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Scientific Advisory Board
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AssureImmune's Advisory Board features industry leaders in areas of Immunology, Transplantation, Blood, Stem Cells and Business Strategy. Our advisors provide our management team with the
in-depth scientific and business knowledge needed to meet the needs of even the most discriminating clients. |
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- Ruth Arnon, Ph.D. – Internationally renowned immunologist, the Paul Ehrlich Chair in Immunology at the Weizmann Institute and a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences
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Dr. Ruth Arnon is a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and presently chairs its Science Division. Formerly Vice-President of the Weizmann Institute of Science (1988-1997), Professor Arnon is an internationally acclaimed immunologist. Prof. Arnon joined the Weizmann Institute in 1960. Prior to her appointment as Vice-President, she served as Head of the Department of Chemical Immunology and as Dean of the Faculty of Biology. From 1985 to 1994, Prof. Arnon was Director of the Institute's McArthur Center for Molecular Biology of Tropical Diseases. She has made significant contributions to the field of vaccine development, cancer research and the study of parasitic diseases. On the international scene, Prof. Arnon is an elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). She has served as President of the European Federation of Immunological Societies (EFIS), Secretary-General of the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS). Prof. Arnon served from 1995 to 2001 as Chairman of the Science Division of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Her awards include the Robert Koch Prize in Medical Sciences, Spain's Jiminez Diaz Memorial Prize, France's Legion of Honor, the Hadassah World Organization's Women of Distinction Award, the Wolf Prize for Medicine, the Rothschild Prize for Biology and the Israel Prize in Medicine 2001. Prof. Arnon has been also the Science Advisor to the President of Israel since 2001. Prof. Arnon, along with Prof. Michael Sela, conceptualized and developed Copaxone®, a multi-million dollar drug for the treatment of multiple sclerosis which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and is presently marketed worldwide Prof. Arnon is the incumbent of the Paul Ehrlich Chair in Immunochemistry at the Weizmann Institute |
- Jacques Banchereau, Ph.D. - W.W. Caruth Jr. Chair in Organ Transplantation and Immunology and Director of the Baylor Institute of Immunology Research.
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Dr. Jacques Banchereau is director of the Baylor Institute for Immunology Research in Dallas and holds The Max and Gayle Clampitt Chair for Immunology Research. He received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Paris in 1980 and later served as director of the Schering Plough Laboratory for Immunological Research near Lyon, France, where he was among the first to discover how to grow human dendritic cells. Dr. Banchereau came to Baylor in 1996 to develop the Institute for Immunology and serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. He also serves on the National Institutes of Health's Experimental Immunology Study Section, Center for Scientific Review, in the area of experimental immunology. He has published more than 220 papers and 130 book chapters and reviews in major international journals, reviews manuscripts for various scientific journals and is a frequent speaker at national and international scientific conferences. His research interests center around various areas of immunology and cancer including dendritic cells, novel cytokines and antibody-producing B lymphocytes |
- J. Donald Capra, M.D. - President Emeritus of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and Chair of AssureImmune’s Scientific Advisory Board.
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Dr. J. Donald Capra, M.D., President Emeritus, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, came to Oklahoma and OMRF in 1997 from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, where he served as professor of microbiology and internal medicine and was the Edwin L. Cox Distinguished Chair in Immunology and Genetics. He joined UT Southwestern in 1974 and in 1994 was named Director of Southwestern’s Molecular Immunology Center. A native of Vermont, Dr. Capra received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry and an M.D. from the University of Vermont. He held research fellowships at the National Institutes of Health and Rockefeller University, and was professor of microbiology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine of the City University of New York prior to moving to Dallas. In his nine-year tenure as OMRF President, Dr. Capra oversaw an impressive period of growth and new scientific discovery. External research funding tripled, the scientific faculty grew from 36 to 49, and the number of graduate students at OMRF tripled. OMRF completed a five-year Capital and Endowment Campaign, exceeding its $100 million goal. Over 100,000 square feet of the OMRF facility was renovated, and the $15 million Donald W. Reynolds Center for Genetic Research and an administrative building and conference center were constructed. In May 2006, Dr. Capra stepped down as President of OMRF and currently holds the title of President Emeritus. He continues his research projects in the laboratory as Member and Head of the Molecular Immunogenetics Research Program at OMRF. Dr. Capra is well known for his studies of antibody genes and how they are mutated in autoimmune disorders. His early work on the relationship of the hypervariable regions of antibodies to the antibody combining site and idiotype of an immunoglobulin molecule are well known. He continues to do research on the immune system, especially the cells that produce antibodies and lymphomas, the tumors that arise from these cells.
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- Ronald O. Gilcher, M.D., F.A.C.P. - Medical Director and former CEO of the Oklahoma Blood Institute, the largest in the U.S.
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Ronald O. Gilcher, M.D., F.A.C.P. is the "in house" Medical Director and also a Scientific Advisory Board member for AssureImmune. He is considered a visionary in the blood banking industry due largely to his pioneering and championing efforts with numerous important safety, technology and recruitment initiatives. As the former CEO of the Oklahoma Blood Institute, one of the largest U.S. regional blood centers, Dr. Gilcher is a recognized leader in the blood and transfusion medicine sector. In this position, he directed and inspired phenomenal collections growth, increasing from 22,000 units in 1979 to more than 200,000 by 2006. Over the course of his career, he led the way in blood center based public health programs, pioneered cholesterol, prostate specific antigen (PSA), and cardiac disease marker testing for U.S. donors. He was first to institute the HIV antigen test and single donor nucleic acid testing (NAT). As an expert in the field of blood banking, he has published over 200 abstracts and articles in numerous medical journals including Transfusion and Blood. He is on the Oklahoma University College of Public Health Advisory Board and serves on several professional and scientific committees for the AABB, and the Oklahoma County Medical Society. Dr. Gilcher does consulting in hematology and transfusion medicine in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He is a 1963 graduate of the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia. |
- David Gury - Former Chairman/CEO of Nabi Biopharmaceuticals, and founder of BioFlorida.
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David Gury is the former Chairman and CEO of NABI Biopharmaceuticals. In May 1984, Mr. Gury joined NABI Biopharmaceuticals as President and Chief Operating Officer. He was elected Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer and President in April 1992. During his tenure, the Company successfully transitioned from a plasma supplier into a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company. Prior to joining NABI Biopharmaceuticals, Mr. Gury spent his career with Abbott Laboratories in various administrative and executive positions and with Alpha Therapeutics Corporation, a spin out from Abbott. Mr. Gury completed his A.B. in economics at Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, in 1960 and received his MBA in Economics at the University of Chicago in 1962, specializing in accounting and finance. His undergraduate junior year was spent at the University of Madrid in Spain. He was a Research Fellow at the University of Chicago and an intern with Arthur Andersen & Co. He is also Chairman of the Board of Oragenics (AMEX), GeneEX(private) and Bioheart (Private). Mr. Gury is the Founding Chairman of the Florida Research Consortium; and past Chairman and a Founding Member of BioFlorida. Mr. Gury was an active developer of the biotechnology landscape in Florida thru active participation with the former Governor Bush and members of the State Legislature. He was appointed by Governor Bush to the Scripps Florida Funding Corp. Board. |
- Joshua Michael Hare, - M.D. FACC, Chief of the Division of Cardiology, Louis Lemberg Professor of Medicine, Professor of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology, and Director of the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
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Joshua Michael Hare, M.D., FACC, is chief of the Division of Cardiology, Louis Lemberg professor of medicine, professor of molecular and cellular pharmacology, and director of the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Dr. Hare graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and has a medical degree from Johns Hopkins University. He did his residency at Hopkins and fellowships at Hopkins, Harvard University and The Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Dr. Hare was Professor of Medicine and Biomedical Engineering and director of cardiac transplantation at Johns Hopkins, leading their heart failure program, before he joined the faculty at University of Miami. Dr. Hare is one of the world’s leading pioneers in the use of stem cell therapy to repair damaged hearts. He recently released findings on the first human clinical trial testing a stem-cell based treatment for heart attack patients, which showed the stem cell treated patients had lower rates of cardiac arrhythmias, and had significant improvements in heart, lung and symptom status. His work is widely published and has included recent articles in The New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Circulation, and Circulation Research. Dr. Hare is the principal investigator on a National Institutes of Health Specialized Center for Cell-Therapy (SCC T) funded stem cell study for patients with congestive heart failure. |
- Markus G. Manz, M.D. - Research Group Leader at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (Bellinzona, Switzerland).
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Dr. Markus Manz is currently the Research Group Leader in the Department of Hematology/Immunology /Oncology at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB) in Bellinzona, Switzerland. He also serves as a Physician in the Department of Hematology at the Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland, Bellinzona and is on the Medical Faculty at the Eberhard-Karls-University Tuebingen. Prior to this, he was Associate Research Group Leader at IRB, a Physician in the Department of Hematology/Oncology/Immunology at the University of Tuebingen Medical School in Germany and elected as Professor and Director of the Department of Cellular Therapeutics and Research at the Essen University Medical School in Germany. His most recent honors include receiving the "Swissbridge Award" in 2002 and also the “Artur-Pappenheim-Award” from the German Society of Hemotology/Oncology (DGHO) in 2004. He attended medical school at the University of Tuebingen Medical School and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Pathology and Developmental Biology at Stanford University Medical School, USA. |
- Donny Strosberg, Ph.D. - Professor in the Department of Infectology - Scripps FL.
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Dr. A. Donny Strosberg was trained as a Dr. Sci at the Free University of Brussels and did a post-doctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. After serving at Harvard Medical School as an Instructor and later as a Visiting Professor, he became Professor of Biochemistry and Immunology first in Brussels , then in Paris. With his teams he published over 370 peer-reviewed original scientific articles, several books and dozens of book chapters. He holds over twenty issued patents of which several were licensed to pharmaceutical companies. Prof. Strosberg is a co-founder of several biotechnology companies including Incyte listed on NASDAQ and Praecis founded with M.I.T and also listed on NASDAQ. He also helped run three bio-incubators for start-up enterprises. Prof. Strosberg was, between early 1999 and the end of 2004, the Chairman and CEO of Hybrigenics a company, which he founded in 1998, together with the Pasteur Institute. In March 2005, he was recruited as Professor of Infectology by The Scripps Research Institute for its Florida division to manage a program on Hepatitis C and Cancer, and help start new biotechnology companies in Florida, in association with the Institute. See also: www.donny-strosberg.com |
- Dov Zipori, Ph.D. - Professor in the Department of Molecular Cell Biology at the Weizmann Institute of Science.
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Dr. Dov Zipori, Professor in the Department of Molecular Cell Biology at the Weizmann Institute of Science. He received his Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. Prompted by the studies of AIa Fridenshtein, from Moscow, he focused his research on stroma/stem-cell interactions and pursued his Post-Doctoral training with Dirk van Bekkum, at the National Institutes of Health (TNO), The Netherlands. Upon his return to the Weizmann Institute, he isolated a series of cell lines from the stroma and demonstrated their plastic phenotype. These lines were harnessed to the study of the role of the mesenchymal microenvironment in the regulation of normal and malignant haematopoietic cells. He spent a sabbatical year at DANX Research Institute, Palo Alto, California, before returning to the Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, where he uses cellular and molecular biology tools to further the notion of the restrictive mode of tissue organization by stromal cells, and the role of transforming growth factor ß family molecules in this process and in the human disease multiple myeloma. In recent years he established a Stem Cell Club at the Weizmann Institute that eventually developed into the present Israel Stem Cell Society. In June 2007 he lead a first International Stem Cell Meeting in Tel Aviv to be followed by 4 more such events. He now serves as the Director of the Helen and Martin Kimmel Institute for Stem Cell Research at the Weizmann Institute of Science. |
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