ImmuneWorks Scientific Advisory Board

Dr. Talmadge King holds the Julius R. Krevans Distinguished Professorship in Internal Medicine and is chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, as well as chief of medical services at San Francisco General Hospital. Dr. King earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School and held a professorship in medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. He is a past president of the American Thoracic Society and serves on the Lung Biology and Pathology Study Section of the NIH, the Pulmonary and Allergy Drugs Advisory Committee Center for Drug Evaluation & Research of the FDA, the NIH Advisory Board for Clinical Research, and the Board of Extramural Advisors of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

Dr. King was elected to the Colorado Pulmonary Hall of Fame by the Colorado Thoracic Society and American Lung Association of Colorado. He has been listed on several of the “best doctors” list in America for more than a decade and was awarded the 2007 Trudeau Medal from the 18,000 members of the American Thoracic Society. Since 1926, the Trudeau Medal has been bestowed only upon those with lifelong major contributions to prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of lung disease through leadership in research, education, or clinical care. Dr. King sees patients and conducts research in his specialty, interstitial lung disease. He serves on the editorial boards of many publications and has been an editorial consultant for more than a dozen journals. He has published extensively on the subject of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Dr. King’s research interest is the pathogenesis, diagnosis, and management of inflammatory and immunologic lung injury. He has coauthored nine books including the acclaimed reference book “Interstitial Lung Disease,” now in its 4th edition. He recently co-edited “Medical Management of Vulnerable & Underserved Patients: Principles, Practice, Population,” the only reference currently available that focuses on the treatment of patients living with chronic diseases in poor and minority populations.

Dr. Caroline Whitacre is professor of Molecular Virology, Immunology, and Medical Genetics at The Ohio State University and holds joint appointments in the departments of Pathology, Internal Medicine, and Veterinary Biosciences. She serves as director of the School of Biomedical Science, Associate Vice President for Health Sciences Research, and Vice Dean for Research in the College of Medicine. Dr. Whitacre earned her B.A. and Ph.D. degrees at The Ohio State University and completed postdoctoral training in microbiology and immunology at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago. She joined the Ohio State faculty in 1981, and has served for 12 years as chair of Ohio State’s Department of Molecular Virology, Immunology, and Medical Genetics.

Dr. Whitacre served as chair of the Task Force on Gender, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), and Autoimmunity for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and co-chaired the task force on stem cells together with the chair of the National Board of Directors for the National MS Society. She has also chaired the National Multiple Sclerosis Society Fellowship Committee and the Presidential Commission on University Governance at Ohio State. In 2004, she was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Most recently, in February 2008, Dr. Whitacre was named an Ohio State University Distinguished Scholar, the highest recognition for scholarly accomplishment at the University.

Dr. Whitacre leads significant research projects studying the immunology of MS. Her research has led to clinical trials in MS, rheumatoid arthritis, uveoretinitis and diabetes. She has also worked in the area of hormonal regulation of autoimmunity and has more recently focused on sex differences in autoimmune disease.

Dr. Daniel Greenspan holds a Kellett Professorship in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, in which he has also served as vice chair for research and has a joint appointment in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Dr. Greenspan received his B.A. from New York University and earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in the Department of Pathology at NYU Medical School. He subsequently completed postdoctoral training as an Arthritis Foundation fellow in the Department of Genetics at Yale University Medical School. Dr. Greenspan is a member of the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center, the University of Wisconsin Cardiovascular Research Center, and is also an affiliate of the Waisman Center for Human Development and Developmental Disabilities. He currently serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Dr. Greenspan’s research group has played a leading role in characterizing genes involved in formation and regulation of the extracellular matrix (ECM) in humans and other mammals. This work led to identification of genes responsible for the human genetic diseases dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa and classic Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Since the mid 1990s, the Greenspan lab has also been engaged in studying extracellular control molecules that not only regulate ECM formation, but orchestrate such formation with signaling by certain growth factors important in vertebrate development and disease. His bibliography includes numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, reviews, and opinions, authored and co-authored in the areas described above.

Dr. Louis Vignati, currently Vice President of Medical for Marcadia Biotech, received an undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania, a graduate degree in organic chemistry from American University and a medical degree from Thomas Jefferson University. He completed his house staff training at the University of Vermont and Endocrine Fellowship at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and the Elliot P. Joslin Research Laboratory in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Vignati is board certified in Endocrinology and Metabolism.

He served as an officer in the USPHS in the Toxicology Branch of the National Institute of Health for Occupational Safety and Health. Dr. Vignati was senior physician at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, Massachusetts. He served as a physician at the Faulkner Hospital in Boston and was Director of the New England Sinai Hospital Diabetes Center in Stoughton, Massachusetts. Prior to joining Marcadia he was Distinguished Medical Fellow at Eli Lilly and Company and served as the Medical Director for development of early phase endocrine compounds. Dr. Vignati has been a principal investigator for numerous clinical trials and co-investigator for the DCCT (Diabetes Control and Complications Trial). At Lilly he participated in the global development of new therapies for the treatment of diabetes and its complications as well as the treatment of obesity including Humalog, Recombinant Glucagon, and Forteo among others.

Dr. Shaf Keshavjee, a Thoracic Surgeon at the University of Toronto, received his medical degree and training in general surgery, cardiac surgery and thoracic surgery at the University of Toronto. He is also a graduate of the Surgical Scientist Training Program at the University of Toronto. He completed further fellowship training at Harvard and University of London in tracheal surgery and heart-lung transplantation before returning to a faculty position at Toronto General Hospital, University of Toronto. Dr. Keshavjee is currently Director of the Toronto Lung Transplant Program, Director of the Latner Thoracic Research Laboratories, and a Senior Scientist at the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine and the Toronto General Research Institute. He is also Professor and Chair of the Division of Thoracic Surgery at the University of Toronto. His research interest is in lung injury and strategies to repair injured lungs for transplantation using gene therapy and other modalities.