Scientific Advisory Board

We have assembled scientific and medical advisory boards that include prominent scientific and product development advisors who provide expertise in the areas of female health including menopause, breast cancer, cell biology, immunology, hormonal and metabolic disorders, biostatistics and pharmaceutical development.

John D. Baxter, M.D.
Dr. Baxter has extensive experience in academic research as well as with pharmaceutical and biotech companies, and in particular in advancing endocrine drugs. Dr. Baxter is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He is the past President of the Endocrine Society. He was Chief of the Division of Endocrinology and Director of Metabolic Research Unit at the University of California, San Francisco. He was a founder and director of Scios/Nova, Karo-Bio A.B. (Stockholm), Calhoun Vision, and SciClone Pharmaceuticals (SCLN). He is the largest shareholder, Director, and member of the Executive Committee for One Touch Technologies.  Dr. Baxter is currently: Senior Member, Co-Director of the Diabetes Center, and Director of the Genomics Core of the Methodist Hospital Research Institute, and Chief of Endocrinology, the Department of Medicine, The Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX.

Len Bjeldanes, Ph.D.
Dr. Bjeldanes is Professor and Chair of the University of California, Berkeley, Department of Nutritional Science and Toxicology and Director of the Graduate Group in Molecular Toxicology. Dr. Bjeldanes has been a faculty member at the University of California, Berkeley for over 30 years. He is an expert in isolating bioactive compounds from natural products and structural identification. He focuses on the mechanisms of action of natural products as chemopreventive agents. Dr. Bjeldanes has co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and he extensively published scientific data supporting the role of dietary indoles as protective agents against breast, prostate and endometrial cancer.

Paul Pui-Hay But, Ph.D.
Dr. But is the Chief Scientist for the Food and Drug Authentication Laboratory Ltd., Hong Kong, China, and a leading investigator and consultant on botanical authentication and Chinese medicine quality control. Dr. But holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), and holds master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. He has held positions of distinction at CUHK as well as with Hong Kong government committees focused on Chinese medicine, medicinal material research, and quality control. Dr. But has eleven issued patents, including patents of DNA sequences and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) restriction fragment length polymorphism testing for the authentication of traditional Chinese medicines. Dr. But has over 230 publications spanning thirty years.

Michael J. Campbell, Ph.D.
Dr. Campbell is an Assistant Professor of Laboratory Medicine in the Department of Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Campbell received his doctorate in Cancer Biology from Stanford University.  He worked on the development of the first idiotype vaccine approved by the FDA for B-cell lymphoma while at Dr. Ronald Levy's lab at Stanford University. His laboratory at the University of California, San Francisco is developing and testing new HER2/neu targeted vaccines, breast cancer antigens, novel molecular assays to study immune responses to tumor antigens as well as combination vaccine boosts with novel natural mitogens and pro-apoptotic compounds.

Uwe Christians M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Christians is an Associate Professor at the University of Colorado Health Science Center and an expert in therapeutic drug monitoring, clinical pharmacokinetics, drug metabolism, drug transport, drug interactions and mechanisms of toxicity. Dr. Christians specializes in the biodisposition of drugs and their efficacious and toxic metabolites at the cellular level, in isolated organs and in healthy volunteers and patients, so as to correlate the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics for drugs in various patient populations. Specific study areas include: 10 metabolic isoenzymes, particularly cytochromes P450 3A and their relevance to the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of immunosuppressive agents, anticancer therapeutics, antiretroviral drugs and therapies used in women’s health.

Gary L. Firestone, Ph.D.
Dr. Firestone is Professor of Cell & Developmental Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology.  He is also the Program Director of the Cancer Biology Pre-doctoral and Post-doctoral Training Program at the University of California, Berkeley Cancer Research Laboratory. Dr. Firestone specializes in cell signaling pathways that inhibit the uncontrolled growth of epithelial-derived tumor cells. In his lab, molecular, genetic and cell biological experimental strategies are being utilized to explore the mechanisms by which extracellular signals such as steroid hormones, growth factors and certain dietary compounds coordinately regulate the proliferation and cell-cell interactions of reproductive tumor cells.

Richard Gless, Ph.D.
Dr. Richard Gless is currently the Vice President of Chemistry at Arete Therapeutics where he oversees the discovery and development of first-in-class small molecule inhibitors of soluble epoxide hydrolase for multiple disease indications.  Prior to Arete, Dr. Gless was Vice President of Chemistry at Galileo Pharmaceuticals where he supervised the discovery and development of therapeutics targeting redox signaling metabolic pathways.  Prior to joining Galileo, he was Vice President of Chemistry at Signature BioScience and site manager of the company’s Richmond site with responsibility for all aspects of chemical operations and supervision of Signature’s medicinal chemistry programs in oncology.  Dr. Gless has spent more than 20 years leading and managing chemical research groups.  He was Vice President of Chemistry at Cambridge Discovery Chemistry where he directed contract research programs for various disease indications at Cambridge Discovery’s U.S. facility and held various management positions at Zeneca, Inc., including supervision of Zeneca’s U.S. combinatorial chemistry and process research groups.  Dr. Gless holds a Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley.

Jan-Åke Gustafsson, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Jan-Åke Gustafsson has been making pivotal contributions to the field of nuclear receptors for over 35 years. Gustafsson's most recent work centers on his fortuitous 1996 discovery of a second estrogen receptor (ER), which he named ERβ. Dr. Gustafsson also identified the inherent differences in signaling between the two estrogen receptor pathways, which served to clarify the roles that each receptor plays in mammary cell proliferation and point toward possible new therapeutics for breast cancer. He has published more than 1,300 peer-reviewed articles. Gustafsson’s prolific works have earned him numerous awards, including a 1997 election to the Swedish Academy of Sciences and the 2000 European Medal from the British Society for Endocrinology. In 2002, Gustafsson was elected a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Gustafssen cofounded the biotechnology company, KaroBio in 1987 and was a Professor and Chairman of the Department of Biosciences and Nutrition at Karolinska University until 2008. Dr. Gustafsson is currently building a new Center for Nuclear Receptors and Cell Signaling at the University of Houston, Texas.

Craig Henderson, M.D.
Dr. Henderson is one of the world's leading breast cancer clinicians and researchers. He is currently President of Keryx Biopharmaceuticals and on the Board of Directors of ALZA Corporation. He is also Adjunct Professor, in the Department of Hematology/Oncology at the University of California, San Francisco. Previously, he was a member of the Harvard faculty for 18 years before moving to the University of California, San Francisco where he was Professor of Medicine, Chief of Hematology/Oncology, and Associate Director of the Cancer Center. In 1995, he became Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of SEQUUS Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Menlo Park, California, and continued there until the merger with ALZA Corporation in 1999. SEQUUS Pharmaceuticals was a drug delivery company with an expertise in developing and marketing anti-cancer drugs. Among Dr. Henderson's many appointments, Dr. Henderson served as a member of the FDA Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee and was the chairman of such committee from 1990-1992.

Willa A. Hsueh, M.D.
Dr. Hsueh is the Director of the Diabetes Research Center at The Methodist Hospital Research Institute and Chief of the Division of Diabetes, Obesity and Lipids in the Department of Medicine at The Methodist Hospital (TMHRI), Houston, Texas. Dr. Hsueh's research has led to a number of important scientific discoveries. She was the first to elucidate the relationship between nuclear receptor regulation in obesity and diabetes and their relationship to heart disease. Dr. Hsueh has received many awards in recognition of her clinical and scientific work. In 2005 she received the Edwin B. Astwood Award from the Endocrine Society for Outstanding Research. She also received the National Institute of Arthritis, Metabolism and Digestive Diseases, MERIT Award from 1991- 1998, the American Heart Association, Harry Goldblatt Award for Cardiovascular Research in 1986 and The Upjohn Achievement Award for Research in 1973. Prior to her appointments at The Methodist Hospital Research Institute (TMHRI), Dr. Hsueh was the Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Hypertension at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1997 to 2008. In addition to her academic and administrative duties, Dr. Hsueh maintains a full clinical practice and is involved in many translational research projects.

Dale Leitman, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Leitman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Toxicology at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his medical degree from the University of California, Davis and his doctorate in Physiology from Stanford University. Dr. Leitman was a former doctoral student with Dr. Ferid Murad (Nobel Laureate) at Stanford University. Dr. Leitman has developed highly sophisticated assays to assess the risks and benefits of estrogen therapies. He is one of the world's leading experts in estrogen receptor biology and he is presently developing strategies to prevent various menopausal conditions.

Bert W. O'Malley, M.D.
Dr. O'Malley received his B.S. degree from the University of Pittsburgh, his M.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and completed his Internship and Residency at Duke University Department of Medicine. He was a Clinical Associate at NCI, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, from 1965 to 1967; and served as Head, Molecular Biology Section, Endocrine Branch, NCI, NIH, from 1967 to 1969. In 1969, he moved to Vanderbilt University School of Medicine where he was Professor and Occupant of the Lucius Birch Chair and Director of the Reproductive Biology Center. In 1973, Dr. O'Malley moved to his current professional home at Baylor College of Medicine, where he serves as Tomas C. Thompson Professor and Chairman, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Director of the Baylor Center for Reproductive Biology. Among the awards and honors that Dr. O'Malley has received are the Ernst Oppenheimer Award, Gregory Pincus Memorial Medal, Distinguished Achievement in Modern Medicine Award, Axel Munthe Award in Reproductive Biology, British Endocrine Society Medal, Fred Conrad Koch Medal, Pasarow Award in Cancer Research, Endocrine Transatlantic Medal, George W. Beadle Award, Rodbell Award (NIH/NIEHS), and the Feltrinelli International Prize for Biology, as well as election by his peers to membership in the Royal Academy of Medicine of Ireland, National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Sciences of Texas. Dr. O'Malley has also served as president of the Endocrine Society. Dr. O'Malley received honorary degrees from the New York Medical College (D.Sc., in 1979); the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden (M.D., in 1984); the National University of Ireland (D.Sc. in 1985); and the University of Maryland (D.Sc., in 2001). Dr. O'Malley's landmark discoveries revealed the mechanism of steroid hormone action to be at the level of nuclear DNA transcription. Dr. O'Malley went on to demonstrate the critical importance of a previously undiscovered superfamily of mediators for their actions -- namely, the nuclear receptor coregulators. These discoveries provided a coherent foundation for understanding epigenetic promotion of reproductive tissue growth and development by steroid hormones, and provided the foundation for all future regulatory studies of the impact of estrogen and progesterone on implantation of a fertilized egg, pregnancy maintenance, and prenatal embryonic development, and for the hormone mediated embryonic and pubertal growth of breast, uterine, ovarian, prostate, and brain tissues under normal and cancer conditions. In 1992, the O'Malley lab used proteolytic enzyme and antibody epitope mapping to demonstrate specific distinct receptor structures for pure agonists, pure antagonists, and mixed antagonists/agonists of estrogen receptors (ER) and progesterone receptors (PR). This early work of the O'Malley lab contributed the first substantiated understanding of the mechanism of action of how agonists and antagonists of female hormones structurally activate or inactivate a receptor's ligand binding domain for eventual transcriptional regulation. His work was furthered when he discovered that intracellular coactivator/corepressor ratios determine the tissue specificities of SERMs.

Moshe Rosenberg, D.Sc.
Dr. Rosenberg is a professor at the Department of Food Science and Technology at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Rosenberg's research is focused on developing a basic understanding and applicable information related to the physico-chemical, functional, and, in particular, microencapsulating properties of proteins, lipids and carbohydrates. The information is then utilized by Dr. Rosenberg's group for developing new encapsulation technologies and advanced systems for delivering nutrients and bio-active compounds. Dr Rosenberg received his Bachelor of Science degree from Hebrew University and his Master's and Doctorate degrees from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.

Terry Speed, Ph.D.
Dr. Speed is a professor in the Department Statistics at the University of California, Berkeley and Senior Principal Research Scientist and head of the Bioinformatics Division, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne, Australia. At the university and the institute, Dr. Speed teaches graduate-level statistics and bioinformatics and is co- investigator on genetic, genomic and systems biology projects. Dr. Speed has served on a number of academic scientific advisory boards such as the Mathematical Biosciences Institute at Ohio State University, the Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute, CA, the Department of Biology of the Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris, France, and the Department of Statistics, Oxford University, UK. He is a member of the International Statistical Institute since 1987 and is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the 2002 Pitman Medal (Statistical Society of Australia), the 2003 Moyal Medal (Macquarie University), and was the joint recipient of 2004 Outstanding Applications Paper Award, American Statistical Association. Dr. Speed has served as a consultant to various industry companies such as Stillwater Sciences, Berkeley, CA, GeneData, AG, Basel, Switzerland, Gene Logic, Inc, Gaithersberg, MD, and Affymetrix, Inc, Santa Clara, CA. Dr. Speed is recognized as one of the world's leaders in the emerging field of Bioinformatics. He brings to Bionovo more than 35 years of experience in biostatistics, more recently specializing in the design and analysis of studies in genetics and genomics.

Zung Vu Tran, Ph.D.
Dr. Tran is Scientific Director of CHOP-Westat Biostatistics and Data Management Core (BDMC) at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). The BDMC, with a 30-member staff, is a full-service Core that supports a wide range of research activities for CHOP investigators. He is also Research Professor of Pediatrics and Biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Dr. Tran has taught numerous graduate-level biostatistics courses and is co-investigator and senior biostatistician for several on-going NIH-funded clinical trials. He has received numerous peer-reviewed federal and foundation research grants, both as principal investigator and co-investigator. Dr. Tran brings to Bionovo nearly 30 years of experience in biostatistics, specializing in the design and analysis of clinical trials. He also has considerable expertise in meta-analysis methodology, survey research methodology, as well as the management of large databases. Dr. Tran has served on numerous NIH study sections over the past 17 years and has extensive senior level management experience in academic as well as industry settings. He has served as a consultant for a number of pharmaceutical and medical device companies.

Debasish Tripathy, M.D.
Dr. Debasish Tripathy is Professor of Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California (USC) and Co-Leader of the Women's Cancer Program at USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. He holds the Priscilla and Art Ulene Chair in Women's Cancer. Prior to joining USC, Dr. Tripathy served as Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. He also served as the Director of the Komen/UT Southwestern Breast Cancer Research Program and held the Annette Simmons Distinguished Chair in Breast Cancer Research. Dr. Tripathy has over 20 years of laboratory and clinical research experience. He was one of the pioneers that brought Herceptin through early and late stage clinical testing on behalf of Genentech to FDA approval of the first monoclonal antibody for breast cancer. He has received numerous prestigious awards, including the highly acclaimed Heroes Award, from the Breast Cancer Fund. Additionally, he has co-authored many books including "Breast Cancer: Beyond Convention" with world renowned physicians. Dr. Tripathy received his medical degree from Duke University School of Medicine. He completed his residency at Duke University and fellowship at the Cancer Research Institute at the University of California, San Francisco.

Ethan Weiss, M.D.
Dr. Ethan Weiss is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Weiss earned his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and he completed his internship and residency at the John Hopkins Hospital. Dr. Weiss came to the University of California, San Francisco in 1998 as a cardiology fellow where he spent three years under the scientific mentorship of Dr. Shaun Coughlin in the Cardiovascular Research Institute studying the effects of thrombin signaling in platelets. He then completed his clinical fellowship and served as Chief Cardiology Fellow in 2002. Dr Weiss' clinical focus includes acute care cardiology, coronary artery disease and general cardiology with special interests in thrombosis, preventive cardiology, and acute coronary syndromes. Dr. Weiss' laboratory uses forward genetic models to enhance the understanding of mechanisms of hemostasis and thrombosis. In addition, his group is working to understand mechanisms of sex differences in blood clotting and to define the mechanisms whereby estrogen increases the risk of clotting.