DR. ANDREW HERR, PHD
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.

DR. RICHARD D. GRANSTEIN, M.D.
Dr. Granstein is one of the nation’s most esteemed dermatologist and the current Chairman of the Department of Dermatology at Weill Cornell Medical Center. His extensive and prestigious background studying skin disorders will be invaluable to the Company in our attempt to bring relief to the approximately 32 million Americans suffering from eczema.”

Richard D. Granstein, M.D. is the George W. Hambrick, Jr. Professor and Chairman of the Department of Dermatology. Dr. Granstein obtained his undergraduate education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his medical education at the UCLA School of Medicine. After completing his internship in 1979, he trained in dermatology at the Massachusetts General Hospital. As a Research Fellow, Dr. Granstein studied immunology and tumor biology at the National Cancer Institute-Frederick Cancer Research Facility and at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Granstein joined the faculty of the Department of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1984. In 1995 he left Harvard to become Chairman of the Department of Dermatology at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University and Dermatologist-in-Chief at the NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Dr. Granstein’s research interests center on the regulation of immunity within the skin and the relationship of the skin’s immune system to the development of skin cancers. He also has a special research interest in the regulation of the immune system by stress and the nervous system. He was the first to demonstrate that certain immune cells within the skin are capable of initiating an immune response against a malignant tumor and that immune cells within the epidermis (the upper layer of the skin) have an anatomic relationship with nerves and can be regulated by proteins produced by those nerves. His clinical interests include autoimmune disorders of the skin, skin cancer, and psoriasis.

DR. JONATHAN HALE ZIPPIN M.D., Ph.D., Senior Scientific Advisor
Jonathan Hale Zippin M.D., Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Dermatology and Pharmacology and an Associate Attending Dermatologist at Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Dr. Zippin is the current Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Dermatology and is the Director of the Contact, Occupational, and Photo Dermatitis Unit. Dr. Zippin obtained his undergraduate education at Cornell University where he received a Bachelor’s of Science with Honors. He then attended the Rockefeller/Cornell/Sloan-Kettering Tri-Institutional M.D./Ph.D. program. After completing a general medicine internship at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, he trained in dermatology at the Weill Cornell Medical Center – New York Presbyterian Hospital. Following completion of his post-doctoral studies in 2010, Dr. Zippin joined the faculty of the Department of Dermatology at Weill Cornell Medical College.

Dr. Zippin is a member of the American Academy of Dermatology, the Society for Investigative Dermatology, and the American Contact Dermatitis Society. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the American Contact Dermatitis Society where he helps to direct national policy on the treatment and detection of allergic-based eczema. Dr. Zippin serves as a consultant or medical advisor to companies, reviews papers for journals, and has helped to found companies based on his intellectual property.Dr. Zippin has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications in the area of signal transduction and skin disease, and has published a variety of papers reviewing the treatment of dermatologic diseases. Dr. Zippin’s research interests focus on understanding the signaling mechanisms that regulate diseases such as psoriasis, eczema, and melanoma with a specific focus on cAMP signaling. His clinical interests are focused on improving the detection and treatment of allergy based diseases of the skin.

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.

DR. 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.

DR. GLENN CRUSE, PHD
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.

WILLIAM WEGLICKI, MD
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.

DR. MICHAEL PETERS
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.