Advisors

Michael R. Blaese, M.D.
Formally National Institutes of Health

Dr. Blaese was on the faculty of the National Institutes of Health for 33 years where his work spanned a range of areas from basic research in immunology, virology, cancer and molecular genetics to clinical investigation and the development of innovative new therapies. In 1984 he started work to develop the use of genes as medicines that ultimately led to the first successful human gene therapy in 1990. As Chief of Clinical Gene Therapy for the Human Genome Institute, Mike continued to lead the early development of gene therapy introducing clinical trials for inherited immunodeficiency, brain cancer and AIDS. He has served widely on Biotech SABs and government advisory committees and in 1999 he joined Kimeragen (later ValiGen) as Chief Scientific Officer and President of their Molecular Pharmaceuticals Division. He has published over 340 original research papers, holds 11 patents and was instrumental in policy formation governing gene technology in the U.S. at the NIH, FDA and the RAC (Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee) as well as consulting on these topics for the Parliaments of France and Denmark. Most recently Dr. Blaese serves as Research Director of the Fund for Inherited Disease Research, Founder and President of PreGentis and as Medical Director of the Immune Deficiency Foundation.


Malcolm Brenner, M.D.
Baylor College of Medicine

Malcolm K. Brenner, M.B., B.Chir., Ph.D., F.R.C.P., F.R.C.Path., is Director of the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Brenner is recognized for his work in translating stem cell biology into cellular therapies for cancer. More recently, he has been studying the effects of tumor vaccines on putative tumor stem cells in a series of clinical trials in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Dr. Brenner began his studies at the University of Cambridge in his native England earning a BA in 1972 and MB BChir in 1975 and his PhD in immunology in 1981. Dr. Brenner then held various positions at the Medical Research Council's Clinical Research Center and at the Royal Free Hospital and the Hospital for Sick Children in London. He moved to the United States in 1990 to accept a position as Director of the Bone Marrow Transplant Division at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. He became Director of their Cell and Gene Therapy program in 1994, and in 1998 accepted his current position as Director of the newly founded Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Baylor College of Medicine, The Methodist Hospital and Texas Children's Hospital. Dr. Brenner was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1990 and a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists in 1997. He is Past President of the International Society for Cell Therapy and of the American Society for Gene Therapy. He has published more than 270 articles in biomedical journals, and currently serves as Associate Editor of the journals Blood, Molecular Therapy, Cancer Gene Therapy and Acta Haematologica.


Robert Gerety, M.D., Ph.D.
Nektar Therapeutics

With 15 years of experience at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health and 14 years as an executive in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, Dr. Gerety brings a wealth of experience to his position as Vice President and Principal Fellow with Nektar. While with the FDA, Dr. Gerety served as associate director for medicine and science and chief of the infectious disease branch at the Office for Biologics Evaluation and Research. Dr. Gerety also has held executive positions in regulatory affairs and research and development at several pharmaceutical companies. Prior to joining Inhale Therapeutics Systems, Dr. Gerety was vice president of development and regulatory affairs at OraVax, Inc. a biotechnology company engaged in the discovery and development of vaccines and antibody products. At Merck & Co., he directed the licensing of the first recombinant human vaccine against hepatitis B and establishing Shionogi as the Japanese commercialization partner. As vice president of development operations at Biogen, Inc., he was instrumental in championing the development of AVONEX¨ (interferon beta-1a), the leading drug used in the treatment of multiple sclerosis. Dr. Gerety was executive vice president and later CEO of ImmuLogic Pharmaceutical Corporation. Dr. Gerety has been a member of the United States Public Health Service, the National Vaccine Advisory Committee of the U.S. government, US Japan Scientific collaboration of Hepatitis, and the AIDS Task Force and has served as a consultant to the NIAID, the NCI, the U.S. Army, the American Red Cross, and the World Health Organization. He received his MA and PhD from Stanford University Medical School and his MD from the George Washington University School of Medicine.


Carl June, M.D.
University of Pennsylvania

Carl H. June, M.D., currently serves as Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Director, Translational Research Programs at the Abramson Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Dr. June is a 1975 graduate of the Naval Academy in Annapolis, and a graduate of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, 1979. He had graduate training in Immunology at the World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland from 1978-79, and post-doctoral training in transplantation biology at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle from 1983 Ð 1986. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology. He was a faculty member in the Departments of Medicine and Cell and Molecular Biology at the Uniformed Services University for the Health Sciences in Bethesda from 1987 to 1998. He is a member of the American Academy of Physicians, and a recipient of the Bristol Myers Squibb Freedom to Discover Award. Since moving to the University of Pennsylvania in 1999 as a Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Dr. June has established a facility to produce experimental cell based therapeutics. Currently, Dr. June is involved with several clinical trials that are testing various forms of cell based therapies for cancer and HIV infection. Dr. June is the scientific founder of Xcyte Therapies, Inc.


Paul Ness, M.D.
Johns Hopkins Medical Institution

Dr. Ness is director of the Transfusion Medicine Division at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and professor of Pathology, Medicine, and Oncology at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Ness was the CEO and medical director of the Greater Chesapeake and Potomac Region of the American Red Cross Blood Services from 1983-1999. He received his undergraduate education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his M.D. degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo. His postgraduate work includes residency in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins, fellowship training in hematology-oncology at the University of California San Francisco, and transfusion medicine fellowship at Irwin Memorial Blood Bank in San Francisco. From 1972-1974, Dr. Ness was a staff associate in the Division of Blood Diseases and Resources of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Ness has been a member of the AABB Board of Directors for many years and became President in 1999. He has been a member of the American Society of Clinical Pathologists Board of Registry Blood Bank examination committee, the FDA Blood Products Advisory Committee, and consults for many commercial and non-profit organizations. Dr. Ness has written over 150 articles for medical journals and has reviewed manuscripts for many journals. He is a co-editor of two comprehensive texts in transfusion medicine, The Scientific Basis of Transfusion Medicine and Blood Banking and Transfusion Medicine, Basic Principles and Practice.


James Weaver, Ph.D.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology James C. Weaver, Ph.D., is a Senior Research Scientist in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology on the MIT campus. Dr. Weaver has published more than one hundred peer-reviewed scientific papers, has twenty-four issued patents, and in 2000 was elected Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. His research has emphasized electromagnetic field effects in cells and tissues, with a focus on the fundamental mechanism of cell electroporation and its biomedical applications. Dr. Weaver received his BA from Carleton College, and MS and PhD degrees in Physics from Yale University.