Mario Lacouture, M.D.

Dr. Lacouture is an Attending Physician and the director of the Oncodermatology Program in the Dermatology Service, Department of Medicine, at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a Professor in the Department of Dermatology, Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City. He did his postdoctoral work at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA, an internship in General Surgery at Cleveland Clinic and residency in dermatology at The University of Chicago, IL. He received his M.D. degree from Javeriana University in Bogota, Colombia, where he grew up. He pioneered the discipline of Oncodermatology, which studies and treats dermatologic conditions in cancer patients, and those that arise as a consequence of chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy or stem cell transplants. Dr. Lacouture is currently the Principal Investigator for “The CHANCE Trial”, A Longitudinal Study of Chemotherapy-Induced Hair Changes and Alopecia, Skin Aging and Nail Changes in Women with Non-Metastatic Breast Cancer and a NIH funded study to identify the mechanisms of immune-related cutaneous adverse events. In addition, Dr Lacouture is the principal investigator for various therapeutic trials in oncodermatology. Dr. Lacouture is a well-known lecturer in the US and abroad on dermatologic conditions as a result of cancer therapies. He founded a clinical program that encompasses patient care, education, and research on dermatologic care in cancer patients and survivors. He is the founder of the Oncodermatology and Immunotherapy Study Group of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer and is on the advisory board of Cancer.Net. In 2012, CancerCare named Dr Lacouture as Physician of the Year for his contributions to the education of people living with cancer, and he has been rated as a Top Doctor by New York Magazine since 2012. In 2021 he was awarded the Everett C. Fox Memorial Lectureship by the American Academy of Dermatology for his innovative work in oncodermatology. Dr Lacouture has published over 260 articles in peer-reviewed journals and is the author of Dr Lacouture’s Skin Care Guide for People Living With Cancer and Editor of the textbook Dermatologic Principles and Practice in Oncology.

Andrew Herr, Ph.D.

Dr. Herr was instrumental in the creation and development of the BioLexa Platform, so we are honored to have him on our advisory board and grateful for his assistance to the Company.

Dr. Andrew Herr, PhD, is an associate professor in the Division of Immunobiology and Center for Systems Immunology, with an affiliate appointment in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital within the UC Department of Pediatrics. Dr. Herr completed his thesis work in molecular biophysics from Washington University in St. Louis, and completed his postdoctoral work in structural immunology at the California Institute of Technology as a Damon Runyon Research Fellow. He was recruited to the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine as an Ohio Eminent Scholar in Structural Biology before moving to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

The Herr lab studies mechanisms of bacterial pathogenesis. Specifically, they discovered the zinc-dependent mechanism of intercellular adhesion in bacterial biofilms formed by Staphylococcus epidermidis and S. aureus. Biofilms are specialized bacterial colonies that are highly resistant to antibiotics and immune responses, so developing novel therapies to prevent biofilm formation is of high importance. This is of particular significance in eczema, since nearly 90% of people who suffer from atopic dermatitis are colonized by S. aureus on their skin. Dr. Herr also solved the first structure of a human IgA1 antibody bound to its cognate Fc receptor while at Caltech, and his lab has continued to study antibodies and immune receptors implicated in autoimmune diseases. In addition, the lab is studying a family of related collagen-specific immune receptors such as glycoprotein VI, which activates platelets upon exposure to fibrous collagen. Before joining the faculty at Cincinnati Children’s within the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Dr. Herr was an Ohio Eminent Scholar in Structural Biology at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and served as an associate director of the Cincinnati Medical Scientist (MD/PhD) Training Program. Dr. Herr received the 2014 Emerging Entrepreneurial Achievement Faculty Award from UC for his work to commercialize a novel anti-infective therapy based on his lab’s research.

Vincent C. O. Njar, Ph.D.

Dr. Njar has over 38 years of demonstrated accomplishment as a medicinal chemist and oncopharmacologist in academia at several universities, including 23 years with University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA. He has >120 scientific publications, over 35 issued patents and 30+ pending patents; H-Index: 43; citations: 10,571. He has a Ph.D. in Chemistry (University College. London, UK) and completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Worcester Foundation for Experimental biology, Shrewsbury, MA, USA.

He is Currently Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacology in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore and Head, Medicinal Chemistry Section, Center for Biomolecular Therapeutics (CBT); Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR). He is the Lead Inventor of a drug candidate, galeterone (originally code named VN/124-1), which advanced to Phase III clinical trials in patients with metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer (licensed by UMB to Tokai Pharmaceutical Inc., Boston, MA, USA). Galeterone was recently licensed to Education Scientific LLC (ESL), who is continuing its clinical development. Dr. Njar co-founded Isoprene Pharmaceuticals Inc (IPI) in 2018, a cancer therapeutic company developing novel small molecules for the treatment of cancer.

William Weglicki, M.D.

William Weglicki, MD trained in Medicine at the Georgetown University Hospital before completing his cardiology fellowship at Duke University Medical Center. After two years as a Research Associate at NIH and Johns Hopkins University, he joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School for seven years and there he was promoted to Associate Professor of Medicine. In 1975 he was appointed Chairman of the Department of Biophysics at the Medical College of Virginia of Virginia Commonwealth University. While at Harvard and MCV he was awarded several NIH research grants. At the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation he led their Cardiovascular Research Program. He joined the George Washington University Department of Medicine in 1985 and formed the Division of Experimental Medicine; in 1987 this core group of investigators was awarded a Program Project grant on Molecular Mechanisms of Cardiovascular Injury from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. For 12 years he served as chairman of the Department of Physiology at GWU. From 2002 -2006 he served as President of the US, Canada, Mexico Section of the International Society for Heart Research. In 2005 he organized a symposium for the WHO on magnesium and disease processes. In 2006 he was an invited chair and speaker at the International Magnesium Society meeting in Japan. He chaired the Gordon Conference on Magnesium in Biochemical Processes and Medicine in 2008 in California. He has been a principal investigator on NHLBI research grants for more than 30 years. From 2014-2018 at GWU he served as Interim Chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine. His ongoing research includes the study of cardiac and cutaneous side effects due to some of the EGFR/Tyrosine Kinase Inhibiting anticancer drugs.

Glenn Cruse, Ph.D.

Dr. Glenn Cruse, PhD, is currently Assistant Professor of Immunology at North Carolina State University within the College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Cruse completed his graduate studies at Glenfield Hospital, of the University of Leicester, United Kingdom, where he focused on human lung mast cell biology in asthma. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship training in the Laboratory of Allergic Diseases, NIAID at NIH before starting his own research program in his current position at NC State. The goal of his research program is to establish novel regulators of allergic inflammation and to develop targeted therapeutics for allergic inflammation and mast cell-mediated diseases.

Adam Friedman, M.D., F.A.A.D.

Adam Friedman, M.D., F.A.A.D. is Professor and Interim Chair of Dermatology and serves as Residency Program Director and Director of Translational Research in the Department of Dermatology at The George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences. Dr. Friedman completed his undergraduate training at the University of Pennsylvania and graduated with Distinction in Dermatologic Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. He completed his internship at New York Hospital Queens and returned to Einstein for his Dermatology residency, where he was appointed Chief Resident during his final year. Dr. Friedman joined the Einstein faculty after graduation and served as the Director of Dermatologic Research, Director of the Translational Research Fellowship, and the Associate Program Director.

Michael Peters, Ph.D.

Dr. Michael Peters is currently Professor of Chemical and Life Science Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is also an Associate Member of VCU’s Massey Cancer Center and an affiliated faculty in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology. Dr. Peters received his PhD from the Ohio State University in 1981 and his B.S from the University of Dayton in 1977. Dr. Peters teaches across a broad spectrum of courses in mathematics, science, engineering, and medicine, was involved in the teaching of medical school gross anatomy for over 15 years, trained in animal surgical methods, and has held both academic and clinical appointments.

Dr. Peters bioengineering research spans from fundamental to applied studies merging detailed biomolecular computations and mathematical methods to experimental studies, including preclinical and laboratory experiments. His fundamental research includes protein structure, function and interactions, protein folding, and fragment-based protein engineering methods. Current applied studies include inhibition strategies against the SARS-Cov-2 spike protein, amyloid fibril therapeutics in the treatment of AD, and inhibitor design and development for the HSP70-Bag-1 anti-apoptotic pathway in a variety of chemoresistant cancers.