Gevork Minaskanian, Ph.D.
Research Professor
Education
Ph.D., Texas Tech University
Postdoctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania
Research interest
Gevork Minaskanian, Ph.D., is a research professor in the Department of Chemistry who contributed to the development of an unprecedented medication for the benefit of millions of Parkinson’s patients worldwide. Parkinson’s patients are unable to perform simple daily tasks because the disease disables dopamine production. Neupro™ is the name of the new transdermal patch-delivered medication and rotigotine is the name of the patch’s active ingredient, which has never been sold in the U.S. Rotigotine mimics the actions of dopamine in the brain. The patch provides a therapeutic alternative to Parkinson’s patients who have had to cope with the problems accompanying oral medications. The advantage of rotigotine being delivered by patch is that the brain is consistently being administered a therapeutic compound acting like dopamine, a process which mimics the natural-occurring continuous release of dopamine. Minaskanian’s main contribution to Neupro was improving the efficiency of manufacturing rotigotine, thereby making the process commercially viable and enabling patients to afford this important medication. He completed this research while working as the director of drug discovery and vice president of chemistry at Aderis Pharmaceuticals Inc., previously known as Discovery Therapeutics, a company he co-founded. Prior to joining Aderis, Minaskanian served as Principal Research Scientist at Whitby Research Inc. (previously Nelson Research and Development). He is the inventor and author of more than 50 patents and publications in various fields of organic and medicinal chemistry
