Scientific Advisory Board

 

Carlos V. Paya, M.D., Ph.D. 

Chair, Scientific Advisory Board

Carlos Paya, M.D., Ph.D. is currently the Senior Advisor at Abingworth Ventures, Chair, Board of Directors at Fluidigm and Highlight Therapeutics since 2020 and Board member at BIO, Fluidigm and Mallinckrodt. Dr. Paya received his M.D. and Ph.D. from the University Complutense, Madrid, Spain. Followed by his post-doctoral training in viral immunology from Institute Pasteur, Paris, France.  U.S. Board certified in Internal Medicine & Infectious Diseases from the Mayo Graduate School, Rochester, MN. During his time at Mayo Medical School, Dr. Paya was the Professor of Medicine, Immunology, and Pathology. He made numerous scientific contributions to the fields of cell biology and viral immunology and to the clinical field of immune-comprised patients; supported by multiple NIH and industry grants. Elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation and Editorial Boards of prestigious scientific journals, NIH study sections and Collaborative Groups. Author of over 200 peer-reviewed articles. Dr. Paya’s track record as senior executive in large-cap pharma, mid-cap and start-up biotech companies. During his 8 years at Immune Design, he was CEO and President, and member of the Board. Immune Design was acquired by Merck (May 2019).

Robert Abraham, Ph.D.

Member, Scientific Advisory Board 

Robert Abraham, Ph.D., is Executive Vice President and Head of Cancer Biology and Target Discovery at Odyssey Therapeutics. Prior to joining Odyssey, he was the Chief Scientific Officer at Vividion Therapeutics. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Sanford-Burnham-Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBPMDI) and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of California-San Diego. Dr. Abraham received his B.S. from Bucknell University and his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh, followed by post-doctoral training in both Pharmacology and Immunology at the Mayo Clinic. Dr. Abraham remained at the Mayo Clinic, where held academic positions as a Professor in the Department of Immunology and the Department of Pharmacology, and as Director of Basic Sciences in the Mayo Comprehensive Cancer Center. He then joined the faculty at the Duke University Medical Center, where he served as a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology and as the Associate Director of Translational Research in the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center. Next, Dr. Abraham was a Professor at SBPMDI, where he founded the Signal Transduction Research Program and served as the Director of the NCI-designated SBPMDI Cancer Research Center. Dr. Abraham then transitioned from academia to industry, as Vice President of Oncology Research at Wyeth Discovery Research and later as Senior Vice President and Group Head of the Oncology R&D Group in Pfizer Worldwide Research, Development and Medical. He also was the founding Director of the Pfizer Postdoctoral Research Program. Throughout his career, Dr. Abraham has received several awards for his scientific contributions, including the Legacy Laureate Award as an outstanding alumnus of the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of over 225 scientific publications and has served on and chaired grant review panels at the National Institutes of Health.

Lawrence Fong, M.D. 

Member, Scientific 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.

Stanley R. Frankel, M.D.

Member, Scientific Advisory Board 

Dr. Frankel was most recently Chief Medical Officer at Cytovia. Previously, he was the Senior Vice President, Cellular Therapy Development at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) where he was responsible for late development portfolio of cellular therapy assets including Breyanzi® and Abecma®. While at BMS, he sat on multiple leadership teams and committees, including the Global Drug Development Leadership Team and the Cell Therapy Commercial Steering Committee. Prior to the BMS acquisition of Celgene, he was Corporate Vice President, Head, Immuno-Oncology & Cellular Therapy, Clinical Research and Development Head, Cell Therapy Clinical Center of Excellence. While at Celgene he co-chaired the Hematology-Oncology Development Committee and served on the Hematology-Oncology Franchise Leadership Team. He served on Joint Steering and/or Joint Development Committees for alliances with JW Therapeutics, Jounce Therapeutics, Astra-Zeneca/Medimmune, Juno Therapeutics, and BeiGene.

Dr. Frankel is a consultant and serves as an independent member of the Board of Directors for Myeloid Therapeutics and a member of Scientific Advisory Boards for Adagene, Immunai, and Sutro Biopharma. Dr. Frankel received a B.A. in Applied Sciences, Biomechanics from Harvard College and an M.D. from Northwestern University, and has been a board-certified licensed physician since 1986. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital and his fellowship in hematology-oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center where he was Chief Fellow. He has prior academic and clinical appointments at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Georgetown University, and the University of Maryland prior to joining Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons as Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology.

Trevor Hallam, Ph.D.

Member, Scientific Advisory Board 

Trevor J. Hallam, Ph.D., is currently CSO of Laronde, a private biotech company designing and developing a new class of translatable circular “endless” RNA modalities that are capable of addressing a wide range of therapeutic needs that have been underserved by the limitations of current drug design.  Dr Hallam served as Sutro’s Chief Scientific Officer from December 2010 to May 2023, where he led the strategic focus of the company’s technology development into precision design of complex conjugated biologics. During his tenure 6 novel therapeutics progressed into clinical development.  He was promoted to President, Research and CSO in 2021. Prior to joining us, Dr. Hallam was Executive Vice President of Research & Development at Palatin Technologies, Inc., and held several senior management positions in various pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca PLC, Roche, Glaxo and SmithKline & French.  Dr. Hallam received a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry from the University of Leeds and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Kings College, University of London. He then conducted post-doctoral training at the Physiological Laboratory, University of Cambridge with Dr Tim Rink.