Dr. Landry is the Hamilton Southworth Professor of Medicine, Columbia University / NewYork-Presbyterian and has been a member of the faculty of Columbia University since 1985. He also serves as the Director of the Division of Experimental Therapeutics and Physician-in-Chief for the Medical Service at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia Medical Center. He previously served as the Samuel Bard Professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons from 2008 to 2023. At Columbia, Dr. Landry developed the first artificial enzyme to degrade cocaine and his report in Science was voted one of the top 25 papers in the world for 1993 by the American Chemical Society. His discovery that vasopressin can be used to treat vasodilatory shock fundamentally changed intensive care medicine. He also pioneered an embryo-sparing approach to the generation of human embryonic stem cells.
Dr. Landry previously was a Director of Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp. from 2011 to 2019, which is a publicly-traded pharmaceutical company that develops next-generation medicines for common disorders of the central nervous system, including fibromyalgia, post-traumatic stress disorder, and episodic tension-type headache.
Dr. Landry was a co-founder of Tegrigen Therapeutics, LLC, a private company that developed novel therapeutics for inflammation, fibrosis, thrombosis, autoimmunity, and cancer based on pure orthosteric antagonists to specific integrins. Dr. Landry was also a co-founder of Vela Pharmaceuticals, which developed several drugs for central nervous system disorders, including very low dose (VLD)-cyclobenzaprine for fibromyalgia syndrome. Dr. Landry also co-founded Omnitia Therapeutics Inc., which developed novel therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases based on small molecule antagonists to stress granule formation.
Dr. Landry is a leader in the ethical development of embryonic stem cells and served as a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics during the George W. Bush administration. In 2008, Dr. Landry was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal, the nation’s second-highest civilian award.
Dr. Landry graduated from Lafayette College, completed his Ph.D. in organic chemistry under Nobel laureate R.B. Woodward at Harvard University in 1979 and then obtained his M.D. degree from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1983. Dr. Landry has published 116 peer-reviewed articles, authored 33 review articles or book chapters, and was awarded 51 patents as inventor or co-inventor.