Industry Advisory Council

Dr. Geoffrey Kannan brings experience as a pediatric neuro-oncologist to the development of new cancer therapies. At Precision for Medicine, he leads a physician team focused on oncology drug development and provides medical and scientific guidance to biotechnology companies. His expertise spans pediatric oncology, central nervous system cancers, and other solid tumors.

Before moving into industry, Dr. Kannan worked at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Boston Children’s Hospital. He later served on staff at Children’s National Hospital and Inova Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Kannan is committed to applying lessons from industry-led clinical trials to the development of therapies for children with cancer. He joined CureSearch’s Industry Advisory Council in 2021 and currently serves as its chair.

Dr. Anne Borgman is Chief Medical Officer at Circle Pharma and an oncology drug-development physician with experience across pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Her expertise includes small molecules, antibodies, and the clinical and regulatory development of new cancer treatments.

Before joining Circle Pharma, she served as Chief Medical Officer at Sutro Biopharma, where she advanced clinical development in ovarian cancer and infant leukemia. At Jazz Pharmaceuticals, she was Vice President and Therapeutic Area Lead for Oncology, Hematology, and Transplant, overseeing global drug development for programs including Defitelio, Vyxeos, Zepzelca, and Rylaze.

At Exelixis, Dr. Borgman helped lead global cabozantinib development, including phase III programs in renal cell and hepatocellular cancers. She also served as Associate Chief Medical Officer at KaloBios Pharmaceuticals and Chief Medical Officer at Hana Biosciences, later Talon Therapeutics. Her work at Hana included developing a treatment that received accelerated approval for adults with relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia and supporting company fundraising.

Earlier, at Abbott Laboratories, she led oncology development programs and developed early strategies for agents including venetoclax and veliparib. During that period, she also held a faculty appointment at the University of Chicago.

Dr. Borgman earned her medical degree at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. She completed her pediatrics residency at Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children’s Hospital and fellowship training in pediatric hematology-oncology and bone marrow transplantation at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

Dr. Debbie Chirnomas is a pediatric hematologist-oncologist with expertise in stem cell transplantation and oncology drug development. She serves as Chief Medical Officer at Faeth Therapeutics, where she leads clinical development across the company’s oncology pipeline.

She previously served as Vice President and Head of Oncology Clinical Development at Arvinas and Vice President of Clinical Development and Medical Affairs at Gamida Cell. At Pfizer, she contributed to the regulatory review and approval of gemtuzumab ozogamicin (Mylotarg) in the United States and Europe. Her work on enzalutamide included participation in the Pfizer–Astellas steering committee and serving as global medical affairs lead for the submission, approval, and launch of its expanded indication in nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Before entering industry, Dr. Chirnomas returned to Yale in 2010 to build and direct its pediatric stem cell transplant program.

Dr. Chirnomas earned her medical degree at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, completed her pediatrics training at Yale, and completed her fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She also earned a Master of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Dr. Heidi Cho is a board-certified pediatrician with subspecialty certification in pediatric hematology-oncology and bone marrow transplantation. She serves as Vice President, Franchise Head and Global Therapeutic Area Head for Hematology at Parexel.

She brings 10 years of experience in hematology clinical development and the contract research organization setting, guiding teams across all phases of global clinical development. Her consulting work includes protocol development, regulatory submission support, therapeutic area training, evaluation of emerging technologies, and safety monitoring.

Dr. Cho’s expertise spans nonmalignant blood disorders, including sickle cell disease, hemophilia, and thrombosis, as well as leukemia, lymphoma, solid tumors, and neuro-oncology. Her experience also includes bone marrow transplantation and experimental therapeutics.

Dr. Cho earned her medical degree at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. She completed her pediatrics residency at the University of Colorado Denver/Children’s Hospital Colorado and her fellowship in pediatric hematology, oncology, and bone marrow transplantation at Children’s Hospital Colorado.

Dr. Esther De La Cuesta has extensive pharmaceutical industry experience across oncology, cardiovascular disease, and immunology. Her work spans all phases of drug development, medical affairs, business development, and drug safety, supporting regulatory submissions, product launches, and postmarketing activities.

At Bayer, her roles have included Senior Clinical Development Leader and Pediatric Advisor in oncology, with responsibilities for the larotrectinib pediatric program and regorafenib pediatric studies. She joined the company in 2017 as Therapeutic Area Head for Oncology in Benefit–Risk Management before returning to clinical research and development.

Her earlier roles included positions at Rhône-Poulenc Rorer/Aventis, ICON, Covance, Bristol Myers Squibb, Abbott/AbbVie, Vertex, and Takeda. At Takeda, she led the geographic expansion of established products into emerging markets. She has contributed to regulatory submissions and advisory committee interactions, with experience working with regulatory authorities in the United States, Europe, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Japan.

Dr. De La Cuesta earned her medical degree in the Philippines and an MBA in healthcare from Penn State University.

Ruchi Gupta develops regulatory strategies for pediatric oncology programs. She is Regulatory Program Director at Genentech, where she leads regulatory work for global and regional pediatric oncology projects and manages the U.S. pediatric regulatory team.

She leads cross-functional teams in developing and implementing regulatory strategies and serves as the primary liaison with regulatory authorities and trade associations. Her work balances program timelines, costs, quality, and risk to help ensure that regulatory strategies address the needs of patients, prescribers, payers, regulators, and the company.

Dr. Kevin Heller is a pediatric hematologist-oncologist and fractional Chief Medical Officer at Stealth Biotech. His experience spans oncology drug development, clinical research, regulatory strategy, and business development.

He previously served as Chief Medical Officer at Tallac Therapeutics and held leadership roles at Bristol Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca, and Incyte. His work has included first-in-human trials, development of targeted therapies and immunotherapies, regulatory submissions, and evaluation of potential acquisitions.

Before entering industry, Dr. Heller served as an Instructor and subsequently Chief Clinical Scholar of Clinical Investigation at Rockefeller University in Dr. Ralph Steinman’s laboratory. There, he conducted NIH-funded research on T-cell immune responses in patients with Epstein–Barr virus-associated lymphomas.

Dr. Heller earned his bachelor’s degree in molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale University and his medical degree at George Washington University. He trained in pediatrics and subsequently in pediatric hematology-oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Dr. Mark Kieran is Vice President of Clinical Development at Day One Biopharmaceuticals. His career focuses on developing new therapies for children with cancer and advancing them into pediatric clinical trials, including first-in-pediatric studies. His experience spans targeted therapies, gene therapy, immunotherapy, and anti-angiogenic approaches.

Before joining Day One, he served as Senior Director of Global Drug Development in Pediatric Oncology at Bristol Myers Squibb. From 1998 to 2018, he directed pediatric neuro-oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. His clinical experience has also included service on the medical staff at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Dr. Kieran earned his doctorate in immunology at the University of Alberta and his medical degree at the University of Calgary. He completed postdoctoral research in molecular biology at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, a pediatrics residency at McGill University, and a pediatric oncology fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Katherine Minson is a board-certified pediatric hematologist-oncologist and Senior Medical Director at NovaBridge Biosciences. Her experience spans patient care, preclinical drug development, and global clinical research.

Before joining NovaBridge, she served as Senior Medical Director and Therapeutic Area Lead for Gastrointestinal Cancers at Parexel International, overseeing global clinical development programs from phase I through phase III.

Her laboratory research focused on small-molecule inhibitors of the TAM family of tyrosine kinases—TYRO3, AXL, and MERTK. Her preclinical work supported the advancement of a drug candidate into phase I clinical testing. She also studied mechanisms of treatment resistance and combinations of tyrosine kinase inhibitors.

As a faculty member at Emory University, Dr. Minson cared for children with cancer and blood disorders, including solid tumors, hematologic malignancies, nonmalignant and immune-related blood disorders, and patients undergoing bone marrow transplantation.

Dr. Minson earned her medical degree at the Medical University of South Carolina, completed her pediatrics residency at Vanderbilt University, and completed her subspecialty training at the University of Colorado Denver.

Dr. Jodi Muscal is a board-certified pediatric hematologist-oncologist and Medical Director in Clinical Development at Amgen, where she serves as a clinical lead in the global blinatumomab program. Her experience spans pediatric cancer care and the clinical development of new therapies.

Previously, she was a Pediatric Clinical Director in Pfizer’s Pediatric Center of Excellence. Her work included global pediatric clinical trials of palbociclib and gemtuzumab ozogamicin, along with development strategies for therapies to treat children with hematologic malignancies and solid tumors.

Before moving into industry, Dr. Muscal was an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine. She primarily cared for children with solid tumors and patients participating in early-phase trials, and served in multiple roles within the Children’s Oncology Group and other pediatric oncology research consortia.

Dr. Muscal earned her undergraduate degree at Duke University and her medical degree at Temple University School of Medicine. She completed her pediatrics residency at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and her pediatric hematology-oncology fellowship at Texas Children’s Hospital/Baylor College of Medicine.

Dr. Anjali Sharma is a pediatric hematologist-oncologist and founder of A9 Clinical Consultants, where she advises biotechnology companies on pediatric hematology-oncology, gene therapy, and cellular therapy. Her experience spans patient care, medical affairs, and clinical development.

She previously served as Pediatric Oncology Global Development Lead at Gilead Sciences. At CRISPR Therapeutics, she served as Global Development Lead for the thalassemia trial of CTX001, also known as exa-cel, and subsequently for CTX130, a CD70-directed allogeneic CAR T-cell therapy.

Dr. Sharma entered industry at Amgen in 2015 as U.S. Medical Lead for Aranesp and Nplate. She subsequently moved into clinical development, becoming a Clinical Research Medical Director and later an Early Development Lead overseeing two hematology-oncology development teams.

Earlier in her career, she worked in pediatric bone marrow transplantation at the University of California, San Francisco, before joining Kaiser Permanente, where she cared for children with cancer and blood disorders.

Dr. Sharma earned her medical degree at Lady Hardinge Medical College in New Delhi and completed her pediatrics residency at the University of Illinois Chicago. She completed fellowship training in pediatric hematology-oncology at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford, as well as a fellowship in adult bone marrow and stem cell transplantation at Stanford Medical Center.

Dr. Gauri Sunkersett is a board-certified pediatric hematologist-oncologist with subspecialty training in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Her experience includes leading clinical development programs for pediatric indications. She serves as Executive Medical Director at AbbVie.

She joined AbbVie in 2021 and served as clinical lead for the program supporting the first pediatric FDA approval of ibrutinib (Imbruvica) in 2022, for previously treated chronic graft-versus-host disease.

Before joining AbbVie, Dr. Sunkersett was Fellowship Director and an attending physician in the pediatric bone marrow transplant division at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, where she led multiple clinical trials in pediatric stem cell transplantation.

Dr. Sunkersett earned her medical degree at Nova Southeastern University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine and completed her pediatrics residency at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital. She completed fellowships in pediatric hematology-oncology at the University of Texas Southwestern and pediatric bone marrow transplantation at the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Jaszianne Tolbert brings experience in pediatric hematology-oncology and clinical pharmacology to oncology drug development at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine.

Before moving into industry, she served as an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Children’s Mercy, working in hematology, oncology, bone marrow transplantation, and clinical pharmacology. She later served as Director of the institution’s Experimental Therapeutics in Pediatric Cancer Program.

Dr. Tolbert earned her medical degree at Louisiana State University Medical Center School of Medicine in Shreveport. She completed her pediatrics residency at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences/Arkansas Children’s Hospital and her pediatric pharmacology fellowship at Children’s Mercy Hospital and Clinics in Kansas City.