Darren Woodside, PhD, Scientific Advisory Board Chairman, is a co-founder, investor, and an inventor of 7HP technology. He is an experienced pharmaceutical executive and immunologist.  As the Associate Director of Drug Discovery, Biological Sciences at Encysive Pharmaceuticals, he directed drug discovery efforts targeting cell adhesion molecule signaling and function. Dr. Woodside is an author of numerous peer reviewed publications, and has been a Principal Investigator on a number grants from the National Institutes of Health.  Dr. Woodside has served on a number of Editorial Review Boards, including Nature Journal Genes and Immunity, and review panels for the NIH. He has a Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Scientific Advisory Board

Michael S. Perry, DVM, PhD, Advisor, brings extensive experience across the global pharmaceutical value chain for healthcare products spanning diverse therapeutic areas. In his career, he has been materially involved in the successful development and commercial launch of more than 30 prescription products, 14 of which achieved blockbuster status.  Dr. Perry is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Avita Medical (NASDAQ:RCEL and ASX:AVH) and has previously served in a variety of pharmaceutical executive roles, including as Chief Scientific Officer of Novartis’ Cell and Gene Therapy Unit from 2014-2017 and Vice President and Global Head of Stem Cell Therapy for Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. from 2012-2014.  He also served as President and Chief Medical Officer of Poniard Pharmaceuticals, Chief Development Officer at VIA Pharmaceuticals, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Extropy Pharmaceuticals, Global Head of Research and Development for Baxter’s BioScience Division, President and Chief Executive Officer of both SyStemix Inc. and Genetic Therapy Inc., and Vice President of Regulatory Affairs for Novartis Pharma.  Additionally, he served in executive roles at Syntex Corporation (now Roche) and at Schering-Plough (now Merck).  Dr. Perry holds a BSc in Physics, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM), and a PhD in Biomedical Pharmacology from the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. He is also a graduate of the International Management Program at Harvard Business School and serves as Adjunct Professor at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Gates Center for Regenerative Medicine.

Peter Vanderslice, PhD, Advisor & Collaborator, ​is a co-founder, investor, and an inventor of 7HP technology. He is an experienced pharmaceutical executive that has identified and developed four clinical stage compounds, managed joint ventures, and helped raise $100 million in equity financing at Encysive Pharmaceuticals, Inc.  He has translated numerous approaches targeting cell adhesion molecules into pharmaceutical development programs. Dr. Vanderslice has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications focusing on the biological function and therapeutic targeting of cell adhesion and trafficking.  The extensive experience in cell adhesion is critical to validating the 7HP lead compounds for use in hematologic cancers, and stem cell transplant and other indications. He has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin. 

Jason Luke, M.D., FACP, Advisor, is a medical oncologist at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Center who cares for patients with melanoma and advanced solid tumors. Dr. Luke's research focuses on translational therapeutic advances for melanoma and early phase drug development, particularly immunotherapy. He is Study Chair for the only on-going national clinical trial for patients with advanced uveal (ocular) melanoma and is the principal investigator of several clinical trials of immunotherapy and targeted molecular therapies for melanoma and advanced cancer. Dr. Luke was at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School where he treated patients with melanoma and performed early phase clinical trials. Dr. Luke has received several awards for his research, including a Young Investigator Award from the Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO, an ASCO Merit Award and others.

Jeffrey K. Actor, PhD, Advisor & Collaborator, is a Professor and Master Educator at the McGovern Medical School of the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, TX. He has high expertise in immunology of tuberculosis disease, designing vaccines and therapeutics to reduce Tubercuolsis related pathology. He received multiple grant awards from the National Institutes of Health focusing on molecules to modify inflammation. Dr. Actor has authored immunology texts, and over 100 peer reviewed publications examining immune response to pathogenic infections. He serves on NIH vaccine review panels, and on journal Editorial Boards, including Frontiers (Immunology) and International Immunopharmacology. He earned a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Massachusetts, and completed post-doctoral training at NIAID. He has been a scientific advisor for biotech since 1995.

Robert Kramer, PhD, Advisor​, has 24 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry and is the former Head of Oncology Discovery Research at both Bristol-Myers Squibb and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, part of the Johnson & Johnson group of companies. He has been responsible for enabling the transition of 35 drugs from discovery into the clinic. Rob championed immunotheraphy at Bristol-Myers Squibb, resulting in the acquisition of Medarex, Inc. in 2009 and its portfolio of immune therapeutics that included Ipilimumab and Nivolumab. He received his PhD in pharmacology from the University of Vermont and undertook his post doctorate studies at the US National Cancer Institute. Rob held an Assistant Professorship at the Harvard Medical School.

Adolfo García-Sastre, PhD, Advisor & Collaborator, is Professor in the Departmentsof Microbiology and Medicine and in the TischCancer Center at Icahn School of Medicine Mount Sinai (ISMMS) in New York,. He is also Director of the Global Health and Emerging Pathogens Institute at ISMMS, and Principal Investigator for the Center for Research on Influenza Pathogenesis (CRIP), one of five NIAID Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance (CEIRS). For the past 30 years, his research interest has been focused on the molecular biology, virus-host interactions, innate immunity and pathogenesis of influenza viruses and several other RNA viruses, as well as on the development of new vaccines and antivirals.  In 2019, he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

F. Stephen Hodi, MD, Advisor​, is the Director of the Melanoma Center and the Center for Immuno-Oncology at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center, the Sharon Crowley Martin Chair in Melanoma at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.  Dr. Hodi is an internationally recognized leader in the development of immune therapy and melanoma therapeutics. In particular, he is known for the clinical development of immune checkpoint inhibitors.  His clinical investigation efforts have pioneered the use of immune checkpoint blockade and combinatorial approaches to treat cancer.  His publications include articles in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of Clinical Oncology and the New England Journal of Medicine.  Dr. Hodi is a founding member of the Society for Melanoma Research.  Dr. Hodi is a graduate of Harvard University and Cornell University Medical College.  He completed his postdoctoral training in In­ternal Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and his medical oncology training at Dana-Farber cancer Institute, where he joined the faculty in 1998.