Scientific Advisors
George L. McLendon, PhD
George L. McLendon became the Howard R. Hughes Provost and professor of chemistry at Rice University in July 2010. As provost he is the chief academic officer of Rice. Before joining Rice, he was dean of the faculty of Arts and Sciences at Duke University, a position he assumed in July 2004. At Duke, he was also professor of chemistry and professor of biochemistry and experimental cancer therapeutics in the School of Medicine. In July 2008, he was named dean of Duke University's Trinity College, the undergraduate administrative unit of Arts and Sciences. Dr. McLendon was previously the R.W. Moore Professor and chair of the department of chemistry at Princeton University. A Texas native, he received his BS from the University of Texas at El Paso in 1972 and his Ph.D. from Texas A&M in 1976. He has also taught at the University of Rochester where he was the Tracy H. Harris Professor of Chemistry and professor of biochemistry in the School of Medicine. Dr. McLendon's research is focused on inorganic and physical biochemistry. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers and has received national research awards, including the American Chemistry Society Pure Chemistry Award, the Eli Lilly Award in Ecochemistry, Sloan Dreyfus Award, and Guggenheim Fellowships. His publications range from solar nanotechnology to cell death pathways. His most recent research has direct implications for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and other diseases. He has been involved in launching several biotech startups, and is a scientific founder of TetraLogic Pharmaceuticals and co-Chairman of the company's scientific advisory board.
Yigong Shi, PhD
Dr. Yigong Shi is a University Professor and Dean of the School of Life Sciences at Tsinghua University. Previously, he was the Warner-Lambert Parke-Davis Professor of Molecular Biology at Princeton University. Dr. Shi's research has provided important insights into programmed cell death, protein phosphatase 2A, and regulated intramembrane proteolysis. His pioneering research on caspase activation, inhibition, and derepression markedly advanced mechanistic understanding of programmed cell death. He is a leader in the structural biology of cell signaling and macromolecular assemblies, and has determined over 20 crystal structures of several critical proteins and protein complexes that govern the initiation and execution of apoptosis. Dr. Shi is credited for solving the co-crystal structure of Smac bound to the BIR3 domain of XIAP that led to the design of small molecule Smac mimetics. He has authored more than 120 research papers, including 34 in Cell, Nature, and Science. Dr. Shi received his B.S. with highest honor from Tsinghua University and his PhD at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He performed his post-doctoral research at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. For his research contributions, Dr. Shi has received a number of recognitions, including the 2003 Irving Sigal Young Investigator Award from the Protein Society and the 2010 Sackler Prize in Biophysics. Dr. Shi was a Searle Scholar and a Rita Allen Scholar and is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Dr. Shi is a scientific co-founder of TetraLogic Pharmaceuticals and co-Chairman of the company's Scientific Advisory Board.
Randall Johnson, PhD
Dr. Johnson is currently a consultant to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, focused on anticancer drug discovery and development. Previously, Dr. Johnson was Group Director of the Department of Oncology Research at GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals. Prior to his twenty year tenure at GlaxoSmithKline, Dr. Johnson was Section Head, Laboratories of Experimental Chemotherapy and Chemical Pharmacology at the National Cancer Institute and Manager, Experimental Therapeutics Section, Biological Research and Technology Department at Arthur D Little. Dr. Johnson's expertise ranges from target validation, screening technologies, basic research on mechanisms of drug action and assessment of efficacy in preclinical tumor models to clinical development plans and regulatory strategies. Dr. Johnson is a Director of Callisto Pharmaceuticals and serves on the scientific advisory boards of multiple private and public companies. He also serves on the editorial boards of several cancer journals, is the author on 200 scientific papers and an inventor on 14 issued U.S. patents. Dr. Johnson received a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Minnesota and a PhD in Pharmacology from George Washington University, followed by Post-doctoral studies in the laboratory of Abraham Goldin at the National Cancer Institute.
Robert Lynn, PhD
Dr. Lynn currently serves as an independent consultant providing consultation in preclinical drug development for private and public companies. Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Preclinical Development of GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals where he had over 24 years of pharmaceutical drug metabolism and preclinical development leadership experience. Dr. Lynn received a B.A. in Chemistry from Murray State University and a Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
John Silke, PhD
Dr. Silke is Associate Professor at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI). He holds a law degree from King's College (London), a Biochemistry degree from Churchill College (Cambridge) and a PhD from the Universität Zurich (Switzerland), where he trained with Professor Walter Schaffner on the theme of transcriptional regulation. During his post-doctoral training under the direction of Professor David Vaux in the WEHI, Dr. Silke helped to define the functions of inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAPs) and their antagonists, Smac/Diablo and HtrA2/Omi. In 2007 while based at La Trobe University, Dr. Silke's lab showed that IAP antagonists promote the degradation of cIAPs and dramatically alter the sensitivity of cells to the cytotoxic activity of TNF. Dr. Silke's lab, which recently returned to the WEHI, continues to investigate TNF signaling at the molecular level and the in vivo function of IAPs.
David Vaux, MBBS PhD FAA
Dr. Vaux is Assistant Director of The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) in Melbourne, Australia. He obtained a degree in medicine from the University of Melbourne, followed by a PhD at WEHI. He spent 3 years at Stanford University in Irv Weissman's lab before returning to Australia in 1993. He is best known for his research into the molecular mechanisms of cell death / apoptosis. His finding that the oncogene Bcl2 promotes cancer by inhibiting cell death, rather than by stimulating proliferation, launched the molecular era of cell death research. He showed that apoptosis of mammalian cells, and genetically programmed cell death in invertebrates are implemented by the same mechanism that has been conserved throughout evolution. More recently, he identified the mammalian IAP family of cell death regulators, and their antagonists Smac/Diablo and HtrA2/Omi. He is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, and received its highest award for research in the biological sciences, the Burnet Medal, in 2010.