Board Member
Dr. Mark Adler is a physician-scientist with extensive experience across academic research, clinical oncology, and biotech innovation. He earned his B.A. summa cum laude from Yale and M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, followed by residency at Penn and fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at UC San Diego. At the Wistar Institute, he conducted NIH-sponsored research on tumor immunology and was later awarded the NIH Physician-Scientist Award for work on cancer and cellular senescence. In 1991, Dr. Adler founded the San Diego Cancer Center, which became the region’s leading independent oncology institution and was later acquired by the University of California. As founding CEO, he served as on-site principal investigator on pivotal trials, including those which ushered the first genome-targeted therapies. A founding Director of WebMD with tenure until its acquisition (1998–2017), Dr. Adler helped lead its acquisition of Medscape and its growth into the world’s foremost platform for physician education and CME. He has served on the boards of multiple healthcare companies, including CareInsite (NASDAQ: CARI), Medical Manager, HLTH (NASDAQ), and currently Forian (NASDAQ: FORA) which provides medical informatics services. Dr. Adler now serves on the Board of XZOM, where, as Chair of the Medical Science Committee, he helped shape the company’s breakthrough method for isolating exosomes and its present development of exosome-based proteomic platform for early detection of pancreatic cancer. His combined expertise in clinical oncology, molecular biology, and leadership at both start-up and in public company boards brings depth to advancing innovation in oncology.
