SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD

Dr. Wilcox serves as the Chief of Nephrology and Hypertension, the Director of the Hypertension, Kidney and Vascular Research Center, and the Associate Director of the Angiogenesis Program at the Lombardi Center Institute at Georgetown University. He is also the Vice-Chair for Academic Affairs at the Department of Medicine and the George E. Schreiner Chair of Nephrology at Georgetown University School of Medicine. Dr. Wilcox’s scientific research centers on studies of kidney and microvascular disease in hypertension. Supported by grants from the NIH, his research encompasses experiments on genes, cells and animal models, in addition to clinical research in patients with hypertension and kidney diseases. Dr. Wilcox is the author of more than 250 scientific articles and 2 books on nephrology and hypertension.

Dr. Watson serves as the Medical Director for Neurosurgery at Inovia Fairfax Hospital in Fairfax, Virginia. He specializes in pituitary tumors, meningiomas, brain tumors, and spinal surgery. His expertise also includes cerebrovascular disease, trigeminal neuralgia, hemifacial spasm, Chiari malformation, spinal AVM’s, spinal disorders, “brain bypass” surgery, von-Hippel-Lindau disease, and stereotactic radiation surgery.

Dr. Chang serves as the Executive Director of UCI Medical Center’s H.H. Chao Comprehensive Digestive Disease Center and as a Professor and Chief of the Division of Gastroenterology at the University of California Irvine. Dr. Chang’s expertise includes developing novel mechanisms for arresting cancer growth, molecular mechanisms of gastrointestinal and esophageal ulcers, gene therapy for treating esophageal and pancreatic cancers, developing new techniques and modalities in interventional endoscopy, and diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis B and C, liver cancer and inflammatory bowel disease.

Dr. Lacouture is the Director of the Oncodermatology Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He is the Founder of SERIES (Skin and Eye Reactions to Inhibitors of EGFR and Kinases) Clinic, an interdisciplinary effort comprising patient care, education, and research. He is also Co-Chair of the Skin Toxicity Study Group of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer. Dr. Lacouture focuses on the recognition and management of the side effects affecting the skin, hair, and nails of cancer patients and survivors as a consequence of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. His research also encompasses exploring dermatologic side effects resulting from cancer treatment and exploring new skin treatments that do not affect the effectiveness of anticancer drugs.

Dr. Quandt serves as the Assistant Professor at the University of Vancouver, British Columbia, with affiliation at the Centre for Brain Health. Her research focuses on neuroinflammation in damage and repair relevant to multiple sclerosis and other nervous system disorders. Dr. Quandt’s research applies molecular and cellular techniques in cell-based and disease models to determine the relative contributions of inflammatory cells and mediators to disease development. She also focuses on the identification of cyto-and neuroprotective pathways relevant to inflammatory and neurodegenerative disorders.

Dr. Gonzalez serves as the Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona in the Department of Radiation Oncology with affiliation at Banner-University Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona. His research includes investigation of novel techniques for whole breast radiotherapy and is a principal investigator in determining methods for improving intensity modulated radiation therapy following mastectomy. He specializes in treating patients with breast cancer, lymphoma and metastatic cancer.

Dr. Sandler serves as the Chair of Radiation Oncology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center with affiliation at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He is also the principal investigator for the National Radiation Therapy Oncology Group, focusing on radiology and chemotherapy for prostate cancer. Working with the National Institute of Health, Dr. Sandler has been involved in the investigation of innovative radiation strategies targeting prostate cancer and evaluating quality of life of prostate cancer patients following surgery and radiation therapy.