Scientific Advisory Board

John V. Fahy, MD

Dr. Fahy is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) where he directs the Severe Asthma Faculty Practice. He also directs the UCSF Airway Clinical Research Center, which focuses on human-based studies of disease mechanisms in asthma, COPD, and cystic fibrosis. Dr. Fahy’s laboratory is funded by the National Institutes of Health to study mechanisms of type 2 inflammation and of mucus pathology in airway disease, and he is the lead investigator for the UCSF clinical center in “Precise”, a clinical trials network for biomarker directed treatments of asthma.

Brian G. Feagan, MD, FRCPC

Dr. Feagan is a Professor of Medicine in the Departments of Medicine (Division of Gastroenterology), Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Western University and Senior Scientific Director at Alimentiv Inc. Dr. Feagan holds membership in the Canadian and American Association of Gastroenterology, the American College of Gastroenterology, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, Crohn’s and Colitis Canada (CCC) and the European Crohn’s & Colitis Organization (ECCO). His research efforts focus on the design and implementation of randomized controlled trials of therapy for inflammatory bowel disease.  He has been the principal investigator on numerous multi-center trials in IBD and is actively involved in the development of new outcome measures for evaluating these chronic diseases.

Emma Guttman-Yassky, MD, Ph.D.

Dr. Guttman-Yassky is the vice chair for research and the incoming system chair of the Kimberly and Eric J. Waldman Department of Dermatology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. She is a dermatologist and physician scientist who studies molecular and cellular pathomechanisms of inflammatory skin diseases, including eczema/atopic dermatitis (AD) and alopecia areata. She also is the Director of the Center for Excellence in Eczema, and Director of the Laboratory of Inflammatory Skin Diseases at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Dr. Guttman-Yassky has two board certifications in dermatology, after completing dermatology training in both Israel and the U.S. In 2014, Dr. Guttman-Yassky co-founded the International Eczema Council, an organization that includes more than 100 of the world’s leaders in eczema, and currently serves as its president. She is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the American Dermatological Society and is a board member of the American Skin Associations as well as the National Eczema Association (NEA) and the National Alopecia Areata Foundation (NAAF). Dr. Guttman-Yassky has received many national and international awards for scientific innovation. Dr. Guttman-Yassky has co-authored more than 210 articles in high impact journals, including New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Immunology, Journal of  Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, Journal of Investigative Dermatology, JAMA Dermatology, and others.

Edward M. Kerwin, MD

Dr. Kerwin is a clinical research expert with more than 25 years of experience in asthma, COPD, atopic dermatitis and allergy-immunology clinical development and research consulting. He is a board certified Respiratory, Allergy and Clinical Immunology specialist and founder and senior medical director of the Clinical Research Institute, the Allergy and Asthma Center and Altitude Clinical Consulting based in Medford, Oregon.

Dr. Kerwin has been Principal Investigator on over 700 protocols and has helped numerous pharmaceutical companies as a consultant, author and reviewer.

Dr. Kerwin earned his undergraduate degree in physics from Colorado College and worked as a research scientist for NASA. He went on to obtain a Master’s degree in History of Science from Princeton University and an MD from University of Colorado Medical School. He completed his residency in internal medicine studies at University of Iowa, and he completed his allergy fellowship at National Jewish Center in Denver.

David T. Rubin, MD

Dr. Rubin is the Joseph B. Kirsner Professor of Medicine, Chief, Section of Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition and the Co-Director of the Digestive Diseases Center at The University of Chicago Medicine. Prior to his current appointments, Dr. Rubin served for 11 years as Director of the Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition fellowship program. He also currently serves as an associate faculty member at the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics and an associate investigator at the University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Bruce E. Strober, MD, Ph.D.

Dr. Strober was the Chair of the University of Connecticut Department of Dermatology from 2015 to 2018. He has served as a Section Editor for the British Journal of Dermatology, and is an ad hoc reviewer for Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), JAMA Dermatology, British Journal of Dermatology, and Inflammation. He has published more than 160 book chapters and articles in peer-reviewed journals such as JAMA Dermatology, New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, and Journal of Investigative Dermatology, among others. Dr. Strober also has presented data to the FDA on behalf of multiple pharmaceutical companies, including at the advisory committee for secukinumab, a novel IL-17 inhibitor. His primary clinical focus is the treatment of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis and atopic dermatitis.

 Dr. Strober earned both his medical degree and his doctorate from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, New York. He completed his residency in dermatology in the Department of Dermatology, New York University School of Medicine in New York, New York. He is board certified by the American Board of Dermatology and a Fellow in the American Academy of Dermatology.

Stuart J. Swiedler, MD, Ph.D.

Dr. Swiedler is a biotechnology consultant with more than 25 years of experience in the biotechnology field, primarily as a scientist and executive at Glycomed, Inc., and as a clinical scientist and senior executive at BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. During his 10-year period at BioMarin, he contributed to the non-clinical and clinical aspects of drug development for the regulatory approvals of the orphan drugs Aldurazyme, Naglazyme and Kuvan. He continues to focus on orphan drug products and providing his clinical expertise to biotech companies and investment firms. He received his B.S. from the University at Albany, and his MD and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He completed a residency program in Anatomic Pathology at Yale University School of Medicine and Duke University School of Medicine, and a post-doctoral fellowship at Duke.