Dragonfly Therapeutics Adds World-Leading Cancer Immunotherapy Experts to its Scientific Advisory Board
The company grows its SAB with cancer immunotherapy pioneers including President of the American Association of Cancer Research Dr. Elizabeth Jaffee, renowned melanoma clinician Dr. Suzanne Topalian, and world expert in natural killer cells and immunology, Dr. Lewis Lanier.
WALTHAM, Massachusetts, Oct. 8, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Dragonfly Therapeutics, Inc. ("Dragonfly"), today announced the addition of world-leading cancer immunotherapy experts Dr. Elizabeth M. Jaffee, Dr. Suzanne Topalian, and Dr. Lewis Lanier, to its Scientific Advisory Board. They join Dragonfly's scientific team in developing the company's novel TriNKET™ technology to harness the body's innate immune system, and bring breakthrough treatments to patients with both hematological and solid tumor cancers.
"We are very pleased to welcome Drs Jaffee, Topalian, and Lanier to our Scientific Advisory Board," said Bill Haney, co-founder and CEO of Dragonfly Therapeutics. "As we advance to the clinic our targets for both hematological and solid tumor malignancies, we are committed to deepening the company's strong scientific expertise and clinical experience, to urgently and effectively provide breakthrough therapies for cancer patients."
Suzanne Louise Topalian, MD is the Associate Director, Bloomberg-Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy and Professor of Surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. As the Director of the Melanoma Program, Dr. Topalian's current work focuses on modulating immune checkpoints such as PD-1 in cancer therapy, and discovering biomarkers predicting clinical outcomes following treatment. Her pioneering efforts have opened new avenues of scientific interest and clinical investigation in cancer immunology, and have helped to establish immunotherapy as a treatment modality for cancer. Dr. Topalian received her undergraduate degree from Wellesley College and her medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine.
Elizabeth M. Jaffee, MD is the Deputy Director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the Dana and Albert "Cubby" Broccoli Professor of Oncology and Professor of Pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She is also the President of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). Dr. Jaffe has received numerous awards and accolades as an international leader in the development of immune based therapies for pancreatic and breast cancers. Dr. Jaffee graduated magna cum laude from Brandeis University and received her medical degree from New York Medical College.
Lewis L. Lanier, PhD, is the American Cancer Society Professor and Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, UCSF, and Leader of the Cancer Immunology Program, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is also the J. Michael Bishop, MD,
Distinguished Professor in Microbiology and Immunology at UCSF. Dr. Lanier is an internationally-recognized expert in natural killer (NK) cells and has received numerous awards for his pioneering work in this area. Since the early 1980s, his lab has investigated how NK cells distinguish between normal healthy cells and cells that are transformed or infected with viruses. Dr. Lanier earned his BS from Virginia Tech and PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Drs Topalian, Jaffee, and Lanier join Dragonfly's distinguished current Scientific Advisory Board which includes:
- Dr. Harold Eliot Varmus, MD, American Nobel Prize-winning scientist and the 14th Director of the National Cancer Institute;
- Dr. Ronald Levy, MD, professor at Stanford University and renowned medical doctor specializing in lymphoma;
- Professor K. Dane Wittrup, PhD, professor at MIT, pioneer in protein engineering technologies and expert in the science of targeting cancer with antibodies;
- Dr. Patrick Hwu, MD, leading tumor immunologist and Chair of the Department of Medical Oncology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center;
- Dr. K. Christopher Garcia, PhD, professor at Stanford University and expert in the structural, mechanistic, and functional aspects of receptor-ligand interactions;
- Dr. Adelheid Cerwenka, PhD, professor at Heidelberg University, head of Innate Immunity at the German Cancer Research Center, and expert in targeting cancer with NK cells;
- Dr. David Raulet, Dragonfly co-founder, Schekman Chair in Cancer Biology at UC Berkeley and world-leading NK cell expert; and
- SAB Chair Dr. Tyler Jacks, Dragonfly co-founder, Director of the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Professor of Biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and world-leading innovator in genetic engineering to develop in vivo disease models for cancer.
About Dragonfly
Dragonfly Therapeutics is committed to discovering, developing and commercializing therapies that use its novel TriNKET™ technology to harness the body's innate immune system to bring breakthrough cancer treatments to patients.
For more information visit: www.dragonflytx.com, https://www.facebook.com/dragonflytherapeutics/, https://twitter.com/dragonflytx
Media Contact:
Maura McCarthy
617-588-0086 x702
maura@dragonflytx.com
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