Keith Bostian

Keith Bostian is an entrepreneur scientist with a distinguished career in industry and academia. He has held senior executive positions in numerous life science companies including Kemin Pharma and Vanta Bioscience, as President and CEO. He was a founder of Mpex Pharmaceuticals, founder and CEO of Iconix Pharmaceuticals, and founder and COO of Microcide Pharmaceuticals. At Merck, he was Head of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, with responsibility for antimicrobial drug discovery and discovery of new leads from natural products worldwide. Most recently, he founded the Institute for Life Science Entrepreneurism (ILSE) at Kean University, a New Jersey regional knowledge hub connecting academic and industrial scientists with resources to promote translational research and life-science start-ups. Dr. Bostian is an inventor on numerous patents in drug discovery and genomics, and has championed efforts resulting in numerous clinical candidates including a first-in-class anti-fungal antibiotic, CANCIDAS®, and an aerosol fluoroquinolone, Aeroquin®, for cystic fibrosis infections, as well as a proprietary probiotic, Anaban™. He is a fellow of the American Academy for Microbiology, and a former faculty member at Brown University. Dr. Bostian earned his doctorate in Biochemistry from the University of London and was an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellow.