KisoJi Scientific and Clinical Advisors
KisoJi is fortunate to have scientific and clinical advisors who are at the forefront of immunology and oncology, having made key contributions to the field.
Hua Gu, Ph.D.
Scientific Advisor
Dr. Gu pioneered conditional gene targeting with Dr. Klaus Rajewsky to dissect B-cell molecular immunology in transgenic mice. Currently he is the Director, Molecular Immunology Research Unit, IRCM. André-Aisenstadt Chair of Excellence, Full Research Professor, Department of Microbiology, Infectiology and Immunology, Université de Montréal.
Previously, Dr. Gu was the Head of the Lymphocyte Development Unit, Laboratory of Immunology, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institute of Health. He was also the Irene Diamond Associate Professor of Immunology, and the Chief of the Laboratory of Lymphocyte Biology, Department of Microbiology, Columbia University.
Dr. Gu obtained his B.Sc. from the University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China, a M. Sc. From the Shanghai Institute of Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, and his Ph.D. from the University of Cologne. He was a Research Associate at Shanghai Institute of Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, and was a Research Fellow at the Institute for Genetics, University of Cologne, Germany.
Marina Konopleva, M.D., Ph.D.
Scientific Advisor
Dr. Konopleva pioneered metabolic reprogramming in cancer associated with oxidative phosphorylation and glutaminase inhibition. Currently she is Chief, Section of Leukemia Biology Research, Professor, and Deputy Department Chair, Department of Leukemia, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston. She is also the Frances King Black Endowed Professor for Cancer Research, Department of Leukemia at MD Anderson.
Dr. Konopleva obtained her Ph.D. at the Federal Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion, St.-Petersburg, and her M.D. at the 1st Pavlov Medical Institute, St.Petersburg.
Serge Muyldermans, Ph.D.
Scientific Advisor
Dr. Muyldermans obtained his Ph.D. at the ‘Vrije Universiteit Brussel’, Brussels, Belgium in 1982. He was a postdoc at this university at the time the functional Heavy-chain only antibodies were discovered in camelids. He developed a streamlined method to rapidly identify the antigen-specific, single-domain antibody fragments derived from the unique Heavy chain antibodies of camelids.
This technology was used to found Ablynx NV in December 2001, a private Belgian biotech company actively developing protein therapeutics based on single variable domains or NanobodiesTM and employing 550 people in 2018. At that time, Sanofi made an offer to acquire Ablynx for € 3.9 B. In 2003, Dr. Muyldermans became professor at the ‘Vrije Universiteit Brussel’ where he is heading the camel-antibody engineering group in the laboratory for Cellular and Molecular Immunology. Apart from using the Nanobodies as a research tool, his group is developing Nanobodies for in vivo diagnostics and for therapy. Dr. Muyldermans has published over 250 articles in peer-reviewed international journals, attracting over 25,000 citations and providing a h-index of 75.
Adrian Sacher, M.D., M.MSc., FRCPC
Clinical Advisor
Dr. Sacher is a staff medical oncologist in the thoracic and genitourinary tumor sites at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and an Assistant Professor of medicine at the University of Toronto. He has previously worked at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at Columbia University & New York-Presbyterian Hospital where he served as an Assistant Professor of medicine and attending medical oncologist specializing in thoracic oncology and phase I drug development.
Dr. Sacher completed his medical degree at the University of Toronto and residency at the Toronto General Hospital and Princess Margaret Cancer Center. He has previously completed a fellowship in thoracic oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and holds a Master’s degree in clinical trial design, genomics and drug development from Harvard Medical School.