Our Advisors
Dr. Steven Porcelli, MD
Scientific Advisor
Dr. Porcelli is the Professor of Medicine (Rheumatology), Microbiology and Immunology, and the Weinstock Chair in Microbiology and Immunology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. Dr. Porcelli is a world-renowned thought leader in NKT cell biology and one of the pioneers that identified CD1d-restricted, lipid antigen specific T cells that have become known as invariant NKT (iNKT) cells. He has over 30 years of research experience and more than 230 peer-reviewed publications on NKT cell biology and other relevant topics in immunology. Dr. Porcelli received his undergraduate training at Columbia University and MD degree from Yale University, where he did his initial training in immunology. After completing a residency in internal medicine, he became a fellow and subsequently faculty member in the Division of Rheumatology, Immunology and Allergy at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School.
Dr. David P. Hudesman, MD
Clinical Advisor
Dr. Hudesman is the Director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center at NYU Langone Health. He is Professor of Medicine at the NYU School of Medicine. Dr. Hudesman specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and in the provision of integrated, seamless, patient-centered care. His research is focused on the development of biomarkers and the evaluation and optimization of new medical therapies for the treatment of both Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Dr. Hudesman serves on the Educational Affairs Committee of the American College of Gastroenterology, the Professional Membership Committee of the Crohn’s Colitis Foundation, and the Quality Committee of the American Gastroenterological Association. Dr. Hudesman received his MD from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and completed his residency at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. He subsequently did his fellowship in gastroenterology at Beth Israel Medical Center, New York.
Dr. Elizabeth J. Quackenbush, MD, PhD
Clinical Advisor
Dr. Elizabeth Quackenbush is a Physician Scientist who has more than 23 years of experience in clinical research and preclinical development across a range of disease areas, with a focus on immunology and oncology. In her career, she has led activities at various development stages ranging from preclinical to phase I-III studies. She was the former SVP of Translational Medicine at Elstar Therapeutics (Cambridge, MA), a biotech with a proprietary specific antibody platform. Before Elstar, she was a Translational Medicine Leader in the early oncology group at Roche, where she led multiple compounds through phase 1 development in patients with solid tumors and hematologic malignancies. Dr. Quackenbush has also worked for Merck and other two biotechs, previously. She is currently an independent consultant, working on a variety of therapeutic moieties, including small and large molecules and cellular products, as well as gene therapy. Dr. Quackenbush received her MD/PhD (in Immunology) from the University of Toronto and her BS (Medical Technology) from the University of Minnesota. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School. Her internal medicine training was completed at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto and the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, followed by a fellowship in clinical genetics at Children’s Hospital in Boston. For her fellowship research years, she studied cell trafficking in the laboratory of Dr. Ulrich von Andrian (Harvard Medical School). She was an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School in clinical genetics for three years before moving her career into drug development.
Dr. Moriya Tsuji, MD, PhD
Scientific Advisor
Dr. Moriya Tsuji is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and a Professor at The Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center. He is also a Fellow of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (FASTMH). Dr. Tsuji has made diverse contributions to immunology and microbiology through T-cell vaccine development. He is the first to identify NKT stimulatory glycolipids as adjuvants for vaccines against infectious diseases and cancer. Dr. Tsuji received his M.D. degree from The Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan, and earned his Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Tokyo, Faculty of Medicine, followed by a fellowship at New York University School of Medicine He was subsequently awarded tenure and spent a year on sabbatical at The Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center (affiliated with Rockefeller University at that time) before moving full time to The Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center. He holds a Visiting Professorship at The Jikei University School of Medicine, as well as at Chiba University in Japan.
