VGX Pharmaceuticals

Advisory Boards We have established a Scientific Advisory Board to help oversee, guide, and stimulate the company's growth in different areas.

		David B. Weiner, Ph.D. Co-Founder, Chairman of Scientific Advisory Board.
		Thomas S. Edgington, M.D.
		Douglas R. Green, Ph.D.
		Robert S. Langer, Sc.D.

David B. Weiner, Ph.D. Co-Founder; Chairman of Scientific Advisory Board.

Professor David Weiner of the University of Pennsylvania is a world-renowned leader in immunology as well as gene vaccines and therapy. As a pioneer in the field of DNA vaccines, he has over 300 peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals to his credit and publication in mainstream scientific journals such as Scientific American. Dr. Weiner has been selected by the ISI (Institute for Scientific Information) as one of the top cited scientists in the world. He has also been an editor of several published books. Dr. Weiner’s many credits attest to the level of recognition he has received for his pivotal role in the development of gene-based vaccines and therapies. Dr. Weiner serves and has served as an advisor to and collaborator with leading companies such as American Home Products, 3M, J&J, GSK, Mobil and Centocor. Dr. Weiner also played a key role in the start-up of biotechnology companies such as Apollon (one of the world's first DNA vaccines companies), Synbiotics, Immune Pharmaceutics, Verigen, and Symphony Pharmaceutics. He is a special employee and an advisor for FDA/CBER, and the NIH-NIAID-DAIDS Grant Review process.

Thomas S. Edgington, M.D.

Dr. Edgington is an active member of the Scripps Research Institute. Dr. Edgington has over 500 publications in the biomedical sciences and has filed over 25 patents. He was a Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Corvas International, Inc., an international pharmaceutical firm focused on rational drug design in the thrombosis and vascular disease area. He was on the Board of Directors of Apollon, a biotechnology company pioneering DNA vaccines technology. He also served as the Founding President and a Board member of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB). Dr. Edgington founded Molecular Biology Consultants, Inc., BioSequences, Ltd., and NuVas, LLC. He is a member of numerous Scientific Advisory Boards and of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine.

Douglas R. Green, Ph.D.

Dr. Green is one of the most prominent scientists in the field of Apoptosis and how a breakdown in this process can trigger cancer in lymphocytes and other types of cells. Dr. Green is the Chair of the Department of Immunology at the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Dr. Green’s research extends from the role of apoptosis in the regulation of immune responses in the whole organism, to the fundamental molecular events directing the death of the cell. Dr. Green was listed as ISI (Institute for Scientific Information) "highly cited" in 2003, as well as in ISI apoptosis, ranking Dr. Green's lab as one of the top five laboratories for total citations, total publications, and total citations per publication from 1991 to 2001. He most recently led the division of cellular immunology at the La Jolla Institute of Allergy and Immunology, a position he held for 15 years.

Robert S. Langer, Sc.D.

Dr. Langer is Germeshausen Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Langer is a renowned scientist with numerous distinguished awards, including accolades from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences; American Chemical Society; National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Sciences; Gairdner Foundation; and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. Dr. Langer’s research interest includes drug delivery, biotechnology, immobilized enzymes, and biomedical engineering. His specialty is the study and development of polymers to deliver drugs, particularly genetically engineered proteins and DNA, continuously at controlled rates for prolonged periods of time. Dr. Langer is the Chairman of the FDA’s Science Advisory Board, its highest advisory panel. Dr. Langer's patents have been licensed or sublicensed to over 70 pharmaceutical, chemical, biotechnology and medical device companies (a number of those firms were launched on the basis of those patent licenses). Forbes Magazine, Times and BioWorld have named Dr. Langer as one of the 25 most important individuals in biotechnology in the world. He is the only active member of all three United States National Academies (the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine). He has served, at various times, on eight boards of directors and 20 scientific advisory boards, including those of companies such as Alkermes, Mitsubishi Pharmaceuticals, Warner-Lambert, and Guilford Pharmaceuticals.