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Melanoma Therapeutics Foundation - Scientific
Advisory Board
Frank
McCormick, Ph.D., F.R.S.
Member of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Scientific
Advisory Board of the Melanoma Therapeutics Foundation
Dr. McCormick is the Director of the University of California,
San Francisco (UCSF) Comprehensive Cancer Center, designated
by the National Cancer Institute (NCI, part of the National
Institutes of Health) and Cancer Research Institute, a multidisciplinary
research and clinical care organization that is one of the
largest matrix cancer centers in the Western United States.
A native of Cambridge, England, Dr. McCormick received his
B.Sc. in biochemistry from the University of Birmingham (1972)
and his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Cambridge
(1975). Postdoctoral fellowships were held in the U.S. at the
State University of New York at Stony Brook and in London at
the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. He has been a Fellow of
the Royal Society since 1996.
Prior to joining the UCSF faculty, Dr. McCormick pursued cancer-related
work with several Bay Area biotechnology firms, including positions
with Cetus Corporation (Director of Molecular Biology, 1981-90;
Vice President of Research, 1990-91) and Chiron Corporation,
where he was Vice President of Research from 1991-92. In 1992
he founded Onyx Pharmaceuticals and served as its Chief Scientific
Officer until 1996.
Dr. McCormick's current research interests center on the fundamental
differences between normal and cancer cells that can allow
the development of novel therapeutic strategies. In addition
to his position as director of the UCSF Cancer Center, Frank
McCormick holds the David A. Wood Distinguished Professorship
of Tumor Biology and Cancer Research in UCSF's Department of
Microbiology and Immunology. Dr. McCormick is the author of
more than 243 scientific publications.
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Boris C. Bastian, M.D.
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Melanoma
Therapeutics Foundation
Dr. Boris Bastian is Associate Professor in the Departments
of Dermatology and Pathology at the University of California,
San Francisco (UCSF). Prior to completing a postdoctoral fellowship
in the Cancer Genetics Program of the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer
Center, Dr. Bastian was an attending physician at the Department
of Dermatology at the University of Würzburg, Germany,
where he completed his dermatology residency. Dr. Bastian received
his medical training from the Ludwig Maximilian University
in Munich, Germany where he completed his thesis in 1989, and
did a post-doctoral fellowship in hematology. He joined UCSF
in 1999.
Dr. Bastian's research interest is focused on the molecular
genetics of melanocytic neoplasms with a particular focus on
the discovery on genetic alterations useful for diagnosis,
classification, and therapy. In addition to his research activities
Dr. Bastian is a faculty member of the UCSF Dermatopathology
Service and participates in the histopathological and molecular
diagnostics of skin diseases. Dr. Bastian has authored more
than 80 scientific publications and has received several awards
for his research.
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Martin McMahon, Ph.D.
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Melanoma
Therapeutics Foundation
Educated first at the University of Glasgow, Dr. McMahon conducted
research at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund that led to the
award of a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from King’s College,
University of London. In 1985 he joined the lab of Dr. J. Michael
Bishop at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)
to study the role of protein kinases in signal transduction
pathways and oncogenesis. From 1991-1998 he supervised an independent
research group at the DNAX Research Institute in Palo Alto
where he specialized in signal transduction pathways regulated
by RAF protein kinases. In 1998 he was recruited to the faculty
of the Cancer Research Institute at the UCSF Comprehensive
Cancer Center. In 2002 he was appointed the Efim Guzik Distinguished
Professor of Cancer Biology. In addition to his role in the
Cancer Research Institute, he is Co-Director of the UCSF Biomedical
Sciences graduate training program and Co-Leader of the UCSF
Pancreatic Cancer Research Group.
Dr. McMahon’s primary research interests are in the
mechanisms that underlie the initiation, progression and therapy
of metastatic melanoma. Dr. McMahon is a recognized expert
on signaling by RAF protein kinases that were recently recognized
as major genetic factors in the initiation of melanoma. Dr.
McMahon’s primary research focus is the design and evaluation
of new mouse model systems that faithfully recapitulate the
development of melanoma in humans. These systems open the window
to the study of the earliest events in the conversion of normal
melanocytes into metastatic melanoma cells.
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Mohammad Kashani-Sabet, M.D.
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board
Mohammed Kashani-Sabet is Associate Professor of Dermatology
at the University of California San Francisco. He is the Herschel
and Diana Zackheim Endowed Chair in Cutaneous Oncology and
serves as the Director of the UCSF melanoma Center, and Clinical
leader of the Cutaneous Oncology Program at the UCSF Comprehensive
Cancer Center.
Mohammed Kashani-Sabet’s research is focused on the
prognostic approach to patients disease state and the identification
of of melanoma progression genes, and the development gene
Therapies for patients with melanoma, areas which he has published
extensively. Dr. Mohammed Kashani-Sabet is a member of numerous
professional societies, and serves on the editorial board of
Cancer Gene Therapy.
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Jeffrey Weber, M.D., Ph.D.
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Melanoma
Therapeutics Foundation
Dr. Weber is Adams Professor of Medicine and Chief of the
Division of Medical Oncology at the Keck School of Medicine
of the University of Southern California (USC). He is also
the Associate Director for Clinical Research of the USC/Norris
Comprehensive Cancer Center in Los Angeles. He has been a clinical
trialist and translational investigator for the last 20 years
and is an expert in melanoma research.
Dr. Weber spent 9 years at the National Cancer Institute working
with Steven Rosenberg and was involved in the early development
of interleukin-2, tumor infiltrating lymphocytes and LAK cells,
then came to USC in 1995 to set up a melanoma research program.
He has been NCI funded since 1995 and sits on the NCI’s
Clinical Oncology Study section. Dr. Weber sits on Scientific
Advisory Boards for several biotech companies including Biogen-Idec,
Medarex, and Altor, and is on the Scientific Advisory Board
for the Melanoma Research Foundation.
His area of interest is in the use of vaccines and biologic
compounds to treat melanoma, specifically antibodies against
immune regulatory molecules and cytokine vaccine adjuvants.
Recent clinical trials for which he is the principal investigator
have included the use of multi-peptide vaccines with CTLA-4
antibody for patients with resected melanoma, high dose CTLA-4
antibody with low dose steroids for patients with metastatic
melanoma, and the use of demethylating agents to augment apoptosis
and antigen gene expression in stage IV melanoma.
Dr. Weber received his M.D. degree from NYU, his doctorate
from the Rockefeller University, and did a fellowship in medical
oncology at the National Cancer Institute. He has authored
over 90 scientific publications.
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