Executive Board

Graduated from the University of Puget Sound, Washington with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology/Chemistry in 1979 after which he received his Medical Technology diploma from Cleveland Clinic, Ohio in 1981. Columbia University, New York, USA, was his graduate school where he achieved his MA in Pathology (1982), continued his MPhil in Pathology (1984) and gained his PhD in Pathobiology (Tumor Immunology) in 1987.

In the last quarter of 2018 he was appointment Executive Director, Research Affairs (Corporate) at King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre (KFSH&RC). In addition to this responsibility, he is also an Adjunct Professor in the College of Medicine at Alfaisal University, Riyadh and an Advisor at King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology. He previously holds the position of Executive Director, Research Centre at KFSH&RC from 1996 until the 3rd quarter of 2018.

Through his work as Executive Director of Research Centre at KFSH&RC and at King Salman Center for Disability Research, he gained extensive experience in various national research and studies and established national and international partnerships that had a significant impact and remarkable output.

For over 25 years he worked in the field of research management and served as the transformation engineer of Research Centre, with an aim of transforming the institution to a distinguished national center in the field of medical clinical research. He was also a pioneer in the establishing technical companies to transform research production into concrete services.

His research interest is in Tumor and Transplantation Immunology where he has published more than 150 full-length papers and meeting abstracts.

He is a member of many professional societies and he holds membership in a number of high level committees locally which include Board of Directors, King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), Board of Trustees, King Salman Center for Disability Research, Oversight Committee for the National Strategy for Science and Technology and Innovation, College of Medicine Board of AlFaisal University, Technology Advisory Council of Saudi Technology Development and Investment Company (TAQNIA); and internationally including the Board of Trustees and Scientific Advisory Council of Dubai Harvard Foundation for Medical Research, Governing Council of International Network for Cancer Treatment and Research (INCTR), Executive and Scientific Committees of International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC),  Advisory Board, KACST-UCSD Joint Center for Excellence in Nanomedicine and Engineering, Executive Committee of International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC), Technology Advisory Council of Saudi Technology Development and Investment Company (TAQNIA) Board of Directors International.

She is an internationally recognised expert in genetic predisposition to prostate cancer for which she was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in June 2012. Her research programme links bench to bedside and involves identification of genetic variants which predispose to prostate cancer and their clinical application in targeted screening and prostate cancer care. She is the Genomics Champion for the Royal College of Radiologists (Clinical Oncology Faculty). She is joint PI of the Pan Prostate Cancer Group, a consortium analysing over 1500 whole genomes from prostate tumours and its application to clinical care.

We have developed a systematic approach to create tumor organoids across 12 tumors types and use high-throughput screening identify optimal, patient-specific anticancer treatment options. The focus of my research group is on the systems biology of cancer; we focus on prostate cancer and hematological malignancies. In these cancers, we are elucidating the patterns of aberrant pathway activities, rewiring of regulatory networks and cancer mutations that have occurred in cancer cells. We model complex signaling pathways to identify drug combinations that can most efficiently shutdown aberrantly active pathways in cancer. In addition, I am Associate Director of the Institute for Computational Biomedicine.

To date, Prof Lee has contributed more than 200 peer-reviewed articles to the international scientific journal and urological communities, and has presented the results of his studies both nationally and internationally. His current research interests include optogenetics and neuromodulation in the field of bladder outlet obstruction, neurogenic bladder dysfunction, urinary incontinence, and overactive bladder.

She majored in surgery (M.D. from Korea University College of Medicine & M.S. from Korea University Graduate School of Medicine) and in surgical oncology (Ph.D. from Korea University Graduate School of Medicine).

She built her career in academia at University of Texas Houston, her alma mater, Northwestern University and NCC. In 1995, she completed post-doctoral fellow at Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and became an assistant professor of surgery at College of Medicine of Korea University. From 1998 to 2000 she was a visiting assistant professor at Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University.

She joined the National Cancer Center in 2000 when it was founded. Currently, she is an ex officio president of the NCC Graduate School of Cancer Science and Policy (GCSP) and NCC Foundation's board. She has also been serving as the secretary-general of Asian National Cancer Centers Alliance since the beginning of her presidency.

Dr. Yang obtained his Ph.D. from University of Copenhagen (Denmark), postdoctoral trainings in France and USA. He has received many awards and honors, including World Leader of the Year by Scientific American in 2002, the Award in Biology by the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) in 2006, Honorary Doctorate from Aarhus University and Honorary Professor from Chinese University of Hongkong in 2009, and Award for Distinguished Academic Achievement by the Human Genome Organization (HUGO) in 2010.

Dr. Yang was elected as a Foreign Member of EMBO in 2006, an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 2007, a Fellow of TWAS in 2008, a Foreign Fellow of Indian National Science Academy in 2009, German National Academy of Sciences in 2012, and the USA National Academy of Sciences in 2014, as well as the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters in 2016.

He has served on many bioethics and other policy-making commissions and committees both in China and for such international organizations as the High Commission for Human Rights of the United Nations, UNESCO, and the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as the International Research Panel of the US Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues.

He majored in internal medicine (M.D. from Seoul National University College of Medicine & Ph.D from Seoul National University Graduate School of Medicine). He served as a post-doctoral fellow at University of Texas Houston, MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Currently, he is a professor of internal medicine at Seoul National University College of Medicine, and also serves as a president of Korean Society of Hematology.

He is the first Korean clinical researcher working with ICGC since 2012. He is a leader of multiple myeloma project of ICGC-ARGO.

Dr. Yoshino has had over 200 peer‐review scholar journal publications on metastatic CRC (mCRC), with several articles published in the Lancet Journals, Journal of Clinical Oncology, the New England Journal of Medicine and Nature Medicine. In addition, he holds several professional appointments, serving on a Guidelines Steering Committee member of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), a chair of Pan‐Asian adapted ESMO Guideline for CRC, an advisory committee member of American Society (ASCO) Breakthrough, Editorial Board of ESMO/ASCO Global Curriculum and the administrative board & a vice chair of international affairs committee of both Japanese Society of Medical Oncology (JSMO) and Japan Society of Clinical Oncology (JSCO). Dr. Yoshino is also a Co‐principal investigator of the SCRUM‐Japan GI‐/MONSTAR‐SCREEN, the Nationwide Cancer Genome Screening Project, a project program director of the CIRCULATE‐Japan, the President of 22nd Century Cutting‐Edge Medical Information Technology Organization (22CEMIT), and is a leader of the SCRUM‐Japan GI‐/MONSTAR‐ SCREEN (advanced solid tumor) project of ICGC‐ARGO

Dr. Zhan is the chairman of National Health Care Project and the chairman of National Biotechnology Development Strategy. He was the Chairman of the National Advisory Board for 863 High-Tech plan in the field of biomedical sciences and is the Chief Scientist of the 973 National Fundamental Program. Dr. Zhan’s research interest is focused on the molecular pathways involved in the control of cell cycle checkpoint and apoptosis after DNA damage, and the signaling pathways involved in regulation of the maintenance of genomic stability and tumor metastasis. In recent years, Dr. Zhan has paid great attention to cancer translational research, including molecular diagnosis and personalized therapy. His research has successfully attracted multiple grants from different funding agencies. Dr. Zhan’s has published more than 240 peer-reviewed SCI papers. Many of his publications are in prestigious journals, including Nature, Cell, the Journal of Clinical Investigation, and others. To date, they have been cited more than 14,000 times.