Advisory Board

Dr. Jame Abraham, MD, FACP, is a distinguished medical professional who currently is Chair of Hematology/Medical Oncology at Cleveland Clinic. In this pivotal role, Dr. Abraham is dedicated to recruiting and developing staff while guiding the department's focus on patient access and multidisciplinary care. Alongside these responsibilities, he continues to serve as a Professor of Medicine at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. Prior to assuming his current position, Dr. Abraham made significant contributions as the Director of the Breast Oncology Program at Cleveland Clinic's Taussig Cancer Institute and Co-Director of the Cleveland Clinic Comprehensive Breast Cancer Program. His leadership in these roles paved the way for his current appointment.

Dr. Abraham's journey in medicine began at Calicut Medical College in Kerala, India, where he earned his medical degree. He then furthered his education and training in the United States, completing a residency at the University of Connecticut. His specialized expertise was honed through fellowships in hematology at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and in medical oncology at the National Cancer Institute.

Before joining Cleveland Clinic in 2013, Dr. Abraham held several prestigious positions at West Virginia University. There, he served as the Chief of Hematology/Oncology, Professor of Medicine, and was honored as the Bonnie Wells Wilson Distinguished Professor of Breast Cancer Research. As a researcher, Dr. Abraham has made substantial contributions to the understanding and treatment of breast cancer. He has served as the national principal investigator for multiple breast cancer clinical trials, pushing the boundaries of medical knowledge in this critical area. His expertise is further evidenced by his prolific academic output, having published and presented over 200 papers throughout his career. Additionally, Dr. Abraham's influence extends to medical literature as the Founding Editor of The Bethesda Handbook of Clinical Oncology, a valuable resource for oncology professionals.

Dr. Abraham's expertise and leadership are recognized nationally through his involvement in several key committees. He serves as a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Breast Cancer Committee, contributing to the development of guidelines that shape breast cancer care across the country. His role as Vice Chair of NRG Oncology's Research Strategy Committee allows him to influence the direction of oncology research on a broad scale. Furthermore, his membership in NRG Oncology's Breast Cancer Working Committee and his position as Vice Chair of the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP) Research Review Committee demonstrate his deep involvement in shaping the future of breast cancer research and treatment.

Throughout his career, Dr. Jame Abraham has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to advancing breast cancer research and treatment. His combination of clinical expertise, research acumen, and leadership skills makes him an invaluable asset to the field of oncology and a respected figure in the broader oncology community. 

After obtaining undergraduate (1990) and graduate degrees (1996) from Simon Fraser University, Dr. Sidhu worked at Genentech, first as a postdoctoral fellow (1996-1998) and subsequently as a principal investigator. At Genentech, he led the development of synthetic antibody libraries that have proven to be a valuable source of potential therapeutics. Dr. Sidhu is an expert in phage display technology and structure-based combinatorial protein engineering. His research has been instrumental in establishing greatly improved technologies for therapeutic antibody development and engineering of alternative scaffolds.

From 2008 to the present, Dr. Sidhu has led research groups at the interface of industry and academia, through affiliations with the Universities of Toronto and Waterloo. These efforts have led to the engineering of thousands of drug-grade antibodies targeting hundreds of proteins associated with numerous diseases. Many of these have been successfully translated into therapeutic candidates through collaborations with industry partners. Others have enabled the foundation of startup companies, including Dextera, Northern Biologics, Pionyr, Antlera, Aarvik, EPOK, and Axoiya. Most recently, Dr. Sidhu has further strengthened the scope of his industrial efforts through the formation of Simisco Biosciences, a unique platform company that houses a large portfolio of synthetic antibodies and cutting-edge technologies to develop these as therapeutics. Simisco is working with partners across the globe to apply advanced antibody engineering technology to diverse areas of unmet medical needs.  

Dr. Sidhu holds nearly 50 patents and has over 300 peer-reviewed publications. He won the University of Toronto’s Inventor of the Year Award in 2012 and the Protein Society’s Christian B. Anfinsen Award in 2015. He became a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in 2020.

Ajikumar “Aji” Parayil is an entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience in technological innovation and commercialization. He is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Manus, the proven BioAlternatives scale-up platform. He invented Manus’ core technology platform at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), launched Manus in 2011, and led the successful commercialization of multiple products – BioAlternatives – made through precision fermentation. Notably, Aji has pioneered several novel methods for engineering chemistry using biology to biomanufacture complex natural chemicals. His contributions are reflected in more than 200 U.S. and international granted and pending patents, as well as more than 60 publications in biotechnology and chemical biology. He is an elected fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Bioengineering (AIMBE) and received the Society of Industrial Microbiology’s (SIMB) Raphael Katzen Award in 2021 for enabling the deployment and commercialization of biotechnology to produce fuels and chemicals from renewable resources.