ZaBeCor History
ZaBeCor was founded in 2002 by Alan D. Schreiber, M.D., Assistant Dean of Research and Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the director of a large, well-funded immunology laboratory. Dr. Schreiber, ZaBeCor’s Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, is an internationally-recognized authority on white cell and macrophage function who has published more than 200 scientific articles and authored all the Company’s patents, all of which have been exclusively licensed to ZaBeCor from the University of Pennsylvania.
Over the past 25 years, Dr. Schreiber has led the research and development for the allergy, asthma, inflammation, and immune system modulation programs represented by the Company’s patents. We believe that our patent portfolio features potentially groundbreaking advances in inflammation control and a potential revolutionary method of turning ordinary body cells into bacteria-destroying cells.
Dr. Schreiber was among the first to identify a molecule (Syk kinase) in inflammatory cells that is required for the release of mediators and cytokines that cause organ damage. Dr. Schreiber also was among the first to determine that inhibition of the synthesis of this molecule dramatically halts the release of a wide range of inflammatory mediators. Further, he developed a molecular approach using a unique siRNA and antisense DNA treatments to prevent the production of Syk kinase. He was also among the first to achieve the paradigm-shifting breakthrough of inducing phagocytosis in ordinary epithelial and fibroblast cells by introducing Fc gamma receptor DNA into those cells. Dr. Schreiber also made the observation that phagocytic producing cells could be “disarmed” and prevented from undergoing phagocytosis by introducing a different Fc gamma receptor DNA into those cells. He also identified steroid analogs without the toxicity of glucocorticoids, but with the macrophage-mediated anti-inflammatory effect(s).