Scott Dessain, MD, PhD joined LIMR as an Associate Professor in December 2007. Joining him in his laboratory are Sharad P. Adekar, MD, Scientist; Sarang S. Puranik, Biomedical Research Assistant; and Heather A. Shupp, Biomedical Research Assistant. Dr. Dessain received his M.D. from Yale University School of Medicine, and his Ph.D. in Biology from Yale University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. He received post-graduate medical training at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital and Dana Farber/Partners Cancer Care, all in Boston, MA. He also was a postdoctoral fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, MA, working in the laboratory of the internationally renowned cancer biologist, Dr. Robert Weinberg. There, he created a novel method to efficiently produce authentic human antibodies. In 2000, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, PA, where he pursued research on the cloning of human antibodies and practiced oncology with a specialty in hematologic malignancies and bone marrow transplantation.

Dr. Dessain’s lab at LIMR focuses on the generation of monoclonal human antibodies for use in the treatment of infectious disease, cancer, and neurological illness. Human antibody therapeutics are the fastest growing sector in the biopharmaceutical industry and have been shown to be safe and effective in the treatment of many diseases. Dr. Dessain is also involved in the Hematology/Oncology fellowship program at the Lankenau Hospital, participating in the mentoring of fellows in the clinic and in the laboratory. He is also the Assistant Director of Clinical Research and a member of the Main Line Health Institutional Review Board (IRB).

In addition to his research and teaching duties, Dr. Dessain also directs Immunome, Inc., a start-up company that has specialized technologies for producing native human antibodies. Immunome is interested in licensing and collaborating in the commercialization of human antibodies with academic and industrial partners.