Qing Nie, PhD
is a Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Developmental & Cell Biology at UC Irvine, where he also serves as the UC Presidential Chair. As Director of the NSF-Simons Center for Multiscale Cell Fate Research, he is a leading authority in systems biology, computational modeling, and single-cell analysis. Dr. Nie brings deep expertise in quantitative modeling and data-driven discovery to his role on the Scientific Advisory Board.
John Quackenbush, PhD
is Professor of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics and Chair of the Department of Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and a Professor at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. After earning a PhD in theoretical physics, John transitioned to genomics through a fellowship on the Human Genome Project, holding research appointments at the Salk Institute, Stanford University, and The Institute for Genomic Research before joining Harvard in 2005.
John explores how genes interact to drive complex phenotypes and how variables such as sex and gender shape gene regulatory networks. With over 100,000 citations, he has been widely recognized for his contributions to systems biology, including being named a White House Open Science Champion of Change in 2013. He founded Genospace, a precision medicine software company acquired by Hospital Corporation of America in 2017, and was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2022.
James Trager, PhD
is a biotechnology leader with over 25 years of experience in developing novel therapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases, with deep expertise in cellular therapies. As former Chief Scientific Officer at Nkarta Therapeutics, he led two clinical candidates from concept through early clinical development and built a CAR NK pipeline, overseeing a team of 100+ scientists and engineers. Previously, at Dendreon Pharmaceuticals, he served as VP of Research and Product Development, supporting sipuleucel-T through approval and commercialization. Dr. Trager also held research roles at Geron and has advised the Shoreline Immunotherapy Biohub and Stanford SPARK. He earned his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley and a BA from St. John’s College.