Cardiff Oncology, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company leveraging PLK1 inhibition to develop novel therapies across a range of cancers has announced that Katherine L. Ruffner, M.D., chief medical officer (CMO), will be leaving the Company on April 22, 2022, to pursue a new opportunity. Dr. Ruffner will provide Cardiff Oncology with transitional support. Sandra L. Silberman, M.D., Ph.D., who previously acted as a chief medical advisor to Cardiff Oncology from June 2017 to July 2021, has agreed to serve as the Company's senior medical advisor and oversee its clinical trials and clinical operations team on an interim basis.
"On behalf of the entire Cardiff Oncology team, I would like to thank Katherine for her contributions to the Company and wish her well in her next endeavor," said Mark Erlander, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Cardiff Oncology. "During her time as our CMO, Katherine led a talented group of scientific and medical professionals tasked with advancing onvansertib's clinical development. These efforts continue to proceed as planned and each of our clinical trials remain on track. We are looking forward to an exciting year ahead."
Dr. Silberman is a hematologist/oncologist who earned her BA, ScM and PhD from the Johns Hopkins University School of Arts and Sciences, School of Public Health and School of Medicine, respectively, in Baltimore, MD. She received her MD from Cornell University Medical College in New York City, and then completed both a clinical fellowship in Hematology/Oncology as well as a research fellowship in tumor immunology at the Brigham & Women's Hospital and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA. She continued to do basic research in Boston after being granted a Clinical Investigator Award from the National Institutes of Health and was an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Silberman subsequently served as an attending physician at Yale University Hospital in New Haven, CT, as well as in the Duke Hematology/Oncology Program in Durham, NC. Her career in the pharmaceutical clinical development field began at Pfizer, Inc., overseeing the first clinical trials of erlotinib in patients. She then led the global clinical development of imatinib at Novartis, Inc., following which she developed the Oncology Division at Eisai Co., Ltd. as the Vice President and Global Therapeutic Area Head, responsible for the development of eribulin and lenvatinib, among other proprietary drugs. As a consultant for multiple biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, Dr. Silberman has provided guidance in the advancement of new and pioneering cancer therapies through translational research and clinical trial designs. She is currently serving as the chief medical officer for Moleculin Biotech and CNS Pharmaceuticals, both biopharmaceutical companies based in Houston, TX, and is a Section Editor for the journal DNA and Cell Biology.
Source: Cardiff Oncology
