Philip Stashenko, DMD, Ph.D.

Philip Stashenko, DMD, Ph.D., is President and Chief Executive Officer of Forsyth. In this capacity he provides leadership for all institutional activities and operations. In addition to oversight of Forsyth's scientific, clinical, educational and community outreach programs, he provides guidance for financial planning, public relations and development activities, business initiatives and corporate relationships. He also directs strategic planning and implementation and ongoing evaluation of institutional programs and initiatives. Prior to assuming the role of President and CEO, Stashenko served as Forsyth's Senior Vice President for Research and Development. In this role, he was responsible for leading the core business of Forsyth, its basic, translational and clinical research, and its technology transfer enterprise.

Stashenko graduated with a B.A. in Biology from New York University, and received a D.M.D. and a Ph.D. in Immunology from Harvard University, and a certificate in endodontics, also from Harvard. First appointed to Forsyth as Assistant Member of the Staff in 1978, Stashenko was elevated to Senior Member of the Staff in 1989, and became founding head of the Department of Cytokine Biology in 1992. Additionally, he is appointed as Associate Professor in the Department of Oral Medicine, Infection and Immunity, Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM).

A prolific writer and speaker, Stashenko is author of more than 200 scientific publications, book chapters and abstracts in the fields of immunology and bone biology. His work has contributed to a better understanding of the interplay between immune and inflammatory responses and bone metabolism. Some seminal contributions made by his laboratory include: the role of interleukin-1β as an important bone resorptive cytokine, the characterization of protective vs. destructive immune mechanisms in oral infections, the identification of osteoclast genes that are critical for bone resorption, and the regulation of osteoclast formation and activity by cytokines and neuromediators. Collectively this work has contributed substantially to the development of the interdisciplinary field of osteoimmunology.

His research extends far beyond the world of oral health. Along with prominent physician Lee M. Nadler of Dana Farber Cancer Institute, he discovered the B cell marker CD20. Anti-CD20 antibodies are now used to treat patients with non-Hodgkins lymphoma and other diseases caused by this cell type.

Stashenko's work has been continuously funded by research grants from the National Institutes of Health since 1978, and he was recently identified as among the top 5% recipients of NIH grant funding over the past 25 years. His work has resulted in ten patents, a number of which have been licensed and are under development.

Accolades

Stashenko served for more than a decade as a member of several NIH grant review panels, and is currently appointed to the National Advisory Dental and Craniofacial Research Council. In this capacity, he was Co-Chair, Blue Ribbon Panel for NIDCR Intramural Program review in 2006. In addition, he has served as Director of Postdoctoral Education at HSDM, President of the Harvard Dental Alumni Association, Director of the Harvard/Forsyth K12 Career Development Program. He is currently a member of the Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center (‘CATALYST’) Oversight Committee, as well as the Standing Committee on Higher Degrees in Dental Medicine, Harvard University. His honors include: NYU University Scholar, Phi Beta Kappa, two research fellowships from the NIH, OKU honorary dental society, the HSDM Distinguished Faculty Award (1995), and the Pulp Biology Research Award, International Association for Dental Research (2000).