E. Arthur Dreskin, M.D., had a long and distinguished career in medicine and public service until his death
in 2006. In memory of his outstanding leadership in South Carolina, his family has
established the Dr. E. Arthur Dreskin Distinguished Lecture Series. The endowed lecture
series brings nationally and internationally prominent speakers to address and consult
with our school’s community on topics of high importance to health care and leadership.
The lecture is presented annually.
Dr. Matthew (Matt) Gevaert is the Chief Executive Officer, a Co-Founder and a Board
Member of Kiyatec, Inc. Under Matt’s leadership Kiyatec is disrupting cancer therapy
selection with patient-specific prediction of response to drug therapies, prior to
treatment. Kiyatec achieves this by measuring the response of individual patient live
cancer cells with its innovative 3D cell culture technology platform, with success
demonstrated in peer-reviewed publications for multiple tumor types that score >95th
percentile in on-line impact. Through a dedicated focus on direct relevance to cancer
patients, Kiyatec has successfully attracted multiple rounds of private sector investment,
developed its 3D PredictTM and KIYA-PredictTM ex vivo 3D cell culture platforms, and
published the first functional precision oncology assay with clinically-correlated
prospective predictive therapeutic response evidence in multiple tumor types. To-date,
Kiyatec has been awarded more than $5M of competitively awarded federal funding including
contracts from the National Cancer Institute, cultivated clinical collaborations at
leading national cancer institutions and built productive relationships with premier
biopharmaceutical companies developing the cancer therapies of the future.
Matt is a graduate of the University of Waterloo (B.Sc., Chemistry) and of Clemson
University (M.S. and Ph.D., Bioengineering). He serves on a number of professional
and community boards and occasionally teaches an MBA graduate course in technology
entrepreneurship for professional business students.
Dr. Chiriva Internati has been an Associate Professor at the MD Anderson Cancer Center
in Houston, Texas since August 2019. Prior to that, he served as an Associate Professor
at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center from September 2013 to June 2017.
His research has led to the identification of novel cancer-testis antigens for the
development of immunotherapeutic strategies against solid and non-solid tumors. This
led to the development of the bioinformatic software Diamond CancerSplice, which is
a key core platform of our company, leading to the discovery and prioritization of
isoform antigens via insilico system.
Dr. Chiriva-Internati earned a PhD in Immunology from the University of Nottingham,
United Kingdom. He also earned a PhD in Morphological Science from the Universit`a
degli Studi di Milano, Italy, and a Doctoral Degree in Biological Sciences from the
University of Milan, Italy. Dr. Chiriva- Internati was a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Immunology
at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, earned a certificate in Artificial
Intelligence from MIT Sloan School of Management and earned a certificate in Financial
Technology from Oxford Sa¨ıd Business School.
Sarah Hallberg, DO, MS is the Medical Director at Virta Health, the first clinically-proven
treatment to safely and sustainably reverse type 2 diabetes without medications or
surgery.
As a physician and exercise physiologist with a passion for helping people be healthy
through diet and exercise, she is responsible for providing medical supervision to
Virta's expert team of physicians and oversees the clinical strategy for Virta Clinic
participants.
Before joining Virta, Dr. Hallberg founded Indiana University Arnett's Medically Supervised
Weight Loss Program where she still serves as Medical Director. Her clinic served
as the host for Virta's clinical trial.
Dr. Hallberg is an expert in diabetes care and is board certified in Internal Medicine,
Obesity Medicine, and Clinical Lipidology. Dr. Hallberg is also the Chair of the
Scientific Advisor Board and the Board of Directors of The Nutrition Coalition, a
nonprofit organization that aims to educate the public and policymakers about the
need to strengthen national nutrition policy so that it is founded upon a comprehensive
body of conclusive science, and where that science is absent, to encourage research.
Dr. McBride is a professor in the Department of Medicine'ssection of cardiovascular medicine and theDepartment of Family Medicineat the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, where he also
served as Associate Dean for Students. Dr. McBride also co-directs theUW Hospital and Clinics' Preventive Cardiology program, with more than 30 professional staff, an inpatient and outpatient cardiac rehabilitation
program, a preventive cardiology/cholesterol clinic and other clinical initiatives
for people at risk for cardiovascular disease.
Dr. McBride has served on several national guideline panels including the National
Cholesterol Education Program's (NCEP) Children and Adolescent Treatment Panel, the
AAMC Obesity Panel, the AHRQ Cardiac Rehabilitation Expert Panel, and the NIH-NCEP's
Adult Treatment Panel III and IV.
With his primary research focus in preventive cardiology, cholesterol treatment and
the quality of cardiovascular disease prevention in practice, Dr. McBride has authored
or co-authored more than 150 publications. Dr. McBride is a leader in developing
and implementing statewide teaching programs for health care professionals on heart
disease prevention, cholesterol, and quality.
Ian Crozier, M.D., gave a compelling presentation about his experiences as both a
physician for ebola patients and an ebola survior himself.
About Dr. Ian Crozier
Dr. Ian Crozier is a Vanderbilt-trained infectious diseases specialist originally
from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Over the past six years, primarily at the Infectious Diseases
Institute (Kampala, Uganda), his work has focused on developing clinical reasoning
skills in African clinicians providing complex care at African bedsides.
In August 2014, he was deployed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to the Kenema
Government Hospital Ebola Treatment Unit in eastern Sierra Leone, a ground-zero setting
for the Sierra Leone outbreak. After becoming infected, he was evacuated to Emory
University Hospital, becoming critically ill, but emerging after a six-week hospitalization.
Two months after clearing the virus from his blood he developed sight-threatening
ocular inflammation with high amounts of viable Ebola virus detected in the eye, this
in addition to a long list of other post-Ebola virus disease sequelae. He has been
called one of the sickest Ebola survivors ever, and provides a unique perspective
from a dual citizenship as Ebola doctor and Ebola survivor.
Currently, he serves a three-country technical role at WHO, focused on characterizing
and understanding the sequelae of Ebola virus disease in West African survivors, targeting
their clinical care needs, the management of residual risk and the scientific questions
newly emerging at survivors’ bedsides.
Stephen Dreskin, M.D., Ph.D., was the inaugural speaker for the Dreskin Distinguished
Lectureship at the USC School of Medicine Greenville.
Dr. Dreskin’s lecture addressed food allergies, their epidemiology and immune system pathophysiology as
well as current approaches to diagnosis and management.
About Stephen Dreskin, M.D., Ph.D
Stephen C. Dreskin, M.D., Ph.D. is a professor of Medicine and Immunology at the University
of Colorado School of Medicine-Denver and medical director of the University of Colorado
Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology Practice at the University of Colorado School of Medicine-Denver.
In addition, he is active in many national organizations. Currently, he is the chair
of the Practice, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics (PDT) Committee of the American Academy
of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI) and chair of the Plenary Workgroup for the
2016 AAAAI annual meeting. He also serves on the board of directors of the American
Board of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
Dr. Dreskin grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, earned a B.A. degree from the University
of Pennsylvania and received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Emory University. This
was followed by a residency in Internal Medicine at the University of California Davis,
Sacramento Medical Center and a fellowship in Allergy and Clinical Immunology at the
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of
Health.
His primary research interest is the study of functional IgE-allergen interactions
as they pertain to food allergies. In work funded by the National Institutes of Health
and other sources, his laboratory has established that 2 small allergens, Ara h 2
and Ara h 6 are the major peanut allergens. Current efforts are directed at how these
proteins cross-link IgE on mast cells to initiate the allergic response.
Dr. Dreskin’s primary clinical interest is the treatment of chronic urticaria and
angioedema. He has written numerous clinical reviews on this topic and is the current
author of the chapter on Chronic Urticaria and Angioedema for Goldman’s Cecil Medicine Textbook
(24th ed).
Challenge the conventional. Create the exceptional. No Limits.
Dr. Chiriva Internati has been an Associate Professor at the MD Anderson Cancer Center
in Houston, Texas since August 2019. Prior to that, he served as an Associate Professor
at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center from September 2013 to June 2017.
His research has led to the identification of novel cancer-testis antigens for the
development of immunotherapeutic strategies against solid and non-solid tumors. This
led to the development of the bioinformatic software Diamond CancerSplice, which is
a key core platform of our company, leading to the discovery and prioritization of
isoform antigens via insilico system.
Sarah Hallberg, DO, MS is the Medical Director at Virta Health, the first clinically-proven
treatment to safely and sustainably reverse type 2 diabetes without medications or
surgery.
Dr. Ian Crozier is a Vanderbilt-trained infectious diseases specialist originally
from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Over the past six years, primarily at the Infectious Diseases
Institute (Kampala, Uganda), his work has focused on developing clinical reasoning
skills in African clinicians providing complex care at African bedsides.
Stephen C. Dreskin, M.D., Ph.D. is a professor of Medicine and Immunology at the University
of Colorado School of Medicine-Denver and medical director of the University of Colorado
Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology Practice at the University of Colorado School of Medicine-Denver.