We Make Tregs, Better

Philippe is Sr. Director of the technological platform at GentiBio. Prior to joining GentiBio, Philippe was the Director of the T-Cell Engineering team at TCR2 Therapeutics. There and at Intrexon Corporation before, he developed allogeneic T-Cell therapies in the field of immuno-oncology. Initially trained in genome editing at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Disease (NIAMS, NIH, Bethesda). Philippe brings a decade of experience in genome editing and T-cell engineering and more than 20 years of experience in molecular biology and vector design. Philippe received an engineering degree and a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the Louis Pasteur University (ULP, France).

Karen is the Vice President of Translational Science and Global Program Lead for GentiBio’s lead program. Prior to joining, Karen led the clinical pharmacology and translational sciences team for cellular and gene therapies at Novartis Pharmaceuticals including both early and stage late development programs.  Karen was instrumental in leading the clinical pharmacology and biopharmaceutics strategy for the first cellular therapy (CAR-T) approved in the United States, Europe, and Rest of World, supporting the program from IND through regulatory approvals including an Oncology Drug Advisory Committee. She has authored and co-authored numerous seminal papers in the field of cellular therapy. In addition, to cellular therapies, Karen has led the early development of several ADCs and supported the clinical pharmacology strategies for Kisqali, Afinitor and other established products.  Karen received her Doctor of Pharmacy and Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Sciences with a focus on Clinical Pharmacology, from Rhode Island University and completed post-doctoral fellowships at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo and at Novartis.

Mirna is excited to bring her 15 years of drug development experience to GentiBio in the Sr. Director, Head of Process and Analytical Development role. Prior to joining GentiBio, Mirna contributed to the development of CAR-T cell therapies targeting blood cancers at Juno Therapeutics/Bristol Myers Squibb in process development and CMC team leadership roles. Before transitioning to cell therapy development, Mirna was a process development and technology lead on therapeutic monoclonal antibody programs at Amgen. Mirna holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and Ph.D. in Bioengineering from University of Washington.

Adel is Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of GentiBio. Prior to joining GentiBio, Adel was the Chief Medical Officer of Casebia Therapeutics. In the past, Adel has held executive positions in various biotech and pharmaceutical companies, including Vice President at Intellia Therapeutics and Caladrius Biosciences, and various senior positions directing clinical development at Baxter and Abbott. He successfully led translational immunology programs for the past 12 years for experimental and approved therapies, spanning small and large molecules and engineered immune cell products, including Tregs products. Adel received his medical degree from Alexandria University in Egypt and his master’s degree in Clinical Research from the Pharmacology Dept. at Rush University in Chicago where he also held an academic position. Adel completed advanced studies in drug development at UCSF and University of Basel before becoming a Member of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine in the UK. Prior to joining the industry, Adel trained in surgery and internal medicine and practiced for 10 years in Chicago.

Chandra is Co-founder and Vice President of R&D Operations for GentiBio. Prior to joining GentiBio, Chandra was the Director of Project Management at Casebia Therapeutics focused on the Autoimmune Disease portfolio and supporting HSC and in vivo liver-directed gene editing approaches. Previously, he spent over a decade as a scientist in various research and leadership roles of increasing responsibility at Bayer HealthCare, starting in enzymology and protein engineering and transitioning to non-malignant hematology lab head and research project team lead for multiple projects from discovery to IND stage. He started his career in industry working on next-generation PCR and sequencing technologies at Applied Biosystems. Chandra received his B.S. in Molecular Biology from The University of Texas at Austin and his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Kentucky.

Dr. Rawlings is Scientific Co-founder and Senior Scientific Advisor for GentiBio, as well as the Director of the Center for Immunity and Immunotherapies at Seattle Children’s Research Institute and Chief of the Division of Immunology overseeing the immunodeficiency clinical program at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Dr. Rawlings is a Professor of Pediatrics and Immunology at the University of Washington and previously held faculty appointments at UCLA.  He has received numerous awards including the Seattle Children’s Guild Association Endowed Chair in Pediatric Immunology, Tom Hansen Investigator in Pediatric Innovation Endowment, and election to the American Society for Clinical Investigation and Association of American Physicians. Dr. Rawlings received a B.S. in Biological Sciences, Magna Cum Laude from Davidson College and received his M.D. from the University of North Carolina.

Maria is Business Operations Manager for GentiBio. Prior to joining Genti, she was the Operations Manager at Sojournix, providing support for C-level executives.  Maria has 20 years of experience in managing financial and budgeting processes, interfacing with clients, and organizing corporate events across numerous industries.  Maria received her B.S. in Business Administration from Mount Ida College in Newton, MA.

Cathy is Chief Business Officer for GentiBio. Prior to joining the company, Cathy was the CEO of Makana Therapeutics, a preclinical stage company aimed at alleviating the organ shortage crisis though xenotransplantation, and led the merger of Makana with Recombinetics to combine the company’s xenotransplantation expertise with Recombinetics’ expertise in genetic engineering and swine husbandry. Prior to Makana, Cathy was Executive Director in the Business Development and Licensing group at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR), where she worked across multiple therapeutic areas and was responsible for negotiating a number of NIBR’s immuno-oncology partnerships. In 2001, she joined Merck Research Laboratories in West Point, PA, to focus on ocular therapeutics and held positions of increasing responsibility including Therapeutic Area Group leader for Ophthalmology Research. Cathy did her graduate and postdoctoral training at U.C. Berkeley and Stanford University Medical School, respectively, and earned her MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

Gene Uenishi is a Senior Scientist in the Discovery group at GentiBio. Prior to joining GentiBio, Gene was a Scientist at BlueRock Therapeutics, where he developed the iPSC-derived Treg program and helped establish the research group in Boston, MA. He started his career in industry at Casebia Therapeutics working on gene editing HSCs and T-cells to cure rare genetic hematological and autoimmune diseases. During his graduate work, he was a project consultant for Waisman Biomanufacturing assisting with tech transfer for Cynata Therapeutics’ first iPSC-derived mesenchymal stem cell therapy to treat graft-vs-host disease. Gene received his B.A. in psychology from Carleton College and his Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Pathology from University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Andy is Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of GentiBio. Prior to joining GentiBio, Dr. Walker was Chief Executive Officer of Jewel Biotherapeutics and formerly Senior Vice President of Technical Operations at Juno Therapeutics, as well as serving in multiple senior leadership roles at AGC Biologics. He is an experienced senior leader overseeing Process Development and GMP manufacturing of cellular therapeutics and protein biologics. Dr. Walker received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Washington and his Ph.D. in Chemical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

Tom is Chief Scientific Officer for GentiBio. Tom brings over 25 years of experience in championing diverse drug platforms including cellular, gene, immuno-biologic, and liposomal therapies from Discovery through Registration-directed clinical trials. Tom recently joined GentiBio from Rubius Therapeutics where he was Senior Vice President of Research and Development. At Rubius, Tom pioneered synthetic biology approaches using genetically engineered red cells for autoimmunity, immuno-oncology, and rare disease applications and built a full Discovery and Preclinical organization leading to multiple product programs and two IND filings. Prior to Rubius, he served as Vice President of R&D at Merrimack Pharmaceuticals where he led preclinical through a Phase 2 registrational trial of a targeted liposomal therapy in breast cancer. Prior to Merrimack, Tom was Senior Director of Preclinical Pharmacology and led efforts at EMD Lexigen (now Merck-Serono) to advance immuno-oncology drugs through preclinical development and into Phase I trials. At GenVec, Inc., he led the advancement of a targeted gene delivery platform for oncology, cardiovascular, infectious disease and genetic disease applications. Tom holds a B.S. in chemical/biomedical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, a Ph.D. in biochemical engineering from Cornell University, and pursued his postdoctoral training at the Scripps Research Institute in the Department of Immunology.

Dr. Buckner is Scientific Co-founder of GentiBio, the President and Director of the Translational Research Core at the Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason (BRI), Affiliate Professor of Immunology at the University of Washington, Affiliate Professor of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology also at the University of Washington, and a Partner at the Allen Institute for Immunology. She is a practicing rheumatologist at Virginia Mason Medical Center.  Dr. Buckner received her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Carleton College and her medical degree from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Minnesota and was a fellow in rheumatology at the University of Washington.

Dr. Gideon (Gidi) Gross is Scientific Co-founder of GentiBio, Head of the Immunology Laboratory at MIGAL – Galilee Research Institute in Kiryat Shmona, Israel, and is a senior faculty member at the nearby Tel-Hai College. His research focuses on the development of new gene-based approaches for immunotherapy of multiple diseases. Dr. Gross completed his undergraduate studies at the Open University and obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. During his Ph.D. research with Prof. Z. Eshhar, Dr. Gross developed chimeric antigen receptors, laying the ground for CAR-T cell therapy. He conducted his postdoctoral research at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD, and then at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology of the Medical Research Council in Cambridge, UK.

Dr. Jennings is the Founder and Principal Regulatory Consultant at RegPath LLC, which provides product development and regulatory support to small biotechnology companies. Prior to founding RegPath, Dr. Jennings was the SVP, Head of Regulatory Affairs at Casebia Therapeutics and served as the cross-functional Project Lead for the autoimmune/tolerance edited T regulatory cell program. Prior to Casebia, Amy was the SVP, Head of Regulatory at Achillion Pharmaceuticals and, earlier, served as Sanofi’s associate vice president for global regulatory affairs in the company’s North American diabetes program. Before Sanofi, Amy held positions of increasing responsibility at Bristol-Myers Squibb. Dr. Jennings received her B.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from The Ohio State University, and was a post-doctoral fellow at the Harvard-affiliated Joslin Diabetes Center.

Dr. Peng is President and Head of Research and Development at Alpine Immune Sciences (NASDAQ: ALPN) and a practicing rheumatologist. Before joining Alpine Immune Sciences, Dr. Peng was Chief Medical Officer at Stemcentrx, Inc., until its acquisition by AbbVie and previously held various positions at Seattle Genetics and Roche, as well as the Benaroya Research Institute and Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Peng received a B.A. and B.S. in Music and Biological Sciences from Stanford University, as well as an M.D. and Ph.D. in Biology from Yale University. He conducted his residency in internal medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and was a Clinical and Research Fellow in rheumatology at Brigham & Women’s Hospital.

Dr. Rawlings is Scientific Co-founder and Senior Scientific Advisor for GentiBio, as well as the Director of the Center for Immunity and Immunotherapies at Seattle Children’s Research Institute and Chief of the Division of Immunology overseeing the immunodeficiency clinical program at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Dr. Rawlings is a Professor of Pediatrics and Immunology at the University of Washington and previously held faculty appointments at UCLA.  He has received numerous awards including the Seattle Children’s Guild Association Endowed Chair in Pediatric Immunology, Tom Hansen Investigator in Pediatric Innovation Endowment, and election to the American Society for Clinical Investigation and Association of American Physicians. Dr. Rawlings received a B.S. in Biological Sciences, Magna Cum Laude from Davidson College and received his M.D. from the University of North Carolina.

Dr. Andrew M. Scharenberg is Scientific Co-founder of GentiBio and Chair of SAB. Andy is Co-founder and CEO of Umoja Biopharma, an MPM Capital portfolio company, and an executive partner at MPM Capital. He is recently retired from prior positions as Attending Physician at Seattle Children’s Hospital and Professor of Pediatrics and Adjunct Professor of Immunology at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. Prior to founding Umoja, Andrew co-directed the Program in Cell and Gene Therapy at Seattle Children’s Research Institute, working to translate cell and gene therapies for the treatment of inherited immunologic and blood diseases. Previously, he was the Chief Scientific Officer of Cellectis Therapeutics, where he initiated the development of an allogeneic CAR T cell platform that is the foundational technology for Allogene, and co-founded Pregenen Inc., a gene editing and cell-signaling technology company that was acquired by bluebird bio in 2014. Andrew earned his M.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. He completed his residency at the University of North Carolina Children’s Hospital and his fellowship in immunology at NIH and at the Division of Experimental Pathology, Beth Israel Hospital.

Dr. Weinstein-Marom is Scientific Co-founder of GentiBio. She is a senior scientist at the Immunology Laboratory of MIGAL – Galilee Research Institute and a lecturer in the Biotechnology Department at Tel-Hai College. In the field of immuno-gene therapy of cancer, her research focuses on improving the selectivity and safety of adoptive T cell therapy and on enhancing the functional properties and survival of antitumor T cells. In the field of inflammatory diseases, her research focus is on genetically engineering regulatory T cells as a new tool for immunotherapy. Dr. Weinstein-Marom received her B.Sc. in life sciences, M.Sc. in biotechnology-immunology, and Ph.D. in cancer immunotherapy, all from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She conducted her postdoctoral research with the Ella Lemelbaum Institute for Immuno-Oncology at the Sheba Medical Center and Tel Aviv University.

Dr. Amariglio is a Principal on the Israel team for OrbiMed Advisors LLC, a healthcare investment firm, covering venture capital investments in biotech, medical device, and diagnostics companies. Prior to joining OrbiMed, he was a Director of Mergers, Acquisitions, and Licensing at Bayer HealthCare where he was responsible for Healthcare transactions. While at Bayer, he held several positions of increasing responsibilities in Oncology Marketing and Business Development. Dr. Amariglio received his B.A. in Chemistry and Biology from Tel Aviv University and an M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from the Weizmann Institute in Israel, as well as an M.B.A. in Finance and Healthcare Management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Nathaniel Brooks Horwitz is a Principal at RA Capital Management, a healthcare and life sciences investment firm. He has served as a Director or Observer on the boards of several RA Capital portfolio companies, including GentiBio, Quench Bio, Eliem Therapeutics, Clear Creek Bio, and multiple stealth-mode ventures. He was previously CEO of Nivien Therapeutics. His writing on biotech and other subjects has been published by The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Boston Globe, and The Financial Review. Horwitz received an A.B. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Harvard University.

Erez Chimovits is a Partner and Senior Managing Director on the Israel team for OrbiMed Advisors LLC, a healthcare investment firm. Erez has 14 years of operational experience, including 10 years of senior managerial experience in public companies. Prior to joining OrbiMed, Erez was the CEO of NasVax. Previously, Erez spent more than seven years with Compugen as President of Compugen USA Inc. and Executive VP of Commercial Operations. At Compugen, he had P&L responsibility for more than 100 people and led multiple transactions including J&J, Novartis, Teva, Abbott, Medarex, and others. Erez earned his B.Sc., his M.B.A., and his M.Sc. in Microbiology from Tel Aviv University.

Dr. Gordon is a founding member, Managing Partner, and Co-Head of Global Private Equity at OrbiMed Advisors LLC, an investment firm.  Dr. Gordon serves on the boards of directors of several public and private companies.  He received a B.A. in Chemistry from Harvard College, a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and was a fellow at The Rockefeller University.

Dr. Levin is a Managing Director and co-leads the Venture Team at RA Capital Management, a healthcare and life sciences focused investment firm. Prior to joining RA, he was a Vice President at H.I.G. BioVentures and served as the Director of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Clinton Health Access Initiative. He received a B.S.E in Mechanical Engineering from Princeton University, a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School.

Adel is Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of GentiBio. Prior to joining GentiBio, Adel was the Chief Medical Officer of Casebia Therapeutics. In the past, Adel has held executive positions in various biotech and pharmaceutical companies, including Vice President at Intellia Therapeutics and Caladrius Biosciences, and various senior positions directing clinical development at Baxter and Abbott. He successfully led translational immunology programs for the past 12 years for experimental and approved therapies, spanning small and large molecules and engineered immune cell products, including Tregs products. Adel received his medical degree from Alexandria University in Egypt and his master’s degree in Clinical Research from the Pharmacology Dept. at Rush University in Chicago where he also held an academic position. Adel completed advanced studies in drug development at UCSF and University of Basel before becoming a Member of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine in the UK. Prior to joining the industry, Adel trained in surgery and internal medicine and practiced for 10 years in Chicago.

Abhiram Rao is a GentiBio Board Observer and Associate at Matrix Capital, a technology and life sciences investment firm. In addition to GentiBio, he is a Board Observer at AltPep and nference. Prior to Matrix, he held roles in strategy and R&D at Tempus, Illumina, and early-stage startups in biotechnology and genomics. Abhiram holds a PhD in Bioengineering from Stanford University where his research focused on early-stage drug discovery leveraging computational and high-throughput experimental technologies. He is an author on over 30 papers in journals including Science and Nature Genetics.

Dr. Shangari is a Principal at the Novartis Venture Fund (NVF), a life science investment firm. Prior to joining NVF, Dr. Shangari held various positions at Novartis in Business Development and Licensing and as a key member of the Kymriah® Global Program Team, helping to bring this novel cell therapy to market. She also held strategic and group head roles in the Novartis Preclinical Investigative Toxicology organization. Dr. Shangari received a B.Sc. in Biochemistry and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Toronto, Canada.

Michal Silverberg is a Managing Director at the Novartis Venture Fund (NVF), a life science investment firm. Prior to joining NVF, she was a Senior Partner at Takeda Ventures and, before that, held roles of increasing responsibility at Novo Nordisk, including Senior Director of Business Development and New Product Commercialization. Since 1998, Michal has held positions in various sectors of the life science industry, including in the Office of the Chief Scientist of Israel, venture capital, and global pharmaceutical and biotech companies. She received her B.A. in Economics and Business Management from Haifa University, her M.B.A from Tel-Aviv University, and her M.S. in Biotechnology from Columbia University.

Andy Tran is a GentiBio Board Director and a Vice President that leads and oversees key private biotechnology investments at Matrix Capital, a technology and life sciences investment firm. In addition to GentiBio, he has led investments in and served on the boards of multiple companies including Scribe Therapeutics, Insitro, EQRx, Dyno, and other startups in stealth-mode. Prior to Matrix, he was an Investment Partner at Andreesen Horowitz’s (a16z) Bio Fund investing in early-stage ventures in the life sciences. He has previously held roles at Genentech’s Discovery Oncology R&D department and Morgan Stanley’s investment banking group. Andy was trained as a Bioengineer and Computer scientist at Harvard University, where his research focused on gene therapy and CRISPR genome engineering technologies.