Emma Parmee | |
---|---|
Nationality | British |
Other names | Emma Rachel Parmee |
Alma mater | University of Oxford Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Occupation | scientist |
Employer | Merck & Co. |
Awards | Gordon E. Moore Medal (SCI) |
Emma Parmee is a British chemist and research scientist who is a co-inventor of numerous drug patents. She was one of the leading researchers in the development of sitagliptin and was awarded a Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award in 2007 and the Society of Chemical Industry's Gordon E Moore Medal in 2009 for her contributions.[1]
Emma Rachel Parmee was born in the United Kingdom obtaining a BA and PhD at the University of Oxford in chemistry.[2] She completed her thesis in 1990[3] and was awarded a NATO post-doctoral fellowship. She moved to the United States to complete her post-doctoral work under Saturo Masamune at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, studying catalysts of asymmetric synthesis for aldol reactions. She completed her post-doctoral research in 1992 and joined Merck & Co. that same year working at their research laboratory in Rahway, New Jersey.[2]
In 2006, Parmee was one of the lead investigators in the discovery of the selective Dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor sitagliptin (marketed by Merck under the trade name Januvia). The drug is used to treat Type 2 Diabetes and provides glucose lowering benefits without the side effects of some of the previously available treatments.[4] Her involvement was recognised by the award of the Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award from the Research and Development Council of New Jersey,[5] the Prix Galien[6] for Endocrinology in 2007[7] and the receipt of the 2009 Gordon E Moore Medal from the Society of Chemical Industry.[4]
In 2010, Parmee left the Rahway lab and moved to the facility at West Point, Pennsylvania, where she served as the site lead for chemical discovery until 2013. Her group developed a small molecule CGRP antagonist.[8] She was then promoted to Associate Vice-President and Head of Exploratory Chemistry . She also serves as the co-chair of the Early Discovery Council for Merck Research Laboratories. She has written more than forty papers which have appeared in peer-reviewed publications and has filed for over thirty US patents on her work.[9] Parmee lives with her husband, son, and daughter.