Clinical Advisory Board

 

Lawrence Fong, M.D.

Co-Chair, Clinical Advisory Board

Lawrence Fong, MD, is the Efim Guzik Distinguished Professor in Cancer Biology and leads the Cancer Immunotherapy Program at UCSF. He also co-directs the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at UCSF and co-leads the Cancer Immunology Program in the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr Fong will serve as Co-Chair of Sutro’s Clinical Advisory Board and will also participate as a member of Sutro’s Scientific Advisory Board in his capacity as Co-Chair of the CAB. 

Dr. Lawrence Fong is a medical oncologist who specializes in immunotherapy to care for cancer patients with an emphasis on genitourinary cancers (those involving the genital or urinary organs).

A physician-scientist, Dr. Fong studies new immunotherapies for cancer. He is internationally known for his work on multiple FDA-approved cancer immunotherapies including sipuleucel-T and immune checkpoint inhibitors. He has helped conduct numerous clinical trials and is the principal investigator on multiple research projects including those supported by the National Institutes of Health and private foundations. As the leader of UCSF’s Cancer Immunotherapy Program, he helps to develop new treatments through early-phase clinical trials of novel immunotherapies. His laboratory focuses on understanding why current treatments work in some patients but not others. Throughout his career, Dr. Fong has received several awards for his scientific contributions, including the National Cancer Institute’s Outstanding Investigator Award.

Dr. Fong earned his medical degree at Stanford University. He completed a residency in internal medicine at the University of Washington. He completed an oncology fellowship at Stanford Medicine.

Dr. Fong joined the UCSF faculty in 2001 and is the Efim Guzik Distinguished Professor in Cancer Biology. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles, numerous book chapters, and multiple patents. Dr. Fong has lectured nationally and internationally on cancer immunotherapy.

Ana Oaknin Benzaquen, M.D., Ph.D.

Member, Clinical Advisory Board 

Dr. Oaknin is the Head of the Gynecological Tumor Unit and full-time Senior Attending Physician at Medical Oncology Department at the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona, as well as the Principal Clinical Investigator of the Gynecological Malignancies Group at the Vall d’Hebrón Institute of Oncology. She also leads the Gynecological Cancer program at the Baselga Institute of Oncology. Dr. Oaknin received her Degree in Medicine and Surgery from the Universidad Complutense of Madrid and her Ph.D. from the Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona. She is the Principal Investigator on several clinical trials in ovarian, cervical, and endometrial cancer and has authored over 100 publications and presentations. Dr. Oaknin is an executive board member and Co-Chair of the GEICO Group (Spanish Ovarian Cancer Research Group) and an active member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), and the Spanish Association of Medical Oncology (SEOM).

Amrita Krishnan, M.D., F.A.C.P.

Member, Clinical Advisory Board 

Dr. Krishnan is the Director of the Judy and Bernard Briskin Center for Multiple Myeloma Research at City of Hope in Duarte, CA. She is also Associate Director, Medical Education & Training Program, Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic at City of Hope. She is board certified in Hematology and Medical Oncology and serves as Attending Physician at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Krishnan received her B.S (Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa) from Union College in Schenectady, NY and her medical degree from Albany Medical College as part of an accelerated six year medical program where she was inducted into the AOA medical honor society. She completed her residency in Medicine at University of Rochester and fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at New England Deaconess Hospital and Dana Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard Medical School. Her primary research interests include multiple myeloma and has participated in over 50 clinical studies as an individual or principal investigator. Dr. Krishnan’s research has been published in numerous medical journals including Blood, Lancet Oncology and New England Journal of Medicine.

John Leonard, M.D.

Member, Clinical Advisory Board 

Dr. Leonard is the Richard T. Silver Distinguished Professor of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Associate Dean for Clinical Research at Weill Cornell Medicine and Vice Chairman of the Weill Department of Medicine. He has board certifications in Hematology and Medical Oncology and serves as Attending Physician at Weill Cornell Medicine and New York Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Leonard received his undergraduate degree from Johns Hopkins University and his medical degree from the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He completed his residency in Medicine at New York Hospital – Cornell Medical Center/Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and fellowship in Hematology-Oncology at New York Presbyterian Hospital – Cornell Medical Center. His primary research interests include novel therapeutic strategies for the treatment of lymphoma and related hematologic malignancies, and has participated in over 50 clinical studies as an individual or principal investigator. Dr. Leonard’s research has been published in numerous medical journals, and he has served as a member of the editorial boards of Blood and Journal of Clinical Oncology. He is the Lymphoma Committee Chair of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, a National Cancer Institute-supported cooperative group in the National Clinical Trials Network.

Lainie P. Martin, M.D. 

Member, Clinical Advisory Board

Dr. Martin is a medical oncologist specializing in the treatment of gynecologic cancers. She spent 15 years at the Fox Chase Cancer Center where she led the Gynecologic Research Program and served as the interim Physician Director of the Office of Clinical Research as well as co-chair of the Scientific Review Committee. She was recruited to the University of Pennsylvania to serve as the Leader of the Gynecologic Medical Oncology Program. She is an Associate Professor in the department of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania and serves as the Associate Director of the Gynecologic Oncology Clinical Research Unit. She has served as the Principal or Site Principal Investigator on over 75 trials and has extensive experience in the design and management of Phase I, II and III clinical trials.

R. Wendel Naumann, M.D.

Member, Clinical Advisory Board

Dr. Naumann is currently Professor & Director of Gynecologic Oncology Research and Associate Medical Director of Clinical Trials at the Levine Cancer Institute, Atrium Health. He did his residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology and fellowship in Gynecologic Oncology at the University of Alabama School of Medicine in Birmingham. He has served as a board member on the Executive Council of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) and the Chair of Education Committee and was a co-director of the SGO Winter meeting. Dr. Nauman has an interest in chemotherapy development including targeted therapies and immune therapies and runs the phase I trials in gynecologic oncology at the Levine Cancer Institute. He has served as a member of the GOG/NRG corpus committee and the Developmental Therapeutics committee.

Richard T. Penson, M.R.C.P., M.D.

Member, Clinical Advisory Board

Dr. Penson is Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Clinical Director of Medical Gynecologic Medical Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Penson came from St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, in 1997 and his practice is devoted almost exclusively to Gynecologic Oncology, although he attends on the Bigelow General Medical Service at Mass General and does general oncology on Martha’s Vineyard. Dr. Penson served in multiple leadership positions and sits on the national NRG (Gynecologic Oncology Group) committees for ovarian cancer and quality of life research, and the NCCN Ovarian Committee. Dr. Penson is one of the chairs of the Institutional Review Board of Dana-Farber/Partners CancerCare, and teaches Harvard medical students on the Practice of Medicine course.