Karen Adelman, PhD Karen Adelman is a Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology and Co-Director of the Epigenetics and Gene Dynamics Initiative at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Adelman carried out her Ph.D. in France, working at the Institut Pasteur. She then pursued postdoctoral research in the laboratory of John Lis at Cornell University, before establishing her own laboratory at the NIH in 2005. Her group moved to Harvard Medical School in the summer of 2016. Her research probes the interplay between transcription elongation and chromatin architecture at both protein-coding and non-coding RNA loci. In particular, ongoing work focuses on how gene-distal regulatory loci such as enhancers function to establish cell-type and condition-specific patterns of gene expression. James (Jay) Bradner, M.D. President of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR) James (Jay) Bradner, M.D., joined Novartis on January 1, 2016 and became President of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR) on March 1, 2016. He is a member of the Executive Committee of Novartis. Prior to joining Novartis, Dr. Bradner was on the faculty of Harvard Medical School in the Department of Medical Oncology at the Dana- Farber Cancer Institute in the United States from 2005 through 2015. Dr. Bradner is a co-founder of five biotechnology companies and has authored more than 200 scientific publications and 30 US patent applications. Dr. Bradner is a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Chicago Medical School in the US. He completed his residency in medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and his fellowship in medical oncology and hematology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He has been honored with many awards and was elected into the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2011 and the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society in 2013.
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Karen Adelman, PhD
Karen Adelman is a Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology and Co-Director of the Epigenetics and Gene Dynamics Initiative at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Adelman carried out her Ph.D. in France, working at the Institut Pasteur. She then pursued postdoctoral research in the laboratory of John Lis at Cornell University, before establishing her own laboratory at the NIH in 2005. Her group moved to Harvard Medical School in the summer of
2016. Her research probes the interplay between transcription elongation and chromatin architecture at both protein-coding and non-coding RNA loci. In particular, ongoing work focuses on how gene-distal regulatory loci such as enhancers function to establish cell-type and condition-specific patterns of gene expression.
James (Jay) Bradner, M.D. President of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR)
James (Jay) Bradner, M.D., joined Novartis on January 1, 2016 and became President of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR) on March 1, 2016. He is a member of the Executive Committee of Novartis.
Prior to joining Novartis, Dr. Bradner was on the faculty of Harvard Medical School in the Department of Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in the United States from 2005 through 2015.
Dr. Bradner is a co-founder of five biotechnology companies and has authored more than 200 scientific publications and 30 US patent applications.
Dr. Bradner is a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Chicago Medical School in the US. He completed his residency in medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and his fellowship in medical oncology and hematology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He has been honored with many awards and was elected into the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2011 and the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society in 2013.
Nate Hathaway, PhD
Nate Hathaway, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. The Hathaway lab was established at UNC with a founding idea that the group could make a contribution to understanding dynamic epigenetic processes by using unique chemical biology approaches they helped to pioneer. Through the combination of protein bioengineering, synthetic organic chemistry, and mammalian cell-based model systems, they have created platforms that use chemically tethered enzymatic recruitment to specific chromatin loci to produce meaningful mechanistic insights.
They also have drug discovery programs to identify new small molecules that inhibit disease relevant epigenetic pathways both for research purposes and as potential future therapeutics.
Phil Cole graduated from Yale University with a B.S. in Chemistry in 1984 and then spent a year as a Churchill Scholar at the University of Cambridge. Cole went on to obtain M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Johns Hopkins where he pursued research in bioorganic chemistry in 1991. Cole then entered post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School prior to joining Rockefeller University in 1996 as a junior lab head. In 1999, Cole returned to Johns Hopkins
as professor and director of pharmacology until 2017, when he moved to Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital as professor of medicine and biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology. His research interests are in the area of protein post-translational modifications and chemical biology. In particular Cole's group has developed small molecule modulators of the histone modifying enzymes p300/CBP, LSD1, and the CoREST complex.
Phil Cole, MD, PhD
Nathanael Gray, PhD
Nathanael Gray is the Nancy-Lurie Marks Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Nathanael leads the Dana Farber Program in Chemical Biology and manages a research laboratory. Previously, Nathanael was the Director of Biological Chemistry at the Novartis Institute for Genomics (GNF) in San Diego where he supervised a group of over fifty researchers integrating chemical, biological and pharmacological approaches towards the development of new experimental drugs including ceritinib, siponimod and ABL001. Dr. Gray received his PhD in organic chemistry
from Professor Peter Schultz at the University of California at Berkeley in 1999 after receiving his BS degree with the highest honor award from the same institution in 1995.
Nathanael has pioneered pharmacological approaches to inhibit protein kinases that become dysregulated in cancer and other diseases. His research has advanced chemistry and biology and has transformed medicine. His development of innovative strategies for kinase inhibition has enabled discovery of first-in-class inhibitors that have become widely used as tools to elucidate kinase function in biological systems and resulted in the development of clinical candidates and approved drugs. Nathanael also pioneered the development of covalent compounds that target unique cysteine residues to achieve selectivity across the approximately 520 human kinases. He developed the first ATP-competitive inhibitors of mTOR that were used to discover that mTOR regulates protein translation and cell growth more profoundly than previously anticipated. While conventional kinase inhibitors target the nucleotide binding pocket, Nathanael discovered allosteric inhibitors of BCR-ABL that are being used to treat Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia ﴾CML﴿. Nathanael discovered that a subset of patients with lung cancer harbor an EML4-ALK fusion protein and developed the first drugs against this target, one that is a marketed drug. Following this, Dr. Gray developed the concept of ‘mutant-selective’ kinase inhibitors which resulted in the development of a new class of EGFR inhibitors currently approved for the treatment of lung cancer. Nathanael contributed to the development of the concept of ‘transcriptional addiction’, the need for certain cells to maintain a high level of transcription of specific genes and has identified kinases that are critical to this process and therefore represent a new type of molecular vulnerability for specific cancers. Nathanael has contributed to the field of small molecule induced protein degradation and has developed new strategies and approaches for efficiently discovering new degrader molecules.
These contributions have been recognized through numerous awards including the National Science Foundation’s Career award in 2007, the Damon Runyon Foundation Innovator award in 2008, the American Association for Cancer Research for Team Science in 2010 and for Outstanding Achievement in 2011 and the American Chemical Society award for Biological Chemistry in 2011, and the Nancy Lurie Marks endowed professorship in 2015.
As Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) at CAMP4 Therapeutics, Dr. Iris Grossman is responsible for leading the company’s mission to discover how every gene in the human body responds to its environment through signaling, integrating multi-dimensional experimental data into CAMP4’s proprietary Gene Circuitry Platform. Under her direction, CAMP4 uses this platform to rapidly predict and validate druggable targets that control gene expression affecting a broad spectrum of diseases. Dr. Grossman also oversees the advancement of CAMP4’s drug pipeline and is integral to guiding the company’s partnering efforts, including its recently announced
research collaboration with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals.
Dr. Grossman’s industry experience includes management roles at both large biopharmaceutical companies (such as GlaxoSmithKline and Teva Pharmaceuticals) and start-ups (such as Cabernet and Zinfandel Pharmaceuticals), as well as consultancy firms. She has focused on leveraging genomic biomarkers, pharmacometrics and eHealth to augment the discovery, development and lifecycle management of biopharmaceutical assets. Prior to joining CAMP4, Dr. Grossman held roles of increasing responsibility at Teva, most recently serving as VP, Head of the Early Stage Clinical Development. In this role, she was responsible for defining and implementing the global personalized medicine and analytics strategy for Teva R&D.
In addition to serving as CSO at CAMP4, Dr. Grossman is co-founder and CEO of GROSS Advantage (previously IsraGene), a consultancy firm that advises clients on biomarker and digital health innovation in R&D and real-world settings. Dr. Grossman is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of BC Platforms and a Steering Committee member of Tipa, Maccabi Healthcare Services’ biobank.
Dr. Grossman earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and a PhD in medicine and pharmacogenetics from the Technion co-mentored with the Weizmann Institute of Science. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Duke University.
Cigall Kadoch, Ph.D.
Cigall Kadoch, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Pediatric Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Affiliate Faculty of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Biology at Harvard Medical School, and Institute Member and Epigenomics Program Co-Director at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.
She established her independent laboratory in 2014, at age 28, one of the youngest scientists ever appointed to the Harvard Medical School faculty, immediately following completion of her Ph.D. studies in Cancer Biology at Stanford University working with developmental biologist Gerald Crabtree. She has quickly become a leading expert in
chromatin and gene regulation and is internationally recognized for her groundbreaking studies in these areas. Specifically, her laboratory studies the structure and function of chromatin remodeling complexes such as the mammalian SWI/SNF (or BAF) complex, with emphasis on defining the mechanisms underlying cancer-specific perturbations. Of note, the recent surge in exome- and genome-wide sequencing efforts has unmasked the major, previously unappreciated contribution of these regulators to malignancy: indeed, the genes encoding subunits of mammalian SWI/SNF complexes are mutated in over 25% of human cancers.
In addition to receiving numerous prestigious awards and research grants to support her academic laboratory at Harvard, including the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, the Pew Scholar Award, and the American Cancer Society Research Scholar Award, among many others, she was named to the Forbes 2014 30 Under 30 list, MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators Under 35, Popular Science Brilliant 10 of 2016 and most recently, Business Insider’s Top 30 Young Leaders in Biopharma.
Angela Koehler, PhD
Angela Koehler is the Goldblith Career Development Professor in Applied Biology in the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT and an intramural member of the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT. She is also an Institute Member of the Broad Institute and a Founding Member of the MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine. Her research group aims to discover and develop functional small-molecule probes of transcriptional regulators, including chromatin modifying enzymes and oncogenic transcription factors. Validated probes may be used to advance the understanding of transcription in development and disease. Selected probes may be
developed into imaging agents, diagnostic tools, or therapeutic leads.
Charles Lin, PhD
Charles Y. Lin Ph.D. is a Pew Stewart Scholar for Cancer Research, the Co-director of the Therapeutic Innovation Center at Baylor College of Medicine, and an Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Molecular and Human Genetics at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. His research seeks to unravel how genes are improperly turned on and off in cancer. This science of “gene control” focuses on a subset of genes whose specialized functions are to control the activity of other genes. Many of these genes are mutated or altered in cancer and Dr. Lin’s laboratory applies integrated computational, molecular, and
chemical biology approaches better understand how these genes function and to targetthem. He is a leader in the study of the “MYC” oncogene, the most commonly amplified human oncogene, and helped uncover its role as a global regulator of gene expression. Through his work he has also helped describe super enhancers, regions of the genome that drive altered expression of oncogenes. Mapping of super enhancers has been used to find new oncogenic dependencies and regulatory networks in cancers, and the presence of super enhancers at oncogenes has been proposed to explain the observed selectivity of transcriptional inhibitors as potential therapeutics. Prior to joining the Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. Lin trained at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and earned his Ph.D. in Computational and Systems Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Eric R. Olson, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, Syros Pharmaceuticals
Dr. Olson has more than 25 years of experience in the biopharma
industry, and since 2013 has been the Chief Scientific Officer at Syros
Pharmaceuticals, a Cambridge-based biotech company focused on
developing medicines to control the expression of genes for
therapeutic benefit. Prior to joining Syros he held several senior
positions at Vertex Pharmaceuticals in research, development and
commercialization of cystic fibrosis drugs that target the underlying
genetic defect causing the disease. During this time he led
development teams for Kalydeco® and Orkambi® and served as the
CF franchise head. In addition to his work at Vertex, he held
positions in infectious diseases and gene expression at Upjohn and
Warner-Lambert/Pfizer. Dr. Olson serves on the board of the Cystic
Fibrosis Foundation and the National Brain Tumor Society. He earned his B.S. in Microbiology
from the University Minnesota and a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from the
University of Michigan.
Zuzana Tothova, MD, PhD
Dr. Tothova is an Investigator in the Department of Medical Oncology and the Division of Hematologic Neoplasia at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Associate Member of the Broad Institute, and principal faculty in the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. Dr. Tothova received her B.A. in Biology and Chemistry from Williams College, where she first developed her interest in cancer biology while studying the mechanisms of exit from mitosis in yeast in Dr. Wendy Raymond’s laboratory. She subsequently received a doctorate in Genetics from Harvard University for her work on FoxO transcription factors in self-renewal mechanisms of
hematopoietic stem cells in Dr. Gary Gilliland’s laboratory, and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School/MIT in the Health Sciences and Technology program. She completed residency training in internal medicine at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and fellowship training in adult hematology and oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and MGH Cancer Center. Dr. Tothova carried out her postdoctoral work in Dr. Benjamin Ebert’s laboratory at the Broad Institute where she studied mechanisms of cohesin mutations in myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia, and where she also developed new models of myeloid malignancies using multiplex CRISPR engineering of primary human hematopoietic stem cells. She has recently started her own library, the primary focus of which is investigation of the biology, genetics and treatment of myeloid malignancies, including the premalignant state of clonal hematopoiesis (CHIP), myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). In particular, Dr. Tothova’s lab aims to contribute to our understanding of the effect of chromatin organization on hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transformation in the context of different epigenetic modulators recurrently mutated in myeloid malignancies with the goal to identify novel therapeutic targets that can be translated to true patient benefit in the future. Dr. Tothova is a recipient of multiple career development awards from the American Society of Hematology, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the Conquer Cancer Foundation of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, and the National Institutes of Health.
