Lewis S. Gruber, MSc, J.D.
Lewis S. Gruber, MSc, J.D. is CEO, Chief Scientific Officer, and Cofounder of SIWA Therapeutics. Since 2006, his company has been pioneering breakthrough therapies that target senescent cells and cancerous cells to increase healthspan and lifespan. Lewis is also the named inventor on all of SIWA Therapeutics’ portfolio of more than 60 global patents and is coinventor on numerous others.
Prior to founding SIWA, Lewis served as Interim CEO of ZelleRX, an early-stage biotechnology company with a natural killer cell therapy that destroys cancer cells. ZelleRX has found a type of cell that combines the advantages of a natural defense mechanism with the desirable attributes of a biopharmaceutical. They’ve found the best of both worlds in a particular type of natural killer cell, known as NK-92.
From 2000 to 2006, Lewis was CEO and Cofounder of Arryx, a Chicago biotechnology company that brought to market a breakthrough research tool that uses lasers to allow researchers to simultaneously manipulate hundreds of microscopic objects in three dimensions. In July 2006, Arryx was acquired by Haemonetics, with whom they had an ongoing partnership.
Arryx specialized in holographic optical trapping, a technique for creating and moving many optical traps at once. Their technology was commercialized in the form of a flagship research tool, the BioRyx 200 optical trapping system. Under Lewis’s leadership, Arryx was recognized as a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer (2005) as well as a Red Herring Top 100 Innovator for 2004 for their BioRyx 200 system which was released in early 2002.
Before cofounding Arryx, between 1994 to 2000, Lewis was CEO and member of the Board of Hyseq, a biotechnology company with a proprietary genomic platform that facilitated gene discovery and led to the development of numerous therapeutic drugs. While CEO of Hyseq, Lewis completed the largest initial public offering of a biotechnology company in 1997. He also led the negotiation of commercial partnerships that generated more than $100 million. Hyseq was later renamed to Nuvelo, which was acquired by ARCA Biopharma in 2009.
Previously, Lewis was a member of the Illinois Biotechnology Industry Organization (iBio) Board of Directors and served on the Advisory Board of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management Center for Biotechnology.
Currently, Lewis serves on the Board of Trustees for the Field Museum of Natural History and is a member of the Advisory Council of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago and the Madison Council of the Library of Congress.
Before becoming a biotech entrepreneur, Lewis was a Partner and Patent Attorney at Marshall, Gerstein & Borun in Chicago for 11 years between 1983 and 1994. He specialized in biotechnology, life sciences, pharmaceuticals, genomics, and medical device industries.
Lewis earned his J.D. from Arizona State University in 1981, a Master’s Degree of Science in Biology in 1978, and a Bachelor’s Degree of Science in Sociology in 1973 from the University of Arizona.
Lewis has spoken at numerous conferences including the 2nd Annual Longevity Therapeutics 2020 Summit and the Third Annual Conference on the Governance of Emerging Technologies: Law, Policy, and Ethics.
Read Chicago Biotech Company Testing Its Monoclonal Antibody to Treat COVID-19. Read SIWA Therapeutics Takes a Key Step Forward in Novel Efforts to Treat Cancer by Removing Senescent Cells.
Read LEAF interviews Lewis Gruber about targeting cancer and senescent cells. and An Interview with Lewis Gruber of SIWA Therapeutics.
Visit his LinkedIn profile and his work page.
