George C. Prendergast, PhD, LIMR President and CEO
With experience in the pharmaceutical industry as well as in academia, Dr. Prendergast is an accomplished cancer researcher recognized for his expertise in cancer biology, signal transduction, and molecular therapeutics. An emergent theme in Dr. Prendergast’s work has been the development of new therapeutics based on modifier genes that strongly affect disease susceptibility and therapeutic response. In his career he has become known as an innovator who has the ability to translate basic research findings toward clinical application, most recently in developing IDO inhibitors as a novel class of drugs to dramatically improve the immune response and therapeutic outcome in cancers treated with chemotherapy, radiotherapy or immunotherapy.
Dr. Prendergast has contributed over 180 publications in the field of cancer research, and he is an inventor or co-inventor on 50 published or pending patents.
Susan Gilmour, PhD, LIMR Deputy Director
In addition to her roles at LIMR, she is a member of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University and is an adjunct professor of pathology at Drexel University.
For more than 26 years, Dr. Gilmour’s research has been supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She has served on numerous study sections to review grants for both the NIH and the U.S. Department of Defense. In her lab, she is defining mechanisms by which tumor modifiers, such as polyamines and thrombin, support and accelerate the development of cancer to a malignant, metastatic state. She is also investigating how polyamines recruit mutant stem cell populations to promote the early development of tumors. She is translating her basic research findings to novel polyamine- and thrombin-targeted therapies that may contribute to increased survival in cancer patients.
Matt Finley, PhD, MBA, Director, LIMR Research Administration
His experience ranges from academic and translational science to clinical and industrial roles. Prior to joining LIMR, Dr. Finley held positions of increasing responsibility in biotechnology companies, including Personal Genome Diagnostics, QIAGEN and SABiosciences.
For LIMR, Dr. Finley is responsible for the oversight of several LIMR departments including plant operations, the vivarium, research services, histology, equipment maintenance and receiving, as well as programs that include technology transfer, invention reporting and monitoring, non-clinical research agreements, staff immigration, and recruitment and setup of biomedical companies to be incubated at LIMR. Contact: [email protected], or call 484.476.8173.
Board of trustees
Officers
Peter H. Havens
Chairman & Portfolio Manager, Baldwin Management, LLC- George C. Prendergast, PhD, President
- Tam Mai-Nguyen, MBA, Interim Treasurer
- John Wellenbach, Secretary
Trustees
- Alice Chase, RN
- Jonathan C. Fox, MD, PhD
- Paul B. Gilman, MD
- Leila Gordon
- Karen Gotting-Smith, PhD
- Peter H. Havens
- Peter R. Kowey, MD
- I. Wistar Morris, III, MBA, CFA
- Amber Salzman, PhD
- Sara Senior
- Elizabeth Wilkins, RN
Ex officio
- Katie Galbraith, MBA, FACHE
- Barbara Gasper
- Joseph Gobern, MD
- Steven D. Higgins
- Lawrence Livornese, MD
- John J. Lynch III, FACHE
- George Prendergast, PhD
- Alfred W. Putnam, Jr., Esq.
- Patrick Ross, MD, PhD
- Alexander Uribe, MD