Dr. Barrett is an accomplished medical oncologist and R&D expert with more than 30 years of clinical and research experience in leadership positions at major institutions in industry and academia. He has spent the last decade gaining broad expertise in the fields of target and drug discovery, most recently, as executive director/ lead of global medical affairs for targeted oncolytic therapies at Incyte Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Barrett is a trained physician-scientist, earning his bachelor’s degree at The Johns Hopkins University as a Beneficial-Hodson Scholarship recipient. He then earned his medical degree from the University of Miami School of Medicine and completed his internal medicine residency at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. At Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Dr. Barrett completed his fellowship in medical oncology where he co-authored a Phase 2, proof-of-concept study, which pioneered the use of paclitaxel for advanced breast cancer treatment in the ambulatory setting. Prior to entering the biopharmaceutical industry, he practiced academic and community-based hematology/oncology for 15 years. Dr. Barrett is board-certified in both internal medicine and in medical oncology.
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.He joined Immuneering from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals where he most recently served as Vice President, Business Unit Head for oncology, Covid19, and new product planning. At Regeneron his teams launched three medicines in six indications in the U.S. and globally, including the anti-PD1 Libtayo for patients with advanced cancers. Prior to Regeneron, Mr. Brakewood held several positions of increasing responsibility over 20 years at Merck (MSD), including strategic planning during the launch of Keytruda, business development, brand management, and leadership of an oncology start-up venture. Mr. Brakewood received an MBA from Harvard Business School, an M.A. in physics from Dartmouth College and a B.A. in physics from Bowdoin College.
Dr. Hall is a pharmaceutical and biotechnology veteran (Janssen/J&J; Medimmune/AZ, Molecular Response; Asellus Therapeutics) with extensive drug development and leadership experience ranging from early drug discovery through translational clinical sciences including multiple drug registrations. He was the translational lead for Sylvant® (siltuximab) and Imbruvica® (ibrutinib) throughout clinical development, and his translational medicine teams developed and executed translational strategies for both Darzalex® (daratumumab) and Imfinzi® (durvalumab). Dr. Hall has extensively published in the areas of tumor microenvironment (TME) and translational sciences and holds multiple patents for drug pharmacology and discovery. Prior to his experience in the life sciences industry, Dr. Hall served in the United States Air Force and worked as a Series 6 and 63 licensed investment banker. After completing his graduate and postdoctoral studies, Dr. Hall was a tenure-track assistant professor at Ohio State University where his laboratory focused on development of human TME-aligned models to better translate preclinical data into the clinic and discover novel biomarkers.
Ms. Morales has served as the Company’s Vice President, Finance since May 2021. Prior to joining the Company, 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 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.
Ms. Neufeld joins Immuneering 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, 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 their 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 co-founded Immuneering in 2008 with the goal of leveraging high-throughput data to improve pharma R&D. He is an inventor on numerous patents assigned to both Immuneering's partners and the company itself. Dr. Zeskind has published extensively in high-impact peer-reviewed journals. He trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earning a Ph.D. in Bioengineering in 2006 and an S.B. in electrical engineering and computer science in 2003. He also earned an MBA at Harvard Business School in 2008, 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.
Dr. Armoskus combines experience in the field of neurobiology with the techniques of computational biology and bioinformatics. He earned his Ph.D. in Biostatistics from the Keck School of Medicine at USC while doing research at the Zilkha Neurogenetic institute. His thesis demonstrated important transcriptional differences in schizophrenia and developed a novel algorithm for the analysis of differential expression in RNA-Seq data. He works on the analysis of neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative conditions at the genomic, transcriptomic, and epigenetic levels.
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.
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.
Yoonjeong Cha holds a B.S. in Computer Science and Molecular Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Previously, she worked on a method to identify differentially expressed signaling pathways at the Bioinformatics Institute of Seoul National University and analyzed genomic and proteomic data from viruses at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, Germany. Since joining Immuneering in 2014, Yoonjeong has worked on several drug discovery and repurposing projects in the neurodegenerative disease space. Her work mainly focuses on utilizing gene expression data to identify novel drug targets and drug candidates. She has also authored 10 publications including two papers on data analysis best practices for drug development.
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. Fiegener has a passion for science and its application in the medical industry. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Pacific University in Biology, and a minor in History. During her undergraduate, she focused on molecular biology and performed her capstone research project on self splicing introns. Prior to working in the biotech industry, she gained experience in healthcare at a long term care and post acute rehab facility. Upon joining Immuneering, her priority has been working on 3-Dimensional Tumor Growth Assays and generating translational data.
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.
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.
Dr. Kagalwala straddles neuroscience R&D and business leadership experience to develop innovative therapeutics for aging neurodegenerative disorders. He has extensively published high impact research in peer-reviewed journals. Prior to joining Immuneering, he co-founded Siragen Pharmaceuticals, where he led the small molecule drug discovery program for Alzheimer’s disease, from target identification through proof of concept, and lead optimization. Dr. Kagalwala completed his Ph.D. in Biochemistry at SIU School of Medicine (dissertation on chromatin remodeling), and then post-doctoral training at MD Anderson Cancer Center (Glioblastoma / Medulloblastoma), and the Salk Institute (adult neurogenesis and neurodegeneration). In 2015, he also earned an MBA at Rady School of Management, UC San Diego, where he was awarded the prestigious Foster fellowship, and recognized as a Rady Innovation Fellow for business assistance to technology acceleration and commercialization programs.
Dr. Kang aims to build robust, interpretable, and fair algorithms to accelerate vaccine and drug discovery. She earned her Ph.D. studying computational vaccine design where she applied principles from Statistical Physics and leveraged stochastic simulation techniques to make HIV vaccines more potent. Before joining Immuneering, she worked as a senior data scientist at Wayfair, developing new algorithms and upgrading a major machine learning pipeline. She has been involved with various initiatives working towards promoting access to life-saving medicines, including United Nations Development Program and GAiA at Berkman Klein Center. Most recently, she contributed as a research scientist at PathCheck Foundation and developed deep learning based algorithm for COVID-19 contact tracing using Bluetooth signals.
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.
Ipek Midillioglu graduated from University of California, San Diego with departmental honors in Molecular Biology. During her undergraduate education, she worked on understanding skeletal muscle membrane maintenance and remodeling. Subsequently, Ms. Midillioglu was a research associate at UC San Diego School of Medicine, studying pain sensing ion channels. She is interested in developing new therapeutics for the healthcare industry.
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.
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.
Dr. Obla is a computational biologist with diverse experience in the field of genomics. He received his PhD in Molecular Cell Biology from University of Connecticut. His doctoral work involved the study of ribosomal protein gene family evolution in mammals and development of a novel classifier for single cell RNA seq library QC. He then worked as a bioinformatician for four years at the Mount Sinai Hospital (MSH) in NYC, contributing primarily to their pathogen surveillance initiative. Dr. Obla’s work at MSH involved assembling high quality genomes of various bacterial & viral pathogens followed by integration with electronic medical record data to perform genomic epidemiology. Dr. Obla was also involved in various multi-omic clinical research studies at MSH.
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.
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.
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. 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.
Dr. Rajpurkar is a computational biologist with extensive experience in genomics, machine learning, and the biology of gene regulation. Her prior work includes integration of immune single cell expression datasets, algorithm development in genomics and image processing, and applying machine learning to biological problems. She earned her PhD from Stanford University School of Medicine in Genetics. Her thesis work focused on developing deep learning-based methods to understand the relationship between chromatin folding and gene regulation.
For over a decade, Dr. Ross studied at the National Institutes of Health, where he designed and conducted original research in the field of bioinformatics and comparative genomics. His work has been recognized for enhancing computational methods to identify and analyze molecular mechanisms that regulate neurogenesis. Dr. Ross has developed and employed machine learning and bioinformatic algorithms to decode the combinatorial logic of noncoding DNA that control gene expression programs. He earned his Ph.D. degree in Neuroscience from Brown University.
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.
Ninon Scherz is an undergraduate student majoring in chemistry. She joins Immuneering as a Research Associate, bringing in two years of lab experience and cell culture skills.
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.
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.
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 more than fifteen years of board service in diverse industries. She currently serves as a member of the board of directors of Loews Corporation and Renalytix plc 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. 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. 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 and 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. She is a Certified Public Accountant.
Mr. Carpenter is a leader and pioneer in the healthcare and biotechnology industries. He served on Genzyme’s board of directors from 1994-2011 and was executive vice president of Genzyme from 1989-1991 as well as chairman of its subsidiary IG Laboratories. He founded and served in executive management and board roles at numerous biotech companies, including Integrated Genetics and GelTex Pharmaceuticals, both of which merged with Genzyme, and VacTex, which was acquired by Aquila Biopharmaceuticals. Mr. Carpenter is currently chairman of Hydra Biosciences. Mr. Carpenter is a graduate of West Point. He earned his master’s degree in computer science from Stanford University and his MBA from Harvard Business School.
Mr. Feinberg has more than three decades of experience in the financial services industry at Oppenheimer & Co. He is a founding member of Boxcar Partners, a venture capital investment firm comprised of several family offices with a focus area in biotech investing. He is a founder of multiple companies including BridgeBio, which invests in preclinical, non-public, rare genetic disease assets, North Coast Partners, a real estate holding company that invests in Detroit. He is an advisory board member of Ignite Power, an African solar energy company, currently the largest in Rwanda, which has created a life changing experience for its citizens and Sporos Bioventures. Mr. Feinberg earned his bachelor’s degree in finance from Whittier College.
Ms. 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 sits on the Board of Directors for Imago BioSciences (Nasdaq:IMGO) and 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.
Dr. Diana Hausman, MD, has served on our board of directors since January 2022. Dr. Hausman is a board-certified medical oncologist with over 20 years of clinical drug development experience. Since March 2022, Dr. Hausman has been the Chief Medical Officer of Link Immunotherapeutics, Inc. From June 2021 to March 2022, Dr. Hausman was the Chief Medical Officer of Lengo Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company developing novel precision medicines targeting driver mutations in oncology and now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Blueprint Medicines Corporation. While at Lengo, she was responsible for all aspects of clinical development, including successful filing of the initial IND for BLU-451 (formerly LNG-451), a CNS-penetrant, EGFR Exon20 insertion inhibitor. Prior to joining Lengo, Dr. Hausman served as Chief Medical Officer for Zymeworks Inc., for 5 years from June 2016 to May 2021. While there, she oversaw all aspects of clinical development, including that of the HER2-targeted biparatopic antibody zanidatamab, from initial IND to multiple ongoing global Phase 2 and pivotal studies, with breakthrough therapy designation for treatment of biliary tract cancer. Dr. Hausman also participated actively in Zymeworks’ IPO, as well as the ongoing collaboration with Beigene. Dr. Hausman was previously CMO at Oncothyreon Inc where she oversaw the Phase 1b and early Phase 2 clinical program for the HER2-targeted small molecule, tucatinib. 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, Philadelphia, PA, and an A.B in biology from Princeton University, Princeton, NJ.
