Primary Job Title Director Primary Organization 
Aricept
Gender Male
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Dr. Bacopoulos has served on Mersana's Board since 2007, and was appointed CEO in September 2010. He is past President and CEO of Aton Pharma, Inc, a biotech company which developed the first commercial HDAC inhibitor, Zolinza©, and was acquired by Merck & Co.
Dr. Bacopoulos also served as President and Head of R&D at OSI
Pharmaceuticals, Inc. where he worked on the development of Tarceva©, now marketed by Astellas and Roche. He also led the R&D integration of British Biotechnology and Gilead Oncology following their acquisition by OSIP.
Nick has co-founded or led several startup biotechnology companies (Kotinos Pharmaceuticals Inc., Medexis, S.A. and MAKScientific LLC). He has been a director of numerous private and public biotech companies and currently serves as a director of Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals Inc., and Kotinos Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Before his career in biotechnology, Nick had 18 years of senior management experience at Pfizer Corporate Strategic Planning and Pfizer Central Research. As Director of Neuroscience, he helped lead the development of Zoloft© and Geodon© and the licensing of Aricept©, Pfizer's blockbuster CNS pipeline. From 1996 to 2000, he served as President and CEO of Anaderm Research Corporation, a Pfizer subsidiary.
Prior to joining Pfizer, he was on the faculty of Dartmouth Medical School, where he led an NIH-funded laboratory. He has won an NIMH Research Service Award and a Pharmaceutical Manufacturer's Association Research Award.
He received a B.A. from Cornell College, a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa and had his post-doctoral training at Yale University School of Medicine.
He has published 52 research papers and is a co-inventor on 12 patents.
