The People of OyaGen
Dr. Robert W. Buckheit, Jr., Scientific Advisory Board
Dr. Robert W. Buckheit, Jr. earned his Ph.D degree in Microbiology and Immunology with a focus on retrovirology from Duke University in 1986 and completed a postdoctoral training program at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in HIV molecular pathogenesis in 1989. Since 1989, Dr
. Buckheit has been intimately involved in the preclinical development of anti-infective agents with a focus on therapeutic and prevention products for use against HIV. Dr. Buckheit has developed and managed infectious disease research programs for commercial, academic and government clients, including a variety of multi-million dollar and technically complex federal contracts, hundreds of programs with virtual and small biotechnology companies, research programs with pharmaceutical industry companies and collaborative programs with academic investigators. Dr. Buckheit’s experience with anti-infective evaluations has resulted in over 150 publications in the peer reviewed literature as well as dozens of projects that have progressed compounds to the IND stage of drug development.
Dr. Buckheit founded ImQuest BioSciences in February 2004 and is ImQuest’s President and Chief Scientific Officer. ImQuest provides services to the government and pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors, and collaborates with academic investigators. The company is dedicated to providing technical and professional support for the development of a broad spectrum of therapeutic agents and topical microbicides, including anti-infective and anti-cancer agents as well as treatments for other diverse inflammatory human diseases. Dr. Buckheit is also a co-founder of a biopharmaceutical company (ImQuest Pharmaceuticals) that is currently developing an anti-HIV topical microbicide and anti-cancer agents.
Under Dr. Buckheit’s leadership ImQuest BioSciences was named Frederick County’s Small Business of the Year and Best Places to Work in Frederick. Dr. Buckheit was personally honored as Entrepreneur of the Year by the Technology Council of Maryland. Dr. Buckheit sits on the Board of Director’s of Frederick’s biotechnology incubator (Frederick Innovative Technology Center, Inc.) and was recently elected President of the International Society of Antiviral Research. Dr. Buckheit also sits on the editorial board of several antiviral research journals, including Antiviral Research.