Diffusion Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced a significant expansion of its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) to include five prominent radiation and medical oncologists to help guide its recently announced clinical program aimed at evaluating the company's lead product candidate, trans sodium crocetinate (TSC), as an adjunctive treatment for hypoxic solid tumors. Listed in alphabetical order, the newly appointed members of the Scientific Advisory Board are: Mitesh J. Borad, M.D., Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science; Robert A. Lustig, M.D., Professor of Clinical Radiation Oncology and Director of Clinical Operations, Radiation Oncology at Penn Medicine; Chad Tang, M.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; Cullen M. Taniguchi, MD, Associate Professor, Department of GI Radiation Oncology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; and, Timothy Yap, MBBS, PhD, FRCP, Associate Professor, Departments of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics and Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Robert Lustig has been selected to head the Oncology branch of the SAB.

These new appointments augment the distinguished Critical Care clinician/scientists currently serving on the SAB: Dr. Lakhmir Chawla, Dr. Michael Harper, Dr. Michael Mohning, and Dr. Michael Roshon. Mitesh J. Borad, M.D., is currently a Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. He also serves as the Director of the GI Cancer Cellular, Gene and Virus Therapy lab, Director of the Liver and Biliary Cancer Research Program and Co-Director, Precision Cancer Therapeutics Program at the Center for Individualized Medicine at Mayo Clinic.

Dr. board concurrently serves on the National Cancer Institute's Hepatobiliary Task Force, an appointment he has held since 2011. Robert Lustig, M.D., is a Professor of Clinical Radiation Oncology and Director of Clinical Operations in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Penn Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is affiliated with multiple hospitals in the Philadelphia area, including Pennsylvania Hospital and Penn Presbyterian Hospital.

Chad Tang, M.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He holds joint appointments in the departments of investigational cancer therapeutics (phase I program) and translational molecular pathology. Cullen Taniguchi, M.D., Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, with a joint appointment in Radiation Oncology and Experimental Radiation Oncology.

Dr. Taniguchi is a physician scientist specializing in gastrointestinal malignancies, with a clinical and research focus on pancreatic cancer. Timothy Yap, MBBS, Ph.D., FRCP, is an Associate Professor in the Departments for Investigational Cancer Therapeutics and Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is also the Medical Director of the Institute for Applied Cancer Science, a drug discovery biopharmaceutical unit where drug discovery and clinical translation are seamlessly integrated.