Arthur D. Lander, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Arthur D. Lander is the Donald Bren Professor of Developmental and Cell Biology, and Professor of Biomedical Engineering, at the University of California, Irvine. He is also the Director of the Center for Complex Biological Systems, an NIGMS National Center for Systems Biology.Dr. Lander serves on the editorial boards of PLoS Biology and BMC Biology, is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a member of the Science Board of the Santa Fe Institute, and a member of the Clinical Advisory Board of the Cornelia de Lange Syndrome Foundation. Research in the Lander lab is focused on the Systems Biology of Development and Disease and deals with topics in Developmental Biology, Cell Biology, Mathematical/Computational Biology, Glycobiology, Neurobiology, Cancer Biology, and Engineering. He has contributed to the development of new animal models of birth defects syndromes, the identification of new therapeutic approaches to cancer, and the elucidation of the fundamental design principles used by developing and regenerating biological systems.Dr. Lander is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He received his B.S., summa cum laude, in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale College, New Haven, CT, and Ph.D. in Neuroscience and M.D. degrees from University of California, San Francisco. He is the author of over a hundred peer-reviewed publications, and four patents, including two that were co-invented with scientists and engineers at Aphios.
Gordon M. Cragg, Ph.D.
Dr. Gordon M. Cragg obtained his undergraduate training in chemistry at Rhodes University, South Africa, and his D. Phil. (organic chemistry) from Oxford University in 1963. After two years of postdoctoral research at the University of California, Los Angeles, he returned to S. Africa to join the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. In 1966, he joined Chemistry Department at the University of South Africa and transferred to the University of Cape Town in 1972. In 1979, he returned to the US to join the Cancer Research Institute at Arizona State University working with Professor G. R. Pettit. In 1985, he moved to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, and was appointed Chief of the NCI Natural Products Branch in 1989. He retired in December 2004 and is currently serving as an NIH Special Volunteer. Dr. Cragg’s major interests lie in the discovery of novel natural product agents for the treatment of cancer and AIDS, with an emphasis on multidisciplinary and international collaboration. He has given over 100 invited talks at conferences in many countries worldwide, and has been awarded NIH Merit Awards for his contributions to the development of the anticancer drug, Taxol® (1991), leadership in establishing international collaborative research in biodiversity and natural products drug discovery (2004), contributions to developing and teaching NIH technology transfer courses (2004), and dedicated service to the NCI in developing and maintaining evidence-based PDQ cancer information summaries for health professionals and the public (2010). In 1998-1999 he was President of the American Society of Pharmacognosy and was elected to Honorary Membership of the Society in 2003; he was named as a Fellow of the Society in 2008. In November 2006, he was awarded the “William L. Brown Award for Plant Genetic Resources” by Missouri Botanical Garden which also named a recently discovered Madagascar plant in his honor, Ludia craggiana. In April 2010, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science by his South African alma mater, Rhodes University, and in March 2012, a special issue of the Journal of Natural Products was published in his honor. Dr. Cragg has established collaborations between the NCI and organizations in many countries promoting drug discovery from their natural resources. He has published over 150 chapters and papers related to these interests.
Glenn T. Hong, Sc.D.
Dr. Glenn T. Hong is Founder and Vice President, CounterCurrent Systems, Inc., Westborough, MA, a company that provides consulting services in the areas of chemical engineering, supercritical fluids, and biotechnology. He received his B.Sc. in Biology from the State University of New York at Albany, NY and his Sc.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA. Dr. Hong is Senior Technology Consultant, General Atomics, San Diego, CA where he contributes to all aspects of the development of supercritical water technology, especially including supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) and supercritical water gasification (SCWG). Program involvement includes design, fabrication, operation, and evaluation of numerous supercritical water laboratory and pilot-scale systems. He is intimately involved with the full-scale SCWO design currently being installed at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Richmond, Kentucky involving the destruction of chemical warfare agents. He has utilized computational fluid dynamics (CFD) as an aid in designing the scaled-up plant. Previously, he was Vice President, Engineering, Aphios Corporation, Woburn, MA where he directed research and engineering in environmental and biotechnological applications of supercritical fluids. Prior to being employed by Aphios, Dr. Hong served as a consultant to Aphios and its predecessor companies for approximately 10 years. Dr. Hong has also served as Vice President, Technology, MODAR, Inc., Natick, MA where he led efforts to provide the scientific basis for developing and advancing supercritical water technology. There, he provided theoretical and practical expertise in phase behavior thermodynamics, solids handling techniques, materials of construction, process/component design, and data analysis; directed laboratory and pilot-scale research and development, commercial designs, and new applications; fabricated a supercritical water oxidation unit for NASA Ames Research Center to be used in the treatment of human waste and excess plant biomass; and carried out testing on supercritical water reforming (gasification/liquefaction) of chemical waste. Dr. Hong is the author/co-author of numerous publications in the field of supercritical fluids as well as 16 US patents, some of which are assigned to Aphios Corporation.
Jonathan Steven Alexander, Ph.D.
Dr. Jonathan Steven Alexander is Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Louisiana State University (LSU) Health Sciences Center, Shreveport, LA. He received his B.S. in Biology from Boston University, Boston, MA, and his Ph.D. in Vascular Biology also from Boston University, working on mechanisms of endothelial barrier and inflammation. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Pulmonary Medicine/Biomedical Engineering at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, and later before joining the faculty at LSUHSC-S in 1994. As an endothelial biologist working on mechanisms of central nervous system injury in stroke, Multiple Sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease at LSUHSC-Shreveport, Dr. Alexander has developed assays, models and methods for evaluating neuron, astrocyte and endothelial mechanisms in different forms of neurovascular inflammation. He is an executive member of the International Society for Neurovascular Disease (ISNVD).In addition to expertise in animal models of stroke and MS, the Alexander lab develops novel assays for 2nd messenger biology, immunohistochemistry, immunoblotting, ELISAs and kinase assays using cellular, molecular and behavioral models of inflammation.Dr. Alexander is the author of more than 200 peer-reviewed publications and the author of several patents, one of which is licensed to Aphios Corporation and others which were co-invented with scientists and engineers at Aphios Corporation.