Our Team

Michael Curran, PhD

Founder and Scientific Advisory Board Head

Dr. Michael Curran is Professor of Immunology and Co-Founder of Oncology Research for Biologics and Immunotherapy Translation (ORBIT) at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC) in Houston, Texas. He is also Co-Leader of the Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) SPORE Project 1: Targeting the PD-1 Pathway in HCC and Co-Leader of the HPV-Related Cancers Moon Shot, both at MDACC.

Dr. Curran received a PhD from Stanford University, where he trained in the laboratory of Dr. Gary Nolan and was awarded the McDevitt Prize for the best graduate thesis. Dr. Curran was the first recipient of the prestigious American Cancer Society Levy Fellowship to fund his postdoctoral studies in the lab of Dr. James P. Allison.

While pursuing his postdoctoral studies at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Dr. Curran published several influential manuscripts describing how T-cell co-stimulatory pathways could be modulated, in tandem, to mediate immunologic rejection of melanomas in mice. Dr. Curran described how combination blockade of the T‑cell co‑inhibitory receptors CTLA‑4 and PD‑1 promoted the rejection of most murine melanomas. This work supported the launch of a phase 1 clinical trial in which more than 50% of patients with metastatic melanoma experienced objective clinical responses—a result so unprecedented that this became the first FDA‑approved immunotherapy combination. In addition, his subsequent immunologic studies of 4‑1BB agonist antibodies earned him the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer’s prestigious Presidential Award. The Curran Laboratory seeks to discover the underlying mechanisms of immune resistance in some of the most immune-excluded tumors, pancreatic and prostate adenocarcinoma and glioblastoma, so that rational therapeutic interventions can be developed to restore the T‑cell infiltration and sensitivity to T‑cell checkpoint blockade.

James Barlow, MBA

President and Chief Executive Officer; Board Member

Mr. Jim Barlow became the CEO of ImmunoGenesis in April 2020. Before joining ImmunoGenesis, Mr. Barlow was Vice President of Operations and Business Development for Geneos Therapeutics. Mr. Barlow played an integral role in the formation of Geneos, a personalized neoantigen‑targeting cancer vaccine company spun off from Inovio Pharmaceuticals. One of 2 initial employees, Mr. Barlow helped to build the management team and establish all key operational aspects of the company. He also led the tumor prioritization efforts, resulting in the design and initiation of the company’s first clinical trial less than 9 months after obtaining Series A financing.

Before joining Geneos, Mr. Barlow drove the development of Inovio’s Immuno‑oncology (IO) product strategy. In this effort, he led a cross‑functional team across Commercial, Clinical, Product Development, R&D, and Business Development to establish a set of key strategic principles. Mr. Barlow led the product prioritization efforts based on these principles, established the IO Advisory Panel, and coordinated key opinion leader and pharma partner interactions to position the company to embark on major clinical programs across 4 tumor types of interest. These programs evaluated combination regimens of Inovio’s cancer immunotherapies with PD‑L1 inhibitors from 3 different pharma partners. Mr. Barlow established 2 of these 3 partnerships, as well as a clinical partnership with the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy.

Prior to Inovio, Mr. Barlow was at Bristol‑Myers Squibb (BMS), where he was the Payer Marketing Lead for Yervoy, the pioneering cancer immunotherapy whose approval set off the current wave of immunotherapy development in oncology. Given the first‑in‑class nature of the product and the premium price associated with it, Mr. Barlow created a number of innovative programs to optimize market access. While at BMS, Mr. Barlow also worked on the overall IO franchise commercial strategy, including the development of communication planning for the groundbreaking immunotherapy Opdivo. Before his tenure at BMS, Mr. Barlow spent 8 years at Merck working in commercial leadership roles with increasing responsibility for the oncology franchise.

Mr. Barlow received an MBA (strategy and marketing) with honors from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. He was awarded the Dean’s Scholarship from Tepper. Mr. Barlow received a BA in Math and Economics from Colgate University, where he was awarded the Alumni Memorial Scholarship and graduated summa cum laude.

Jeremy Barton, MD

Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Jeremy Barton has more than 31 years of experience in all phases of oncology drug development in the pharmaceutical industry in Switzerland, the UK, and currently the US. He is now working as a self-employed consultant advising biotech companies on strategic oncology drug development.

Most recent industry responsibilities in the US have included Chief Medical Officer roles at Biogen Idec, eFFECTOR Therapeutics, and Mirati Therapeutics. He was also head of early oncology development at Pfizer (San Diego) for 5 years, where he oversaw the transition of all oncology compounds from research through IND to proof-of-concept studies.

After obtaining a master’s degree in physiological sciences from Oxford University and a medical degree at University College Hospital Medical School in London, Dr. Barton trained in internal medicine and clinical oncology in the United Kingdom and practiced for 11 years in the National Health Service.

Jeremy is board certified in internal medicine and clinical oncology, a member of the Royal College of Physicians (UK), a fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists (clinical oncology), and a member of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine.

Federica “Freddi” O’Brien, CPA (inactive)

Strategic Finance Consultant; Chief Financial Officer

Ms. Freddi O’Brien has been serving as a financial and business operations consultant to ImmunoGenesis since September 2020 and became CFO in November 2021. Ms. O’Brien is President of CFO’Brien Consulting, LLC, for which she provides executive-level strategic and financial consulting services. She has held the roles of Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Controller, and Director of Financial Reporting and has been integral in the growth and financing of both private and public companies ranging from preclinical through commercial stage. She partners with Genova Group, LLC, to provide technical accounting and with Sonia Deggs, who provides the controllership and financial reporting of ImmunoGenesis.

Ms. O’Brien currently serves on the Board of Directors of TELA Bio, Inc., a commercial-stage medical technology company, where she chairs the Audit Committee. She also serves on the Board of Directors of MacroGenics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing innovative monoclonal antibody-based therapeutics for the treatment of cancer, and is a member of the Audit Committee.

Her corporate experience includes senior leadership roles at Complexa Inc., Cerecor Inc., Cervilenz Inc., Cardiokine Inc., Barrier Therapeutics Inc., and Infonautics Inc. Before specializing in life sciences and technology, Ms. O’Brien spent over a decade in professional service accounting firms, including PricewaterhouseCoopers, where she was focused on high-growth companies in multiple industries, including pharma. She received a BA in accounting from Rutgers University and is a Certified Public Accountant (inactive).

Federica Pericle, PhD, MBA

Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Federica Pericle is Chief Scientific Officer at ImmunoGenesis. She was recently the President and CEO of AgilVax, a biotechnology company developing novel cancer therapies and vaccines for infectious diseases. She was responsible for establishing company structure, finance, R&D, legal, board composition, IP, and recruitment of KOLs. She raised over $10 million in Series A financing and developed the lead cancer vaccine from inception to the pre-IND stage. Prior to AgilVax, she was the cofounder and Chief Operating Officer of SeneXta Therapeutics, a clinical stage company developing treatments for central nervous system (CNS) disorders. Dr. Pericle also served as a scientific advisor for Agennix, a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing protein-based drugs for oncology. She also worked as Senior Scientist at the National Cancer Institute and at Moffitt Cancer Center. Dr. Pericle led the development of 5 product candidates into clinical trials for the treatment of cancer/CNS disorders, published more than 50 scientific articles, and coauthored 5 patents in the field of cancer. She received a PhD in Biological Sciences from the University of Turin in Italy and has a specialization in Immunology/Cancer Immunotherapy from the University of South Florida and the University of Turin. She also holds an MBA from Texas A&M University.

Charles Schweizer, PhD

Senior Vice President, Clinical Development

Dr. Charles Schweizer is responsible for clinical development strategy and operational execution at ImmunoGenesis. He has 25 years of clinical product development, regulatory, and operations experience across pharmaceutical companies, biotechs, and Contract Research Organizations (CROs) focused in oncology. Before joining ImmunoGenesis, Dr. Schweizer was Therapeutic Area Head, Oncology, at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), where he oversaw a global oncology portfolio of early and commercial-stage assets. Prior to GSK, he was Vice President, Clinical Operations, at Galera Therapeutics, a biotech developing oncology radiotherapeutics.

Dr. Schweizer’s earlier senior management positions include Vice President, Pharmaceutical Product Development, for over 12 years at Morphotek, a biologics subsidiary of Eisai developing novel oncology monoclonal antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates. As the head of clinical product development, he was responsible for clinical and regulatory strategy, operational execution, and cross-functional alignment of the clinical pipeline at all development stages. He joined Morphotek following operational and program management roles at PRA International, a large global CRO.

He holds a PhD in Health Policy and Epidemiology from the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia (formerly Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science) and the University of Pennsylvania. He has presented and published numerous manuscripts and research abstracts on topics across cancer research.

Matthew Hemberger, PhD

Executive Director, CMC and Quality

Dr. Matthew Hemberger became the Senior Director of Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls (CMC) and Quality at ImmunoGenesis in February 2021. He joined the company after a long career at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), most recently as the Director of Data Integrity for the joint venture between GSK and Pfizer. In that role, he led the global data integrity training programs, directed data analytics initiatives to improve issue detection, and provided subject matter expertise in the investigation of quality incidents globally.

In the Pharmaceutical Development group at GSK, Dr. Hemberger worked on multiple internal and external assets, including Horizant, which was granted NDA approval in April 2011, Cabenuva/Vocabria, and Blenrep. While at GSK, he also held roles in Global Manufacturing and Supply, where he assisted with the commercialization of assets, inspections, efficiency improvements, and regulatory responses. He has broad experience in a variety of dose forms, development strategies, large- and small-molecule assets, and auxiliary functions in the pharmaceutical industry.

He began his professional career at Mylan Pharmaceuticals as part of the Product Development group where his primary responsibilities included the development, validation, and transfer of analytical methods to support the company’s aggressive ANDA pipeline.

Dr. Hemberger holds a PhD in Analytical Chemistry from Florida State University and a BS in Chemistry from Viterbo University. His research at both institutions focused on chromatographic sciences.

Christine Gagliardi, PhD

Senior Director, Research and Development

Dr. Christine Gagliardi joined ImmunoGenesis as Director, Research and Development, in December 2020 from Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, where she served as Director, Product Development. Other prior industry experience includes research and development roles at Pfizer and Progenitor Cell Therapy. Dr. Gagliardi received a PhD in Biomedical Sciences/Pharmacology from Tulane University and a BS in Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology from Yale University.

James Barlow, MBA

President and Chief Executive Officer; Board Member

Mr. Jim Barlow became the CEO of ImmunoGenesis in April 2020. Before joining ImmunoGenesis, Mr. Barlow was Vice President of Operations and Business Development for Geneos Therapeutics. Mr. Barlow played an integral role in the formation of Geneos, a personalized neoantigen‑targeting cancer vaccine company spun off from Inovio Pharmaceuticals. One of 2 initial employees, Mr. Barlow helped to build the management team and establish all key operational aspects of the company. He also led the tumor prioritization efforts, resulting in the design and initiation of the company’s first clinical trial less than 9 months after obtaining Series A financing.

Before joining Geneos, Mr. Barlow drove the development of Inovio’s Immuno‑oncology (IO) product strategy. In this effort, he led a cross‑functional team across Commercial, Clinical, Product Development, R&D, and Business Development to establish a set of key strategic principles. Mr. Barlow led the product prioritization efforts based on these principles, established the IO Advisory Panel, and coordinated key opinion leader and pharma partner interactions to position the company to embark on major clinical programs across 4 tumor types of interest. These programs evaluated combination regimens of Inovio’s cancer immunotherapies with PD‑L1 inhibitors from 3 different pharma partners. Mr. Barlow established 2 of these 3 partnerships, as well as a clinical partnership with the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy.

Prior to Inovio, Mr. Barlow was at Bristol‑Myers Squibb (BMS), where he was the Payer Marketing Lead for Yervoy, the pioneering cancer immunotherapy whose approval set off the current wave of immunotherapy development in oncology. Given the first‑in‑class nature of the product and the premium price associated with it, Mr. Barlow created a number of innovative programs to optimize market access. While at BMS, Mr. Barlow also worked on the overall IO franchise commercial strategy, including the development of communication planning for the groundbreaking immunotherapy Opdivo. Before his tenure at BMS, Mr. Barlow spent 8 years at Merck working in commercial leadership roles with increasing responsibility for the oncology franchise.

Mr. Barlow received an MBA (strategy and marketing) with honors from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. He was awarded the Dean’s Scholarship from Tepper. Mr. Barlow received a BA in Math and Economics from Colgate University, where he was awarded the Alumni Memorial Scholarship and graduated summa cum laude.

Thomas U. Barton

Board Member

Mr. Thomas U. Barton is a hedge fund manager and venture capitalist with more than 40 years of experience. Mr. Barton is the Managing Partner of White Rock Capital, a hedge fund and family office he established in 1993. For 10 years, White Rock Capital managed money for Soros’s funds and others. During this period, White Rock led investments in USSB (NASDAQ: USSB), a satellite broadcast company that became DirecTV, and was the founder of Microtune (NASDAQ: TUNE), an analog-to-digital semiconductor chip company. Mr. Barton was a cofounder of AveXis (NASDAQ: AVXS), which developed a drug for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and was sold to Novartis for $9 billion. He was also the first investor in gene therapy company Agilis, which sold to PTC Therapeutics (NASDAQ: PTCT) for a significant return on investment. Mr. Barton is an investor and member of the Board of Directors of Renovion, a lung health company, and Myrtelle, a gene therapy company. He is a founding member and former board member of Dallas National Golf Club.

Prior to founding his own firm, Mr. Barton became a General Partner of Feshbach Brothers in 1987. He started his investment career as COO of Collins Capital. Mr. Barton received a BA from Mercer University and an MBA from Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management.

Ted Koutouzis, MD

Board Member

Dr. Ted Koutouzis is a venture capitalist and physician. He is an analyst at Magnetar Capital and the Managing Director at Reimagined Ventures. Dr. Koutouzis graduated from Florida State University with a BS in Nutrition/Exercise Science and earned an MD from the University of Miami School of Medicine. He received a graduate degree in Emergency Medicine from Northwestern University. Dr. Koutouzis practices emergency medicine at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. In addition, Dr. Koutouzis has worked at Magnetar Capital since 2006. For the first 10 years, he focused on risk arbitrage investments at the equity desk and later moved to the fixed income team, where he was responsible for the underwriting process for structured finance solutions across the life sciences. He is the Managing Director at Reimagined Ventures, where he comanages all healthcare investments. He is also on the board at Neural Analytics, a company that received a $10 million investment from Reimagined Ventures.

Robert Stein, MD, PhD

Board Member

Dr. Robert Stein is the Principal Consultant at RBS Biotech. He was formerly the Chief Scientific Officer of Agenus, where he led the Research Preclinical Development and Translational Medicine functions. He helped shape clinical development strategy for vaccines and adjuvants. Additionally, he led integration of the 4-Antibody acquisition, which included the company’s fully human antibody drug discovery and optimization technology platform and a portfolio of immune checkpoint antibody programs. Throughout his 30 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, he has played a pivotal role in bringing to the market Sustiva, Fablyn, Viviant, Panretin, Targretin, Promacta, and Eliquis. Before joining Agenus, he held executive management positions at Ligand Pharmaceuticals, DuPont Merck, Incyte Pharmaceuticals, Roche Palo Alto, and KineMed. Dr. Stein began his career at Merck Sharp & Dohme. He holds an MD and a PhD in Physiology and Pharmacology from Duke University.

Clifford Stocks, MBA

Board Member

Mr. Clifford Stocks has nearly 30 years of experience in the biotech industry and is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of OncoResponse, Inc, a Seattle-based immuno-oncology company formed as a broad strategic alliance with MD Anderson Cancer Center. Before OncoResponse, he served as Chief Executive Officer at Theraclone Sciences, where he was responsible for leading all aspects of the company’s efforts to discover and develop novel therapeutic antibody immunotherapies for the treatment of infectious disease, including HIV-cure antibodies licensed to Gilead Sciences. Prior to Theraclone, Mr. Stocks served as Chief Business Officer of Calistoga Pharmaceuticals, where he led the partnering activities and M&A teamwork that resulted in the acquisition of Calistoga by Gilead for $600 million in 2011. Mr. Stocks spent over 15 years at ICOS Corporation, where he served as an Executive Officer and Vice President of Business Development. While at ICOS, he led acquisitions and joint venture activities, as well as alliance formation, strategy, licensing, and deal making. He played an instrumental role on the leadership team that developed and launched Cialis, and he was a key architect of the Lilly ICOS joint venture partnership that led to the $2.3 billion acquisition of ICOS in 2007. Mr. Stocks’ early career includes a turn as a management consultant in the Health Services practice of Booz, Allen & Hamilton, as well as academic research in the Department of Immunology at the University of Utah and the Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology at the University of Chicago. Mr. Stocks received an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth Graduate School of Business and a BS in Biology from the University of Utah.

Michael Curran, PhD

Founder and Scientific Advisory Board Head

Dr. Michael Curran is Professor of Immunology and Co-Founder of Oncology Research for Biologics and Immunotherapy Translation (ORBIT) at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC) in Houston, Texas. He is also Co-Leader of the Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) SPORE Project 1: Targeting the PD-1 Pathway in HCC and Co-Leader of the HPV-Related Cancers Moon Shot, both at MDACC.

Dr. Curran received a PhD from Stanford University, where he trained in the laboratory of Dr. Gary Nolan and was awarded the McDevitt Prize for the best graduate thesis. Dr. Curran was the first recipient of the prestigious American Cancer Society Levy Fellowship to fund his postdoctoral studies in the lab of Dr. James P. Allison.

While pursuing his postdoctoral studies at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Dr. Curran published several influential manuscripts describing how T-cell co-stimulatory pathways could be modulated, in tandem, to mediate immunologic rejection of melanomas in mice. Dr. Curran described how combination blockade of the T‑cell co‑inhibitory receptors CTLA‑4 and PD‑1 promoted the rejection of most murine melanomas. This work supported the launch of a phase 1 clinical trial in which more than 50% of patients with metastatic melanoma experienced objective clinical responses—a result so unprecedented that this became the first FDA‑approved immunotherapy combination. In addition, his subsequent immunologic studies of 4‑1BB agonist antibodies earned him the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer’s prestigious Presidential Award. The Curran Laboratory seeks to discover the underlying mechanisms of immune resistance in some of the most immune-excluded tumors, pancreatic and prostate adenocarcinoma and glioblastoma, so that rational therapeutic interventions can be developed to restore the T‑cell infiltration and sensitivity to T‑cell checkpoint blockade.

Lawrence Fong, MD

Dr. Lawrence Fong is the Bezos Family Distinguished Scholar in Immunotherapy, the Scientific Director of the Immunotherapy Integrated Research Center, and a Professor in Translational Science and Therapeutics at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. He is also a Professor in Hematology and Oncology at the University of Washington.

Previously, he served as the Efim Guzik Distinguished Professor in Cancer Biology at the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where he led the Cancer Immunotherapy Program. He also co-directed the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at UCSF and co-led the Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy Program at the UCSF Cancer Center.

Dr. Fong is a physician-scientist in the Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology, where he leads both a translational research program and a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded research laboratory. He has more than 20 years of experience in cancer immunotherapy and has contributed to both preclinical and clinical studies of FDA-approved immunotherapies, including sipuleucel-T and immune checkpoint inhibitors. He has also played a key role in multiple first-in-human clinical trials involving dendritic cell vaccines, ipilimumab, and adenosine receptor antagonists.

His research focuses on understanding the mechanisms underlying clinical response and resistance to immunotherapies. This includes tracking antigen-specific T-cell responses in cancer patients undergoing treatment and developing biomarkers associated with clinical outcomes. The Cancer Immunotherapy Program he directs conducts early-phase and high-risk clinical trials across various disease indications and includes a translational laboratory that performs mechanistic studies using patient-derived samples.

Dr. Fong has received numerous honors throughout his career, including the NIH Outstanding Investigator Award.

He earned his BA from Columbia University and his MD from Stanford University. He completed his internal medicine training at the University of Washington and his oncology fellowship and postdoctoral training at Stanford in 2002. He later joined Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA, where he now serves as a distinguished professor. He is an elected member of Alpha Omega Alpha and the American Society for Clinical Investigation. Dr. Fong has authored over 100 publications in prestigious academic journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Nature Medicine, Cell, Immunity, and Cancer Discovery.

He has served on numerous NIH study sections and committees, including the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Steering Committees for Genitourinary Cancer, the NCI Investigational Drugs–Immunotherapy Task Force, the Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program Vision Setting Committee, and the NCI Immuno-Oncology Translational Network Steering Committee. He has also served on the editorial boards of several journals, including the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, and Cancer Immunology Research.

Dr. Fong is a co-founder of several companies, including FWB LLC (acquired by Streamlogic), Techbargains.com LLC (acquired by Exponential), and Keyhole Therapeutics. He maintains active research collaborations with AbbVie, Amgen, Bavarian Nordic, Bristol Myers Squibb, Dendreon, Janssen, Merck, and Roche/Genentech. He serves on the steering committee of the Roche/Genentech imCORE network and has held positions on numerous scientific advisory boards, including those of Alector, Atreca, BioAtla, Bolt, Ideaya, Innovent, Nutcracker, RAPT, Senti, Soteria, TeneoBio (acquired by Amgen), and Xyphos (acquired by Astellas).

David S. Hong, MD

Dr. David Hong is the Douglas E Johnson Endowed Professor in and Deputy Chair of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Clinical Medical Director of its Clinical Translational Research Center. He was a pioneering driver in forming one of the largest and most innovative phase I clinical trial units in the world, with more than 1,000 patients enrolled in clinical trials in FY2024 and more than 260 active ongoing clinical trials. He has been Principal Investigator (PI) of more than 195 research protocols supported by an array of sponsors, including the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program at the National Cancer Institute. He is PI of several ongoing immunotherapy protocols, including both ImmunoGenesis trials: IMGS-001 phase 1a/1b monotherapy trial across solid tumors (NCT #06014502) and the IMGS-101 phase 1/2 combination trial in pancreatic, prostate, and HPV(-) head and neck cancers (NCT#06782555).

Dr. Hong has served on the ASCO Developmental Immunotherapy group for the last 3 years and was the chair of the Developmental Immunotherapy section at ASCO 2014. He was heavily involved in the early development of cabozantinib, siltuximab, dabrafenib, trametinib, regorafenib, lenvatinib, larotrectinib, tisotumab vedotin, tepotinib, and sotorasib, ending in FDA approvals. He has helped found 2 companies: OncoResponse and Telperian. Dr. Hong is an expert on c-Met, NTRK, KRAS, and adoptive cellular therapy in solid tumors, and has led several national trials such as the c-Met amplified, c-Met exon 14 deleted, and NTRK arms of NCI-MATCH. He is developing a portfolio and additional expertise in phase 1 trials of therapeutics targeting the RAS gene family, a mutation strongly linked to the majority of pancreatic, lung, and colon cancer patients.

Dr. Hong has published more than 500 publications in peer-reviewed journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet Oncology, Journal of Clinical Oncology, and Nature.

Taha Merghoub, PhD

Dr. Taha Merghoub is the Deputy Director of the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM) in New York. He is also the Margaret and Herman Sokol Professor of Oncology Research, Professor of Pharmacology, and Professor of Immunology Research in Medicine at WCM.

Dr. Merghoub received a BA from the University of Algiers, Algeria, and MS and PhD degrees with highest distinction from University of Paris, France. His thesis work focused on the study of genetic polymorphism in fetal hemoglobin gene in patients with sickle cell anemia and thalassemia. His findings provided insight into the correlation of genotypes and phenotypes in sickle cell anemia and thalassemia. After graduation, he pursued his postdoctoral research with Dr. Pier Paolo Pandolfi at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). He characterized the transcriptional properties of the ZBTB7 gene and its role during development. He also played an active role in the generation of laboratory models for acute promyelocytic leukemia and furthered his knowledge and experience in genetics.

Dr. Merghoub subsequently joined the Alan Houghton Laboratory as a senior research scientist, where he began to study tumor immunity. He developed mouse models of melanoma that mimic different stages of human disease clinically, pathologically, and genetically, later evaluating new immunotherapies at different stages of tumor progression. He then became an assistant attending biologist in the melanoma and sarcoma service and assumed the direction of a research laboratory in partnership with Dr. Jedd Wolchok. He became associate attending in the melanoma and immunotherapeutic service and then a full member in the Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program department at MSK. He was also a Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy member researcher and led the melanoma disease management team and the immunotherapeutic group tissue bank at MSK.

In September 2022, he was appointed to his current role at WCM, where he directs a translational tumor immunology laboratory. He is currently researching potential immune-based therapies to treat cancer. He is also studying the pathogenesis and treatment of melanoma and the development of tools to study melanoma and immune responses in multiple cancers. His work is heavily collaborative, both within the institution and with multiple entities across different disciplines. His projects fall into 4 categories: overcoming resistance to immune checkpoint blockade therapy by modulating the immune system, using the immune modulatory properties of modalities that target and kill tumor cells directly, defining biomarkers and genetic determinants of response to immune therapy, and developing a tissue repository for the immunotherapy and melanoma groups.

Mario Sznol, MD

Dr. Mario Sznol is Professor of Internal Medicine, Leader of the Clinical Research Team for the Skin and Kidney Cancer Program, and Co-Leader of the Cancer Immunology Program at the Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Sznol is a graduate of Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in Houston, Texas. He trained in internal medicine at BCM and completed a fellowship in medical oncology in the Department of Neoplastic Diseases at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York. He spent the next 12 years in the Biologics Evaluation Section (BES), Investigational Drug Branch, Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and he was BES Chief from 1994 to 1999. He was on the inpatient units of the Biological Response Modifiers Program, NCI, from 1988 to 1996, and on the immunotherapy service of the Surgery Branch, NCI, from 1997 to 1999. From 1999 to 2004, he served as Vice President of Clinical Development for Vion Pharmaceuticals in New Haven, Connecticut. In 2004, he joined the medical oncology faculty at Yale, focusing on early drug development, immunotherapy, and treatments for advanced melanoma and kidney cancer. Dr. Sznol is a past president of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer.

Jedd Wolchok, MD, PhD

Dr. Jedd Wolchok is the Meyer Director of the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM); Chief, Cancer Services, New York-Presbyterian/WCM; and Professor of Medicine at WCM. He is a clinician-scientist exploring innovative immunotherapeutic strategies in laboratory models and a principal investigator in numerous pivotal clinical trials.

Dr. Wolchok helped establish immunotherapy as a standard approach to cancer treatment and was instrumental in the clinical development leading to the approval of ipilimumab and the combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab for advanced melanoma. He supervises a National Institutes of Health R01-funded basic science laboratory that is focused on investigating novel immunotherapeutic agents in preclinical laboratory models. The focus of his translational research laboratory is to investigate innovative means to modulate the immune response to cancer as well as to better understand the mechanistic basis for sensitivity and resistance to currently available immunotherapies.

Dr. Wolchok received his BA degree from Princeton University, and his MS, PhD, and MD degrees from New York University. Dr. Wolchok has received numerous honors for his work, including the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Memorial Award, the Giants of Cancer Care in Melanoma Award, the Berson Alumni Achievement Award in Clinical and Translational Science and the Zelmanovich Young Alumni Achievement Award from NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and the Alfred Taubman Prize for Excellence in Translational Medical Research (University of Michigan). He has been designated a Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and served on its board of directors. He has been awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award at MSK, the AACR-Joseph H. Burchenal Award for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Cancer Research, the ESMO Award for Immuno-Oncology and the David Karnofsky Award from ASCO. Dr. Wolchok has served on the Board of Directors of ASCO and the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) and was the Treasurer of SITC. He is an elected member of the AACR board of directors and was elected to the AACR Academy of Fellows. He is a fellow of the Academy of Immuno-Oncology, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and the Association of American Physicians (AAP), and he is chair of the Melanoma Committee for the ECOG-ACRIN National Cancer Institute cooperative group. Most recently he has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine. He is the Ludwig Distinguished Clinical Scholar for the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and center director for the Parker Institute of Cancer Immunotherapy.