Sid Kerkar

Dr. Kerkar joined EXUMA Biotech in September 2020 from Eli Lilly & Company, where he served as Associate Vice President of Immuno-oncology, providing medical leadership to large cross-functional early clinical development teams. Previously, he was a Distinguished Research Fellow at Boehringer-Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals from 2017-2019 where he established and led a biomarker group providing genomic sequencing, gene editing technologies, and pathology support to global oncology programs. From 2016-2017, Dr. Kerkar was at Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he was responsible for utilizing digital technologies to characterize immune checkpoints in the tumor microenvironment. From 2006-2015, Dr. Kerkar was at the National Institutes of Health, where he completed post-doctoral research and clinical fellowships at the National Cancer Institute. His research on the genetic modification of T cells with cytokines to reverse the immuno-suppressive tumor microenvironment advanced from bench to bedside using adoptive T cell therapy. While at the Surgery Branch, NCI, Dr. Kerkar provided clinical care to patients on Dr. Steven A. Rosenberg’s cancer immunotherapy protocols. Dr. Kerkar earned his M.D. with distinction in biomedical research from the Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan, completed two years of general surgery residency at the Detroit Medical Center, and finished residency in anatomic pathology at the National Institutes of Health with a surgical pathology fellowship at the Mayo Clinic.