Leadership Team

Eric Rubenstein, MD, is a board-certified oncologist, hematologist and internal medicine clinician.  Dr. Rubenstein formerly served as the Director of Medical Oncology at the MedStar Georgetown Cancer Institute in Clinton MD; as well as Medical Director of Oncology Research (2012-2018) at Franciscan Health in Indianapolis; where he helped to build an internationally recognized cardio-oncology program.  He has been a physician investigator and enrolled patients on clinical trials for both CNS tumors as well as adult leukemia at a tertiary referral center servicing much of rural Indiana.  While working with MedStar he helped support the Georgetown Lombardi Center and MedStar Washington Hospital Center working with disease groups to ensure Southern Maryland neurooncology and leukemia patients could receive treatments close to home.

Dr. Rubenstein is a recognized proponent of advanced therapeutic treatments with enrollment of patient in clinical trials for the drugs CPX-351, quizartinib,  vosaroxin, brentuximab vedotin, daratumumab, elotuzumab, blinatumimab, dasatinib, everolimus, bevacizumab, ramicurimab, ipilumimab, nivolumab, avelumab, sapacitabine, tivozanib, everolimus, dasatinib, trabectedin, CRLX101 as well as early cancer vaccine trials .  He is an advocate of delivering equitable value-based care; prioritizing and expanding access to clinical research.  Dr. Rubenstein has been focused on bridging the gap between clinical trials and real-world data (RWD).

Dr. Peter Crooks serves as M-Life Chief Discovery Officer. He is a renowned medicinal chemist with over 30 years experience in drug/molecule discovery field. He established or co-founded six drug discovery companies and has more than 270 drug discovery patents and patent applications. He has authored more than 600 peer-reviewed research articles and 700 symposium abstracts and has over 11,000 citations. He serves on the editorial board of several prominent science journals. Dr. Crooks serves as a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. Dr. Crooks is a past chairman of the Drug Design and Discovery Section of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, and served as a Member-at-large on the AAPS Executive committee from 2008-2011. He is the recipient of the 2010 AAPS Research Achievement Award in Drug Discovery and Development. He was the George A. Digenis Professor in Drug Design and Discovery at the University of Kentucky in the College of Pharmacy and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Pharmacy Chairman, and Simmons Endowed Chair in Cancer Research. Dr. Crooks led drug design and discovery for the anticancer drug Valchlor® an FDA approved treatment for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma and several other drugs including Isopronicline® for early stage Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Rodriguez obtained her Bachelor of Arts in chemistry from New College of Florida, the honors college of the state university system of Florida. She then matriculated in the NIH-sponsored Medical Scientist Training Program at Case Western Reserve University at 19 years of age. She completed the M.D./Ph.D. program in six years.

Dr. Rodriguez did her neurosurgery residency training at Wake Forest University Medical Center and was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society. During her residency, she was awarded an American Association of Neurological Surgeons Neurosurgery Research Education Foundation (AANS/NREF) research fellowship for her work in glioblastoma. Dr. Rodriguez completed her neurosurgical oncology fellowship at City of Hope National Medical Center, which specializes in immunotherapy trials.

Dr. Rodriguez is board-certified through the American Board of Neurological Surgeons (ABNS). She is the Director of Neurosurgical Oncology at UAMS and strives to bring novel therapies and trials for the treatment of various brain cancers. She has an independent brain tumor research laboratory in the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute.

Dr. Birhiray is a Partner at Hematology Oncology of Indiana/American Oncology Network and Clinical Professor at the Marian University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Indianapolis. He is also an attending physician in Medical Oncology, Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation at St. Vincent Indianapolis. Dr. Birhiray received his medical degree at the University of Benin in Benin City, Nigeria, followed by a residency and Chief Residency in Internal Medicine at Columbus Hospital in Chicago, Illinois; a fellowship in Medical Oncology at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland; and a fellowship in Bone Marrow Transplant at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. 

Dr. Birhiray is Chair and Founder and Chairman of the Annual Indy Hematology Review and a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Society of Hematology. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Blood Transfusion and Hematology, and his work has been published in such journals as Blood, The Journal of Clinical Oncology, and Pharmacotherapy. Dr. Birhiray participated in numerous studies on therapies for patients with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, metastatic colorectal cancer, and metastatic breast cancer, among others.

Dr. Rao completed his MD and PhD  (Medical Scientist Training Program: MSTP) at Medical University of South Carolina, Internal Medicine residency at Duke University Medical Center, followed by Cardiology and Echocardiography fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco.  He was awarded the prestigious Genentech Research Fellowship.  Currently, he is the Director of the CardioOncology, Heart Failure and Anticoagulation clinics at Franciscan Health in Indianapolis, Indiana.  He is the Chair of the International Cardio-Oncology Center (IC-OS) of Excellence Committee and also serves on the IC-OS education committee. Under his leadership, the Franciscan CardioOncology won the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) national innovator award in 2019 and was awarded the Gold designation as an IC-OS Center of Excellence in 2022. He was the lead author on a Journal of the American College of Cardiology: State of the Art Review of Cardiovascular Toxicity of Oral Antineoplastic Agents in 2021 and is the Governor of the Indiana Chapter of the American College of Cardiology.

M-Life founder (M-Tubulin’s parent company) President and CEO.  Seasoned executive and accomplished serial entrepreneur offering a proven combination of leadership, creativity, vision and strategic skill sets combined with strong technical expertise for challenging growth oriented business environments. A success oriented leader/program manager with experience in aerospace, automotive, biotech, life sciences and software businesses. Founded and led the biotechnology company Vivione from concept to a public company on TSX Venture Exchange (VBI.V); co-Invented and lead product development from ideation through to commercialization. A track record for developing and implementing successful strategic corporate partnerships with private, corporate and governmental institutions. An accomplished angel investor with relationships that span the range of leading firms including financial, legal, and venture capital community professionals as well as state backed economic development grants. Well versed in reverse mergers, SPACs and CPC’s.