Board of Directors
Dr. Harris is Professor and Chief of the Division of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery at the University of California, San Diego. A neuro-otologic surgeon who deals with disorders of the ear, hearing and balance, and tumors which affect the skull base, he obtained both his MD and PhD at the University of Pennsylvania and performed his otolaryngology residency training at Harvard. He did advanced fellowship training in Neurotology and Skull Base Surgery at the University of Zurich, and holds two board certifications, in both otolaryngology and neurotology/skull base surgery.
Dr. Harris has an active clinical practice and leads a large research team committed to discovering the causes of deafness and other disorders such as acoustic neuromas, Ménière's disease, autoimmune inner ear disease and the effect of inflammation on inner ear structures. He has published over 150 scientific papers and 4 books including one on Ménière's Disease and his latest on the Head and Neck Manifestations of Systemic Disease. He is past president of both the American Otological Society and the Association for Research in Otolarygology and is a member of the Collegium Oto–Rhino-Laryngologicum Amicitiae Sacrum. He is also one of the scientific founders of Otonomy.
Dr. Lichter currently serves as the company’s President and CEO. Dr. Lichter, a biotechnology and pharmaceutical business executive has over 20 years experience in management, scientific research and business development. Dr. Lichter has participated in licensing or M&A deals valued in excess of $1 billion. He is currently a Managing Director at Avalon Ventures and in that capacity is on the Board of Directors of aFRAXis, Carolus, Zacharon, Incode and Akesis. He is an observer at Syndax Board meetings. Until November 2008, Dr. Lichter served as President and CEO of Akesis Pharmaceuticals, a developer of patent protected diabetes drugs. He remains on the board of directors as Executive Chairman. In 2004, Dr. Lichter co-founded Sytera, Inc., and served as Vice President of Operations and Business Development which was acquired by Sirion Therapeutics, Inc. in July 2006.
Early in his career, Dr. Lichter was a co-founder of Sequana Therapeutics, a genomics-base drug discovery company. Dr. Lichter led negotiations in the development and management of collaborations with numerous pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies across many therapeutic areas. In 2000, Dr. Lichter co-founded and was CEO of Xenopharm, a drug safety company where he drove the development of the company and its ultimate acquisition by Deltagen. He served in management positions at Sequenom, Pfizer and Genset. Upon completing his PhD in 1990, Dr. Lichter held a postdoctoral position in Human Genetics at Yale University, where he received broad training in areas of classical human genetics, clinical genetics & bioinformatics. During his 2 year tenure at Yale, Dr. Lichter continued his postdoctoral work at DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Co., where he focused on pharmacogenetics. Dr. Lichter received a BS and PhD from the University of Illinois.