Les Tari

Dr. Tari has over 19 years of experience in early stage drug discovery in both industry and academia. He has led a number of discovery programs and is an author or inventor on over 50 publications and patents. Previous to Cidara, Dr. Tari held positions of increasing responsibility at Trius Therapeutics from 2007 until its acquisition by Cubist Pharmaceuticals in 2013. At Trius, Dr. Tari led the efforts to generate and advance a novel class of dual-targeting broad spectrum antibacterial agents. Prior to Trius, Dr. Tari was a co-founder and Director of Structural Biology from 2003 to 2007 at ActiveSight Inc., where he led all research efforts in inflammation and oncology. From 2001 until 2003, Dr. Tari was a member of the scientific staff during the start-up phase of Syrrx Inc., where he participated in the design and development of the first industrial high-throughput structural genomics platform that aided in the discovery of Alogliptin, subsequently approved for the treatment of type II diabetes. Previous to his career in industry, Dr. Tari held an academic position as an Alberta Heritage Foundation Scholar for Medical Research at the University of Calgary, where he conducted research focused on antibiotic discovery. Dr. Tari holds a B.Sc. in Chemistry, and a Ph.D. in Chemistry and Structural Biology from the University of Manitoba.