Scientific advisory board
External scientific advisors
Advisors hold their primary appointments at the institutions listed. Their
inclusion here reflects an advisory relationship with ImStem, not an endorsement by their
institutions.
Rudolf Jaenisch, M.D.
Scientific Advisor
Professor of Biology at MIT and a founding member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. A pioneer of transgenic science whose current work concerns epigenetic regulation of gene expression, with major contributions to human embryonic stem cell and induced pluripotent stem cell biology and their therapeutic application.
M.D., University of Munich, 1967. National Medal of Science (2010); Wolf Prize in Medicine (2011); Robert Koch Prize (2002); Max Delbrück Medal (2006); Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science (2013); March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology (2015).
Jeffrey Cohen, M.D.
Scientific Advisor
A leading clinical authority on multiple sclerosis and an expert in cell therapy for the disease. He has designed and run a large number of MS clinical trials, including a Phase 3 trial of fingolimod — the first oral treatment approved for MS — and completed a Phase 1 study of autologous mesenchymal stem cell transplantation in MS. Author of over 180 publications on the immunology and clinical management of multiple sclerosis.
Director, Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis Treatment and Research, Cleveland Clinic; Director of the Clinical Neuroimmunology Fellowship; Professor, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. M.D., University of Chicago; training at the University of Pennsylvania.
Hongkui Deng, Ph.D.
Scientific Advisor
A leading cell biologist, best known for reprogramming adult cells to pluripotency using small molecules. His group generated CCR5-ablated haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells using CRISPR and transplanted them into a patient with HIV and leukaemia, demonstrating for the first time the safety of CRISPR-based genome editing in human gene therapy — work recognised in Nature's 10 people who mattered in science in 2019.
Director, Peking University Stem Cell Research Center; senior investigator, Center for Life Sciences, Peking University; Cheung Kong Scholar. Ph.D. in Immunology, UCLA; postdoctoral fellowship, New York University.
Troy Lund, M.D., Ph.D.
Scientific Advisor
A physician-scientist working on rare genetic disease — cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy, Hunter syndrome and metachromatic leukodystrophy — their pathophysiology, and haematopoietic stem cell transplantation as treatment. He has studied one of the largest cohorts of cALD patients to receive HSCT, with particular interest in how an autoimmune reaction may trigger cALD. He collaborates with the laboratory on stem cell therapy for cALD.
Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, and faculty member, Division of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, University of Minnesota Medical School. Ph.D. in Cancer Biology, University of South Florida / Moffitt Cancer Center.
Joel Pachter, Ph.D.
Scientific Advisor
An expert in neuroinflammatory, neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular disease. His research addresses homeostasis of the central nervous system, particularly the blood–brain barrier and its alteration in multiple sclerosis, AIDS dementia complex and Alzheimer's disease. He collaborates with the laboratory on the mechanism of action of T-MSCs in multiple sclerosis.
Full Professor, Department of Cell Biology, University of Connecticut Health Center. Permanent member of the Brain Injuries and Neurovascular Pathologies study section at the NIH; editorial board, Microvascular Research. Ph.D., New York University School of Medicine.
David Benjamin Turitz Cox, M.D., Ph.D.
Scientific Advisor
A physician-scientist working on genome editing and the characterisation and mammalian application of CRISPR systems. During his Ph.D. he developed RNA editing using the CRISPR-Cas13 system (Science, 2017), a platform for precise RNA correction in mammalian cells that was runner-up for Science's 2017 Breakthrough of the Year. He advises the laboratory on gene editing and its cell therapy applications.
M.D., Harvard Medical School; Ph.D. in Biology, MIT, via the Harvard–MIT M.D.–Ph.D. programme. Research and clinical fellowship in Hematology/Oncology, Stanford Translational Investigator Program. Physician at Stanford University.
