Christophe Quéva, PhD

CSO

Christophe Quéva, PhD, joined DEM Bio in September 2022 as Chief Scientific Officer.  Prior to joining DEM Bio, Dr. Quéva was Chief Scientific Officer at Oncorus Inc., a publicly-traded, immuno-oncology clinical-stage company, where he was responsible for directing and advancing the company’s development program based on its next-generation immunotherapy platform of oncolytic viruses.

Dr. Quéva was also the Chief Scientific Officer at iTeos Therapeutics where his responsibilities included leading the generation of an innovative immuno-oncology portfolio of small molecule and antibody programs and overseeing the company’s translational medicine strategy for its A2A antagonist and TIGIT programs.

Before iTeos, he held successive senior positions at AstraZeneca, Amgen and Gilead Sciences where he led or supported drug discovery programs for oncology and inflammatory diseases, from target selection to commercial approval for small molecules and biologics.

A holder of one patent and widely published, Dr. Quéva trained as a post-doctoral fellow at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle after receiving his PhD in Life and Health Sciences from the University of Lille, France.

John McCabe, MBA

CFO/COO

Prior to DEM Bio, John McCabe served as Chief Financial Officer of Oncorus, Inc., a publicly-traded, immuno-oncology clinical-stage company from July 2019 to March 2022. Prior to Oncorus, Mr. McCabe held various positions of increasing responsibility at Flex Pharma, Inc., a clinical-stage, publicly-traded biotechnology company, from 2014 to July 2019, including most recently serving as its Chief Financial Officer. From 2013 to 2014, Mr. McCabe served as the Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer of ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a publicly-traded global oncology company. From 2009 until 2013, he served as the Vice President and Corporate Controller of CRA International, Inc. (Charles River Associates), and from 2007 until 2009, he was Director, Strategic Business Unit Controller at Biogen Idec Inc.. Mr. McCabe holds an MBA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a BS in accounting and a BS in management information systems from Babson College. Mr. McCabe is a Certified Public Accountant (inactive).

Loise Francisco, PhD

SVP, Head, Biology

Dr. Francisco is the SVP and Head of Biology at DEM Biopharma. She is a pioneer in T cell immune checkpoints and dendritic cell biology, with over 22 years of immunology and immuno-oncology experience. Prior to joining DEM Biopharma, Dr. Francisco held various leadership positions at GSK (NYSE: GSK),  and Evelo Biosciences (NASDAQ: EVLO). At Evelo, she served as Vice President of Discovery and Oncology Research, where her role encompassed leading the preclinical discovery of novel targets in oncology through a successful Phase I/II clinical trial. At GSK Dr. Francisco was a Scientific Group Leader where she led a US and UK-based team developing a novel biologics program targeting innate immune responses.

Dr. Francisco completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Immunology. As a member of Dr. Arlene Sharpe’s laboratory, she characterized the role of the PD-L1: PD-1 pathway in regulating T cells in autoimmunity and cancer, for which she is an author on several landmark papers and an inventor on early patents. Dr. Francisco earned her PhD in Immunology from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Dr. Drew Pardoll’s laboratory and was co-mentored by Nobel Laureate, Dr. Ralph Steinman, at the Rockefeller University. Dr. Francisco previously earned a BS in Molecular Cell Biology and a BA in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Jan Skvarka, PhD, MBA

Chairman, DEM Bio

Jan is a member of the Board of Directors at Zentalis Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:ZNTL), and Monte Rosa Therapeutics (Nasdaq:GLUE). Previously, he was the CEO of Trillium Therapeutics (Nasdaq:TRIL), a clinical stage immuno-oncology company, where he led a highly successful, 360-degree turn-around that produced a leading CD47 drug candidate, while taking the company from a $16M valuation to a $2.3B buy-out by Pfizer in two years. Prior to that, Jan was the CEO of Tal Medical, a private, clinical stage neuroscience company; a partner in the life sciences practice at Bain & Company, Boston; and a manager at Price Waterhouse Corporate Finance in London, UK and Vienna, Austria. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Economics in Slovakia, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Christoph Westphal, MD, PhD

Co-Founder & General Partner

Dr. Westphal is co-founder and General Partner of Longwood Fund and has spent over 20 years as a biotech CEO, entrepreneur, and investor. Dr. Westphal has been the co-founder, CEO, and lead investor of seven biotechnology companies that have completed initial public offerings (IPOs) and created sustained market value of over $50 billion and have developed and received FDA approval for over 10 important drugs, including the first RNA medicines. These include: Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: MNTA, acquired by J&J in 2020), Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALNY), Acceleron Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: XLRN, acquired by Merck in 2021), Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRT, acquired by GSK in 2008), Verastem (NASDAQ: VSTM), and TScan Therapeutics (NASDAQ: TCRX). Dr. Westphal was also co-founder of Alnara Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Eli Lilly in 2010); co-founder/CEO of DEM Bio Pharma; co-founder/CEO of Immunitas Therapeutics; co-founder/Chair of Solu Therapeutics; co-founder of Pyxis Oncology (NASDAQ: PYXS); and co-founder of Concert Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: CNCE, acquired by Sun Pharma in 2023). Companies founded by Dr. Westphal have created thousands of jobs in the Boston area. Dr. Westphal and Longwood partners have founded over 20 biotech companies, receiving FDA approval for over 20 important drugs, and created sustained market caps of over $150 billion in aggregate.

Dr. Westphal earned his M.D. from Harvard Medical School, his Ph.D. in genetics from Harvard University, and graduated with a B.A. summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University. Dr. Westphal has served or currently serves as a member or director of: the Boston Commercial Club, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), the Board of Fellows of Harvard Medical School, and the Board of Trustees of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He is also a member of the ownership group of the Boston Celtics. Dr. Westphal has been the lead or senior author on several patent applications and scientific papers in journals such as Cell, Nature, and Nature Genetics. Dr. Westphal has been featured on 60 Minutes with Morley Safer, CNN’s Vital Signs with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, an ABC News Special hosted by Barbara Walters, and as the subject of Fortune, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal cover articles. Dr. Westphal has generally avoided media interviews since 2010.

Dan Janney, MBA

Director, DEM Bio
Managing Partner, Alta Partners

Mr. Janney is the Managing Partner of Alta Partners. Mr. Janney joined Alta Partners at its founding in 1996. He has nearly 25 years of successful early-stage investing experience in life sciences. Mr. Janney’s focus on working with talented entrepreneurs to create companies around novel insights in biology and new approaches to drug discovery has led to the funding and development of 35 companies. Prior to Alta, Mr. Janney was a senior investment banker at Montgomery Securities.

Mr. Janney is currently on the board of directors of several public and private companies, including Allakos (NASDAQ: ALLK), Be Biopharma, Curasen Therapeutics, ImmuneID, Krystal Biotech (NASDAQ: KYRS), Lassen Therapeutics, Novome Biotechnologies, and Prolacta Bioscience. In addition, he led Alta’s investments in Astex Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Supergen), Cellective (acquired by Medimmune), ChemGenex (ASX: CXS acquired by Cephalon), CoTherix (NASDAQ: CTRX acquired by Actellion), Definity Health (acquired by United Health), Dynavax (NASDAQ: DVAX), Endonetics (acquired by Medtronic), Esperion Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ESPR), Ilex Oncology (NASDAQ: ILXO acquired by Millennium Pharmaceuticals), InterMune (NASDAQ: ITMN acquired by Roche), LJL Biosystems (NASDAQ: LJLB acquired by Molecular Devices), Mako Surgical (NASDAQ: MAKO acquired by Stryker) and Triangle Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: VIRS acquired by Gilead).

Mr. Janney is a member of The President’s Council of the J. David Gladstone Institutes and the chair of the Board of Directors of the California Academy of Sciences. He also serves on the Board of Regents of Georgetown University. He holds a BA from Georgetown University and a MBA from the Anderson School at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Dylan Morris

Director, DEM Bio
Managing Director, Insight Partners

Mr. Morris is a Managing Director at Insight Partners, where he leads the firm’s bio practice. Mr. Morris joined Insight in 2021 to focus on investments at the intersection of computation and biology. He loves technology-enabled approaches to drug discovery and development, new therapeutic modalities, and curative therapies. He is drawn towards novel methods of generating data and enjoys working with driven founders who agree that the primary goal is to help patients.

Mr. Morris currently sits on the board of directors of Insight’s investments in several private life sciences companies, including Switch Tx, Unlearn, Gameto, ArrePath, ImmuneBridge, and Profluent. Mr. Morris was previously a General Partner at CRV, where he helped build the bioengineering practice, leading the firm’s investments in Recursion Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: RXRX), Dyno Therapeutics, and Plexium, among others. Prior to CRV, Mr. Morris invested at Innovation Endeavors, Eric Schmidt’s early-stage venture capital firm, where he drove investments in the areas of computational and synthetic biology.

Before becoming an investor, Mr. Morris cofounded Integrated Plasmonics, a venture-backed point-of-care diagnostics startup. Prior to that, he conducted graduate research in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Caltech. Mr. Morris received his AB in Computer Science from Harvard.

Marie-Claire Peakman, MRPharmS, PhD

Director, DEM Bio
Partner at Pfizer Ventures

Dr. Peakman is a Partner at Pfizer Ventures and an Executive Director in Emerging Science & Innovation at Pfizer. In her current role she has responsibility for investing in early-stage biotech companies and supporting them in advancing emerging science to deliver new medicines to patients. Dr. Peakman holds a B.Pharm.Hons. degree in Pharmacy and a PhD in Physiology & Pharmacology from the University of Nottingham U.K. She conducted postdoctoral work at Yale University in the department of Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry and the department of Molecular Psychiatry. Dr. Peakman has been at Pfizer for 24 years holding various leadership positions supporting small molecule lead discovery. As part of her former responsibilities, Dr. Peakman founded and led the Primary Pharmacology Group for 13 years during which time they were responsible for the identification of nirmatrelvir (Paxlovid), abrocitinib (Cibinqo), danuglipron, ervogastat, clesacostat, ritlecitinib and additional small molecule therapeutics that are currently in the clinic. She was recognized as a PhRMA ‘We Work For Health’ Champion in 2018 and was a 2019 finalist for the CT Women of Innovation Award. She is a member of The Royal Pharmaceutical Society, Chair of the Board of Directors for United Way of Southeastern CT, on the Board of Trustees for Lawrence and Memorial Hospital and Treasurer on the Board of Directors for the Thames River Innovation Place. She is also currently the Executive Sponsor for the Pfizer Women’s Resource Group in CT.

William Watt

President
Astellas Venture Management

William (Bill) Watt joined AVM as President on June 1, 2022 with a career in academic science, business development, entrepreneurship and venture capital. After studying the Japanese and Korean languages in Tokyo and Seoul, he earned a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Washington and completed 3 postdoctoral fellowships before moving into business development with innovative biotech companies. After working with the venture-backed companies iPierian and Kineta, he founded the clinical-stage cancer vaccine company EpiThany in 2013, which has advanced its assets via partnership into global Phase 2 clinical trials. In 2019, Bill helped establish the Japan-based venture capital firm Catalys Pacific as a Venture Partner based in Japan and then joined Astellas to help with business development in March of 2021, leading to his current role with AVM.

Nenad Grmusa

Director, DEM Bio
CEO, DEM Bio

Nenad Grmusa, joined DEM Bio as Chief Executive Officer in September 2022. Prior to joining DEM Bio, Mr. Grmusa led the R&D Strategy and External Innovation group at Takeda. In this role, he oversaw all external research and development activities including strategic venture investments, academic alliances, R&D collaborations, and spinouts. He was also responsible for R&D Finance and Portfolio Strategy, innovative R&D business and venture investment models, and divestiture strategies for non-core assets.

Previously, Mr. Grmusa served as Head, Center for External Innovation and R&D Portfolio & Investment Strategy at Takeda, where he supported the Head of R&D in managing Takeda’s diverse pipeline from early discovery to commercial life cycle management. Mr. Grmusa has 20 years of experience in R&D finance, financial planning and analysis, and pharmaceutical portfolio management.

Prior to joining Takeda, Mr. Grmusa spent 10 years with Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in various financial planning and analytical roles with increasing responsibilities. While at Millennium, Mr. Grmusa directly engaged with R&D leaders and the Millennium management team on pipeline investment management and strategic corporate planning. Prior to Millennium, he spent 3 years in consulting with Boston Biomedical Consultants.

Mr. Grmusa holds an MA in International Economics and Finance from Brandeis University and a BS in Finance from West Virginia University.

Jonathan Weissman, PhD

Scientific Co-founder & SAB Co-chair

Dr. Weissman is a Professor of Biology at MIT, an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Landon T. Clay Professor of Biology at the Whitehead Institute, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. His research is focused on how cells ensure that proteins fold into their correct shape, as well as the role of protein misfolding in disease and normal physiology and building innovative tools for broadly exploring organizational principles of biological systems. These include ribosome profiling, which globally monitors protein translation, CRIPSRi/a for controlling the expression of human genes and rewiring the epigenome and lineage tracing tools, to record the history of cells.

Dr. Weissman has received several distinctions for his work including the Ira Herskowitz Award from the Genetic Society of America, the National Academy of Sciences Award for Scientific Discovery and the Raymond and Beverly Sackler International Prize in Biophysics. He received his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Michael Bassik, PhD

Scientific Co-founder & SAB Co-chair

Dr. Bassik is an Associate Professor in the Department of Genetics at Stanford University. His laboratory at Stanford focuses on development of CRISPR/Cas9 based systems for high-throughput screening by mutagenesis, single and pairwise gene perturbation, and application of these technologies to two major areas: (1) understanding mechanisms of cancer growth and drug resistance in order to find new therapeutic targets, and (2) mechanisms by which macrophages and other cells take up diverse materials by endocytosis and phagocytosis; these substrates range from bacteria, viruses, and cancer cells to drugs and protein toxins.

Kipp Weiskopf, MD, PhD

Scientific Co-founder & SAB Co-chair

Dr. Weiskopf, M.D., Ph.D. is a Valhalla Fellow at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, MA. He is a pioneer of macrophage-directed therapies and leads a research laboratory that studies novel macrophage and myeloid immune checkpoints for the treatment of cancer. As a physician-scientist, Dr. Weiskopf also maintains a clinical appointment at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute as a Hematology and Oncology fellow.

Dr. Weiskopf earned his medical and graduate degrees at Stanford University. As a member of Dr. Irving Weissman’s laboratory, he characterized the CD47/SIRPa interaction as an immune checkpoint that regulates macrophages in cancer. He engineered therapies that stimulate macrophages to attack tumors and showed these could be effective for many types of cancer. Dr. Weiskopf is an inventor on over 15 issued U.S. patents pertaining to macrophage-directed therapies. He co-founded ALX Oncology, a biotech company that is investigating macrophage-directed therapies in multiple Phase 1 and 2 trials for cancer, and serves on the company’s scientific advisory board. Other technology that Dr. Weiskopf invented has been licensed to Forty Seven, Inc. (acquired by Gilead).

Dr. Weiskopf completed his medical training in the Internal Medicine Residency Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and is board certified in Internal Medicine. He has previously been awarded a Winston Churchill Scholarship, the Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award, first place in the Collegiate Inventors Competition, and the AACR-AstraZeneca Career Development Award for Physician-Scientists, in Honor of José Baselga. Dr. Weiskopf previously earned a B.A. from Amherst College and an M.Phil. in genetics from University of Cambridge.

Miriam Merad, PhD

Scientific Advisor

Dr. Merad is the Director of the Precision Immunology Institute at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and the Director of the Mount Sinai Human Immune Monitoring Center (HIMC), which she founded. Her research over the past 20 years has focused on understanding the mechanisms that control the development and functional identity of dendritic cells and macrophages during homeostasis, and examining how these regulations are changed in cancer and inflammatory diseases.

Dr. Merad is credited with identifying the tissue resident macrophage lineage and revealing its distinct role in organ physiology and pathophysiology. She has authored more than 200 primary papers and reviews in high profile journals. Dr. Merad is the recipient of the William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology.  In 2020, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of her contributions to the field of immunology and in 2023, she was named President  of the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS).

Dr. Merad obtained her M.D. at the University of Algiers and completed her residency in hematology/oncology at the University of Paris VII. She holds a Master’s degree in biotechnology and a Ph.D. in immunology from Stanford University and University Paris VII.

Wendy Young, PhD

Scientific Advisor

Dr. Young currently serves as an Advisor to Google Ventures, Board Director and Scientific Advisory Board Member of several biotech companies. Prior to her current roles, Dr. Young held the title of SVP of the Small Molecule Drug Discovery division at Genentech. Under her leadership, more than 25 clinical candidates in the areas of oncology, immunology, neurology and anti-infectives, progressed into clinical development.

Dr. Young led the BTK program and is co-inventor of fenebrutinib which is currently in Phase 3 trials for multiple sclerosis. Prior to joining Genentech, she held medicinal chemistry leadership roles at both Celera Genomics and Johnson & Johnson. Dr. Young is named as an inventor or author on more than 70 published patents and manuscripts. In 2018 she was inducted as an ACS Fellow for her lifelong service to chemistry, society and medicine, in 2019 she was highlighted as “One of the Top 20 Women in Biopharma” by Endpoints News and in 2020 she was awarded the prestigious Earle B. Barnes Award for Leadership for outstanding achievements in Chemical Research Management.

Dr. Young received a Ph.D. in chemistry from Princeton University and was an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellow at Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Kai Wucherpfennig, MD, PhD

Scientific Advisor, SAB

Dr. Wucherpfennig is Professor and Chair of the Department of Cancer Immunology and Virology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on the discovery of genes that control the activity of cytotoxic T cells in the tumor microenvironment drawing insights for the development of next-generation cancer immunotherapies. He has received a number of honors and awards, including his election as a Fellow in the American Society for the Advancement of Science, his election as a member of the Henry Kunkel Society at Rockefeller University, and his election as a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation. Dr. Wucherpfennig serves as an advisor to a number of immuno-oncology companies and venture funds.

Dane Wittrup, PhD

Scientific Advisor, SAB

Dr. Wittrup is the Carbon P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering and Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Associate Director of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. From 1989-1999 he was Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and then J. W. Westwater Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, and Biophysics at the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana. Prof. Wittrup received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering Summa cum Laude in 1984 from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1988 under the thesis direction of Prof. James Bailey. Following a year of postdoctoral research at Amgen (Thousand Oaks, CA), Dr. Wittrup joined the faculty at the University of Illinois. Wittrup’s research program is focused on protein engineering of biopharmaceutical proteins by directed evolution. Areas of interest include: pre-targeted radio-immunotherapy; biological response modification of EGFR; and immunotherapy of cancer via engineered cytokines and vaccines. Dr. Wittrup has received the following awards and honors recognizing his scholarship: the A. McLaren White Award, for First Prize in the National American Institute of Chemical Engineers Student Design Contest (1984); the Presidential Young Investigator Award of the National Science Foundation (1990-1995); the Allan P. Colburn Award of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, for excellence in publications for an individual under the age of 35 (1998); the University of New Mexico College of Engineering Distinguished Young Alumnus Award (2000); the Dow Chemical Company Teaching Award(1989); the UIUC School of Chemical Sciences Award for Excellence in Teaching (1993); the UIUC College of Engineering Anderson Award for Undergraduate Advising (1991, 1994); the J.R. Mares Professorship (1999-2007); the C.P. Dubbs Professorship (2007-); induction as a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers (1999); induction as Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (2011); and Member, National Academy of Engineering (2012). In 2007, Prof. Wittrup co-founded Adimab, Inc. and serves as CSO. In 2009, he co-founded Eleven Biotherapeutics, and serves on the Scientific Advisory Board. He also serves as an advisor to many additional biotech companies.

Robert Uger, PhD

Chief Scientific Advisor, SAB

Dr. Uger has spent 20+ years developing novel agents targeting the immune system. He began his industry career in cancer vaccine research with Aventis Pasteur, and then joined start-up Trillium Therapeutics as Director, Research & Development, later serving as Vice President, Research & Development, and then Chief Scientific Officer until the company was acquired by Pfizer in 2021 for $2.2B. At Trillium, Dr. Uger was responsible for the company’s scientific strategy and guided several compounds from concept to clinic. His expertise spans both innate and adaptive immunology, and he has overseen programs in the fields of immuno-oncology, autoimmunity and transplantation. He received his PhD in immunology from the University of Toronto.

Roarke Kamber, PhD

Scientific Co-founder

Dr. Kamber is a postdoctoral fellow in Michael Bassik’s laboratory in the Department of Genetics at Stanford University. He is the recipient of an NIH/NCI K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award and a postdoctoral fellowship from the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research. He conducted his PhD work as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow in the laboratory of Vladimir Denic at Harvard, investigating the regulation of damaged organelle elimination by autophagy, and received a BS with Honors in Biology from Stanford University. As a postdoc, he developed a CRISPR screening platform that uncovered several novel inter-cellular signaling axes that impede cancer cell clearance by macrophages. He has additionally co-developed methods for the unbiased prediction of uncharacterized gene functions. His work has been published in several peer-reviewed journals including Nature, Nature Genetics, eLife, and Molecular Cell.

Dian Yang, PhD

Scientific Co-founder

Dr. Yang did his PhD with Drs. Monte Winslow and Julien Sage at Stanford, where he studied the epigenetic and genetic mechanisms of cancer metastasis. His PhD work was awarded the Denise A. Chan Outstanding Thesis Award in 2017.

Dr. Yang is currently a Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Jonathan Weissman’s lab. His work on developing innovative approaches has brought new insights into tumor evolution and tumor-immune cell interaction. He has won several awards, including a Damon Runyon Jake Wetchler Award, and more recently, a Dale F. Frey Award for Breakthrough Scientists.