SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD
GLA’s Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) provides strategic guidance and direction for our research and scientific programs. It is made up of some of the most distinguished researchers and clinical innovators in multidisciplinary fields in Lyme and tick-borne disease. These leaders advise on overall strategy to direct GLA’s grant funds into research programs judged to have the best prospects of delivering measurable results and the greatest impact.
GLA hosts an annual symposium for SAB members and grant recipients, to foster brainstorming of new diagnostic and therapeutic measures, communication of ideas and collaboration.
The Financial Review Sub-Committee of the SAB is composed of business leaders with extensive strategic, operational and senior management experience. Its priority is to bridge the gap between the research community and the marketplace with the goal of transitioning successful research programs into accessible treatments that are readily available to patients.
Committee Members
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Catherine A. Brissette
Ph.D.
Catherine A. BrissettePh.D.
Assistant Professor of Biomedical Sciences, University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Grand Forks, ND
Dr. Brissette’s research focuses on bacteria-host interactions, with a particular interest in pathogenic spirochetes. The overarching theme of her laboratory is to discover how these microbes persist and cause long-term infections. Dr. Brissette is particularly interested in understanding why B. burgdorferi has tropism for the central nervous system, and in elucidating the function of outer surface proteins that interact with the mammalian host.
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Charles Chiu
M.D., Ph.D.
Charles ChiuM.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases, University of California, San Francisco; Director of the UCSF-Abbott Viral Diagnostics and Discovery Center (VDDC); Associate Director, UCSF Clinical Microbiology Laboratory
Dr. Chiu is an expert in development and implementation of advanced genomic technologies, microarrays and next-generation sequencing – for pathogen discovery and clinical assay validation in the microbiology laboratory. He holds over 50 patents and peer-reviewed publications on these topics.
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Allison DeLong
M.S.
Allison DeLongM.S.
Biostatistician, Brown University’s Center for Statistical Sciences in the Department of Public Health, Providence, R.I.
Allison DeLong is a biostatistician at the Center for Statistical Sciences in the Department of Public Health. With an M.S. degree in Applied
Mathematics and Statistics, she is certified as a professional statistician by the American Statistical Association. -
Richard Goldstein
DVM
Richard GoldsteinDVM
DVM, DACVIM (SAIM), DECVIM-CA; Chief Medical Officer, Animal Medical Center, New York City
Internationally recognized for his expertise in infectious disease in dogs and cats, especially those common to animals and humans, most notably Lyme Disease and Leptospirosis – Dr. Richard Goldstein is board certified in Small Animal Internal Medicine by both the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine and the European College of Veterinary Internal Medicine, Companion Animals. Dr. Goldstein currently serves on the advisory board of the One Health Commission and the chair of the annual One Health Conference at the Animal Medical Center. Prior to joining AMC as Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Goldstein was a faculty member at Cornell University, College of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Clinical Sciences. Most recently he served as an Associate Professor of Small Animal Medicine and chief of the medicine service. Goldstein is the recipient of several prestigious awards including; the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine, Endocrinology Society Research Award and the Norden Distinguished Teaching Award. A respected researcher, author, lecturer and teacher, he has published over 60 research papers and textbook chapters to date, mainly on the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of canine and feline infectious diseases.
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Andreas Kogelnik
M.D.
Andreas KogelnikM.D.
Dr. Andy Kogelnik received his MD from Emory University and PhD in bioengineering from Georgia Tech. He received further clinical training in medicine and infectious diseases at Stanford University, where he continued his career as a physician-researcher. Working at the intersection of genomics, medicine, and bioinformatics, he left academia to found the Open Medicine Institute. There, he has driven personalized medicine, integrating information and biotechnology. His research interests have focused around rapidly emerging complex conditions such as autism, diabetes, and various viral and immunologic syndromes.
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Richard T. Marconi
Ph.D.
Richard T. MarconiPh.D.
Richard T. Marconi, Ph.D. is a Professor in the School of Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center.
Dr. Marconi earned his Ph.D. at the University of Montana and conducted his post-doctoral training at The Roche Institute of Molecular Biology and the National Institutes of Health-Rocky Mountain Laboratories. Dr. Marconi is well recognized for his diverse research accomplishments and has studied pathogenic spirochetes for over 25 years. He has published over 100 peer reviewed articles and has lectured worldwide. A central research focus of the Marconi lab is the development of vaccines for tick-borne diseases for both human and veterinary applications.
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Scott J. Mellis
M.D., Ph.D.
Scott J. MellisM.D., Ph.D.
Vice President, Early Clinical Development and Experimental Sciences, Rare Diseases, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Dr. Mellis received medical scientist training at Washington University School of Medicine and postgraduate training in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He joined Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Group in 1990 with a focus on Zithromax® (azithromycin), including research on B. burgdorferi in collaboration with academic colleagues. Dr. Mellis joined Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in 2001, and led clinical development for ARCALYST® (rilonacept), a medication for an ultra-rare auto-inflammatory disease. He then led Regeneron’s translational and precision medicine initiatives across the general medicine portfolio. He is a co-founder of the Regeneron Genetics Center. Dr. Mellis is now leading an effort to optimize Regeneron’s development of new medications for patients with rare diseases.
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Richard S. Ostfeld
Ph.D.
Richard S. OstfeldPh.D.
Senior Scientist and Disease Ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, NY
Dr. Ostfeld’s research focuses on the interactions among organisms that influence the risk of human exposure to vector-borne diseases and the dynamics of terrestrial communities. He is adjunct professor at the University of Connecticut and Rutgers University.
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Utpal Pal
Ph.D.
Utpal PalPh.D.
Professor, Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Maryland
Dr. Pal is an expert on pathogenic spirochete biology, with several research interests related to Borrelia and Leptospira species. He identifies virulence factors in Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, and deciphers their roles in promoting transmission between the tick vector and mammalian hosts. He also studies vector-host interactions that allow bacterial persistence in the tick, which has a complex life cycle and an immunological response to the pathogen. An additional area of interest is the identification of bacterial surface proteins that are involved in triggering Lyme arthritis and the induction of inflammation.
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Mark J. Soloski
Ph.D.
Mark J. SoloskiPh.D.
Professor of Medicine, Pathology, Molecular Biology & Genetics and Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD
Dr. Soloski is director of the Immunology Training Program at Johns Hopkins, and co-Principal Investigator with Dr. John Aucott of the landmark SLICE (Study of Lyme disease Immunology and Clinical Events) prospective cohort study examining the impact of acute Lyme disease on long-term health outcomes and immune function.
Director of Research and Science
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Mayla Hsu, Ph.D.
Director of Research and Science
Mayla Hsu, Ph.D.Director of Research and Science
Mayla Hsu, Ph.D, joined Global Lyme Alliance in 2015 as its in-house Science Officer and is now Director of Research and Science. She manages GLA’s research grant program, working with the Scientific Advisory Board and creating viable partnerships to help advance the development of a reliable diagnostic test, effective treatments and ultimately a cure for Lyme.
Mayla, who previously worked as a science writer at the Rockefeller University in New York, has a background in medical virology. She obtained her Ph.D. in 2000 from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, studying the mechanisms of drug resistance in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
She followed this with post-doctoral studies at the Rockefeller University, working on HIV transmission, where her interest in host-pathogen interactions developed. She then decided to pursue more translational research and moved to Bristol-Myers Squibb, where she joined a team developing screening assays to look for new compounds targeting HIV and hepatitis viruses.
Financial Review Committee
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Robert Kobre
CPA, MBA
Robert KobreCPA, MBA
Vice Chairman, Investment Banking, Credit Suisse
Kobre specializes in IPOs, leveraged loans, high yield bonds and M&A for equity clients. With over 20 years of financial and health care industry experience, he has advised GLA over the past five years on research objective protocols and grant-making strategy.
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Brian Scanlan
Brian ScanlanPresident, Mount Hope Capital; founder of Caminus Corporation
Mount Hope Capital is a family firm based in Greenwich, CT. Scanlan was also the founder of Caminus Corporation (formerly ZaiNet Software, Inc), a NASDAQ-listed energy software company based in New York.
