Scientific Advisory Board

Chief Science Officer, Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board, and Director. Dr. Newman obtained his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of Connecticut and then served in postdoctoral positions at the Medical School of the University of Georgia as well as the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Vermont. He served as a faculty member at the University of Vermont Medical School for seven years and then spent a sabbatical year at Stanford University performing research on immune targeted therapy. He spent 24 years at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC) in Houston, Texas where he held the D. B. Lane Distinguished Professorship Chair. At MDACC he served as the founder and Co-Director of the Pharmaceutical Development Center and the institution’s Analytical Center. He has published over 320 articles dealing with the preclinical and clinical pharmacology, toxicology and development of therapies for the prevention and treatment of malignant diseases.

is a Professor in the Department of immunology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX. His group’s research in the broad areas of viral oncology and immunology focuses on understanding the biology, pathology and genetics of two viral diseases impacting human health: HPV-associated cancers and HIV-induced AIDS. The overall goal of the research is to develop procedures and reagents for prediction, treatment as well as prevention. Over the past 25+ years Dr. Sastry has lead and/or participated in investigator initiated as well as team-oriented research programs supported by federal, state, industry, and philanthropy funds.

Dr. Sastry’s group has been testing the anti-HIV activity of various proprietary compounds from the oleander plant extract and showed for the first time anti-HIV activity of the Nerium oleander plant extract and demonstrated that this activity is related to the cardiac glycoside oleandrin with a unique mechanism of anti-HIV activity.

Peiying Yang is an Associate Professor at Department of Palliative, Rehabilitation and Integrative Medicine at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. She received her undergraduate and master degree in Pharmacy from the Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Following a year and half of study in Department of Pharmaceutical Science at University of Kentucky, College of Pharmacy, she completed her Doctor degree in Nutritional Science from the University of Maine.

Over the past several years, Dr. Yang has been engaged in translational research of traditional Chinese medicine, natural products (oleander, toad skin, sweet gum, sweet leaf tea), and bioactive lipids (omega-3 and omega-6 metabolism) in cancer treatment and prevention through both preclinical and clinical evaluations. Additionally, more recently her laboratory has engaged in understanding the molecular mechanisms of added sugar in breast tumorigenesis. Several of her studies on natural products and cancer treatment and prevention have been funded by NIH or NCI as R01 or R21 grants. These include studies of the chemopreventive effect of fish oil on lung and colon cancer. She also serves as a key co-investigator on an NCI funded grant studying the role of Traditional Chinese Medicine in cancer treatment and symptom management. She has published more than 100 peer reviewed articles and currently serves a board member of Society of Integrative Oncology (SIO), a member of Executive Committee of SIO, and a member of American Botanical Council as well as an Associate Editor for the journal of Integrative Cancer Therapies.

Is the Medical Director of the Block Center for Integrative Cancer Treatment in Skokie, Illinois and is the Scientific Director Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Education. He serves as Editor-in-Chief for the peer-reviewed journal Integrative Cancer Therapies (SAGE Publications). In 2005, Dr. Block was appointed to the National Cancer Institute’s Physician Data Query (PDQ) Cancer CAM Editorial Board, on which he continues to serve today. Dr. Block has more than 150 publications in scientific journals and books relevant to nutritional and integrative oncology. He is also the author of Life Over Cancer, published by Bantam in April, 2009. His academic roles have included instruction in integrative medicine for medical and pharmacy students at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Dr Block’s research areas include chronotherapy and circadian rhythms in cancer patients, multi-targeted approaches to cancer therapy, outcomes of integrative cancer treatment, drug-supplement interactions, and antioxidant effects on chemotherapy. He is a pioneer in the development of comprehensive integrative programs for cancer patients that coordinate counseling on diet, exercise, biobehavioral medicine and supplementation with conventional medical treatments and molecular profiling.