Advisory Board

Glen Gaulton

Glen N. Gaulton, Ph.D. is Vice Dean and Director of the Center for Global Health, and Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. In this capacity Dr. Gaulton oversees the full scope of global heath activities in the school with a mission to improve health equity worldwide through improved awareness and access to care, discovery and outcomes based research, and comprehensive educational programs grounded in partnership.

Prior to this appointment Dr. Gaulton served for 16 years as the lead scientific officer of the Perelman School. In this capacity he supervised all aspects of the School's research and research training enterprise and was responsible for both stimulating new research endeavors and providing the optimal intellectual and administrative support for ongoing research and education programs. Dr. Gaulton received his Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of California,Santa Barbara. He conducted postgraduate research in immunology at the School of Public Health and School of Medicine at Harvard University. In 1985 Dr. Gaulton was appointed Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, in the School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He was subsequently appointed as Associate Professor with tenure and from 1998 as full Professor. Dr. Gaulton was appointed Associate Dean and Director of the Combined Degree and Physician Scholar Programs in 1993, Director of Biomedical Graduate Studies in 1995, Vice Dean for Research and Research Training in 1998, and as Executive Vice Dean and Chief Scientific Officer in 2006.

Dr. Gaulton's research interests are in the area viral pathogenesis, early detection of pathogen infection, and outcomes research in global health. Dr. Gaulton has published over 100 manuscripts and texts, and directly supervised the research training of over forty students and fellows. Dr. Gaulton serves on the Executive Advisory Board of five organizations, is an editor and/or reviewer for nine scholarly journals, and has been chair of four NIH study sections. Dr. Gaulton has received numerous awards for teaching and research, including the Dean's Award for Basic Science Teaching, the Berwick Memorial Teaching Award, the Lindback Award, the Harry Weaver Neuroscience Scholar Award from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and the Leukemia Society Scholar Award.

Alison W. Loren

Alison W. Loren, MD, MSCE serves as the Chief of the Division of Hematology-Oncology at the Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Loren is a clinician in hematologic malignancies, a Professor of Medicine, and Director of Blood and Marrow Transplant in the Transplant and Cellular Therapy Program of the Abramson Cancer Center.

With over 100 peer-reviewed publications, Dr. Loren has built her scholarship in hematology-oncology, focusing on clinical trials in hematologic malignancies and allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation.  Her particular interests are in improving transplant outcomes and in post-transplant survivorship with a special expertise in fertility preservation.  She reviews manuscripts for the British Journal of Haematology, the Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, Cancer, Bone Marrow Transplantation, the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, and the Annals of Internal Medicine.  Additionally, she is on the Editorial Board at Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (formerly Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation). 

Dr. Loren is the senior author on the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Fertility Preservation guidelines.  She is active in the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR), having served as co-Chair of the Regimen Related Toxicity Committee, and has been involved in numerous activities in the Bone Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network (BMT-CTN) including serving as site PI for several trials. She is highly involved with the American Society of Hematology (ASH) where she currently holds an elected position on the Executive Committee.

Dr. Loren received her AB in Biology from Harvard University and completed medical school at Washington University in St. Louis. She completed her internship and residency in Internal Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where she served as Chief Resident. She also completed her subspecialty training in Hematology and Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania, during which she was Chief Fellow.  She received her Master of Science degree in Clinical Epidemiology from the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (CCEB) at the University of Pennsylvania.

James Metz

James Metz, MD serves as Chair of Radiation Oncology at the Perelman School of Medicine and holds the Henry K. Pancoast Endowed Professorship. He is Associate Director for Clinical Services and Programs at the Abramson Comprehensive Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Metz led the development of the Roberts Proton Therapy Center, the largest proton center in the world completely integrated with conventional cancer services. Dr. Metz has become an international leader in the application of proton therapy for the treatment of a variety of malignancies. He continues to work to integrate proton therapy as a new treatment paradigm for cancer and is leading the expansion of proton therapy.

Dr. Metz specializes in the use of radiation for the treatment of gastrointestinal malignancies. His research interests include the treatment of GI malignancies in the multidisciplinary setting, as well as the utilization of complementary and alternative medications by cancer patients, and use of the Internet to provide cancer related information. A major area of interest has been the development of proton therapy at Penn and internationally.

Dr. Metz also serves as Executive Director of OncoLink (www.oncolink.upenn.edu), the award winning Internet resource from the Abramson Comprehensive Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania that was founded in 1994. As Executive Director, Dr. Metz leads OncoLink’s mission to help cancer patients, families, healthcare professionals, and the general public find accurate cancer-related information online. The website has led the way in online education for cancer patients and healthcare providers, receiving numerous awards and recognition from most major authorities as one of the best cancer information websites. Currently OncoLink is developing interactive content and personalized information for individuals while collecting important information to move the field forward, particularly in the area of cancer survivorship. Its reach is international in scope with over 285,000 unique visitors served per month.

Robert H. Vonderheide

Robert H. Vonderheide, MD, DPhil, is Director, Abramson Cancer Center, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the John H. Glick, MD Abramson Cancer Center’s Director Professor. Dr. Vonderheide graduated from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and Harvard Medical School. He completed training in internal medicine and medical oncology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Vonderheide is a distinguished scientist and clinician who has deciphered mechanisms of cancer immune surveillance and developed novel cancer therapeutics, particularly in pancreatic cancer. He is well-recognized for driving the development of agonist CD40 antibodies, now in later stage clinical trials as potential immune therapy of cancer. Dr. Vonderheide discovered telomerase as a universal tumor antigen and has led the efforts to develop telomerase vaccination for both therapy and the prevention of cancer in healthy individuals. He has helped lead a team to show that stereotactic radiation therapy in combination with dual checkpoint blockade represents a synergistic path for immune activation in cancer. Dr. Vonderheide merges his clinical investigations with rigorous studies in mouse models or other laboratory systems. Dr. Vonderheide has been continuously funded by the NCI, and his high-impact findings have been published in Nature, Science, Cell and the New England Journal of Medicine.