Scott Barrett, M.D. has served as our Chief Medical Officer since November 2019. Prior to joining us, Dr. Barrett served as the Executive Director of Global Medical Affairs of Incyte Corp, a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company focused on discovery, development and commercialization of proprietary therapeutics in oncology and other areas of interest, from June 2016 until November 2019. Prior to that, he served as the Senior Director of Clinical Development of Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a publicly traded biopharmaceutical drug development company, from July 2014 until June 2016. Dr. Barrett is a trained physician-scientist, accomplished medical oncologist and a drug discovery and development expert with more than 30 years of clinical and research experience. He received his B.A. in natural science from The Johns Hopkins University as a Beneficial-Hodson Scholarship recipient and his M.D. from the University of Miami. Subsequently, he became double-boarded in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology, after having completed an internal medicine residency at the Mayo Clinic and his medical oncology fellowship at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
Michael D. Bookman has served as our Chief Legal Officer and Secretary since January 2023 and General Counsel and Secretary from July 2021 to January 2023. Prior to joining us, Mr. Bookman served as the General Counsel and Secretary of Frequency Therapeutics, Inc., or Frequency, from January 2021 until July 2021, and the Deputy General Counsel and Secretary of Frequency from September 2019 until January 2021. Prior to Mr. Bookman’s role at Frequency, he was an associate at Latham & Watkins LLP, a leading international law firm where he worked on corporate transactional, securities and general business and governance matters, with an emphasis on representing high-growth technology and life sciences companies, from October 2012 until August 2019. Mr. Bookman received his B.B.A., summa cum laude, in finance from the University of Miami and his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Harold E. Brakewood (“E.B.”) has served as our Chief Business Officer since March 2023. Prior to Immuneering, Mr. Brakewood was employed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals from December 2015 to December 2021 most recently as Vice President and head of a business unit for oncology, covid19, and new product planning. He was employed by Merck & Company, Inc. from 1989 to 1992, and again from 1994 to 2015 in a variety of commercial roles of increasing responsibility including strategic planning, business development, brand management and an oncology start-up venture. He holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, an M.A. in physics from Dartmouth, and an A.B. from Bowdoin College.
Brett Hall, Ph.D. has served as our Chief Scientific Officer since November 2019. He also served as the Founder and Chairman of the board of directors of BioArkive, Inc., or BioArkive, a privately held biotechnology services company from January 2019 until December 2021. Prior to joining us, Dr. Hall served as the Chief Executive Officer of Asellus Therapeutics, LLC, a privately held biotechnology company, from July 2015 until May 2018. Dr. Hall served in roles of increasing responsibility with Johnson & Johnson, a multinational corporation that develops medical devices, pharmaceuticals and consumer packaged goods, from November 2008 until July 2014, culminating in his role as the Head of Biomarkers of the Hematologic Disease Area Stronghold, where he led translational efforts for Sylvant® and Imbruvica® through clinical development. Subsequently, he served as the Head of Translational Medicine of Oncology at Medimmune, LLC, the biologics division of AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP, from July 2014 until July 2015, before transitioning to executive discovery roles in biotechnology. He has extensive drug development and leadership experience ranging from early drug discovery through translational clinical sciences, including multiple drug registrations. Dr. Hall has extensively published in the areas of tumor microenvironment (TME) and translational sciences, and holds multiple patents for drug pharmacology and discovery. He was also a tenure-track Assistant Professor at Ohio State University where his laboratory focused on the development of human TME-aligned models to better translate preclinical data into the clinic and discover novel biomarkers. Prior to Dr. Hall’s career in life sciences, he served in the United States Air Force and worked as an investment banker. Dr. Hall received his B.S. in biochemistry from Ohio State University, his Ph.D. in immunology and cancer biology from West Virginia University and completed his post-doctoral fellowship in cancer cell epigenetics at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Mallory Morales joined Immuneering in May 2021 and currently serves as Chief Accounting Officer and Treasurer. Prior to joining us, Ms. Morales served as Strategic Finance Business Partner at Gilead Sciences, Inc. (“Gilead”), a biopharmaceutical company, from October 2020 to May 2021, where she oversaw the integration of the research and development organization of Immunomedics, Inc. (“Immunomedics”) following its acquisition by Gilead in October 2020. From April 2018 to October 2020, she served as Director and Assistant Controller at Immunomedics, an antibody drug conjugate company, where she oversaw the annual operating budget, forecasting and business planning. From May 2014 to April 2018, Ms. Morales held roles of increasing seniority at L’Oréal S.A. (“L’Oréal”), a personal care company, most recently as Director of Finance and Global Brand Controller, L’Oreal Professional Products Division, where she oversaw and managed all financial and accounting functions. Ms. Morales is a CPA and began her career as an auditor for Pricewaterhouse Coopers. She earned her B.S. in Accounting and Business with honors from the State University of New York at Albany.
Leah R. Neufeld has served as our Chief People Officer since October 2022. Ms. Neufeld joins us from Luzsana Biotechnology, where, since August 2021, she served as Chief Human Resources Officer, and as part of the executive team, helped establish Luzsana globally as a subsidiary of Hengrui Medicines, the largest Pharma company in China. Previously, she was the Vice President, People, at Prevail Therapeutics, from 2019 and following its acquisition by Eli
Lilly in 2021. Prior to that, from 2015 through 2019, Ms. Neufeld was the Head of Human Resources at Intercept Pharmaceuticals. Before that, from 2014 to 2015, she was the Global Head of Human Resources for NPS Pharma until it was acquired by Shire Pharmaceuticals in 2015. From 2009 to 2014, she held positions of increasing responsibility at Daiichi Sankyo Pharma Development, most recently serving as Director of Human Resources. Earlier in her career, from 2002 to 2009, she held various human resources positions at Johnson & Johnson, including Manager of Human Resources in the consumer division and its oncology company called Ortho Biotech. Ms. Neufeld earned a B.A. in psychology from the American University and an M.S. in career counseling and organization development from Johns Hopkins University.
Lilly in 2021. Prior to that, from 2015 through 2019, Ms. Neufeld was the Head of Human Resources at Intercept Pharmaceuticals. Before that, from 2014 to 2015, she was the Global Head of Human Resources for NPS Pharma until it was acquired by Shire Pharmaceuticals in 2015. From 2009 to 2014, she held positions of increasing responsibility at Daiichi Sankyo Pharma Development, most recently serving as Director of Human Resources. Earlier in her career, from 2002 to 2009, she held various human resources positions at Johnson & Johnson, including Manager of Human Resources in the consumer division and its oncology company called Ortho Biotech. Ms. Neufeld earned a B.A. in psychology from the American University and an M.S. in career counseling and organization development from Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Zeskind has served as our Co-Founder, President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of our board of directors since February 2008. Dr. Zeskind received his S.B. in electrical engineering and computer science and his Ph.D. in bioengineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, where he was recognized as a Baker Scholar, the highest award for distinction.
Mr. Alaia is a dedicated finance partner who thrives in high growth and fast paced environments. He began his career with the audit team at Sax LLP, after which he joined global pharmaceutical leader, Sanofi, where he specialized in accounting and finance. Prior to joining Immuneering, he was an integral part of the finance team at Immunomedics, assisting in building out the finance process and helping the business through successful commercialization of their lead product, Trodelvy. He is a CPA and holds a BS in Accounting from the State University of New York at Albany.
Ms. Arcila is an accounting professional with over 20 years of accounting, accounts payable, and accounts receivable experience. She is responsible for accounting operations and Accounts Payable at Immuneering.
Hema Athawale is a recent graduate from California State University, San Marcos (CSUSM) with a Master’s Degree in Biotechnology. She gained lab experience working as a student researcher on an epigenetics project, and as a teacher’s assistant in both molecular biology and DNA/RNA technology lab classes at CSUSM. Ms. Athawale’s previous work experience includes working as an educator interacting with and delivering lessons to middle and high school students in India. She brings her expertise to Immuneering as a full-time Research Associate.
Ms Axel is a highly skilled scientist with experience in academia (Nationwide Children's Hospital, Ohio, USA) and the pharmaceutical industry (Janssen/J&J in Belgium and USA). She has expertise in solid and hematologic tumors focusing on physiologically relevant models for tumor microenvironment and complex cell‐based assays to evaluate molecules with varying mechanisms of action. Moving from directing hypothesis driven biomarker research projects, internally and externally, Ms Axel transitioned to an operational role at Janssen executing biomarker strategies in clinical trials in early development. She graduated from Ohio State University with a BSc. in Molecular Genetics.
Pedram Banishahabadi has ten years of experience in the information technology (IT) field and is passionate about developing new technologies and staying abreast of the latest trends in the field. Prior to joining Immuneering, he held a number of IT systems positions including Systems Engineer at Interlaced.io, I.T. Responsive, dinCloud and iServe Residential Lending. He received an MBA from Nation University, an M.S. in engineering from Universiti Putra Malaysia and a continuing education certification in cloud engineering from UC San Diego.
Ms. Binuraj is passionate about science and has extensive training in the biological sciences. She has an MA in Biology from SJSU, a certificate in Biotechnology from SDSU, and an MSc degree in Microbiology from Mahatma Gandhi University, India. Previously, she was a research assistant in the drug research team at Aridis Pharmaceuticals, San Jose, where she worked on several projects that involved microbiological assays to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration, ELISAs and cell culture, to name a few. She loves to be part of cutting-edge scientific research and believes that hard work and a great collaboration is the key to many a success story. Ms. Binuraj brings her scientific skillset, detail-oriented approach, and a solid work ethic to Immuneering.
Dr. Brothers is a Bioinformatician with expertise in NGS data analysis and specializes in transcriptomics. He brings industry experience with working in team-based collaborative environments with clinicians, experimentalists, and bioinformaticists. He graduated with a B.S. in Bioinformatics from the Rochester Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Bioinformatics from Boston University. His doctoral thesis focused on identifying splice variants and novel genes associated with chronic lung disease in order to better characterize the lung transcriptome from patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
Dominic Capasso has served as Associate General Counsel at Immuneering since May 2023. Prior to joining Immuneering, Mr. Capasso served in roles of increasing responsibility at Evelo Biosciences, Inc., most recently as Vice President, Corporate Counsel and Secretary. Prior to Evelo, Mr. Capasso was an associate at Cooley LLP and, before that, at Cravath, Swaine and Moore LLP, leading international law firms where he worked on corporate transactional, securities and governance matters. Mr. Capasso received his B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Patrick Christian earned his B.S. in Biochemistry from The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA,. Mr. Christian has worked in many different research environments, ranging from Academic research labs to a high-throughput Cannabis and Hemp Regulatory compliance/ R&D lab. Mr. Christian’s interests in biology lie in molecular biology and understanding the molecular mechanisms behind cell signaling networks.
Dr. de Jong has over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, covering many aspects of preclinical and clinical development. He obtained his M.Sc. in Pharmacochemistry at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and continued with a PhD in Medicine, focusing on anthracycline pharmacology and toxicology. He joined N.V. Organon in ’93, before moving to Janssen R&D; initially in Belgium and later in the US, where he became the DMPK lead for the West Coast Early Development organization in Janssen’s La Jolla, CA site. In this capacity he contributed to IND submission of a range of immunology, cardiovascular and metabolic disorder assets. In 2012 he took on the Clinical Pharmacology lead role for the development and NDA filing of ibrutinib (Imbruvica), applying in silico PK modeling tools to streamline the ClinPharm package. Several other late-stage assets across the hemato-oncology and solid tumor portfolio followed. After a 2-year excursion into Virology at Gilead Sciences, where he worked on their viral hepatitis (B, C, and delta) portfolio, Dr de Jong returned to Oncology by joining Immuneering in 2022.
Ms. Foley has over 18 years of experience in clinical trials, spanning both CRO and Biotech companies. She started as a Clinical Research Associate, grew into project management and has most recently been leading research programs and clinical operations departments. From her commitment to making a difference in the lives of patients, she has developed a depth of knowledge in, as well as a true passion for, early Phase 1 oncology trials. She brings a creative approach to management, including strong teamwork, risk mitigation, problem solving, PI engagement and quality data results. She graduated from Tulane University with a Bachelor of Science in Cell and Molecular Biology.
Dr. Fowler brings deep expertise in biology and computational biology to our team. He joined Immuneering after completing his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His doctoral research was focused on computational immunology and signal integration in immune cell biology, and he conducted research at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Funt’s focus is in synthesizing actionable insight from complex, heterogeneous high-dimensional data. He earned his Ph.D. in Computational and Systems Biology from MIT’s Biology Department. His thesis research, at both the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Broad Institute, focused on mapping evolutionary pathways of drug resistance from genomic and transcriptomic profiling of the pathogen Candida albicans.
Ms. George started her career at PwC in the Pharma/Life Sciences Assurance practice, where she provided audit services to clients, including guidance on financial reporting requirements and internal controls compliance. Prior to joining Immuneering, Ms. George led FinTech Accounting and Operations at Advent Intermodal Solutions, where she collaborated with the commercial organization to build the digital payments and accounting infrastructure essential to support fast growth and international expansion. Ms. George received her B.S. in Accounting from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ and is a Certified Public Accountant in New Jersey.
Dr. Gutierrez is a highly motivated, results-driven clinical research leader with medical background and about 20 years of experience in clinical drug development. Her research experience involves variety of investigational products (small molecule, cellular therapies, devices) and therapeutic areas, with focus on early phase Oncology. She combines deep industry knowledge with a proven track record of clinical trials execution across multiple functions. Dr. Gutierrez gained her MD degree in Smolensk State Medical Academy (Russia), and entered the biopharmaceutical industry after completing her clinical residency in internal medicine and fellowship in cardiology. She spent over 10 years working at the clinical CROs, including Pharm-Olam International and Sarah Cannon Development Innovations. Most recently, Dr Gutierrez has been leading Clinical and Safety Operations at Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, Houston-based biotech company focusing on cellular therapies.
Jessie Haupt holds a B.A. in History from the University of California at Santa Cruz. After earning a Certificate of Paralegal Studies from UC Berkeley Extension, she worked for several years as a paralegal at personal injury law firms. Now as a member of the Operations Team, she heads laboratory procurement and facilitates smooth day-to-day lab operations.
Dominique Hinds has served as Administrative Assistant at Immuneering since May 2023. Prior to Immuneering, Ms. Hinds served in the United States Navy as an Operations Specialist on board the USS Essex LHD-2. While onboard, Ms. Hinds focused on creating the ship's operational schedule serving more than five-thousand sailors and marines. She is currently pursuing a B.A. in Business Administration at Western Governors University.
Mai Johnson earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology at UC Irvine, obtained a Ph.D. in Molecular, Cellular, & Integrative Physiology at UC Los Angeles, and completed a postdoc in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UC San Diego. Dr. Johnson’s research experiences include targeted gene therapy for treatment of prostate cancer, in vivo optical and microPET imaging, and testing of small molecules targeting RAS de-palmitoylation in NRAS-driven cancers. As a lead scientist at Immuneering, Dr. Johnson aims to significantly contribute to building better medicines for cancer patients.
Ms. Jude did her undergrad in Biotechnology at Anna University, Chennai, India in June 2020, before moving to the USA for her master’s in biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University, which she completed in the Spring of 2022. Her interests lie in research of cells and nanoparticles; as a Research Assistant at CLRI, an institution under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, a premier research institute under the Government of India, she was involved in an exciting project in the incorporation of nanoparticles into natural fibres slated for commercial production.
Mr. Kim is passionate about utilizing technology to accelerate research and development in the field of biomedicine. Prior to obtaining his M.S. in Biomedical Informatics from the Sackler Institute of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at NYU School of Medicine, he spent over five years working as a software implementation consultant specializing in the life sciences industry, where he led projects to configure, deploy, and manage the enterprise software development life cycle. He also graduated with a B.S./M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University.
Dr. King is a pharmaceutical professional with over 16 years of drug discovery and development experience (Janssen R&D/Johnson & Johnson; SmithKLine Beecham). With experience ranging from early drug discovery and preclinical/translational sciences. Dr King gained his B.Sc. from the University of Leicester, UK, in Biological Sciences in 1996, and his Ph.D. in Diabetes and Endocrinology in 2000, from the University of Liverpool, UK. After 2 years of postdoctoral training, Dr King joined Janssen Pharmaceuticals in 2002 at the Beerse site in Belgium, as a Scientist and Senior Scientist, in the Metabolic Disorders and Oncology Teams. He led the preclinical oncology in vivo team, where he contributed to numerous NME declarations and IND filings. As part of the Oncology Biomarkers Team, he was responsible for the Ex Vivo Center of Excellence for humanized model development. In 2012, Dr King joined the Molecular Imaging Team at the Janssen Spring House site in USA and lead the imaging program to support the Oncology Therapeutic Area.
Dr. Kolitz brings expertise in teasing apart biological mechanisms to our team. She conducted her postdoctoral research in Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, after earning a Ph.D. in Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Kyra Liebson holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of South Florida. At USF she researched the effects of sodium saccharin on B-cell lymphoma proliferation in A20 cells. She also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing from SUNY Oswego, and has an extensive background in marketing and advertising. Ms. Liebson has a passion for science, music, and operations and brings her research skillset, diligent work ethic, and a commitment to excellence to her work at Immuneering.
Ms. Martin has several years of experience in office administration in various industries, as well as a broad background in customer relations, social media and marketing, human resources and recruiting, and finance. She holds a B.S. in Communications from Fitchburg State University.
Mr. Mead began his career at PwC in the Pharma/Life Sciences Assurance practice. Throughout his tenure, he provided various audit services to clients, including guidance on internal controls compliance, financial reporting requirements, and various technical accounting topics. Mr. Mead received his B.S. in Accounting from Providence College, and is a Certified Public Accountant in New Jersey.
Dr. Miller is a Scientist with experience in high resolution microscopy and an emphasis in gene regulation, epigenomics and transcriptomics. He graduated with a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of California, Los Angeles. His doctoral research focused on determining key features of X chromosome architecture in developmentally significant gene expression states.
Ms. Naing completed her B.S. in Molecular and Cell Biology and M.S. in Biology focused on Neuroendocrinology from UC San Diego. During her undergraduate and graduate studies, she was a member of Dr. Pamela Mellon's Reproductive Sciences lab at UC San Diego and has co-authored multiple publications. Her graduate work focused on the circadian rhythm and reproductive competency of mice that are homeodomain transcription factor, SIX3, knocked out specifically in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN).
Dr. Nair has extensive leadership experience, and an impressive track record of developing effective strategies to mobilize cross-functional teams toward success in drug discovery, translational research and biobanking. Prior to joining Immuneering, he co-founded and served as the Chief Executive Officer of BioArkive, an innovative contract research group providing oncology research support and biosample management. Before BioArkive, Dr. Nair provided key scientific leadership and research support for multiple wholly-owned preclinical and drug discovery programs at Asellus Therapeutics. He also helped to build and expand ex vivo and in vitro research for multiple pharmaceutical clients at Molecular Response, where he coordinated the establishment and maintenance of diagnostic labs under CAP/CLIA environment, as well as IRB-approved tissue collections for translational studies. Dr. Nair earned his Ph.D. in Medical Microbiology and Immunology from the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Georgia, and finished his post-doctoral training at the Pritzker School of Medicine at University of Chicago.
Brian Nguyen earned his B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles. He began working as a lab assistant at the University of California, San Diego and eventually became a lab manager. He transitioned to industry working in a high-throughput screening drug discovery program. In 2022, he joined Immuneering.
Mr. Nguyen has served as Research Associate at Immuneering since April 2023. He received his B.Sc. and M.S. degrees in 2021 and 2022 at UC San Diego, studying reproductive science under the supervision of the distinguished professor Dr. Pamela Mellon. He elucidated the molecular and hormonal mechanisms behind various manifestations of infertility at both the embryonic and adult level, by incorporating conditional knockout gene editing technology into mouse models of human reproductive disease. Mr. Nguyen brings his academic expertise in endocrinology, molecular biology, and genetics as well as his organizational skills and agility from independently managing multiple mouse lines.
Dr. Nord is a cell biologist, with experience studying the cell cycle and how the eukaryotic cell can utilize proteins for distinctly different roles in interphase and mitosis, respectively. Dr. Nord earned his B.S. in Biochemistry and Cell Biology, as well as his Ph.D. in Cell Biology at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Nord’s research focused on the interactions between nuclear transport receptors and the small GTPase RAN, which together regulate subunits of the nuclear pore complex in events ranging from mitotic spindle assembly to reformation of the nuclear pore as the cell exits mitosis and cytokinesis and re-enters interphase.
Mr. O’Sullivan is a recent graduate with a broad background in academic research and teaching, along with a newly found passion in industrial lab work. He provides a variety of support in preclinical assays as well as onboarding and training sessions. He holds a B.A. in Biochemistry from Colorado College.
Prior to joining Immuneering, Mr. Pandey conducted research at Triangulum Biopharma and Ionis Pharmaceuticals in various therapeutic areas such as NAFLD/NASH, Muscle and Metabolic Diseases. Mr. Pandey earned his B.S. in Biotechnology from the University of California, Davis followed by a Master’s in Biotechnology from California State University, San Marcos.
Mr. Peterson has a technical background in IT and customer service which he has brought to his role as Logistics Manager. He also serves roles in facilities maintenance and building security.
Mr. Peterson has over 14 years of experience in operations management and training. Prior to Immuneering, he managed revenue operations for the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, where he led a team of over 200 people. He then went into learning and development for UnitedHealth Group, where he developed and implemented a healthcare informatics training program for operations staff. Most recently, he was with BioArkive, where he was part of a team that achieved biorepository accreditation from both CAP and ISO.
Ms. Pillai earned her bachelor’s degree in Homeopathic Medicine from University of Calicut, India. She further completed an MS in Molecular Biology from San Diego State University. Her master’s research was focused on improving the efficacy of bacterial minicells as a DNA vaccine carrier. Prior to joining Immuneering, Ms. Pillai worked at iTherX Pharmaceuticals in San Diego, participating in in-vitro and in-vivo oncology studies.
Dr. Pillai is a Cancer biologist with more than 16 years of experience in basic and translational cancer research. He devoted over a decade into investigating the molecular features of Disseminated Tumor Cells (DTCs) from the bone marrow of breast cancer patients, and studying their role in disease progression and metastasis at the Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis. Dr. Pillai has also studied and published on the mechanisms of cell death regulation in tumor cells and its role in tumor progression. Dr Pillai earned a PhD from Indian Council for Agricultural Research (Central Institute of Fisheries Education), India and completed post doctoral research at Saint Louis University and Washington University in St Louis.
Dr. Piña brings years of experience in cell and molecular biology, biochemistry, and genetics to Immuneering. Prior to joining Immuneering, Dr. Piña did postdoctoral work at UCSD. He researched the crosstalk between cell cycle progression and the functional capacity of the endoplasmic reticulum, making significant contributions to the field and authoring several high impact publications. He completed his Ph. D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from Stanford University. The focus of his thesis was to investigate the molecular function of uncharacterized ER-localized proteins and their regulation by the protein phosphatase, Calcineurin. He received his B.S. from the University of Arizona, Tucson in Plant Sciences.
Jennifer Quach has served as Operations Assistant at Immuneering since April 2023. During undergrad, she gained experience in lab work, administrative work, and medical assistance. She strives to use her evolving knowledge and experience to make a positive impact in the community. As part of the Operations Team, Jennifer is dedicated to supporting lab operations within cross-disciplinary teams at Immuneering. She holds a B.S. in Biology from the University of California, San Diego.
Dr. Farrah Roy (they/them) is a wet-lab molecular biologist turned bioinformatician with several years worth of experience analyzing NGS data and bioinformatics. They earned a B.A. in Biology at Wheaton College, MA. Their Ph.D thesis work - completed at Tufts Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences - focused on understanding the regulation and expression patterns of endogenous retroviruses in cancer, relying on a mixture of wet-lab and dry-lab technologies. Upon obtaining their Ph.D in Genetics, they moved on to a postdoctoral fellowship position at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public health, where they developed an RNA-sequencing pipeline used to identify endogenous and exogenous viral reads within a given data set. They have participated in a number of conferences to present their work, authored several manuscripts, and have collaborated on several projects involving NGS data and viral detection.
Mr. Sebastian brings over 13 years of extensive technical accounting, financial reporting and internal controls expertise. Prior to joining Immuneering, Mr. Sebastian was a Director at PwC in the SEC Services Group of the National Quality Office where he advised clients on their SEC reporting. He started his career at PwC in the Pharma/Life Sciences Assurance practice where he provided audit services to his clients, which included advising them on technical accounting topics in addition to financial reporting requirements and internal controls. Stephen received his B.S. in Accounting from King’s College, Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania and is a Certified Public Accountant in New Jersey.
Mr. Slezinger has served as Senior Director, Data Management at Immuneering since April 2023. He has over 25 years of clinical trial experience across multiple therapies with a focus on data operations, resource, and performance management. He has acquired industry knowledge and expertise in biometrics roles of increasing responsibility in medical device, CRO, pharmaceutical, SAAS, and academic research settings. Mr. Slezinger blends experience, coaching skills, and a patient centric focus on providing quality deliverables and services. He received his B.S. in Business Administration Healthcare Management from Western Governors University.
Ms. Standard is a biotechnology quality management system and project management professional. After completing her Master’s of Science degree at Binghamton University in New York, she began her career supporting drug discovery efforts from small-molecule synthetization through IND-enabling studies at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute in La Jolla, California. Ms. Standard was integral in developing the biorepository Quality Management System at BioArkive, Inc., and in coordinating the company’s accreditation efforts for ISO 20387:2018 and the College of American Pathologist’s Biorepository Accreditation Program (CAP/BAP). While at BioArkive, she provided quality and project management support to critical Immuneering projects prior joining the Immuneering team, where she will support a growing pipeline of novel oncology drugs.
Michelle Steele graduated cum laude from Biola University with a B.S. in Biological Sciences concentrated in Environmental Sciences, and a minor in Biblical Studies.
While at Biola, Ms. Steele worked as the laboratory supervisor assistant in the Biology Department. Prior to that, she gained experience as a Research Assistant for the Kaikoura Oceanic Research Institute in New Zealand. Ms. Steele joined Immuneering as a full time Research Associate in 2021.
While at Biola, Ms. Steele worked as the laboratory supervisor assistant in the Biology Department. Prior to that, she gained experience as a Research Assistant for the Kaikoura Oceanic Research Institute in New Zealand. Ms. Steele joined Immuneering as a full time Research Associate in 2021.
Christopher Tao has served as a Research Associate at Immuneering since April 2023. Prior to Immuneering, Christopher was a research associate at Eurofins DiscoverX (2019-2020) and a Controls Technician (2021-2023) at Cue Health. Christopher received his B.S in Food Science at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
Dr. Travesa has extensive experience in cancer research, ranging from genetics to tumor cell biology. During her years in academic research labs (Scripps Research and UCSD), she successfully contributed to the discovery of key molecular mechanisms involved in cell proliferation and malignant transformation. Dr. Travesa has also provided critical scientific advancements to preclinical and drug development programs. Dr. Travesa’s leadership fosters highly collaborative environments focused on delivering high quality data and enhancing the drug discovery process.
Luke Van Lehman is a Research Associate with several years of experience in laboratory settings including bioengineering, biology, and ecology. Since joining Immuneering, he has developed an expertise in PD Assays, protein quantification, SDS-PAGE/Western-Blotting and cell culture. Mr. Van Lehman holds a B.S. in Bioengineering from Oregon State University.
Mr. Walker comes to Immuneering with 25 years of experience in pharmaceutical research across multiple phases of clinical drug development, having held positions of increasing responsibility in site monitoring and trial management on the CRO and sponsor sides, alike. Immediately prior to Immuneering, Chris served as a Director of Clinical Development (Clinical Scientist) at Incyte Corporation where he was responsible for the authoring, execution, and evaluation of multiple early-phase and registration-track oncology and hematology trials. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Syracuse University.
Kurt Walsh’s scientific background is primarily as a scientist and engineer in academia. Mr. Walsh earned a B.Sc in Biomolecular Engineering at UC Santa Cruz, where he performed research to understand the effects of small molecule drugs on the signaling dynamics of primary bovine chondrocytes. After UC Santa Cruz, Mr. Walsh went on to earn an M.S. in Biomedical Engineering at UC San Diego, where his research focus was in tissue engineering, cell-ECM signaling dynamics and cell-ECM biomechanics.
Dr. Wang has been working on integrating computational approaches and biological data to investigate the biology underlying human diseases for over 8 years. He earned his Ph.D. in Bioinformatics from Department of Information and Communication Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China. During his Ph.D. career, he spent two years in Genetics at Dartmouth College as a visiting scholar. His major research focus was computationally identifying novel biomarkers for predicting survival outcomes in breast cancer. During his postdoctoral research in the Department of Biomedical Data Science at Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth he worked on drug repositioning, novel biomarkers identification, and patients ‘intrinsic’ subsets classification in Systemic Sclerosis (SSc, a rare autoimmune disease) in the Whitfield lab. Frank then became a research scientist in the same lab and continued his computational research in SSc. He has interest and expertise in performing computational analyses in different biological data types including microarray, DNA methylation, ChIP-seq, single-cell/bulk RNA-seq, and ATAC-seq data.
Ms West is a scientist with extensive experience in tumor cell culture (2D and 3D). As a previous BioArkive employee, she helped lead and develop the 3D TGA translational platform for use in drug discovery research, and has been instrumental in the creation/implementation of an associated training program. This program has become central to Immuneering’s translational medicine efforts. Ms West transitioned into this role after teaching Anthropology/Biology/Evolution courses at SUNY Cortland and SUNY Binghamton. She graduated from SUNY Binghamton with an MS in Biomedical Anthropology and focused on the coevolution of humans and pathogens. Ms West also holds a BS in Integrative Neuroscience and Biological Anthropology.
Dr. Mishala is an experienced Ayurvedic physician and graduated with a BAMS (Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery) from Kerala University. At Immuneering, she brings expertise in cell culture, protein quantification assays, western blotting, PD Assay and Quality Control Measures. She earned her MBA in Human Resource Management from Annamalai University.
Ms. Yamamura has several years of experience with a broad range of disease models of inflammation, immunology, and oncology. She attended Colgate University where she studied Cellular Neuroscience and Psychology.
Dr. Zhang extracts actionable insights from genomic data by combining cutting-edge data science techniques with expertise in experiment design and cancer biology. During her data science fellowship at The Data Incubator, she utilized distributed computing, network analysis, and machine learning to reveal patterns within large textual and numerical datasets. She graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a B.S. in Physics, and Duke University with a Ph.D. in Genetics and Genomics. In her doctoral work, she developed novel experimental and bioinformatic methods to generate and analyze terabytes of next-generation sequencing data towards understanding the mutational underpinnings of lymphoma.
Ann E. Berman has served as a member of our Board of Directors since July 2021. She currently serves as a member of the board of directors of Loews Corporation and a member of the board of trustees of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and is the Chairwoman of its Compliance and Risk Committee. From September 2011 until June 2021, Ms. Berman served as a member of the board of directors and Chair of the Audit Committee of Cantel Medical Corp. In addition, she served as a member of the board of directors and Chair of the Audit Committee of Eaton Vance Corporation from February 2006 until March 2021 and as a member of the board of directors and Chair of the Audit Committee of Renalytix plc from July 2021 until September 2022. Prior to these roles, Ms. Berman served in various financial and risk management capacities at Harvard University, including as Senior Advisor to the President of Harvard University, Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer. She received her B.A. with distinction in French language and literature from Cornell University, where she was Phi Beta Kappa, and her M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. We believe that Ms. Berman is qualified to serve on our Board of Directors due to her accounting and financial management expertise as a Certified Public Accountant, experience as Chief Financial Officer of a major research university, service as an audit committee member and chair of other public companies, and depth of experience in risk management.
Mr. Carpenter has served on our board of directors since May 2009. Mr. Carpenter also currently serves as the Chairman of Hydra Biosciences, Inc., or Hydra Biosciences, a privately held clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company. From 1992 until 2015, he served as the Chief Executive Officer of Boston Medical Investors, Inc., a venture capital firm. Mr. Carpenter has founded and served in executive management and board roles at numerous biotechnology companies, including Olaris Inc., Integrated Genetics and GelTex Pharmaceuticals, both of which merged with Genzyme Corporation, and VacTex Corp., which was acquired by Aquila Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. Mr. Carpenter received his B.S. in engineering from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, his M.S. in computer science from Stanford University and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Peter Feinberg has served on our Board of Directors since January 2021. Mr. Feinberg also currently serves as Partner and was a Founding Member of Boxcar Partners, a venture capital investment firm with a focus on biotechnology investing, and Founder of Sporos Bioventures, Inc. In addition, he currently serves as Co-Founder of BridgeBio Pharma, Inc., a publicly traded biotechnology company focusing on genetic diseases, Boxcar PMJ LP and Emerging Security Solutions. He has more than three decades of experience in the financial services industry at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. where he served as a Managing Director. Mr. Feinberg received his B.S. in finance from Whittier College. We believe that Mr. Feinberg is qualified to serve on our Board of Directors due to his extensive leadership skills and experience in the financial and biotechnology industries.
Laurie B. Keating has served on our Board of Directors since March 2021. Ms. Keating previously served as the Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., from March 2019 until September 2021, and also served as its Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary from September 2014 until March 2019. From September 2004 until January 2014, she served as the Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a wholly owned oncology-focused subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited since 2008, and was the founding Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors of Hydra Biosciences. Ms. Keating currently chairs the board of directors of a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, PepGen Inc. (Nasdaq:PEPG), where she also chairs the Compensation Committee and is a member of the Audit and Nominating and Corporate Governance committees. From November 2021 until the company was acquired by Merck in January 2023, she served on the board of directors of Imago BioSciences (Nasdaq:IMGO), and from 2005 until March 2022 she served on the board of directors of MassBIO, a non-profit organization. Ms. Keating earned her A.B. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley and her J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. We believe that Ms. Keating is qualified to serve on our Board of Directors due to her extensive leadership skills and experience in the biotechnology industry.
Diana F. Hausman, M.D. has served on our Board of Directors since January 2022. Dr. Hausman is the Chief Medical Officer of Link Immunotherapeutics, a position she has held since March 2022. From June 2021 to March 2022, Dr. Hausman served as the Chief Medical Officer of Lengo Therapeutics, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Blueprint Medicines Corporation. Prior to Lengo, Dr. Hausman served as Chief Medical Officer for Zymeworks Inc. from June 2016 to May 2021 and as Chief Medical Officer for Oncothyreon Inc. from 2009 to 2016. She also held positions of increasing responsibility at ZymoGenetics Inc., Berlex Inc., and Immunex Corporation, working across multiple indications, including oncology, hematology, hepatitis C and autoimmune disease. Dr. Hausman received her internal medicine and specialty training in hematology and medical oncology at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA. She received her MD degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an A.B in biology from Princeton University. We believe Dr. Hausman’s extensive experience in the life sciences industry and her medical background qualifies her to serve on our Board of Directors.
