Dr. Monica Gostissa Joins Taconic Biosciences' Scientific Advisory Board
Rensselaer, NY — March 15, 2021 - Taconic Biosciences, a global leader in providing drug discovery animal model solutions, announces Monica Gostissa, PhD, has joined its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). Dr. Gostissa joins existing board members, Frank Sistare, PhD; Andrew Goodman, PhD; David Hill, PhD; and Robert Rosenthal, PhD.
The SAB collaborates with Taconic management, providing scientific insight and guidance to expand the company's product and service portfolio. Dr. Gostissa's extensive career in the immunology and immuno-oncology fields brings new expertise to the board and complements Taconic's leadership in these research areas.
The SAB members' expertise in microbiome, oncology, neurobiology, and toxicology spaces mirror Taconic's focus on innovation in these research areas.
"Immunology and immuno-oncology represent areas of thriving research and focus for Taconic. We welcome Dr. Gostissa to our team. She will provide valuable expertise and direction as Taconic continues developing the best animal model solutions to inform human clinical outcomes," shared Nancy J. Sandy, Taconic Biosciences chief executive officer.
Dr. Monica Gostissa is the Senior Director of In vivo and Ex vivo Sciences at Jounce Therapeutics, where she leads a multidisciplinary team with capabilities spanning in vivo pharmacology, ex vivo 3D model development, and histopathology. During her 20-year career in basic research, Dr. Gostissa obtained extensive expertise in developing and interrogating complex mouse models of hematological and solid malignancies. She also has deep cell biology and tumor immunology knowledge. Since 2014, Dr. Gostissa has led preclinical programs at small and large biotech companies, focusing on best translating scientific insights into innovative cancer therapeutics.
Dr. Gostissa obtained her PhD in molecular genetics from the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy, and completed post-doctoral studies at Boston Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical School. She co-authored over 40 peer-reviewed publications and was the recipient of several awards, including a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Special Fellow Award and a V Foundation Scholar Award.
Please find information on Taconic's additional SAB members below:
Dr. Andrew Goodman is an associate professor of microbial pathogenesis and a member of the Microbial Sciences Institute at Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Goodman has been recognized with the NIH Director's New Innovator Award, the Pew Scholars Fellowship, DuPont Young Professor Award, Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigator Award, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Faculty Scholar Award, and the Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering. Dr. Goodman's research focuses on understanding interaction between members of the human gut microbiome and with the host. The Goodman lab combines microbial genetics, gnotobiotic animal models, and computational approaches to develop new technologies for studying the microbiome and to apply them to uncover the causes and consequences of interpersonal microbiome variation. Dr. Goodman was trained in ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton University and completed his PhD in microbiology at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. David Hill has established a successful and extensive career leading the pharmacology departments at many major pharmaceutical companies, including a combined twenty years at Organon and Merck. Dr. Hill's therapeutic expertise includes neuroscience, pain, anesthesia, cardiometabolic disease, and oncology. Dr. Hill played a pivotal role in directing preclinical animal model programs of various sizes that resulted in many new therapeutics. Beyond his scientific expertise, Dr. Hill also brings a keen knowledge of harmonizing internal and outsourced resources to produce both sound scientific and business results. Dr. Hill earned a BS degree in applied biology from Hatfield Polytechnic and PhD in pharmacology from St. Thomas Hospital Medical School.
Dr. Robert J. Rosenthal has more than 30 years of experience relating to companies involved in the development of diagnostics, therapeutics, medical devices, and life sciences tools. He currently serves on the Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. Board of Directors, where he is Chairman of the Capital Management Committee and a member of the Audit and Compensation Committees. Prior to Taconic, Bob's executive leadership roles include; Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of IMI Intelligent Medical Implants AG, a medical technology company that developed a retinal implant system for degenerative disorders; and President, Chief Executive Officer and a Director of Magellan Biosciences, Inc., a provider of life sciences research tools, which he founded. Bob holds a BS degree from the University of Maryland, an MS from State University of New York, a PhD from Emory University, and an Executive MBA from Stanford University. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Universität Würzburg, Germany, as a guest scientist of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, followed by an additional post-doctoral fellowship at UCLA.
Dr. Frank Sistare has served for the past 16 years as Executive Director, Associate Vice President and then Scientific Associate Vice President within Safety Assessment and Laboratory Animal Resources at Merck Research Laboratories. His executive management and scientific strategic responsibilities at Merck included genetic toxicology assessments and molecular carcinogenesis investigations; investigative toxicology research and laboratory support for safety lead optimization; incorporating new in vitro and in vivo safety models and emerging technologies into drug development including genomics, proteomics, metabonomics, and genetically engineered animal models; and providing new translational safety biomarker development support for drug development. He served previously for 15 years in several leadership and management positions with the laboratory research component of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. Dr. Sistare is a retired Captain from the Public Health Service (PHS) Commissioned Corps. He is a recipient of the Merck Presidential Fellowship Award, and has received several PHS Unit Commendations, as well as PHS Meritorious Service, Commendation, and Achievement Awards, and CDER and FDA awards for excellence in laboratory research. He earned his BS in Pharmacy from the University of Rhode Island, his PhD in Pharmacology at the University of Virginia, and was awarded a postdoctoral PRAT Fellowship at the National Institutes of Health. He has served as President of the Regulatory and Safety Evaluation Specialty Section of the Society of Toxicology, as Co-Director of the Critical Path Institute's Predictive Safety Testing Consortium (PSTC), as Co-Chair of the PSTC Nephrotoxicity Biomarker Working Group, and currently serves as Rapporteur of the International Conference on Harmonization S1 Carcinogenicity Expert Working Group, Chairperson of the PhRMA Clinical and Preclinical Development Committee's Carcinogenicity Key Issue Working Group, and Chairperson of the FNIH Biomarker Consortium's Clinical Kidney Safety Biomarker Qualification Project Team.
Taconic Biosciences is a fully-licensed, global leader in genetically engineered rodent models and services. Founded in 1952, Taconic provides the best animal solutions so that customers can acquire, custom generate, breed, precondition, test, and distribute valuable research models worldwide. Specialists in genetically engineered mouse and rat models, microbiome, immuno-oncology mouse models, and integrated model design and breeding services, Taconic operates three service laboratories and six breeding facilities in the U.S. and Europe, maintains distributor relationships in Asia, and has global shipping capabilities to provide animal models almost anywhere in the world.
Media Contact: marketing@taconic.com