SAN FRANCISCO—Earlier this month, the Immune Tolerance Institute Inc. (ITI) announced that Aaron B. Kantor, Ph.D. has joined the company in the position of chief scientific officer, reporting to Louis A. Matis, M.D., president and CEO. Prior to joining ITI, Kantor served as executive director of cell and molecular biology for biomarker discovery sciences at Pharmaceutical Product Development Inc. (PPD), a global CRO providing discovery, development and post-approval services and compound partnering programs for pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, academic and government organizations.
"I am excited to be a part of ITI," says Kantor of his new appointment. "We have a unique opportunity to work at the crossroads of academia and biopharma to advance and industrialize immune system monitoring."
Kantor, 49, has more than 20 years of research and development experience. He joined PPD in 2005 when the company acquired the biomarker business of SurroMed Inc., where he was a founding scientist and director of cell and molecular biology. At PPD, his work centered on the broad effort to discover biological markers for human diseases using bioanalytical methods including cytometry, immunoassays, proteomics, metabolomics and bioinformatics tools.
He supervised an interdisciplinary group of scientists and engineers in this effort and led the development and implementation of a laser scanning cytometry platform for clinical studies. His responsibilities also included providing input into clinical study design, protocol development and selection and development of diagnostic assays. Major therapeutic project areas included immune and inflammatory diseases, organ transplantation and oncology.
"We are very pleased to have Aaron join the founding management team at ITI, as he brings to the company broad-based expertise in applying a range of bioanalytical technologies to the discovery of biological markers for human diseases," says Matis. "His extensive record of accomplishments in both academic and industry settings will be invaluable to ITI as we build our Center for Critical Path Immunology and leverage the partnering opportunities for our integrated diagnostic platforms."
