Board of Directors

Dr. John S. Kovach founded LIXTE in August 2005 and is our President, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and a member of our Board of Directors. He received a B.A. (cum laude) from Princeton University and an M.D. (AOA) from the College of Physicians & Surgeons, Columbia University. Dr. Kovach trained in Internal Medicine and Hematology at Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University and spent six years in the laboratory of Chemical Biology at the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic diseases studying control of gene expression in bacterial systems.

Dr. Kovach was recruited to the State University of New York at Stony Brook (“SUNY – Stony Brook”) in Stony Brook, New York in 2000 to found the Long Island Cancer Center (now named the Stony Brook University Cancer Center). From 1994 to 2000, Dr. Kovach was Executive Vice President for Medical and Scientific Affairs at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. His responsibilities included oversight of all basic and clinical research initiatives at the City of Hope. During that time, Dr. Kovach was also Director of the Beckman Research Center at City of Hope and a member of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Scientific Advisory Board in Newport Beach, California.

From 1976 to 1994, Dr. Kovach was a consultant in oncology and director of the Cancer Pharmacology Division at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. During this time, he directed the early clinical trials program for evaluation of new anti-cancer drugs as principal investigator of contracts from the National Cancer Institute. From 1986 to 1994, he was also Chair of the Department of Oncology and Director of the NCI-designated Mayo Comprehensive Cancer Center. During that time, Dr. Kovach, working with a molecular geneticist, Steve Sommer, M.D., Ph.D., published extensively on patterns of acquired mutations in human cancer cells as markers of environmental mutagens and as potential indicators of breast cancer patient prognosis. Dr. Kovach has published over 100 articles on the pharmacology, toxicity and effectiveness of anti-cancer treatments and on the molecular epidemiology of breast cancer.

Effective February 23, 2017, Dr. Kovach retired from his part-time (50%) academic position at SUNY – Stony Brook, as a result of which he has been devoting 100% of his time to our business activities since that date.

Regina Brown, CPA, began her accounting practice over 30 years ago after passing all four parts of the CPA exam in one sitting. She was subsequently honored by the California Society of Women CPA’s for this unusual achievement.

Currently, her practice has a wide range of clients, varying in size, industry and geographic locations. They include large national corporations listed on the New York Stock Exchange, as well as local Southern California businesses. Other clients consist of professionals, wholesalers, and high net worth individuals. Many of her clients have international and cross-border operations.

As a consequence of her depth of experience, she regularly assists other professionals with their clients’ issues and performs tax research and analysis in connection with litigation and other matters including marital dissolution, tax and accounting with respect to mergers and acquisitions, implementation of internal controls and extensive work in the area of trusts and estates. In addition, international tax matters and compliance have become a significant part of her practice.

Ms. Brown is a member in good standing of the California Society of CPAs (Cal CPA) and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPSA) and has appeared as a speaker before both.

Stephen J. Forman, M.D., is an internationally recognized expert in hematologic malignancies and bone marrow transplantation and is a leader in preclinical and clinical cancer research. He is co-editor of Thomas’ Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, a definitive textbook for clinicians, scientists and health care professionals. Dr. Forman is the Francis and Kathleen McNamara Distinguished Chair in Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation at the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, a position he has held since 1987.

In nearly 40 years at City of Hope, Dr. Forman has been instrumental in advancing the survival rates for patients suffering from cancers of the blood and immune system such as leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma.

As Director of the T Cell Immunotherapy Research Laboratory, his current research is focused on cancer immunotherapy, using the body’s own immune system to attack cancer. Pharmacological enhancement of patients’ immune responses to their cancers is of special interest to us as the enzyme target of its lead clinical compound, LB-100, has been reported recently to be critical to immune function. Much of Dr. Forman’s current work centers on T cells and their cancer-fighting potential.

Yun Yen, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.P. is a physician, scientist, innovator, and philanthropist. He is widely regarded as an expert in ribonucleotide reductase, a critical target in cancer therapy and diagnostics. He is President Emeritus of Taipei Medical University (TMU) and Chair Professor of the Ph.D. Program for Cancer Biology and Drug Discovery. Prior to TMU, Dr. Yen was the Allen and Lee Chao Endowed Chair in Developmental Cancer Therapeutics, Chair of Molecular Pharmacology Department, Associate Director for Translational Research, and Co-Director of the Developmental Cancer Therapeutics Program at the City of Hope NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, Duarte California. He has published more than 300 peer-reviewed articles, holds over 60 patents, and has commercialized multiple methodologies involving nanoparticles, small and large molecule drugs, biomarkers, stem cells, and medical devices. Dr. Yen also founded philanthropic organizations aimed at serving the global cancer community and holds membership in numerous professional societies. He serves on the boards of Fulgent Genetics and Tanvex BioPharma Inc.

Dr. Rene Bernards is a leader in the field of molecular carcinogenesis, working at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam. His research focuses on identifying effective new drug combinations, new drug targets, and mechanisms of resistance to anti-cancer drugs. He has also co-founded four biotechnology companies to bring his scientific discoveries to clinical oncology practice. He is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences, an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an International Member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA). Additionally, he is a fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), and has received the Princess Takamatsu Memorial Lectureship at this year’s AACR annual meeting where he presented new data on the unexpected effectiveness of the Company’s lead compound, LB-100, when given with a variety of standard and investigational anti-cancer compounds that have only modest activity on their own.

Bas van der Baan was appointed to our Board of Directors effective June 17, 2022. Mr. van der Baan has over 20 years of experience in the biotechnology industry, with a key focus on oncology and diagnostics. He has extensive knowhow in the process of managing a compound from clinical development to reimbursement and commercialization, as well as the establishment of partnerships with the pharmaceutical industry, academic collaborators, distributors, insurance companies and governments to successfully launch new oncology products. Mr. van der Baan is the Chief Clinical Officer of Agendia, an oncology molecular diagnostic company. Mr. Van der Baan is an independent director of Tethis S.p.A. in Milan, Italy. Mr. Van der Baan was co-founder of ThromboDx, a liquid biopsy company that was acquired in 2016, Qameleon Therapeutics, a company developing synthetic lethal drug combinations for cancer treatment, and Oncosence, an oncology drug development company using senescence as target for drug development. Mr. van der Baan started his career in 1997 at a specialty chemicals division of Unilever that got acquired by ICI. In 2002, Mr. van der Baan joined Kreatech, a biotechnology company acquired by Leica that specialized in life science reagents for gene expression, DNA and protein analysis. Mr. van der Baan holds a Master’s Degree in Molecular Sciences from the Wageningen University in The Netherlands.