Philippe Diaz, PhD, is co-founder of DermaXon LLC and leads the drug discovery department of DermaXon’s projects. He has more than 20 years of experience leading small and large teams of research scientists within both academic laboratories and industry. Dr. Diaz received his PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Marseille in 1997. In the same year, he began his professional career in industry at Galderma R&D, France, where he progressed from team manager in medicinal chemistry to head of parallel chemistry department, and finally, to project monitor in research. In 2006, Dr. Diaz joined M.D. Anderson Cancer Center as a senior research scientist in the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine. He came to The University of Montana in 2009 to serve as director of the Core Laboratory for Neuromolecular Production and was promoted to research associate professor in 2010. He has more than 50 peer-reviewed publications and patents.