Our Medical & Scientific Advisory Board
James Mulé, PhD (Chairman)
Executive Vice President Applied Science
H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute
Dr. James Mulé is the Associate Center Director for Translational Science, the Michael McGillicuddy Endowed Chair for Melanoma Research and Treatment, and Scientific Director of Cell-Based Therapies at Moffitt Cancer Center. Dr Mulé, who recently was designated a “Master of Immunology” by the American Association for Cancer Research, serves on Advisory Boards of numerous biotechnology and pharma companies, e.g. Fulgent Genetics, OncoPep, Iovance, GT Biopharma, Vault Nano, and Celgene, among others. Prior to his arrival in Tampa, Dr. Mulé helped to launch and scientifically direct two biotechnology companies in Palo Alto, CA, which were acquired by Sandoz (now Novartis). He also recently prepared both Novartis and Spark Therapeutics for presentations to the FDA, leading to the approval of Kymriah and Luxturnia, respectively. Dr. Mulé remains a long-standing special government employee to the FDA (both CDER and CBER) and the NCI. He was Chair of the Cellular, Tissue, and Gene Therapy Advisory Committee of CBER, FDA. Dr. Mulé has published nearly 200 articles in the areas of cancer vaccines and cancer immunotherapy.
Johannes W Vieweg, MD, FACS (Member)
Dean and Chief Academic Officer
Nova Southeastern University, Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine
Johannes W Vieweg, MD, received his medical degree from the Technical University of Munich, Germany. In 1999, he completed the Duke urology residency program and, subsequently, enjoyed a highly productive nine-year tenure as Vice Chair of Research in the Duke Department of Urology. In 2006, he joined the University of Florida (UF) as the founding Professor and Chairman of the Department of Urology. Dr. Vieweg’s recruitment from Duke was facilitated by the Florida Board of Governors’ 21st Century World Class Scholar’s program, which recognizes nationally distinguished faculty in biomedical research. Other positions held by Dr. Vieweg during his 10-year tenure at UF included: The Wayne and Marti Huizenga Endowed Research Scholar Chair, Executive Director of the UF Prostate Disease Center, Chairman of the Florida Prostate Cancer Advisory Council and Vice President of the University of Florida Clinical Practice Association. In February 2015, Dr. Vieweg was awarded a prestigious Jefferson Science Fellowship by the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC. This program engages distinguished scientists from across the US as Special Advisors to the US Department of State to provide scientific expertise in foreign policy development. In this position, Dr Vieweg frequently participated in diplomatic meetings with foreign governments to advance partnerships and implement foreign policy for the United States of America. In February 2017, Dr. Vieweg was appointed as Professor and founding Dean of the Kiran C Patel College of Allopathic Medicine at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Much of Dr. Vieweg’s career-long scientific activity has centered on the investigation and clinical testing of genetically engineered tumor vaccines, the discovery of universal tumor antigens and the modulation of immunosuppressive T cells and myeloid cells. He also made significant contributions by discovering novel pathway-targeted interventions and developing novel prediction models for therapeutic response. More recent research interests are aligned with the field of public health, prevention medicine, implementation science and comparative effectiveness research in academic and community-based settings. Dr Vieweg’s scientific work has received uninterrupted funding by the National Institute of Health since 1998 and is well documented in more than 180 publications, books, commentaries and review articles.
Evren Alici, MD, PhD (Member)
Group Leader, Assistant Professor of Hematology; Karolinska Institutet
Dr. Evren Alici is a senior researcher and group leader in Hematology at Karolinska Institutet, Department of Medicine, Stockholm, Sweden. He received his MD and did his residency at the Ege University. He received his PhD in 2006 at Karolinska Institutet. His main research interests are natural killer (NK) cells, multiple myeloma, lentiviral and retroviral gene transfer, stem cell transplantation and immunology. He is a member of several international and national committees, advisory boards and scientific meetings. He has mentored many clinical and preclinical trainees, three PhD students and two post-doctoral fellows. He is currently leading a group of 16 scientists. Dr. Alici participated in the planning and design of the first clinical study with gene-modified cells in Sweden and wrote the final publication. Additionally, he was also responsible for the first in man autologous NK cell therapy clinical trial that was classified as advanced therapy medicinal product use. He is currently trying to make use of the immune system’s (in particular NK cells) capabilities in recognizing cancer cells with a novel, self-developed, strategy. The products of these strategies are now applied in the clinic in well-controlled and approved early clinical trials.
Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren, MD, PhD (Member)
Professor of Infection Medicine and Director of the Center for Infectious Medicine; Karolinska Institutet
Professor Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren earned his medical and doctoral degrees at Karolinska Institutet. In 2001, he was appointed Professor of Infection Medicine and Director of the Center for Infectious Medicine (CIM), a Strategic Research Center at the Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet. He has authored >300 articles within the fields of immunology, infectious diseases and cancer and been cited >20.000 times (web of science). Immune reactions mediated by innate immune cells such as NK cells have been a long-standing focus of his research. Starting off from simple model systems, Ljunggren and collaborators early on provided fundamental insights molecular specificity and function of NK cells. In recent years, he has gone on to explore the same cells in humans. His research group is now taking new steps exploring the use of NK cells in therapeutic settings in humans with cancer. Professor Ljunggren has been a member of the organizing or scientific committees of numerous international conferences. He has had multiple national and international assignments, involving external research evaluations and participation in international advisory boards. He has been a member of the editorial board of several leading international journals within the field of immunology. He is on the scientific advisory board, and in other ways actively involved, in several start-up companies. He has functioned as Dean of Research at Karolinska Institutet and is a member of the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet, which awards the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.