The CMO as a Translational Scientist

Joseph Elassal, MD is Chief Medical Officer of Ankyra Therapeutics. He has over a 15 year career in the pharmaceutical industry with his most recent position serving as a Senior Director for Medical Affairs at Regeneron where he was leading efforts on cemiplimab and other immunotherapy approaches for patients with cervical and non-melanoma skin cancer. He has also served as Senior Medical Director at Replimune overseeing early stage clinical development of oncolytic viruses in a variety of solid tumors. Prior to that, he served as Deputy Vice-President at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) where he lead regulatory policy efforts for biosimilars as well as cell and gene therapies including implementation of the Biosimilars User Fee Act (BsUFA II). Dr Elassal earned his MD from Eastern Virginia Medical School and MBA from Columbia Business School. He completed his internship and residency at Columbia University/New York Presbyterian Hospital and is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine.

Dr. Katz is the Chief Medical Officer of TriSalus Life Sciences, a biotech company focused on developing novel immunotherapy approaches for liver and pancreas tumors. He maintains a part-time role as a surgical oncologist with Brown Surgical Associates and the Warren Alpert Brown Medical School. Dr. Katz attended the New York University School of Medicine, receiving the Alpha Omega Alpha Award. He then completed his general surgery residency at the New York University Medical Center. Dr. Katz completed Fellowships in Immunology and Surgical Oncology at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where he served as the Chief Administrative Fellow. He has served as the principal investigator for five solid tumor CAR-T trials, including four for liver metastases and one for peritoneal carcinomatosis. Dr. Katz has received research grants from numerous societies and the NIH and DOD, in addition to multiple industry partners. He has spent nearly two decades studying how to treat liver immune dysfunction to enable immunotherapy in cancer patients with unmet medical needs. His overarching career goal is to develop novel immunotherapy treatments for presently incurable liver and pancreas tumors.

TBA