SINAInnovations
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Daniel Behr, MBA
Founder and Senior Vice President
Access BridgeGap

Over the past 25 years, Daniel Behr has developed deep expertise in venture creation and innovation in the life and physical sciences through his various roles as entrepreneur, investor and technology development professional. Daniel is currently Senior Vice President and a founder of Access BridgeGap Ventures, the early-stage life sciences (therapeutics) venture investment and venture creation unit of Access Industries. BridgeGap's investments include Mnemosyne, Exithera, and Vedantra. Before, he was Director of Technology Ventures at Allied Minds, Inc., an investment firm focused on creating and funding academic spinoffs. At Allied Minds Daniel led the creation and funding of SciFluor, a fluorine therapeutics startup. From 2006- 2010, Daniel was Director of Business Development at Harvard University's Office of Technology Development (technology transfer) where he helped launch 7 Harvard spinoffs (including GnuBio, Capsum and Qstream). Previously, Daniel co-founded 3 startups (In-USA, Compact Instruments, Arradiance) and a seed-stage venture investment fund (Seed Partners).

Before starting his first company, Daniel was a business strategy Consultant at Bain & Co. and an advanced-materials Research Engineer at Albany International. Daniel earned an MBA with distinction from the Harvard Business School and a BS in Engineering with highest honors from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He speaks German and is fluent in Spanish.
Erwin Paul Bottinger, MD
Director of The Charles Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Dr. Böttinger is a native of Germany where he obtained his MD degree from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in 1986. He trained in internal medicine and nephrology in the U.S., including a Clinical and Research Fellowship in Nephrology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. After additional research with the National Cancer Institute, Dr. Bottinger joined the faculty at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine where he served as Director of the Albert Einstein Biotechnology Center, an NIH-funded national research resource center in genomics and biomedical informatics. In 2004, he transferred to the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City where he currently holds an endowed chair as Irene and Dr. Arthur Fishberg Professor in Medicine. He served as Vice Chairman for Biomedical Research in the Department of Medicine, before he was appointed in 2007 as inaugural Director of The Charles Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine at Mount Sinai, an interdisciplinary institute to advance personalized health and healthcare. Dr. Böttinger is the Principal Investigator of Mount Sinai’s BioMe™ hospital-based Biobank and several NIH-funded national research consortia, including the Chronic Kidney Disease Biomarker Consortium and the electronic medical records and genomics (eMERGE) network.
Ross Cagan, PhD
Professor in the Department of Developmental and Regenerative Biology
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Dr. Cagan received his PhD at Princeton University and, after postdoctoral training at UCLA, became an Assistant Professor at Washington University School of Medicine in 1993. He rose to Professor in 1999 and Full Professor in 2004. He moved to Mount Sinai in 2007 where he became Full Professor in the Department of Developmental and Regenerative Biology. In addition, Dr. Cagan is co-founder of Medros, Inc., a biotechnology company that utilizes Drosophila to identify cancer and diabetes targets and therapeutics.

Dr. Cagan's laboratory continues to explore issues of epithelial patterning in development. The major focus of his laboratory is the use of the fruit fly Drosophila to develop complex cancer and diabetes models. These models are used to explore the complex, whole animal mechanisms that direct disease. His laboratory uses these models to identify useful therapeutics, including helping identify Caprelsa as a now-approved drug for Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma. Novel drugs are developed through the combination of fly genetics and medicinal chemistry, representing a new approach to disease therapeutics.
Dennis S. Charney, MD
Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs of The Mount Sinai Medical Center

Dr. Charney is a world expert in the neurobiology and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders. He has made fundamental contributions to the understanding of neural circuits and neurochemistry related to human anxiety, fear, mood and discovery of new treatment for mood and anxiety disorders. After decades of work on the biology of anxiety, depression, and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Dr. Charney and colleagues have turned their attention toward investigating the psychobiological mechanisms of human resilience to stress. Started at the Yale University School of Medicine and then pursued at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), this work continues today at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai where Dr. Charney serves as the Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs of The Mount Sinai Medical Center. A prolific author, Dr. Charney has written more than 700 publications, including groundbreaking scientific papers, chapters, and books, in particular his most recent entitled Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges, for lay audiences (Cambridge University Press, 2012).

In 2006 as Dean, Dr. Charney unveiled Mount Sinai’s $2.25 billion strategic plan, laying the foundation for the robust 15-institute structure that Mount Sinai is known for today. Mount Sinai now stands with the top medical schools in the United States as a beacon for advances in education, transformative biomedical research, and personalized, compassionate, world-class clinical care. During Dr. Charney’s tenure, Mount Sinai rose to and has maintained its strength among the top 20 institutions in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, and it currently ranks third in funding per faculty member from the NIH. The institution is also listed consistently among the top 20 medical schools in the country according to U.S. News & World Report, and in 2009, it received the Spencer Foreman Award for Outstanding Community Service from the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Nadim Choudhury
MD Candidate
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Nadim Choudhury is an MD candidate in his second year at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He is an active member of the student body demonstrated by his roles as Co-President of the Internal Medicine Interest Group and Founder of the organization Student Leaders for Advancing Medicine, which attracts students with interests in healthcare leadership and medical technology. He is also extensively involved in the East Harlem community through leadership roles in MedStart, a year-round mini-medical school camp for inner city youth, and East Harlem Health Outreach Partnership (EHHOP), a free medical clinic for adults in East Harlem. This past summer, Nadim was accepted into Mount Sinai’s Patient Research in Science and Medicine (PRISM) program in which he conducted research that explored the characterization of adrenal insufficiency caused by corticosteroid use in the multiple myeloma patient population.

Nadim grew up in Gainesville, Florida and attended the University of Florida where he received a Bachelors of Science degree in the Neurobiological Sciences and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 2011. He is planning to train in Internal Medicine and specialize in Hematology and Oncology. Through his various leadership and research opportunities, he has gained an appreciation for translational medicine and hopes to become involved in healthcare leadership and medical technology in the future.
John M. Collins, PhD
Chief Operating Officer
CIMIT

Dr. Collins is the Chief Operating Officer of CIMIT, a consortium of the greater Boston area’s premier academic medical centers and universities (www.CIMIT.org). CIMIT’s mission is to improve patient care by accelerating the healthcare innovation cycle for novel products, services and procedures by facilitating collaboration among clinicians, healthcare managers, technologists, engineers and entrepreneurs. Before joining CIMIT, John’s spent his career in industry as a leader in technology-driven businesses, with more than 25 years of international experience focused on the accelerated development and commercialization of innovative technologies, products and services. He received a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and an MS and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a frequent speaker and holds over 20 US patents on new products and manufacturing processes.
Kenneth L. Davis, MD
President and Chief Executive Officer, The Mount Sinai Medical Center
Professor of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Kenneth L. Davis, MD received his bachelor’s degree from Yale College, from which he graduated magna cum laude. He received his medical degree from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and was valedictorian. He completed an internship, residency, and fellowship in psychiatry, and pharmacology, respectively, at Stanford University Medical Center, and thereafter won a career development award from the Veterans Administration to pursue his research in cholinergic mechanisms and neuropsychiatric diseases.

In 1979, Dr. Davis joined the faculty at Mount Sinai, becoming Chief of Psychiatry at the Bronx Veterans Administration (VA) Medical Center. He spearheaded Mount Sinai’s research program in the biology of schizophrenia and the therapeutics of Alzheimer’s Disease and directed Mount Sinai’s National Institute on Aging (NIA)-supported Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) Research Center from 1984 through 2002. His work focused on all aspects of experimental therapeutics, including animal models, assessment instruments, and design issues in drug testing. As early as 1978, he first suggested that cholinomimetic therapy could be useful for the treatment of AD, and shortly thereafter conducted the first positive proof of concept study with cholinesterase inhibitors in this disease. Subsequently, he coordinated the first multicenter NIA-funded trial of tacrine. This groundbreaking work eventually led to the discovery, development and approval of the drugs used for AD today. In 1987 he was appointed Chairman of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Dr. Davis also directed the NIMH funded Silvio O. Conte Center for the Neurosciences of Mental Disorders. This multimillion-dollar Center focuses on schizophrenia and is based on the premise that white matter, oligodendrocytes and myelin may be compromised in schizophrenia. It has opened an entirely new approach to this devastating disease.

The author or co-author of more than 575 scientific articles, Dr. Davis has been recognized by ISI as one of the most highly cited researchers in the field of brain diseases. Dr. Davis is a member of the editorial boards of numerous journals, and has won virtually every major research award in psychiatric research from the major societies in this field.

In addition to his election to membership in the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences, among his many other honors are the George H.W. Bush '48 Lifetime of Leadership Award – a distinction given to Yale alumni athletes who make significant breakthroughs in their professions, 2009, the Rita Hayworth Award from the Alzheimer’s Association, the Kempf Fund Award for Research Development in Psychobiological Psychiatry from the American Psychiatric Association, the Gold Medal Award from the Society of Biological Psychiatry for Outstanding Achievement in Psychobiological Research, the American Psychiatric Association Award for Research in Psychiatry, and numerous other awards.

In January 2003 he was appointed Dean of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and in March 2003 he assumed the additional position of President and Chief Executive Officer of The Mount Sinai Medical Center. Under his leadership, Mount Sinai entered a new era of innovation in research, education, and clinical care. He led what has been characterized as the “largest financial turnaround in academic medicine”. The Medical Center grew in both scope and ambition, accelerating the momentum of translational research, intensifying collaboration across all disciplines, and providing the impetus to reach new heights of excellence through closer integration of the research, clinical and educational dimensions of Mount Sinai’s mission. In 2007, Dr. Davis, who had held the position of both Dean and CEO for four years, named a new Dean of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Robert J. Desnick, PhD, MD, DSc (Hon)
Dean for Genetic and Genomic Medicine
Professor and Chairman Emeritus of the Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Robert J. Desnick, PhD, MD, is Dean for Genetic and Genomic Medicine and Professor and Chairman Emeritus of the Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences at The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. His translational research led to the development of enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) for Fabry disease (Fabrazyme) and to clinical trials of ERT for Niemann-Pick B disease. In addition, he has been involved in the development of pharmacologic chaperone therapy for the lysosomal storage disorders, and is the co-scientific founder of Amicus Therapeutics (NASDAQ-FOLD). He is the Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of Synageva BioPharma, and a consultant to the Genzyme Corporation, GlaxoSmithKline, and Synageva BioPharma.

Dr. Desnick has published over 600 research papers and chapters, including nine edited books. He is Board Certified in Clinical, Biochemical, and Molecular Genetics by the American Board of Medical Genetics and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He is a past Director of the American Board of Medical Genetics (ABMG), a Founding Diplomat of the American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG), a past member of the Board of Directors of the ACMG Foundation, and the co-founder and Past-President of the Association of Professors of Human and Medical Genetics. He has served on the NIH National Advisory Council for the National Center for Research Resources, and is a past Chair of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and received the AAMC 2010 Distinguished Service Award.

Dr. Desnick is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Society for Pediatric Research, the American Pediatric Society, the American Association of Physicians, a Fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.
Scott L. Friedman, MD
Dean for Therapeutic Discovery
Chief of the Division of Liver Diseases
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Scott L. Friedman, MD, is founding Dean for Therapeutic Discovery and Chief of the Division of Liver Diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He performed pioneering research that isolated and characterized the hepatic stellate cell, the key cell type responsible for scar production in liver. This achievement spawned an entire field that is now realizing its translational and therapeutic potential, with new anti-fibrotic therapies for liver disease reaching clinical trials. In this capacity Dr. Friedman interacts widely with the Biotech and Pharmaceutical industries in drug discovery and development, and clinical trial design.

Dr. Friedman’s work has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health since 1985; he has held many national leadership positions including President of the American Assn for the Study of Liver Diseases, Senior Fulbright Fellow at the Weizmann Institute of Science and Senior Advisory Council for the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. He has published over 250 scientific articles, and is among the most preeminent scholars in his field worldwide.
Roger Hajjar, MD
Director of the Cardiovascular Research Center
Arthur & Janet C. Ross Professor of Medicine
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Dr. Hajjar is the Director of the Cardiovascular Research Center, and the Arthur & Janet C. Ross Professor of Medicine at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY. Dr. Hajjar’s laboratory has concentrated its efforts on validating the cardiac sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium ATPase pump, SERCA2a, as a target in heart failure, and has developed methodologies for cardiac directed gene transfer that are currently used by investigators in the field. The significance of Dr. Hajjar’s research has been recognized with the successful completion of Phase 1 and Phase 2 First-in-Man clinical trials of SERCA2a, gene transfer in patients with heart failure.

Jeff Hammerbacher
Founder and Chief Scientist of Cloudera, Inc.
Assistant Professor, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Jeff Hammerbacher is a founder and the Chief Scientist of Cloudera and an Assistant Professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Jeff was an Entrepreneur in Residence at Accel Partners immediately prior to founding Cloudera. Before Accel, he conceived, built, and led the Data team at Facebook. The Data team was responsible for driving many of the applications of statistics and machine learning at Facebook, as well as building out the infrastructure to support these tasks for massive data sets. Before joining Facebook, Jeff was a quantitative analyst on Wall Street.

Jeff serves as a Director of Sage Bionetworks, a non-profit dedicated to building an open access, integrative bionetwork evolved by contributor scientists working to eliminate human disease, and as a Mentor for Rock Health, a seed accelerator for health apps. For the past two years he has taught a new undergraduate computer science course titled "Introduction to Data Science" at the University of California, Berkeley. He served as a Contributing Editor for O'Reilly's "Beautiful Data".

Jeff earned his Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics from Harvard University.
Yasmin Hurd, PhD
Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry, Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics, and Neuroscience
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Dr. Yasmin Hurd is Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry, Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics, and Neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She is the Chief of the Center of Excellence in Mood and Motivation in the Friedman Brain Institute. She is also the Director of the MD/PhD Program and serves as Chair of the Committee on Diversity in Biomedical Research. Dr. Hurd’s multidisciplinary translational research investigates the neurobiology underlying addiction disorders and related psychiatric illnesses with a focus on developmental consequences of drug exposure and genetics underpinning of disease risk in humans and animal models. She has published over 100 articles in highly ranked journals and has an internationally renowned scientific reputation with strong NIH funding. She has served on many scientific committees including being a member of the MacArthur Law and Neuroscience Network. She also served as a member of multiple committees at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) such as a member of NIH Study Sections judging the quality of research grants and she currently serves on the Board of Scientific Directors for the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

Ravi Iyengar, PhD
Dorothy H. and Lewis Rosenstiel Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Dr. Ravi Iyengar is the Dorothy H. and Lewis Rosenstiel Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics. Dr. Iyengar is Director of the Experimental Therapeutics Institute and Director/Principal Investigator of the NIGMS-funded Systems Biology Center New York.

As Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics, Dr. Iyengar leads a department focused on interdisciplinary research programs with an emphasis on understanding the origins and mechanisms underlying complex diseases and development of new therapeutics. The research activities of the faculty in the department fall into three broad areas: biochemistry and regulatory biology, applied mathematics and systems biology, and physiology and drug development. The department ranks 5th in NIH funding among the 95 pharmacology departments in the US. Dr Iyengar is the lead PI of a five-year grant from the Transformative R01 program of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Common Fund to explore the mechanisms underlying tissue integrity in kidney disease. In this project Dr. Iyengar and colleagues are using computer modeling and nanotechnology to rebuild a filtration device in the laboratory to simulate kidney function. Through their model, which uses mouse and human kidney cells, the research team will expand understanding of the mechanisms that control tissue functions and develop new drugs for kidney disease. Trained as a biochemist, Dr. Iyengar studies cellular signaling networks using both experiments and computer simulations. His laboratory is trying to understand the design principles by which mammalian cells are constructed, and how cell signals are routed and processed through networks within cells in order to discover new drug targets for complex diseases.

Dr. Iyengar serves as Director and Principal investigator of the Systems Biology Center New York, which is supported by a five year grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, a division of the National Institutes of Health. SBCNY brings together experts in biomedicine, mathematics, engineering, and computer science to work on understanding how disease impacts the heart and brain tissue functions on a holistic level. They use animal models and computer simulations to assess activity at the cellular and tissue levels to understand how drugs impact disease progression.

Dr. Iyengar received his BSc and MSc degrees from Bombay University and a PhD from the University of Houston. He did postdoctoral research at Baylor College of Medicine and was subsequently Assistant and Associate Professor there. In 1986, Dr. Iyengar joined Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai as an Associate Professor of Pharmacology. In 1990 he was promoted to Professor and in 1999 became chair of the Department. In 2001 he was named the Dorothy H. and Lewis Rosenstiel Professor. From 2002 to 2004, Dr. Iyengar served as the Dean of Research for Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. In 2004, Dr. Iyengar was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Nicholas P. Jones, PhD

After graduating from the University of Auckland (NZ) with a BE (Hons) in Civil Engineering, Dr. Jones attended the California Institute of Technology, obtaining an MS in 1981 and a PhD in 1986. In January 1986, he joined the faculty at The Johns Hopkins University as an Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering. He was promoted to Full Professor in 1995, and was appointed Department Chair in July 1999. From July, 2002 to August 2004, he was Professor and Head of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In August 2004, he returned to Johns Hopkins as Dean of Engineering. His research interests include various aspects of structural dynamics, system identification, flow-induced vibration, earthquake engineering and wind engineering. Working in collaboration with Professor R. H. Scanlan, he established an experimental research program on aeroelasticity and aerodynamics of civil engineering structures using the low-turbulence Corrsin wind tunnel at Johns Hopkins. Scanlan and Jones collaborated on a number of bridge aerodynamics projects, including the aerodynamic analysis of the Baytown (Houston) bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in San Francisco, the Central Bridge in Cincinnati, the Kap Shui Mun Bridge in Hong Kong, the Seohae Bridge in Korea, and the Carquinez Straits Bridge in California. Dr. Jones' long-standing interest and involvement in wind-related problems associated with long-span bridges has led more recently to active involvement in stay vibration problems associated with cable-stayed bridges.

In 1987, he received the George Owen Teaching Award of The Johns Hopkins University. He was selected as 1988 Maryland Young Engineer of the year by the Maryland Engineers Week Council, and in 1989 was awarded a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator award. In 1991 he received the Robert Pond Teaching Award of the Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins. In 1997, he received an ASCE Huber Research Prize. He was an invited keynote speaker at the ISBAP Symposium in Kobe in 1998 inaugurating the opening of the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge, and at the International Symposium "Advances in Bridge Aerodynamics, Ship Collision Analysis, and Operation and Maintenance" commemorating the opening of the East Belt Bridge in Denmark (also in 1998). In 2001, he received an Alumni Association Excellence in Teaching Award. In 2008 he received the Robert H. Scanlan medal from the American Society of Civil Engineers. In 2012 he was named ASCE Maryland Section Outstanding Civil Engineering Educator. He has been a member of the Seismic Effects Committee of the ASCE Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) (Chair, 1997-2000), the Wind Effects Committee of the ASCE SEI, and also chaired the Dynamics Technical Administrative Committee of the SEI (2000-2003) and the Aerospace Division of ASCE. In 2000, he was appointed by the President of ASCE to a four-year term on the ASCE Infrastructure Policy Committee. He served on the Board of Directors of the Maryland Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and currently the Past President of the American Association for Wind Engineering. He chaired the 8th US National Conference on Wind Engineering in June 1997, and co-chaired the 13th ASCE Engineering Mechanics Specialty Conference in June 1999, both held on the Hopkins campus. He is the past editor of the Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics.
Benjamin Laitman
MD/PhD Student
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Benjamin is currently a second year MD/PhD student at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, pursuing a PhD in Neuroscience. In August, he will join the lab of Dr. Gareth John, where his thesis will focus on the molecular basis of demyelinating disease. Benjamin spends much of his time educating children in the community about science and medicine, recently holding the position of Co-director of the MedStart Enrichment program, which runs a mini-med school camp during the summer and throughout the school-year. He is also an Embryology and Anatomy Teaching Assistant, the Co-President of the Pediatrics Interest Group, and heavily involved in the East Harlem Health Outreach Partnership (EHHOP), Mount Sinai's student-run free clinic. He hopes to continue this passion for medical education while working towards his interests in clinically applicable research and the identification of novel therapeutic targets in the future.

Benjamin graduated Summa Cum Laude/Phi Beta Kappa with a BA from the University of Pennsylvania in 2010 with a double major in Biological Basis of Behavior and Physical Anthropology, and with an MS in Physical Anthropology in 2011. While an undergraduate, he pursued research in Neuroscience in the laboratory of Dr. Adrian Morrison and Dr. Richard Ross, focusing on the effects of Post-traumatic stress disorder on sleep. Benjamin received undergraduate research awards for this work, published his findings in Neuroscience Letters, and presented at meetings of the Sleep Research Society, Society for Neuroscience, and American Association of Anatomists.
Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc
Dean for Global Health
Ethel H. Wise Professor and Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Dr. Landrigan, the Dean for Global Health and Ethel H. Wise Professor and Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, is a pediatrician, an epidemiologist, a Professor of Pediatrics and Director of Mount Sinai’s Children’s Environmental Health Center. Dr. Landrigan is an international leader in public health and preventive medicine. Dr. Landrigan’s pioneering research on the effects of lead poisoning in children led the US government to mandate removal of lead from gasoline and paint, and his leadership of a National Academy of Sciences Committee on pesticides in children’s diets generated widespread understanding that children are uniquely vulnerable to toxic chemicals in the environment. Dr. Landrigan’s work has helped to secure the passage of the Food Quality Protection Act in 1996 and the establishment of the EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection. Dr. Landrigan has been a leader in developing the National Children’s Study, the largest epidemiological study of children’s health and the environment ever launched in the United States. He has been centrally involved in the medical and epidemiologic studies that followed the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. He has consulted extensively to the World Health Organization.
June Lee, MD
Director of Early Translational Research at Clinical and Translational Science Institute
University of California, San Francisco

June Lee is the Director of Early Translational Research at Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) and an Associate Professor in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine in the Department of Medicine at UCSF. In her new role as the Director of Early Translational Research, she is charged to facilitate and cultivate the early phase translational research at UCSF. Prior to UCSF, she worked at Genentech whereas the therapeutic area head, she led early clinical development programs in Infectious Diseases, Cardiovascular/Metabolic Diseases, and Respiratory Diseases. In that role, she was responsible for the clinical strategy and execution of programs in the early clinical development stages. During her tenure at Genentech, she has led programs in various stages of drug development including pre-IND, post-IND, early clinical, late-clinical, and post-marketing stages. Prior to Genentech, she was on faculty at UCSF in the Pulmonary and Critical Care Division engaged in independent research on airway biology with funding from the NIH and American Lung Association. She has also served previously as the Medical Director of High Risk Asthma Clinic at San Francisco General Hospital.
Muzammil Mansuri, PhD
Gilead Sciences, Inc.

Dr. Mansuri joined Gilead in July 2010, following the company’s acquisition of CGI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Prior to joining Gilead, Dr. Mansuri served as the Chief Executive Officer or Chief Operating Officer at several small biotechnology companies, including CGI, BIKAM Pharmaceuticals, Sequoia Pharmaceuticals, GPC Biotech and Mitotix, Inc. He also was a general partner with Flagship Ventures and served on the boards of CGI, AVEO Pharmaceuticals, BG Medicine and Adaptive Therapeutics. Earlier in his career, Dr. Mansuri spent 10 years with Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he initiated antiretroviral chemistry efforts for d4T and led the project team that developed the compound for the treatment of HIV.

Dr. Mansuri received his Bachelor of Science and doctoral degrees from University College London, University of London, and completed post-doctoral fellowships at Columbia University and the University of California, Los Angeles.
Michael L. Marin, MD, FACS
The Julius H. Jacobson II, MD Professor of Vascular Surgery
Chairman, Department of Surgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Surgeon-in-Chief, The Mount Sinai Hospital

A graduate of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Dr. Marin completed an internship and residency at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York; and subsequently went on to pursue a fellowship in vascular surgery at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He remained on the faculty at Albert Einstein until 1996, when he was recruited to Mount Sinai to launch the endovascular aortic surgery program. He was endowed as the Henry Kaufman Professor of Surgery in 1999, and appointed Chief, Division of Vascular Surgery in 2001. In December 2003, Dr. Michael L. Marin was appointed Chairman, Department of Surgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Surgeon-in-Chief of The Mount Sinai Medical Center. In 2007, he was named The Julius H. Jacobson II, MD Professor of Vascular Surgery.

Dr. Marin has revolutionized modern vascular surgery. In 1992, in New York, together with Dr. Juan Parodi from Argentina, he performed a minimally invasive repair of an abdominal aortic aneurysm under local anesthesia in an 80 year old man who had multiple medical comorbidities. This event, the first such procedure ever performed in the United States, sparked the rapid development of new treatments by Dr. Marin and other physicians from around the world for the minimally invasive treatment of vascular disease. Application of these techniques and new devices have been extended by Dr. Marin to virtually all areas of arterial vascular disease. Using these minimally invasive stent graft techniques and devices, Dr. Marin performed the world’s first minimally invasive repair of a popliteal and iliac artery aneurysms and, in 1994, performed the world’s first endovascular repair of a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm.

Inventions and techniques resulting from Dr. Marin’s work formed the basis of 12 important U.S. patents. In 1997, he founded the Teramed Corporation to advance the development and manufacturing of aortic stent graft devices. Teramed was acquired by Johnson & Johnson Corporation in 2001.

An active clinician and teacher, Dr. Marin has contributed extensively to medical literature, including 200 original communications in peer-reviewed journals and more than 60 book chapters. He has served on the editorial boards of the major surgery journals, and has shared his ideas and developments as an invited lecturer throughout the United States and around the world. He has also made over 300 presentations at scientific meetings in the United States and abroad. Additionally, he holds memberships in most regional, national and international professional societies. His achievements have garnered awards from such groups as the American Society of Gastroenterology, The Society for Vascular Surgery and The Peripheral Vascular Surgery Society.
James R. McCullough, MBA
Chief Executive Officer
Exosome Diagnostics, Inc.

Mr. McCullough is one of our founders and has been Chief Executive Officer of Exosome Diagnostics, Inc. since inception in May of 2008. From March of 2001 to October of 2006, Mr. McCullough was the Chief Executive Officer of AusAm Biotechnologies, Inc. a biotechnology company developing diagnostics to identify kidney and cardiovascular diseases. At AusAm, Mr. McCullough oversaw commercial development, FDA clearance, and marketing and distribution for Accumin, a diagnostic for detection of patients at risk for early-stage kidney and cardiovascular disease. He received his SA from Boston University in 1990, and his MBA from the Columbia Graduate School of Business in 1995.

John H. Morrison, PhD
Dean of Basic Sciences and the Graduate School of Biological Sciences
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Dr. John H. Morrison is currently Dean of Basic Sciences and the Graduate School of Biological Sciences, Professor of Neuroscience, and the Willard T.C. Johnson Professor of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine (Neurobiology of Aging) at The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He served as Chair of the Department of Neuroscience until 2006, when he stepped down as Chair to become Dean. Dr. Morrison earned his Bachelor’s Degree and Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University, and completed postdoctoral studies in the laboratory of Dr. Floyd E. Bloom at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. He then served as a faculty member at The Scripps Research Institute until he joined the faculty at Mount Sinai in 1989 to develop and lead a new Center for Neurobiology. Dr. Morrison’s research program focuses primarily on the neurobiology of aging and neurodegenerative disorders, particularly as they relate to cellular and synaptic organization of cerebral cortex. Within this broad arena, his lab works specifically on the interactions between endocrine factors (e.g., estrogen, stress steroids) and aging and the synaptic determinants of cognitive aging. His laboratory is particularly interested in age-related alterations in structural and molecular attributes of the synapse that compromise plasticity and lead to cognitive decline. These issues are addressed in mouse models, experimental analyses of rat and non-human primates, as well as the human brain. Since 1985 the NIH has funded Dr. Morrison’s research without interruption, and he currently directs a large NIH-funded program project on Estrogen and the Aging Brain, as well as one on the neurobiological basis of cognitive aging that has been designated as an NIH MERIT Award. Dr. Morrison has published over 300 articles on cortical organization, the cellular pathology of neurodegenerative disorders, the neurobiology of cognitive aging, and more recently the effects of stress on cortical circuitry. He has also edited 5 books on related topics. He is ranked among the most highly cited investigators in neuroscience (i.e. ISI HighlyCited/Neuroscience), and has served on numerous editorial boards, advisory boards, NIH committees, and the Board of Directors of the American Federation for Aging Research. Dr. Morrison has served as President of both The Harvey Society and The Cajal Club, and was elected to the Council of the Society for Neuroscience in 2010.
Daria Mochly-Rosen, PhD

Dr. Mochly-Rosen is an innovator in protein chemistry, who used her basic research discoveries to develop a number of drugs for human diseases (currently in pre clinical and clinical trials).

In 1993, she was recruited to the department of Molecular Pharmacology, now called Chemical and Systems Biology, at Stanford University. She became the Chair of the department 2001 and helped reshape the scientific direction of the department. In 2006, she became the Senior Associate Dean for Research at the School of Medicine, a position that she still holds. She held the Reed-Hodgson Endowed Chair in Human Biology between 1996 and 2001 and in 2006 became the Inaugural George D Smith Professor in Translational Medicine.

Dr. Mochly-Rosen applied her basic research training in protein chemistry to understanding signal transduction in normal and disease states. Recognizing the therapeutic potential of some tools that she has developed, she translated this basic research and spearheaded the development of a novel category of therapeutics for human diseases; these ‘first in class’ compounds are now tested in three different clinical trials.

More recently, her lab identified a new set of drug leads on a novel target, a key enzyme of cell survival under oxidative stress. These drug leads (termed Aldas) show great promise in animal studies of skin injury from radiation (sun and gamma radiation), acute myocardial infarction, diabetic complications, and neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease.

Her entrepreneurship also led her to found and continue to lead a university-wide program in translational research. This program, SPARK, helps inventors of biopharmaceuticals and diagnostics bring their invention to patient care. This unique program provides education in drug development and supports the school’s mission in translational research. After three years in operation, 16 products (or ideas for products) were developed in SPARK. Three products are now in human clinical trials and another will be in clinical trial by the end of the year. Work on two inventions led to the founding of two biopharmaceutical companies, and several inventions were licensed or are under consideration for licensing. The ability to take these early inventions through “the valley of death”, as the space between academic research and commercialization was termed by Elias Zerhouni, the previous NIH director, demonstrates again her non-conventional, non-orthodox yet effective approach to address problems and lead to a change – SPARK a change.

Dr. Mochly-Rosen received her BS in life sciences from Tel Aviv University, her PhD from the Weizmann Institute of Science, and was a postdoctoral fellow in the department of biochemistry at UC Berkeley.

Daria Mochly-Rosen is a Founding Fellow of the International Society of Heart Research and elected member of the Council, International Society of Heart Research. She is also a Fellow in the Council on the Basic Cardiovascular Sciences of the American Heart Association. She served on the Intramural Council of the National Institute of Alcohol and Alcoholism (NIH), a special advisory group to The National Institute on Aging and as a consultant to The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bureau of Basic Research. She has served on the scientific advisory board of several Bay Area biotechnology companies, on the NIH Biochemistry Study Section, the American Heart Association Study Section, the editorial board of several journals and now on the Peer Review Advisory Committee (PRAC) and The Council of Councils at the NIH.
Jai Ranganathan, PhD
Center Associate, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis
University of California, Santa Barbara

Dr. Ranganathan is a conservation biologist who received his doctorate in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. He is a Center Associate at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (University of California, Santa Barbara). He is one of the co-founders of the #SciFund Challenge, the largest science crowdfunding effort in the world in terms of participating scientists. #SciFund Challenge is a volunteer-run organization that seeks to close the gap between science and society. You can find out more at scifundchallenge.org and by using the #SciFund hashtag on Twitter. You can find find Jai on Twitter at @jranganathan.

E. Premkumar Reddy, PhD
Professor, Oncological Sciences
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Dr. Reddy is a virologist and molecular biologist by training and during the early part of his career, he cloned and sequenced a number of viral oncogenes which included abl, ras, fgr, mos, myb, myc and sis oncogenes and their cellular homologues. These studies pinpointed the precise changes that cellular proto-oncogenes undergo to produce cancer-causing viral oncogenes. He extended this work to human cancers and was responsible for the seminal discovery that point mutations in the cellular ras genes result in their oncogenic activation.

In recent years, Dr. Reddy has pioneered the development of small molecule inhibitors targeted against oncogenes and cell cycle regulators for cancer therapy. One of the drugs developed by Dr. Reddy, Rigosertib, is currently in Phase III clinical trials and has shown profound clinical activity in MDS (Myelodysplastic Syndrome) patients as a single agent. In combination with Oxaliplatin and Gemcitabine, this compound was found to have remarkable efficacy in reducing the tumor burden of several metastatic cancers including breast, ovarian and pancreatic cancers. In addition to Rigosertib, Dr. Reddy has developed six different cancer drugs, two of which have entered clinical trials. Dr. Reddy founded the cancer journal Oncogene in 1986 and served as its Editor from 1986 to 2009. In 2010, he founded a second cancer journal, Genes & Cancer for which he currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief.
Hugh Sampson, MD
Dean for Translational Biomedical Research
Kurt Hirschhorn Professor of Pediatrics
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Dr. Sampson is currently the Kurt Hirschhorn Professor of Pediatrics and the Dean for Translational Biomedical Research at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, and the Director of the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at the Mount Sinai Medical Center. Dr. Sampson’s research interests and publications have focused on food allergic disorders including the immunopathogenic role of food hypersensitivity in atopic dermatitis and anaphylaxis, characterization of food allergens, and immunotherapeutic strategies for treating food allergies. His research has been funded continuously by a number of grants from the National Institutes of Health and private foundations. Dr. Sampson is the PI of the NIH-sponsored Consortium on Food Allergy Research and an AADCRC program project conducting a number of clinical trials investigating novel therapies for the treatment of food allergy and investigating basic immunologic mechanisms. He has published over 350 articles and 60 book chapters on food allergic disorders and co-edited four books, and was elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies in 2003 for his research on food allergies. Dr. Sampson is past chairman of the Section on Allergy & Immunology of the American Academy of Pediatrics and past president of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.
Eric Schadt, PhD
Chairman and Professor, Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences
Director, Institute of Genomics and Multiscale Biology
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Dr. Eric Schadt joined Mount Sinai Medical School as Chairman and Professor, Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences and as Director, Institute of Genomics and Multiscale Biology in 2011. Previously, Dr. Schadt had been the Chief Scientific Officer at Pacific Biosciences, overseeing the scientific strategy for the company, including creating the vision for next-generation sequencing applications of the company’s technology. Dr. Schadt is also a founding member of Sage Bionetworks, an open access genomics initiative designed to build and support databases and an accessible platform for creating innovative, dynamic models of disease.

Dr. Schadt’s current efforts at Mount Sinai to generate and integrate large-scale, high-dimension molecular, cellular, and clinical data to build more predictive models of disease so that we may better diagnose and treat disease, were motivated by the genomics and systems biology research he led at Merck to elucidate common human diseases and drug response using novel computational approaches applied to genetic and molecular profiling data. His research helped revolutionize a field in statistical genetics (the genetics of gene expression), has energized the systems biology field, and has led to a number of discoveries relating to the causes of common human diseases. At the time Dr. Schadt left Merck in 2009, greater than 50% of all new drug discovery programs at Merck in the metabolic space were derived from Dr. Schadt's work. Dr. Schadt was also recently appointed as Fellow to the Institute of Systems and Synthetic Biology, Imperial College London.

Dr. Schadt received his BS in applied mathematics/computer science from California Polytechnic State University, his MA in pure mathematics from UCD, and his PhD in bio-mathematics from UCLA (requiring PhD candidacy in molecular biology and mathematics).
Uwe Schoenbeck, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Pfizer, Inc.

Chief Scientific Officer Uwe Schoenbeck leads Pfizer’s Worldwide Research and Development (WRD), External R&D Innovation (ERDI) team which seeks to identify and establish partnerships with outstanding Biotech companies and key academic centers to gain first access to cutting edge science and innovative disease targets, drug candidates as well as technologies. His team works closely with colleagues across Pfizer, including the WRD lines, Business Development, Business Units, and Pfizer Country Organizations to harness these opportunities for the company. Uwe is a member of the Worldwide R&D Leadership team and Pfizer’s Senior Leadership Council.

Prior to joining Pfizer in 2009, Dr. Schoenbeck was Vice President, Head External R&D Innovation for Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and was a member of the Wyeth’s R&D Executive Committee where he was responsible for developing and implementing Wyeth’s External R&D strategy and operations. As continued in his current role, the departmental function involved exploration and integration of emerging disease targets, exploratory to clinical Proof of Concept drug candidates, and technologies addressing high unmet medical needs, including those outside of the scope of established therapeutic areas and included both small and large molecule therapies in Oncology, Metabolism, Inflammation, CNS/Pain, Muscoloskeletal, and Cardiovascular/ Haemophilia. For five years, Dr. Schoenbeck served as Vice President, Cardiovascular Research for Boehringer Ingelheim in Ridgefield, CT, and was responsible for global cardiovascular research strategy and drug discovery program from target identification to Pre- Development including life cycle management for marketed and advanced pipeline products. Prior to joining Boehringer in 2003, he held the position of Assistant Professor of Medicine, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, in Boston MA. He received his degree from the University of Kiel, Germany, and completed postdoctoral training in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, before joining as a faculty member. Dr. Schoenbeck has served as a reviewer for multiple peer-reviewed journals (including Circulation, Circulation Research, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Journal of Experimental Medicine, Journal of Immunology, Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC), Nature Medicine, and the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences U.S.A.) and has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles, review articles/book chapters and abstracts with particular contributions in areas such as molecular & cell biology, cardiovascular research, immunology and metabolism.
Ivan Seidenberg, MBA
Former Chairman and CEO
Verizon Communications Inc.

Ivan Seidenberg is the former chairman and CEO of Verizon Communications Inc.

His telecommunications career began more than 40 years ago when he joined New York Telephone, one of Verizon’s predecessor companies, as a cable splicer’s assistant. He went on to lead Verizon from its inception in 2000, first as co-Chief Executive Officer, then as sole CEO, and then as CEO and chairman. He transformed Verizon into a premier global network company by building a nationwide wireless network, deploying high-speed fiber broadband direct to homes, and expanding Verizon’s global Internet backbone network around the world.

Mr. Seidenberg stepped down as CEO in July 2011 and continued to serve as chairman and as a member of the Verizon Board of Directors through December 2011 when he retired from the company.

Previously, Mr. Seidenberg was chairman and CEO of Verizon’s predecessor companies, NYNEX and Bell Atlantic.

Mr. Seidenberg is a member of the President’s Export Council, which advises the President on how to promote U.S. exports, jobs and growth, and the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee, which provides counsel on communications issues related to national security. From 2009 to 2011, he chaired the Business Roundtable, an influential association of CEOs of leading U.S. companies.

Mr. Seidenberg is also a member of the New York Academy of Sciences’ President's Council and serves on the board of trustees of the New York-Presbyterian Hospital, The New York Hall of Science, Pace University, the Paley Center for Media, and on the Board of Directors of BlackRock Inc.

A New York City native, he earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Lehman College, part of the City University of New York, and a master's degree in business administration and marketing from Pace University.
Geoffrey W. Smith, JD
Director of the Center for Technology, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship (C-TIE)
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Geoffrey W. Smith is the founding Director of the Center for Technology, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship (C-TIE) at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (MSSM). He is also a Professor in the Department of Health Evidence and Policy at MSSM.

Mr. Smith is a co-founder and General Partner of Ascent Biomedical Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage life sciences investments. He has been an active founder, manager, and investor in technology-based companies since 1995. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Azevan Pharmaceuticals, Anterios, BackBeat Medical, Biomerix, Caliber Therapeutics, Coferon, TargAnox, and Vivasure Medical and is a Board Observer for Cara Therapeutics.

Mr. Smith is also a Visiting Scholar at Rockefeller University where he founded and directs the University’s Science & Economics Program and is an adjunct faculty member at the RU Center for Clinical and Translational Science.

Mr. Smith received a B.A. (with honors) from Williams College and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Teri Willey, MBA
Vice President for Technology and Business Development
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Teri joined Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (MSSM) in June 2011. Prior to MSSM Teri was Chief Executive of Cambridge Enterprise, Ltd the technology commercialization affiliate of the University of Cambridge; founder and Managing Partner of ARCH Development Partners (ADP), a seed and early stage venture fund focused on university and corporate spin-outs; University of Notre Dame Business School Adjunct Professor; and Vice President of Start-ups at ARCH Development Corporation, a subsidiary of the University of Chicago, which commercialised technology from the University and Argonne National Laboratory. Her prior experience also includes technology transfer and business development roles at Northwestern University, Purdue University and International Minerals and Chemical. Teri has been an advisor to policy makers, universities and companies and is a past President of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM).
David M. Zaslav
President & CEO
Discovery Communications

David Zaslav sets the strategy and oversees all operations of the world's #1 nonfiction media company that reaches more than 1.8 billion cumulative subscribers in over 200 countries and territories. Discovery Communications is dedicated to igniting curiosity and delivering the thrill of discovery through more than 140 worldwide television networks and a leading portfolio of digital media properties that attract approximately 25 million unique visitors per month.

Since taking the helm at Discovery in January 2007, Zaslav has executed a number of initiatives that have focused the organization on growth, performance and operational efficiency. Under his leadership, in September 2008, Discovery began trading as a public company on the Nasdaq stock exchange and has since delivered four consecutive years of double-digit earnings growth.

Zaslav has directed a strategic effort to clarify and strengthen Discovery's world-class brands, including a renewed focus on creativity and a nearly two-fold increase in investment in original content. As part of this strategy, in the U.S., Discovery launched Investigation Discovery, which has been the fastest-growing cable network in the U.S. for two consecutive years, and it has premiered such iconic programming as the award-winning natural history trilogy Planet Earth, Life and Frozen Planet. The company also has partnered with Oprah Winfrey to launch OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network, Hasbro to launch The Hub children's and family network, and with Sony and IMAX to launch 3net, the first 24x7 3D television network.

Internationally, under Zaslav’s leadership, Discovery has rolled out TLC as an international female-targeted flagship network, now available in more than 170 markets and the world’s leading female lifestyle media brand. The company also has focused on investing in resources and talent to strengthen its global content pipeline, including the acquisition of UK-based independent production house betty.

In 2009, Zaslav was honored by the by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) with its Forces for Nature award for his vision and leadership in driving Discovery's ongoing commitment to embracing "green" as a corporate value and developing the highest quality programming that celebrates the wonders of our planet for audiences around the world. He also has spearheaded Discovery Impact, the company’s corporate social responsibility programs, which leverage the power of Discovery's brands, businesses and employees to give back and make a difference in the communities where they live and work through initiatives such as the annual Discover Your Impact Day of global employee volunteerism.

Prior to Discovery, Zaslav had a distinguished career at NBC Universal. As president of Cable and Domestic TV and New Media Distribution, Zaslav oversaw content distribution to all forms of TV, led negotiations for cable and satellite carriage of NBC Universal networks, and forged innovative new-media partnerships, including a pioneering video-on-demand deal with the leading cable operator, Comcast. Zaslav also brought films and TV shows to consumers through new paths including the Internet, cell phones and other wireless devices.

Zaslav joined NBC in 1989 and was instrumental in developing and launching CNBC that same year. He played a key role in creating MSNBC in 1996. His responsibilities extended to Bravo, CNBC World, SCI FI, ShopNBC, Sleuth, Telemundo, Telemundo Puerto Rico, mun2, Trio, Universal HD, USA Network, NBC Weather Plus and the Olympics on cable. Zaslav also oversaw NBC Universal's interests in A&E, The History Channel, The Biography Channel, National Geographic International, the Sundance Channel and TiVo.

Before joining NBC, Zaslav was an attorney with the New York firm of LeBouef, Lamb, Leiby & MacRae. He graduated with honors from Boston University School of Law. Zaslav serves on the boards of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, The Cable Center, Center for Communication, the Ad Council, Skills for America's Future and Univision Communications, Inc. He also is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Paley Center for Media, the Mt. Sinai Medical Center and previously served as an adjunct professor at Fordham University, where he created and taught a graduate-level course on the business of cable television.

In 2007, Zaslav received a Trustees Award for Lifetime Achievement from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
Barbara J. Dalton, PhD
Vice President Venture Capital
Pfizer Inc.

Barbara is responsible for Pfizer Venture Investments, as well as oversight for equity based transactions that support out-licensing, in-licensing, research collaborations and incubator activity. She began her career as a research scientist and pursued anti-inflammatory drug discovery research at SmithKline and French Research Laboratories for ten years after receiving a PhD from the Medical College of Pennsylvania (now the Drexel School of Medicine). She joined SmithKline’s venture capital group, S.R. One, Limited in the early 1990’s. While there, Barbara was a founding member of EuclidSR Partners, a private New York based venture capital firm where SmithKline (now GSK) was a leading limited partner. She joined that firm full time in 2003 and in 2007 moved to her current position at Pfizer.

As a venture capitalist Barbara has had management responsibility for over 40 indirect fund investments and over 100 diverse direct company investments throughout the world, but primarily in the US. She has directly managed investments in companies pursuing drug development and platform technologies, healthcare IT, and healthcare services. Some of those companies are: AbLexis, Adolor, Alere, Amgen, Avalon, Avid, Aquinox, British Biotechnology, CAT, Celladon, Cephalon, Clovis, Corixa, DVS, Fluidym, Genset, HandyLab, IDEC, Inhale, Kosan, Kudos, Leukosite, Lexicon, Memory, Mersana, Merus, NTP, Neuronetics, Nodality, NovoCure, OGS, Ribi, Rib-X, Scynexis, Sepracor, Targacept, Tetralogix, TWT and Versecor.

She currently Chairs the Healthcare Subcommittee of the New York City Investment Fund and has been a member of the Board of NYBA, NVCA and ISOA/ADRF.
Maryam Jahanshahi
PhD Candidate
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Maryam Jahanshahi is a PhD candidate in Cathie Pfleger’s laboratory in the Department of Oncological Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She has been awarded the 2012 Merck Company Foundation Fellowship from the American Australian Association and the 2010 Young Investigator’s Award from the Children’s Tumor Foundation for her thesis project on the regulation of novel substrates by the Hippo Pathway. Maryam has also been recently selected as a NeXXt Fellow by the New York Academy of Sciences, in partnership with the U.S. Department of State.

Maryam received a BA and a BSc (Hons.) from the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Anthony Melendez
MD Candidate
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Anthony Melendez is an MD candidate at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai where he is an active student body leader. He serves as a Class 2015 Representative, Treasurer for Student Council, and is Co-President of Students for Equal Opportunity in Medicine as well as Chapter President of Mount Sinai’s Latino Medical Student Association. Mr. Melendez has a deep interest in the development and application of the digital health space and healthcare startups in the context of reducing healthcare disparities. He is particularly passionate about the use of information and digital technology in clinical settings within underserved and underinsured communities. While in medical school, Mr. Melendez earned a certificate from the Summer Institute for Entrepreneurship at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and his current endeavors include leading a healthcare analytics project aimed at using data to find innovative ways to improve care at Boriken Neighborhood Health Center in East Harlem.

Prior to entering medical school, Mr. Melendez had extensive experience in patient care and biomedical research. He worked as a critical care RN in the Surgical & Trauma Intensive Care Unit of Shands Hospital at the University of Florida and in the Emergency Department of Tampa General Hospital, both Level I Trauma Centers. He conducted basic science research in a drug design lab at the University of South Florida, publishing a paper investigating synthesized 1,3-disubstituted 2-propanols and their potential role as β-secretase inhibitors. Mr. Melendez earned a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Sciences with a minor in Biophysics from the University of South Florida and a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish and Latin American Literature from the University of Florida.

Thomas Moran, PhD
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Dr. Moran served as the Principal Investigator of the Center for Investigating Viral Immunity and Antagonism (CIVIA). CIVIA focused on studies of human immunology and infectious disease by advancing technological methodologies, supporting inventive research, serving as a conduit for collaboration and promoting exchange of scientific information. Among other projects, a recent study funded by CIVIA profiled the immune response of patients receiving the live-attenuated influenza virus vaccination. A report documenting this study is in press. Dr. Moran served as overall PI for the Viral Immunity in Pregnancy study (VIP) that recently concluded. This was a study of changes that occur in women during pregnancy with an emphasis on understanding the enhanced susceptible to infection. Data from the two cohorts of the VIP study-immune response changes during pregnancy (60 patients) and influenza vaccination during pregnancy (350 patients) were recently published.

Dr. Moran is the Director of the Center for Therapeutic Antibody Development (CTAD) here at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The center has been active for more than 15 years and during this time produced many monoclonal antibodies against various infectious agents and other Immunogens. CTAD has a close collaboration with Medical Research Council-technology division in London to produce and develop human or humanized monoclonal antibodies. A number of collaborative projects are in progress primarily to develop monoclonal antibodies with therapeutic applications. Technology has been developed and is currently being used by CTAD to produce human monoclonal antibodies by V gene cloning as well as fusion of human B cells expanded by various methods in vitro.

Nicole C. McKnight, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Nicole grew up in both England and Massachusetts and attended high school in the latter. She graduated with honors from the University of Chicago in 2002 and moved back to Boston to work as a lab technician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Harvard Medical School) studying prostate cancer. Crossing the river, she then worked as a research associate at Ore Pharmaceuticals (FKA Gene Logic, Inc.), a Millennium Pharmaceuticals spin-off that attempted to reposition failed compounds. In 2006 she entered the PhD program at Cancer Research UK’s London Research Institute. She performed a genome-wide siRNA screen in order to find novel proteins required for mammalian autophagy and in 2011, received her PhD from University College London. Nicole now works as a postdoctoral fellow in the Neurology department at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in Zhenyu Yue’s lab and investigates autophagy in neurons and its role in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. She is Co-chair of the MSSM Postdoc Executive Committee and serves on the Postdoc Advisory Committee. Nicole also sits on NYC Tech Connect’s Entrepreneurial Scientist Advisory Panel, an organization of graduate students and postdocs whose main goal is to help NYC Tech Connect foster a culture of bioscience entrepreneurship and promote communication and collaboration amongst metropolitan New York’s universities.
Zahi Fayad, PhD
Director of the Translational and Molecular Imaging Institute,
Professor of Radiology and Medicine (Cardiology)
Mount Sinai Medical Center

Dr. Fayad serves as professor of Radiology and Medicine (Cardiology) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He is the Director of the Translational and Molecular Imaging Institute. Dr. Fayad’s interdisciplinary and discipline bridging research - from engineering to biology and from pre-clinical to clinical investigations - has been dedicated to the detection and prevention of cardiovascular disease with many seminal contributions in the field of biomedical imaging.

Dr. Fayad's is one of the world’s leaders in the innovative development and use of multimodality cardiovascular imaging including, Magnetic Resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), and positron emission tomography (PET), as well as molecular imaging and nanomedicine to study, prevent and treat cardiovascular disease. His focus in the past 14 years at Mount Sinai has been on the noninvasive assessment and understanding of atherosclerosis (Nature 2008; 451:953-957; Nat Rev Drug Discov. 2011;10:835-52; Lancet 2011; 378:1547-59). He holds 12 US and Worldwide patents and/or patent applications. He has authored more than 250 peer-reviewed publications (h-index of 53 accessed 9/20/2012), 50 book chapters, and over 400 meeting presentations.

He is currently the Principal Investigator of four federal grants funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and National institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering with a recent large award from NHLBI to support the Program of Excellence in Nanotechnology. In addition, he serves as Principal Investigator of the Imaging Core of the Mount Sinai National Institute of Health (NIH)/Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA). Dr. Fayad had his trainings at the Johns Hopkins University and at the University of Pennsylvania. From 1996 to 1997 he was junior faculty in the Department of Radiology at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1997 he joined the faculty at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Fayad is the recipient of multiple prestigious awards. In 2007 he was given the John Paul II Medal from Krakow, Poland in recognition for the potential of his work on humankind. As a teacher and mentor, Dr. Fayad has been also extremely successful. He has trained over 30 postdoctoral fellows, clinical fellows and students. His trainees have received major awards, fellowships, and positions in academia and industry. In 2008, he received the Outstanding Teacher Award from the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) for his teaching on cardiovascular imaging and molecular imaging. In 2009 he was awarded the title of Honorary Professor in Nanomedicine at Aarhus University in Denmark. Recently, he was one of opening speakers at the 2011 97th Scientific Assembly and Scientific meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). He is married to Monique P. Fayad, MBA and is the proud father of Chloé (10 year old) and Christophe (6 year old) and after spending seven years in Manhattan now lives and sails in Larchmont, NY and beyond.
Dan Felsenfeld, PhD
Director of the Integrated Screening Core
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Dr. Dan Felsenfeld is the Director of the Integrated Screening Core (ISC), the high-throughput screening facility at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The ISC, one of the core resources of the Mount Sinai Experimental Therapeutics Institute, provides both expertise and technical resources for the optimization and automation of high-throughput screens based on researcher-initiated projects. The ISC maintains both small molecule (ca. 115000 compounds) and siRNA (human and mouse) libraries for use in ISC-supported automated screens.

Dr. Felsenfeld’s work in the ISC is preceded by over 20 years of research on the cell biology of adhesion receptor function in cell migration and nerve growth, using a combination of quantitative microscopy and other biophysical methods. Dr. Felsenfeld received his PhD from the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior at Columbia University and post-doctoral training in the Department of Cell Biology at Duke University prior to his appointment to the Mount Sinai faculty.
Andrew Kasarskis, PhD
Vice Chair, Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Andrew Kasarskis, PhD, is the new Vice Chair, Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences and Co-Director, Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology. His research is focused on developing and applying technology to biological problems including pathogen surveillance, pharmacogenomics, and the genetics of sleep. Prior to Mount Sinai he held positions at Pacific Biosciences, Sage Bionetworks, and Merck.
Carlos Cordon-Cardo, MD, PhD
Irene Heinz Given and John LaPorte Given Professor of Pathology
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

A pioneer of the oncologic molecular pathology discipline as well as the systems pathology platform, Dr. Cordon-Cardo has helped establish a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of human cancers and new targets for cancer therapeutics, enhancing the vision of personalized medicine.

An accomplished and internationally-recognized researcher, Dr. Cordon-Cardo is renowned for his studies on experimental pathology and molecular oncology. Already his analyses of multi-drug resistance and alterations of tumor suppressor genes in human cancer, mainly those which deregulate cell cycle, have led to extraordinary breakthroughs in the way scientists understand and investigate the progression of certain solid-tumor cancers. His groundbreaking research has produced novel insights into tumor suppressor gene-oncogene interactions in human cancers, a proposed model for tumor progression of bladder cancer that defines two distinct pathways for early tumors, and evidence of the critical role of androgen receptor overexpression in the progression of prostate cancer and its resistance to hormonal therapy.

Dr. Cordon-Cardo has developed and implemented a novel “systems pathology” platform. This approach uses computational biology to form mathematical models of the interaction and behavior of cancer cells with the goal of determining clinical outcome. Dr. Cordon-Cardo’s current work centers on the link between adult stem cells and cancer. In addition, he is developing models that explore loss of function of specific pathways through targeted gene disruption. He is also the Principal Investigator on several National Cancer Institute (NCI)-funded grants. A prolific writer and speaker, Dr. Cordon-Cardo has lectured widely and is one of the “Highly Cited Authors” in the biomedical sciences. Committed to educating the newest generation of scientists in his field, Dr. Cordon-Cardo has mentored over 70 investigators throughout his career.

Dr. Cordon-Cardo has received numerous awards in acknowledgement of his significant contributions to the field of pathology, including the 1991 Boyer Young Investigator Award, the Gold Medal of the Swedish Society of Physicians, the Academico de Numero of the Academia Medico-Quirurgica Española, and the Gold Medal of Medical Sciences “Govierno de Galicia.” He is a member on the Roll of Honour of the International Union Against Cancer, and an honorary member of the Spanish-American Medical and Dental Society. Dr. Cordon-Cardo recently received an honorary doctorate from the Universidad de Barcelona, and was named a Member of Honor at the Reial Academia de Medicina de Catalunya. Dr. Cordon-Cardo is also a member of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centers for Urologic Tumors, and the State Legislative Committee of the American Association for Cancer Research. He served as the President for the Solid Tumor Chapter of the Association for Molecular Pathology, and Translational Chair for the Genitourinary Section of the Southwest Oncology Group. He also served as a member of the Review Committee for Cancer Centers and Research Programs of the NCI.

Recently recruited to Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai as Chairman for the Department of Pathology, Dr. Cordon-Cardo has outlined a broad vision that redefines the discipline of Pathology, placing it at the core of patient management and individualized medicine. He is aggressively recruiting senior and junior faculty, identifying and developing subspecialty areas, such as molecular and systems pathology programs, and expanding biorepositories and databases to further enhance translational research, converting his vision into a reality. Dr. Cordon-Cardo was previously at Columbia University, where he served as Vice-Chair of Pathology, Professor of Pathology and Urology, and Associate Director for Infrastructure and member of the Internal Advisory Board at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. In addition, from 1987 to 2006, Dr. Cordon-Cardo was a faculty member in the Department of Pathology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where he created the Division of Molecular Pathology and served as its first Director.

A native of Spain, Dr. Cordon-Cardo earned his medical degree from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain, in 1980 and his PhD in Cell Biology and Genetics from Cornell University Medical College in 1985.
Yana Zorina, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Dr. Zorina received her PhD in Neuroscience from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in 2011. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Ravi Iyengar in the Department of Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics. Her studies focus on finding signaling pathways that can be pharmacologically targeted to aid in neuronal regeneration after injury; and to develop models where regenerating axons could be guided to reconnect with their previously lost targets in the mature central nervous system.
Patrick Maffucci
MD/PhD Candidate
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Patrick graduated from New York University in 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology and a minor in Chemistry. While an undergraduate, Patrick pursued research in Astrophysics, designing and writing a computer program to automate the detection and removal of anomalies from astronomical images. For this research, Patrick was awarded an undergraduate research grant to fund the purchase of technology used toward the development of the program. In addition, Patrick was also in involved in the Summer Undergraduate Research Program at Mount Sinai, during which he was exposed to a variety of research labs. As a sophomore, Patrick applied and was accepted to Mount Sinai’s MD/PhD program and used the remainder of his undergraduate summers to begin rotations for his PhD, working in various Immunology labs on topics ranging from dendritic cells to HIV.

After graduating from NYU, Patrick joined Mount Sinai’s MD/PhD program, where he is currently in his second year. In August, Patrick will join the lab of Charlotte Cunningham-Rundles where his thesis will focus on Common Variable Immunodeficiency. Patrick is interested and involved in education for both medical and graduate students. Last summer, he was a TA for the Summer Enrichment Program for incoming medical students. He currently serves as an in-lab TA for the medical school’s Gross Anatomy course. Patrick’s career interests include clinically translatable research, and he hopes to one day work along side pharmaceutical and biotech companies to help bring innovation closer to patients.
Reginald W. Miller, DVM, DACLAM
Associate Professor & Director
Center for Comparative Medicine & Surgery Associate Dean
Research Resources Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Dr. Miller has clinical oversight and responsibility for the administration of veterinary practices and policies for a GLP compliant and AAALAC accredited research facility.

Clinical duties include: animal husbandry, veterinary care, clinical and preventative medical assessment for complex interventional and surgical protocols. Non-clinical duties include participation in IACUC, training of technical staff, and development of protocols and animal and surgical models
George Damis Yancopoulos, MD, PhD
MD/President of the Laboratories & Chief Scientific Officer
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals

Dr. Yancopoulos graduated as valedictorian of both the Bronx High School of Science and Columbia College, and earned his advanced degrees at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. Following widely-recognized work in the field of molecular immunology at Columbia with Dr. Fred Alt, Dr. Yancopoulos left academia in 1989 as founding scientist for Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, where he continues to serve as President of the Laboratories and Chief Scientific Officer. He is also adjunct full professor at Columbia University and was awarded Columbia’s Stevens Triennial prize for Research and the University Medal of Excellence for Distinguished Achievement. Dr. Yancopoulos is widely regarded as a world leader in several fields of biology and has authored more than 350 scientific manuscripts. According to a study by the Institute for Scientific Information, Dr. Yancopoulos was the eleventh most highly cited scientist in the world during the 1990's. In 2004, he was elected to both the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Yancopoulos’ scientific efforts have focused on the discovery of growth factors (such as the neurotrophins, ephrins and angiopoietins), their receptors, and their signaling pathways, as well as on developing new platforms for target and drug discovery such as Trap Technology, VelociGene and VelocImmune. His research has led to unifying models of molecular and biologic function, as well as new approaches to treating disease. Dr. Yancopoulos and his team have progressed numerous drug candidates to human trials, including the IL1-Trap (ARCALYST®) which has recently been approved for treatment of an orphan inflammatory disease, the VEGF Trap-Eye (EYLEA®) which has recently been approved for age-related macular degeneration (the most common cause of blindness in the elderly), the VEGF Trap-Onc (ZALTRAP®) for cancer, and several fully human monoclonal antibodies derived using VelocImmune technology for various indications including cholesterol-lowering and inflammatory diseases.
Emilia Bagiella, PhD
Professor in the Department of Health Evidence and Policy
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Dr. Emilia Bagiella is a Professor in the Department of Health Evidence and Policy at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Bagiella has more than twenty years experience in the design and analysis of clinical trials and epidemiological studies. She currently is the Pi of the Data Coordinating Center for the federally funded TBI Model System Collaborative Study of Amantadine for Post-TBI Irritability. She has designed and coordinated more than 10 federally funded clinical trials. At Mount Sinai, Dr. Bagiella is the director of the CTSA Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Research Design (BERD) key function. Dr. Bagiella is the senior statistician for the International League Against Epilepsy, an ad-hoc reviewer for the NIH and the Department of Defense and a member of the FDA Peripheral and Central Nervous System Drugs Advisory Committee. Dr. Bagiella has methodological interest in outcome assessment and the issues related to evaluating outcome in different populations.
Annetine C. Gelijns, LLM, PhD
Edmond A. Guggenheim Professor of Health Policy
Chair of the Department of Health Evidence and Policy
Co-Director of the International Center for Health Outcomes and Innovation Research (InCHOIR)
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

An expert in health policy and clinical evaluative research, Dr. Gelijns’ cutting-edge research has provided critical insight into the forces that drive the rate and direction of technological change in medicine that promises to improve patient outcomes and reduce health care costs.

As Chair of the Department of Health Evidence and Policy and Co-Director of the International Center for Health Outcomes and Innovation Research (InCHOIR) at Mount Sinai, Dr. Gelijns’ research focuses on surgical and device-based trials; comparative effectiveness research; and the factors shaping the development and diffusion of medical technology, and their policy implications. She has written extensively about the uncertainty involved in medical research, the roles of the public and private sectors in technological change, and the dynamics of pharmacological, device and surgical innovation. She has been appointed a fellow in the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering.

Her more recent work has focused on the design, execution and policy implications of clinical trials of novel surgical procedures, biologicals (including stem cell therapies) and implantable devices. She directed the data coordinating center (DCC) for the landmark REMATCH trial which established for the first time the survival and quality of life benefit of implanted mechanical circulatory support devices for long-term support of patients with advanced heart failure. She has extended this work through being the PI for the DCC and coordinating a host of ongoing trials exploring the human biology of long-term mechanical circulatory support supported by a NIH-funded SCCOR grant. She is currently the PI of the DCC for the Cardiothoracic Surgical Trials Network, which is funded by NHLBI, NINDS and the Canadian Institute of Health Research.

Throughout her career Dr. Gelijns has built an international reputation as a leader in her field. From 1983 to 1987, she worked for the Steering Committee on Future Health Scenarios (co-sponsored by the European office of the World Health Organization and the Dutch government), where she helped develop models for long-term health planning in the areas of cancer, cardiovascular disease and aging. During that time, she also held a joint appointment to the Staff Bureau for Health Policy Development in the Netherlands’ Department of Health and the Dutch Health Council. She later directed the Program on Technological Innovation in Medicine at the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences before joining the faculty of Columbia University in 1993.

Additionally, Dr. Gelijns has served as a consultant to various national and international organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Paris, France, the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine, and she was a member of the board of the International Society on Technology Assessment in Health Care. She has also authored or co-authored more than 130 peer-reviewed articles, books, book chapters, editorials and reviews.

Her contributions have been acknowledged with numerous awards, including the Querido-Award from the Netherlands’ National Foundation for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention for the most promising young investigator in public health, the Investigator Award in Health Policy Research from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and an International Fellowship from the Council on Health Care Technology at the Institute of Medicine.

Dr. Gelijns received her LLM degree from the University of Leyden in the Netherlands and her PhD from the medical faculty at the University of Amsterdam. Prior to joining Mount Sinai, Dr. Gelijns was Co-Director of the International Center for Health Outcomes and Innovation Research, Division Chief in the Department of Surgery, and Professor of Public Health and Surgical Sciences in the Department of Surgery, College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the Division of Health Policy and Management of the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York City
Eric Sobie, PhD
Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics
Co-Director of the Systems Biology of Disease and Therapeutics Multidisciplinary Training Area
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Dr. Sobie received a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. After postdoctoral training at the University of Maryland, he joined Mount Sinai in 2006 as an Assistant Professor. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics, and he serves as co-director of the Systems Biology of Disease and Therapeutics Multidisciplinary Training Area.

Dr. Sobie's research is focused on gaining a greater quantitative understanding of cardiac physiology. By combining mathematical modeling with state-of-the-art experimental techniques, his laboratory obtains new insight into the initiation of arrhythmias and dysfunction that occurs in disease states such as heart failure.
Ming-Ming Zhou, PhD
Dr. Harold and Golden Lamport Professor and Chairman of the Department of Structural and Chemical Biology
Co-Director of the Experimental Therapeutics Institute
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Ming-Ming Zhou, PhD is the Dr. Harold and Golden Lamport Professor and Chairman of the Department of Structural and Chemical Biology, and Co-Director of the Experimental Therapeutics Institute at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He is also a Professor of Oncological Sciences, and Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics. His research interest is directed at better understanding of the fundamental molecular mechanisms of epigenetic control of gene regulation using combined structural/chemical biology and molecular/cell biology methods. Among his major contributions in the field of epigenetics, his accomplishments include: the discovery of the bromodomain as the acetyl-lysine binding domain in gene transcription (Nature, 1999), the PHD finger as a first alternative to the bromodomain for acetylated histone binding (Nature, 2010), and the PAZ domain as the RNA binding domain in RNAi (Nature, 2003). His research in structure-guided development of novel chemical probes has helped the recent validation of bromodomain proteins as the most promising epigenetic drug targets for a wide array of human diseases including inflammation and cancer.

Dr. Zhou received his BS degree in Chemical Engineering from East China University of Science and Technology (Shanghai, PRC) in 1984, a M.S. degree in Chemistry from Michigan Technological University in 1988, and a PhD degree in Chemistry from Purdue University in 1993. He joined the faculty at Mount Sinai in 1997 following his three-year postdoctoral study at Abbott Laboratories. He received the GlaxoSmithKline Drug Discovery Research Award in 2003 for his work in novel anti-HIV/AIDS therapy development to overcome the viral drug resistance. Dr. Zhou serves on review panels for the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation as well as several private research foundations. He is a Board Director for the New York Structural Biology Center. He has served as an academic advisor to over forty graduate/medical students and postdoctoral fellows during his tenure at Mount Sinai. Dr. Zhou has published his research in the top-tier scientific journals including Nature, Nature Cell Biology, Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Science SKTE and Molecular Cell. He is frequently invited to speak at national and international scientific conferences in epigenetics and drug discovery.
Keith Sigel, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor of Medicine and KL-2 Scholar
The Mount Sinai Medical Center

Keith Sigel is a member of the Mount Sinai junior faculty in the Divisions of General Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases. He is the co-clinical director of the Mount Sinai Primary Care Hepatitis C Treatment Program.

Dr. Sigel is a clinical researcher and epidemiologist with a primary interest in factors related to the abnormal biology of lung cancer in patients with HIV and other immunosuppressive conditions. He was awarded the KL-2 Award from the Mount Sinai CTSA to pursue this work, and is currently completing his PhD in Clinical Research as part of that program.

Dr. Sigel received his BS, MPH, and MD degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He completed his internal medicine residency at Mount Sinai in 2005, serving as a chief resident, and went on to complete fellowships in General Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases at Mount Sinai. He joined the faculty of Mount Sinai in 2011.
Colin Goddard, PhD
Chairman and CEO
Coferon, Inc.

Dr. Goddard is Chairman and CEO of the privately held Biotechnology platform company Coferon, Inc. which is developing coferons, custom-designed dimeric molecules that dissociate into small molecule monomers for oral delivery and distribution to the target biomolecule – often inside the cell – where they reassemble into high affinity larger molecule dimers directly on the target biomolecules. The technology is currently being deployed against epigenetic and anti-infective targets. Dr. Goddard recently led the Company’s $12 million Series B financing. He is also Chairman of the start-up Biotech company Merganser, a Director of the Biotechnology companies Agendia and PanOptica, Inc. and sits on the Oncology advisory board for GSK. He is also actively involved as an adviser to Venture Capital firms and other industry groups.

From October 1998, until its $4 billion acquisition by Astellas Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in June of 2010, Dr. Goddard was CEO of OSI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. a company he joined as a scientist in 1989. During his tenure as CEO Dr. Goddard presided over the transition of OSI from a $64 million market cap, technology platform services company into a premier, highly profitable and fully integrated biopharmaceutical organization en route to delivering ~$500 million in revenues for 2010. Dr. Goddard’s leadership and vision were instrumental in the approval and launch of the Company’s flagship product Tarceva® (erlotinib) - a leading lung cancer therapy with over $1.2billion in worldwide sales – and in establishing a highly respected, scientifically focused and fully integrated oncology franchise. Dr. Goddard championed an aggressive corporate development, acquisition and financing strategy aimed at diversifying risk and accessing external innovation - completing multiple major acquisitions and divestitures and raising over $1.5 billion in capital through secondary offerings and convertible debt deals thereby creating the financial engine necessary to build OSI.

Dr. Goddard has been active in many organizations that promote the advancement of cancer treatment and awareness, science education and the biotechnology industry; including the AACR, the Trade organizations PhRMA and BIO; the CEO forum on cancer, and the not-for-profit organizations Gilda’s Club and Abilities! He received his PhD in Cancer Pharmacology in the UK in1985 and became an American citizen in 2000. Together with his wife Amanda and three daughters, he is a long term resident of Long Island, New York.
Melinda Thomas, MBA
Entrepreneur-In-Residence for New York City

Melinda Thomas is a seasoned entrepreneur with more than 20 years of industry experience. She was VP, Operations at CardioDx, where she took the company from day one through first product launch, with responsibility for all non-research functions. CardioDx develops and commercializes molecular based diagnostics for cardiovascular disease. It is funded by Kleiner Perkins, TPG, and MDV, among others. Prior to CardioDx, she was the first employee and VP, Operations at ParAllele Biosciences, a high through-put genotyping and SNP discovery company. It was acquired in 2005 by Affymetrix. ParAllele was funded by Versant Ventures and MDV. Melinda holds a BS from U.C. Berkeley and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Her career out of HBS started with Molecular Dynamics / Amersham Pharmacia where she ran the manufacturing organization.
Michael K. Parides, PhD
Professor in the Department of Health Evidence and Policy
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Dr. Parides is an internationally recognized biostatistician with vast experience in clinical research, especially clinical trials. Dr. Parides is a Professor in the Department of Health Evidence and Policy at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Director of the school’s Center for Biostatistics. He has spent his career focusing on the development and application of novel adaptive, Bayesian, and sequential designs for both exploratory and confirmatory clinical trials and has served as principal biostatistician for many large multicenter randomized clinical trials addressing important clinical questions in neurology, cardiology, cardiac surgery, HIV, and psychiatry. His collaborations have been varied and include productive relationships relationships within academia, industry, and government (NIH and FDA). He has taught extensively on clinical trial methods, within both traditional graduate curricula in biostatistics, public health, and medicine; and also to practicing professionals through the clinical research educational programs of the American Academy of Neurology and the NINDS sponsored Clinical Trials Methods Course in Neurology. He has also served on numerous NIH Data Monitoring Committees and clinical trial study sections, and is currently a Biostatistical editor for the journal Stroke.
Deborah D. Ascheim, MD
Associate Professor in the Departments of Health Evidence & Policy and Medicine (Cardiology)
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Deborah D. Ascheim, MD, is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Health Evidence & Policy and Medicine (Cardiology) at The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. She is the Clinical Director of Research and Director of the Clinical Research Unit at the International Center for Health Outcomes & Innovation Research (InCHOIR) at Mount Sinai. A cardiologist with expertise in heart failure, Dr. Ascheim has extensive experience in clinical investigation, encompassing both trial design and conduct. She currently serves as a Co-Principal Investigator and Director of the Clinical Coordinating Core (CCC) for the NHLBI-funded Cardiothoracic Surgical Trials Network Data Coordinating Center (DCC). She has particular expertise in clinical evaluation of surgical and device interventions, as well as novel therapeutics such as cell- and gene-based therapies, currently serving as the DCC PI for the NHLBI-funded Hybrid Revascularization Observational Study and for an NHLBI-funded C-TRIP grant, Targeted Gene Therapy for the Treatment of Heart Failure. She has been the site Principal Investigator for numerous heart failure clinical trials, and served on numerous leadership and advisory committees for both NIH and industry-funded heart failure, cardiovascular and cardiac device trials.

Her research has been published in journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine, Circulation, Circulation: Heart Failure, Journal of Cardiac Failure, Journal of Heart Lung Transplant, Journal of Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgery, and The Annals of Thoracic Surgery.

Dr. Ascheim graduated from New York University School of Medicine and completed her internship and residency in Internal Medicine, as well as her fellowship in Cardiovascular Diseases, at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. She completed a post-graduate fellowship at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and remained on faculty as an Assistant Professor and Attending Cardiologist in the Heart Failure Center at Columbia P&S and the Mailman School of Public Health from 1995-2008. Dr. Ascheim completed her undergraduate studies at Wellesley College, graduating cum laude. Dr. Ascheim is Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), having served on the Board since January 2008.
Eric M. Genden, MD, FACS
Chairman of Otolaryngology- Head and Neck Surgery and Director of the Head and Neck Cancer Center
The Mount Sinai Hospital

Dr. Genden is the Chairman of Otolaryngology- Head and Neck Surgery and Director of the Head and Neck Cancer Center at The Mount Sinai Hospital, New York. Dr. Genden is a Professor of Otolaryngology- Head and Neck Surgery and Immunobiology at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He completed residency training in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at Washington University, Barnes Hospital. Dr. Genden then completed fellowship training in head and neck oncology and microvascular surgery at The Mount Sinai Medical Center.

Dr. Genden is nationally recognized as one of the country’s top head and neck cancer surgeons and is listed as one of America’s Top Head and Neck Surgeons. His expertise in management of oral cancer and reconstruction of the head and neck has contributed to the national reputation for excellence at The Mount Sinai Hospital. Dr. Genden’s basic science laboratory focuses on transplantation immune biology of the trachea and larynx and is funded by The National Institute of Health. He has published nearly 150 manuscripts and chapters and is the author and editor of three books, Head and Neck Cancer- A Multidisciplinary Approach, Head and Neck Reconstruction: A Defect- Oriented Approach, and Free Flap Surgery.
Elazer R. Edelman, MD, PhD, FACC
Thomas D. and Virginia W. Cabot Professor of Health Sciences and Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Director
Harvard-MIT Biomedical Engineering Center Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School Senior Physician
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Dr. Edelman directs the Biomedical Engineering Center and holds the Cabot Chair in Health Sciences and Technology at MIT. He is Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Senior Attending Physician the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at the Brigham and Women's Hospital. He is fellow of the American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association, Association of University Cardiologists, American Society of Clinical Investigation, American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, the Institute of Medicine and National Academy of Engineering.

Dr. Edelman’s research combines his scientific and medical training, using polymer controlled drug delivery, growth factor biology and biochemistry, tissue engineering, biomaterials-tissue interactions, continuum mechanics, and digital signal processing to examine the cellular and molecular mechanisms for vascular disease. His laboratory helped develop and optimize bare metal and drug-eluting stents. Their work has advanced studies of endothelial cell and vascular biology, computational modeling of vessel formation, and the homology between endothelial paracrine and angiocrine regulation in cancer and vascular diseases.

As Chief Scientific Advisor of Science: Translational Medicine he has set the tone for the national debate on translational research and innovation. As co-founder of ASTM F04.03 he helped create standards for cardiovascular implants. He is a member of FDA’s Science Board, external reviewer of CDRH and an ORISE fellow in the FDA EIR.
Martin Vogelbaum
Partner
Rho Ventures

Martin Vogelbaum is a partner of Rho Ventures. He has more than 17 years of experience investing in the life sciences sector, having been involved with companies at all stages of development, including co-founding more than a half dozen companies. He joined Rho in 2005 and primarily focuses on investments in biotechnology, biopharmaceuticals and medical devices. Prior to Rho, he was a partner of Apple Tree Partners, a life sciences venture firm focused on early-stage companies. While at Apple Tree, Martin co-founded four start-ups, including Gloucester Pharmaceuticals where he served as interim CEO and chairman. Martin began his venture capital career in 1993 at Oxford Bioscience Partners, where he served as a general partner. Prior to Oxford, he was a research associate in the bone marrow transplantation unit at Memorial-Sloan Kettering Hospital, where he conducted research in graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD). Martin received his AB in biology and history from Columbia University.
Paul Stoffels, MD
Worldwide Chairman
Janssen, Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson

Dr. Paul Stoffels is Worldwide Chairman of Janssen, Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. Dr. Stoffels is leading the expansion of the pharmaceutical group through R&D, partnerships and acquisitions.

Prior to his role as Worldwide Chairman he was Global Head, Pharmaceutical R&D in 2009. He was instrumental in driving the growth of the pipeline of new medicines. Dr. Stoffels created one R&D organization across the pharmaceutical companies of Johnson & Johnson and focused on R&D productivity, internal R&D and partnerships. The new global R&D organization is focused to discover and develop new and innovative treatments for unmet medical needs in five therapeutic areas: oncology, immunology, neuroscience (incl. pain), cardiovascular and metabolism, and infectious diseases/vaccines.

Dr. Stoffels was named Company Group Chairman in 2006, with responsibility for worldwide research and development in the CNS, Pain, Infectious Diseases, Metabolism, Cardiovascular and Primary Care therapeutic categories. Before assuming that role, he led the development of PREZISTA and INTELENCE, our leading HIV products, at Tibotec.

From 1997 until 2002, Dr. Stoffels was Chairman of Tibotec and Chief Executive Officer of Virco, two biotech companies based in Belgium. He continued to lead the organizations after their acquisition by Johnson & Johnson, first as President of Tibotec and later as Company Group Chairman for the Virology franchise.

He began his career as a physician in Africa, focusing on HIV and tropical diseases research. When he returned to Belgium, he assumed responsibility for the infectious disease drug development at Janssen in Beerse.

Dr. Stoffels studied Medicine at the University of Diepenbeek and the University of Antwerp in Belgium and Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium.
John J. Sninsky, PhD
Vice President, Discovery Research
Celera

Dr. Sninsky is the Vice President of Discovery Research at Celera. The Discovery Research group encompasses teams of scientists who work in: specific disease areas, a high-throughput genotyping and expression facility, statistical genetics, biomarker development, computational biology and future diagnostic technologies. His primary focus is the application of genetic and genomic tools to identify and develop diagnostic and pharmacogenomic assays for common complex disease and cancer.

He is the author of numerous scientific papers including methods in molecular biology, application of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to virology and cancer, and more recently genome-wide genetic association studies for multiple common, complex diseases. With the acquisition of Celera by Quest Diagnostics in 2011, John has accepted additional responsibilities and also holds the title of Chief Director, Discovery, Science and Innovation, Quest Diagnostics.

Among Dr. Sninsky’s past awards are the Centers for Disease Control Charles C. Shepherd Science Award (1988), the Pan American Society for Clinical Virology Award (1992) and the Hoffmann-La Roche R & D Prize in 1997 for his efforts in applying PCR to virology and developing assays for measuring viral load in individuals with (HIV) AIDS.

Dr. Sninsky was a recipient of the Purdue University Distinguished Alumni Award in 2001, and served on the Department of Biological Sciences Alumni Advisory Committee (2005-2007) before joining the Dean of College of Science Leadership Council in 2007. In addition, Dr. Sninsky is a member of the scientific advisory committee for the Charles R. Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, chairs the scientific advisory panel for the Professional Science Masters (PSM) Program with an emphasis on Biotechnology and Stem Cell Science at San Francisco State University (SFSU), and is a member of Stanford University SPARK program which facilitates communication between academia and industry to accelerate translational medicine.

Among Dr. Sninsky’s professional society memberships are American Association for the Advancement of Science, Association of Molecular Pathologists, American Society Human Genetics, American College Medical Genetics, American Association Cancer Research and American Association for the Study of Liver Disease. Dr. Sninsky received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Bates College (1972) and a PhD in biology from Purdue University (1976). He was a postdoctoral fellow in Genetics and Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine with Stanley N. Cohen. From 1981 to 1984, Dr. Sninsky was on the faculty at Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AECOM) in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology with a joint appointment in the Department of Molecular Biology. He was a member of the AECOM Liver and Cancer Centers. From 1984 to 1991, he worked at Cetus Corporation where he was responsible for the immunoassay and molecular diagnostics programs.

From 1991 to 1998, John was the Senior Director of Research at Roche Molecular Systems. His team of scientists devised PCR diagnostic assays for many infectious pathogens as well as for genetic diseases and cancer. In 1998, he was promoted to Vice President, Discovery Research as well as Vice President, Roche Genetics, an initiative that coordinated the genetic and genomic efforts between the pharmaceutical and diagnostics divisions. Dr. Sninsky joined Celera in 2000.
Nirav R. Shah, MD, MPH
New York State Commissioner of Health

Nirav R. Shah, MD, MPH, is the 15th New York State Commissioner of Health. He heads one of the nation’s leading public health agencies with a budget of more than $50 billion, and administers the state’s public health insurance programs, which cover 5 million New Yorkers. The Department also regulates hospitals and other health care facilities, conducts research in a premier biomedical laboratory, and supports public health and prevention initiatives.

A native of Buffalo, Dr. Shah is board-certified in Internal Medicine and is an honors graduate of Harvard College and Yale School of Medicine. He was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at UCLA and a National Research Service Award Fellow at New York University. Before becoming Commissioner, he was Attending Physician at Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan, Associate Investigator at the Geisinger Center for Health Research in central Pennsylvania, and Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Section of Value and Comparative Effectiveness at NYU Langone Medical Center.

Dr. Shah has been a leading researcher in the use of large-scale clinical laboratories and electronic health records to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of care. He is a nationally recognized thought leader in patient safety and quality, comparative effectiveness, and the methods needed to transition to lower-cost, patient-centered health care for the 21st century.

His vision for New York is a state where every resident has access to affordable health insurance coverage, high quality care, and early screening and other services to prevent chronic disease and improve overall health.
New York
November 12-14, 2012




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