Overview

Guoxin Tao, PhD has a Bachelor of Science in Medicinal Chemistry from the Beijing Medical University School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and a PhD from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College. From 2002-2009 Dr. Tao was a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Pathology where he participated in the design and evaluation of new antidepressant with respect to Eugenol, an active principle of Rhizoma acori graminei (RAG), a medicinal herb used in Asia for the treatment of symptoms reminiscent of Alzheimer’s disease. His study provided for the first time a scientific rationale for the traditional use of botanical RAG for the treatment of one of the most prevalent neuropsychiatric comorbidities of Alzheimer’s disease: depression. In addition, while working at Harvard, he designed and developed pharmaceutical agents for the treatment of alcohol abuse and dependence. Two Patents have been derived from this project. This study led to the finding of several potent lead candidates, which were further developed with the collaborator, CV Therapeutics Inc. Finally, compound CVT- 10216 was found to reduce drinking and prevent relapse in preclinical rodent models, as well as in other drug addiction models. Compound CVT-10216 was selected as the candidate for clinical study. In 2010 and 2011, he was a senior scientist and scientific assistant to the Chairman of the Board of Beijing Rongxiang Institute of Regenerative Medicine, researching and developing in situ regenerative medicine. He is currently, a senior research scientist at Skingenix, investigating the action mechanism of an innovative herbal wound ointment in the regenerative treatment of various wounds.