Bradford S. Goodwin, our Chief Executive Officer, is an experienced biotech executive. Mr. Goodwin also serves as a director of two public biotechnology companies: Rigel, Inc. and NeurogesX. Most recently he was Chairman of the Board of Facet Biotech Corp., a monoclonal antibody research and development company, which was sold to Abbott Laboratories for $722 million in April 2010. Previously he was Chairman of the Board of PDL BioPharma, a monoclonal antibody company earning $300 million per year in royalties, Chairman of the Board of CoTherix, Inc. a company commercializing Ventavis for pulmonary arterial hypertension that was sold to Actelion in 2007 for $420 million. From 2001 to 2006, he was Chief Executive Officer and Director of Novacea, Inc., an oncology drug development company that he built from a start up with one employee and one preclinical compound into a public company with three clinical stage products. At Novacea, he led four rounds of financings that raised over $140 million, including its IPO in 2006, and licensed two clinical stage compounds. He led the efforts to obtain a major corporate partnership for the company's lead product, which was consummated shortly after he departed, with a total upfront payment of $72 million plus attractive royalties on product sales.  Prior to Novacea, Mr. Goodwin was Vice President of Finance at Genentech, Inc. where he assisted in the commercialization of the first two FDA approved monoclonal antibodies for cancer: Rituxan® and Herceptin®.

Robert L. Capizzi, M.D., is our President and CMO. Dr. Capizzi is a board certified medical oncologist whose career spans more than 38 years in clinical oncology and oncology drug development in academia and industry.  He has achieved international recognition for his work in clinical pharmacology, cancer drug development, and clinical trials. His academic laboratory and clinical research has resulted in the development of three novel regimens for various malignancies, including a curative therapy for acute myeloid leukemia. He has led the clinical development and regulatory teams within industry that obtained four marketing approvals and he has made significant individual contributions to the approval of two others. Dr. Capizzi's leadership includes service on the Boards of Directors of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), as a member and chair of the Food and Drug Administration's oncology drug advisory committee (ODAC) and various advisory boards for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the American Cancer Society and international agencies. Dr. Capizzi has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Xanthus Life Sciences, Vice President-Medical Affairs at Novacea Inc. and Executive Vice President for Worldwide Research and Development at U.S. Bioscience, Inc. He is the former Magee Professor and Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Thomas Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia.

Daniel J. Fernandes, Ph.D., D.Sc., is our Chief Scientific Officer and an inventor of our MUSC licensed technology. He is Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and Associate Director of Translational Research at the Hollings Cancer Center. His role includes assisting basic scientists in establishing direct links to clinical investigators who can assist in the translation of preclinical research and in developing successful relationships with pharmaceutical companies to bring science forward to the clinical setting. 

Dr. Fernandes' research has been continuously funded by the NCI for 30 years. He is a former Scholar of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and served as the principal investigator on a program project grant sponsored by the Society.  This is a comprehensive, translational research program that integrates basic and clinical studies aimed at identifying the molecular changes that lead to the development of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

His research career has focused on the mechanisms of action and resistance of anticancer drugs, and on the development new anticancer agents. These studies led to the development of two FDA approved drugs: Fludarabine and Ethyol.

In 1980 Dr. Fernandes was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Science Degree from the University of Massachusetts for his scientific contributions.