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Inventor of the 1st Heart Drug for women


Management


R Kent Hermsmeyer

Professor R Kent Hermsmeyer is Founder of the biotechnology firm, Dimera Incorporated in Portland OR. Dimera is a cardiovascular and smooth muscle research and development specialty company utilizing progressive discoveries in cell and molecular biology to result in practical medical uses. Dr. Hermsmeyer continues from inception as the President of Dimera.

Professor Hermsmeyer is the recipient of the Louis N Katz Prize from the American Heart Association, the William P Bowditch Award from the American Physiological Society, the Fogarty International Scholar Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an International Research Collaboration Award from Hoffmann-La Roche of Basel Switzerland, an International Visiting Professor Award from the Swiss Society for Cardiology, and a Research Career Development Award from the NIH.

After earning a PhD from the University of Illinois (Urbana) and completing a 2-year NIH Individual Award Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Virginia, he served in academic careers at the University of Iowa (13 yrs) and Oregon Health Sciences University and Oregon Regional Primate Research Center (10 yrs) before beginning Dimera. He served on the Executive Committee of the University of Iowa Cardiovascular Center, National Institutes of Health Program Project Grant and Specialized Centers of Research Review Committees, on organizing committees for the Federation of American Societies for Biology (FASEB) Summer Research Conferences, and as organizer of the international symposium on Calcium and Genes in Hypertension. He is a member of the American Physiology Society, American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Biophysical Society, and Fellow of the American Heart Association (FAHA). His research focus is vascular reactivity. He has been the executive manager of Dimera for 13 years.

Theresa L Thompson

Theresa L Thompson is Vice-President of Research at Dimera, with expertise in molecular biology and biochemistry. Theresa is an inventor on mulitple patents. As the Director of Research for Dimera, she manages regulatory compliance, and leads bioinformatic research, with particular strengths in oligonucleotide chemistry, gene probes, and modulators of gene expression.

After earning a PhD from the University of Southern California (USC), she held a position integrating molecular and clinical research as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Children's Hospital of LA. Dr. Thompson has held positions of Senior Scientist at Oligos Etc Inc in Tigard OR, and was a molecular biology consultant to GeneSeques Inc before joining Dimera. She is an awardee of prizes from the Women's Society of Engineers and the Bank of America. Her research focus is molecular mechanisms governing reactivity. She has been the manager of Dimera technology and personnel for 5 years.

Amanda E Durkee

Amanda is Vice-President of Management and a member of the Board of Directors of Dimera. Amanda also is Director of Brand Strategy for Greenberg Incorporated of Emeryville CA, a global strategic research consultancy. Amanda was previously a Partner at Zanthus marketing research in Portland OR, and has over 14 years of experience managing research studies of both domestic and international scope for high-tech companies. Her success stories include new product development, messaging and positioning, and customer satisfaction. She is multi-lingual, and a skilled moderator with training from the RIVA Training Institute, a premier qualitative training firm. Amanda has over eight years of experience managing both domestic and international scope research studies for high-technology companies. She is the recipient of an American Marketing Association Four Under Forty International Award, and an experienced multilingual leader with expertise in product evaluation, pricing, positioning, branding, market profiling, and market size optimization.

Amanda is the Past President of the Northwest Chapter of the Marketing Research Association (MRA), and organizer of annual MRA conferences. Amanda was the only American recipient of the Four Under Forty Award in 2011 from the American Marketing Association.

Amanda was employed as a research manager for several major marketing research firms, including BN Research, Griggs-Anderson, and Gartner, all located in Portland OR, and Q & A Research Incorporated in Novoto CA. Amanda earned a BA in Psychology from Pacific Lutheran University and an MBA from the Atkinson Graduate School of Management at Willamette University.