Daniel B. Kassel, Ph.D.

Vice President, Analytical Sciences and DMPK

Dr. Kassel currently serves as Vice President of Analytical Sciences and DMPK at Takeda San Diego, Inc. Dr. Kassel's principal responsibilities include the development and implementation of state-of-the-art analytical and drug discovery technologies. His team focuses mainly in the areas of "just-in-time" analysis, purification, in vitro ADME and in vivo pharmacokinetic profiling of chemical leads. Dr. Kassel is also responsible for cardiovascular (hERG) safety assessment and serves as a project leader in the cardiovascular disease therapeutic area.

Prior to Takeda San Diego, Dr. Kassel served as Senior Director of DuPont Pharmaceuticals Research Labs and previous to that as Director of Analytical Chemistry at CombiChem, Inc (acquired by DuPont). There, he and his research team pioneered the design, development and implementation of automated preparative HPLC/MS. In addition, his team developed parallel HPLC/MS technologies, culminating in the issuance of two key patents in the area of parallel (indexed) spray mass spectrometry. Prior to CombiChem, Dr. Kassel held the positions of Senior Scientist, Research Investigator I and Research Investigator II at Glaxo Research Institute. There, he published one of the first papers coupling affinity column chromatography/MS for the identification of protein:ligand interactions. In addition, Dr. Kassel pioneered the technique of perfusion chromatography/mass spectrometry and applied the technology to elucidate the role of phosphorylation in protein signaling pathways. Dr. Kassel received his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry at Michigan State University in 1988. Directly following, he held a post-doctoral fellowship at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology studying under the tutelage of Professor Klaus Biemann. Following his tenure there, Dr. Kassel was awarded an NIH National Research Service Award fellowship at Harvard University. Dr. Kassel has co-authored 60 peer-reviewed manuscripts and more than 100 abstracts, principally in the area of LC/MS, serves as a reviewer for many journals, and is editorial board member of Combinatorial Chemistry & High Throughput Screening and J. Combinatorial Chemistry.

Dr. Kassel has been an invited speaker at numerous conferences both nationally and internationally, has served as chairperson for several conferences and organized and taught numerous short courses and workshops, including the ASMS short courses on Mass Spectrometry of Peptides and Proteins," "Mass Spectrometry and Combinatorial Chemistry" and most recently, "Mass Spectrometry in Drug Discovery: From Target Identification to IND Enabling Studies." Since 2005, Dr. Kassel has been on the ASMS Board of Directors as Vice President, Arrangements.