Bio
Dr. Disis is the Helen B. Slonaker Endowed Professor for Cancer Research at the University of Washington (UW), Professor of Medicine and Adjunct Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology at UW and a Member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. She is the Director of UW Medicine’s Cancer Vaccine Institute. Her research interest is in the discovery of new immunologic targets in solid tumors for the development of vaccine and cellular therapy for the treatment and prevention of common malignancies. She holds several patents in the field of targeted cancer immunotherapy and immune-based diagnostics. Dr. Disis is a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. She is an American Cancer Society Clinical Professor, Deputy Editor, JAMA, and the Editor-in-Chief of JAMA Oncology.
Entrepreneurial Achievements
Disis directs the UW Medicine’s Cancer Vaccine Institute (CVI) which has developed 8 clinical grade vaccines under investigational new drug applications with the FDA. The Institute has conducted over 30 Phase I and II clinical trials of vaccines and has 15 awarded patents, with 8 patents pending. Five of the vaccines the CVI has developed are now in clinical trials with pharmaceutical partners. Disis is a co-founder of EpiThany, a biotech started in 2015. The company has licensed-in foundational IP protecting the composition of matter and strategy for construction of multi-antigen, off-the-shelf cancer vaccines for solid tumors resulting in multiple products in development. EpiThany executed a cross-border licensing agreement for several of their pipeline products resulting in the initiation of global Phase 2 clinical studies and the US approval of an IND application for Phase 2. The company has raised capital from multiple investment groups and successfully repaid that investment, resulting in a positive-return biotechnology company to date.
Sectors
Off-the-shelf, T-cell vaccine, therapeutic vaccine, multi-antigen vaccine, neo-antigens, neo-repertoire, immuno-oncology, immunotherapy