Dr. Royston is a nationally renowned physician-scientist in the area of cancer immunology, with over 100 scientific publications. He received his B.S. and M.D. degrees from The Johns Hopkins University and completed postdoctoral training in internal medicine and medical oncology at Stanford University. From 1978 to 1990, he was on the faculty of the medical school at the University of California, San Diego. Since 1990, he has been both a partner of Forward Ventures and the President and CEO of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, which he founded.

Dr. Royston has played a central role in establishing a biotechnology industry in San Diego, helping to found Hybritechin in 1978 and IDEC in 1986. He currently serves as Chairman on the Boards of TargeGen, CancerVax, and Sagres Discovery and is a member of the Boards of Conforma, Avalon Pharmaceuticals, GenStar Therapeutics and Favrille. He was previously involved as a founding Director of GeneSys Therapeutics (now Cell Genesys), GenQuest (now Corixa), CombiChem and Sequana Therapeutics (now Axys Pharmaceuticals).