Mitchell E. Reff, Ph.D.
Vice President, Molecular Biology & Antibody Discovery
In 2002 Dr. Mitchell Reff was promoted to Vice President of Molecular Biology and Antibody Discovery. As project leader he is responsible for target discovery of novel antigens in solid tumors for therapeutic monoclonal antibodies or tumor vaccines. Research in his departments also focuses on feasibility studies for novel autoimmune products.
He was project leader of a Primatized® monoclonal antibody to CD23 from 1995 to 2000, and is currently in clinical trials in allergic asthma, allergic rhinitis, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. (CLL).
Dr. Reff was the project leader of Rituximab monoclonal antibody from 1991 until Phase II clinical trials in 1995. This antibody to CD20, approved in 1997, was the first monoclonal antibody to be approved for the treatment of cancer.
Following a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Reff was a senior fellow at the National Cancer Institute. He moved to SmithKline Laboratories in 1982 were he was an assistant director in the gene expression sciences department. In 1990 Dr. Reff joined IDEC Pharmaceuticals.
He received a Bachelors of Science Degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Chemistry in 1973 and a Ph.D. in Medical Microbiology from Stanford Medical School in 1976.