Scientific Advisory Board

David G. Maloney, MD, PhD

Scientific Advisory Board Member

 

Professor, Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutch; Medical Director, Cellular Immunotherapy, Fred Hutch; Medical Director Cellular Immunotherapy, Bezos Family Immunotherapy Clinic, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance; Klorfine Endowed Chair for Clinical Research, Fred Hutch; Professor, Division of Medical Oncology, University of Washington. MD and PhD in Cancer Biology from Stanford. David was instrumental in the development and clinical trials of the drug Rituximab, the first antibody-based cancer treatment, and was a member of the team that created the mini-transplant, a less intense form of the conventional allogeneic stem cell transplant. He is currently involved in the development and clinical testing of genetically engineered immune cell therapies (such as CAR-T and others) to treat a variety of cancers.  Immune cell therapies are showing huge promise with 5 such therapies FDA approved in the last 4 years.  David is a widely recognized expert in translating research into transformational patient outcomes, particularly for those patients with critically unmet needs.

Elizabeth J. Shpall, MD

Scientific Advisory Board Member

 

Professor, Stem Cell Transplantation Department, MD Anderson; Department Chair ad interim, Department of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy; Director GMP Cell Therapy Laboratory and Cord Blood Bank, MD Anderson. Howard and Lee Smith Endowed Chair in Cancer Research; 2001 to present Best Doctor in America, America’s Top Doctor.  BA Equivalent Biology and French, Brown University, MD University of Cincinnati. Elizabeth has over 30 years of experience translating stem cell engineering from the lab to the clinic and over 10 years of experience in validating new technologies from a regulatory perspective for GMP and IND filings. Elizabeth was the Founding President and is a current Board member of the Foundation for Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT) and is the Co-Chair of the FACT Immune Effector Cell Task Force. She was also the past President of the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT).

David Nguyen, MD, PhD

Scientific Advisory Board Member, Active Strategic Advisor

 

Assistant Professor, UCSF. David is a Stanford MD and an MIT PhD in Materials Science and Medical Engineering. He completed residency and fellowship training in Infectious Diseases at UCSF. David trained and worked as a graduate student and post doc in Bob Langer’s Lab at MIT and also did a post doc in Alex Marson’s Lab at UCSF. He has 20 years of experience developing drug delivery, and while at MIT he helped develop nanoparticles targeting nucleic acid therapeutics to various cells. David currently develops novel systems for CRISPR gene editing in primary human immune cells with a particular application focus on identifying and correcting genetic defects of the immune system. David is a recognized expert in applying gene editing in primary human immune cells, having published numerous papers on the subject, including demonstrating some of the best non-viral gene editing in primary human cells. David’s hands on experience has evolved into an expanded role in addition to the SAB for Navan. He is providing frequent advisory services and has been transformational to our full-time scientific team.

Katy Rezvani, MD, PhD

Scientific Advisory Board Member

 

Sally Cooper Murray Endowed Chair in Cancer Research, Professor, Department of Stem Cell Transplantation, MD Anderson; Executive Director, Adoptive Cell Therapy Platform; Director of Translational Research; Medical Director GMP and Cellular Therapy Facility; Cell Therapy Section Chief; PI Rezvani Laboratory, all at MD Anderson. BS and MBBS/MD University College London, PhD Transplant Immunology Imperial College London. Postdoctoral fellowship NHLBI/NIH. Katy is the former Medical Director of the GMP Facility at Hammersmith Hospital. She leads the NK Immunotherapy Program at MD Anderson, and has translated multiple innovative immunotherapy strategies from bench to bedside. Her Lab is involved with multiple cell types including T cells and NK cells and is involved with various gene editing tools. Katy focuses on the role of NK cells in mediating immunity against hematologic and solid tumors to develop strategies to genetically engineer NK cells to enhance their anti-tumor activity. Findings from Katy’s Lab have led to several clinical trials of NK immunotherapies for hematologic and solid tumors, as well as the first-in-human clinical trial of off the shelf CAR transduced cord blood derived NK cells.