Corporate and Scientific Advisory Board
Keith T. Flaherty, MD
Scientific Advisory Board Member
Dr Flaherty is Director of Clinical Research at the Cancer Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was named as the Richard Saltonstall Endowed Chair in Oncology, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Flaherty's research focuses on the understanding of novel, molecularly targeted therapies in cancer and to define the mechanisms of action and resistance of novel therapies. A pioneer in developing targeted therapies matched to the genetic characteristics of a patient's tumor, Dr. Flaherty led early clinical trials on the development of vemurafenib and trametinib and the dabrafenib/trametinib combination. Dr. Flaherty serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Clinical Cancer Research and serves on the Board of Directors of the American Association for Cancer Research. He is also the Deputy Chair for Biomarker Sciences and the Chair of the Developmental Therapeutics Committee in the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group, a Scientific Advisory Committee member for the Melanoma Research Foundation, and Past-President of the Society for Melanoma Research. Dr. Flaherty is a founding member of X4 Pharmaceuticals, former Director and Chair of the SAB at Loxo Oncology, a wholly owned subsidiary of Eli Lilly and Co. Dr. Flaherty received his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Flaherty trained in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and completed a medical oncology fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dejan Juric, MD
Scientific Advisory Board Member
Dr. Juric is Director of the Termeer Center for Targeted Therapies & Program Director of the Investigational Cancer Therapeutics Program, Mass General Hospital Cancer Center, and Physician in Medicine (Hematology/Oncology) at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is also Principal Investigator, Laboratory of Systems Pharmacology, Harvard Program in Therapeutic Science. Dr. Juric is a pioneering medical oncologist in targeted cancer therapies. He is a leading expert in genetic alterations associated with therapy resistance, continually expanding working knowledge of cancer biology, and providing insights into new treatment strategies. Most recently his focus has been on advancing the development of new agents against PIK3CA, one of the most frequently mutated oncogenes in metastatic breast cancer and other advanced malignancies. Dr. Juric received his medical degree from the University of Zagreb, and subsequently trained in Internal Medicine at the University Medical Center, Zagreb. Dr. Juric did postdoctoral research in cancer biology at Stanford University after which he became a Fellow in Oncology. Dr. Juric was subsequently a Resident in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, and a Fellow in Medical Oncology under Jose Baselga, MD, PhD at Dana Farber/Partners Cancer Care.
Jennifer Petter, PhD
Scientific Advisory Board Member
Jennifer Petter, Ph.D., is the Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Arrakis Therapeutics. An experienced drug hunter, scientist, and life science executive, Dr. Petter’s research has spanned different fields over the years, with a current focus on RNA at Arrakis. She is the author or co-author on over 50 papers and over 50 patents and/or patent applications. Prior to creating Arrakis, Dr. Petter was Vice President of Chemistry at Celgene. She joined Celgene after the acquisition of Avila Therapeutics, a startup, in 2012. She has also held roles at Mersana Therapeutics, Biogen, and the Sandoz Research Institute (now a part of Novartis). She is a member of the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR), the Society of Neuro-Oncology, and the RNA Society and an associate member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). Dr. Petter serves on the scientific advisory boards for Cygnal Therapeutics and PIC Therapeutics, and on the boards of directors for OUTBio and Theon Therapeutics. Dr. Petter received her bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and her Ph.D. from Duke University. She completed her post-doctorate research at Columbia University.
Nahum Sonenberg, PhD
Scientific Advisory Board Member
Dr. Sonenberg is world-renowned as a leading expert in translational control mechanisms, making seminal contributions to our understanding of translation, and notably for the discovery of the mRNA 5' cap-binding protein, eIF4E, the rate-limiting component of the eukaryotic translation apparatus. He is a recipient of the Robert L. Nobel Prize of the National Cancer Institute of Canada, the Killiam Prize for Health Sciences, the Gairdner Foundation International Award, the Rosenstiel Award and the Wolf Prize in Medicine, among many others. Dr. Sonenberg is a Professor and Gilman Cheney Chair in the Department of Biochemistry at McGill University and Principal Investigator at the Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Center.
Yat Sun Or, PhD
Scientific Advisory Board Member
Dr. Or is Chief Scientific Officer of Enanta Pharmaceuticals, and has led the Research and Development team since late 1999, which has discovered and developed numerous drugs and established a substantial IP estate. Prior to that, he held key leadership positions at Abbott Laboratories from 1985 to 1999, where he received two Chairman’s Awards for outstanding research. Preceding Abbott, Dr. Or was a member of the cardiovascular drug discovery team at Schering-Plough. Dr. Or received his PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Chicago and completed Postdoctoral Fellowships at Ohio State University and Indiana University.
Jan van Heek, MBA
Corporate Advisory Board Member
Mr. van Heek is currently a board member of Amarin Corporation, and Minerva Neurosciences, both publicly traded biopharmaceutical companies. Since 2009, Mr. van Heek has been a Principal and Partner at BioPoint Group, a business development consulting company. Prior to establishing BioPoint in 2009, Mr. van Heek spent more than 18 years at Genzyme Corporation, a Sanofi pharmaceutical company, most recently as Executive Vice President and Senior Advisor to the chief executive officer and senior management team. He was also a board member and Chairman of the Audit Committee of ViaCell Corporation, a public company, from 2002 until it was sold to Perkin Elmer Corporation in 2007. He received an MBA from St. Gallen University in Switzerland and an executive degree from Stanford Business School.
Gerhard Wagner, PhD
Scientific Co-Founder, Director
Dr. Wagner is the Scientific Co-Founder of PIC Therapeutics and is world-renowned as a leading expert in NMR spectroscopy. During his tenure at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, he developed triple-resonance methods and the procedures for studies of protein dynamics. Since 1990, Dr. Wagner has been a Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on eukaryotic translation initiation, transcriptional activation and membrane proteins in micelles and nanodiscs. A particular focus of his research is on discovery and characterization of small molecule inhibitors of protein-protein interactions. He has been elected to the German National Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina), The National Academy of Science USA and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Wagner obtained his PhD from the ETH Zürich in 1977 with NMR studies of protein dynamics.
