Committed to Advancing Novel Therapeutics for Unmet Needs

Robert Benezra, Ph.D.

Chair, Scientific Advisory Board

Dr. Benezra is a member at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer in the Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics and a Professor of Biology at Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences in New York City. Before he joined Sloan-Kettering, Dr. Benezra received his Ph.D. at Columbia University. and then did his postdoctoral work at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle. It is there where Dr. Benezra identified the Id proteins as dominant negative regulators of the helix-loop-helix protein family and has since gone on to identify these proteins as key regulators of tumor growth, angiogenesis and metastasis. In addition, while at Sloan-Kettering, Dr. Benezra and his colleagues identified the first human mitotic checkpoint gene, hsMad2, and demonstrated that its deregulation leads to chromosome instability, tumor progression and drug resistance. His program continues to focus on the molecular basis of tumor angiogenesis, tumor instability and metastasis and is currently developing molecular and cellular tools to inhibit these processes in patients. In 1999, after genetic validation of the importance of Id proteins in cancer and vascular disease, Dr. Benezra co-founded Angiogenex, a company dedicated to targeting Id proteins therapeutically. Since then he has directed the effort that produced a series of active small molecules that target the Id proteins and have demonstrated profound potential in disease intervention.

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Michael Aronstein

Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer

Michael Aronstein is President, Portfolio Manager, and Chief Investment Officer of Marketfield Asset Management LLC. He is one of the founding partners of Marketfield, which was created in 2007. He began his investment career in 1979 at Merrill Lynch, eventually becoming Manager of Global Investment Strategy before departing in 1987 to join Comstock Partners. Mr. Aronstein was the President of Comstock Partners for six years. In 1993, Mr. Aronstein founded West Course Capital, a discretionary commodity management firm. From 2001 to 2004, Mr. Aronstein was Chief Investment Strategist for Preservation Group, a provider of independent macroeconomic and strategic research to professional investors. In 2004, he joined Oscar Gruss & Son Incorporated (“Oscar Gruss”) and served as Chief Investment Strategist. Mr. Aronstein graduated from Yale College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1974.

Michael Strage

Chief Operating Officer, Director

Mr. Strage was a co-founder of Axonyx Inc., a publicly traded biotechnology company engaged in the development of drugs to treat Alzheimer's disease. As a founding Officer and Director, he was responsible for all business and administrative aspects of Axonyx from its inception in 1996 to its listing on the NASDAQ-NMS in January 2001. As Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer of Axonyx, Mr. Strage was responsible for negotiating all of the company's major corporate transactions including the agreements under which Axonyx first acquired its intellectual property portfolio that includes the commercial rights to the pre-clinical research and development programs at New York University School of Medicine and the National Institute on Aging, and subsequently out-licensed some of those rights through pharmaceutical joint development agreements, including a major world-wide licensing agreement with Serono International S.A. In addition, Mr. Strage directed all aspects of the administrative operations of Axonyx including finance, where he participated actively in each of the multiple phases of the company's capital formation, budgeting, human resources, infrastructure, corporate communications and investor relations. Prior to joining Axonyx in 1996, Mr. Strage was an associate at the Los Angeles law firm of Hancock, Rothert & Bunschoft and prior thereto an assistant district attorney at the Manhattan District Attorney's office.

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Martin Murray, MBA, CPA

Chief Financial Officer, Director

Since 2000, Mr. Murray has been the founder and managing partner of Murray and Josephson, CPAs, LLC. He previously held the position of managing partner at the accounting firm of Leeds & Murray, and audit manager with EisnerAmper, LLP. His experience includes providing accounting, auditing, tax, and consulting services for publicly-traded and privately-owned companies, including professional organizations, biotechnology companies, creative artists, and manufacturing firms. Mr. Murray has appeared on television news as a guest expert and has led a series of Continuing Professional Education seminars. He is a member of the tax section of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants where he served on the health care committee. He earned his MBA in taxation from Baruch College where he also earned his BBA in Accountancy.

Robert Dickey IV, MBA

Director

Mr. Dickey is an accomplished C-level executive with more than 20 years of experience leading life science and medical device companies, both private and public, ranging from early-stage development to commercial operations. He has served as CFO to multiple companies, including Motif Bio (NASDAQ/AIM: MTFB), Tyme Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: TYME), BeyondSpring Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: BYSI) and NeoStem, Inc. – now Caladrius Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLBS). He previously spent nearly 20 years in investment banking at Lehman Brothers and Legg Mason. Mr. Dickey is experienced in all stages of the corporate life cycle, including start-up operations, high growth, turnarounds and exit strategies. His expertise includes building organizations, public and private financings, mergers and acquisitions, partnering/licensing transactions, project management and Chapter 11 reorganizations, as well as interactions with boards, venture capitalists, shareholders and Wall Street. He holds an AB from Princeton University and a MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

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Ouathek Ouerfelli, Ph.D.

Scientific Advisory Board

Dr. Ouerfelli has been at MSKCC for more than 27 years. After defending his PhD in Organic Synthesis at the University Pierre & Marie Curie in Paris, France, he had a postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University working with Gilbert Stork. He then spent two years at the Suntory Institute for Bioorganic Research in Osaka, Japan under the mentorship of Koji Nakanishi and working on glutamate receptor structural requirements for activity. With Sam Danishefsky at MSKCC, he has started several collaborative bio-organic projects that led to his promotion to Assistant Laboratory Member within the Cell Biochemistry & Biophysics Program under the direction of Jim Rothman (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2013). As an Associate Laboratory Member he directed a chemistry team that produced 23,000 siRNAs over two years. This was part of collaboration between MSKCC and Amersham Biosciences (now GE Healthcare) towards a functional proteomic profiling of the human genome using loss of function. Since 2004, he has moved to his current position as Director of the Organic Synthesis Core which participates in all facets of basic research as well as R&D at MSKCC. His work spans total synthesis and modification of natural products, design and synthesis of chemical libraries, hit to lead development, polymorph stability as well as formulation and up to Phase I-enabling scale up of APIs, to name a few. His success is credited to creative interactions with surgeons, oncologists as well as basic scientists to bring about novel and original solutions to important problems.

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Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Since the discovery of the role of the Id genes in neo-vascularization and tumor proliferation in Dr. Benezra's lab, MSKCC has continued to provide invaluable support for the effort. It has helped to validate the Id platform with research into the basic biology of the mechanism of action and the medicinal chemistry of the target molecules and potential inhibitors. This work has identified numerous cancer types including breast, lung, prostate and brain where Id inhibition could be a game changing approach. Created on the heels of Benezra's discovery of this new target, AngioGenex's mission has been to commercialize its potential by developing small molecules that degrade Id proteins and prevent tumor formation. Over the years AngioGenex's symbiotic relationship with Memorial Sloan Kettering has taken the form of Industrial Research, Contract Research, Exclusive Licensing, Material Transfer Agreements, exclusive licenses and MSKCC's status as a holder of significant equity in the Company.

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Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins

Peter Campochiaro, M.D., a faculty member at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins, and a highly regarded researcher in the field of Age Related Macular Degeneration (ARMD) is a proud partner of AngioGenex. Under a Grant to the Wilmer Eye Institute, AngioGenex has been engaged in a scientific collaboration with Dr. Campochiaro’s lab.

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The Breast Cancer Research Foundation

The Robert Benezra Lab at MSKCC has been a recipient of significant annual support from the Estee Lauder Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Their funding has contributed to the validation of ID protein activity in the establishment and metastasis of breast cancer.

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National Institutes of Health

Since its inception, AngioGenex has applied for and received funding from the United States’s National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI). AngioGenex received a Small Business Industrial Research (SBIR) Grant to study its bio-technology and drugs. The SBIR Grant funded experiments that established the enhanced anti-cancer effect of AGx51 administered in combination with Taxol. The studies at the National Cancer Institute established that AGX51 crosses the blood brain barrier or interface and could potentially be used to treat brain cancers after oral or systemic administration.

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National Cancer Institute

Since its inception, AngioGenex has applied for and received funding from the United States’s National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI). AngioGenex received a Small Business Industrial Research (SBIR) Grant to study its bio-technology and drugs. The SBIR Grant funded experiments that established the enhanced anti-cancer effect of AGX51 administered in combination with Taxol. The studies at the National Cancer Institute established that AGX51 crosses the blood brain barrier or interface and could potentially be used to treat brain cancers after oral or systemic administration.

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