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Dr. Merouane Bencherif has been with Targacept since its inception. As Vice President, Preclinical Research, he is responsible for the oversight of pre-clinical screening and testing of drug candidates using high throughput automation, in vitro and ex vivo neurochemistry, behavioral testing and toxicological studies.
Dr. Bencherif has over 25 years experience in medicine, physiology and neurochemistry research focusing on the molecular mechanisms of synaptic neurotransmission and on purinergic, muscarinic and nicotinic cholinergic systems. Prior to that, Dr. Bencherif worked as a research associate in the neurochemistry department at the Barrow Neurological Institute, St. Joseph Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona. He previously completed a fellowship in the Department of Physiology at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
Dr. Bencherif has been a recipient of a fellowship from the Algerian Ministry of Higher Education and from the Pratt Foundation Fellowship Award, Charlottesville, VA. He has been principal investigator for a research grant from the Arizona Disease Control Research Commission and co-principal investigator for grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.
Since 1996, Dr. Bencherif has been granted more than 40 patents. He is the author of more than 150 manuscripts, book chapters and abstracts.
Dr. Bencherif holds an appointment as Adjunct Associate Professor in the Physiology and Pharmacology Department of Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC.
Dr. Bencherif received B.S. degrees in mathematics and physics from Aix en Provence, France, and Algiers, Algeria. He received his M.D. from the University of Algiers Medical School, Algeria and his Ph.D. in biophysics from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. | 