Peter S. DiStefano, Ph.D. is Chief Scientific Officer at Cognesy Therapeutics. He has more than 35 years of experience in pharmaceutical and biotech industries, having held several positions in drug discovery and development.
Previously, Dr. DiStefano was CSO at Zebra Biologics, focused on agonist antibody engineering. Prior to that he was Senior Vice President of Research and Development at Second Genome, a microbiome company. From 2001–2012 he was Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice President of Research and Development at Elixir Pharmaceuticals, focused on metabolic diseases and neurology. Dr. DiStefano was Senior Director of Neurobiology at Millennium Pharmaceuticals heading up psychiatric diseases, pain and urology programs. He was also Senior Staff Scientist at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and was instrumental in the discovery and development of neurotrophic factors. Dr. DiStefano started his career at Abbott Laboratories in the Neuroscience Department, focusing on peripheral and central neurodegenerative diseases. In 2010 he founded Acylin Therapeutics, Inc., in Seattle, WA, emphasizing epigenetic mechanisms for cancer therapy.
Dr. DiStefano received his undergraduate degree in biology from Kenyon College and his Ph.D. in pharmacology from Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse. He did his postdoctoral training in pharmacology at Washington University School of Medicine. He has co-authored more than 110 manuscripts, reviews and book chapters and is a co-inventor on 12 issued patents.