Oncology Research

Dr. Arndt is Vice President in the Oncology Research and Development Group, leading the Oncology Target Discovery (OTD) group.

Dr. Arndt received his PhD in Biological Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania and his BS from Albright College, PA. He did his postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania and at MIT/Whitehead Institute, Cambridge, MA. After his postdoctoral training, Dr. Arndt was a Senior Staff Investigator at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory where his research team worked on growth signaling and cell cycle control. After 9 years at CSHL, Dr Arndt moved to Wyeth Research, which was subsequently acquired by Pfizer. While employed by Wyeth, Dr. Arndt’s group discovered the SRC/ABL kinase inhibitor Bosutinib which is currently approved for Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML).

Dr Arndt is an author of more than 50 scientific publications.

Darrin Beaupre is Senior Vice President, Head of Early Oncology Development and Clinical Research. Dr. Beaupre brings to Pfizer an ideal combination of translational and clinical expertise, gained in both the academic and industrial settings.

Dr. Beaupre earned his M.D. from the University of Texas at Houston, his Ph.D. in Cancer Biology from University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, and his B.S. and M.S. in Biological Sciences from Lowell University. His clinical practice included a residency and fellowship at the University of Miami and an Assistant Professorship at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center.

Prior to joining Pfizer, Dr. Beaupre led multiple teams at Pharmacyclics, most recently as the Head of Early Development and Immunotherapy. He is the recipient of the Hollis Brownstein Research Grant and was recognized as a “Scientist to Watch” by the Leukemia Research Foundation, and received multiple Clinical Scholars in Oncology Awards from the National Cancer Institute.

Dr. Rickert is Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of Pfizer - Cancer Immunology Discovery (CID) in South San Francisco, focusing on the generation of large molecule immunotherapeutics that promote anti-tumor activity or counter immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment. To achieve this goal, protein engineers, immunologists and cancer biologists at CID combine talents to advance projects from concept to clinical compounds.

Dr. Rickert earned his B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel. Prior to joining Pfizer, Dr. Rickert spent 20 years in academia, initially as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Biological Science at the University of California, San Diego, and then at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP). At SBP, he was Professor and Director of the Tumor Microenvironment and Cancer Immunology Program in the NCI-designated Cancer Center. He also served as the Director of Academic Affairs. Dr. Rickert is devoted to the training of junior scientists as evidenced by his role as an Associate Dean of the Graduate School at SBP, and the Director of a newly awarded NIH postdoctoral training grant entitled Frontiers of Immunology that focused on bridging training opportunities in academia and industry.

Dr. Rickert is the author of more than 60 peer-reviewed publications and has served extensively on editorial boards and federal grant review panels.

Puja Sapra is Vice President at the Oncology Research and Development Group. Dr. Sapra leads the research group responsible for preclinical development of targeted therapeutics including nanomedicines, bioconjugates and antibody-drug conjugate. Her group has built novel sophisticated technologies to develop antibody-drug conjugate molecules and has advanced several of these candidate molecules to clinical trials.

Dr. Sapra received her PhD in Pharmacology from University of Alberta, Canada, her BS from All India Institute of Medical Sciences, and her MS in Pharmacology from UK. She is an author of >50 scientific publications, book chapters and co-inventor on several issued patents.

Prior to joining Pfizer, Dr. Sapra led Pharmacology groups at Enzon Pharmaceuticals and Immunomedics Inc. and developed oncology-based drugs that are undergoing clinical evaluation. She has broad expertise in targeting strategies including immunotherapeutics, liposomal drug delivery system, nanoparticles, antisense oligonucleotide delivery and pegylation technologies.

Michael A. White, Ph.D. is Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer for Tumor Cell Biology, in the Oncology Research & Development Group at Pfizer, which is focused on the discovery and development of lead-in-class small molecule cancer therapies. His group pursues chemically addressable targets that intercept oncogenic signaling networks; modulate tumor/host interactions; and promote productive anti-tumor immune responses.

Before joining Pfizer, Dr. White was Professor of Cell Biology; Associate Director of Basic Science for the Harold Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center; and inaugural Director of the Cancer Intervention and Prevention Discovery training program at UT Southwestern Medical Center. In 2008 Dr. White was appointed the Hortense and Morton Sanger Professorship in Oncology. In 2009 he was appointed the Sherry Wigley Crow Cancer Research Endowed Chair in Honor of R Kirby, M.D., and in 2011, the Grant A. Dove Distinguished Chair for Research in Oncology.

Dr. White's research has focused on oncogenic RAS effector networks; the molecular architecture of mitogenic signaling pathways; functional annotation of cancer genomes; and genomics-guided cancer intervention target discovery. He has authored more than 150 publications with over 12,000 citations. In 2015 he was an inaugural recipient of the National Cancer Institute Outstanding Investigator award