Paul A. Marks, MD - Chairman, SAB

Dr. Paul A. Marks is President Emeritus, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (the nation's oldest and largest private institution devoted to cancer prevention, patient care, research and education). He was its President and CEO for almost 20 years, from 1980 until 1999. Dr. Marks is an academic leader in improving health care and medical education and an imaginative and innovative biomedical scientist whose discoveries have demonstrated translational benefits applied to improved patient care. Dr. Marks has the unique honor of having Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center name an award after him: The Paul Marks Prizes for Cancer Research, which recognize outstanding young investigators who have made significant contributions to increase the understanding of cancer or improve the treatment of the disease through basic or clinical research.

Dr. Marks' remarkable career in medicine spans over five decades and is marked by extraordinary contributions. Dr. Marks received his A.B. and M.D. degrees from Columbia University and postdoctoral training at the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the Pasteur Institute. Prior to his tenure at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, he was Professor of Human Genetics and Frode Jensen Professor of Medicine and Vice President for Health Sciences at Columbia University. Prior to that, he was named Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and, ultimately Vice President for Health Sciences, simultaneously assuming responsibilities as Director of the Cancer Research Institute, which he helped found. Parallel to his research and administration careers, Dr. Marks has answered repeated calls to public service at the highest levels, as a member of the President's Biomedical Research Panel (1975-1976), the President's Cancer Panel (1976-1979), the President's Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island in 1979, and most recently serving on an advisory committee to the director of the NIH to help overhaul its intramural research program.

Dr. Marks has published over 350 scientific articles in various scholarly journals. Dr. Marks is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. He is a Fellow of the America Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has been the recipient of a number of honors including the Distinguished Achievement Medal of Columbia University; Medal of the Japan Foundation for the Promotion of Cancer Research; Centenary Medal of the Pasteur Institute, honorary degrees from several universities and the President's National Medal of Science (USA). In addition to his many scientific and academic accomplishments, Dr. Marks is one of the founders of Aton Pharma, a biopharmaceuticals company started in 2001 to develop and commercialize novel therapeutics for cancer and other diseases. The company was acquired by Merck & Co., Inc. in 2004.

     Harmon Aronson , PhD - Member, SAB

Harmon Aronson, Ph.D., has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for the past 26 years. For the past 8 years he has been President of a pharmaceutical consulting firm, specializing in FDA compliance activities for both US and international clients. His firm has helped many companies obtain US FDA approval for their products and maintain their acceptable status according to Good Manufacturing Practices. Prior to this, he held executive positions in Quality Management and in Manufacturing at a leading generic drug company. During the last 5 years, he has also served on the Board of Directors of a drug delivery company and the Scientific Advisory Board of a diagnostic medical device company. He was awarded the Ph.D. degree in Physics from the University of Chicago. Because of his varied background, he brings a deep understanding of science and technology and how it can be applied to the research, manufacturing and quality areas of the pharmaceutical industry.

     Prof. Thomas Lentz, MD - Member, SAB

Yale University School of Medicine research physician, Professor Thomas Lentz, MD, was an early proponent of the possibility of treating viral infections by blocking the virus-receptor interactions. The NanoViricides approach improves upon such earlier approaches by enabling multiple site targeting and multi-point binding, thus mimicking the natural virus particle and cell-surface interaction closely.

Professor Lentz's research has laid the early foundations for developing anti-viral therapies by blocking virus-cell receptor interactions. His work on the binding of rabies virus to the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor has helped in the creation of a rabies-specific nanoviricide. In addition, his extensive studies on the classification of viruses and of their cellular receptors into broad groups provided the basis for the broad-spectrum nanoviricides that NanoViricides, Inc. is developing at present as potent therapeutics against a large number of viruses.

In addition to his research activities, Thomas L. Lentz chaired the Committee on Admissions for the School of Medicine at Yale from 1972 to 2006. He last served as Associate Dean for Admissions and Financial Aid at Yale University. He was Vice Chairman of the Department of Cell Biology at Yale from 1992 to 2006. He retired in 2006 and is now Senior Research Scientist and Professor Emeritus of Cell Biology at Yale University.