Randy Adams

Commercial Advisor

Randy Adams brings more than 25 years of commercial experience in the specialty pharmaceutical, biological and medical device industry. Prior to joining Primmune Therapeutics, Mr. Adams was Vice President of Commercial at Equillium where he was responsible for strategic planning related to the company’s lead candidate itolizumab. Prior to joining Equillium, Mr. Adams served as Senior Vice President of Commercial at Impact Biomedicines (acquired by Celgene) where he was responsible for commercial readiness activities to support the launch of fedratinib, a selective JAK2 inhibitor for the treatment of myelofibrosis. Prior to joining Impact Biomedicines, Mr. Adams was Executive Vice President and a founding partner at Carling Communications (acquired by Fishawack Health), where he was instrumental in building a global strategic consulting and medical communications agency and was a strategic advisor on multiple specialty product launches. Prior to Carling Communications, Mr. Adams held roles of increasing responsibility at Allergan, including Director of Marketing, where he was responsible for leading a $1 billion dry eye portfolio and was instrumental in the launch and successful commercialization of RESTASIS®.  Mr. Adams earned a B.A. in business administration from Georgia College & State University.

Isan Chen, M.D.

Clinical Advisor

Isan Chen, M.D. is board certified in Internal medicine, hematology and medical oncology with more than 20 years of experience in oncology and clinical trials from first-in-humans to global registrational studies. He has experience in oncology clinical development and interactions with regulatory agencies in the US and Europe.He is the Executive VP, Chief Medical & Development Officer of Mirati Therapeutics and was previously the Chief Medical Officer of Aragon Pharmaceuticals which was acquired by Johnson & Johnson in July of 2013. At Aragon, Isan was responsible for the clinical development strategy of all the company’s programs, including prostate (ARN-509) and breast cancer.Prior to Aragon, Isan served as Vice President of tumor strategy in the oncology business unit at Pfizer. In addition, he was the clinical lead for sunitinib, a multiple kinase inhibitor, for the treatment of renal cell carcinoma, an indication in which the drug secured FDA approval in 2006. He was also the clinical lead for the Phase I studies of crizotinib and CDK 4/6 inhibitor palbociclib, both approved for ALK+ NSCLC and breast cancer, respectively.Isan completed his hematology/oncology fellowship at University of California, San Diego. Before joining Pfizer, Isan practiced medical oncology as a staff physician at City of Hope Medical Center and later as an assistant professor at the University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Ezra Cohen, M.D., FRCPSC, FASCO

Clinical Advisor

Ezra Cohen, MD, is co‐Director of the San Diego Center for Precision Immunotherapy and an internationally renowned translational researcher. A physician‐scientist, Dr. Cohen led an independently funded laboratory interested in mechanisms of action of novel therapeutics. He has made major contributions to targeted therapy and immunotherapy. His research has received peer‐reviewed funding in the study of epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors, cell therapy, and immunotherapy in head and neck cancer. He has made major contributions to the understanding of critical signaling pathways, integration of novel agents into standard of care, and definition of mechanisms to overcome resistance to drug therapy. He has also recently co‐developed a personalized neoantigen vaccine using unique cancer mutations to boost an anti‐tumor immune response.Dr. Cohen is Associate Director for Translational Science and leader of the Solid Tumor Therapeutics research program at Moores Cancer Center. He brings his expertise and preeminent reputation in head and neck cancer research and patient care to solid tumor therapeutics. Among other roles, he is chair of the Protocol Review and Monitoring Committee (PRMC) and serves as a member of the Cancer Council, and the Cancer Center’s Executive Committee.Dr. Cohen recently served as editor‐in‐chief of Oral Oncology, the highest impact specialty journal in head and neck cancer, and currently serves as senior editor for Clinical Cancer Research. He has been the principal investigator on multiple studies of novel agents in head and neck cancer and other solid tumors in all phases of development including chemoprevention, phase I, II, and III trials. Dr. Cohen has authored more than 170 papers and has presented his research at national and international meetings. In addition, he has served as a grant reviewer for the NIH, American Association for Cancer Research, American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research.Dr. Cohen completed residencies in Family Medicine at the University of Toronto and in Internal Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He completed a Hematology/Oncology fellowship at the University of Chicago where he was named chief fellow. Prior to his arrival in San Diego, Dr. Cohen was Co‐Director of the Head and Neck Cancer Program, Associate Director for Education and Program Director for the Hematology/ Oncology Fellowship at the University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center. A dedicated educator, Dr. Cohen also mentored and developed young faculty in his program.

Tom Coll

Outside Counsel

Tom Coll is a partner at Cooley LLP. His practice covers a broad range of general corporate matters, including counseling public and privately held companies regarding disclosure and reporting requirements, technology licensing, equity incentives, employee compensation and benefits and the formation of new businesses. Tom also represents clients in a broad range of transactional matters, including public offerings, public and private company mergers and acquisitions, corporate partnering and licensing transactions, spin-offs and venture capital financings. He is counsel to public and private companies in a broad range of industries, including biotechnology, medical devices, information storage and wireless communications.Tom was named to the Best Lawyers in America list in the categories of Biotechnology Law and Life Sciences, Corporate Law, Leveraged Buyouts and Private Equity Law and Venture Capital Law. He was also named in the 2007 – 2014 and 2018 – 2019 editions of Southern California Super Lawyers list in the category of Business/Corporate Law. Tom is recognized as a leading lawyer in corporate M&A by Chambers USA.

Jyoti Mayadev, M.D.

Clinical Advisor

Dr. Jyoti Mayadev is a Professor, Assistant Vice-Chair Developmental Therapeutics, Section Chief of Gynecologic Oncology, Director of Gynecologic Brachytherapy, and serves as Co-Leader of the GYN Oncology Disease Team for the Moores NCI-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center at University of California, San Diego. She oversees the clinical and translational research aspects of image-guided radiation and developmental therapeutics for gynecologic cancers. Dr. Mayadev’s main clinical and research focus is the enhancement of therapies combined with radiation for increased cure, patient selection, and decreased toxicity through clinical trial development.

Dr. Mayadev is a widely recognized national leader in the field of gynecologic oncology and radiation therapy. She is Co-Chair of the NRG Oncology Cooperative Group Cervical Cancer committee, and a member of the NRG Oncology phase I/Developmental Therapeutics committee, NRG Early Clinical Trials Oversight committee, NRG Oncology GYN Executive committee, and RT Developmental Therapeutics committee. Through these leadership roles, she is a key participant in the national strategy and design of cervical cancer clinical trials for new treatment paradigms. She was named GYN Track Vice-Chair for the American Society of Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) and serves as a core writing member of the American Board of Radiology. Furthermore, she is the national principal investigator on national cancer institute (NCI) funded phase I clinical trials in cervical cancer exploring the use of immunotherapy and radiation in patients with locally advanced cervical cancer. Dr. Mayadev serves as the chair and member on various steering committees for global phase III trials in gynecologic cancer, and for industry sponsored therapeutic development. She is widely published, and has received grant funding from the NCI, NRG Oncology Group, Padres Pedal the Cause, pharmaceutical and radiation industry, and Moores Cancer Center. Dr. Mayadev is a frequent invited speaker to further knowledge in gynecology oncology including the American Academy of Cancer Research (AACR), American Society of Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO), American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), and the American Brachytherapy Society (ABS).

Prior to her arrival at UC San Diego, Dr. Mayadev was the Director of Brachytherapy at UC Davis, where she initiated their image-guided brachytherapy programs, and lead the gynecologic and breast oncology research programs in radiation oncology. She has received awards for her teaching and clinical expertise, including Educator of the Year, and the Dean’s Award for Gynecologic Brachytherapy. Dr. Mayadev conceived, designed, and developed the “Image Guided Brachytherapy Handbook”, and served as the Editor-in-Chief, published by Springer. Dr. Mayadev graduated at the top of her medical school class at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio, and became chief resident at the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, before entering the University of California system as a clinician scientist faculty member.

Sheldon Morris, M.D., MPH

Clinical Advisor

Sheldon Morris, M.D., MPH is a Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine and Division of Family Medicine, Department of Family Medicine and Public Health at UC, San Diego. He completed medical school at University of British Columbia, a Masters of Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health in Quantitative Methods. Dr. Morris completed a residency in Preventive Medicine and a fellowship in STD Epidemiology and Control at UCSF/UC Berkeley. His scientific expertise lies in the prevention, diagnosis, pathogenesis and treatment of infectious diseases especially HIV, herpesviruses, and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). He is a clinical trialist with expertise in operations and data management of clinical trials and is in the leadership of three clinical trial groups.

Elina Zuniga, Ph.D.

Scientific Advisor

Dr. Elina I. Zúñiga is currently Full Professor at the Division of Biological Sciences, University of California San Diego (UCSD), La Jolla, CA. She was honored with the highest recognition for best academic performance during her undergraduate education at the Argentinean National University of Cordoba and completed her PhD on Trypanosome cruzi infection at the same institution and via an internship at the Birmingham Medical School, United Kingdom. Her doctoral thesis work was recognized with an international award from the Belgium State Secretary for Development Co-operation. She then was awarded two prestigious post-doctoral fellowships from Antorchas Foundation and Pew Charitable Trust to perform a five-year post-doctoral training at The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla CA, where she studied Dendritic Cells, T cells and anti-viral immunity. In 2007, Prof. Zúñiga joined the UCSD Faculty to initiate her independent research program and since then she has received several honors including the Leukemia and Lymphoma Scholar Award, the American Cancer Society Scholar Award, the Vilcek Finalist Prize For Creative Promise and the American Association of Immunologists Vanguard Lecture honor, among others.Prof. Zúñiga’s laboratory studies immune responses during viral infections in order to reveal general principles of immune-regulation, which are expected to have important implications for boosting anti-pathogen and anti-tumor defenses as well as treating other immune-related diseases. Her team analyzes both the innate and adaptive arms of the immune system, the multiple cells they entail and their interactions among themselves and with non-immune elements. Indeed, Prof. Zúñiga’s work has uncovered many fundamental aspects of Dendritic Cell, Interferon and T cell biology that broadened our general understanding of immune-regulation. Her laboratory research has also illuminated the pathogenesis of mammarenaviruses, which cause fatal hemorrhagic fevers and represent credible biodefense threats for which there are insufficient countermeasures. Her research work has been published in numerous scientific papers communicated in top-tier journals including Science, Cell, Nature Immunology, Immunity, Cell-Host & Microbe, Journal of Experimental Medicine, Nature Communications and Plos Pathogen, among others. Her research program has been funded by highly competitive grants from the National Institute of Health (NIH), the American Cancer Society, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the Lupus Research Alliance, among others. Prof. Zúñiga’s has delivered scientific lectures at numerous conferences or research institutions worldwide, and participated in several conference scientific advisory boards and grant review committees. She is currently stable member of the Virology B Study Section at NIH.Apart from the aforementioned research activities Prof. Zúñiga is director of the core undergraduate and graduate immunology courses at UCSD, serves in (and chair) multiple university committees and actively contributes to the diversity and inclusion efforts of the university. She has trained a large number of undergraduate, master and PhD students as well as post-doctoral fellows, who have moved successfully to their preferred independent positions in academia or industry.