David E. Fisher, M.D., Ph.D.

Chairman of the Department of Dermatology, Massachusetts General Hospital
Director of the Melanoma Program, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center
Director of the Cutaneous Biology Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center
Edward Wigglesworth Professor of Dermatology, Harvard Medical School

Dr. David Fisher is the chairman of the Department of Dermatology and director of the Melanoma Program and the Cutaneous Biology Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital at Harvard Medical School. He is also the Edward Wigglesworth Professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Fisher is an expert in molecular oncology with particular emphasis on the biology of melanocytes and their involvement in malignant melanoma. He and his lab team carried out seminal research on melanocyte development, signaling, and transcription. Together, they identified microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) as the master transcriptional regulator of melanocyte differentiation/pigmentation, elucidated the UV-tanning pathway in skin, and collaborated extensively to study the potential clinical applications. Dr. Fisher discovered several human oncogenes and generated an immunohistochemical reagent used worldwide for melanoma diagnosis. He has also studied novel skin cancer prevention strategies based on models of red-hair/fair-skinned high-risk susceptibility.

Dr. Fisher’s expertise in melanoma and skin biology has been recognized by invitations to provide reviews or perspectives in the journals Cell, Science, Nature, and the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). He serves as a principal investigator for a Harvard-wide program project grant in melanoma. Additionally, Dr. Fisher has published approximately 300 scholarly articles, and many of these articles have appeared in the most respected journals. He has received numerous awards and given many distinguished lectures throughout the world. He is a former president of the Society for Melanoma Research and chaired the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Melanoma Research Foundation.

Dr. Fisher conducted postdoctoral research with Nobel Laureate Phillip Sharp at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He earned his PhD from Rockefeller University with Drs. Henry Kunkel and Gunter Blobel, and his doctor of medicine degree at Cornell University. Dr. Fisher carried out his residency training in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center as well as clinical fellowships in both adult and pediatric oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children’s Hospital. He is also a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music (cello) and Swarthmore College, where he earned a degree in Chemistry and Biology.

Nathanael S. Gray, PhD

Professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology at Harvard Medical School
Professor of cancer biology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Dr. Nathanael Gray is a professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School and Cancer Biology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. His research utilizes tools of synthetic chemistry, protein biochemistry, and cancer biology to discover and validate new strategies for the inhibition of anticancer targets. Dr. Gray’s research has had a broad impact on the areas of kinase inhibitor design and in circumventing drug resistance.

Some of the notable accomplishments of Dr. Gray’s team at Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) in San Diego, California, include discovering the first allosteric inhibitors of wild-type and mutant forms of the BCR-ABL gene; the first selective inhibitors of the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene, leading to the development of drugs such as LDK378, which has received breakthrough designation by the United States Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of EML4-ALK expressing non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC); and that sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor 1 (S1P1) is the pharmacologically relevant target of the immunosuppressant drug fingolimod (FTY720) followed by the development of siponimod (BAF312), which is currently in Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. Dr. Gray’s generalized strategy for structure-based design of inhibitors that stabilize the inactive kinase conformations (type II) has been widely adopted by the research community and has had a significant impact on the development of numerous inhibitors of tyrosine kinases currently undergoing clinical development.
Dr. Gray’s research laboratory also developed the first T790M mutation-selective EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors; ATP-competitive inhibitors of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTor); Torin1 and went on to discover that rapamycin is an incomplete inhibitor of mTOR; and the first inhibitors of extracellular-signal-regulated kinase 5 (ERK5), also known as big MAP kinase 1 (BMK1); cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 7; and CDK12. These contributions have been recognized through numerous awards including the American Chemical Society Award for Biological Chemistry in 2011, American Association for Cancer Research Team Science Award in 2010, Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award in 2008, National Science Foundation CAREER and Oustanding Achievement awards in 2007 and 2011, respectively.

In 2006, Dr. Gray accepted a faculty appointment at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard Medical School. There, he established a discovery chemistry group that focuses on developing first-in-class inhibitors for newly emerging biological targets, including resistant alleles of existing targets, as well as inhibitors of well-validated targets, such as the human epidermal receptor (HER3) and RAS, that have previously been considered recalcitrant to small molecule drug development.

Dr. Gray received his PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1999 after receiving his bachelor’s degree with the highest honor award from there in 1995. During his PhD work, Dr. Gray developed new combinatorial chemistry and functional genomics approaches that resulted in the discovery of purvalanol, one of the first selective inhibitors of cyclin-dependent kinases.

Irina Erenburg, PhD

President at Blossom Innovations
Director at Partners Healthcare

TBD…

Philippe Schaison, PharmD MBA

Chief executive officer, Syneron Candela
President, Allergan US Aesthetic & Medical
Board of directors, Sientra
Board of directors, SENTÉ
Board of directors, Galien Foundation

Dr. Philippe Schaison is a CEO, Global President and Chief Commercial Officer in consumer healthcare, consumer goods and retail sectors (Asia, South America and Europe). Prior to joining SOLTÉGO as the chief executive officer, Dr. Schaison was the chief executive officer at Syneron Candela. Previously, Dr. Schaison was president of US Aesthetic & Medical at Allergan, where he led a $2.5 billion business and grew it 17%, acquiring and integrating a $2 billion organization. He serves on the board of directors for aesthetic and biotech organizations, as well as scientific foundations. His expertise is driving successful operations and profitability for leading global organizations. With his strong communication and interpersonal skills, he works effectively with boards and senior executives, and builds and leads high-performance teams.

Dr. Schaison earned his MBA in Marketing from the Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC) in Paris, and his PharmD in Industrial from the Paris Descartes University. A dual US and French citizen, a coworld champion of the 4×100-meter freestyle swimming relay, and a second-degree Black belt in Taekwondo, he enjoys competitive skiing, scuba diving, marathons, and paragliding. He is also a commercial single- and multiengine pilot and flight instructor.

Jenifer Perry

Jenifer Perry has 13 years of finance experience in the healthcare industry. She currently works as the executive director of Finance and Operations at Blossom Innovations. She is also employed at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she manages all lab finances and research commitments for an associate professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School.

Before joining Blossom Innovations, Jenifer was the controller for Partners Healthcare Innovation, where she had previously served as a financial consultant for 6 years. Prior to joining Partners, Jenifer consulted at Thomson Reuters Healthcare & Science for 3 years as well as Broadview Ventures. In addition, she consulted for Decision Resources on significant M&A transactions for several years.

Jenifer holds an undergraduate degree in Finance from the University of Florida and a master’s degree in Business Administration with concentrations in Corporate Renewal and Marketing.