Advisory Board

The members of the Nonagen Therapeutics scientific advisory board (SAB) are world-leading experts in drug development. Our SAB also includes clinicians and scientists whose insights into the needs of patients help guide the development of a new scientific paradigm and delivery of novel medicines for patients in need. 

Bruce Beutler, M.D.

Director, Center for the Genetics of Host Defense

Nobel Prize and Shaw Prize recipient and National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine member.

A pioneer in the study of innate immunity, Bruce Beutler isolated several key cytokines early in his career (TNFα, MIP1α, MIP1β, and others). He went on to discover the elusive sensing mechanism by which host cells recognize microbial invaders, including bacteria, protozoa, fungi, and viruses. Moreover, in work spanning nearly four decades, he identified proteins central to many other biological processes, notably neurobehavioral function, metabolism, and development. His discoveries have led to therapies for crippling and life-shortening diseases that affect millions of people. His work in the innate immunity field was rewarded with a Nobel Prize in 2011, shared with Jules Hoffmann and Ralph Steinman.

Beutler received his undergraduate degree from the University of California at San Diego in 1976, and his MD degree from the University of Chicago in 1981. After two years of residency at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, he became a postdoctoral fellow and then an Assistant Professor at the Rockefeller University (1983-1986), where he isolated mouse tumor necrosis factor (TNF), and was the first to recognize TNF as a key executor of the inflammatory response. Returning to Dallas in 1986 as an HHMI investigator, he designed recombinant inhibitors of TNF that are widely used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory diseases. He also used TNF as a biological endpoint in order to identify the receptor for bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS). This he achieved by positionally cloning the Lps mutation of mice, known to prevent all biological responses to LPS, including TNF production. He thus concluded that Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) acts as the signaling core of the LPS receptor and proposed that other TLRs might also recognize conserved molecular signatures of infection.

Moving in 2000 to the Scripps Research Institute, Beutler developed the largest mouse mutagenesis program in the world, and applied a forward genetic approach to decipher the signaling pathways activated by TLRs. He also identified many other molecules with non-redundant function in the immune response.  Returning to UT Southwestern in 2011, he developed a means of instantly identifying mutations responsible for both quantitative and qualitative phenotypes.  This allowed rapid discovery of many new components of the immune system.

Beutler is currently a Regental Professor and Director of the Center for Genetics of Host Defense at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He also holds the Raymond and Ellen Willie Distinguished Chair in Cancer Research in honor of Laverne and Raymond Willie, Sr.  Before he received the Nobel Prize, his work was recognized by the Shaw Prize (2011), the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research (2009), election to the National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine (2008), the Frederik B. Bang Award (2008), the Balzan Prize (2007), the Gran Prix Charles-Leopold-Mayer (2006), the William B. Coley Award (2005), the Robert-Koch-Prize (2004), and other honors.

Omid Hamid, MD

Dr. Omid Hamid, MD, is the Director of Melanoma Centre and Chief of Translational Research & Immuno-Oncology at The Angeles Clinic and Research Institute.

Dr. Omid Hamid works to ensure that patients receive access to the most up-to-date therapeutics. Most recently, his role with the Phase 1 Developmental Therapeutics Program, Dr. Hamid has been instrumental in bringing new therapies from the investigational lab to the clinic for patient benefit. These therapies involve immunological therapies such as PD-1 inhibitors, therapies against tumour angiogenesis, and targeted agents that clock internal processes in the tumour cell’s function. These pathways change a normal cell into a cancerous one. Dr. Hamid is nationally and internationally recognized as a key opinion leader in Immuno-Oncology and Melanoma Therapeutics. Through his role as the Chief of Immunotherapy and Translational Research, patients at The Angeles Clinic have benefited from first in class, paradigm shifting drugs. Dr. Hamid has presented at major national and international meetings including the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Society for Melanoma Research, and many more. He has published manuscripts, abstracts, and reviews on immunotherapy, targeted therapy, and melanoma care in prestigious journals such as the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO), New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), Clinical Cancer Research. 

Dr. Hamid realizes that fostering innovative therapies directly to the clinical trial format is the most effective and quickest way to ensure patients can benefit through therapy. Through his role as the Chief of Clinical Research, Dr. Hamid oversees a programs that ensures all patients have an opportunity to benefit from therapy. Dr. Hamid’s clinical research focuses on Biomarker Research, Combination Therapy, Immuno-Oncology, Phase I Therapeutics and brain metastasis.

Brian Issell, MD

Brian Issell, MD, a medical oncologist with over 40 years of experience, was the inaugural director of University of Hawaii Cancer Center, a NCI-designated cancer center. Dr. Issell has pioneered the use of IL-2 and cisplatin in oncology and has made transformative contributions in the field of medical oncology.

His activities and experiences include academic medical oncologist, academic executive, researcher and corporate executive. Dr. Issell has authored over 64 published chapters, articles and abstracts and is most recognized for his work in cancer therapeutics.

Dr. Issell is an Emeritus Director of University of Hawaii Cancer Center and professor at John A Burns School of Medicine. 

Dr. Issell received his undergraduate training at University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand where he was also awarded his MD degree. Dr. Issell received his medical training at the University of Otago Hospital and subsequently did a medical oncology fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center. 

Dr. Robert Kerbel

Professor, University of Toronto

Canada Research Chair in Tumour Biology, Angiogenesis and Anti-Angiogenic Therapy, Canadian Institutes of Health Research

Dr. Kerbel received his PhD in immunology Queen’s University in Kingston in 1972, after which he undertook postdoctoral training in tumor immunology at the Chester Beatty Research Institute in London England. He started his career as an independent researcher focusing on tumor immunology and tumor immunotherapy as an Assistant Professor and career awardee as a Research Scholar of the National Cancer Institute of Canada (NCIC) in the Department of Pathology Queen’s University from 1975. Until 1985, the focus of most of his work was in tumor immunology and therapy of metastatic disease. From 1981 until 1985, he was appointed Director of the Cancer Research labs at Queen’s. In 1985, he moved to Mount Sinai Hospital where he was recruited to develop a cancer research group. During this period he was the recipient of a Terry Fox Career Scientist Award from the NCIC. The focus of his research at that time changed to studying the biological basis of metastatic disease. In 1991, he moved to the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center, where he was recruited to develop a program in cancer research. It is during this period where he began his studies on tumor angiogenesis and antiangiogenic therapy and then metronomic chemotherapy. He was awarded Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Tumor Biology, Angiogenesis and Antiangiogenic Therapy in 2001. Dr. Kerbel's research has been supported over the years by grants from the Canadian Institute for Health Research, the National Cancer Institute of Canada, the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, Worldwide Cancer Research, and the National Institutes of Health, USA. He also has held or holds multiple sponsored research agreements with biotech and pharmaceutical companies. He has supervised over 40 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows since 1975, many of whom have gone on to become successful research scientists in academia and industry.