About us

David R. Gandara, MD

Clinical Advisor

David Gandara is a Professor of Medicine Emeritus at the University of California, Davis. He is the co-director of the Center for Experimental Therapeutics and Senior Advisor to the Director at UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center. He was recently appointed Adjunct Clinical Professor of the Translational and Clinical Research Program at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center and Chief Medical Officer for the International Society of Liquid Biopsy (ISLB), a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the science and clinical application of liquid biopsy in cancer diagnosis and therapy. He is an internationally known clinician-scientist and lung cancer thought leader and has published over 450 peer-reviewed papers. He has led many notable research projects in lung cancer, including early therapeutics trials through an N01-sponsored award, cooperative group trials as past-chair of the SWOG Lung Committee, and multi-institutional translational science projects such as clinical director of the patient-derived xenograft (PDX) lung program in collaboration with The Jackson Laboratory Cancer Center. Dr. Gandara has been selected for many awards and honors, including the Lifetime Scientific Award from the International Association for Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), the Team Science Award from the Addario Lung Cancer Foundation, and the Trajectory Achievement Award from the ISLB. He is current principal investigator for a National Cancer Institute UG1 award to UCDCCC for cancer clinical trials, and co-leader of Lung-MAP, a unique NCI-sponsored public-private partnership for new drug development in lung cancer. He is the founding co-chair and current member of the NCI-directed Investigational Drug Steering Committee (IDSC). Dr. Gandara is the past Editor-in-Chief of the journal Clinical Lung Cancer. He served as president of the IASLC from 2009-2011 and treasurer from 2013-2017. He is a prior member of the board of directors and secretary-treasurer of ASCO. In 2017, Gandara received the Giants of Cancer Care Award for lung cancer.

David Carbone, MD, PhD

Clinical Advisor

David Carbone is a Professor of Internal Medicine and Director of the James Thoracic Oncology Center at the OSUMC. He graduated summa cum laude from Amherst College in 1977 and received an MD and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Genetics at Johns Hopkins University in 1985. After an Internal Medicine internship and residency at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, he did a Medical Oncology fellowship at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD. At Vanderbilt, he was Director of the Thoracic/Head and Neck Cancer Program, Director of a SPORE in Lung Cancer for 11 years. He was recruited to The Ohio State University in 2012 to direct the James Thoracic Oncology Center. His research interests have been focused on lung cancer and specifically proteomic and expression signature development, lung cancer genetics, tumor-associated immunosuppression mechanisms, proteogenomic profiling of lung cancers to guide the development of novel therapeutics, and targeting novel immunosuppression mechanisms. He has over 250 peer-reviewed publications, has served on the Board of Scientific Counselors, and has had continuous NCI funding since early in his career. He is currently Chair of the Lung Biology subcommittee for the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group and past President of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC).

Fred R. Hirsch, MD, PhD

Clinical Advisor

Dr. Hirsch is a medical oncologist with training in pathology. He is a Professor in Medicine and Pathology at Icahn School of Medicine and Executive Director for the Center for Thoracic Oncology at Tisch Cancer Institute, Mount Sinai, NY. His interest is lung cancer research, with special emphasis on new treatments, biomarker development, and validation for treatment and early detection of lung cancer. Dr. Hirsch's lab focuses on selecting patients for new targeted therapies, particularly in lung cancer (personalized medicine). He is the principal investigator of many clinical trials and a study chair for correlative science in the Lung Masterprotocol (LungMAP). Finally, he co-chairs the Lung Group (translational science) for the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG). Dr. Hirsch has published over 400 scientific publications.

Lee M. Ellis, MD, FACS, FASCO

Scientific Advisor

Dr. Lee Ellis is a translational investigator primarily focused on GI cancers. He has served in leadership roles in ASCO (BOD), AACR, NCI, EORTC (Scientific Audit Comm), ESMO/TAT, JAMA Oncology (Deputy Editor), and MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is a leader in SWOG as Vice Chair for Translational Medicine and co-chaired the inaugural NCI NCTN-Core Correlative Sciences Committee. Dr. Ellis serves on several data monitoring committees including ECOG-ACRIN. He is a member of the inaugural AACR "Trust in Science Task Force", and serves on the ELEVATE GENETICS Acceptable Thresholds Committee representing ASCO. He is also an officer of ESMO where he serves on their COI committee.

Timothy Chan, MD, PhD

Clinical Advisor

Timothy Chan, MD, PhD, a renowned immuno-oncology and cancer genomics expert, leads the Center for Immunotherapy and Precision Immuno-Oncology, which brings together multidisciplinary experts from across the Cleveland Clinic enterprise to advance research and treatment related to the rapidly growing field of immuno-oncology. He is an internationally recognized expert in precision immuno-oncology and a pioneer in using genomics to determine which patients will respond best to certain types of immunotherapies. He has published over 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals, made landmark discoveries in his field and received numerous awards, including the National Cancer Institute Outstanding Investigator Award in 2018. Dr. Chan earned his MD and PhD in genetics from Johns Hopkins University, where he also completed a residency in radiation oncology and a postdoctoral fellowship in the division of tumor biology. He is board certified in radiation oncology and is an elected member of the Association of American Physicians. Dr. Chan also collaborates with experts in the Center for Global and Emerging Pathogens Research, which is focused on broadening understanding of immunology and microbial pathogenesis with the goal of improving treatment for a variety of diseases, including virus-induced cancers.

Michal Lotem, MD

Clinical Advisor

Prof. Michal Lotem is a senior physician and researcher, serving as Head of the Center for Melanoma and Cancer Immunotherapy, Sharett Institute of Oncology, Hadassah University Hospital, and senior lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In parallel to intensive clinical work, she runs a scientific translational research lab focusing on tumor vaccines and cell-based immunotherapies for melanoma. She has co-authored over 70 peer-reviewed publications and is a member of several medical societies including the Melanoma Research Alliance, Society of Melanoma Research, European Association of Cancer Research (EACR), Israel Society of Cancer Research (ISCR) and Committee for Cell and Gene-based Therapy of the Israeli Ministry of Health. Prof. Lotem received her MD from the Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University, Israel, and was a research fellow at the National Institute of Health (NIH), Maryland, USA.

Mario Sznol, MD

Scientific Advisor

Dr. Mario Sznol is a Professor of Internal Medicine, Leader of the Melanoma-Renal Cancer Disease-Associated Translational Research Team, and Co-Leader of the Cancer Immunology Program. Dr. Sznol is also the current President of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC). Dr. Sznol graduated from Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in Houston, Texas. He trained in internal medicine at BCM and completed a medical oncology fellowship in the Department of Neoplastic Diseases, at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York. He spent the next twelve years in the Biologics Evaluation Section (BES), Investigational Drug Branch (IDB), and Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program of the National Cancer Institute. He was Head of the BES from 1994-1999. He attended the inpatient units of the Biological Response Modifiers Program, NCI, from 1988-1996 and the Immunotherapy Service of the Surgery Branch, NCI, from 1997-1999. From 1999-2004, he served as Vice President of Clinical Development and Executive Officer of Vion Pharmaceuticals in New Haven, Connecticut. Dr. Sznol’s areas of interest include early drug development, immunotherapy, and treatments for advanced melanoma and renal cancer.

Aaron Ciechanover, MD, DSC

Scientific Advisor

Prof. Ciechanover is a distinguished research professor in the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel, and serves on the board of several biotech companies. His current research is focused on several biological aspects of cancer development and tumor suppression, involving the role of the ubiquitin-proteasome system in these processes. His laboratory, which is part of the Rappaport Technion’s Integrated Cancer Center (RTICC) in the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, is currently involved in the development of several anti-cancer drugs – including a unique PROTAC. It expands its areas of research and focus to include informatics, AI-based diagnostic tools, and metabolomics, and in collaboration with Oncology Centers in Israel and China, initiating clinical trials that use the application of precision medicine for the benefit of cancer patients. Among the many accolades that Prof. Ciechanover has been awarded are the 2000 Albert Lasker Prize for Basic Medical Research, the 2003 Israel Prize for Biological Research, and the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He is a member of various academies, including the Israeli National Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), the National Academies of Sciences (NAS) and Medicine (NAM) of the USA (Foreign Associate), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS; Foreign Member).

Ra'anan Berger, MD, PhD

Clinical Advisor

Prof. Raanan Berger is a senior oncologist and radiotherapist, serving as Director of the Cancer Center at the Sheba Medical Center, Israel. In 2006, he established the Riva Koschitzky Oncology Clinical Research Unit at Sheba, the largest center for all-phase oncology clinical trials in Israel, currently conducting over 200 advanced clinical trials. In addition, he is a senior lecturer at the Sackler Medical School at Tel Aviv University and runs a basic and translational research lab studying molecular mechanisms in prostate and breast tumorigenesis. Prof. Berger is a member of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) and American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), and co-author of over 70 peer-reviewed scientific articles. He received his MD and PhD from the Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University, Israel, and was a post-doctoral fellow at Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School.

Robert Kerbel, PhD

Scientific Advisor

Prof. Robert Kerbel is a distinguished scientist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Canada. He is internationally recognized for his multiple contributions to cancer research, particularly in the fields of anti-angiogenic therapy and metronomic chemotherapy. For his achievements, Prof. Kerbel has been awarded the Canadian Cancer Society Robert Noble Award for Excellence in Cancer Research, the Breast Cancer Research Award from the European Institute of Oncology, a Man of Distinction Honor by the Israel Cancer Research Fund, and the Colin Thomson Memorial Medal from Worldwide Cancer Research. He was a recipient of a tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Tumor Biology, Angiogenesis, and Antiangiogenic Therapy from 2001-2015. Prof. Kerbel is a member of numerous scientific advisory boards in both industry and academia as well as scientific peer review journal editorial boards. He also holds multiple sponsored research agreements with biotech and pharmaceutical companies. Prof. Kerbel received his PhD in immunology from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada in 1972, and completed postdoctoral training in tumor immunology at the Chester Beatty Research Institute in London, England.

Eytan Domany, PhD

Statistical Advisor

Prof. Domany works in the faculty of Complex Systems Physics at the Weizmann Institute of Science. His expertise is in the field of statistical physics. His current research interests focus on the development of computational methods, with a special emphasis on applications to biologically motivated problems, in particular, analysis of high-throughput biological data. He works with several groups from the life sciences, in Israel and abroad, on analysis of human gene expression data obtained from DNA chips, with an emphasis on studies of cancer. Winner of the Lombroso Award in Cancer Research.