Scientific Advisory Board

Guiding the SWCRF Research and Science Programs

James DeGregori, Ph.D.

Courtenay C. and Lucy Patten Endowed Chair, Lung Cancer Research
University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

James DeGregori is a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics (faculty since 1997) and Deputy Director of the University of Colorado Cancer Center. He has degrees from the University of Texas at Austin (B.A. Microbiology) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD Biology), and received postdoctoral training at Duke University. He holds the Courtenay and Lucy Patten Davis Endowed Chair in Lung Cancer Research, and is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Aging And Cancer.

His lab studies the evolution of cancer, in the context of their Adaptive Oncogenesis model, with a focus on how aging, smoking, Down Syndrome, and other insults influence cancer initiation and responses to therapy. In this model, mutations face fitness landscapes that vary with age, genetics, or following carcinogen exposure. These fitness landscapes are highly dependent on the state of the tissue microenvironment in which stem cells reside.

The lab has developed this cancer model based on classic evolutionary principles, and substantiated this model by theoretical, experimental and computational studies. Additional studies in the lab seek to identify metabolic and signaling vulnerabilities in cancer, with a focus on acute myeloid leukemias, that can be exploited for the development of more effective therapies. For all of these studies, they leverage a variety of tools, including computational biology, genomics, metabolomics, cell biology, and biochemistry, leveraging both mouse models and human samples.

Ron Evans, Ph.D.

Professor and Director, Gene Expression Laboratory
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies

Ronald M. Evans, Ph.D. is a Professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, where he holds the March of Dimes Chair in Developmental and Molecular Biology. He is known for pioneering studies on hormones’ normal activities and their roles in disease. A major discovery was nuclear hormone receptors, which respond to steroid hormones, vitamin A, vitamin D, thyroid hormones and bile acids. By targeting genes these receptors help control sugar, salt, calcium, cholesterol and fat metabolism. They are primary targets in breast, prostate and pancreatic cancers and leukemia treatment, and have therapeutic roles in chronic inflammation, osteoporosis and Type 2 diabetes and asthma. His muscle metabolism studies led to the discovery of exercise mimetics, which promote the benefits of fitness without training, and will help battle the obesity epidemic, diabetes, heart disease and frailty. Evans co-led 4 Stand Up to Cancer Dream Teams and is a previous Lustgarten Distinguished Scholar (2014-2019). He was awarded the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award in 2004 and the Wolf Prize in Medicine in 2012. He is a member of the NAS, NAM and NAI. 

Matthew Galsky, M.D.

Billy Acting Chief, Division of Hematology/Oncology
Tisch School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Dr. Galsky is Professor of Medicine (Hematology and Medical Oncology) and Acting Chief of the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology for the Mount Sinai Health System. Dr. Galsky also serves as Director of Genitourinary Medical Oncology, Co-Director of the Center of Excellence for Bladder Cancer at The Tisch Cancer Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Associate Director for Translational Research at The Tisch Cancer Institute. Dr. Galsky specializes in the care of patients with genitourinary malignancies—bladder, prostate, kidney, and testicular cancers. His research centers on team science-based approaches to dissecting the mechanistic underpinnings of response and resistance to novel bladder cancer therapies with a particular focus on immunotherapeutic approaches.

Lorraine J. Gudas, Ph.D.

Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology; Chairman, Department of Pharmacology
Weill Cornell Medicine

Dr. Gudas is an expert in epigenetics of stem cell differentiation; retinoid pharmacology; head and neck squamous cell carcinoma; mitochondrial function in kidney cancer.

Current Research Interest:
The molecular regulation of the differentiation of embryonic stem cells. The molecular mechanisms of action of retinoids (vitamin A and related molecules) in the regulation of cell differentiation and the inhibition of neoplastic transformation. Analysis of retinoid metabolism and signaling in normal and tumor cells. Delineation of the role of the enzyme LRAT (lecithin:retinol acyltransferase) in vitamin A (retinol) uptake and storage, and characterization of the mechanism by which LRAT expression is lost in human tumor cells. The functional analysis of the transcription factor Rex1 (Zfp42), a marker of embryonic stem cells. Development of new mouse models for kidney cancer and head and neck cancer. Understanding how vitamin A deficiency in mice causes hyperglycemia and loss of pancreatic beta cell mass. Development of new drugs for diabetes and fatty liver disease.

Select Publications:
1. Quintero CM, Laursen KB, Mongan NP, Luo M, and Gudas LJ. (2018) CARM1 (PRMT4) acts as a transcriptional coactivator during retinoic acid-induced embryonic stem cell differentiation. J Mol Biol. In press. PMID: 30153436
2. Trasino SE, Tang XH, Shevchuk MM, Choi ME, and Gudas LJ. (2018) Amelioration of diabetic nephropathy using a retinoic acid receptor β2 agonist. J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 367(1):82-94. PMID: 30054312. PMC6123666.
3. Sureshbabu A, Patino E, Ma K, Laursen K, Finkelsztein E, Akchurin O, Thangamini M, Ryter SW, Gudas LJ, Choi, AMK, Choi ME. (2018) RIPK3 promotes sepsis-induced acute kidney injury via mitochondrial dysfunction. JCI Insight. 3(11):98411. PMID: 29875323. PMC6124406.
4. Trasino SE, Tang XH, Jessurun J, and Gudas LJ. (2016) A retinoic acid receptor β2 agonist reduces hepatic stellate cell activation in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. J Mol Med. 94(10):1143-51. PMID: 27271256. PMC5053866.

Tannishtha Reya, Ph.D.

Director, Irving Cancer Drug Development Program; Associate Director, Translational Research; Professor, Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics
Columbia University 

Tannishtha Reya is a Professor in the Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics, Director of the Irving Cancer Drug Development Program, and Associate Director of Translational Research at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at Columbia University. Dr. Reya obtained her bachelor’s degree from Williams College and her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. She subsequently completed postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco and Stanford University. She has made key contributions to the field of cancer biology by defining the signals that control stem cell growth, and how these signals are subverted to drive cancer progression and therapy resistance. Her work has been recognized by several awards, including an NIH Director’s Pioneer Award and an NCI Outstanding Investigator Award.

Kevan Shokat, Ph.D.

Professor, Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
University of California, San Francisco

Kevan M. Shokat is currently an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at the University of California at San Francisco and Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley. He received his B.A. in Chemistry from Reed College in 1986, his Ph.D. in organic chemistry at UC Berkeley with Professor Peter Schultz and carried out post-doctoral work in cellular immunology at Stanford University with Professor Chris Goodnow. Kevan’s research group is focused on the discovery of new small molecule tools and drug candidates targeting protein/lipid kinases, GTPases, and RNA helicases. His laboratory utilizes the tools of synthetic organic chemistry, protein engineering, structural biology, biochemistry and cell biology. He was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences (2010), the National Academy of Medicine (2011), and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2011). He has commercialized discoveries from his laboratory through co-founding several biotechnology companies including Intellikine, Araxes, Wellspring Biosciences, Kura Oncology, eFFECTOR Therapeutics, Mitokinin, Revolution Medicines, Erasca and Kumquat Biosciences.

http://shokatlab.ucsf.edu

Nancy Speck, Ph.D.

Professor and Chair, Cell and Development Biology
Investigator, Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute
The University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Speck's research is centered on the core binding factor (Runx1-CBFβ) and its roles in hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) formation and function. She and her laboratory study how HSCs form in the embryo, the step at which HSC formation is dependent on Runx1-CBFβ, the biochemical functions of Runx1-CBFβ, and how mutations in the genes encoding Runx1-CBFβ generate pre-leukemic stem cells. A more recent line of investigation is to determine the role of inflammatory signaling in HSC formation.

A major focus of her laboratory is to understand how hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) form during normal embryonic development. HSCs and the earlier populations of committed progenitors differentiate from a small, transient population of endothelial cells referred to as “hemogenic endothelium”. About 15 years ago she and he lab demonstrated that the transcription factor Runx1 was a specific marker of hemogenic endothelium, and that Runx1 is absolutely required for the formation of blood from hemogenic endothelium (North et al. Development, 1999). She helped settle an almost 100-yearr debate over whether hemogenic endothelium actually exists, and demonstrated that at least 95% of all adult HSCs are derived from hemogenic endothelium in the embryo (Chen et al. Nature 2009). Another important discovery was that hemogenic endothelium is functionally heterogeneous (Chen et al. Cell Stem Cell, 2011). She more recently discovered a role for sterile inflammatory signaling in HSC formation in the embryo (Li et al. Genes & Development, 2014), and are currently determining which inflammatory pathways are involved. 

Select Publications:

Cai X, Gao L, Teng L, Ge J. Oo ZM, Kumar AR, Gilliland DG, Mason PH, Tan K, Speck NA

Runx1 deficiency decreases ribosome biogenesis and confers stress resistance to hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. 

Cell Stem Cell 17(2): 165-177, August 2015

Li Y, Esain V, Teng L, Xu J, Kwan W, Frost I, Yzaguirre AD, Cai X, Cortes M, Maijenburg MW, Tober J, Dzierzak E, Orkin SH, Tan K, North TE, Speck NA

Inflammatory signaling regulates embryonic hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell production

Genes & Development 28: 2597-612, Nov 2014

Tober J, Yzaguirre AD, Piwarzyk E, Speck NA

Distinct temporal requirements for Runx1 in hematopoietic progenitors and stem cells

Development 140(18): 3765-76, Sep 2013

Ashani T. Weeraratna, Ph.D.

Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Cancer Biology
E.V. McCollum Chair of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Dr. Weeraratna is currently the E.V. McCollum Chair of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, and Co-Program Leader of the Cancer Invasion and Metastasis Program at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Her research focuses on the intersection between cancer and aging, and she is a fierce champion of and a mentor for junior faculty, people of color and women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).

Hua Yu, Ph.D.

Billy Wilder Endowed Professor, Co-Leader of Cancer Immunotherapeutics Program, City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center and Associate Department Chair of Immuno-Oncology

Dr. Yu is a noted expert and pioneer on the cancer-promoting protein STAT3 and was the first to uncover and define the protein’s effect on the immune system. Dr. Yu’s studies have laid the foundation for a new generation of molecular targeted cancer therapy approaches that disable both tumor cells and the tumor stromal cells, which are critical for tumor growth. She has developed potentially paradigm-shifting novel siRNA and antibody delivery technology platforms to inhibit STAT3 and other challenging targets.

Dr. Yu received her bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from Columbia University in NYC. She completed fellowships with the American Cancer Society and the National Institutes of Health. The fundamental discoveries from her laboratory have been well supported continuously by grants from the National Institutes of Health. Her recent studies have been published extensively in such prestigious biomedical/cancer research journals as Nature Medicine, Cancer Cell, Nature Biotechnology, Immunity, Cancer Metabolism and Nature Reviews Cancer and Nature Reviews Immunology.