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Scientific Advisory Board
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Mike Gresser
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Mike Gresser received his Ph.D in Biochemistry in 1976 from Brandeis University, where his thesis research was done under the
supervision of W.P. Jencks on the mechanism of ester aminolysis. He did postdoctoral studies at the Molecular Biology Institute
at UCLA on the mitochondrial and chloroplast proton translocating ATP synthases, under the supervision of Paul D. Boyer.
In 1980 Mike joined the Department of Chemistry at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, and progressed through
the ranks of Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor of Chemistry. While there Mike received the Excellence in
Teaching Award, and did research on the biochemistry of Vanadium V, and on the mitochondrial ATPase. In 1988 Mike Joined the
Merck Frosst Center for Therapeutic Research in Kirkland, Quebec as Director of Biochemistry. Over the next twelve years Mike
progressed through the ranks of Senior Director, then Executive Director of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Mike’s team
worked on a variety of small molecule drug discovery programs, resulting in the introduction of numerous molecules into clinical
trials. Two of these molecules, Singulair and Vioxx, became products. In 2000 Mike joined Amgen Inc. in Thousand Oaks, California,
as Vice President of Research for Inflammation, where he remained until April, 2006. For two years Mike served as Head of Neuroscience
Research as well as Inflammation Research. Mike’s team at Amgen worked on taking many molecular targets, introducing numerous small
molecules, human antibodies and other proteins into development. Currently Mike is a Visiting Scholar at the Molecular
Biology Institute at UCLA, and works as a consultant with Clarity Therapeutics Consulting.
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Professor Elke Jaeger
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Professor Elke Jaeger is one of the world’s leading cancer immunologists with significant experience in therapeutic
antibodies and cancer vaccines and has run many monocenter Phase I clinical trials for experimental oncology
medicines. Since April 2003 Professor Jaeger is chief physician of the Medical Clinic II, haematology-oncology,
Hospital Northwest Frankfurt, an academic teaching hospital of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt.
Professor Jaeger is also director of the Ludwig Institute Clinical Trial Center Frankfurt and head of the clinical
immunology laboratory of the Krankenhaus Nordwest. Her habilitation in 1997 in internal medicine was focused on
immune responses against melanoma - associated antigens: foundations for the development of an antigen specific
immunotherapy. Since 1992 she has managed a variety of clinical Phase II / III studies of drug treatment of various
malignant diseases and a series of clinical and experimental studies on antigen specific T-cell immunology in
patients with haematological and oncological diseases. This led to the identification of T-cell defined tumour
antigens and the characterisation of vaccine induced immune responses in patients with different malignant diseases.
She has also carried out immunological studies on spontaneous humoral immunity against tumour antigens. Since 1995
she has also managed a research programme to identify possible mechanisms of action of the whole body hyperthermia
combined with cytostatis therapy for patients with ovarian cancer, melanoma, lung cancer. She led diagnosis related
clinical trials and clinical immunology research projects to understand hypothermia related antineoplastic mechanisms.
Professor Jaeger is also a permanent member of the Ethics Commission of the National Medical Association Rheinland Pfalz,
Germany and a referee for EORTC (European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer) study protocols, as a
member of the `Protocol Review Committees' of the EORTC in Brussels. She is a member of the American Society of Clinical
Oncology, European Society of Medical Oncology European Society of Medical Oncology, German Society of Immunology, German
Cancer Society and the German Society of Hematology and Oncology.
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Sir Walter Bodmer FRS
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Walter Bodmer studied mathematics at Cambridge University where, having become fascinated with genetics through courses
taught by R A Fishers as part of the final year mathematics programme, he did his PhD with Fisher in population genetics.
He then went as a Post Doctoral fellow in 1961 to work with Joshua Lederberg at Stanford University and to learn molecular
biology. While there, eventually as a member of the Faculty for eight years, he initiated the work with his wife , Julia
Bodmer, and with Rose Payne , which contributed to the discovery of the HLA system, and also his long standing involvement
with somatic cell genetics.
In 1970 Walter Bodmer returned to the UK to take up the chair of genetics at Oxford. In 1979 he left Oxford to become
Director of Research at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund Laboratories in London and was appointed the first Director-General
of the Fund in 1991. On retirement from the ICRF in 1996, he returned to Oxford University as Principal of Hertford college
until 2005, and as head of the ICRF, now CRUK, Cancer and Immunogenetics laboratory at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular
medicine where he continues his research.
Walter Bodmer was one of the first to suggest the idea of the Human Genome Project and was first a Vice- President, and then
the second President of HUGO. He has made major contributions to human population genetics, somatic cell genetics, the
development of the HLA system and more recently to cancer genetics, especially as applied to colorectal cancer.
Walter Bodmer was elected FRS in 1974, Knighted in 1986 for his contributions to science, is a Foreign Associate of the US
National Academy of sciences and is the recipient of more than 30 honorary degrees and memberships and fellowships of scientific
and medical societies.
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Professor David Kerr
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Professor David Kerr is Rhodes Professor of Clinical Pharmacology and Cancer Therapeutics at the Department of Clinical Pharmacology, University of Oxford. He is working with colleagues in Oxford to build a new Institute for Cancer Medicine. He has an international reputation for treatment for and research into colorectal cancer, and he is developing new approaches to cancer treatment which involve gene therapy. The quality of his work has been recognised by the award of several international prizes and the first NHS Nye-Bevan award for innovation. He has published more than 350 articles in peer-reviewed journals and has contributed to many books on cancer. Professor Kerr has chaired the Advisory Board developing a vision for the future of Scotland’s Health Service and produced a 20 year plan for the future of the NHS in Scotland, Editor-in-Chief of Annals of Oncology, Europe’s premier medical oncology journal, and is on the editorial broad of several other journals including Nature Clinical Practice Oncology. He was elected Fellow of he Academy of Medical Sciences in 2000 and appointed Commander of the British Empire in 2002.
Professor Kerr also has a sense of rhythm and has appeared as drummer at venues such as Ronnie Scott’s and Symphony Hall in Birmingham.
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Rolf Apweiler
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Rolf Apweiler is an EMBL Senior Scientist and Head of the EBI's Sequence Database Group. He studied Biology in Heidelberg and Bath, worked three years in drug discovery in the pharmaceutical industry and has been involved in Bioinformatics since 1987. His group develops and maintains high-quality public data resources and bioinformatics services like the EMBL nucleotide sequence database, the UniProt resource and the InterPro database of protein families, domains and functional sites. Medium scale projects comprise Gene Ontology (GO) annotation, IntEnz (enzyme nomenclature database), ChEBI (small molecules database), and Integr8 (genomes and proteomes web portal). The manually annotated data resources are complemented by well-evaluated automated systems to provide optimum coverage of knowledge space. Also, locally installable database and analysis systems for complex data types are developed, like UniProt-DAS, PRIDE and IntAct. The group is also actively involved in many international collaborations and initiatives like the HUPO Proteomics Standards Initiative (PSI). Dr. Apweiler is responsible for the coordination of all activities of his group, which includes overall system design for the databases, budgetary management, supervision of group members, and overseeing all projects to ensure their progress and scientific quality. He is a member of several committees, review panels and advisory boards. He has published over 100 papers and is a frequent invited speaker for lectures and tutorials at universities, companies, and conferences.
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Athula Herath
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Athula Herath obtained his PhD in statistical computing from the Keele University. After two stints of post doctoral fellowships, Dr. Herath became a lecturer at Keele University.
In 1998 Dr. Herath left Keele and joined Oxford Glycosciences where he established the biometrics group and became first
the Director of Biometrics and subsequently the Director of Biometrics and Bioinformatics. During that time, Dr. Herath
actively participated in the research/development programmes of Oncology, CNS, Respiratory and Metabolic disorders. Athula
lead the statistical support teams in collaborations with major pharma companies (Pfizer, GSK, Merck, Bayer and Wyeth).
In 2003 Dr Herath joined Nestle in Switzerland and took the responsibility for their bioinformatics group as the group
manager at the Nestle Research Center in Lausanne. In 2006 Dr. Herath joined the clinical biostatistics of
AstraZeneca and is currently the Director of Statistical Sciences,
leading the translational statistics capability across the UK region in the therapy areas of
oncology/infection, respiratory and inflammation.
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