Scott Dylla, Ph.D

Director

Scott Dylla, Ph.D. is currently an entrepreneur, investor and advisor of early-stage biotech companies.  Dr. Dylla most recently served as a Vice President of Research and Development at AbbVie (ABBV), functioning also as the Chief Scientific Officer of the Stemcentrx division in South San Francisco, CA until July 2018. He co‐founded Stemcentrx in 2008, growing the company to 160 employees with numerous clinical assets launched by 2016 when the company was acquired by AbbVie for $6.2B. Prior to founding Stemcentrx in 2008, Dr. Dylla was one of the first scientists at OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, where he spearheaded the identification and characterization of solid tumor cancer stem cells (CSC), and led seminal work to identify colorectal CSC and demonstrate their resistance to chemotherapy.

Dr. Dylla received his B.S. in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology from the University of Minnesota, Duluth, a Master’s Degree in Molecular Pathobiology from the University of Alabama, Birmingham, and his doctorate in Immunology & Cancer Biology from the University of Minnesota. He moved to California in 2002 to postdoc at Stanford University with stem cell pioneer, Irv Weissman, and in 2005 was recognized by the British Council as one of eight outstanding young US‐based researchers in the field of stem cell biology.