Grant Review Committee

 

The Grant Review Committee provides scientific merit-based peer review of research proposals submitted to MRA. The committee also advises MRA on other scientific matters as requested.

 

Glenn Dranoff, M.D. - Chair

Director, Human Gene Transfer Laboratory Core,
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Dr. Dranoff is the Leader of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center Program in Immunology and Co-Leader of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Cancer (DFCI) Vaccine Center. His research focuses on understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the stimulation of anti-tumor immunity, and on the development of cancer vaccines. He was elected to the Academy of Cancer Immunology, the American Society of Clinical Investigation, and the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society Stohlman Scholar. He is Director of the Human Gene Transfer Laboratory and a Staff Member of the departments of medical oncology and hematologic neoplasia at Dana-Farber, and is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Dranoff received his B.S. from Duke University and his M.D. from Duke University School of Medicine in 1985. He completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and a clinical fellowship in medical oncology at DFCI. He received post-doctoral training at the Whitehead Institute.
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David B. Solit, M.D. - Co-Chair

Associate Attending Physician, Genitourinary Oncology Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Associate Member, Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

Dr. Solit has been a practicing medical oncologist since 2002. His specific area of research has been the development of novel targeted inhibitors of activated kinase pathways. His clinical research efforts are focused on the identification of genetic predictors of RAS/BRAF-dependence. In addition to clinical work, Dr. Solit supervises basic science efforts focused on two areas of research: 1) investigation of the genetic and epigenetic changed that co-occur with mutations in BRAF and RAS and 2) the development of cell line and animal models in which targeted inhibitors of the MAPK pathway can be assessed. Dr. Solit received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania, completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at Barnes Hospital and a fellowship in medical hematology/oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
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James Allison, Ph.D.

Chair of  Immunology Program, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Director, Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Center

Dr. Allison has a longstanding interest in mechanisms of T cell development and activation, and the development of novel strategies for tumor immunotherapy. Allison was the first person to isolate the T cell antigen receptor protein, a feat which has been called one of the three most important findings in immunology in the last 20 years. He also carried out pioneering studies showing the existence of a previously unrecognized class of T cells that expressed an alternative form of antigen receptor that were located in epithelial tissues. He has made many contributions to our understanding of the process of T cell activation. Dr. Allison is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He also served as President of the American Association of Immunologists.  He has received numerous awards, including the Centeon Award for Innovative Breakthroughs in Immunology and the William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology.
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Boris Bastian, M.D.

Clinical Professor, Department of Dermatology
University of California, San Francisco

Dr. Bastian's research interest is focused on the molecular genetics of melanoma with a particular focus on the discovery on genetic alterations useful for diagnosis, classification, and therapy. His laboratory has identified distinct subtypes of melanoma that are findings have become clinically relevant. More recently, his group identified mutations in the heterotrimeric G-protein GNAQ in uveal melanoma and in melanocytic tumors that arise in the dermis. In addition, molecular assays are being developed to assist in the distinction of malignant and benign melanocytic tumors. Prior to his appointment at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Dr. Bastian served as Leader of the Cutaneous Oncology Program and investigator at the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Dr. Bastian received his MD degree and Dr. med degree (equivalent to a PhD degree in medical sciences) from the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich. After completing his residency in dermatology at the University of Wurzburg, he received training in dermatopathology and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at UCSF before joining the institution's faculty. Internationally recognized, Dr. Bastian has lectured around the world and currently serves as the President-Elect of the Society for Melanoma Research.
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Marcus Bosenberg, M.D., Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Dermatology and Pathology, Yale School of Medicine

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Steven Burakoff, M.D.

Professor of Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology
Professor, Oncological Sciences
Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Steven Burakoff, M.D., is currently a Professor of Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology, Professor of Oncological Sciences, and the Director of The Tisch Cancer Institute at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. A native New Yorker, he graduated from Lehigh University with a Bachelor of Science degree, received his Master's degree from Queens College, and his M.D. from Albany Medical College. Dr. Burakoff, who prior to his appointment in 2007 to Mount Sinai School of Medicine, was the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Professor at New York University School of Medicine, the Director of the New York University Cancer Institute, and the Director of the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine at the New York University School of Medicine from 2000 to 2007. Prior to joining the New York University School of Medicine, in 2000, he was Chair of Pediatric Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Margaret M. Dyson Professor of Pediatrics at the Harvard Medical School, and also received an Honorary Master's of Science Degree from Harvard University. He was the recipient of the first Harvard Medical School Excellence in Mentoring Award. He was also the Ted Williams Senior Investigator at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and he also served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Burakoff serves as a member of the External Advisory Committee at: the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cancer Center, the Baylor Medical School Cancer Center, and the Cancer Center of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine Cancer Center and the St. Jude's Cancer Center. Dr. Burakoff holds memberships in many professional societies and organizations, including: Alpha Omega Alpha, the American Society of Clinical Investigation, and the Association of American Physicians, and the American Association of Immunologist where he serves as Secretary-Treasurer. He has been an Editor and Associate Editor for numerous journals and author of more than 300 publications in peer-reviewed journals. In 2009, Dr. Burakoff received the American Association of Immunologists Lifetime Achievement Award.
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Jonathan Cebon, M.B.B.S., F.R.A.C.P., Ph.D.

Director, Medical Oncology Austin Health
Head Cancer Vaccine Laboratory, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research
Professor of Medicine, University of Melbourne

Dr. Cebon is Director of the Joint Austin Ludwig Oncology Unit in Melbourne Australia, a Member of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Head of the Institute's Cancer Vaccine Laboratory in Melbourne, Professor in Medicine at the University of Melbourne, a Practitioner Fellow of the National Health & Medical Research Council of Australia, and Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. He trained in Medical Oncology and Clinical Hematology at the Austin Hospital, Peter MacCallum Institute, and Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia and has worked as a visiting clinician at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and at the University of Washington. He is a member of Cancer Trials Australia, Cancer Vaccine Collaborative, American Society of Clinical Oncology, American Association for Cancer Research, Clinical Oncology Society of Australia, Medical Oncology Group of Australia, Victorian Co-operative Oncology Group, and Australian Medical Association.
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Paul B. Chapman, M.D.

Professor of Medicine
Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Attending Physician, Melanoma/Sarcoma service
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

Dr. Chapman's focus of research is development of novel therapeutics and predictive assays for metastatic melanoma. He is leading early stage clinical trials with monoclonal antibodies as well as novel combinations of signaling pathway inhibitors and immune modulators. In addition to his contributions to the MRA, he is a member of the scientific advisory board of the Melanoma Research Foundation and the steering committee of Society of Melanoma Research. He received his MD from Cornell, completed a residency at the University of Chicago and a medical oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
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Charles G. Drake, M.D., Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Medical Oncology, Immunology and Urology
Director, Multidisciplinary Prostate Cancer Clinic
Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center

The focus of Dr. Drake's research is to understand the T-cell response at the genetic and cellular level and to identify immune checkpoints which can be exploited for therapeutic advantage. His laboratory has shown that lymphocyte activating gene-3 (LAG-3) signaling is important in CD4+ regulatory T cell suppression of autoimmune responses, that PD-1 is an important immune checkpoint, and that STAT-3 plays a role in autoimmunity. Dr. Drake earned his M.D. degree from the University of Colorado Health Science Center and his Ph.D. from National Jewish Center for Immunology. He is Board Certified in internal medicine and medical oncology.
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Levi Garraway M.D., Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Medicine, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Dr. Garraway currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medical Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Garraway also leads a 16-member investigative team in cancer genomics as a faculty member of Dana-Farber Center for Cancer Genome Discovery. He is also an associate Member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, where he is co-director of Cancer Genome Analysis. His current research includes pursuing combined genomic and functional approaches to the characterization of human solid tumors, with an emphasis on melanoma and prostate cancer. Dr. Garraway received his A.B. and M.D./Ph.D. from Harvard. Dr. Garraway completed his medical internship and residency in Internal Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital, where he also served as Medical Chief Resident in 2003. Dr. Garraway is the recipient of numerous awards and honor, including the New Innovator Award from the National Institutes of Health, which is presented to the top 29 scientists from more than 2,200 applicants nationwide.
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Thomas Gajewski M.D.

Associate Professor, Departments of Pathology and Medicine, University of Chicago
Director, Immunology and Cancer Program, University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center

Dr. Gajewski is an Assistant Professor of Pathology and Hematology/Oncology at the University of Chicago Medical Center. He investigates and develops new treatments for patients with melanoma, with a special interest in immunotherapy. Dr. Gajewski also leads development of immune-based therapies for other cancers, using new laboratory data on how the immune system is regulated to develop novel clinical trials. His clinical expertise includes biology therapy immunotherapy, epidemiology, immune system disorders, and melanoma. Dr. Gajewski serves as an associate editor for the Journal of Immunology and is on committees for the American Society for Clinical Oncology and the American Association for Cancer Research. He is a member of the American Society of Immunologists, the American Society of Hematology, and the International Society for the Biological Therapy of Cancer. Dr. Gajewski received his B.A. from the University of Chicago as well as his M.D./Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Pritzer School of Medicine.
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Tanja D de Gruijl, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Department of Medical Oncology
VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam

Tanja de Gruijl heads the Dendritic Cell (DC) research group and tumor immunomonitoring unit of the Division of Immunotherapy at the VU University medical center in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Dr. de Gruijl has co authored more than 60 research papers on (pre-)clinical tumor immunology topics. Her main line of research is the in vivo modulation of DC subsets for tumor immunotherapeutic purposes, through targeted gene transfer, small molecule inhibitors, and local cytokine administration. She is involved in pre-clinical studies on DC biology and in the monitoring of DC and T cell functions in prostate cancer and melanoma patients participating in clinical immunotherapy trials. She received her Master's degree in Medical Biology from the University of Utrecht, and her PhD from the VU University in Amsterdam.
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Allan Halpern, M.D.

Chief, Dermatology Service
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

Dr. Halpern is the Chief of the Dermatology Service and Co-Leader of the Melanoma Disease Management Team at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Halpern's research has focused on melanoma prevention and early detection. His work has included studies of barriers and facilitators of skin cancer screening and skin self examination, the utilization of whole-body digital imaging for melanoma surveillance in high-risk individuals, the development of novel imaging modalities for early detection of skin cancer, and studies of the evolution of nevi (moles) in adolescence. Dr. Halpern has been active in public health efforts in skin cancer prevention and early detection. He has held leadership positions in the skin cancer prevention efforts of many organizations including the Skin Cancer Foundation, American Academy of Dermatology, and American Cancer Society. Dr. Halpern is co-Chairman of the National Council for Skin Cancer Prevention. Dr. Halpern is a Board Certified Internist and Dermatologist with a masters of science degree in clinical epidemiology.
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Meenhard Herlyn, D.V.M., D.Sc. - Chair

Professor and Program Leader, Molecular and Cellular Oncogenesis Program
Wistar Institute

Dr. Meenhard Herlyn has been a cancer researcher since his arrival at Wistar in 1976 and has participated in the Wistar Institute Cancer Center's leadership as a program leader since 1985. He is currently one of three program leaders of this Cancer Center's Program for Molecular and Cellular Oncogenesis and the Associate Director for Translational Research. His current research focuses on the biological significance of stem cells in skin morphogenesis and in transformation, invasion and metastasis, using a variety of in vivo and in vitro models. He has over 400 publications, 80% of which are in melanoma. Others are complementary, addressing basic biological mechanisms in cancer and wound healing. He is the PI of two P0-1s on melanoma, one of which has been fully funded since 1980 and of a SPORE. Dr. Herlyn is an active member of three graduate groups at the University of Pennsylvania: Cellular and Molecular Biology, Genomics and Computational Biology, and Bioengineering. He has been an independently funded investigator for 25 years, and has for the same time period participated each year in NCI study sections [with previous memberships in Pathology B (1996-2000) and Tumor Microenvironment, where he served as chair from 2004 to 2006]. He has also been active in the SPORE review program since 2007. He has received several awards including: the Wings of Hope, Melanoma Research Award and the Diana Ashby Award for Excellence in Melanoma Research in 2004, the American Skin Association Annual Skin Cancer/Melanoma Achievement Award in 2005, the Scientific Research Award for Outstanding Contributions in Melanoma Research, American Cancer Society, Southeast Region, Pennsylvania Division in 2006, and the Pan-American Pigment Cell Society Achievement Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award in Melanoma Research from the Society of Melanoma Research in 2007.
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Thomas J. Hornyak, M.D., Ph.D.

Chief of Dermatology, VA Maryland Health Care System
Associate Professor of Dermatology and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
University of Maryland School of Medicine

Dr. Hornyak obtained his A.B. in music from Princeton and his M.D. degree and Ph.D. degree in Biological Chemistry from The University of Michigan Medical School. He completed an internship in medicine at The New York Hospital - Cornell University Medical Center and a residency in dermatology at New York University Medical Center. In 1999, Dr. Hornyak joined the Department of Dermatology at the Henry Ford Health System as a staff member and independent investigator. He has received several NIH research grants and a New Investigator Award from the Department of Defense Neurofibromatosis Research Initiative. In 2003, Dr. Hornyak joined the Dermatology Branch, National Cancer Institute where he is a tenure-track investigator. His research focus is melanocyte developmental and stem cell biology and melanoma epigenetics.
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Michal Lotem, M.D.

Head, Center for Melanoma and Cancer Immunotherapy
Sharett Institute of Oncology
Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center

Dr. Lotem's research interests include using dendritic cells for MHC Class I and Class II presentation of tumor-derived antigens and CD4 and CD8 tumor reactive T cells for adoptive transfer strategies. She has received funding from the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation, Israel Cancer Association, The Horowitz Foundation, Chief Scientist Israel Ministry of Health, and the Cancer Treatment Research Foundation. Dr. Lotem earned her medical degree in 1983 from Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel. From 2002-2004, she was a research fellow in the surgery branch of the U.S. National Cancer Institute studying under Dr. Steven A. Rosenberg.
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Richard Marais, Ph.D.

Director
Paterson Institute for Cancer Research

Dr. Marais received his BSc in Genetics and Microbiology at the University College, London and did his postdoctoral study in Comparative Studies on Protein Kinase C Isotypes at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. Dr. Marais is internationally known for his work on Raf protein regulation, which includes demonstrating that the B-Raf gene is mutated in approximately 70% of melanomas and at a lower frequency in many other cancers. His laboratory is coupling this to development of novel signal transduction inhibitors for use in treating human cancer. He also has a longstanding collaboration with Dr. Caroline Springer of the Institute of Cancer Research on gene therapy approaches to treat cancer.
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Kim Margolin, M.D.

Physician
University of Washington/Seattle Cancer Center

Prior to joining the University of Washington, Dr. Margolin was Associate Director for Clinical Research at the City of Hope. She has been a member of the multi-institutional therapeutic consortiums, the Cytokine Working Group and the Extramural IL-2/LAK Working Group. She has been a member of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee, the American Society of Clinical Oncology's melanoma committee and the American Association of Cancer Research's subcommittee on clinical immunology/biologic therapy. She is an author on more than 180 research papers. Dr. Margolin received her MD from Stanford University. She completed her Internal Medicine Residency at Yale and her fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA. She was a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation at City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, CA.
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Martin McMahon, Ph.D.

Professor-In-Residence, University of California, San Francisco

Dr. Martin McMahon was awarded a Ph.D. from King’s College, University of London for studies on the mechanisms of interferon action conducted with Drs. Ian Kerr and George Stark at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund and Stanford University.  In 1985 he joined J. Michael Bishop's laboratory at the University of California, San Francisco as a post-doctoral fellow to study oncogenic protein kinases.  In 1991 he moved to the DNAX Research Institute in Palo Alto to lead an independent research group working on signaling by RAF protein kinases.  From 1991-1998 Dr. McMahon pioneered the use of a new class of conditional oncoproteins to dissect the corrupting events that lead normal cells to develop aberrant properties of lethal cancer.  In 1998 he was recruited to the faculty of the Cancer Research Institute in the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center and was appointed the Efim Guzik Distinguished Professor of Cancer Biology in 2002.  Dr, McMahon is currently co-Director of the Developmental Therapeutics Program and Assistant Director for Professional Education in the UCSF/Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Dr. McMahon's research program focuses on the mechanisms underlying the development and treatment of metastatic melanoma, lung and thyroid cancer.  Although these malignancies are derived from distinct cell types, they share a striking number of common genetic alterations especially activating mutations in either KRAS or BRAF.  To do this, Dr. McMahon’s laboratory works with cultured human cancer-derived cells and with genetically engineered mouse models of human cancer.  In 2009 Dr. McMahon, working with Dr. Marcus Bosenberg, described a model of BRAFV600E-induced melanoma, which recapitulates key aspects of the genetics and pathophysiology of the human disease.  This model is now being used widely in the research community to study melanoma initiation, progression and response to pathway-targeted or immunologically based therapies.  

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Glenn Merlino, Ph.D.

Chief, Laboratory of Cancer Biology and Genetics
National Cancer Institute, NIH


Dr. Merlino is currently Chief of the Laboratory of Cancer Biology and Genetics at the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Merlino's career research contributions include advancements in the areas of receptor tyrosine kinase signaling, oncogenic transformation, transcriptional regulation, cell cycle regulation, multiple drug resistance and genomic instability. Dr. Merlino was the first to report the amplification/rearrangement of the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor gene in human cancer and was among the first to show that growth factors could function in vivo as oncogenes using transgenic mouse models. Dr. Merlino and his colleagues in the Cancer Modeling Section are seeking to elucidate the complex molecular/genetic programs governing melanoma genesis and progression through the development and analysis of genetically engineered mouse models of human cancer. Using a novel mouse melanoma model, Dr. Merlino provided the first experimental evidence supporting the notion that childhood sunburn is a critical melanoma risk factor. This same model is being used to identify the molecular wiring of melanoma initiation by UV radiation, and to access the relative risks of exposure to UVA and UVB in sunlight. They also established the first relevant mouse model of embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma, and identified Ezrin and its transcriptional regulator Six1 as key pro-metastasis factors in that pediatric malignancy. A current goal of the Merlino lab is to use genetically engineered mouse models to perform preclinical studies aimed at an examination of the role of cancer stem cells in drug resistant metastatic disease.
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Antoni Ribas, M.D., Ph.D.

Associate Professor, University of California, Los Angeles

Antoni Ribas, M.D., Ph.D. is a Professor of Medicine, Surgery, and Molecular and Medical Pharmacology at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). He trained at the University of Barcelona, Spain, with postdoctoral research and clinical fellowship at UCLA. He is the Director of the Tumor Immunology Program at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC) and the Chair of the Melanoma Committee at SWOG. Dr. Ribas is also a permanent committee member of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) grant review panels and an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI). As a physician-scientist, Dr Ribas conducts laboratory and clinical research in malignant melanoma, focusing on adoptive cell transfer with T cell receptor (TCR) engineered lymphocytes, anti-CTLA4 antibodies, BRAF-targeted therapies and nanoparticle-siRNA.

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Stan Riddell, M.D.

Member, Department of Immunology
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

Dr. Riddell was appointed Professor of Oncology at the University of Washington Medical Center in 2000. He is an immunotherapy researcher and oncologist at Fred Hutchinson cancer Research Center, where he has spent more than two decades researching imunotherapies for cancer. Dr. Riddell's clinical expertise includes the immunobiology of graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) responses and graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), adoptive transfer of T-cells to treat human leukemia, immunobiology of breast cancer, and immunobiology of human cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection. In 1979, Dr. Riddell received his M.D. degree from the University of Manitoba.
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Caroline Robert, M.D., Ph.D.

Professor of Dermatology, Head of the Dermatology Unit, Institute Gustave Roussy

Caroline Robert is Head of the Dermatology Unit at the Institut Gustave-Roussy, Paris, France. Dr Robert gained her medical degree at the Cochin Port-Royal School of Medicine, Paris, in 1990, after which she was made a faculty member of the graduate school of biological sciences and received her French Board Certification in Dermatology in 1992. On gaining her certification, Dr Robert was appointed Assistant Professor in Dermatology at the St-Louis Hospital, Paris. She completed a research fellowship at Harvard, US and a PhD in cancer immunology and immunotherapy. In 2000, Dr Robert returned to Europe as Medical Director for Johnson & Johnson Consumer Europe. In 2001, she took a position at the Institut Gustave-Roussy as Assistant in Dermatology, before becoming Head of the Dermatology Unit in 2005. She is board member for the European Association of Onco-Dermatology (EADO), melanoma board secretary for the European Organization for the Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC), a member of the European Association of Dermato-Venereology (EADV) and the French society of Dermatology and Venereology. Dr Robert is a scientist of international renown in the clinical and translational research of melanoma and the cutaneous side-effects of new targeted chemotherapies. She has authored more than 120 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals, including a number of publications on new treatments for metastatic melanoma and been involved in numerous international clinical trials.

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Lynn Schuchter, M.D.

C. Willard Robinson Professor of Hematology-Oncology
Attending Physician, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Program Leader: Melanoma Program, Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania
Division Chief, Hematology-Oncology, University of Pennsylvania
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Jonathan Simons, M.D.

CEO and President
David H. Koch Chair
Prostate Cancer Foundation

Dr. Simons is an internationally recognized physician-scientist, oncologist, and acclaimed investigator in translational prostate cancer research. Prior to joining the Prostate Cancer Foundation in 2007, he was distinguished Service Professor of Hematology and Oncology at the Emory University School of Medicine and Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Materials Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Simons is the founding director of the Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University in Atlanta and Co-Director of the National Cancer Institute Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence at Emory and Georgia Tech. Dr. Simons received a B.A. from Princeton University and an M.D. from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Before entering medical school he was a Rotary International Postgraduate Fellow in the Humanities at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England, and a Nuffield Foundation Fellow in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge. Dr. Simons completed his residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital at Harvard Medical School and his fellowship in medical oncology at Johns Hopkins. He is also board-certified in internal medicine and medical oncology.
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Howard Soule, Ph.D.

Executive Vice President, Discovery and Translation
Prostate Cancer Foundation

Howard R. Soule, Ph.D., coordinates global academic, government and biopharmaceutical sector research activity and is responsible for the implementation of Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) global research strategies. From 1997 to 2004, he was Executive Vice President and Chief Science Officer of the PCF. Most recently, he was Managing Director of Knowledge Universe Health and Wellness Group, a private investment firm focused on companies in the general areas of disease prevention and treatment. Prior to joining the PCF in 1997, Dr. Soule was a senior R&D executive for nine years at Corvas International, Inc., a public biotechnology company. He was responsible for the discovery and development of innovative products for the treatment of life-threatening cardiovascular diseases. Dr. Soule has considerable experience in medical diagnostic and device industries as well. Dr. Soule received a Ph.D. from Baylor College of Medicine in Virology and Epidemiology and was a Post Doctoral Fellow in Immunology and Vascular Biology at the Scripps Research Institute.
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Suzanne Topalian, M.D.

Professor, Surgery and Oncology
Director, Melanoma Program, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center
Johns Hopkins University

Dr. Topalian is a physician-scientist credentialed in general surgery, with specialty training in surgical oncology and cancer immunology. After a 21-year tenure in the Surgery Branch of the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, she joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in June 2006 to lead the newly-established Melanoma Program in the Kimmel Cancer Center. She has published over 100 original research articles and reviews on cancer immunology, and is internationally recognized for this work. Dr. Topalian's basic studies of human anti-tumor immune responses have provided a foundation for the translational development of immunotherapies for melanoma and other cancers, including cancer vaccines, adoptive T cell transfer, and immunomodulatory monoclonal antibodies. She was a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology's Melanoma Program Committee 2007-2009.
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Michael Weber, Ph.D.

Director, Cancer Center
Weaver Professor of Oncology
University of Virginia

Dr. Michael J. Weber received his B.S. in Biology from Haverford College, Ph.D. in Cell Biology from the University of California-San Diego and did postdoctoral study in Tumor Virology at the University of California-Berkeley. Dr. Weber has made major contributions to understanding the cell biology of cancer. His commitment to cancer research extends over his entire 30-year career as an independent investigator, beginning as a tumor virologist. He is the author of over 200 original scientific publications. He has served as an Editor of the journal Molecular and Cellular Biology, on the NIH Molecular Biology Study Section, and in recent years has served on numerous SPORE and P01 review panels as well as ad hoc on several NIH Study Sections. He has served on the External Advisory Boards of Cancer Centers at the University of Chicago, UCLA, Louisville, NYU, UAB, University of Miami, and the U.S. Military Cancer Institute.
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