Michael Carleton brings to The Mark Foundation over 15 years of research experience spanning the entire oncology translational medicine spectrum from preclinical to Phase II/III clinical drug development. Prior to joining The Mark Foundation, Michael was Vice President of Translational Medicine at Inipharm Inc. and Mavupharma, whose small molecule inhibitor of ENPP1, a phosphodiesterase that negatively regulates the STING pathway, was acquired by AbbVie. In addition, Michael served in a variety of positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Presage Biosciences and Merck. At Merck his team worked on pre-clinical development of Niraparib, a PARP inhibitor now approved for maintenance treatment of adults with ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer. Michael’s BMS team established elevated serum IL-8 is associated with reduced clinical benefit in cancer patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors. Michael also served on the joint steering committee for FNIH Partnership for Accelerating Cancer Therapies (PACT) and as a reviewer for the NCI special emphasis study section: SBIR Phase II Bridge Awards to Accelerate the Development of New Cancer Therapies, Biomarkers and Cancer Imaging Technologies Toward Commercialization.
Michael has co-authored over 30 peer reviewed research papers and is co-inventor on patents across a diverse set of scientific disciplines including oncology, immunology, genomics, virology and bacteriology.
Michael obtained his BA and PhD in microbiology from the University of Texas at Austin and was a Cancer Research Institute postdoctoral fellow and Young Arthritis Investigator at Fox Chase Cancer Center.