William G Nelson MD, PhD
Professor and Director, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, MarylandDr. Nelson is the Marion I. Knott Professor of Oncology and Director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins. He currently holds Professorships in Oncology, Medicine, Pharmacology, Pathology, Radiation Oncology, Urology, and Environmental Health Sciences. His laboratory discovered one of the first epigenetically-silenced genes in human cancer, GSTP1, inactivated in nearly all prostate cancer cases. GSTP1 DNA methylation assays approved by the US Food and Drug Administration serve as adjuncts for prostate cancer diagnosis, the first epigenetic laboratory tests in common use. Dr. Nelson and colleagues also identified the major precursor to prostate cancer, "proliferative inflammatory atrophy."
Outside of Johns Hopkins, Dr. Nelson has also become a recognized leader in cancer research, organizing national and international meetings in cancer health disparities, cancer prevention, and prostate cancer, serving on the Board of the V Foundation, as a Scientific Co-Chair for Stand Up 2 Cancer, on the Scientific Advisory Board for the Prostate Cancer Foundation, and as a Co-Chair of the National Cancer-Institute Translational Research Working Group, and working as Executive Editor of Cancer Today and a Senior Editor of Cancer Research and of the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Owner of eleven issued patents, he is a co-founder of Digital Harmonics and of Brahm Astra Therapeutics, and a Board Member of Armis Biopharma.
Disclosures
Board/Scientific Advisory Board/Equity Ownership
Digital Harmonics (Co-Founder; Medical Advisory Board; Equity Share)
Brahm Astra Therapeutics (Co-Founder; Board of Directors; Equity Share)
Armis Biopharma (Board of Directors; Equity Share)
ProQuest Investments (Scientific Advisory Board; Equity Share)
Cepheid Incorporated (Scientific Advisory Board)
AbbVie Incorporated (Cancer Scientific Advisory Board)
Licensed Intellectual Property (with Johns Hopkins)
MDxHealth Incorporated
Aduro BioTech Incorporated
Clontech
Celgene Corporation
Brahm Astra Therapeutics
Issued Patents
1. US Patent 5,552,277 “Genetic Diagnosis of Prostate Cancer.” 1994 Nelson, W.G., Isaacs, W.B., and Lee, W.H.
2. US Patent 5,962,237 “A Method of Enriching Rare Cells.” 1996 Ts’o, P., Wang, Z.P., Lesko, S., Nelson, W.G., and Partin, A
3. US Patent 6,709,818 “Methods of Diagnosing and Treating Hepatic Cell Proliferative Disorders.” 2004 Nelson, W.G., Lin, X., Tchou, J.C., and Bakker, J.
4. US Patent 7,217,421 “Novel Cancer-Associated Antigens and Methods of Their Identification and Use.” 2007 Roberts, M., Simons, J.W., Nelson, W., McArthur, J., Chang, J.F., and Ando, D.
5. US Patent 7,266,606 “Cancer-Associated Antigens and Methods of Their Identification and Use.” 2007 McArthur, J., Chang, J.F., Ando, D., Roberts, M., Simons, J., and Nelson, W.
6. US Patent 7,645,587 “Cancer-Associated Antigens and Methods of Their Identification and Use.” 2010 McArthur, J., Chang, J.F., Ando, D., Roberts, M., Simons, J., and Nelson, W.
7. US Patent 7,906,288 “COMPARE-MS: Method Rapid, Sensitive, and Accurate and GC-Rich Regions.” 2011 Nelson, W.G., De Marzo, A.M., Lin, X., and Yegansubramanian, S.
8. US Patent 9,034,574 “Agents for Reversing Epigenetic Silencing of Genes.” 2015 Nelson, W.G., Yegnasubramanian, S., Lin, X., Speed, T.J., Reichert, Z.
9. US Patent 9,297,806 “5-Hyrdoxymethylcytosine in Human Cancer.” 2016 Yegnasubramanian, S., Haffner, M.C., Chaux, A., Nelson, W.G., DeMarzo, A.M.
10. US Patent 10,196,698 “DNA Methylation Markers for Metastatic Prostate Cancer.” 2019 Yegnasubramanian, S., Bova, G.S., Aryee, M., Isaacs, W.B., Nelson, W.G.
11. US Patent 10,227,654 “Agents for Reversing Epigenetic Silencing of Genes.” 2019 Nelson, W.G., Yegnasubramanian, S., Lin, X., Speed, T.J., Reichert, Z.