Tsutomu Arakawa, Ph.D.

President and Director of Protein Chemistry

Before co-founding A.P.L. in 1998 Tsutomu spent over 14 years in Protein Chemistry at Amgen as Research Scientist and Lab Head. His group there was responsible for protein purification and characterization for discovery research and pre-formulation studies. While there he purified dozens of recombinant proteins and characterized their structure, function, and stability. He also pioneered the application of on-line light scattering methods and the use of FTIR to study dried proteins and how excipients affect their structure and activity. 

Prior to working at Amgen, Tsutomu was a postdoctoral fellow with Carl Frieden at Washington University studying tubulin self-assembly and its interactions with actin. During his earlier postdoctoral studies with Serge Timasheff at Brandeis he studied mechanisms of solvent effects on protein stability and solubility and helped to develop the preferential interaction theory to explain the stabilizing effects of excipients such as sugars. He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry in 1977 from Osaka Prefectural University.

Tsutomu has authored over 230 scientific publications, listed here, including over 200 directly related to his work in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. 

John Philo, Ph.D.

Vice President, CFO, and Director of Biophysical Chemistry

Before co-founding A.P.L. in 1998 John spent over 6 years in Protein Chemistry at Amgen, where his primary responsibilities were protein characterization using analytical ultracentrifugation, light scattering, and calorimetry. While there he pioneered new sedimentation velocity techniques appropriate for biotechnology products and new software techniques for analysis of protein-receptor interactions by sedimentation equilibrium. 

Prior to working at Amgen, John was a faculty member in Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Connecticut in Storrs for 9 years studying protein structure and function. While at U. Conn. he founded and headed the Macromolecular Characterization Facility in the Biotechnology Center and was a co-founder of the National Analytical Ultracentrifugation Facility. John was also a postdoctoral fellow at U. Conn. with Todd Schuster studying hemoglobin kinetics. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from Stanford in 1977.

John has authored over 70 scientific publications, listed here, including over 60 directly related to biotechnology and pharmaceutical applications.