Stephen D. Gillies

Dr. Gillies is an expert in the creation and development of recombinant antibodies and immunotherapy. He is inventor of core platform technologies, immunocytokines and Fc-X, for which there are several clinical projects in development with various pharmaceutical companies, research institutes, and government agencies.

Prior to founding Provenance Biopharmaceuticals Corp., Dr Gillies led all scientific and business endeavors of Lexigen Pharmaceuticals Corp. since its founding in 1992 as Fuji Immunopharmaceuticals Corp. In this capacity, he was responsible for numerous funding activities and corporate partnerships, including the acquisition of the Company by Merck KGaA. After Lexigen’s acquisition in 1999, until 2007, Dr. Gillies had the additional responsibility of overseeing Global Oncology Pre-clinical research for Merck KGaA. Previously, he was vice president of research at Damon Biotech and Abbott Biotech Inc., where he oversaw development of recombinant antibodies and pro-urokinase, an anti-clotting protein. As a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, working with Nobel laureate Susumu Tonegawa, he identified the first cellular enhancer sequences that were found to be critical for the regulation of antibody expression. This discovery proved a key part of the commercial success of Erbitux, a cancer drug marketed by Imclone Systems Inc., Bristol Myers Squibb, and Merck KGaA. Dr. Gillies and his scientific teams have expanded on this early scientific breakthrough with other protein expression technologies, including Fc-X technology. As part of his recombinant antibody project work, Dr. Gillies invented and implemented the immunocytokine technology, and leveraged through his academic network, the first proof of principle of this approach. Through support of the National Cancer Institute and clinicians in both the US and Germany the first clinical trials were conducted. During the course of his scientific career, Dr. Gillies led multiple therapeutic candidates into clinical development for HIV/AIDS and cancer. These include engineered antibodies, NCEs and immunocytokines.

Dr. Gillies received his M.S. degree and Ph.D. from the College of Medicine and Dentistry, Rutgers University and his B.S. degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.