Scientific Advisory Board

Mina Bissell, PhD 
Dr. Bissell is a pioneer studying the critical role of the tumor microenvironment in cancer progression and is a Distinguished Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She is the 2016 ASCB E.B. Wilson Medal awardee. Dr. Bissell gave an acclaimed TEDMed talk in 2012 highlighting her discoveries with over one million views.

Rick Horwitz, PhD
Dr. Horwitz is the founding Executive Director of the Paul Allen Institute for Cell Science. He identified the the first fibronectin receptor leading to the discovery of the integrin family of adhesion and signaling receptors. He was a co-founder of and lead the Cell Migration Consortium supported by a decade of NIH funding.

Caroline Damsky, PhD
Dr. Damsky is a pioneer in the study of integrins beginning her studies in the laboratory of Clayton Buck at the Wistar Institute. Later, at UCSF, she developed some of the first monoclonal antibodies against human integrin receptors. She is Professor Emeritus and former Assoc. Dean of Academic Affairs, UCSF.

Jean Pierre Bizzari, MD
Dr. Bizzari was the former Global Head of Oncology at Celgene. He is a 25-year veteran of the biopharma industry who led the clinical development and FDA approval of several cancer drugs including TAXOTERE®, ELOXATIN®, ABRAXANE® & IRINOTECAN®, as well as the glioblastoma therapies fotemustine and GLIADEL®.

Pamela Munster, MD
Dr. Munster, herself a cancer survivor, is Professor of Medical Oncology at the UCSF. She is the Director of the UCSF Early Phase Clinical Trials Unit; Co-Leader of the UCSF Center for BRCA Research; and Leader of the UCSF Experimental Therapeutics Program.

M. Sean Grady, MD
Dr. Grady is a Board Certified neurosurgeon and the Charles Harrison Frazier Professor and Chairman of Neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. He is the author of over 150 peer reviewed papers and 5 patents and a Co-Founder of the medical device company, Stereotaxis, Inc.

Manish Aghi, MD, PhD
Dr. Aghi is a Board Certified neurosurgeon and Professor of Neurological Surgery at the UCSF. He received his dual degrees and trained in neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Aghi leads a NIH-funded laboratory focused on glioblastoma at the UCSF Brain Tumor Research Center.