Developing Next Generation Immuno-Modulators That Harness the Power of Glyco-immunology

Nancy Thomason, MBA

Chair

Ms. Thomason served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of HAP Investment Group, LLC, since 2000. In this role, she was active in sourcing, negotiating, and managing entrepreneurial investments in real estate in a variety of product types including multifamily, office and industrial; investments in all stages of venture capital; and investments in operating entities in diverse industries including health care.

Ms. Thomason served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Promedior, Inc. until its recent sale to Roche. She is a co-founder and Board Member of Orsenix, LLC, a biotech start-up and is a Board Observer on the Board of Spencer Health Solutions, a medication adherence company. She is also a member of the Investment Committee of Saint Mary's School in Raleigh, North Carolina and is actively involved in their Capital Campaign.

Ms. Thomason background is in banking and finance, and she was a partner in First Union's Private Capital Management Group, and a Vice President with Wachovia Bank in both their commercial lending and real estate divisions prior to the formation of HAP Investment Group in 2000. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism and a Master in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

Chris Adams, PhD, MBA

Director

Dr. Adams has more than 30 years’ experience in the business side of orphan drug development, including business strategy, commercial planning, licensing and mergers and acquisitions always ensuring patient impact drives all aspects of the decision-making process. In 2013, he co-founded Cydan, an orphan drug accelerator focused on improving the lives of patients with rare genetic diseases, where he currently serves as Chief Executive Officer. Together with the Cydan team, Dr. Adams raised more than $200M and co-founded three NewCOs, Vtesse (Niemann-Pick C), Imara (sickle cell) and Tiburio (Neuroendocrine). Prior to Cydan he served as Chief Business Officer of FoldRx Pharmaceuticals Inc., where he played an instrumental role in the development of VYNDAQEL® (tafamidis), which led to its acquisition by Pfizer in 2010. He also served as Senior Vice President of business development for ViaCell Inc., Vice President of business development for Transkaryotic Therapies Inc., and Director of business development for the pharmaceutical division of Ciba-Geigy Limited, in Basel, Switzerland. Dr. Adams also serves on the Board of Directors of Tiburio Therapeutics. He holds a PhD in organic chemistry and a diploma in organic chemistry and biochemistry from the University of Zurich, and an MBA from INSEAD of Fontainebleau, France.

Mohamed A. Genead, MD

Director

A Serial life-sciences entrepreneur, senior innovative biopharma executive, inventor, and consultant to many ophthalmic biotechnology companies and healthcare venture firms. A global executive and senior leader with 20-plus years’ experience in pharmaceutical drug and business development and corporate strategies execution from discovery to late development and commercial phases. Played key roles at executing launches and drove sales growth in country, regional, and global development positions together with teams of direct reports. Critical team member to negotiate and manage the partnership between biopharma and strategics to expand ophthalmology developments.

Co-founder of several start-ups and being instrumental in the raising of over $500M in venture and institutional capital for numerous life sciences biotech companies. A board member of several ophthalmic organizations and scientific advisory board. Excellent academic background, including extensive research and clinical experience at top-tier academic and medical institutions.

A board-certified ophthalmologist/retina specialist and principal Investigator with proven record of success in developing and launching global blockbuster therapeutics. He was the primary and key author for numerous peer-reviewed manuscripts in highly impact factor scientific journals (more than 100 manuscripts and presentations) focusing on clinical research and novel therapeutics.

Dr. Genead completed his vitreoretinal fellowship at the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences of the University of Illinois in Chicago and Medical College of Wisconsin.

Michael Tolentino, MD

Director

A serial life sciences entrepreneur, basic scientist, retina surgeon, and clinical trialist, Dr. Tolentino has played a major role in approval of numerous blockbuster retina therapeutics. At Harvard Medical School, he developed the use of eye injections for macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. His research formed the basis for the founding of Eyetech and the development of ocular angiogenesis. His purification and pre-clinical work on Avastin permitted its use as an off-label eye injection in retinal diseases.

At the University of Pennsylvania, he co-founded Acuity Pharmaceuticals based on his invention of Bevasiranib, a first generation small interfering RNA (siRNA) against VEGF-A that was acquired by Gamma Group to form OPKO health (NYSE:OPK). Bevasiranib represented the first RNA interference molecule to get into clinic and reach a Phase III clinical trial.

Dr. Tolentino founded and served as CEO of Altiok Onco-systems, a CRO that developed xenographed murine cancer models from metastatic patient tissue. He recently founded private equity backed Blue Ocean Clinical Research and Vision Integrated Partners, a national clinical research/ophthalmologic company growing through acquisition of independent practices and providing research and managerial capabilities.

He has served on the board of numerous companies and organizations (Acuity pharmaceuticals, restoring sight international, macular degeneration association, Florida Polytechnic University, Lakeland economic development).

He has more than 80 peer reviewed manuscripts, 5 Patents, and has delivered over 500 national/international lectures.

Dr. Tolentino completed his vitreoretinal surgical fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his honors degree in computer science and organizational behavior from Brown University and a medical degree from University of Massachusetts.

Paul Vukelic

Director

Paul Vukelic is a Director of Aviceda. Paul is a leader in the Buffalo, NY business and financial communities, as President and CEO and founder of a highly successful beverage distribution company with proven track records of merge & acquisitions and partnership transactions. He serves as a board member and executive committee member of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, the Buffalo Renaissance Foundation and Open Buffalo. He also serves important roles in education and in charitable institutions, as a member of the Canisius College Board of Regents, past member of the Hilbert College Trustees, and past President of the University of Buffalo Newman Foundation. As a leading contribution to business, education and charitable institutions, Paul serves a valuable role as a member of Aviceda’s Board of Directors on the investment and financial strategies.

Patrick Johnson, PhD

Director

Patrick is a senior strategic pharmaceutical & business executive with two decades of broad cross-functional expertise in all aspects of corporate operations, including in-depth experience with global M&A, business development, strategic transactions, fundraising, clinical operations, scientific research, and corporate finance. Previously, he gained exceptional sell-side and buy-side transactional experience as head of business development for eye care and drug delivery at Allergan. Patrick’s deal experience ranges from some of the largest transactions in the pharmaceutical industry to small partnerships, having raised multiple rounds of venture financing for numerous start-up companies. He is currently leading operations on a global Phase 3 clinical studies as President of Sydnexis Inc. Co-author of global patent portfolio and author/co-author of numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, Patrick also has specific subject matter expertise with a PhD in retinal development and post-doctoral research in retinal degeneration (focusing on macular degeneration).

Derek Kunimoto, MD, JD

Observer

Dr. Kunimoto received his law degree with honors from Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship. He previously worked at McKinsey & Co with biotech and pharma companies, focusing on both strategy development and operational projects, including supply chain management.

Dr. Kunimoto is a vitreoretinal surgeon and spent 15 years building a practice to become the largest retina only practice in Arizona, growing from 7 offices to 35 plus offices, covering the entire state. At the same time, he led the creation and operations of an Aviation Department growing to 2 planes and 5 pilots to provide transportation to remote satellite offices and enabling the care of tens of thousands of patient encounters per year. He also created a nutriceutical division, leading production from raw materials under GMP standards, to packaging, labeling, and mailing of final products to patients. His practice was successfully sold to American Vision Partners, a private equity platform in the fall of 2019.

Dr. Kunimoto graduated from Harvard College summa cum laude and Harvard Medical School with honors. He completed his ophthalmology residency and retina fellowship at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia, where he served as co-chief resident, and was awarded a Heed and Ronald G. Michels fellowship. He has authored numerous peer reviewed publications, and two major ophthalmology textbooks, The Wills Eye Video Atlas of Ocular Surgery, and the 4th edition of The Wills Eye Manual. He has been an invited speaker at numerous national and international ophthalmology conferences and is recognized as an active clinical researcher of retinal diseases, acting as Investigator or Principal Investigator in over 150 clinical trials.

Pamela Stanley, PhD

Chair of Scientific Board

Professor Stanley obtained her PhD in the laboratory of Prof. David White, Dept. of Microbiology, University of Melbourne, Australia. She was subsequently a postdoctoral fellow of the MRC of Canada in the laboratory of Dr. Louis Siminovitch at the University of Toronto, where she began her work on the isolation of somatic cell glycosylation mutants. She was appointed Assistant Professor of Cell Biology at Albert Einstein in New York in 1977 and became a full Professor in 1986. She was Program Leader of the Molecular Membrane Biology program of the Albert Einstein Cancer Center from 1988 to 2012. She has been Associate Director for Laboratory Research of the Albert Einstein Cancer Center since 2002. From 1994 to 2007 she directed a NIH T32 graduate student training grant. She currently holds the Horace W. Goldstein Foundation Chair at Albert Einstein. Professor Stanley is an Associate Editor of Glycobiology and on the editorial boards of Scientific Reports and FASEB BioAdvances. Her laboratory is funded by grants from the NIH and she is the recipient of the Karl Meyer Award from the Society for Glycobiology and the IGO award from the International Glycoconjugate Organization. Professor Stanley’s laboratory is focused on identifying roles for mammalian glycans in development, cancer and Notch signaling. Her laboratory has isolated a large panel of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) glycosylation mutants, characterized them at the biochemical, structural and genetic levels, and used them to identify new aspects of glycan synthesis and functions. The Stanley lab has shown that MGAT1 is essential for spermatogenesis in mammals; that loss of MGAT3 and the bisecting GlcNAc on complex N-glycans, leads to increased tumor burden and metastasis in the MMTV/PyMT mouse model of human breast cancer; revealed key functional roles for O-fucose glycans and the three Fringe enzymes in Notch signaling; shown that deletion of the O-fucosyltransferase POFUT1 leads to embryonic death at mid-gestation with a phenotype typical of global loss of Notch signaling; and that a point mutation to eliminate the O-fucose glycan in the ligand binding domain of NOTCH1 causes defective T cell development in a mixed genetic background, but embryonic lethality in a C57BL/6J background. The Stanley laboratory is currently investigating roles for the O-fucose glycans of NOTCH receptors in T and B cell development and intestinal development and cancer, as well as determining why MGAT1 is required for spermatogenesis, and biological roles of the testis-specific inhibitor of MGAT1 termed MGAT4D.

Ajit Varki, MD

Ajit Varki received basic training in physiology, medicine, biology, and biochemistry at the Christian Medical College, Vellore, The University of Nebraska, and Washington University in St. Louis. He also has formal training and certification in internal medicine, hematology, and oncology. He is currently a distinguished professor of medicine and cellular and molecular medicine, Co-director of the Glycobiology Research and Training Center at UCSD and executive editor of the textbook Essentials of Glycobiology. He is also Executive Co-director for the UCSD/Salk Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny, and an Adjunct Professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Dr. Varki is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and the Association of American Physicians.

Dr. Varki is recipient of a MERIT award from the NIH, an American Cancer Society Faculty Research Award, and two highest honors in the field, the Karl Meyer Award of the Society for Glycobiology and the International Glycoconjugate Organization (IGO) Award (2007). He is also recognized for creating the first major open access research journal (JCI, 1996) as well as the first major open access textbook (Essentials of Glycobiology, 2008). He is a member of the Faculty of 1000 and a specialist advisor to the Human Gene Nomenclature Committee and the Vertebrate Gene Nomenclature Committee. He was honored with the Old Cottonian of Eminence Award at the 150th Anniversary of Bishop Cotton Boy's School, Bangalore, India, (2015) as well as the Annual Research Day Distinguished Faculty Medal and Oration at his medical school alma mater, the Christian Medical College, Vellore. Significant past appointments include: Associate Dean for Physician-Scientist Training at UCSD (2003-10); co-head, UCSD Division of Hematology/Oncology (1987-89): president of the Society for Glycobiology (1996); editor-in-chief of the Journal of Clinical Investigation (1992-97); interim directorship of the UCSD Cancer Center (1996-97); president of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (1998-99); consulting editor for the Journal of Clinical Investigation (1998-2006), and PLoS Medicine (2004-2008); scientific advisor to the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center (University of Georgia) and the Yerkes Primate Center (Emory University); member of the National Advisory Committee of PubMed Central (NLM/NIH); and coordinator for the multidisciplinary UCSD Project for Explaining the Origins of Humans (1996-2007). His interests in human evolution also led him to propose a novel Mind over Reality Transition theory about human origins, in the book, DENIAL.

Yvette van Kooyk, PhD

Prof. Van Kooyk is Head of the Molecular Cell Biology and Immunology Department at the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands that consists of 120 scientists/investigators that work in the field of Cancer Immunology, Mucosal Immunology, Neuro Immunology, and Dermatology. Prof. Kooyk had her PhD training at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (1989-1993) in the field of transplantation immunology revealing pioneering molecular mechanisms that regulate immune cell adhesion through integrin activation. From her postdoc-to associate professor at Radboud UMC (1994-2000), and training at Genentech, US, she focused her research on cell adhesion and Dendritic cells in inflammatory immune processes. In 2000, she discovered the innate receptor DC-SIGN, a C-type lectin on Dendritic cells, playing a crucial role in HIV recognition and cellular interactions through the recognition of glycan structures. This discovery set the stage for a new field that led to novel concepts on pathogen glycosylations that interact with the host via recognition by C-type lectin receptor, present on innate immune cells such as Dendritic cells and modulate immune responses.

Prof. Van Kooyk’s research team is working on dendritic cell (DC) mediated immune responses guided by glycosylation. Her work is focused on innate immune responses and cellular communication driven by modified glycoproteins/lipids in cancer, infection, and autoimmunity. Central in her work is the development of new glycan modified cancer vaccines targeting skin resident antigens presenting cells such as DC. Her research is aimed to discover glycan imposed regulatory immune imprinting by inflamed tissue and tumor microenvironment. Prof. Kooyk studies these questions in in-vivo mouse tumor models such as pancreatic cancer, colon and melanoma and human in-vitro models such as skin model, tumor tissues and complex 3D culture models to identify cellular communication at omics level in the context of tissue alterations.

Prof. Van Kooyk was awarded various NWO grants (PIONIER-ASPASIA-TOP) and EU grants (ERC Advanced-Eurostars-H2020) and the van Loghem award for life-time achievement in field of Immunology (2014). She received the SPINOZA award in 2019, a highest scientific award in the Netherlands, and is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (KNAW, 2018) and Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen (KHMW, 2020). She published more than 280 scientific papers in well recognized journals (Cell, Nature, Nature Immunology, PNAS, and JEM) and supervised 29 PhD students. She is inventor of 6 patents.

Prof. Van Kooyk’s animated short film called “Glycotreat - The Next Step in Curing Cancer” won the GSF Awards Cannes (2018) and Raw Science Film Festivals (2019).

Geert-Jan Boons, PhD

Geert-Jan Boons is the UGA Foundation Distinguished Professor in Biochemical Sciences at the Department of Chemistry and the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center (CCRC) of the University of Georgia (USA) and Professor and Chair of the Department of Medicinal and Biological Chemistry of Utrecht University (The Netherlands).

He received a B.S. and Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Leiden University (The Netherlands) and spent 7 years in the UK, first as a postdoctoral fellow at Imperial College, London, and the University of Cambridge, and then as a lecturer and professor at the University of Birmingham. In 1998, he joined the faculty of the Department of Chemistry and CCRC of the University of Georgia, and in 2015 he accepted an academic appointment at Utrecht University.

Among several recognitions, he has received the Creativity in Carbohydrate Science Award by the European Carbohydrate Association (2003), the Horace Isbell Award by the Division of Carbohydrate Chemistry of the American Chemical Society (ACS) (2004), the Roy L. Whistler International Award in Carbohydrate Chemistry by the International Carbohydrate Organization (ICO) (2014), the Hudson Award (2015), and the Cope Mid- Career Scholar Award from the ACS (2016).

His research program deals with the synthesis and biological functions of carbohydrates and glycoconjugates. The diversity of topics to which the group has significantly contributed includes the development of new and better methods for synthesizing exceptionally complex carbohydrates and glycoconjugates.

A hallmark of Prof. Boons’ research program is to employ chemical synthesized target compounds for biological and biomedical explorations and in particular, his research group has made important contributions to the understanding of immunological properties of complex oligosaccharides and glycoconjugates at the molecular level. A highlight has been the design, chemical synthesis, and immunological examination of three-component vaccine candidates that offer a prospect to be employed as a therapeutic vaccine for many types of epithelial cancer. His laboratory is a pioneer in the development of convergent strategies for complex oligosaccharide assembly, which make it possible to synthesize large collections of compounds with a minimal effort for structure activity relationship studies. A highlight of such an approach was the introduction of a chemo-enzymatic strategy that has provided a library of the most complex N-glycans ever synthesized. In addition, his lab was the first to develop an automated system for the rapid enzymatic assembly of complex glycans, which made possible, for the first time, to prepare representative collections of cell surface glycans for the development of the next generation of glycan microarray that can probe the importance of glycan complexity for biological recognition. These efforts have let to identification of glycans for various glycan binding proteins that are being further developed as glycomimetics for drug development for various diseases.

Prof. Boons was the first to employ chiral auxiliaries for the stereoselectively introduction 1,2-cis-glycosides, and this approach is significantly expanding the scope of polymer-supported oligosaccharide synthesis.

The Boons group has also made significant contributions to the development of methods for visualizing glycoconjugates of living cells. They have demonstrated that derivatives of dibenzylcyclooctyne are ideal for strain promoted cycloadditions with dipoles such as azides that can be introduced into glycoconjugates by enzymatic transformations. They have also introduced new chemical reports such as nitrile oxides and nitrones that make it possible to more efficiently label complex glycans of living cells. Using the new labelling methodology, they have established that Niemann-Pick type C (NPC) disease, which is fatal genetic disorder, is associated with a previously unrecognized defect in recycling of glycoproteins. This finding is paving the way for the development of new treatment strategy for NPC disease.

Ronald Schnaar, PhD

Ronald Schnaar, PhD, is the John Jacob Abel Professor of Pharmacology and a Professor of Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. His biomedical research focuses on the roles of glycans and glycan recognition in the physiology and pathology of the nervous and immune systems. He has performed and directed glycobiology research for nearly 50 years. His biomedical research team discovered that gangliosides, major glycans of nerve cells and axons, function in axon-myelin interactions, including stabilization of axons and the control of axon regeneration after injury. His team identified glycans on human neutrophils that initiate neutrophilic inflammation and glycans in airways that regulate human eosinophilic and mast cell (allergic) inflammation. In their latest studies his team discovered a unique glycan in the human brain that regulates debris clearance and has implications for Alzheimer’s disease progression. Dr. Schnaar has served as the Editor-in-chief of the journal Glycobiology, co-editor of the textbook Essentials of Glycobiology, President of the Society for Glycobiology, Steering Committee Member of the Consortium for Functional Glycomics and Director of the Lung Inflammatory Disease Program of Excellence in Glycosciences, a multi-institutional NIH-funded program to harness glycan recognition to treat asthma and other inflammatory lung diseases.

Linus Ho, MD, PhD

Dr. Linus Ho, MD/PhD, is a medical oncologist and formerly an associate professor in the Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Texas at Austin with degrees in zoology (BA) and chemistry (BS) and received both his MD and PhD (cancer biology) degrees from Stanford University. He completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in hematology/medical oncology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, did post-doctoral research training at Harvard Medical School, and was an attending physician at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute before moving to MD Anderson, where he worked for 20 years. He has over 29 years of experience in the medical field and is board-certified in both internal medicine and medical oncology.

Dr. Ho ran an independent research laboratory at MD Anderson for several years before deciding to devote his time to clinical research. He has been an active clinical researcher and has served as a vice-chairman of the MD Anderson institutional review board. He is a member of the American Medical Association and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Dr. Ho has published over 60 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals and has served as an ad hoc editor for several scientific journals.

Salem Chouaib, PhD

Prof. Chouaib, Director of Research, Institute Gustave Roussy, Paris, France, completed his undergraduate studies at the university Pierre and Marie Curie (Paris VI) and Pasteur Institute (Paris).

He received his PhD in immunology, (laboratory of Jean Dausset, Nobel prize in medicine) in 1983 and his higher doctorate (doctorat d etat es sciences) in 1986 from the same university. He joined the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York where he undertook a post-doctoral training in Human Immunogenetics Laboratory. In 1986, he was appointed as research associate at the French National Institute of Health and Biomedical Research (INSERM) and joined the tumor biology department at the Institut Gustave Roussy.

For more than twenty years, Prof. Chouaib was leading an INSERM Research Unit (tumor immunology). His laboratory focused on the investigation of the functional cross talk between cytotoxic cells and tumor targets in the context of tumor microenvironment complexity and plasticity.

Prof. Chouaib research was constantly directed at impulsing the transfer of fundamental concepts in clinical application in particular in the field of cancer vaccine and cancer immunotherapy. Prof. Chouaib is a member of the American Association of Immunologists, New York Academy of Sciences, French Society of Immunologists, International Cytokine Society, American Association for Cancer Research, International Society for Biological Therapy of Cancer and American Association of Biological Chemistry. He was awarded the cancer research prize of the French ligue against cancer in 1992 and in 2004 the presidential prize in biotechnology. He was awarded for translational research and scientific excellency by INSERM. His research resulted in more than 310 scientific articles and several reviews in the field of human immunology, tumor biology and cancer immunotherapy as well as in editorship for contribution to several books.

Prof. Chouaib is member of several editorial boards. Prof. Chouaib has extensive Administrative Experience in different capacities as member of the immunology section committee (National Institute for Health and Medical Research, INSERM, France); Member of the Scientific Advisory committee of the French Ligue against Cancer; Member of Scientific Council, Gustave Roussy, Member of the Scientific Advisory committee of the Research Association against Cancer (ARC); Member of the Scientific Council of the French National Cancer Plan; Member of the AFSAPS (French food and drug administration); Member of the Council “Studium of Molecular Medicine” International Doctorate School; Member of the International Council at Pasteur Institute (Tunisia); Member of Academy of sciences, letters and arts (Tunisia); Member of the Education Task Force of Cancer Core, Europe.

Richard Kennedy, MD, PhD

Prof. Dr. Richard Kennedy is the Global Vice President and Medical Director at Almac Diagnostic Services and the McClay Professor in Medical Oncology at the Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, Queen’s University of Belfast. His research focus is on characterisation of a molecular group in solid cancers that represents an innate immune response to DNA damage through the STING pathway and development of a gene expression-based biomarker panel that can identify pathways related to the hallmarks of cancer and guide patient therapy.

He graduated in Medicine from Queen’s University Belfast in 1995. As a post-graduate, he trained as a Medical Oncologist and received a PhD in Molecular Biology in 2004 from Queen’s University Belfast. From 2004-2007, he worked as an instructor in Oncology at Harvard Medical School, USA, where he identified novel biomarkers and drug targets for cancer treatment. This work was published in several high impact journals and the associated patent was in-licensed by a Boston-based start-up company (DNAR) in 2007. In 2007, he was recruited to Almac Diagnostic Services as Global Vice President and Medical Director, with responsibility for diagnostic laboratories in the UK, USA, and more recently China. He is a CLIA, CLEP, and College of American Pathologists recognised laboratory Director and, in this role, has directed the design, validation, and delivery of over 40 clinical trial biomarkers on behalf of several pharmaceutical and biotech companies. He has also attended several FDA and EU regulatory meetings, representing Almac’s pharma partners.

In 2011, Prof. Kennedy joined Queen’s University Belfast and established a research group focussed on various aspects of stratified medicine. As part of this role, he treated oncology patients in clinical trials at the Northern Ireland Cancer Centre until 2018. He currently sits on the Cancer Research UK new agents committee, the MRC Stratified Medicine Panel and acts as a Scientific Advisor to Northern Ireland Government as a member of the MATRIX Committee. He published several research articles and received top grants and participated and organized conferences in Precision Oncology Medicine.

Jim Johnston, PhD

Jim Johnston PhD, is CSO and COO of ImmPACT Bio Ltd, a CAR-T cell therapy company based in LA. Jim was a co-founder and CSO of Kalthera LLC, a T cell therapy company based on IP derived from UCLA. Kalthera merged with ImmPACT in July 2021.

He was previously, Vice President of Research at A2 Biotherapeutics, focused on T cell and Treg bioengineering therapy and prior to that was Executive Director of Research, Global Head of Inflammation at Amgen with responsibility for Inflammation and part of Immuno-Oncology (2011-2018), where his team was responsible for ten drug candidates that progressed to FIH, seven of which are advancing through clinical trials (AMG 430, AMG 510, AMG 966, Rozibafusp Alfa (AMG 570), Efavaleukin Alfa (AMG 592), AMG 282 and Tezepelumab). He made several key discoveries – including the identification and characterization of JAK3 and work that outlined its importance in IL-2 family signaling and in autosomal SCID patients, as well as many mechanisms controlling T cell biology and cytokine signaling. Jim has been awarded the Most Valuable Scientist award at the BRMP, NIH (1996), the Hajime Award at DNAX Research Institute, (1999) and the Irish Society of Immunology RDS Public Lecture Award (2010). He founded and was Chief Scientist at Fusion Antibodies Ltd, a company that develops humanized antibody therapeutics (www.fusionantibodies.com). He has 15 patents and has authored >130 peer reviewed manuscripts.

Robert L. Avery, MD

Robert L. Avery, MD is the founder and CEO of California Retina Consultants, Santa Barbara CA. He received his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University and took his ophthalmology training there at the Wilmer Eye Institute. He completed a vitreoretinal fellowship at Duke University under Dr. Robert Machemer, Brooks McCuen, and Gene de Juan. Dr. Avery returned to Johns Hopkins as Assistant Chief of Service and head of the trauma unit. He later went on to found California Retina Consultants, which grew into one of the largest retina practices in California and recently merged with several other national practices to form Retina Consultants of America.

During the growth and expansion of CRC, Dr. Avery continued clinical and basic science research, especially in the field of angiogenesis and VEGF. He and his colleges at CRC had a role in pioneering the clinical use of anti-VEGF agents for retinal diseases. He founded the California Retina Research Foundation, which currently has over 30 active clinical research trials ongoing.

D. Avery has received numerous honors and awards, including Senior honor awards from the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the American Society of Retina Specialists, where he also serves on the board of directors. He was the first recipient of the Ronald G. Michels Fellowship Award. He is a member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the Retina Society, the Macula Society, the American Society of Retinal Specialists, the Vit-Buckle Society, and the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. He is a member of the Medical Leadership Board of Retina Consultants of America.

Dr. Avery is the co-editor of Retina Today, and he has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles on retinal diseases. His interests include the development of improved retinal drugs and their delivery, and he holds patents in retinal drug delivery. He is a partner in two ophthalmology venture capital companies, and he is on the board of several start-up companies developing ocular drugs and improving their delivery.

Dr. Rishi P. Singh MD

Dr. Rishi P. Singh MD is a staff surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic Florida, Professor of Ophthalmology at the Lerner College of Medicine, and President of Cleveland Clinic Martin Hospitals in Stuart, FL. He received his bachelors and medical degrees from Boston University and completed his residency at the Massachusetts Eye and Infirmary Harvard Combined Program in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Singh then completed a medical and surgical fellowship at the Cole Eye Institute in Cleveland, Ohio.

He specializes in the treatment of medical and surgical retinal disease such as diabetic retinopathy, retinal detachment, and age-related macular degeneration. Dr. Singh has authored more than 200 peer reviewed publications, books, and book chapters and serves as the principal investigator of numerous national clinical trials advancing the treatment of retinal disease. Dr. Singh is the former president on the Retina World Congress and is on the board of the American Society of Retina Specialists. He is a frequent invited speaker at national and international meeting as well as continuing medical education seminars. Dr. Singh maintains a strong relationship with drug development and commercial entities by serving on scientific advisory boards.

Dr. Singh has been honored with several research recognitions such as the Alpha Omega Alpha Research Award, the American Society of Retina Specialists Senior Honor Award, and the American Academy of Ophthalmology Senior Honor Award.

Baruch D. Kuppermann, MD, PhD

Baruch D. Kuppermann, M.D., Ph.D. is the Roger F. Steinert Professor, Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology, and Director of the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute at the University of California, Irvine. He also holds a joint appointment with the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UC Irvine. After completing his Ph.D. in neuroscience at the California Institute of Technology, Dr. Kuppermann went on to earn an M.D. at the University of Miami, and completed fellowships in Retina at both St. Joseph’s in Baltimore, Maryland under Drs Ron Michels and Bert Glaser, and at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Kuppermann’s laboratory research focuses on assessing the toxicity of drugs on retinal cells in culture, including various vital stains, steroids, and anti-VEGF compounds. More recently his lab has modified its focus to study the effect of mitochondrial genetics on retinal diseases such as age related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema. He is active in the development of drug delivery systems for the posterior segment through collaborative work with the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UC Irvine, for which he holds several patents. Dr. Kuppermann is also co-director of the Center for Translational Vision Research at UC Irvine, which is focused on developing new treatments for blinding retinal conditions. Dr. Kuppermann is a well-known teacher and lecturer, having given numerous named lectures and been an invited visiting professor at many academic institutions. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles in the medical literature, and over 50 book chapters. He is also strongly involved in clinical research, having served as Principal Investigator in many trials evaluating new drugs and technologies for the treatment of age related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, retinal vein occlusion, retinitis pigmentosa, and other diseases of the posterior segment.

Carl Regillo, MD

Dr. Carl Regillo was a Phi Kappa Phi graduate of Northeastern University, College of Pharmacy, where he was the class Valedictorian. He received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School on a full military scholarship. He performed his internship in internal medicine at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and both his ophthalmology residency and vitreoretinal fellowship at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia. He was appointed the Co-Chief Resident and awarded a Heed Ophthalmic Fellowship during his postgraduate training.

After training, he was commissioned a Major in the United States Air Force and stationed four years as a vitreoretinal surgeon at the San Diego Naval Medical Center. There he was Co-Director of the Ophthalmology Department’s Retina Service, Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of California, San Diego, and recipient of a Naval Commendation medal and the Ophthalmology Department’s annual teaching award. In 1998, he returned to Philadelphia to join Mid Atlantic Retina and the Retina Service of Wills Eye Hospital.

Dr. Regillo is currently the Director of the Retina Service of Wills Eye Hospital, Professor of Ophthalmology at Thomas Jefferson University School of Medicine, and Principle Investigator of numerous major international clinical trials investigating new forms of treatment for macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and a variety of other retinal conditions. He is the founder and former Director of the Wills Eye Clinical Retina Research Unit, prior Chairman of the Wills Eye Institutional Review Board and prior Chairman of the American Academy’s Basic and Clinical Science Course (BCSC) Retina Section committee. He is the former Wills Retina Fellowship Program Director.

Dr. Regillo has authored over 200 scientific papers, lectured nationally and abroad, and has published nine major textbooks in the field. He has served on the scientific editorial board for the American Journal of Ophthalmology, Review of Ophthalmology, Current Opinion in Ophthalmology, Yearbook of Ophthalmology, Retinal Physician, and Retina Today. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and an active member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, The Retina Society, The Macula Society, and The American Society of Retina Specialists. He is a former examiner for the American Board of Ophthalmology and a recipient of the American Academy of Ophthalmology Achievement, Senior Achievement, Secretariat, and Lifetime Achievement Awards along with the America Society of Retina Specialists Honor and Senior Honor Awards. He was named one of the “150 Top Innovators in Retina” by Ocular Surgery News and selected a Charter Inductee of the Retina Hall of Fame. He also has been listed multiple times through the years as a retina “Top Doctor” in the Philadelphia Magazine, Philadelphia Life, Mainline Today, and South Jersey Magazine.

Arshad M. Khanani, MD, MA, FASRS

Arshad M. Khanani, MD, MA, FASRS is a Managing Partner, Director of Clinical Research, and Director of Fellowship at Sierra Eye Associates and Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine.

Dr. Khanani founded the clinical research department at Sierra Eye Associates, which is now one of the leading clinical research centers in USA. He has served as a principal investigator for over 90 clinical trials and has been a top enroller for multiple global Phase 1-3 trials. In addition, Dr. Khanani has been the first one to perform surgical procedures in multiple surgical clinical trials dealing with sustained delivery and gene therapy for ophthalmic applications.

Dr. Khanani also serves as a member of national and international clinical trial steering committees as well as scientific advisory boards with the goal of bringing new treatment options for patients with retinal diseases. Dr. Khanani is frequently invited as a guest speaker at national and international meetings. He is passionate about teaching and frequently chairs and participates in continuing medical education events. With the goal of achieving advances in vitreoretinal research and development, Dr. Khanani founded the Clinical Trials at the Summit (CTS) meeting, designed to stimulate discussion on clinical trial design and data.

Dr. Khanani is an elected member of the Retina Society and has received numerous awards of distinction. In 2019, he received the Nevada Business Magazine Healthcare Heroes Physician of the Year award for his continued dedication to the field of ophthalmology. He has received the Senior Honor Award from the American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS) and was also awarded the prestigious ASRS Presidents’ Young Investigator Award in 2021.

Jeffrey Heier, MD

Jeffrey S. Heier, M.D., is the Co-President and Medical Director, Director of the Vitreoretinal Service, and Director of Retina Research at Ophthalmic Consultants of Boston (OCB), one of the largest and most prestigious multi-specialty ophthalmology practices in the United States. Dr. Heier received his medical degree from Boston University, then did a transitional internship and ophthalmology residency at Fitzsimons Army Medical Center. Between his internship and residency, Dr. Heier served as a physician in a Combat Support Hospital in the Persian Gulf War, where he was awarded a Bronze Star. Dr. Heier then completed a vitreoretinal fellowship at Ophthalmic Consultants of Boston/Tufts University School of Medicine.

Dr. Heier is on the Executive Board of the Retina Society, the Executive Committee of the American Society of Retina Specialists, is the Past President of the New England Ophthalmological Society, and a member of the Macula Society. Dr. Heier is the past Secretary of Online Education for the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the past President of the Center for Eye Research and Education Foundation in Boston, MA.

From the American Academy of Ophthalmology, Dr. Heier received the Senior Achievement Award in 2010, the Secretariat Award in 2007, and the Honor Award in 2003. He is also the recipient of the Honor Award and Senior Honor Award from the American Society of Retina Specialists.

Dr. Heier is one of the leading retinal clinical researchers in the country for new treatments in exudative and non-exudative macular degeneration, diabetic macular edema, venous occlusive disease, vitreoretinal surgical techniques and instrumentation, and diagnostic imaging of the retina. He serves on the Scientific Advisory Board or as Clinical Design Consultant to over thirty biotechnical or pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Heier is the lead investigator on numerous clinical trials, ranging from phase I safety and proof of concept trials to phase IV post-marketing studies.

Dr. Heier lectures nationally and internationally on retinal research and the innovative approach to the treatment of retinal diseases. He has authored or co-authored numerous works in peer-reviewed journals, as well as served as a reviewer for the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Ophthalmology, Archives of Ophthalmology, American Journal of Ophthalmology, Retina, and numerous other journals.

David S. Boyer, MD

David S. Boyer, M.D. is a Board-certified ophthalmologist specializing in the treatment of diseases of the retina and vitreous. He is Senior Partner at Retina-Vitreous Associates Medical Group with offices in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, North Hollywood, Torrance, Pasadena, and Tarzana, California.

Dr. Boyer is a Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology with the University of Southern California/Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles.

He has an extensive research background and is currently an investigator for numerous clinical trials. He is one of the leading retinal clinical researchers in the United States for new treatments in macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema. A widely published author and avid lecturer, Dr. Boyer lectures nationally and internationally on retinal research and the innovative approach to the treatment of retinal diseases.

Peter K. Kaiser, MD

Peter K. Kaiser, M.D. graduated magna cum laude with Highest Honors from Harvard College and magna cum laude from Harvard Medical School. He completed an internal medicine internship at Massachusetts General Hospital, an ophthalmology residency at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, and a vitreoretinal fellowship at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute before joining the vitreoretinal department of the Cole Eye Institute at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio where he is the Chaney Family Endowed Chair in Ophthalmology Research and Professor of Ophthalmology at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine.

As a National Eye Institute and National Institute of Health RO1-funded principal investigator, Dr. Kaiser leads a team involved in the evaluation of vascular biology in age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic retinopathy (DR). In addition, Dr Kaiser is actively involved in clinical research having served as Study Chairman for numerous major, multi-center, international clinical trials, and principal investigator in over 60 trials evaluating new treatments for AMD, DR, and other retinal disorders. He is the director of Center for Ocular Research and Evaluation (CORE). Dr. Kaiser has been honored to receive the Lew R. Wasserman Award from the Research to Prevent Blindness and the Macula Society’s Young Investigator Award. Complementing his research endeavors, Dr. Kaiser serves on numerous scientific advisory boards and addresses his research interests as an invited speaker at national and international conferences. He is a major contributor to the medical literature having authored 7 textbooks, 30 book chapters, and more than 400 peer-reviewed manuscripts. He is Editor-in-Chief of Retinal Physician, Associate Editor of International Ophthalmology Clinics, and serves on the editorial boards of American Journal of Ophthalmology, Retina, Retina Today, and Ocular Surgery News.

Dr. Kaiser has been recognized by American Society of Retina Specialists Honor and Senior Honor Awards, along with the American Academy of Ophthalmology Achievement, Senior Achievement, and Lifetime Achievement Awards. He has been listed as one of the “Best Doctors in America” every year since 2002 and named one of the “150 Top Innovators in Retina” by Ocular Surgery News, selected as a charter inductee of the Retina Hall of Fame in 2017, and appeared on the biannual Ophthalmologist’s “Power List” in 2016, 2018, and 2020 as one of the top 100 most influential people in the world of ophthalmology. He is the team ophthalmologist for the Cleveland Cavaliers (National Basketball Association).