ADVISORY BOARD
As Precision Medicine has changed over the past several years, we have been diligent in ensuring that the composition of our Editorial Advisory Board reflects those changes. Our EAB represents how precision medicine has come to expand beyond cancer and sequencing to embrace other therapeutic areas and analytical domains. In addition to these areas, we also saw the need to draw from various organizations and institutions – therapeutic to diagnostic to analytical to academic. In light of these changes, the EAB now encompasses the range of scientific, technical, and medical disciplines in precision medicine. Experts have been added to keep pace with emerging capabilities, such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, and advanced computational methods. We look to our EAB for deep advice on topics and directions, using their input to shape content for you, the audience of the Journal and the Summits.
And, of course, we express our profound gratitude to them for their contribution and look to them for their ongoing support. Thank you!
Howard McLeod, PharmD, FASCO, FCCP
Medical Director, Precision Medicine, Geriatric Oncology Consortium; Professor, University of South Florida, College of Pharmacy
Howard McLeod, PharmD, FASCO, FCCP
Medical Director, Precision Medicine, Geriatric Oncology Consortium; Professor, University of South Florida, College of Pharmacy
Dr Howard McLeod is an internationally recognized expert in precision medicine, having made novel contributions at the discovery, translation, implementation, and policy levels. He is the Medical Director for Precision Medicine at the Geriatric Oncology Consortium and a Professor at the University of South Florida Taneja College of Pharmacy. Dr McLeod chaired the NHGRI eMERGE network external scientific panel for the past decade and was a recent member of both the FDA committee on Clinical Pharmacology and the NIH Human Genome Advisory Council. Dr McLeod has been recognized as a Fellow of both the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American College of Clinical Pharmacy and was recently ranked #1 USA/#2 World for Pharmacogenomics. He has also been an active Board Member and/or Founder for over a dozen privately held and publicly traded companies. Howard has published over 575 peer reviewed papers on pharmacogenomics, applied therapeutics, or clinical pharmacology and continues to work to advance innovative healthcare.
Robert C. Green, MD, MPH
Professor of Medicine; Director, G2P Research Program; Associate Director for Research, Partners Personalized Medicine, Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Broad Institute and Harvard Medical School
Robert C. Green, MD, MPH
Professor of Medicine; Director, G2P Research Program; Associate Director for Research, Partners Personalized Medicine, Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Broad Institute and Harvard Medical School
Robert C. Green, MD, MPH is a medical geneticist and physician-scientist who directs the G2P Research Program in translational genomics and health outcomes in the Division of Genetics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Green is principal investigator of the NIH-funded REVEAL Study, in which a cross-disciplinary team has conducted 4 separate multi-center randomized clinical trials since 2000, collectively enrolling 1100 individuals in order to explore emerging themes in translational genomics. Dr. Green also co-directs the NIH-funded PGen Study, one of the first prospective studies of direct-to-consumer genetic testing services. He is principal investigator of the MedSeq Project, the first NIH-funded randomized trial to explore the use of whole genome sequencing in the clinical practice of medicine and co-directs the BabySeq Project, the first NIH-funded trial of sequencing in newborns. The MedSeq and BabySeq Projects apply genome sequencing both in patients who are affected with hereditary disease and in those who are healthy, in order to study downstream impact on health, behavior and health care costs.
Dr. Green is currently Associate Director for Research of the Partners Center for Personalized Genetic Medicine, a Board Member of the Council for Responsible Genetics and a member of the Informed Cohort Oversight Boards for both the Children’s Hospital Boston Gene Partnership Program and the Coriell Personalized Medicine Collaborative. He was the lead author of the recently published recommendations from the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics for management of incidental findings in clinical sequencing.
Alessandra Cesano, MD, PhD
Chief Medical Officer, ESSA
Alessandra Cesano, MD, PhD
Chief Medical Officer, ESSA
Alessandra Cesano, MD, PhD is Chief Medical Officer at ESSA. Prior to joining ESSA, Dr. Cesano was the Chief Medical Officer of NanoString Inc from July 2015 until June 2019 where she focused in the development of translational and diagnostic multi-plexed assays for the characterization and measurement of mechanisms of immune response/resistance.
Prior to joining NanoString, Dr. Cesano was Chief Medical Officer at Cleave Biosciences, Inc. and before then she served as Chief Medical Officer and Chief Operations Officer at Nodality, Inc., where she built and led the R and D group, while providing the overall clinical vision for the organization. Between 1998 and 2008, Dr. Cesano held various management positions at Amgen, Biogen Idec and SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, where she helped to advance various oncology drugs through late stage development and FDA approvals.
Early in her professional career Dr. Cesano spent 12 years conducting research in tumor immunology, including nine years at the Wistar Institute, an NCI Basic Cancer Center connected with the University of Pennsylvania.
Howard A. “Skip” Burris III, MD, FASCO, FACP
Chief Medical Officer, Sarah Cannon, Executive Director, Drug Development, Sarah Cannon Research Institute
Howard A. “Skip” Burris III, MD, FASCO, FACP
Chief Medical Officer, Sarah Cannon, Executive Director, Drug Development, Sarah Cannon Research Institute
Howard A. “Skip” Burris III, MD, FASCO, FACP serves as president and chief medical officer of Sarah Cannon, as well as the executive director, drug development for Sarah Cannon Research Institute. He is an associate of Tennessee Oncology, PLLC, where he practices medical oncology.
Dr. Burris’ clinical research career has focused on the development of new cancer agents with an emphasis on first–in–human therapies, having led the trials of many novel antibodies, small molecules, and chemotherapies now FDA approved. In 1997, he established in Nashville the first community–based early phase drug development program, which grew into the Sarah Cannon Research Institute. He has authored over 400 publications and 700 abstracts.
Dr. Burris served as president of ASCO in 2019-2020 and is serving as Chair of the Board for the 2020-2021 term. He also currently serves on the Board of ASCO’s Conquer Cancer Foundation. Additionally in 2014, Dr. Burris was selected by his peers as a Giant of Cancer Care for his achievements in drug development.
Dr. Burris completed his undergraduate education at the United States Military Academy at West Point, his medical degree at the University of South Alabama, and his internal medicine residency and oncology fellowship at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. While in Texas, he also served as the Director of Clinical Research at The Institute for Drug Development of the Cancer Therapy and Research Center and The University of Texas Health Science Center. He attained the rank of lieutenant colonel in the US Army, and among his decorations, he was awarded a Meritorious Service Medal with oak leaf cluster for his service in Operation Joint Endeavor.
Christina Waters, PhD, MBA
Chief Executive Officer and Founder, RARE Science
Christina Waters, PhD, MBA
Chief Executive Officer and Founder, RARE Science
Christina Waters has been responsible for leading medical research in a broad range of organizations ranging from academia and disease – focused non-profits to biotech and large pharmaceutical companies. Her broad range of experience in basic, translational, and clinical research and business strategies converge to specialize in the development of new approaches to personalized medicine and health, creation of synergistic partnerships and implementation of new innovative research initiatives.
She is CEO and Founder of RARE Science, a non-profit research organization that enables the rare scientific research community to accelerate discovery of therapeutic solutions for patients with rare disease. In addition, she serves as a Scientific Advisory board member, for Global Genes|Rare Project, which focuses on advocacy and education for the rare disease community and as a Senior Advisor for Personalized Medicine and Health Informatics for Pricewaterhouse Coopers’ Personalized Medicine and Health Sciences Practices serving academic and research organizations across the healthcare continuum.
Dr. Waters received her Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of California, Davis as a NIH Biotechnology Fellow. She was a Postdoctoral Scholar and Associate of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the Division of Biology, California Institute of Technology. Dr. Waters also completed an NIH Postdoctoral fellowship at University of California, Berkeley, and received a Bachelor of Science in Biology from San Diego State University. Dr. Waters received her MBA from University of California, Los Angeles.
Hannah Mamuszka
Chief Executive Officer & Founder, Alva10
Hannah Mamuszka
Chief Executive Officer & Founder, Alva10
Hannah Mamuszka is the Founder and CEO of Alva10, which focuses on bringing diagnostics to the forefront of Precision Medicine by partnering with payers and employers with diagnostic developers to create a new value-based healthcare model that pulls diagnostics into the market. Ms Mamuszka has spent more than 20 years in biotech and diagnostics, with extensive experience in both drug and diagnostic development, validation, and commercialization. Prior to founding Alva10, Ms Mamuszka was VP of Business Development at Exosome Diagnostics, where she led some of the earliest deals in the liquid biopsy diagnostic space. Earlier in her career, she was Global Director for Pharma Services at Exiqon A/S (now QIAGEN), and worked as a scientist on for Bortezmib (Velcade) at Millennium Pharmaceuticals (now Takeda). She is a Board Director at Bionano Genomics (BNGO), regularly speaks on issues regarding advancement of technology in healthcare, and writes a column on the value of diagnostics for the Journal of Precision Medicine.
Kristine Ashcraft, MBA
Head of Pharmacogenomics, Invitae
Kristine Ashcraft, MBA
Head of Pharmacogenomics, Invitae
Kristine Ashcraft is a molecular biologist by training and the Head of Pharmacogenomics at Invitae. Ms. Ashcraft was the Chief Executive Officer of Youscript, Inc. during its acquisition by Invitae. She has worked in precision medicine since 2000 and was recently named one of the 25 Leading Global Voices in the space. Ms. Ashcraft has authored multiple publications on the clinical and economic benefits of pharmacogenomic testing including one lauded as one of the most influential publications at a recent AMIA meeting. She has been interviewed by numerous media outlets including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and NBC Nightly News and has spoken at numerous Precision Medicine Conferences. She is committed to being a catalyst in the adoption of precision medicine.
Sarah Hersey, MBA, MS
Vice President, Precision Medicine, Bristol Myers Squibb
Sarah Hersey, MBA, MS
Vice President, Precision Medicine, Bristol Myers Squibb
Sarah is currently the Vice President, of Precision Medicine for Bristol Myers Squibb. She has more than 20 years of industry experience in leading R&D organizations, CLIA and GLP laboratories, device manufacturing, consortiums, assessment and implementation of technology strategies, and development of in vitro diagnostics. In addition, she continuously works to further education and awareness in the Precision Medicine and Companion Diagnostic spaces. Prior to joining BMS, Sarah was the Vice President, Precision Medicine & Companion Diagnostics for Celgene, where she founded their Precision Medicine Organization in 2016. She joined Celgene after having held the position as the Global Head of Future Precision Medicine for Novartis, where the team submitted and gained approval for multiple Health Authority applications; including the first pre-market approval for a distributable NGS CDx.
Sarah has also held multiple roles with increasing responsibility within Johnson and Johnson (JNJ) including Global Head of Operations, Assay Program Leader for Companion Diagnostics Center of Excellence, Director of Materials Process Development and Enabling Technologies. At JNJ, Sarah co-led or was the operating company’s representative on key corporate strategic initiatives including, but not limited to: Nanotechnology, Critical to Quality Flow Down and Pathology Business Opportunity Team and had accountability for CLIA laboratories in the US and Europe. In addition, her prior experience also includes start-up and establishment of a GLP laboratory, technical support and quality assurance. Sarah has BS and MS degrees in Chemistry and Biology from Northern Illinois University, Regulatory Affairs Certification (RAC) and an MBA from California State University.
Jeanette McCarthy, PhD, MPH
Founder, Precision Medicine Advisors; Adjunct Associate Professor, Community and Family Medicine, Duke University Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, UCSF
Jeanette McCarthy, PhD, MPH
Founder, Precision Medicine Advisors; Adjunct Associate Professor, Community and Family Medicine, Duke University Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, UCSF
Jeanette McCarthy is a UC Berkeley trained genetic epidemiologist and spent the early part of her career in industry at Millennium Pharmaceuticals before transitioning to academia. She currently holds adjunct faculty positions at Duke University and UCSF. Her previous research had focused on the genetic underpinnings of complex diseases, both infectious and chronic. More recently, she has become a leading educator in the field of genomic and precision medicine involved in demystifying genomics for non-technical audiences, including health care providers, patients and other stakeholders. In 2014 she helped launch the first consumer-facing magazine in this field, Genome, where she served as editor-in-chief until 2016. She teaches genomic and precision medicine through UCSF and UC Berkeley Extension and online through Coursera and through the Precision Medicine Academy (precisionmedicineacademy.org). She also designs and delivers custom workshops and courses to international audiences through her consulting business (precisionmedicineadvisors.com). Jeanette is coauthor of the new book, Precision Medicine: A Guide to Genomics in Clinical Practice (2016, McGraw Hill Education).
John Quackenbush, PhD
Henry Pickering Walcott Professor of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Chair, Department of Biostatistics, Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health
John Quackenbush, PhD
Henry Pickering Walcott Professor of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Chair, Department of Biostatistics, Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health
John Quackenbush is Professor of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics and Chair of the Department of Biostatistics at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and Professor of Biostatistics and Computational Biology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
John’s PhD was in Theoretical Physics, in 1992 he received a fellowship from the National Institutes of Health to work on the Human Genome Project, which led him from the Salk Institute to Stanford University to The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) before moving to Harvard in 2005. John’s research uses massive data from DNA sequencing and other assays to model functional networks in human cells. By comparing networks between groups of individuals, he has found new drug targets, explored chemotherapy resistance, and investigated differences between the sexes. He has made pioneering discoveries about how the genetic variants work together to determine our traits.
John has published more than 280 papers; his work has been cited more than 65,000 times. He has received numerous awards for his work, including recognition in 2013 as a White House Open Science Champion of Change. He is also the co-founder of Genospace, a precision medicine software company that was purchased by the Hospital Corporation of America in 2017.
Dr. George Poste, CBE, FRS, DVM, PhD
Del E. Webb Professor, Health Innovation; Chief Scientist, Complex Adaptive Systems Initiative, Arizona State University
Dr. George Poste, CBE, FRS, DVM, PhD
Del E. Webb Professor, Health Innovation; Chief Scientist, Complex Adaptive Systems Initiative, Arizona State University
Dr. George Poste is the Del E. Webb Professor of Health Innovation and Chief Scientist at The Complex Adaptive Systems Initiative (CASI) at Arizona State University (ASU) (http://www.casi.asu.edu). This program integrates research in genomics, synthetic biology and high performance computing to study the altered regulation of molecular networks in human diseases to develop new diagnostic tests for precision medicine and the remote monitoring of health status using miniaturized body sensors and mobile devices. He assumed this post in 2009. From 2003 to 2009 he directed and built The Biodesign Institute at ASU (https://biodesign.asu.edu/).
As of January 2021, Dr. Poste assumed additional leadership of the new Institute for Future Health (IFH) a joint venture between ASU and the University of Arizona in precision health and digital health. This focuses on remote health monitoring technologies with a focus on the use of digital psychiatry and cognitive computing to address the growing burden of mental illness.
He has published more than 400 research papers and edited 14 books on pharmaceutical technologies, cancer and infectious diseases. He has received honorary degrees in science, law and medicine and was awarded the rank of Commander of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II for his contributions to research and international security.
He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Exelixis, Caris Life Sciences, MediSix (Singapore) and the Scientific Advisory Boards of the A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute at the University of Michigan, Synthetic Genomics, Vir Biotechnology, iNanoBio and Haplogen GmbH (Vienna).
From 1992 to 1999, he was Chief Science and Technology Officer and President, R&D, of SmithKline Beecham (SB) (now GlaxoSmithKilne). During his tenure at SB, he was associated with the successful registration of multiple drug, vaccine and diagnostic products. He has served on the Board of Directors of Illumina, Structural Genomix (acquired by Lilly), Orchid Biosciences (acquired by LapCorp), diaDexus (acquired by Vaxgen), Monsanto (acquired by Bayer) and Advanced PCS (acquired by CVS-Caremark).
In 2004 he was named “R&D Scientist of the Year” by R&D Magazine, he received the Einstein award from the Global Business Leadership Council (2006), the Scrip Lifetime Achievement award voted by the leadership of the global pharmaceutical industry (2009) and the Arizona Bioindustry Association Pioneer Award (2016).
He is a Fel