Scientific Advisory Board

Jose Saro, MD (Chair of SAB)

Dr. Saro has over 25 years of experience in the preclinical, translational and clinical development of oncology compounds.
Throughout his career, he has developed an extensive global network among oncologic academic institutions and the pharmaceutical industry.

Dr. Saro currently serves as Vice President Global Clinical Development at Adaptimmune. Prior to joining Adaptimmune he led the ceralasertib post-PARP inhibitor early clinical development program in solid tumors at AstraZeneca. Prior to that, he worked at Avacta as Chief Medical Officer driving the development strategy of Affimer^® programs into the clinic. Before Avacta, Dr. Saro served as Senior Translational Medicine Leader at Roche where he ran three global immunotherapy programs – a targeted cytokine, and two T-cell bispecific antibodies in solid tumors – in collaboration with top academic institutions in the EU and US. Previously, he led global clinical programs at Bristol Myers Squibb including dasatinib, ipilimumab (anti-CTLA4), nivolumab (anti-PD1), anti-PDL1, anti-KIR, anti-LAG3, brivanib, a MEK inhibitor, and elotuzumab. While at Novartis he focused on biomarkers in the preclinical and clinical settings. Dr. Saro earned a medical degree from the University of Oviedo, Spain and a master’s degree in pharmaceutical medicine from Complutense University of Madrid, Spain.

Prof. Monika E. Hegi

Head of the Laboratory of Brain Tumor Biology and Genetics,
Department of Clinical Neurosciences,
University Hospital Lausanne, Switzerland

Prof. Hegi’s research aims at identifying new molecular targets and predictive factors for response to therapy and outcome in brain tumor patients. She played a leading role in the groundbreaking translational clinical research, which resulted in the implementation of MGMT methylation status as the first predictive biomarker for the brain cancer glioblastoma. Prof. Hegi works at the interphase of clinical and basic cancer research, analyzing multidimensional molecular profiles of glioma from patients treated in clinical trials. She collaborates with local and international cooperative groups, in particular the Brain Tumor Group at the EORTC, the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer.

Michael Lim, MD

Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery,
Stanford University, California, USA

Dr. Michael Lim is a world leader in immunotherapy for brain tumors. Dr. Lim’s a board-certified neurosurgeon specializing in brain tumors and trigeminal neuralgia, and his clinical interests include the treatment of benign and malignant brain tumors. His research interests focus on harnessing the immune system to fight cancer. His laboratory focuses on understanding mechanisms of immune evasion by cancer cells. He has successfully translated his findings from the laboratory to the clinics and has conducted and led several large national immunotherapy clinical trials for brain tumors. Dr. Lim has published over 200 articles that appeared in Science Translational Medicine, Clinical Cancer Research, Lancet Oncology, and Nature Immunology, among other prominent scientific publications.