Executive Director, NJ Commission on Science & Technology
Dr. Peter R. Reczek received his PhD in Biophysics at the University at Buffalo and has served in several academic positions at Brandeis University, Harvard Medical School, Dartmouth College and the University at Buffalo.
Peter served as the founding Director of the Tech Transfer office at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. He was instrumental in the establishment of a technology transfer committee that reviewed all new invention disclosures for potential patenting by the Institute and was twice cited by the NIH for “best practices” for federally funded Institutions. In addition, Peter managed a patent portfolio of over 110 patents that has generated over $6 million in revenue.
Dr. Reczek has extensive academic and industrial experience at both the administrative and research levels. He was the founder of three biotechnology companies, has done extensive consulting for biotech companies in drug discovery and technology transfer. His activities in the past 10 years have concentrated on promoting commercialization in the academic setting and with local and national economic development groups.
Dr. Reczek has been actively involved in scientific research management in both the academic and industrial environments. In the industrial environment, he has developed a major research group at Bristol Myers Squibb Co. utilizing 30 employees at 5 sites around the world with an annual budget in excess of $2 million. In addition to duties of scientific direction, he was significantly involved in new business development with responsibility for industrial-academic partnerships, as well as new technology assessment in the national and international arena.
His research interests are in using the tools of molecular biology to understand the signal transduction pharmacology of the nuclear steroid hormone receptor superfamily. His work has centered on the retinoic acid receptor as an example of this diverse group. More recently, he has established a program at Roswell Park to identify novel estradiol analogues for the treatment of breast and cervical cancer. This program uses modern bioinformatic tools to design interesting compounds that have breast-selective activity.
Currently, Dr. Reczek serves as the Executive Director of the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology where he has responsibility for New Jersey’s science and technology programs including the New Jersey Stem Cell Institute, the Edison Innovation R&D fund and the Edison Clean Energy and Renewable Energy Technologies funds.
