Our Team

Staff & Volunteers

Austin Swafford, PhD

BIO

Austin D. Swafford, Phd

President

Alexandra J. Ambrico

BIO

Alexandra J. Ambrico

Director of communications, education, & professional development

Jenny Dworzak, MD, PhD

BIO

Jenny DWORZAK, MD, PhD

Director of Business Development

Randi Balletta

Volunteer Emeritus

Randi Balletta

Volunteer Emeritus

Board of Directors

Leadership

Stephen M. McLean

BIO

Stephen M. McLean

Chair

Kathryn Zoon, Phd

BIO

Kathryn Zoon, PhD

VICE-Chair

Alan Jones

BIO

Alan Jones

TREASURER

Members

Brian Atwood

BIO

Brian Atwood

Director

Brian Brille

BIO

Brian J. Brille

Director

Jeremy P. Goldberg

BIO

Jeremy P. Goldberg

Director

Andrew Hamilton, PhD, FRS

Director

Scott Koenig, MD, PhD

BIO

Scott Koenig, MD, PhD

Director

Ralph Korpman, MD

BIO

Ralph Korpman, MD

Director

John Niederhuber, MD

BIO

John Niederhuber, MD

Director

Ronn Richard

BIO

Ronn Richard

Director

Penelope J. Rose

BIO

Penelope J. Rose

Director

Rupert Vessey, MA, BM BCh, FRCP, DPhil

BIO

Rupert Vessey, MA, BM BCh, FRCP, DPhil

Director

Alumni Directors

Sabrina M. Heman-Ackah, MD, PhD

BIO

Sabrina M. Heman-Ackah, Md, PhD

Alumni Director

Justin D. Lathia, PhD

BIO

Justin D. Lathia, PhD

Alumni Director

Adam Knight, PhD

Founder and CBO at Neuron23

Adam Knight, PhD

Alumni Director

Emeritus Directors

Ralph Synderman, MD

BIO

Ralph Snyderman, MD

Director Emeritus

P. Roy Vagelos, MD

BIO

P. Roy Vagelos, MD

Director Emeritus

Key Partners

NIH Advisors

Michael Lenardo, MD

BIO

Michael Lenardo, MD

Senior Advisor

Daniel Reich, MD, PhD

BIO

Daniel Reich, MD, PhD

NIH Liaison

NIH Oxford-Cambridge Program Directors

Mary Dasso, PhD

BIO

Mary Dasso, PhD

Co-Scientific Director

Elodie Ghedin, PhD

BIO

Elodie Ghedin, PhD

Co-Scientific Director

Frank Maldarelli, MD, PhD

BIO

Frank Maldarelli, MD, PhD

Director, NIH MD/PhD Partnership Training Program

Kristi Porter, PhD

BIO

Kristi Porter, PhD

Managing Director & Director of Recruitment

Michael Dustin, PhD

BIO

Michael Dustin, PhD

Oxford Director

Clare Bryant, PhD

BIO

Clare Bryant, PhD

Cambridge Director

Austin Swafford, PhD.

President

Austin D. Swafford, PhD, is a scientist whose expertise spans a wide range of fields critical to the advancement of science, technology and healthcare. He has led multiple private-public partnerships focused on automation, artificial intelligence, drug discovery, immunology, genetics, microbiology, and nanotechnology, as well as curriculum, business, and software development.

Dr. Swafford is a co-author on several patent applications and >50 publications with >17,000 combined citations on a wide range of subjects including basic and applied biology as well as novel diagnostics, data and sample processing methods and data analysis tools.

In 2023, Austin was selected as the next President of the International Biomedical Research Alliance, whose mission is to help alleviate human suffering and disease by supporting the training of promising students through the prestigious NIH-Oxford-Cambridge (OxCam) Scholars Program and its affiliates. This Program was created in 2001 to revolutionize the way in which the most talented biomedical PhD and MD/PhD students are trained and has since graduated over 200 of the world's aspiring biomedical leaders.

Dr. Swafford was formerly CTO at InterOme, Inc. where he and his team developed end-to-end solutions for turning the vision of precision medicine and precision public health into a reality in collaboration with an international group of advisors, laboratories, and logistics providers.

Dr. Swafford was formerly the Director of Research- Innovations for the Center for Microbiome Innovation in the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego where he and his team built numerous private-public partnerships examining the impact of microbes on the health of humans, animals, and the environment as well as developing state-of-the-art methods, technologies, software, and bioinformatics approaches to characterizing the microbiome.

He previously completed a postdoc in beta cell regeneration at Novartis and then spent several years in industry developing and implementing high-throughput workflows at leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies.

Dr. Swafford earned his doctoral degree in Medical Genetics from the NIH-OxCam Program supported by an NSF Graduate Fellowship in Bioengineering to study the etiology and early diagnosis of type 1 diabetes.

In 2022, Dr. Swafford founded the Swafford Consulting Group whose mission is to help businesses, organizations, and individuals navigate the biomedical research and innovation landscape and to bridge the gaps between conception and realization in science and technology.

Alexandra J. Ambrico

Director of Communications, Education & Professional Development

Alexandra Ambrico graduated from Indiana University with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology in 2014 and Stony Brook University with a Master of Science in Science Communication in 2022.

Alexandra joined the Alliance as the Administrative and Special Projects Manager in 2018 and was promoted to the Director of Communication, Education, and Professional Development in 2023. Alexandra utilizes her background and experience to make science, technology, engineering,
mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. She aims to inspire the next generation of women in STEMM and her M.S. research explored role models and mentorship for women in STEMM.

Alexandra aims to be a leader within the communities she serves. In 2015, she co-founded Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) to combat gender bias
and disparities in STEMM and educate girls through community outreach initiatives. Alexandra
spearheaded the first science summer camp for girls on Long Island which is now in its 9th year,
interned at the Lasker Foundation as their social media ambassador, and served as a mentor for the New York Academy of Sciences: 1000 Girls, 1000 Futures Program. As a Research Technician II at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, she co authored seven publications in journals such as Science, Cell Reports, and the Journal of Cell Biology.

Alexandra’s passion shines through her ambition and innovative ideas. Combined with her education, experiences, and network, Alexandra’s background sets her up to be successful in creating change and inspiring the next generation of women in STEMM.

Jenny Dworzak, MD, PhD

Director of Business Development

Dr. Dworzak is a physician-scientist experienced in early-stage life science and health-tech commercialization, health system strategy and operations; and development of both enterprise and consumer-facing digital health tools.

She is currently, serving on advisory boards of early stage health-tech startups and investing at the intersection of technology and healthcare to drive value, precision, and equity.

Stephen M. McLean

Partner
Arsenal Capital Partners

Steve McLean was a founding member and has served as Chairman of the Board of the International Biomedical Research Alliance since 2005.

Mr. McLean is a Senior Partner of Arsenal Capital Partners. Arsenal is a private equity fund that manages approximately $8 billion of equity capital. Mr. McLean is the Chairman of Arsenal’s Healthcare Group which focuses on investments in companies that improve the efficacy of pharmaceutical and bio-tech research and development, hospital and provider operations. Prior to joining Arsenal, Mr. McLean was a life science investor who co-founded HIT and genomics companies such as CentriHealth, Agencourt Bioscience, and Agencourt Personal Genomics.

Previously, Mr. McLean was a founding partner of Merrill Lynch Capital Partners (and successor funds) which was a leader in the development of the leveraged buyout industry.

Mr. McLean graduated with a B.S. in Economics, summa cum laude, from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and received an M.B.A., with distinction, from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He currently serves on the board of directors of Accumen, CellCarta, Certara, and WCG Clinical.

Mr. McLean and his wife reside in New Jersey and have three children and seven grandchildren.

Kathryn C. Zoon, Ph.D.

Scientist Emeritus
NIAID/NIH
Special Advisor to the Deputy Director of Intramural Research, NIH

Dr. Kathryn C. Zoon is currently NIAID/NIH Scientist Emeritus (August 2016). She was recently appointed to the Board of Directors of Emergent BioSolutions (November 2016) and the FDA Alumni Association (2017). Previously she was Interim Director of the new NIH Office of Research Support and Compliance (April-June 2016) where she developed and established the new office and recruited key individuals to continue its future operations. She was previously the Director of the Division of Intramural Research at NIAID (2006-2015) and was the Deputy Director for Planning and Development of the Division of Intramural Research at NIAID, 2004-2006.

Dr. Zoon served as the Principal Deputy Director of the Center for Cancer Research at the National Cancer Institute, 2003–2004. She was also Chief of the Cytokine Biology Section in the Division of Intramural Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), NIH (2004-2016), where she conducted research on the structure and function of human interferon alphas and developed a new cell therapy using IFNs and autologous monocytes which she is still collaborating with NCI to start a clinical trial for ovarian cancer. She served as the Director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (1992-2003). Dr. Zoon has been a member/participant of the NIH Scientific Directors (1992 to the present). Dr. Zoon was the Director of the Division of Cytokine Biology in CBER, 1988–1992, where she directed the research and review of cytokines, growth factors, and cellular products. She studied the production and purification of human interferon at NIH from 1975 to 1980 with Nobel Laureate Christian B. Anfinsen.

She received her B.S. degree, cum laude, in chemistry from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and was granted a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Zoon is an associate editor of the Journal of Interferon Research and the author of more than 140 scientific papers. She was President of the International Society for Interferon and Cytokine Research, 2000–2001. Dr. Zoon has been a member of the National Academy of Medicine since 2002 and is also a member of the Division on Earth and Life Studies Committee, National Research Council, 2015-2017. She was a member of the WHO’s Expert Committee on Biological Standards for almost two decades.

Dr. Zoon has received numerous awards, including BioPharm Person of the Year Award, 1992; the 2001 HHS Secretary’s Award for Distinguished Service for outstanding leadership in positioning FDA as an important contributor to the Nation’s capability to respond to bioterrorism. In June 2003, she received the Johns Hopkins University Distinguished Alumna Award and two HHS awards for counterbioterrorism and gene therapy. In May 2005, she received the HHS Secretary’s Award for Distinguished Service for the Tissue Action Plan Team. Most recently she received the 2014 William S. Hancock Award for outstanding achievements in CMC regulatory science, the NIH Director’s Award (2016) “For exemplary leadership, vision, dedication and tireless commitment to establishing a new program/office to provide regulatory services and compliance support for NIH’s intramural research program, and the FDA’s Distinguished Alumni Award (2016).

Alan Jones

Senior Managing Director
Intermediate Capital Group

Alan Jones has been a member of the Board of the International Biomedical Research Alliance since 2005. AJ is the Senior Managing Director at the Intermediate Capital Group. AJ was the Managing Director and Head of Global Private Equity for Morgan Stanley & Co. He is Chairman of Morgan Stanley’s Private Equity Investment Committee and President of the Board of Directors of Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia III. He also serves as a member of the Investment Committees for Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners, and Morgan Stanley Credit Partners and as a member of the Merchant Banking Department Executive Committee and Risk Committee. He also has served as a member of the Senior Management Committee of Morgan Stanley Investment Management. He currently serves as a Director of Access Cash, Creative Circle, and Reach Out Healthcare America. He has previously served as a Director of McKechnie Aerospace, EmployBridge, and Zenith.

AJ is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; a member of Harvard’s Committee on University Resources; Co-Chairman of the Harvard Parents’ Fund; Chief Fund Agent for the Harvard Business School Class of 1987; Reunion Co-Chairman for the Harvard College Class of 1983; a member of the Foreign Policy Program Leadership Committee at the Brookings Institution; a Director of the U.S. Board of Shakespeare’s Globe; and on the Board of Governors of the Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt Institute.

AJ has also previously served as President of the Board of Trustees of The Brearley School and Chairman of the All Souls Emergency Relief Fund; a David Rockefeller Fellow (2003-2004); a Director of Communities in Schools; a Director of the Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt Institute; a Director of Physicians for Human Rights; a Director of Musica Viva; a Director of the Shakespeare Society; a Director of the Heart and Soul Charitable Foundation; and a Director of the Everybody Wins Foundation.

AJ received his AB Magna Cum Laude in Biochemical Sciences in 1983 from Harvard College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. In 1987, he received an MBA with High Distinction from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar. He resides in Manhattan with his wife and two daughters.

Brian Atwood

Managing Director
Versant Ventures

Brian Atwood has more than 20 years of operating experience in the biotechnology industry, and in addition over 15 years as both an investor in biotech venture capital as well as a co-founder of a health sciences venture capital firm. Mr. Atwood was most recently President and CEO as well as a co-founder of Cell Design Labs, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on developing human cell engineering technology from the UC San Francisco lab of Wendell Lim, for the treatment of multiple diseases including cancer. Cell Design Labs was founded in 2015 and under Mr. Atwood’s leadership grew to a staff of 50 scientists and support employees, and signed a collaboration agreement with Kite Pharmaceuticals. In December 2017 the company was acquired by Gilead Sciences.

In 1999, Mr. Atwood co-founded and currently serves as a Managing Director for Versant Ventures, a healthcare-focused venture capital firm. Prior to founding Versant Ventures, Mr. Atwood served as a general partner of Brentwood Associates, a venture capital firm he joined in 1997. Mr. Atwood also serves on the boards of two pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including Atreca, Inc., where he is Chairman, and Clovis Oncology (CLVS). Mr. Atwood earlier served on the boards of Five Prime Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FPRX), Cadence Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: CADX) acquired in 2014, Veracyte, Inc, (NASDAQ: VCYT), and Pharmion Corporation (acquired in 2008), and Trius Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSRX) acquired in 2013.

Prior to launching his career in venture capital, Mr. Atwood was Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Glycomed, a publicly traded biotechnology company he started in 1987 and sold to Ligand Pharmaceuticals in 1995.

Mr. Atwood received a BS in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Irvine, a MS in Ecology from the University of California, Davis, and a MBA from Harvard Business School.

Brian Brille

Vice Chairman
Caris Life Sciences

Welcomed to the International Biomedical Research Alliance Board of Directors in 2022, Brian J. Brille is Vice Chairman of Caris Life Sciences and a member of their Board of Directors. Caris is a leader in the rapidly evolving field of precision oncology and molecular diagnostics. In his role, Brian is responsible for several divisions at Caris: Precision Oncology Alliance (POA), Corporate Development, and Capital Strategy. In May 2021, he led the Caris Series D financing which raised $830 million and valued the company at $7.8 billion.

Mr. Brille is a senior financial services executive with more than 27 years experience in investment banking including global leadership positions. In 2003, he was named Investment Dealer's Digest Banker of the Year.

Prior to joining Caris Life Sciences, Mr. Brille worked in various capacities for Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Most recently, he was based in Hong Kong and served as Chairman/President Asia Pacific for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, with responsibility for the combined Asia Pacific platform across 12 countries and 4 business lines. Prior to this, he served as Global Head of Corporate & Investment Banking at Bank of America from 2005-2009, with responsibility for several thousand employees across all industry groups, capital markets, and M&A. He joined Bank of America in 1999 as Head of Healthcare Investment Banking, and within three years that business was ranked in the Top 3 globally. He started his investment banking career in 1987 in Morgan Stanley’s M&A Department and subsequently founded Morgan Stanley's Healthcare Services Investment Banking Group.
Mr. Brille holds a JD from Stanford Law School, a Masters of Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and a BS in Accounting from the University of Illinois.

He is a Trustee of the Cancer Research Institute (CRI). He is also on the Board of Overseers of the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston and is a collector of Egyptian antiquities and Italian Old Masters. He is passionate about sports, including kiteboarding, tennis, and kickboxing. Brian has four young children and is based in New York City.

Jeremy Goldberg

President, JPG Healthcare LLC
Operating Partner, Arsenal Capital Partners

Jeremy P. Goldberg is an Advisor to Torreya Partners (www.torreya.com), a leading boutique advisory firm based in New York and London that provides strategic advice and assistance with Mergers & Acquisitions, Partnering and, as well as Advises several $1 billion + private equity funds, including Riverside Partners, DRI Capital, and serves as an Operating Partner for Arsenal Capital Partners, and on several private company board of directors. He has over 25 years of experience, mainly focused on investing and business development in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. He has been an operating executive in a $1 billion + sales pharmaceutical company, a partner in a venture capital fund, and an entrepreneurial founder of several companies that were later acquired.

Mr. Goldberg served as Managing Director, Corporate Development for Endo Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ENDP), a leading pain therapeutics company, from 2003-2008. In this position, Mr. Goldberg was responsible for Endo’s overall corporate development activities, including structuring, negotiating and closing transactions such as the acquisitions of companies, products and product lines. Prior to Endo, he was a founding partner of ProQuest Investments from 1997-2002, the first cancer-focused venture capital fund, where he and partners raised over $250 MM in Funds I, II to acquire positions in biotechnology, specialty pharmaceutical, and medical device companies. Representative investments or deals sourced include Conforma Therapeutics (acquired by Biogen IDEC), Threshold Pharmaceuticals, and Pharmion (acquired by Celgene). Prior operating experience includes roles as founding CEO or founder of three biotechnology companies that were acquired or taken public, including Versicor (Vicuron), a Sepracor spin-out later acquired by Pfizer for $1.9 billion, as well as operating positions at SmithKline (now Glaxo SmithKline) and Becton Dickinson.

Mr. Goldberg is magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School. He serves on the Visiting Committee for the Lank Center at Dana Farber Cancer Institute and has been a member of the board of the International Biomedical Research Alliance since 2007 as well as on the board of private companies Cell Signaling Technology, Dominion Diagnostics. He has been an invited speaker at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton/Windhover program for Pharmaceutical executives, Harvard Business School, and served as moderator for over 10 years for Communitech’s Cancer Progress conference.

Scott Koenig, M.D., Ph.D.

President and CEO
MacroGenics, Inc.

Dr. Scott Koenig joined the Alliance Board of Directors in 2014. He is a co-founder and President and CEO of MacroGenics (NASDAQ: MGNX), a biotechnology company developing immune-based medicines to treat patients with cancer, autoimmune disorders, and infectious diseases. Prior to joining MacroGenics in 2001, he served as Senior Vice President of Research at MedImmune where he participated in the selection and maturation of the product pipeline. From 1984 through 1990, he worked in the Laboratory of Immunoregulation at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) where he investigated the immune response to retroviruses and studied the pathogenesis of AIDS.

Dr. Koenig is the Chairman of the Board of Directors at Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: AGTC), a biotech company developing genetic therapies for inherited diseases and Chairman of the Board of the Children’s Research Institute at Children’s National Medical Center. He co-chairs the Scientific Advisory Board of the Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research at the University of Maryland. He also serves as a member of the MacroGenics Board of Directors, the Board of Directors of Children’s National Medical Center, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) Board of Directors, the Scientific Management Review Board of the NIH, and the Cornell University Council.

Dr. Koenig received his A.B. and Ph.D. from Cornell University and his M.D. from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, where he was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and is Board certified in Internal Medicine and Allergy and Immunology. Scott and his wife, Robin, have been married for 35 years and have two children.

Ralph A. Korpman, M.D.

Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, UnitedHealth Group
Professor, School of Medicine, Loma Linda University

Dr. Ralph A. Korpman is a recognized pioneer in the medical informatics field, beginning with his early work in introducing the concept of automating the clinical laboratory more than four decades ago. Dr. Korpman received his Bachelor’s and doctoral degrees in 1971 and 1974 from Loma Linda University, where he also completed residencies in anatomic pathology and laboratory medicine and a fellowship in clinical hematology. He took his graduate business studies at the Claremont Graduate School.

Dr. Korpman has been instrumental in defining each new generation of health information systems over the years, being among the first to introduce the concepts of point-of-care systems, integrated clinical systems, and physician portals. He continues to advance his vision of the ubiquitous use of technology in health care by serving in a number of pivotal health care IT roles, including his current role as Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of UnitedHealth Group where he continues the work of CentriHealth, a company specializing in the new area of Individual Health Records.

Before founding CentriHealth, Dr. Korpman served as President and CEO of a number of companies including Health Data Sciences Corporation, a company that he founded to pioneer Electronic Medical Records, and as Chief Scientist at Medaphis Corporation and Per-Se Technologies. Previously, Dr. Korpman founded Medical Data Corporation, a company that developed a variety of turnkey information systems for hospitals and U.S. government facilities throughout the country.

In addition to his corporate work in health care informatics, Dr. Korpman is full professor at Loma Linda University School of Medicine and a clinical professor in the University of Tennessee’s School of Medicine.
Dr. Korpman is the recipient of a number of awards, including Entrepreneur of the Year and Health Care Pioneer. He is the author of over 100 refereed articles and a book. He has testified extensively over the years for Congress and for Federal agencies and was a founder of both the ANSI HISB and ISO TC 215. He is also committed to civic and community affairs, serving on several college and not-for-profit foundation boards of directors.

Dr. Korpman joined the Alliance board in 2018.

John E. Niederhuber, M.D.

Executive Vice President and CEO, Inova
Translational Medicine Institute, (Retired)
Adjunct Professor of Oncology and Surgery
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Deputy Director, Johns Hopkins Clinical
Research Network

John E. Niederhuber, M.D., became a member of the Board of Directors of the International Biomedical Research Alliance in 2013. He is currently Adjunct Professor of Surgery and Oncology the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Deputy Director of the Johns Hopkins Clinical Research Network. In 2019, Dr. Niederhiber retired from his position at the Inova Health System where he was Executive Vice President and CEO of the Inova Translational Medicine Institute (ITMI) (2010-2019). As founder and leader of the ITMI, he directed a program that integrated technical innovation, informatics and sophisticated genomic analyses with the goal of managing disease risk and delivering excellence in individualized (personalized) healthcare, research and education.

Dr. Niederhuber is the former Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health having been named to that position in 2006 by President George W. Bush. Before assuming the NCI directorship, he chaired the National Cancer Advisory Board and was Chief Operating Officer of the Institute. During his tenure as NCI director, Dr. Niederhuber implemented many changes and despite successive years of less than inflation appropriations managed to initiate important new programs that helped shape the Nation’s investment in cancer research. While at NCI, Dr. Niederhuber ran his own research program in the Laboratory of Tumor and Stem Cell Biology in NCI’s Center for Cancer Research. His research focused on factors in the tumor microenvironment, in particular those involving cancer activated fibroblasts (CAFs) that lead to increased malignancy. As a surgeon, Dr. Niederhuber’s clinical focus has been on gastrointestinal cancer, hepatobiliary (liver, bile duct, pancreatic and gallbladder) cancer, and breast cancer. Recognized for his pioneering work in hepatic artery infusion chemotherapy, he was the first to demonstrate the feasibility of totally implantable vascular access devices which dramatically changed the administration of systemic chemotherapy.

Dr. Niederhuber is recognized by his peers as a visionary leader in oncology. Throughout his academic career, he held full professorial appointments in a basic science department where he maintained NIH funded research and a clinical department where he practiced surgical oncology. In addition, he served in a number of academic leadership positions. Dr. Niederhuber is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, recognizing his outstanding scientific accomplishments and commitment to service in health sciences.

He has given over 350 professional presentations and published over 250 peer-reviewed articles or book chapters as well as editing or co-editing 9 books. He serves as a Director on the Boards of publicly traded biotechnology companies. Prior to joining the NCI, Dr. Niederhuber was Director of the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center and a professor of surgery and oncology (member of the McArdle Laboratory) at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine. Earlier in his career, he chaired the Department of Surgery at Stanford University and held professorships at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and at the University of Michigan.

A native of Steubenville, Ohio, Dr. Niederhuber is a graduate of Bethany College in West Virginia (receiving an honorary doctorate in 2007) and The Ohio State University School of Medicine. He trained in surgery at the University of Michigan and in Immunology at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.

Ronn Richard

Former President and CEO Cleveland Foundation

Mr. Ronn Richard has served as the president and chief executive officer of the Cleveland Foundation, the nation’s oldest community foundation, since June 2003. From August 2002 to February 2003, Mr. Richard served as president of Stem Cell Preservation, Inc., a start-up medical research company. After leaving Stem Cell Preservation, Mr. Richard served as a strategic business advisor for IGEN International, Inc., a biotechnology company. Mr. Richard served as chief operating officer of In-Q-Tel, a venture capital fund that provides technologies to the Central Intelligence Agency, from March 2001 to August 2002. Prior to joining In-Q-Tel, Mr. Richard served in various senior management positions at Matsushita Electric (Panasonic), including as President of North America research and development.

Mr. Richard is a former U.S. foreign service officer. He served in Osaka/Kobe, Japan and as a desk officer for North Korean, Greek and Turkish affairs at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. Mr. Richard previously served as chairman of the board of trustees of Emergent BioSolutions and currently serves as a Director.

Mr. Richard received an M.A. in international relations from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and a B.A. in history from Washington University. He holds honorary doctorates in humane letters from Notre Dame College, in science from Northeast Ohio Medical University, and Baldwin-Wallace College.

Penelope Rose

Lead Analyst, Executive Operations
Emergent BioSolutions

Penelope J. Rose was born in Brisbane, Australia – the daughter of a World War II ANZAC veteran. She spent her childhood equally in England and Australia where she received her Oxford University O levels education. Penelope attended New York University before commencing work as Special Assistant to Dr. Henry A. Kissinger (former US Secretary of State) and Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, III, in New York and Washington DC. This appointment was to last 12 years.

While living in New York City, Penelope volunteered her time in the pediatric department of The New York Presbyterian Hospital to help ease the fears of children facing hospital stays by offering support and guidance to them and their families. She assisted staff in the therapeutic playrooms or at the child’s bedside in the hospital and worked on activities such as arts & crafts, reading, and playing games with the patients.

In 2005 Penelope became a member of the Global Reference Committee of GEM College of International Business. Since that time, she has contributed to GEM College’s entrepreneurship programs and acted as an advocate for graduate innovators focusing on ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) metrics.

Penelope is presently Lead Analyst, Office of the Chairman of the Board, for Emergent BioSolutions, a publicly traded company that provides specialty products for civilian and military populations that address intentional and naturally emerging public health threats. Penelope’s mentor was the late Fuad El-Hibri, a German American businessman, philanthropist, and the Founder of Emergent BioSolutions. Mr. El-Hibri was also one of the founding members of the International Biomedical Research Alliance. Penelope carries on his spirit of giving in joining the Alliance board in 2022.

Penelope’s management of Mr. El-Hibri’s Corporate Social Responsibility programs instilled a passion for philanthropy, a pursuit that is very dear to her heart. Penelope’s philanthropic assistance has extended to the Yale Healthcare Conference; Johns Hopkins University; Martha’s Vineyard Hospital; Holy Cross Hospital and Scholarship America (a program Penelope conceived and wrote for the benefit of Emergent BioSolutions employee’s children, during which the recipients would have their first year of college tuition paid). Penelope is also a freelance wildlife photographer and avid conservationist.

Rupert Vessey, MA, BM BCh, FRCP, DPhil

Chief Scientist and Executive Partner
Flagship Pioneering

Rupert Vessey graduated from Oxford University with degrees in Physiological Sciences (MA, First Class Honors) and Clinical Medicine (BM, BCh, proxime accessit). He subsequently undertook clinical training at several notable institutions in the UK including the Hammersmith Hospital at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, London, the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London and the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. During this time he became a Member of the Royal College of Physicians of London UK. Rupert undertook basic research training in the laboratory of Professor Sir Stephen Bloom at the Hammersmith Hospital and under the direction of Professor Sir John Bell at the Institute for Molecular Medicine, Oxford where he completed a DPhil in Molecular Immunology. During his research period he was a Junior Research Fellow of Merton College, Oxford and a training fellow of the UK Medical Research Council. In 2012 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London and in 2019 he was appointed visiting Professor of Rheumatology at the University of Oxford.

Rupert joined the pharmaceutical industry in 1997 and has worked in the UK and USA. At GlaxoSmithKline he worked primarily in drug discovery, experimental medicine and early clinical development gaining experience in a wide range of respiratory and immunology projects including monoclonal antibodies, DNA vaccines, anti-inflammatory drugs and inhaled medicines for asthma and COPD. During 10 years at Merck Research Laboratories (MRL) Rupert benefitted from diverse experiences including a period working on the clinical development of varicella vaccines where he contributed to both the refrigerator stable formulation of VARIVAX and the shingles vaccine, ZOSTAVAX. Since 2006 Rupert held multiple roles in senior management including Vice President Molecular Profiling and Research Informatics and Site Head for Rosetta Inpharmatics, Seattle, Vice President Drug Discovery and Site Head for MRL Boston and Vice President Drug Discovery and Site Head for MRL Kenilworth. In these latter roles Rupert was responsible for a wide range of activities including Pharmacogenomics, Molecular Profiling, Informatics and drug discovery in the Respiratory, Inflammation, Oncology, Infectious Disease and Neuroscience therapeutic areas. In 2011 Rupert was promoted to the position of Senior Vice President and Head of the MRL Respiratory and Immunology Franchise. In this role he was responsible for the end to end discovery and development portfolio for Respiratory and Immunologic diseases and partnership with Merck’s Global Human Health Franchise. Under his leadership numerous projects were advanced through the discovery and development pipeline and approvals were achieved for RAGWITEK and GRASTEK as well as multiple supplementary indications for REMICADE and SIMPONI. From 2013 Rupert was Senior Vice President and Head of Early Development and Discovery Sciences. In this role he was responsible for managing an organization of 1500 scientists and for devising a new operating model that integrated early clinical development with discovery and genetics to facilitate the translation of new discoveries to the clinic. Commencing in February 2015 Rupert joined Celgene as Senior Vice President of Translational Development and Head of the Immunology and Inflammation Thematic Center of Excellence and in January 2016 assumed the role of Executive Vice President and President of Global Research and Early Development. In this position Rupert was responsible for oversight of all of Celgene’s internal and external discovery research, preclinical development and early clinical development. The organization also provided translational science support to the Hematology, Oncology and Immunology Franchises. Under his oversight numerous compounds were advanced in the Celgene pipeline across a range of modalities including small molecules, biologics and cellular therapeutics. At the close of the acquisition of Celgene by Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) in November 2019 Rupert assumed the role of Executive Vice President and President of Global Research and Early Development at BMS. Since joining BMS further progress has been made on a range of novel programs including approvals in cell therapies BREYANZI and ABECMA as well as REBLOZYL, ZEPOSIA, SOTYKTU and CAMZYOS. Numerous business development transactions have also been completed to build a novel pipeline of neuroscience assets as well as the acquisition of Myokardia to enhance CV research. BMS has also become a leader in the field of targeted protein degradation with numerous programs in clinical development and many others in all phases of discovery. In July of 2023 Rupert retired from BMS. He joined Flagship Pioneering as Chief Scientist and Executive Partner in 2023.

Sabrina Heman-Ackah, M.D., DPhil

Alumni Director
Resident Physician, Neurosurgery
University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Sabrina M. Heman-Ackah, MD, DPhil, MSE is a 2016 graduate of the NIH Oxford-Cambridge
Scholars Program (NIH OxCam). While in NIH OxCam, she utilized the CRISPR/Cas9 genome
editing system, applied to patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells to discover novel
insights about the role of alpha-synuclein overexpression in Parkinson’s disease pathogenesis.
After graduating NIH OxCam and completing her MD via the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill MD-PhD Program, she joined the University of Pennsylvania Neurosurgery Residency
Program, where she is now in her sixth year of training. During her junior residency, her
interests developed towards skull base neurosurgery, where the most intricate parts of the
brain that influence our interactions with the external world may be ravaged both by pathology
and available approaches to treatment. She concurrently completed a Master of Science in
Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, aligned with her goal of applying machine
learning and artificial intelligence to better understand and improve outcomes for patients
undergoing surgery for lesions of the skull base.

Sabrina recognizes the tremendous benefit that her experience in the NIH Oxford-Cambridge
Scholars Program and concurrent opportunities afforded by the IBRA during her time in the
program have had on her career trajectory. As such, she has maintained an active connection to
both and has demonstrated a fervent desire to ensure such opportunities continue for future
NIH OxCam Scholars. Sabrina currently serves as the Alumni Lead of the NIH OxCam-IBRA
Professional Development Program, a longitudinal professional mentorship program intended
to provide Scholars focused career mentorship in addition to the already profound mentorship
in the biomedical sciences afforded by the NIH OxCam Program. She is honored and humbled
by the opportunity to join the International Biomedical Research Alliance Board of Directors as
an Alumni Director.

Justin Lathia, Ph.D.

Alumni Director
Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University
Case Comprehensive Cancer Center

Dr. Justin Lathia leads a translational cancer stem cell research laboratory and is Vice Chair and Professor in the Department of Cardiovascular & Metabolic Sciences at the Lerner Research Institute (LRI), part of the Cleveland Clinic, and also serves as the Director of Faculty Development for the LRI. Dr. Lathia is also the Scientific Director of the Rose Ella Burkhardt Brain Tumor & Neuro-Oncology Center at the Cleveland Clinic and the Melvin Burkhardt Endowed Chair in Neuro-Oncology Research. He is also the Reza Khatib MD Professor, Leader of the Brain Tumor Initiative, and Co-Leader of the Molecular Oncology Program at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Lathia is a native of central Pennsylvania and received a B.S. and M.S. from Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA in 2003. While at Drexel, he developed targeted ultrasound contrast agents which preferentially bound to newly formed vessels in breast cancer models.

After graduation from Drexel, Dr. Lathia completed his Ph.D. as part of the NIH-Cambridge Graduate Partnership Program. His work focused on the role of cell adhesion molecules during the development of the nervous system. After completing his Ph.D. in 2008 he completed post-doctoral fellowships at Duke and the Cleveland Clinic where he focused on the role of cell adhesion in regulating cancer stem cells in brain tumors. In 2012, Dr. Lathia moved to the Department of Cardiovascular & Metabolic Sciences as an independent investigator and the work in his lab focuses on how the stem cell state is regulated in advanced cancers. Projects in the Lathia laboratory involve understanding how cancer stem cells interact with their surrounding microenvironment as well as one another with the goal of identifying unique pathways for therapeutic development and a recent focus on sex differences in glioblastoma. Work in the Lathia laboratory has resulted in Phase 1 clinical trial aimed at targeting myeloid-derived suppressor cells that interact with cancer stem cells to suppress the immune system in glioblastoma.

Dr. Lathia has co-authored over 210 publications and work in his lab is currently supported by multiple National Institutes of Health grants and foundation grants. Dr. Lathia also contributes as a peer reviewer to over 150 journals, serves on the editorial board for Cell Reports, Cancer Research, and Neuro-Oncology, and has served on multiple grant review panels for the National Institutes of Health and private foundations. He recently served as a co-editor for a cancer stem cell textbook.

Ralph Snyderman, M.D.

Director Emeritus
Chancellor Emeritus
James B. Duke Professor of Medicine Duke University

Dr. Ralph Snyderman is Chancellor Emeritus, Duke University and James B. Duke Professor of Medicine in the Duke University School of Medicine. He served as Chancellor for Health Affairs and Dean of the School of Medicine at Duke University from 1989 to July 2004 and led the transition of this excellent medical center into an internationally recognized leader of academic medicine. He oversaw the development of the Duke University Health System, one of the most successful integrated academic health systems in the country, and served as its first President and Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Snyderman has played a leading role in the conception and development of Personalized Health Care, an evolving model of national health care delivery. He was amongst the first to envision and articulate the need to move the current focus of health care from the treatment of disease-events to personalized, predictive, preventive, and participatory care. For this work, he received the 2012 David E. Rogers Award from the Association of American Medical Colleges who referred to Dr. Snyderman as the “father of personalized medicine.” In January of 2016 Dr. Snyderman was the recipient of the PMWC Pioneer Award at the 10th Personalized Medicine World Conference. The PMWC Pioneer Award is given on occasion to a rare individual who presaged the present-day excitement regarding personalized medicine at a time when only less evolved technology and less encouragement by peers existed but nevertheless made major advances in the field.

Earlier in his career, Dr. Snyderman performed seminal research defining how white blood cells respond to chemical signals to mediate host defense or tissue damage and is internationally recognized for his contributions in inflammation research. In 1987, he left Duke to serve as senior vice president for medical research at Genentech, Inc., a pioneering biomedical technology firm. While at Genentech, he led the development and licensing of several major biotechnology therapeutics. Dr. Snyderman has received numerous honors and awards during his career recognizing his contributions to research and to developing more rational, effective, and compassionate models of health care.

A graduate of Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland (1961), Snyderman received his M.D., magna cum laude, in 1965 from the Downstate Medical Center of the State University of New York. He served his internship and residency in medicine at Duke, and then worked as a Public Health Officer doing research in immunology at the NIH (1967-72). Dr. Snyderman joined the Board of Directors of the International Biomedical Research Alliance in 2012 and moved to Director Emeritus status in 2019.

P. Roy Vagelos, M.D.

Director Emeritus
Chairman of the Board, Regeneron, Inc.
Chairman and CEO, Merck & Co., Inc. (Retired)

Dr. P. Roy Vagelos is Retired Chairman and CEO of Merck & Co., Inc. and Chairman of the Board of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He has been a member of the Board of the International Biomedical Research Alliance since 2010, moving to Director Emeritus status in 2013. He received an AB in 1950 from the University of Pennsylvania and an MD in 1954 from Columbia University. Following a residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital (1954-56), he joined the National Institutes of Health where from 1956-66 he served as Senior Surgeon and then Section Head of Comparative Biochemistry. In 1966 he became Chairman, Department of Biological Chemistry, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and in 1973 founded the University’s Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences. In so doing, he established an unprecedented model for the fusion of a Medical School with an undergraduate Department of Biology. In 1975 he joined Merck Research Laboratories and became President of Research until 1985, when he became CEO and later Chairman of the company. He retired in 1994.

Dr. Vagelos is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. For his seminal work on ACP and leadership of Merck, Dr. Vagelos was awarded the American Chemical Society’s Enzyme Chemistry Award in 1967, the National Academy of Science’s Chemistry in Service to Society Award in 1995 and was inducted into the National Business Hall of Fame in 1995. He has received many awards in science and business as well as 14 honorary doctorates. In the past, he was Chairman of the Board of the University of Pennsylvania and served on the boards of TRW, McDonnell Douglas, Prudential Finance, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, The Nature Conservancy and the National Math & Science Initiative. He also served as Co-chairman of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and President and CEO of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens.

Dr. Vagelos’ current philanthropic activities span academia through medicine to industry. He is Chairman of the Columbia University Medical Center Board of Advisors, the Columbia University Precision Medicine Council, and is Co-Chairman of the Columbia University Campaign Executive Committee. He is founder of three undergraduate programs at the University of Pennsylvania: Molecular Life Science (MLS), Life Sciences and Management (LSM) and the Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research (VIPER). He serves on a number of public policy and advisory boards.

Michael J. Lenardo, M.D.

Section Chief, NIAID, NIH
Founder and Director (2001-2011)
NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program

Dr. Michael Lenardo was born in Chicago, Illinois on December 1, 1955. He attended the Johns Hopkins University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Natural Sciences in 1977. He obtained his Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) from Washington University in St. Louis, Mo. in 1981. He carried out clinical and research training at the University of Iowa from 1981-1985. He was then a Research Fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology with an adjunct appointment at Harvard Medical School. During this time, he carried out molecular biology research under the mentorship of Nobel laureates David Baltimore and Philip Sharp.

Dr. Lenardo has been Section Chief in the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 1989 to the present, directing research on T-lymphocyte regulation, HIV-1, and genetic diseases of the immune system using advanced genomic technologies. In 2014, he was appointed Director of the Clinical Genomics Program of NIAID. He has served on the editorial boards for the European Journal of Immunology, the Journal of Experimental Medicine, Science magazine, and Biology Direct. He is an Adjunct Professor of Pathology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University. Also, he directs cooperative research agreements on novel therapies for immunological disease with Merck, Novartis, and Regeneron pharmaceuticals. He is currently Director of the Clinical Genomics program.

Dr. Lenardo has founded or co-founded several joint research programs including the NIH-Oxford- Cambridge Biomedical Research Scholars, the NIH-University of Pennsylvania Immunology Program, the NIH-Marshall Scholars, the NIH-Rhodes Scholars, the National M.D./Ph.D. partnership program, and the NIH-Institute Pasteur Infectious Disease and Immunology Program. Dr. Lenardo has published over 200 scholarly works and holds a number of medical patents. Among his honors and awards, he is Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.), conferred by Queen Elizabeth II, March, 2006 and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Science and the National Academy of Medicine.

Daniel Reich, M.D., Ph.D.

Senior Investigator, NINDS
Translational Neuroradiology Section

Dr. Daniel Reich is Senior Investigator at NIH/NINDS, where he directs the Translational Neuroradiology Section and leads clinical studies focusing mainly on multiple sclerosis (MS). He is also an attending neuroradiologist at the NIH Clinical Center and an Adjunct Professor of Radiology, Neurology, and Biostatistics at Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Reich studied math and physics at Yale and earned his M.D. from Cornell and his Ph.D. in neurophysiology from The Rockefeller University, where he studied how nerve cells in the visual system encode what we see. His further training includes a fellowship in diagnostic neuroradiology and residencies in radiology and neurology at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Dr. Reich is a founder of the North American Imaging in MS (NAIMS) Cooperative. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in MS, the International Advisory Committee on Clinical Trials in Multiple Sclerosis, the Board of Professors of the Tuscan PhD Program in Neurosciences at the Universities of Florence, Pisa, and Siena, the Scientific Advisory Board of the Canadian Progressive Multiple Sclerosis Cohort, and the Editorial Board of Multiple Sclerosis Journal. He is also federal liaison to the International Biomedical Research Alliance. Dr. Reich is an elected member of the Association of American Physicians, the American Society of Clinical Investigation, and the Henry Kunkel Society, and he has won the American Neurological Association’s Derek Denny-Brown Young Neurological Scholar Award, the National MS Society’s Barancik Award for Innovation in MS Research, and the NIH Graduate Partnership Programs Outstanding Mentor Award.

Research in Dr. Reich’s NIH lab develops advanced MRI techniques to understand MS and adapts those techniques for clinical trials and patient care. The lab conducts investigator-initiated interventional clinical trials and harnesses noninvasive imaging modalities to dissect biological mechanisms of tissue damage, both by performing longitudinal studies on time scales relevant for disease processes and by examining radiological-pathological correlations in autopsy tissue and animal models. Dr. Reich has authored around 250 peer-reviewed publications, presented around 150 invited lectures across the world, and has been principal or associate investigator of more than 50 clinical protocols. In 2018, Dr. Reich’s lab discovered that human and nonhuman primates have a lymphatic system in the membranes covering the brain and showed how that system can be imaged noninvasively with MRI.

Mary Dasso, Ph.D.

Co-Scientific Director
NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program

Dr. Mary Dasso is a Senior Investigator in the Division of Intramural Research, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD-DIR). Dr. Dasso received her BA in Chemistry from the Clark Honors College at the University of Oregon. She was awarded a Marshall Scholarship to study at the University of Cambridge. After receiving her PhD in Biochemistry, she was awarded a Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellowship to work at the University of California, San Diego. She then moved to the NICHD-DIR, where she continues to lead a highly active research group. Dr. Dasso’s studies focus on non-canonical roles of the nuclear transport machinery. Proteins of the nuclear pore complex (nucleoporins) have been implicated in cellular functions beyond nucleocytoplasmic transport, including chromosome organization, gene expression, cell signaling and cell-cycle control. Understanding the activities of individual nucleoporins has been historically difficult because of their multifaceted nature, abundance, and unusual stability. To overcome these issues, she developed human tissue-culture cells that allow conditional depletions of individual nucleoporins, and used this system to define the mechanisms through which individual nucleoporins contribute to nuclear pore structure, nuclear trafficking, gene expression and development. She is currently investigating tissue-specific roles of nucleoporins, with the hope of understanding how disruption of nucleoporin functions causes genetic diseases and neurodegenerative conditions. Beyond her own laboratory, Dr. Dasso has held Intramural NIH leadership positions, including recent service as the NICHD-DIR Acting Scientific Director. She has received numerous awards in recognition of her accomplishments, including a 2020 NIH Director’s Award and a 2021 NICHD Merit Award, as well as selection as a fellow of the American Society for Cell Biology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Source: https://irp.nih.gov/pi/mary-dasso

Elodie Ghedin, Ph.D.

Co-Scientific Director
NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program

Dr. Dr. Elodie Ghedin obtained her Ph.D. in 1998 from McGill University’s Institute of Parasitology in Montreal, Canada. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at NIAID on the cell biology of Leishmania donovani, in 2000 she joined The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR; now the J. Craig Venter Institute) where she worked with Dr. Najib El-Sayed on the annotation of trypanosomatid genomes. There she led her own group on the Brugia malayi and Influenza Virus genome projects. In 2006 she joined the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine where she was part of the Department of Computational and Systems Biology and the Center for Vaccine Research. In 2014 she moved to New York University where she was a professor of biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, and a professor of epidemiology in the School of Global Public Health. From 2017 to 2019, she served as director of NYU’s Center for Genomics and Systems Biology. In May 2020, Dr. Ghedin joined NIAID’s Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases as a senior investigator. She also holds an affiliated position with New York University. Dr. Ghedin is a MacArthur Foundation Fellow (2011), a Kavli Frontier of Science Fellow (2012), and an American Academy of Microbiology Fellow (2017).

Source: https://irp.nih.gov/pi/elodie-ghedin

Frank Maldarelli, M.D., Ph.D.

Head, Clinical Retrovirology Section
Senior Investigator, CCR, NCI
Director - NIH MD/PhD Partnership Training Program

Dr. Frank Maldarelli is head of the Clinical Retrovirology Section in the NCI HIV Dynamics and Replication Program, where he leads translational studies of HIV pathogenesis with clinical protocols conducted at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda and laboratory studies at the NCI-Frederick campus. His laboratory studies HIV persistence during combination antiretroviral therapy, mechanisms of emergence of antiretroviral drug resistance in vivo, the genetics of HIV populations in individuals, and the spread of HIV in populations.

Dr. Maldarelli is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, and is an Attending Physician in the NIAID/CCMD HIV service. He has served on numerous oversight committees, including the NIAID Institutional Review Board (as Chair and Vice-Chair), NIH Infectious Disease Advisory Board, the Scientific Advisory Committee of the American Federation for AIDS Research, the Review Panel for the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, and the Board of Scientific Counselors for the Food and Drug Administration. He currently chairs the NCI Center for Cancer Research Non Human Primate Scientific Review Committee. He is a faculty member of the Center for Bio-Medical Communications Infectious Disease Board Review Course and a lecturer in the Washington D.C. community outreach PACT Program. Dr. Maldarelli serves on the scientific advisory boards of the Pediatric Adolescent Virus Elimination Collaboratory (a Martin Delaney HIV Collaboratory based in Baltimore MD) and Qura Therapeutics, based in Chapel Hill, NC. His awards include the NCI leading Diversity Award in 2010 the NIH Director’s Group Award in 2015, Center for Cancer Research (CCR) Group Award in 2016, and multiple NIH Bench-to-Bedside and Intramural AIDS Targeted Antiviral Program (IATAP) awards. Dr. Maldarelli currently serves on the Editorial Boards of Journal of Virology, Pathogens, PLoS-Pathogens, Retrovirology, AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, AIDS Research and Therapy, and Frontiers in Microbiology.

Dr. Maldarelli was born in Brooklyn, NY and grew up on Long Island. He graduated from Johns Hopkins University and from the Medical Scientist Training Program at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, where was a member of the AOA honor society. He trained in internal medicine at The Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York, and subsequently joined the Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) as a Medical Staff Fellow, where he worked with Klaus Strebel and Malcolm Martin studying HIV replication and pathogenesis. He completed a fellowship in Infectious Disease at NIAID before joining NCI.

Kristi Porter, Ph.D.

Executive Director and Director of Recruitment
NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program

Dr. Porter earned her Bachelor of Science in Biology from Clark Atlanta University. In 2012, she earned a Ph.D. in Molecular and Systems Pharmacology from Emory University, where she studied the contribution of HIV-1 proteins to the development and progression of HIV-associated pulmonary hypertension.

After completing her graduate studies, Kristi joined the Fellowships in Research and Science Teaching (FIRST) Postdoctoral Program at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Collaborating with researchers at Emory and Georgia Tech, Kristi investigated the role of cathepsin proteases in endometrial lesion formation.

In 2016, Kristi transitioned to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), serving as a Science Writer with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Division of Intramural Research. With aspirations to return to student mentoring and development, Kristi joined the NIH Oxford Cambridge (OxCam) Scholars Program in 2019 as Director of Recruitment and Student Affairs. In 2021, Kristi assumed the role of Program Executive Director and Director of Recruitment, and now oversees over 100 PhD and M.D./Ph.D. students across the NIH, University of Oxford, and University of Cambridge.

Michael Dustin, Ph.D.

Professor, Immunology and Wellcome
Principal Research Fellow
Director of Research, The Kennedy Institute
Director, NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars
Programme (Oxford, UK)

Prof. Dustin has a Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Boston University (1984) and a Ph.D. in Cell and Developmental Biology from Harvard University (1990). He studied glucose transport in red blood cells for his undergraduate thesis with Scott W. Peterson and studied biochemistry and regulation of lymphocyte adhesion molecules during his Ph.D. with Timothy A. Springer. He completed post-doctoral training with Stuart Kornfeld on lysosome structure and function at Washington University School of Medicine (1993).

Dr. Dustin led his own group at the Department of Pathology at Washington University School of Medicine under Steve Teitelbaum and Emil Unanue from 1993 to 2000. While at Wash U, he led a collaborative group in discovering requirements for the T cell immunological synapse with Andrey Shaw, Paul Allen, Mark Davis (Stanford) and Emil Unanue. He moved his lab to the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine at New York University School of Medicine in 2001. He collaborated on new intravital microscopy projects with Wenbiao Gan, Dan Littman, Juan Lafaille, Michel Nussensweig, Dorian McGavern and Sandra Demaria among others. Continuation of work on the immunological synapse led to a basic description of the supramolecular assemblies that make up the mature immunological synapse. Specialized functions of the immunological synapse in cytotoxic T cells and regulatory T cells were also explored. This work includes the recent observation that the small vesicles enriched in T cell receptor, synaptic ectosomes, are directly budded into the immunological synapse, handing off T cell receptor and other cargo to the antigen presenting cell.

Dr. Dustin was director of the NIH funded Nanomedicine Center for Mechanobiology from 2009-2014 In order to further advance studies on the immunological synapse and translation to treatment of human diseases he moved to the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology at the University of Oxford in 2013 supported by a Principal Research Fellowship from the Wellcome Trust. He became Director of the NIH Oxford-Cambridge Program at the University of Oxford in 2020.

Clare Bryant, MA, BSc, BVetMed, Ph.D., MRCVS

Professor of Innate Immunity
Departments of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine
Director, NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Programme (Cambridge, UK)

Prof. Clare Bryant graduated in biochemistry before training as a veterinary surgeon in London. She was funded by the Wellcome Trust for her Ph.D. (in London) before moving to work with Professor Sir John Vane at the William Harvey Research Institute for 4 years as a Wellcome postdoctoral fellow. She then moved to Cambridge as a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow where she is now Professor of Innate Immunity with laboratories in the Departments of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine. Her research group uses multidisciplinary approaches to understand how zoonotic bacteria are detected by the host (through Pattern Recognition Receptors (PRRs) including Toll-like receptors and inflammasomes), but also studies how PRR recognition of allergen proteins or toxic proteins produced by patients link to chronic inflammatory diseases such as Alzheimer’s and chronic allergic airway disease.

The Bryant lab has extensive collaborations with academia and industry which underpins all of their research. They collaborate closely with academics in the USA, Europe, and Australia to stay at the cutting edge of innate immunity research. A vital part of their work is to forge, and maintain, strong collaborations with the pharmaceutical industry to translate their research into medicines. This includes close links to Genentech (Dr. Bryant was a visiting professor there in 2016 and 2017) and she was seconded (part-time) to GSK in Stevenage as part of their Immunology Catalyst program for 3 years to forge stronger links with academia. Dr. Bryant and Prof. David Klenerman also have a drug discovery program with Apollo Therapeutics (a collaboration of Cambridge, UCL, Johnson and Johnson, Astra Zeneca, and GSK) looking for inhibitors of TLR4 as potential treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and asthma. Dr. Bryant is the founder of two biotech companies, serves on the scientific advisory boards of biotech and big pharma companies in the UK and USA, and has collaborative grants with different pharmaceutical companies.

Dr. Bryant has extensive experience in working with the media, particularly working with the BBC, regularly appearing on local and national radio and television shows. She was elected as a fellow of the British Pharmacology Society in 2020 for her research into inflammation. She became Director of the NIH Oxford-Cambridge Program at the University of Cambridge in 2022.