Executive Committee

James P. Allison, Ph.D., Co-Chair
Axel Hoos, M.D., Ph.D., Co-Chair
Neil Berinstein, M.D.
Mark Frohlich, M.D.
Hyam Levitsky, M.D.
Jens-Peter Marschner, M.D.

Jill O'Donnell-Tormey, Ph.D. 
Kunle Odunsi, M.D., Ph.D.
Gerd Ritter, Ph.D.
Pramod Srivastava, M.D., Ph.D.
Kerry Wentworth
Jedd Wolchok, M.D., Ph.D. 
 

Dr. Allison is the David H. Koch Chair in Immunological Studies and chair of the immunology program at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), one of the world’s most prestigious cancer treatment and research centers. He is also director of the Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy at MSKCC, an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and an associate director of the global Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. A member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and its Institute of Medicine, Dr. Allison has served on CRI’s Scientific Advisory Council as a member since 2004, as an associate director since 2006, and as director as of October 1, 2011. He is a past president of the American Association of Immunologists, and has been the recipient of numerous awards, including CRI’s most prestigious scientific award, the William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology, in 2005, as well as the 2010 Richard V. Smalley, MD Memorial Award from the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC, formerly the International Society for the Biologic Therapy of Cancer, or iSBTc).

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Dr. Axel Hoos is Vice President, Oncology R&D at Glaxo Smith Kline Pharmaceuticals (GSK), where he directs clinical and translational research on molecular mechanisms of cancer and tumor-host interactions for rational combination of therapies to optimize patient outcomes. Prior to his current role, Dr. Hoos was the Medical Lead in Immunology/Oncology at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) where he developed the Yervoy (Ipilimumab; anti CTLA-4) monoclonal antibody in melanoma and other indications. Yervoy is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), and is the first therapy to extend survival in metastatic melanoma. Before BMS, Dr. Hoos was Senior Director of Clinical Development at Antigenics Inc., a biotechnology company, which develops therapies for cancer and infectious diseases.

Dr. Hoos also serves as co-director of the Cancer Immunotherapy Consortium (CIC) of the New York City-based Cancer Research Institute (CRI) an organization advancing the science and development of immune therapies against malignant disease. Further, he serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Albert B. Sabin Vaccine Institute in Washington D.C., which is focused on new vaccine development, vaccine advocacy, and the fight against neglected tropical diseases.

In these capacities he focuses on developing novel therapies for life-threatening diseases with a special interest for innovative approaches to facilitate scientific exchange and improvement of the drug development process. Through his leadership a new clinical development paradigm for cancer immunotherapy has been defined, geared to enable reproducible success for this emerging group of treatments.

Dr. Hoos holds an MD from Ruprecht-Karls-University and a PhD in molecular oncology from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) both in Heidelberg, Germany. He trained in surgery at the Technical University in Munich, Germany and further in surgery, molecular pathology and tumor immunology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He is an alumnus of the Program for Leadership Development at Harvard Business School.

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Neil L. Berinstein, M.D., is Chief Scientific Officer of IRX Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company whose mission is to discover and develop products that restore the immune system’s ability to treat cancer and viral diseases. Dr. Berinstein, a global pioneer in cancer vaccines, worked with IRX as a consultant prior to his appointment.

Prior to joining IRX, Dr. Berinstein served as Assistant Vice President and Global Program Leader at sanofi pasteur where he was in charge of leading the development of sanofi's cancer vaccines both strategically and operationally. Dr. Berinstein was responsible for interacting with international collaborators and leading researchers who were collaborating with sanofi pasteur either at pre-clinical or clinical levels. He saw to completion several multi-center phase I and phase II studies in Canada and the U.S. in colorectal and melanoma projects.

Dr. Berinstein currently holds multiple academic and professional positions, including Professor in the department of medicine, University of Toronto, and Active staff at the Odette Cancer Center of the Sunnybrook Health Science Center. He was the vice-president of the Cancer Vaccine Consortium sponsored by the Sabin Institute and more recently is part of the executive steering committee of the Cancer Research Institute (CRI)-sponsored Cancer Vaccine Consortium. He was formerly a member and leader of the scientific review committee of the Leukemia Research Fund.

Dr. Berinstein is the recipient of numerous grants in his research career and has published 6 book chapters, and over 100 peer-reviewed, invited or review papers to date. He received his pre-medical degree and Medical Doctorate from University of Manitoba and further specialty and research training at the University of Toronto and Stanford University.

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Dr. Frohlich serves as Dendreon’s Executive Vice President for Clinical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Frohlich previously served as Vice President of Clinical Affairs and prior to that served as Senior Medical Director. Prior to joining Dendreon, Dr. Frohlich was Vice President and Medical Director at Xcyte Therapies, a biotechnology company. Prior to that, he was an Assistant Professor in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the University of California, San Francisco, where he specialized in Urologic Oncology and was active in laboratory, translational and clinical research. Dr. Frohlich did his postdoctoral training in Oncology at the University of California, San Francisco. He received his B.S. from Yale University in electrical engineering and economics and his M.D. from Harvard Medical School.

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Dr. Hyam Levitsky is head of cancer immunology experimental medicine at Roche and professor of oncology, medicine & urology at The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Levitsky's laboratory research has focused on basic studies of antigen processing and presentation, T-cell co-stimulation, T-cell priming versus tolerance, and the evolution of tumor-specific immunity during immune reconstitution. He is a co-inventor of genetically modified GM-CSF secreting tumor cell vaccines (GVAX) now in phase III clinical trials for treatment of prostate cancer, and phase II trials for acute and chronic myeloid leukemia, multiple myeloma, and pancreas cancer. At Johns Hopkins, Dr. Levitsky is the Scientific Director of the George Santos Bone Marrow Transplant Program, and has been a pioneer in the integration of therapeutic cancer vaccines during immune reconstitution following high dose chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation.

Dr. Levitsky has served on the Board of Directors of Antigenics since 2006, and is currently on the Scientific Advisory Boards of Celldex, Dendreon, and Johnson & Johnson. Dr. Levitsky has received numerous awards for his research, including the Stohlman Scholars Award from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Foundation of America, The Senior Research Award from the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, Research Awards from the CapCURE Foundation, The American Cancer Society and the National Institutes of Health. In 2001, he was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation. Dr. Levitsky received his undergraduate education at the University of Pennsylvania, and his medical degree at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

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Dr. Jens-Peter Marschner is Vice President of Immunological Programs, Global Clinical Development Unit Oncology at Merck Serono and oversees the development of active immunotherapeutics in all phases of clinical development including the lead project Stimuvax (L-BLP25). He studied medicine in Jena (Germany), obtained a doctorate in clinical pharmacology in 1991 from Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe-University in Frankfurt, and became a board certified specialist in Clinical Pharmacology in 1995.

During his more than 15 years career in pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Marschner has worked with several companies where he was the medical leader for the development of mainly biological substances. At Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Dr. Marschner was leading the cetuximab clinical team, later he became the leader of the Global Medical Affairs organization of Merck Serono before he took over the responsibility for the clinical development of immunological substances in oncology. Besides Dr. Marschner’s activity in the CIC he is also a member of the European organization CIMT (Cancer Immunotherapy) and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

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Dr. Jill O’Donnell-Tormey is chief executive officer and director of scientific affairs of the Cancer Research Institute. She first joined the organization in 1987 as the director of scientific affairs, and then appointed in 1993 as executive director, where she has been instrumental in increasing the Institute’s budget nearly three-fold. In 1993, she established the CRI International Cancer Immunotherapy Symposium Series, which has been viewed as the most important annual meeting in the field of cancer immunology. She has played a key role in the development and implementation of the Institute’s Clinical Investigation Program, including the Cancer Vaccine Collaborative and the Coordinated Cancer Initiatives—two groundbreaking approaches to research that, for the first time, bring together the world’s leading cancer immunologists to work in collaboration toward common, centralized goals. She oversaw the merger between the Cancer Research Institute and the Irvington Institute for Immunological Research in 2007, as well as the incorporation of the Cancer Vaccine Consortium (now the Cancer Immunotherapy Consortium) into CRI's programs, also in 2007. She co-authored the Cancer Research Institute HelpBook: What To Do If Cancer Strikes and the highly regarded primer on the field of cancer immunology, Cancer and the Immune System: The Vital Connection.

Prior to her leadership roles at the Cancer Research Institute, she served as an instructor in the Department of Medicine, Cornell University Medical College and as a research associate in the Department of Cellular Physiology and Immunology at The Rockefeller University. Dr. O’Donnell-Tormey serves on the Board of Directors of the Notre Dame Academy, Staten Island, NY. She is also on the board of the Zero - The Project to End Prostate Cancer (formerly the National Prostate Cancer Coalition). In 1998, she was named one of Irish America Magazine’s “Top 100” Irish Americans and in 2002 she received the Farleigh Dickinson University Pinnacle Award, the highest honor bestowed on its alumni. Dr. O’Donnell-Tormey was feted as a Notre Dame Academy Centennial Honoree in 2004. She holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry, summa cum laude, from Farleigh Dickinson University and a Doctor of Philosophy in Cell Biology from The State University of New York’s Downstate Medical Center.

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Dr. Kunle Odunsi is a professor and research program director in the Division of Gynecologic Oncology, Department of Surgical Oncology and co-leader of the Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy Program at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. He is also the director of the CRI/LICR Cancer Vaccine Collaborative’s United States operations, and sits on the CRI/LICR Cancer Vaccine Collaborative Coordinated and Review Committee. He is a member of the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, American Society for Reproductive Immunology, Association of African Biomedical Scientists, Cooperative Ovarian Cancer Group for Immunotherapy, Gynecologic Oncology Group, Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, Society for Gynecologic Investigation, and the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists.

Dr. Odunsi earned his medical degree from the University of Ife, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, in 1984, and earned his Ph.D. at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund Laboratories, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, UK. Subsequently, he completed residency training in Obstetrics & Gynecology at the Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, and clinical fellowship in Gynecologic Oncology at RPCI. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in the United Kingdom. He is also a Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Dr. Odunsi is licensed by New York State and certified in Obstetrics & Gynecology by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He is also board certified in the sub-specialty of Gynecologic Oncology. 

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Dr. Ritter is an associate member of the of Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, associate director of the New York Branch of Human Cancer Immunology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, assistant director of the Office of Clinical Trials Management at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and a member of the CRI/LICR Cancer Vaccine Collaborative Coordinating Committee. He has made many contributions to antibody-based and vaccine-based human cancer immunotherapy including human cancer antigen discovery and characterization, clinical cancer vaccine construction and development, procurement of clinical study reagents and immunological monitoring technologies.

Dr. Ritter received his doctorate in human biology from the University of Marburg, Germany, trained as post-doctoral fellow in human cancer immunology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and has held faculty positions at Weill Medical College of Cornell University and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research.

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Dr. Pramod Srivastava is professor of immunology at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, where he is also director of the Center for Immunotherapy of Cancer and Infectious Diseases. He holds the Physicians Health Services Chair in Cancer Immunology at the University. Professor Srivastava is the scientific founder of Agenus (formerly Antigenics). He serves on the Scientific Advisory Council of the Cancer Research Institute and was a member of the Experimental Immunology Study Section of the National Institutes of Health of the U.S. Government (1994-1999). He serves presently on the Board of Directors of two privately held companies: Ikonisys (New Haven, Conn.) and CambriaTech (Lugano, Switzerland). In 1997, he was inducted into the Roll of Honor of the International Union Against Cancer and was listed in Who's Who in Science and Engineering. He is among the 20 founding members of the Academy of Cancer Immunology.

Dr. Pramod Srivastava obtained his bachelor's degree in biology and chemistry and a master's degree in botany (paleontology) from the University of Allahabad, India. He then studied yeast genetics at Osaka University, Japan. He completed his Ph.D. in biochemistry at the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, India, where he began his work on tumor immunity, including identification of the first proteins that can mediate tumor rejection. He trained at Yale University and Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research. Dr. Srivastava has held faculty positions at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Fordham University in New York City.

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Ms. Kerry Wentworth is vice president, clinical operations and regulatory affairs at Agenus (formerly Antigenics) , a biotechnology company with a late-stage development focus on an autologous therapeutic cancer vaccine. In this capacity, she is responsible for the execution of all phases of clinical development and defining associated regulatory strategy. Ms. Wentworth has over twelve years of global regulatory experience supporting the development, global licensing and post-marketing activities associated with multiple drug and biological products. Prior to joining Antigenics in 2004, she worked for a number of biotechnology companies including Genelabs Technologies, Shaman Pharmaceuticals and Genzyme Corporation. As part of her professional experience, she has also been responsible for other key functional areas including quality assurance and clinical compliance. Ms. Wentworth received a BS in pre-veterinary medicine from the University of New Hampshire.

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Dr. Wolchok is director of immunotherapy clinical trials at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and associate director of the Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy at MSKCC. He is a member of the Coordinating and Review Committee of the CRI/LICR Cancer Vaccine Collaborative, and is a member of the CRI Scientific Advisory Council. He is also the co-director of the Swim Across America laboratory at MSKCC, one of the foremost immunotherapy and melanoma research groups in the country. His specific area research interest is the pre-clinical and early clinical development of novel immunologic therapies. Most recently, Dr. Wolchok has initiated several clinical trials using plasmid DNA vaccines for patients with melanoma. He has been involved in the development of the DNA vaccine program at every level--from initial studies in mouse models, through all levels of regulatory review and now as principal investigator of the clinical trials. Dr. Wolchok has authored numerous articles concerning DNA vaccines, cytokine biology and clinical care of melanoma and co-authored two chapters in the definitive textbook, Cutaneous Melanoma. Dr. Wolchok is also co-editor of the journal Cytotherapy.

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