About SynDevRx
Scientific Advisory Board
SynDevRx enjoys a close working relationship with key angiogenesis and oncology thought leaders. We have assembled four well recognized names in the industry to help advise us on clinical trial design, indication selection, biomarker identification and end-point definition.
Bruce R. Zetter, Ph.D. - Chair
Dr, Bruce Zetter is the Chief Scientific Officer, Children's Hospital Boston and Charles Nowiszewski Professor of Cancer Biology, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Zetter is highly regarded nationally and internationally as a leader in the research of tumor angiogenesis, progression, cancer diagnosis, and cancer metastasis.
Dr. Zetter has won numerous national and international awards for his work in the field of cancer research including a Faculty Research Award from the American Cancer Society and the prestigious MERIT award from the US National Cancer Institute. He is also on the editorial board of eight peer-reviewed journals. He has chaired several research conferences including the Gordon Conference on Cancer considered one of America's premier cancer conferences.
Dr. Zetter also serves on several grant review boards for public agencies such as the American Cancer Society. He has chaired the grant review board on breast and prostate cancer for the National Institutes of Health. He also serves as a consultant and scientific advisor to major biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.
Daniel Von Hoff, MD
Dr. Von Hoff is Executive VP and Physician-in-Chief, Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and Executive VP and Director of the Translational Drug Development Division (TD2). Dr. Von Hoff is also Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of Arizona, Department of Medicine, and he serves as Head of the Pancreatic Cancer
Research Team (PCRT) and Chief Scientific Officer for US Oncology.
Dr. Von Hoff is a world-renowned expert in oncology drug development and clinical trial design. He and his colleagues were involved in the early development of mitoxantrone, fludarabine, paclitaxel, docetaxel, gemcitabine, CPT-11, and others.
Dr. Von Hoff has published more than 500 papers, 125 book chapters, and nearly 900 abstracts.
Dr. Von Hoff has an appointment to the National Cancer Advisory Board through March 2010. He is the past President of the American Association for Cancer Research, a Fellow of the American
College of Physicians, and a member and past board member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He is
a founder of ILEX™ Oncology, Inc. (recently acquired by Genzyme), and is founder and the Editor Emeritus of
Investigational New Drugs - The Journal of New Anticancer Agents; and, Editor-in-Chief of Molecular Cancer
Therapeutics.
Rakesh Jain, Ph.D.
Dr. Jain brings unique perspective to oncology. As a chemical and biomedical engineer, he has made significant contributions to cancer research in the area of tumor environments. He is the Andrew Werk Professor of Tumor Biology at Harvard Medical School and serves as Director of the Edwin L. Steele Laboratory for Tumor Biology at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center In Boston. He is a leading expert on tumor pathophysiology, angiogenesis, drug delivery, and intravital microscopy, Dr. Jain has published nearly 300 scientific papers and five books on tumor blood supply and other topics. He also holds several patents for medical discoveries, such as locating tumors prior to needle biopsy and a devising a new method for enhancing drug delivery.
Roy Herbst, MD, Ph.D.
Dr. Herbst is professor of medicine and the Chief of Thoracic Medical Oncology in the Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. He is also a professor of cancer biology in the Department of Cancer Biology and a co-chairman of the Phase I Working Group at M. D. Anderson.
Dr. Herbst is the principal investigator for numerous clinical trials and has conducted research primarily in the treatment of lung cancer, head and neck cancer, and Phase I clinical studies. His work has focused on the clinical development of molecular targeted therapies on which he has published widely. He has authored and co-authored more than 250 publications, including peer-reviewed journal articles, abstracts, and book chapters. Dr Herbst is co-editor of the book entitled "Antiangiogenic Cancer Therapy" (©2008) providing the most authoritative and encyclopedic volume available on this subject. Dr. Herbst is the chairman of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Cancer Communication Committee. He serves on the editorial board of several peer-reviewed journals, including the Clinical Cancer Research and the Clinical Lung Cancer where he is the associate editor. He is the co-principal investigator of the M. D. Anderson Department of Defense Lung Cancer Program and leads the Clinical Core of the NCI funded U54 in angiogenesis research. Dr. Herbst is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Dana Farber Cancer Institute Thoracic Oncology Research Award, the ASCO Young Investigator Award, the ASCO Career Development Award, and the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Physician Scientist Program Award.
