Scientific Advisory Board
Arul M. Chinnaiyan, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Chinnaiyan is a recognized leader in the use of biomarkers in the clinic to choose appropriate therapies for cancer patients. Biomarkers are characteristics that are measured and evaluated as an indicator of normal biologic processes, pathogenic processes, or pharmacologic responses to a therapeutic intervention. Dr. Chinnaiyan has led the characterization of a number of biomarkers of prostate cancer including AMACR, EZH2, hepsin, and sarcosine. His laboratory identified recurrent ETS gene fusions in prostate cancer, potentially redefining the molecular basis of prostate cancer as well as other common epithelial cancers. His laboratory also developed Oncomine (www.oncomine.org), a popular cancer profiling bioinformatics resource.
Muneesh Tewari, M.D., Ph.D.
Muneesh Tewari, M.D., Ph.D., is a faculty member at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center where he has focused on studying the role of microRNAs in cancer, as well as on developing microRNA-based biomarker approaches for oncology applications. Dr. Tewari earned both an M.D. and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Following his internship and residency at the University of Michigan Medical Center, he went on to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, where he completed a clinical fellowship in Medical Oncology and a research fellowship in functional genomics and systems biology. He continued his research as a faculty member at Harvard Medical School, and also served in clinical capacities at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (all affiliates of Harvard Medical School). Since 2005 he has led a laboratory at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, where his group pursues basic and translational studies of microRNAs in cancer.
Paul R. Schimmel, Ph.D.
Dr. Paul R. Schimmel is currently at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego serving as the Ernest and Jean Hahn Professor of Molecular Biology and Chemistry. Dr. Schimmel specializes in researching the mechanism of action of proteins and the manner in which they act upon the nucleic acids in the cell. Author or coauthor of more than 450 scientific papers, he is also co-author of a widely read three-volume textbook on biophysical chemistry. He has received numerous awards for his contributions to the field. Prior to joining Scripps, Dr. Schimmel was John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Biophysics and Biochemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was employed from 1967 to 1997. He also served as the Chairman, Division of Biological Chemistry, American Chemical Society. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the Institute of Medicine.
Dr. Schimmel graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University, holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and did post-doctoral work at Stanford University.
David Gelfand, Ph.D.
Dr. Gelfand joined WaferGen in 2007 as Chief Scientific Officer. Between October 2005 and August 2006, Dr. Gelfand worked as a consultant in the fields of molecular diagnostics, nucleic acid amplification, DNA sequencing and genotyping. From December 1991 to October 2005, Dr. Gelfand worked for Roche Molecular Systems, Inc., performing in vitro molecular diagnostics tests, discovery research and development for molecular research reagents.
While at Roche Molecular Systems, Inc., Dr. Gelfand was vice president of the discovery research division and a director of the program in core research where he was also recognized for his leading role in the emergence and evolution of DNA sequencing. He received his Ph.D. in Biology from University of California, San Diego. Dr. Gelfand is one of the pioneers of PCR having helped develop the technique while at Cetus Corporation in the 1980s.
Dr. Gelfand holds 50 patents and in 1990, was the recipient of the US Distinguished Inventor Award for Taq DNA Polymerase.
Timothy J. Triche, M.D., Ph.D.
As Director of the Center for Personalized Medicine at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Dr. Triche manages a large cancer genomics, biology, and nanotechnology laboratory research program funded by grants from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Energy (DOE), Children’s Oncology Group (COG), University of Southern California (USC) Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, and several private philanthropic entities. Until recently, Dr. Triche was Chief of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine for over 20 years. Previously, Dr. Triche was Section Chief and Head of Molecular Diagnostics in the Laboratory of Pathology at the National Cancer Institute. He received his pathology specialty training at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and subsequently did a fellowship at the NCI prior to joining the faculty there. Dr. Triche received his undergraduate degree in physics and biology from Cornell University, where he was a Cornell National Scholar, and M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Tulane University, where he was a Medical Scientist Training Program grant recipient.
Dr. Triche is a Beckman Fellow of the Beckman Macular Research Center at the Doheny Eye Institute, and serves on the Board of Directors of publicly traded LTC Properties Corporation and several small private biotech companies. He is also on the board of PROOF, a Vancouver, Canada-based centre for personalized medicine related to organ transplantation. He is a founding member of Children’s Oncology Group, where he has served in multiple capacities, including Associate Chair for Translational Research. He is a standing member of NCI’s Advisory Committees for clinical and basic cancer biology studies, where he frequently reviews grant proposals in cancer biology and treatment, genomics, and nanotechnology.