that I knew would be a challenge. Additionally, when I was in graduate school, my first project was developing screening assays to diagnose diseases in newborns. This experience had an especially strong impact on me, as I derived great satisfaction in knowing that what I do in the field of analytical chemistry can make a difference and can positively impact human health. This early success in graduate school really got me excited about pursuing a career in bio-analytical chemistry and biochemistry.

    In my opinion, working in the field of science is the best job you can have. I come to work feeling like there are always new opportunities for personal and professional growth and that's what keeps it fun and fresh.

• Favorite Quote:
  • Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why we call it the present. — Kung Fu Panda

    This quote comes from watching a lot of kid's movies with my son. It resonated for me because I would personally like to live by that model. Of course, it is difficult for most people to stay in the present. It's easy for us to drift into thinking about what we could have done differently yesterday or what we might do in the future. I can't say that I live by this quote, but I aspire to live by it.

• The Other Side of Me:

  • Outside of work, I get the most satisfaction spending time with family. I am a totally committed and devoted father to my son, Andrew. I spend almost all my time with him, playing baseball, watching Padres games, going to Legoland, Disneyland, and Sea World, etc. Some passions beyond my time with my family are my love of golf, travel, and musical theatre. If I had more time, I would definitely be doing musical theatre. I used to do community and dinner theatre and even got paid for it! I see a lot of parallels between musical theater and biotech in terms of how both disciplines utilize people with diverse skill sets, personalities, and motivations to realize a common goal and the enormous sense of pride and joy that comes from accomplishing those goals.