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., is currently 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. Early in his career, Dr. Abraham had academic positions at the Mayo Clinic as a Professor in the Department of Immunology and the Department of Pharmacology, and also as Director of Basic Sciences in the Mayo Comprehensive Cancer Center. Followed by Duke University Medical Center, as a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology and also as 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.

Stanley R. Frankel MD is currently Chief Medical Officer at Cytovia Therapeutics and an Independent Director at Precision Biosciences.  Dr. Frankel received his M.D. from Northwestern University. His postgraduate training included residency in Internal Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in NY followed by a fellowship in Hematology and Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, NY where he was Chief Fellow, Hematology. He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology. Dr. Frankel had academic positions at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore prior to moving to full time industry positions. He is currently adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, NY. Dr. Frankel was previously Senior Vice-President, Global Drug Development, Cell Therapy at Bristol Myers Squibb and Corporate Vice President, Immuno-Oncology at Celgene. He has had prior corporate experience in drug development at Genta, Merck, Roche, Micromet, and Amgen.

Prof. Swartz, a leading expert in the field of cell-free protein synthesis, is the founder of Sutro Biopharma. He holds the James H. Clark Professorship in the School of Engineering at Stanford University and is a professor in the departments of bioengineering and chemical engineering. Prof. Swartz is a member of the National Academy of Engineering with over twenty years of industrial experience at Eli Lilly and Genentech prior to joining Stanford in 1998. He received his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from the South Dakota School of Mines and his graduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prof. Swartz is an author and a co-author on numerous scientific publications dealing with protein expression and advancement of cell-free protein production technology.