Team

Board of directors

Joe W. Gray, PhD
Chair of the Board of Directors

Scientific Advisory Board

Gordon Mills, MD, PhD
Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board

Leadership Team

Wassana Yantasee, PhD, MBA: CEO
Dr. Yantasee earned a doctorate in Chemical Engineering and a Master of Business Administration from Oregon State University. From 2001-2008, she worked as a scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (DoE National Lab). She is currently a professor with tenure in Biomedical Engineering at Oregon Health and Science University, where she is recognized as an Oregon Nanomedicine Signature Researcher. Dr. Yantasee specializes in drug delivery and nanomedicine with 20 years of experience working with mesoporous silica nanoparticles and their biointerfaces. She has served as the principal investigator for several NIH awards and as a scientific reviewer in over 36 panels for the NIH and DoD. She founded PDX Pharmaceuticals in 2010 and has built values to the company by creating new intellectual properties using non-dilutive funding from the NIH (continuously since 2012).

 

Worapol Ngamcherdtrakul, PhD: Principal Scientist and Chief Operating Officer (COO)
Dr. Ngamcherdtrakul joined PDX Pharmaceuticals in 2015. He received his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Oregon Health & Science University. The focus of his PhD dissertation was to develop a mesoporous silica nanoparticle into a carrier for siRNA delivery to treat breast cancer. At PDX Pharma, he leads the design, development, and optimization of nanoparticle platform to co-deliver drug, siRNA, and immunotherapy for treatment of multiple types of cancer and skin diseases. He is the contact PI of PDX Pharm’s ongoing SBIR grants from the National Institute of Health.

 

Moataz Reda, PhD: Principal Scientist
Dr. Reda received his doctorate in Biomedical Engineering from Oregon Health and Science University in 2019. His doctoral work led to the development of novel nanoparticle-based targeted therapies to improve radiotherapy and immunotherapy for lung cancer. At PDX Pharma, Dr. Reda focuses on developing animal models of cancer, as well as the large-scale manufacturing of our nanoparticle formulations.

Business Development Advisor

Dee Mahoney
Dee is a seasoned biopharma executive with extensive experience leading start-up and large biopharmaceutical commercial organizations. Most recently, Dee was the Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer of Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Oncology, SDPO, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing, and commercializing novel cancer therapeutics. Prior to SDPO, Dee worked at Pfizer Inc. for 20 years in varying leadership positions, culminating in the role of Senior Vice President and General Manager of Pfizer’s U.S. Specialty Products Business Unit, where she managed a $2.5 billion portfolio of 13 oncology, anti-infective, HIV, ophthalmology and endocrine care products and supported new product planning and business development strategies.

COLLABORATORS AND SCIENTIFIC ADVISORS

PDX Pharmaceuticals has been in long-term collaboration with the OHSU’s Biomedical Engineering, the OHSU Center for Spatial Systems Biomedicine and the Knight Cancer Institute for the development of next generation targeted and combination immunotherapeutics for broad range of cancer under four SBIR awards from the NCI. Our team of collaborators and scientific advisors includes:

Dr. Gordon Mills, MD/PhD, OHSU’s Director and Chair of Precision Oncology, serves as the Chair of PDX Pharma’s Scientific Advisory Board. 

Dr. Joe Gray, PhD, former OHSU’s Director of Center for Spatial Systems Biomedicine

Dr. Shivaani Kummar, MD, Head of Hematology/Medical Oncology at the Knight Cancer Institute (KCI)

Dr. Sancy Leachman, MD/PhD, OHSU’s Chair of Dermatology

Dr. Shiuh-Wen Luoh, MD/PhD, Breast cancer researcher and oncologist at OHSU and Portland VA Medical Center

Dr. Jeremy Heidel, PhD, CMC expert in nanoparticles and oligo therapeutics.