Who We Are

Dr. Brian Hobbs, Scientific Advisor and Founder of Telperian, completed a doctoral degree in biostatistics at the University of Minnesota and then joined The University of Texas MD Anderson as an Assistant Professor of biostatistics. His expertise spans Bayesian methodology and trial design as well as clinical and translational oncology. Dr. Hobbs was promoted to Associate in 2017, and then recruited to Cleveland Clinic to found a Section of Cancer Biostatistics. He joined The University of Texas Dell Medical School in August 2020 as a tenured Associate Professor. The Eastern North American Region of International Biometric Society selected his thesis paper for the John Van Ryzin Award in 2010. In 2016, Dr. Hobbs was selected by The University of Minnesota for the Emerging Leader Award, an honor bestowed on alumni on the basis of impactful contributions within 10 years of graduating from one of The School of Public Health’s 20 programs. Recognized as an expert in clinical oncology research methodology, in 2017 Dr. Hobbs was invited to lead the publication of National Cancer Institute’s Clinical Trials Design Task Force with the goal of providing national, consensus recommendations for first-in-human cancer drug trials that use seamless designs. In 2019, Dr. Hobbs was invited to describe recent advances and current issues with basket trial designs in the Journal of Clinical Oncology Precision Oncology. In 2020, he was invited to contribute to an article for Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology describing the current state of tumor agnostic trials. Dr. Hobbs has served as a scientific advisor to Amgen, STCube, Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals Inc. and consultant to Pfizer.

Dr. Hong is a Full Professor, Deputy Chair of the Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics, Associate Vice President of Clinical Research at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Extensive expertise in drug development for combination therapy and patient populations with other major comorbidities. Has published extensively on the clinical investigation of combination drug therapy, including multiple studies involving antibody therapeutics and/or immuno-oncology drugs. Recently his research endeavors have focused on developing personalized therapies for patients, whose tumors bear specific genetic mutations/amplifications and combining targeted therapies with immunotherapies.

Mr. Sharp has over 20 years as a statistical programming and data standards consultant. As Chief Executive Officer of SimulStat, Inc., a boutique Contract Research Organization, Mr. Sharp has extensive experience providing efficient, scalable operational and financial systems to support growth and profitability. SimulStat has served multiple clients across pharma, biotech, academia, and medical devices companies, and has a proven record of implementing complex CDISC mappings, as well as navigating those mappings through FDA submission guidelines. Mr. Sharp holds a BS in Statistics from Iowa State University.

Dr. Hafen is a data scientist with expertise and interest in exploratory data analysis, data visualization, computational statistics, statistical model building, and machine learning on large, complex datasets. Dr. Hafen has worked as a research scientist and consultant in many fields, including global health, cyber security, power systems engineering, and the physical and biological sciences. He has a passion for building tools that enable greater data fluency. He holds a Ph.D. in statistics from Purdue University.

Samantha Drake is the Vice President, Business Development at Telperian Inc., bringing over a decade of experience in the CRO industry and a proven ability to lead clinical trials from startup through completion. A former Division I athlete, she combines a competitive edge with a collaborative mindset, aligning cross-functional teams and client stakeholders around a shared vision. Samantha is known for translating complex scientific goals into clear, actionable strategies—driving results through precision, partnership, and execution.