Owen N. Witte, MD Co-Director of the PICI Center at UCLA Biography Owen Witte, MD, received his undergraduate degree from Cornell and his MD from Stanford University. He completed postdoctoral research at MIT then joined the faculty at UCLA where he presently is a University Professor of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics and holds the President’s Chair in Developmental Immunology. He is the Director Emeritus of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA. Dr. Witte has made significant contributions to the understanding of human leukemias, immune disorders, and epithelial cancer stem cells. His work includes the discovery of tyrosine kinase activity for the ABL gene and the demonstration of the BCR-ABL oncoproteins in human leukemias. This has had practical impact in leading to the development of kinase targeted therapy as an effective treatment for these leukemias and other cancers. His work also led to the co-discovery of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) which is required for normal B-lymphocyte development, and when mutated leads to X-linked agammaglobulinemia, a form of immune deficiency. New inhibitors for BTK are in clinical practice for the treatment of certain lymphomas and leukemias. Dr. Witte expanded his lab to explore the pathogenesis of prostate and other epithelial cancers and discovered the Prostate Stem Cell Antigen (PSCA) which is under active investigation as a cell surface target for immune based treatment of advanced prostate and pancreatic cancers. Recent striking observations using a human epithelial tissue recombination/transformation system have shown that prostate and other tissues can be driven to an adenocarcinoma state by defined oncogenic signaling, and further trans-differentiated by epigenetic control to highly aggressive small cell carcinoma with neuroendocrine features which defines new immune targets for therapy under active investigation. Dr. Witte has extensive experience consulting in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry. He is currently on the Board of Directors and Scientific Advisory Board at Allogene Therapeutics, and a Founder and Scientific Advisory Board Chair at Kronos Bio, and he Chairs the Scientific Advisory Board at Vida Ventures. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Medicine. He has received many awards for his research including most recently the Association of American Medical College’s Award for Distinguished Research in Biomedical Sciences and the Stanford University School of Medicine’s Arthur Kornberg and Paul Berg Lifetime Achievement Award in Biomedical Sciences. Education & Training 1971: Cornell University, BS, Microbiology 1971-1976: Laboratory of Irving Weissman, Stanford, predoctoral fellowship 1976: Stanford School of Medicine, MD, molecular virology, immunology and medicine 1976-1980: Laboratory of Nobel laureate Dr. David Baltimore, MIT, postdoctoral fellowship Awards & Honors 2016: University Professor by University of California Regents 2015: American Association for Cancer Research G.H.A. Clowes Memorial Award 2014: The Rowley Prize awarded by the Intl Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Foundation; Elected Fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research Academy 2012-2017 Appointed member of the President’s Cancer Panel 2009 Cotlove Award, Academy of Clinical Laboratory Physicians & Scientists 2003 Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s de Villiers International Achievement Award; Elected member of the Institute of Medicine 2000 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize 1997 Elected member of the National Academy of Sciences 1993 William Dameshek Prize, American Society of Hematology 1996 Elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 1991 Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award of the American Association for Cancer Research 1990 Milken Family Medical Foundation Award in Basic Cancer Research