LEADERSHIP
Management TeamStephen D. Gillies, Ph.D. Founder, President and CEO
Dr. Gillies is an accomplished scientist and business executive. He is an expert on recombinant antibodies and immunotherapy and inventor of core platform technologies, Immunocytokines and Fc-X, for which there are several clinical projects in development with various pharmaceutical companies, research institutes, and government agencies. Prior to founding Provenance Biopharmaceuticals Corp., Dr Gillies was founding President of Lexigen Pharmaceuticals Corp. and led the company’s acquisition by Merck KGaA. While at Merck KGaA, Dr. Gillies led the global pharmaceutical company’s pre-clinical oncology research. Previously, he was vice president of research at Damon Biotech and Abbott Biotech Inc., where he oversaw development of recombinant antibodies and pro-urokinase, an anti-clotting protein. As a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, working with Nobel laureate Susumu Tonegawa, he identified the first cellular enhancer sequences that were found to be critical for the regulation of antibody expression. This discovery contributed to the successful development of Erbitux, a cancer drug marketed by Imclone Systems Inc., Bristol Myers Squibb, and Merck KGaA. During the course of his scientific career, Dr. Gillies has led multiple therapeutic candidates into clinical development for HIV/AIDS and cancer. These include engineered antibodies, NCEs and immunocytokines. Dr. Gillies serves on the Board of Directors of Galenea Corp. and Potentia Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Dr. Gillies has his M.S. degree and Ph.D. from the College of Medicine and Dentistry, Rutgers University and his B.S. degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Jason M. Walsh, MBA, Co-founder, Senior Vice President and CFO
Mr. Walsh is a successful business leader with broad strategic, financial, and operational expertise in the biotechnology industry. Prior to co-founding Provenance, Jason was Senior Director of Finance and Business Operations for Lexigen Pharmaceuticals Corp. At Lexigen, Jason was responsible for all business activities during a time of dramatic growth. He facilitated the company’s acquisition by and integration into Merck KGaA, the global chemical and pharmaceutical company. Prior to his executive position at Lexigen and Merck KGaA, Jason founded and led several entrepreneurial ventures in a wide range of industries. Jason serves as President and on the Board of Directors of The Bioscience Network, Inc. and serves on the steering committee of the CFO Roundtable. He has a B.S. degree from the University of Massachusetts and a MBA from Babson College.
Thomas A. Dahl, Ph.D, Clinical Development
Dr. Dahl has 20 years experience in experimental therapeutics in both academia and the biopharmaceutical industry, including product development, clinical trial design, execution and interpretation, as well as data presentation to funding communities, analysts and biotech and pharmaceutical partners. Dr. Dahl has held senior management positions in a number of biotech companies, including CEO, COO and VP of Clinical Development. He has submitted a total of 8 INDs, including the first two for immunocytokines, to the FDA across multiple therapeutic areas involving small molecules and biologics, and has designed and overseen more than 30 clinical trials. He received his PhD from The Johns Hopkins University and served on the faculty of Tufts Medical, Dental and Veterinary Schools for several years before joining the biotech community. Dr. Dahl currently serves as an advisor and consultant to biotech companies, specializing primarily in start-ups and early stage (through Phase 2 clinical trials) development.
James Zabrecky, Ph.D, Process Development and Manufacturing
Dr. Zabrecky has 25 years of experience in Biotechnology and currently is Principal Consultant at Criterion Biotech Consultants, where he specializes in CMC and Regulatory issues in biopharmaceutical development. Dr. Zabrecky has held senior positions at several biotechnology companies, most recently, at Biovest International where he served as VP of Biologics Development. Before that, he held Senior Director positions of Scientific Affairs and of Pharmaceutical Technologies at Antigenics Inc. He also was Director of Biochemisty at Autoimmune, Inc. and Principal Investigator of Diagnostic Research at Oncogene Sciences, Inc. Dr. Zabrecky holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California at Berkeley and completed Post-Doctoral training at the California Institute of Technology as an NIH Post-Doctoral Fellow. He is an inventor on seven US Patents and the author of numerous peer reviewed scientific publications.
Deborah Ramsdell, Regulatory AffairsDeborah Ramsdell, President of CMSI, a privately held consulting firm, has 24 years experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Her experience has spanned the areas of Regulatory Affairs and Product Development. Ms. Ramsdell specializes in designing and implementing development strategies for therapeutic drugs and biologics. This includes regulatory strategy planning and implementation, manufacturing and clinical project design and management, and design and implementation of comparability programs for both pre-and post-approval products. Ms. Ramsdell has held positions at Virus Research Institute, ImmunoGen, Inc., and BioTechnica International. She received her M.Ed. and B.S. in Biology from Boston College.
Christine de los Reyes, PharmD, MBA, Business Development
Dr. de los Reyes is founder and Managing Director of BiotechPartnering Solutions, a business development consulting firm that advises life science companies on partnering strategy, search for potential partners, coordination of technical evaluation and due diligence, deal structure and transaction negotiation. Dr. de los Reyes has 22 years of pharmaceutical/biotechnology experience. Prior to starting her own company she was Executive Director of Licensing & Development at Pfizer, where she spent twelve years in their licensing group with a focus on in-licensing in several therapeutic areas. Dr. de los Reyes began her career as Assistant Professor of Pharmacology teaching undergraduate and graduate level courses in clinical pharmacy at the University of Texas. From there she became Director of Clinical Research at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York, before joining Pfizer in 1989.
Scientific Advisory Board
Stephen D. Gillies, Ph.D. Founder, CEO. See bio under Management above
Andrew Raubitschek, MD. Chairman of the Department of Cancer Immunotherapeutics and Tumor Immunology at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California:
Dr. Raubitschek has had a strong interest in immunocytokines for many years and has recently collaborated with Dr. Gillies to create and develop the DI-Leu16-IL2 immunocytokine. These activities include the GMP manufacturing and first-in-man clinical testing under a City of Hope sponsored IND. He has vast experience in antibody engineering and radioimmune therapy as well as pioneering work on adoptive therapy with genetically engineered T cells. Dr. Raubitschek has also been involved in the clinical trials of Zevalin as well as a phase I study of another immunocytokine, huKS-IL2, in prostate cancer patients. He also has a strong interest in translational medicine and especially cutting edge imaging techniques in both pre-clinical mechanism studies, as well as in patients undergoing therapy.
Paul Sondel, MD, PhD. Walker Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics, Human Oncology & Genetics, Head of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, and Associate Director (for translational research) of the Paul P. Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center, at the University of Wisconsin – Madison
Dr. Sondel is a long-term collaborator of Dr. Gillies working both on pre-clinical proof-of-principle studies, as well as a main driver of the Phase I and II studies of the anti-GD2 targeting immunocytokine, hu14.18-IL2. This molecule has now reached clinical proof-of-concept as monotherapy in residual, relapsed neuroblastoma following stem cell transplantation. Dr. Sondel has also contributed to the development of huKS-IL2 and the early clinical studies of DI-Leu16-IL2. Prior to work with immunocytokines, Dr. Sondel has been involved in the early clinical studies of IL-2 and worked with Dr. Gillies in the early U.S. studies of the parent antibody, ch14.18, in neuroblastoma and melanoma patients. Doctors Sondel and Gillies are co-authors on more than 10 peer-reviewed journal articles.
Ralph Reisfeld, PhD. Professor in the Department of Immunology and Microbial Science at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California:
Dr. Gillies and Dr. Reisfeld have been collaborators for more than twenty years. Together they have published more than 50 papers on a range of antibody, immunocytokine and vaccine related studies. Dr. Reisfeld is widely known and respected in the field of immune therapy and continues to perform cutting edge research at the Scripps Research Institute on the biology and immunogenicity of cancer stem cells. In fact, the first immunocytokines created by Dr. Gillies utilized antibodies (14.18 and KS-1/4) first isolated in Dr. Reisfeld’s laboratory in the 1980’s. These were some of the earliest mouse monoclonal antibodies to be tested clinically as anti-cancer agents. Although it wasn’t known at the time, the antigens recognized by the 14.18 and KS-1/4 antibodies have recently been found to be highly expressed on cancer stem cells.
Rong Xiang, MD, PhD Dean of the College of Medicine, Nankai University in Tianjin, China:
Dr. Xiang studied in Dr. Reiesfeld’s laboratory at Scripps for more than 10 years and was intimately involved in the animal experiments that established the pre-clinical proof-of-concept and mechanism of action of the anti-EpCAM immunocytokine, huKS-IL2, currently in phase II clinical development. He has recently returned to China as Dean of a premier medical school where he plans to work, together with Provenance, on immunocytokine technology.
Rupert Handgretinger, MD, PhD. Director of Department of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, University Hospital, Tübingen, Germany:
Dr. Handgretinger has been another long-term collaborator with both Dr. Gillies and Dr. Reisfeld and was the first to test the ch14.18 antibody and its derived immunocytokine, ch14.18-IL2, in the clinic in Germany. He also did the first in man studies of the anti-EpCAM immunocytokine, huKS-IL2, in Germany. This pioneering work made it possible to convince authorities that this approach was safe for testing in phase I studies in the U.S. Dr. Handgretinger has also been a pioneer in the field of stem cell transplantation and is world-renowned for his expertise.
David Vail, DVM Veterinary Oncologist, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine:
Dr. Vail is a practicing veterinary oncologist and medical research scientist involved in the development of cutting edge therapies for companion animals, including not only traditional chemo and radiotherapies, but also novel immune therapies. He has published numerous articles in both veterinary and other scientific journals on cancer therapy.