Congratulations to the First Ever Outstanding Alumnus Selected
In late 1981, Dr. Seymour began treating patients with a strange new disease affecting primarily the gay population. Because of the stigma associated with AIDS, he worked with a number of celebrity patients whose identity could not be disclosed for fear of being ostracized in the entertainment community. In 1986, he was requested by the US government to establish a testing laboratory and run a large-scale surveillance program for HIV prevalence in the Hispanic population in Los Angeles. His laboratory ended up testing over 50,000 people. In 1989, he founded a company now called Stat-Sure Inc, raised the capital and developed the rapid HIV antibody blood test (Hema-Strip). As CEO/ President, he took the company public on the NASDAQ exchange in 1993. Under his direction, the company conducted research studies in Africa, Asia, South and North America. The Hema-Strip was approved in a number of countries including Canada, Great Britain and Vietnam, among others, and currently is in front of the FDA, awaiting approval in the US.
Dr. Seymour left the company in 1996 to form and run a non-profit Foundation, which funded both testing and training programs for health workers in Asia and Africa. He became a consultant to the UN Global Program on AIDS and was sent to a number of different countries, (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Russia) to interact with local physicians and assist them in setting up testing programs. More recently, he spent his time as a private investor evaluating evolving companies in the field of biotechnology.
In 2005 he was recruited to become the CEO of a start-up private company, Nanoviricides, Inc., now a public company. The company has developed an anti-viral platform and currently has 12 drugs in various stages of development. The company has working agreements either in place or in negotiation with every federal agency doing any anti-viral research including the NIH, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Medical Research, the Centers for Disease Control and the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases located at the U. S. government bioweapons center in Maryland. The company is also negotiating an agreement with researchers at the University of Illinois to develop a drug for multiple sclerosis. This disease is now thought to be caused by a virus. The drug will be tested on animals in their laboratories
Dr. Seymour is the holder of 8 issued patents. Originally trained as a chemist, he attended medical school in preparation for a career as a clinical investigator. Following his medical training, he began clinical practice. He later obtained a Master's degree in Epidemiology and Health Care Economics at UCLA. Following this, he joined the UCLA Medical School faculty. Two years later he left and joined the USC faculty as Associate Professor. He served as a medical officer in the US Army Reserve Medical Corps during the Vietnam era.
He is licensed to practice medicine in California and Colorado.
He is married with three children, two of whom being physicians. His youngest daughter owns a national public relations company with offices in New York City and Beverly Hills.
His hobbies include hiking, mountain and road biking, downhill and cross-country skiing.