1. Grant McFadden - A Pox on Your Cancer

In this inaugural Science to Business Network (S2BN) podcast, Dr. Grant McFadden shares his scientific journey as well as his experience and lessons learned as an entrepreneur having formed two companies during his career. His latest company, Oncomyx, seeks to deploy an obscure poxvirus of rabbits to save human lives by using this virus to treat cancer. Grant also discusses the implications of the 40th anniversary of the eradication of smallpox (which was announced by the WHO on May 8, 1980) and also shares his perspective on the impact of COVID19 and the work he’s doing to create a SARS-CoV2 vaccine.

Grant McFadden, PhD, is a world-renowned poxvirus researcher, Professor at Arizona State University, Director of the Biodesign Center for Immunotherapy, co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal PLoS Pathogens and past President of the American Society for Virology. Having started his career in Canada, his lab pioneered the field of viral immune subversion and is credited with the discovery of a wide spectrum of virus-derived inhibitors of the immune system.

Biography: Grant McFadden (Professor, Arizona State University)

Dr. Grant McFadden is one of the top global leaders in oncolytic viruses with a specialization in pox viruses, including myxoma. Grant is a Founder, Research Advisor & Director of Oncomyx Therapeutics which is developing oncolytic immunotherapies based on the myxoma virus (MYXV) platform to orchestrate an immune response and treat cancer.  He was inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2004, the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences in 2005 and the American Academy of Microbiology in 2007. Dr. McFadden is currently a Professor at Arizona State University and is the Director of the Biodesign Center for Immunotherapy, Vaccines, and Virotherapy (B-CIVV). He is the co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal PLoS Pathogens, a Senior Editor at Journal of Molecular Therapy – Oncolytics and was the President of the American Society for Virology 2015-16. Grant’s lab studies how poxviruses that cause immunosuppression interact with the host immune system. The McFadden lab pioneered the field of viral immune subversion (also called “anti-immunology”) and is credited with the discovery of a wide spectrum of virus-derived inhibitors of the immune system. His lab also investigates host-virus tropism, and the deployment of poxviruses for oncolytic virotherapy for the treatment of cancer, particularly with a rabbit-specific poxvirus called myxoma virus (MYXV). Grant has published over 340 scientific papers and reviews. He earned a BSc and PhD in Biochemistry from McGill University.