Board of Scientific Advisors

Chief Scientific Advisor
Frances J. Sharom, Ph.D.

Frances J. Sharom received her B.Sc. degree in Chemistry from the University of Guelph (Canada), and her Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry from the University of Western Ontario (Canada). She joined the University of Guelph as an Assistant Professor and rose through the ranks to Professor and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Membrane Protein Biology in the Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology. She is currently Professor Emeritus in the Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology at the University of Guelph, and Bulletin Editor and Executive Board member for the Canadian Society for Molecular Biosciences. Dr. Sharom’s research interests focus on the role of ABC transporters and other membrane proteins in health and disease.

Scientific Advisor
Joe Bentz, Ph.D.

Joe Bentz obtained his B.A. in Chemistry at Reed College (Portland, OR) and his Ph.D. in Biophysical Sciences at SUNY at Buffalo (Buffalo, NY). His research centers on using kinetics to analyze membrane protein function. Currently, he is focused on P-gp and other ABC transporters that have substrate overlap with P-gp, e.g. BCRP. This research has resulted in a new proposed paradigm for the kinetic modeling of this transport process and the molecular mechanism of P-gp mediated efflux. The kinetic model is directly applicable to all ABC transporters and is currently being incorporated into an in vivo PBPK model. In 2009, he was chosen to lead the kinetic analysis for the International Transport Consortium sponsored study involving 25 pharmaceutical companies on the usage of in vitro systems to predict clinically relevant drug-drug interactions, DDI. This study has culminated in several papers and in recommendations to the FDA for revisions to the in vitro criteria for requiring clinical DDI trials.

Scientific Advisor
Balázs Sarkadi, M.D., Ph.D.

Balázs Sarkadi obtained his MD and Ph.D at Semmelweis Medical University. He spent several years as a post-doc and then as a visiting scientist at major universities in the United States and Canada. He is head of the Membrane Research Group and professor at Semmelweis University, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, past president of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS), member of several international research societies and the Academia Europeae. His research focuses on membrane proteins, including ABC membrane transporters and stem cell function, new methods for the functional analysis of ABC proteins, and the development of compounds that modulate their function. His current work is focuses on the role of ABC multidrug transporters in the cellular effects of targeted anticancer agents, and the function of these transporters in normal and cancer stem cells.