Israel Charo, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Director / Senior Investigator, Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, University of California, San Francisco
Dr. Charo received his B.S. in Engineering Science from State University of New York in 1971. He received an M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 1973 and completed his M.D., Ph.D. (Biochemistry) at the State University of New York in 1979. He trained in internal medicine at the New York Hospital/Cornell Medical Center, and then moved to the University of California, San Francisco where he received subspecialty training in rheumatology. In 1985 Dr. Charo joined the platelet and thrombosis group at Gladstone, and was among the first to show that the proteins on platelets that controlled platelet aggregation were closely related to a large family of proteins (Integrins) whose general function is to regulate cell-cell and cell-substrate interactions. The work at Gladstone formed the basis for efforts to develop drugs that blocked platelet aggregation for use in controlling thrombosis, and in 1988 Dr. Charo and several other members of the thrombosis group, led by Dr. David Phillips, left Gladstone to start Cor Therapuetics, Inc. In 1991 Cor began Phase I clinical trials of a potent inhibitor of platelet aggregation. The trials were successful, and Integrilin (now marketed by Millennium Pharmaceuticals) is widely used in the treatment of acute myocardial infarctions (heart attacks) and unstable angina. In 1992 Dr. Charo returned to the Gladstone and began his work on chemokines.
