Advisory Board
Pamela M. Klein, MD
Dr. Klein has more than 15 years of clinical and translational research experience in oncology drug development. She serves as a consultant and advisor on all aspects of clinical and translational research, and has led programs spanning from the pre-clinical stage to approval and beyond.
Klein is principal of PMK BioResearch where she does strategic consulting to all stages of biotech, often serving as advisor to corporate boards, CEOs, the investment community and management teams. Klein was CMO of Intellikine (since acquired by Milleinium/Takeda), where she built the clinical development organization and brought early compounds from lab to investigational new drug (IND) status and finally, to clinic.
Prior to that, she held positions of increasing responsibility at Genentech, advancing to vice president, development. While at Genentech, she led several franchise development programs including the HER family of compounds, the apoptosis franchise and the hematology programs.
Prior to Genentech, she was at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), where she built and ran the NCI-Navy Breast Center, focusing research on developing surrogate markers of cancer risk, disease activity and predictive markers. Klein earned her medical degree from Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University.
She completed her internal medicine work at Cedar-Sinai receiving the Leo Rigler Award for Resident of the Year and the Ben Newman Award for Most Humanistic Physician. She also did a medical oncology fellowship at the NCI serving as chief fellow and completing an advanced fellowship in Cancer Genetics.
Dr. Jon M. Wigginton, MD
Dr. Wigginton serves as Senior Vice President of Clinical Development at MacroGenics, Inc. and served as its senior vice president of clinical research since August 2013. He served as therapeutic area head of Immuno-Oncology, Early Clinical Research and executive director of Discovery Medicine-Clinical Oncology at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), where he led the early clinical development of the BMS Immuno-Oncology portfolio including anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1.
Prior to joining BMS, Dr. Wigginton served as the director of clinical oncology at Merck Research Laboratories, where he led early and late-stage clinical development teams for small molecules and biologics. During his academic career, he held several positions at the National Cancer Institute Center for Cancer Research (NCI-CCR), including head of the Investigational Biologics Section, Pediatric Oncology Branch.
Dr. Wigginton served as president of the International Society for the Biological Therapy of Cancer (iSBTc), which is now the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC). He is the author of more than 50 manuscripts and reviews and is the recipient of multiple awards for scientific accomplishment from sources including the NIH, NCI, USPHS, iSBTc, ISICR, Children's Cancer Foundation, Merck and BMS. He received his MD and a BS in Biology from the University of Michigan.
Paul E. Freiman, BS, Honorary Doctorate
Mr. Freiman has extensive pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry operating experience as a board member and chief executive officer of private and publicly traded companies.
He is a pharmacist and is currently an independent pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry consultant. He serves as chairman of Chronix BioMedical and is a member of the NovaBay Pharmaceutical Board of Directors.
Before that Mr. Freiman served on the boards of Otsuka America, Inc. and several biotechnology companies based in the US and Singapore. He also was a partner of Burrill Brasil Investmentos based in Rio de Janiero and president and chief executive officer of Neurobiological Technologies, Inc. and a member of its board of directors.
Mr. Freiman was chairman and chief executive officer of Syntex Corporation that was sold to the Roche Group for $5.3 billion during his tenure. He is credited with much of the marketing success of Syntex's lead product, Naprosyn, and was responsible for moving the product to over-the-counter status, marketed as Aleve. Aleve currently generates approximately $400 million in annual revenues worldwide.
Mr. Freiman served on the board of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association of America (PhRMA) and was its chairman. He also served on industry task forces, nationally and internationally and was chairman of the University of California Foundation, the United Way of Silicon Valley and a number of not-for-profit organizations through the years.
Mr. Freiman received a BS in pharmacy from Fordham University and an honorary doctorate from the Arnold & Marie Schwartz College of Pharmacy.
Samir N. Khleif, MD
Samir N. Khleif, MD, is director of the Georgia Regents University (GRU) Cancer Center in Augusta, Georgia. He is board certified in internal medicine and medical oncology. His BS and MD degrees are from the University of Jordan School of Medicine, Amman, Jordan. He was a post-doctoral research fellow, Hematology-Oncology at Michigan State University and an intern at Case Western Reserve University. His residency was at the Medical College of Ohio, Toledo, Ohio.
Dr. Khleif has diverse and vast experience in clinical and basic cancer research, strategic and programmatic national and institutional development, and research and health care administration and leadership. He has led the development of national strategies and complex health care and research organizations in the US and internationally. He is also a recognized basic and translational scientist and a medical oncologist with more than 25 years experience. His work has led to many pioneering clinical trials in cancer immunotherapy.
Following his training, Dr. Khleif joined the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as a medical oncology fellow and advanced to senior investigator and chief, Cancer Vaccine Section, at the NCI. During his time there, he also served as a special assistant to the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and led the Critical Path Initiative for oncology.
In 2002 Dr. Khleif became the director general and CEO of the King Hussein Cancer Center and Biotechnology Institute (KHIBC) as part of an agreement between the NCI and Jordan. He led the development of the center into an internationally recognized center of excellence.
Dr. Khleif's research interest is in identifying new and improved strategies to enhance specific immune response against cancer for preventive and therapeutic intent. This is conducted through the understanding of immune regulation and tumor-immune system interaction and translating the findings into therapeutic approaches.
Dr. Khleif serves on several local, national, and international committees and as a cancer vaccine expert for a number of national organizations. His recent recognitions include receiving the Medical Trailblazer Award, Augusta City Classic.
James J. Mulé, PhD
Dr. Mulé is the Associate Center Director for Translational Science, the Michael McGillicuddy Endowed Chair for Melanoma Research and Treatment, and Director of Cell-based Therapies at the Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida.
He is recognized for his research and clinical trial contributions to cancer immunotherapy, particularly in solid tumors. His clinical research group is involved in developing and validating genomic signatures of immunotherapy response, as well as vaccine strategies (e.g., with dendritic cells) and other approaches (e.g., with adoptive T cells) to recognize and destroy tumors.
The translational work in these areas has helped to develop new treatments for advanced cancer patients. He has published nearly 200 articles in the areas of cancer vaccines and cancer immunotherapy. Dr. Mulé serves on Advisory Boards of numerous biotechnology and pharma companies (e.g., OncoPep, Lion Biotech, Vault Pharma, Celgene, among others).
Dr. Mulé remains a long-standing special government employee to the FDA (CDER and CBER) and the NCI. He was Chair of the Cellular, Tissue, and Gene Therapy Advisory Committee of CBER, FDA. He currently serves on the advisory boards of several NCI-designated Cancer Centers and was a member of the NCI Director’s Board of Scientific Counselors (BSC-A). Dr. Mulé also serves on the Editorial Boards of several peer-reviewed journals, including Scientific Reports (nature.com), Journal of Immunotherapy, and Cancer Immunology Research (AACR).
Dr. Mulé received a special individual Ph.D. (IPh.D.) degree in Tumor Immunology from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington. He then received his formal post-graduate training at the Surgery Branch, Division of Cancer Treatment, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, where he became a Senior Investigator with tenure. Dr. Mulé moved to Palo Alto, CA, where he helped to launch and scientifically direct two biotechnology companies. He then moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan to become the Director of the Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy Program at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Maude T. Lane Endowed Professor of Surgery with tenure, Department of Surgery, and Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine.
Steve Buhaly, MBA
Steve Buhaly, named Portland Business Journal's CFO of the year in 2011, Steve brings 15 years of CFO experience from his tenure with three public companies. Prior to joining QORVO a communications chipmaker where he helped raise $1 Billion, increased revenue fivefold, and increase profitability, Buhaly was CFO of Longview Fibre, a timber, pulp and paper company. He also served as both a Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Planar Systems, a manufacturer of flat panel displays, where he began as vice president of the medical business area.
Buhaly earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Washington and a Master of Business Administration from the same.
Santosh Kesari, MD, PhD
Dr. Santosh Kesari is a board-certified neurologist and neuro-oncologist and is currently Chair and Professor, Department of Translational Neurosciences, Saint John’s Cancer Institute and regional medical director of Providence Southern California’s Research Clinical Institute.
He is also Director of Neuro-Oncology at Providence Saint John’s Health Center, Mission Hospital, and founder of Pacific Neuroscience Institute and leads the Pacific Neuroscience Research Center and Translational Neuro-Oncology Laboratory.
Dr. Kesari is ranked among the top 1% of neuro-oncologists and neurologists in the nation according to Castle Connolly Medical Ltd and an internationally recognized scientist and clinician.
He is a winner of an Innovation Award by the San Diego Business Journal and Duke Award from John Wayne Auxiliary. He is on the advisory board of American Brain Tumor Association, San Diego Brain Tumor Foundation, End Brain Cancer, Voices Against Brain Cancer, and Cancer Support Community Los Angeles. He has been the author of over 350 scientific publications, reviews, or books.
He is the inventor on several patents and patent applications, and founder and advisor to many cancer and neurosciences focused biotech startups such as Curtana Pharmaceuticals, Nascent Biologics, and Calidi Biotherapeutics.
Dr. Kesari has had a long-standing interest in cancer stem cells and studies their role in the formation of brain tumors and resistance to treatment. He believes that in order to cure patients with brain tumors we first need to gain a better molecular and biological understanding of the disease.
A physician/scientist, Dr. Kesari has led over 100 clinical trials in brain tumors and harnesses his experience in chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation therapy and novel devices to help develop Precision Therapeutic Strategies that will advance medicine to a new stage in the battle against brain tumors and eradicate the disease.
In the past 10 years, Dr. Kesari has increasingly focused on brain health and preventing illness with advanced early detection technologies and harnessing the power of immune system. In large part, we have learned that the immune system plays a vital role in preventing illnesses from cancer to dementia to autoimmune disorders.
Dr. Kesari graduated from University of Pennsylvania, School of Arts and Sciences in 1992 and earned a PhD degree in molecular biology and a MD from the University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine.
He completed his residency in neurology at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School and his neuro-oncology fellowship at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
He was previously assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Brigham and Women’s Hospital and then professor of neurosciences at UC San Diego.
He is a member of the Society of Neuro-Oncology, American Society of Clinical Oncology, Indian Society of Neuro-Oncology, American Neurological Association, American Academy of Neurology, American Association for Cancer Research, European Association of Neuro-Oncology, and Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer.