Steven Kates ’83, vice president of research and development for the Massachusetts pharmaceuticals company Ischemix, visits Bates to offer the presentation Ischemix: Discovery and Development at 4:15 p.m. Monday, Nov. 8, in Room 204 of Carnegie Science Hall, 44 Campus Ave.

Open to the public at no cost, the presentation is sponsored by the chemistry department. For more information, please call 207-786-6294.

Kates is leading Ischemix’s development of CMX-2043, a drug now in the final stages of testing that is designed to reduce damage to heart tissue that can occur when normal blood flow is restored after a blockage.

“People don’t realize how many failures there are in this process, and the costs involved in bringing a drug to market,” Kates says. Developing a new drug takes enormous amounts of money and time — it can take 10 years to bring a single drug to market, and estimates of cost range from 100 million to a billion dollars.

Kates likens the process of developing a therapeutic drug to building a house. “So many disciplines are involved. You need guys who pour the foundation, plumbers, painters, carpenters.

“Bringing a drug to the field initially requires hard-core chemists and biologists. Then there is work in toxicology and in regulatory issues. Then you start dealing with the physicians and biostatisticians. It’s a plethora of highly skilled people.”

But outcomes in the pharmaceuticals industry are much less certain than in construction. There is no guarantee that a drug candidate will win Food and Drug Administration approval. In 2004, just 8 percent of compounds entering clinical trials were ultimately deemed safe and useful enough by the FDA to be approved for sale.

Kates has been working on CMX-2043 for six years. A leading chemist and industry expert in peptide design and manufacture, Kates joined Maynard-based Ischemix in October 2003, bringing more than 15 years’ experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.

He previously served as senior scientist at Surface Logix Inc., a drug development company specializing in the chemical improvement of already-approved drugs and late-stage compounds.

Kates majored in chemistry at Bates and earned a doctorate in synthetic organic chemistry from Brandeis University. He has written or co-authored more than 100 articles, reviews and patents, and is a visiting professor of chemistry at Brandeis.

The Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBio) presented its second annual Innovative Leadership Award to Cubist Pharmaceuticals CEO Michael Bonney ’80.

Preceding the award were remarks by Bates President Elaine Tuttle Hansen, who noted the relationship between Bonney’s capacities and values and those “that a rigorous liberal arts education promotes.”

“He demonstrates three of the most important and interrelated capacities that a rigorous liberal arts education promotes:  seeing around corners, building bridges and embracing contradictions and conflicts with generosity.”

The MassBio Innovative Leadership award honors an industry executive who represents a company with a strong presence in and commitment to growing in Massachusetts.Additionally, the award recognizes a leader who has demonstrated active support for community-based organizations and science education to prepare the future workforce, and who has fostered the creation of a positive work environment. The presentation ceremony was held at the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston March 31.

“I attribute Mike’s outstanding performance in both for-profit and not-for-profit realms, of course, to his education and leadership experience at Bates,” Hansen said. “He demonstrates three of the most important and interrelated capacities that a rigorous liberal arts education promotes:  seeing around corners, building bridges and embracing contradictions and conflicts with generosity.”

Under Bonney’s leadership, Cubist has established a corporate giving program focused on the support of middle- and upper-school science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education — a topic for which Bonney is a vocal proponent. In addition to his role as president and CEO of Cubist, Bonney serves on the boards of trustees of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Bates College. Earlier this year, Bonney became a board member of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

During his tenure at Cubist, Bonney created a successful and innovative business model to support the development and commercialization of novel therapies that improve health and save lives. Under his leadership, Cubist completed development of and launched Cubicin (daptomycin for injection), which is now in its seventh year since launch in the U.S. It continues to track as the most successful intravenous  antibiotic, in dollar terms, in U.S. history.

To support its growing pipeline of additional therapies, Cubist has grown its employee base, from 194 when Mr. Bonney became CEO, to more than 600 today. In addition, the company recently received approval from the Town of Lexington to add an additional 110,000 square feet of lab space at its Lexington headquarters.

In her remarks, Hansen said she valued Bonney’s “sharp peripheral vision” in his work on the Bates Board of Trustees.

“He has proven to be a quick study of our industry, never trivializing or dismissing the way we do business in academe but at the same time bringing his experience and insights as a corporate CEO to bear on our challenges and helping us, for example, become more strategic thinkers,” she said.

“In the particularly threatening seas of the last 18 months or so, Mike has also been adept at maneuvering his fellow trustees through potentially destabilizing differences of opinion by inviting all ideas to be heard; acknowledging the realities of uncertainty, confusion, and high stakes; and then setting us on the most promising course.

“Educating students in the liberal arts and sciences has always been an exciting business, and now more than ever it’s both critical and high risk.   Mike has been extravagant in both his passion and his ambitions for Bates College.”

In prepared remarks, MassBio President and CEO Robert K. Coughlin said that “Mike is truly committed to supporting each and every aspect of the biotechnology ecosystem here in Massachusetts, and Cubist`s success under his leadership has been a shining example for biotech startups around the world. From his work in STEM education and workforce development, to his passion for policy and advocacy, Mike is a shining example of the values behind the biotechnology industry.”

Lee Silver, a molecular biologist and author known for his trenchant analysis of issues at the intersection of biotechnology, law, ethics and religion, visits Bates College to offer a lecture based on his new book at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 8, in Chase Hall Lounge, 56 Campus Ave.

Professor of molecular biology and public affairs in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton, Silver will discuss his book Challenging Nature: The Clash of Science and Spirituality at the New Frontiers of Life (Ecco, 2006). A book signing and reception follow his talk. Silver’s books will be for sale throughout the evening and are available now at the Bates College Store. Sponsored by the College Lecture Series, the event is open to the public at no cost.

Silver’s book explores the conflict between exponents of cutting-edge biotechnology and the Western spiritual beliefs that drive vigorous and widespread opposition to such technology. Such opposition, Silver notes, defies cultural and political stereotypes, as many Protestant and Catholic fundamentalists reject stem-cell research even as many secular environmentalists fight against genetic food engineering.

Silver examines the sources of such stubborn resistance to the beneficial possibilities that emerging biotechnology has to offer, from alleviating human suffering to stemming the tide of environmental degradation. What those opposed to biotechnology have in common, Silver finds, is a profound fear of violating a higher spiritual authority beyond any individual or species.

Silver, a prominent experimental scientist who has himself manipulated genes, chronicles his worldwide search for the stories of spiritual belief that can help explain the divide between science and the world at large. In his travels, he experiences nature’s random destructiveness and the ecological turmoil caused by humankind.

He also uncovers a fundamental difference in attitudes expressed toward biotechnology by people raised in nontheistic or polytheistic cultures. Most notably, in the Hindu and Buddhist traditions, which hold that spiritual lives are eternal and self-determined, the admonition not to play God is meaningless. Countries such as Japan, India, Singapore and China, therefore, are more eager to embrace bioscience and better poised to surpass the West in their commercial exploitation of these technologies.

Ultimately, Silver asserts that scientific knowledge rather than faith-inspired ignorance provides the best hope for achieving the goals desired by both humanitarians and environmentalists.

Silver also wrote the critically acclaimed Remaking Eden: How Genetic Engineering and Cloning Will Transform the America Family (Harper Perennial, 1998), which has been published in 16 languages. His other writings include textbooks on genetics and more than 200 articles and essays in scholarly journals and popular media, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time magazine, Newsweek International, Science and Nature.

Silver has been a guest on many television and radio programs, including Nightline, Nova, Crossfire, The Charlie Rose Show, 60 Minutes, 20/20, NewsHour, All Things Considered and Talk of the Nation. Among many honors, he has been elected a lifetime fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has received the prestigious MERIT Award for outstanding research in genetics from the National Institutes of Health. Silver holds a Ph.D. in biophysics from Harvard University.