Dr. Von Hoff's Biography
Dr. Daniel Von Hoff, M.D., F.A.C.P.
Clinical, Scientific and Drug Development Advisor
Daniel D. Von Hoff, M.D., F.A.C.P. is currently Physician in Chief, Distinguished Professor Translational Research Division at TGen (Translational Genomics Research Institute) in Phoenix, Arizona. He is also Chief Scientific Officer for HonorHealth Clinical Research Institute and the Virginia G. Piper Distinguished Chair for Innovative Cancer Research. He is the Medical Director of Research at McKesson Specialty Healthcare and the Scientific Medical Officer for US Oncology Research and leader of the Translation Oncology Program (TOP) specializing in phase I clinical trials done in the US Oncology Research network. Dr. Von Hoff is also currently the Senior Consultant-Clinical Investigations for City of Hope. He also holds an appointment as Professor of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ.
Dr. Von Hoff’s major interest is in the development of new anticancer agents, both in the clinic and in the laboratory. During his 40 year career he has performed the phase I trials on more than 350 new anticancer agents. He and his colleagues were involved in the beginning of the development of many of the agents we now use routinely, including: mitoxantrone, fludarabine, paclitaxel, docetaxel, gemcitabine, irinotecan, nelarabine, capecitabine, lapatinib, vismodegibm nab-paclitaxel, nal-IRI, and others. At present, he and his colleagues are concentrating on the development of molecularly targeted therapies particularly for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer.
Dr. Von Hoff has published more than 720 papers, 142 book chapters and over 1160 abstracts. Dr. Von Hoff received the 2010 David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology for his outstanding contributions to cancer research leading to significant improvement in patient care. He recently was awarded the Onclive 2016 Giants in Cancer Care award as well as a Gold Medal from his Alma Mater Columbia University for “Excellence in Clinical Medicine”
Dr. Von Hoff was appointed to President Bush’s National Cancer Advisory Board in 2004-2010. Dr. Von Hoff is the past President of the American Association for Cancer Research (the world’s largest cancer research organization), 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. (acquired by Genzyme after Ilex had 2 agents, alemtuzumab and clofarabine approved by the FDA for patients with leukemia). Dr. Von Hoff is founder and the Editor Emeritus of Investigational New Drugs – The Journal of New Anticancer Agents; and, past Editor-in-Chief of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics. He is a co-founder of the AACR/ASCO Methods in Clinical Cancer Research Workshop. Dr. Von Hoff is the leader of the SU2C Pancreatic Dream Team. He did his post-doctoral training at The Salk Institute for Biological studies. He is also proud to have been a mentor and teacher for multiple medical students, medical oncology fellows, graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows.
Dr. Rabinowitz's Biography
Dr. Joshua Rabinowitz
Dr. Joshua Rabinowitz
Clinical, Scientific and Drug Development Advisor
Joshua Rabinowitz earned B.A. degrees in Mathematics and Chemistry from the University of North Carolina. From there, he moved west to Stanford, where he earned his Ph.D. in Biophysics in 1999, followed by his M.D. in 2001.
In 2000, he co-founded Alexza Pharmaceuticals leading R&D efforts for four years, eventually resulting in FDA approval of the first thermal aerosol drug delivery product, the Adasuve inhaler.
In 2004, Joshua joined the faculty of Princeton University, where he established a leading research group in the area of metabolomics. His lab has developed innovative ways to use isotope tracers to map metabolic flows (fluxes), and has blended these technologies with state-of-the-art genetics and computation to reveal normal metabolic regulation and dysregulation in disease. These technologies have contributed to important biomedical advances, including the discovery of the oncometabolite 2-hydroxyglutarate, the role of lactate as a tissue and tumor fuel, and to the founding of multiple companies. Joshua is the author of ~ 200 papers, the inventor of over 100 patents, and the winner of the 2016 NIH Pioneer Award.
Dr. Moran's Biography
Ms. Friday's Biography
Dr. Richard Moran
Clinical, Scientific and Drug Development Advisor
Richard Moran, Ph.D., is an expert in folate-based enzymes and mechanistic studies in drug discovery and development. Throughout his career, Moran has focused his research on the biochemistry and molecular biology underlying cancer therapeutics and the search for and design of more selective cancer drugs. He was instrumental in the discovery and development of three classes of folate antimetabolites: pemetrexed (Alimta), raltitrexid (Tomudex) and lometrexol, as well as his early involvement in the mechanism of the synergistic combination of 5-fluorouracil with the folate leucovorin.
While a graduate student at SUNY Buffalo, Moran joined the lab of William Werkheiser, a pioneer in the antifolate methotrexate in the Department of Experimental Therapeutics at Roswell Park. Following his Ph.D. degree, Moran was a post-doctoral fellow in the lab Charles Heidelberger, a professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison, another research pioneer who was responsible for the synthesis and study of 5-fluorouracil. Thereafter, Moran joined the faculty of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles where his research was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI). He served on review boards for the NIH/NCI, Leukemia Society of America and others. His drug development work has been recognized with awards from the Leukemia Society of America. After a decade of involvement in the Norris Cancer Center at USC as Director of the Program in Developmental Therapeutics, he joined the Massey Cancer Center at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA, helping to lead the cancer center as the associate director for basic research and co-leader of the Developmental Therapeutics research program. He held the Paul M. Corman, M.D., Chair in Cancer Research and was a professor of pharmacology and toxicology in the School of Medicine. During his academic career, he was continuously funded by the NIH, holding 2-3 R01 grants simultaneously. He has publishing more than 120 articles in journals such as Cancer Research,theJournal of Biological Chemistry, Biochemistry, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
When asked how he engages his Ph.D and MD/PhD students in this work, he made the comment : “I ask my research students to walk through the oncology clinics every day to keep their focus on to why we are here. The patient is the very real endpoint for this research.” “After that, one has little issue with focus with the students and postdoctoral fellows, except to get out of their way and let them create.”