A 20-year veteran of the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Frankel is a hematologist-oncologist with broad academic and industry experience in the research, clinical development, and commercialization of immuno-oncology and cellular therapies. He has internationally recognized clinical expertise and led clinical development programs for multiple US FDA-approved drugs to treat hematologic malignancies including acute lymphoblastic leukemia, multiple myeloma, and lymphoma.

Since 2000, Dr. Frankel has held multiple executive and leadership positions at Merck, Roche, Micromet, Amgen and Genta Therapeutics. He oversaw bispecific antibody development as Vice President, Clinical Development, at Micromet, and, following the Amgen acquisition of Micromet and the bispecific T-cell engager platform, contributed to the approval of blinatumomab (Blincyto®) at Amgen.

Dr. Frankel was Senior Vice President and the head of Cellular Therapy Development at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS). Prior to the BMS acquisition of Celgene, he was Corporate Vice President and the head of Immuno-Oncology & Cellular Therapy and Clinical Research and Development at Celgene. Dr. Frankel oversaw the durvalumab alliance with Medimmune/AstraZeneca, the tislelizumab alliance with BeiGene, and the initial Celgene clinical development alliance with Juno Therapeutics. He co-chaired the Hematology-Oncology Development Committee and served on the Hematology-Oncology Franchise Leadership Team. Dr. Frankel is Chief Medical Officer of Cytovia Therapeutics and an Independent member of the Board of Directors of Precision Biosciences. He serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of Sutro Biopharma and Immunai.

Dr. Frankel received his B.A. from Harvard College and his M.D. from Northwestern University. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital and his fellowship in hematology-oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center where he was Chief Fellow. He has prior academic and clinical appointments at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Georgetown University, and the University of Maryland prior to joining Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons as Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology.

In addition to his contributions to the approval of Blincyto® and vorinostat  (Zolinza®), and the 2021 US FDA and Japan PMDA approvals of liso-cel (Breyanzi®) and US FDA approval of ide-cel (Abecma®), Dr. Frankel worked as an academic investigator on the development of eleven other approved oncology drugs including Vesanoid® and Trisenox® for acute promyelocytic leukemia, Rituxan®, Zevalin®, and Bexxar® for CD20 expressing malignancies, as well as Neulasta®, Kepivance®, Mylotarg®, and Gleevec®.