Abstract Book 2010 - CIMT Annual Meeting

2010 Speakers:
lopment of policies and guidance documents in these cutting
edge areas of medical research.
Dr Rezvani is a Clinical Senior Lecturer and Consultant Haematologist
at Imperial College in London. She is the clinical lead in
allogeneic stem cell transplantation and clinical director of the
Jacie accredited GMP cellular facility.
As a research fellow at the NIH from 2001-2008, her laboratory
studies in immune responses to leukemia led to the initiation
of 3 FDA approved clinical trials of vaccination in patients
with myeloid malignancies. She received a highly competitive
award from the Higher Education Funding Council for England
(HEFCE) and started her position as a clinical senior lecturer
at Imperial College in January 2008 where she has an active
research laboratory program in transplantation and tumor
immunology.
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Katy Rezvani
Imperial College London
London, England
Antoni Ribas
University of California
Los Angeles, USA
Antoni Ribas, MD, is Associate Professor of Medicine and Surgery
at University of California, Los Angeles. He practices oncology
focused on new drug development for melanoma, and has
an NIH-funded research laboratory focused also in melanoma.
He also serves as Director of the Cell and Gene Therapy Core
Facility, Assistant Director of the Tumor Immunology Program,
Assistant Director of the Human Gene Medicine Program, General
Clinical Research Center Advisory Board Member, and trains
faculty at the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine.
Dr. Ribas is a permanent committee member of the NCI grant
review panels. Dr. Ribas‘ clinical and laboratory research involves
the development of novel strategies for the treatment of cancer,
including anti-CTLA4 antibodies, cancer vaccines, BRAF
inhibitor and Mek inhibitor targeted therapy, nanoparticle delivery
of siRNA, and gene therapy strategies.
Martina Schuessler-Lenz
Paul-Ehrlich Institut
Langen, Germany
Dr. Schuessler-Lenz is a Senior Clinical Assessor at the Division
Medical Biotechnology of the Paul-Ehrlich Institut, and the
alternate German member of the Committee for Advanced Therapies
(CAT) of the European Medicines Agency. Her main area
of expertise is the clinical development of Advanced Therapy
Medicinal Products and of cancer immunotherapies.
Protul A. Shrikant
Roswell Park Cancer Insitute
New York, USA
Dr. Protul A. Shrikant completed a National Multiple Sclerosis
Society Fellowship at the University of Minnesota, Center for
Immunology (1999) and joined Roswell Park Cancer Institute in
2000 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Immunology
(2000), where he currently is an Associate Professor with
tenure and serves on the advisory council for the Centre for
Immunotherapy. He also holds an adjunct appointment with the
Departments of Microbiology and Immunology at State University
of New York at Buffalo. His research is focussed on characterizing
the molecular pathways by which instructions program
CD8 T cell responses and exploit the insights for developing
novel strategies for tumor immunity.
Masato Tanaka
RIKEN Research Center for Allergy
and Immunology
Yokohama, Japan
Masato Tanaka, M.D. and Ph.D., graduated from Tokyo Medical
and Dental University in 1988. I worked for Osaka Bioscience
Institute and Osaka University Medical School, and engaged
in research of the molecular mechanisms of apoptosis in laboratory
of Prof. Shigekazu Nagata. I worked for Tularik Inc. in
San Francisco, USA to investigate the molecular mechanisms
of inflammatory reaction in 1997-1999. Since 2002, I became
the team leader of Laboratory for Innate Cellular Immunity,
RIKEN Research Center for Allergy and Immunology (RCAI),
Yokohama Japan. In recent years, I focused on the physiological
and pathological roles of apoptotic cell clearance by phagocytes,
and strategic approach for immune regulation by dead
cell clearance.
David L. Urdal
Dendreon Corporation
Seattle, USA
Dr. Urdal has been Chief Scientific Officer and a Director of
Dendreon Corporation since he joined the company in July of
1995. Dendreon (Nasdaq: DNDN) has been dedicated to targeting
cancer and transforming lives through the discovery and
development of novel products like Provenge®, an active immunotherapy
for prostate cancer that has shown promise in Phase
III clinical trials.
From 1982 to 1995, he held various positions with Immunex
Corporation, including President of Immunex Manufacturing
Corporation, Vice President and Director of Development, and
Head of the Departments of Biochemistry and Membrane Biochemistry.
At Immunex he participated in the discovery, development
and commercialization of hematopoietic growth factors,
cytokines and cytokine receptor drugs, like Leukine® and
Enbrel®. Dr. Urdal received an M.S. in Public Health and a Ph.D.
in Biochemical Oncology from the University of Washington. He
is inventor on 16 patents and author on 79 publications.