Cell and
Experimental Biology

Dr. Arthur P. Grollman is Distinguished Professor of Pharmacological Sciences, Evelyn G. Glick Professor of Experimental Medicine, and Director of the Zickler Laboratory of Chemical Biology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook (SUNY-SB).
Dr. Grollman has published more than 200 papers in the fields of molecular biology and cancer research. His current research interests focus on the biological consequences of DNA damage as they relate to molecular mechanisms of DNA replication, mutagenesis, and DNA repair. Dr Grollman is a recognized expert on the clinical pharmacology of herbal medicines and testified on this subject before the White House Commission on Alternative and Complementary Health Policy, the Senate Subcommittee on Commerce, Science and Transportation (Sen. John McCain, Chair) and Governor George Pataki’s Task Force on Life and Law.
Dr. Grollman has served on numerous scientific advisory committees and editorial boards and currently a member of the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. He has received an American Cancer Society Scholarship Award, a MERIT award from the National Cancer Institute and was recently elected to the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars.

Dr. George Adrian Calin received both his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees at Carol Davila University of Medicine in Bucharest, Romania. After working in cytogenetics as an undergraduate student with Dragos Stefanescu in Bucharest, Calin completed cancer genomics training in Massimo Negrini’s laboratory at the University of Ferrara, Italy, and in 2000, he became a postdoctoral fellow in Carlo Croce’s laboratory at Kimmel Cancer Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
In June 2007, Calin joined MD Anderson as an associate professor in Experimental Therapeutics and was promoted to professor with tenure in 2013. He explores new RNA therapeutic options for cancer patients and studies the roles of microRNAs and other non-coding RNAs in cancer initiation and progression, as well as the mechanisms of cancer predisposition.

Dr. Marius Clore is a biophysicist known for pioneering three-dimensional structure determination of proteins, nucleic acids and their complexes by solution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and for developing NMR methods for characterizing the structure and dynamics of rare, short-lived conformational states.
Clore’s work which revealed new insights into macromolecular recognition, relies on the amplification and transfer, via exchange phenomena, of NMR properties of the invisible sparsely-populated ’ dark’ state(s) onto observable (major) visible species. Examples include how transcription factors locate their specific DNA binding site within a sea of non-specific DNA; the role of encounter complexes in protein-protein association; the interplay of conformational selection and induced fit in protein-ligand interactions; transient interactions of intrinsically disordered and partially folded polypeptides with large megadalton macromolecular assemblies; and the characterization of pre-nucleation, transient oligomerization of huntingtin prior to fibril formation.
Clore is an elected Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Prizes include the Royal Society of Chemistry Centenary Prize, and the Biochemical Society Centenary Award.

Dr. Keirstead is an internationally known stem cell expert and has led therapy development for late stage cancers, immune disorders, motor neuron diseases, spinal cord injury and retinal diseases. He was previously CSO of Caladrius which acquired California Stem Cell in 2014. Dr. Keirstead founded California Stem Cell, served as CEO, and led 3 rounds of the investment and sale of the Company, each at high value gain to investors.
Previously, he founded and served as the CEO of Ability Biomedical, which developed technology sold to Bristol Myers Squibb at high value gain to investors. Concurrently, Dr. Keirstead was a Professor at the University of California at Irvine where he founded and directed the Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center, raising $77 million to establish its research building.
Dr. Keirstead received his Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of British Columbia, Canada for which he received the Cameron Award for the outstanding Ph.D. thesis in the country. He conducted four years of Post-Doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge. He received the distinct honor of election as Senate Member of the University of Cambridge and Fellow of the Governing Body of Downing College, and was the youngest member to have been elected to those positions.