Scientific Advisors
Daniel D. Von Hoff, M.D.
Dr. Daniel D. Von Hoff is currently Physician in Chief and Director of Translational Research at TGen (Translational Genomics Research Institute) in Phoenix, Arizona. He is also Chief Scientific Officer for US Oncology and for Scottsdale Healthcare’s Clinical Research Institute and holds an appointment as Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of Arizona, College of Medicine. Dr. Von Hoff’s major interest is in the development of new anticancer agents, both in the clinic and in the laboratory. Dr. Von Hoff has published more than 543 papers, 133 book chapters, and more than 950 abstracts. Dr. Von Hoff was appointed to President Bush’s National Cancer Advisory Board in June 2004 – March 2010 and 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 for patients with leukemia). He is founder and the Editor Emeritus of Investigational New Drugs – The Journal of New Anticancer Agent, co-founder of the AACR/ASCO Methods in Clinical Cancer Research Workshop, and Editor-in-Chief of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics.
Steven L. McKnight, Ph.D.
Dr. Steve McKnight received his undergraduate education at the University of Texas and carried out doctoral studies at the University of Virginia. The first 15 years of his independent career were spent at the Department of Embryology of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. There, Dr. McKnight used molecular biological and biochemical methods to study how genes turn on and off in mammalian cells. In 1991 Dr. McKnight left academia and moved to San Francisco to co-found a biotechnology company devoted to the discovery of ethical drugs capable of treating human disease via the regulation of gene expression. In 1996, Dr. McKnight moved to UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas where he now works as an independent scientist in the Department of Biochemistry. Although primarily engaged as a basic scientist at UT Southwestern, Dr. McKnight also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and acts as fund-raiser for a postdoctoral fellowship organization called the Life Sciences Research Foundation. Dr. McKnight is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine.
Frank J. Slack, Ph.D.
Dr. Frank Slack received his B.Sc from the University of Cape Town in South Africa, before completing his Ph.D in molecular biology at Tufts University School of Medicine. He started work on microRNAs as a postdoctoral fellow in Gary Ruvkun’s laboratory at Harvard Medical School, where he co-discovered the second known microRNA, let-7 and the first known human microRNA. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at Yale University. The Slack laboratory studies the roles of microRNAs and their targets in cancer, development, and aging.