SONOMA BIO - Key Persons
Alexander Rudensky, Ph.D., an immunologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, is co-discoverer of the transcription factor FoxP3 that is essential for T reg identification and function.
Early in his career, Dr. Rudensky pursued biochemistry at Moscow's Second Medical School, studying the interplay between the immune system's main actors: T cells and B cells. Following postdoctoral work at Yale, he accepted a professorship at the University of Washington, where his focus turned to the molecular underpinnings of T cell development. Rudensky became particularly interested in regulatory T cells, or T reg s, thought to play a role in suppressing unwanted immune responses. The molecular identity and role of T reg s had puzzled researchers for decades, but Rudensky and his team helped solve it by discovering that the gene switch FOXP3 controls their formation.
Much of Rudensky's career unfolded at Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York City. Notably, he found that placental mammals form cohort of "peripheral" T reg s, and that during pregnancy, these T regs prevent the maternal immune system from attacking the fetus, effectively linking peripheral T reg deficiency to miscarriages. Rudensky also discovered that fatty acids in the gut boost the formation of peripheral T regs, which in turn help ward off inflammatory gut disorders, and that T regs secrete a signaling molecule that mediates tissue repair and maintenance, establishing a central role for them in inflammation and allergies.
More recently, Rudensky and his colleagues have explored how T regs influence cancer progression. Clinical trials involving T regs in transplantation and autoimmune diseases are underway, and the coming years are poised to bring promising leads for cancer treatment.
Job Titles:
- Scientific Advisor
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator
Dan Littman is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, Helen L. and Martin S. Kimmel Professor of Molecular Immunology and Professor of cell biology and pathology at the New York University (NYU) School of Medicine. His groundbreaking discoveries in virology and immunology include molecular mechanisms of immune cells that mediate autoimmunity and the role of gut microbiota in T-cell differentiation. Dr. Littman is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Medicine. He was awarded the 2004 New York City Mayor's Award for Excellence in Science and Technology and the 2016 Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science.
Daniel Campbell, Ph.D., is a Member and Director of the Center for Fundamental Immunology at the Benaroya Research Institute where he studies the molecular control of regulatory T cell development, persistence and activity. Additionally, Dr. Campbell is an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Immunology at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
Dr. Campbell's research focuses on understanding the mechanisms that regulate immune responses during autoimmunity and infection. Dr. Campbell's lab specifically studies how regulatory T cells restrain immune responses, and how this has beneficial effects in preventing autoimmunity but can also promote chronic infection with pathogens. Dr. Campbell's lab also focuses on developing new ways to manipulate regulatory T cells therapeutically to treat immune-mediated diseases.
Dr. Campbell has served on numerous NIH Study Sections, and is an active member of the American Association of Immunologists, where he has served as a member of the meeting program committee and is the current chair of the Publications Committee. Prior to joining the Benaroya Research Institute, Dr. Campbell received a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Michigan, a Ph.D. in Immunology the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and completed his postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University in the Department of Pathology.
Job Titles:
- Chief Legal Officer
- Secretary
- Senior Biotechnology Executive
Doug Sheehy is a senior biotechnology executive who has managed global legal and compliance operations for multiple companies. Prior to joining Sonoma, Sheehy served as General Counsel and Secretary for Aimmune Therapeutics, Inc., a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company that develops and commercializes treatments for potentially life-threatening food allergies. Aimmune's lead product, PALFORZIA®, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of peanut allergy in 2020. Aimmune was acquired by Nestle Health Science for $2.6 billion in late 2020. Sheehy previously served as Executive Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer, General Counsel and Secretary of Codexis, Inc., a publicly traded biotechnology company that develops novel treatments for rare diseases and industrial synthetic enzymes for the pharmaceutical and food industries. Prior to Codexis, Sheehy served as Executive Director, Legal at CV Therapeutics, Inc., a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company that developed and commercialized treatments for cardiovascular disease. He started his career as a corporate and securities lawyer in Silicon Valley representing emerging growth companies and venture funds at Gunderson Dettmer.
Sheehy received an A.B. in History from Dartmouth College and a J.D. from American University's Washington College of Law, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the American University Law Review.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Director, Strategy, Planning, and Management for Global Health
Dr. Toni Hoover is Director, Strategy, Planning, and Management for Global Health, at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. There, she leads a team that is responsible for supporting the programs and functions with business strategy and operations, portfolio and project management, and engagement with product development partners. Her team is working to create more opportunities to consistently deliver high impact interventions in global health by integrating the network of diverse partners involved in product development by leveraging their respective strengths. She also oversees the foundation's Fellows program.
Before joining the foundation in 2012, Toni was senior vice president and site director at Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development, overseeing the operations of the company's largest R&D laboratories located in Groton, Connecticut. She is a 25-year veteran of pharmaceutical R&D product development and management, having held positions in clinical research and operations, project and portfolio management, and laboratory and facilities management. While at Pfizer she led the global development of Lyrica® from exploratory development through early commercialization.
Toni received her Bachelor of Arts, Masters, and Doctorate in Psychology and Social Relations from Harvard University. She serves on several not-for-profit boards, including University of Washington Medicine, New York Academy of Sciences, Xavier University of Louisiana, the Joyce Theater, and the Pacific Northwest Ballet.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Founder, CEO and CIO of Ally Bridge Group
Frank is the Founder, CEO and CIO of Ally Bridge Group ("ABG"), a leading global life science-dedicated investment group focused on world-leading innovations primarily at later stages across all life science segments from MedTech to tools and diagnostics, to biopharmaceuticals to digital health, through three strategies: private equity/venture capital, hedge fund and SPAC. Frank carries a strong track record as a dealmaker and a multi-strategy investment manager-since 2010, Frank has founded, launched and managed multiple funds covering venture, growth, buyout and hedge fund investing from China to U.S. to Europe. Frank is the CEO and Director of ABG Acquisition Corp. I (Ticker: ABGI), a special purpose acquisition corporation sponsored by ABG's affiliate. ABG has led/co-led private life science investments with a total value of over US$5 billion, with Frank personally leading/co-leading the landmark US$3.3 billion WuXi Pharmatech NYSE take-private in 2015, the US$300 million Series C financing for GRAIL in 2017 (acquired by Illumina in 2021), the US$85 million Series C financing for Imperative Care in 2019, and the US$265 million Series B financing for Sonoma Biotherapeutics in 2021, among other investments. Frank started his career in New York, then worked in Hong Kong for over two decades.
Previously, Frank was Managing Director and Head of China Investments at Och-Ziff Capital Management (OZ), a leading global hedge fund. Prior to OZ, Frank was a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong, where he headed several business units and played instrumental roles in a number of significant capital market financings and M&A transactions between Chinese and global companies. Before Goldman Sachs, Frank worked at Moody's in New York, and then Credit Suisse in London and Hong Kong. With a passion for art and world cultures and commitment to philanthropy, Frank serves on the Board of Trustees to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.
Fred Ramsdell, Ph.D., is a veteran biotechnology leader in immunology with nearly three decades of experience. Fred is a founder of Sonoma and serves at the Chief Scientific Officer. Immediately prior to Sonoma, Fred was the CSO at the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI) where he helped to build and advance multiple research programs from the inception of the Institute.
After a fellowship at the NIH, Fred joined Immunex studying T cell activation and tolerance, with a focus on gene discovery and functional characterization. He later joined Darwin Molecular (which was later acquired by Celltech R&D) to establish the immunology program. Amongst other programs, he led the team that discovered and characterized FoxP3, a gene critical to the function of regulatory T-cells. Fred joined ZymoGenetics in 2004, where he led teams studying novel proteins with potential regulatory activity in lymphoid cells. In 2008, Novo Nordisk brought Dr. Ramsdell on to help establish the company's new Inflammation Research Center in Seattle and lead the Immunobiology group.
He earned his doctoral degree in microbiology and immunology from the University of California, Los Angeles and holds a bachelor's degree in biochemistry and cell biology from the University of California, San Diego.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Leader
- President
Jeffrey Bluestone, Ph.D., is one of the leading immunologists in the field of T-cell activation and immune tolerance research that has led to the development of multiple immunotherapies, including the first FDA-approved drug targeting T-cell co-stimulation to treat autoimmune disease and organ transplantation and the first CTLA-4 antagonist drugs approved for the treatment of metastatic melanoma.
Dr. Bluestone is an academic leader on a national and international scale. He is former President and CEO of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, and was the founding director of the Immune Tolerance Network, the largest NIH-funded multicenter clinical immunology research program, testing novel immunotherapies in transplantation, autoimmunity and asthma/allergy. While holding the A.W. and Mary Margaret Clausen Distinguished Professorship at UCSF, Dr. Bluestone also served as executive vice chancellor and provost emeritus at UCSF and was the former director of the UCSF Diabetes Center.
Dr. Bluestone has authored more than 400 peer-reviewed publications and has received numerous awards, including election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine. He was also appointed a member of Vice President Joe Biden's Cancer Moonshot Blue Ribbon Panel.
Jessica Stitt, MBA is a global biotech financial executive with over 20 years of experience in corporate transactions, healthcare finance and strategy. She most recently served as Chief Financial Officer at Gyroscope Therapeutics, a global clinical-stage gene therapy company focused on disease of the eye, acquired by Novartis. Prior to Gyroscope, Stitt served as Vice President of Finance and Operations for MyoKardia, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing targeted therapies for the treatment of serious cardiovascular diseases, acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb. She served as Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations for Theravance Biopharma, Inc., after the company's spin-off from Theravance, Inc., now Innoviva, Inc. She previously held roles in finance at Nektar Therapeutics, Alkermes and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts.
Stitt holds an MBA from Simmons School of Management and a B.A. from Saint Anselm College.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Interim Chief Medical Officer
Previous roles include Head of Research and Development/Chief Medical Officer and Member of the Scientific Advisory Board at Magenta Therapeutics; Senior Vice President of Early Clinical Development at Pfizer; Global Head of Immunology and Vice President at Baxalta (Acquired by Shire), Therapeutic Area Head and Senior Group Director Inflammation, Cardiovascular/Metabolism gRED at Genentech, and Professor of Clinical Medicine and Director of Clinical Research Center, Lupus Clinic, and Spondylitis Clinic at UCSF.
John Davis, M.D., MPH, M.S., is an experienced physician-scientist drug developer and biotechnology executive with deep expertise across multiple platforms, technologies, and therapeutic areas. He has a passion for developing novel therapeutics to improve the lives of patients and a track record of success in strategic leadership, global development, and regulatory strategy across multiple therapeutic areas in biotechnology, mid-size and large pharmaceutical, and academic settings for nearly 30 years.
Dr. Davis serves on the board of directors at Sonoma Bio and is Chair of the Science Committee. He previously served on the board of directors at Rheos Medicines and is a strategic advisor and member of the Scientific Advisory Board at HIBio Therapeutics and Oak Hill Bio. He is President of Norte Health Consulting. He is also an attending volunteer physician at the Boston VA Medical Center Rheumatology Clinic.
Job Titles:
- Scientific Advisor
- Chief Scientific Officer at 23andMe
Joseph Arron is the Chief Scientific Officer at 23andMe and was formerly a Vice President at Genentech. His experience includes biomarker discovery, preclinical and translational research in the areas of autoimmune, inflammatory and fibrotic diseases.
Dr. Arron held various roles in his 15-year career at Genentech from scientist to Vice President and Senior Fellow, where he oversaw target and biomarker discovery for the immunology and ophthalmology therapeutic areas. His laboratory discovered pathogenic mechanisms and molecular bases for heterogeneity in respiratory disorders, contributing to the discovery and development of numerous investigational molecular therapies.
Dr. Arron earned an undergraduate degree from Princeton University, completed a combined M.D./Ph.D. degree at Cornell University Medical College and the Rockefeller University, and conducted postdoctoral studies at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Previous roles include Head of Research and Development/Chief Medical Officer and Member of the Scientific Advisory Board at Magenta Therapeutics; Senior Vice President of Early Clinical Development at Pfizer; Global Head of Immunology and Vice President at Baxalta (Acquired by Shire), Therapeutic Area Head and Senior Group Director Inflammation, Cardiovascular/Metabolism gRED at Genentech, and Professor of Clinical Medicine and Director of Clinical Research Center, Lupus Clinic, and Spondylitis Clinic at UCSF.
Katina Dorton, J.D. MBA, is a recognized and internationally experienced financial executive, corporate director, and public company CFO. Ms. Dorton's strategic insights, expert perspective and financial acumen are informed by earlier career experience as a Wall Street investment banker and corporate transactions attorney. Her industry expertise includes healthcare and life sciences, industrial services, and financial services. She currently is CFO at NodThera, a private Boston-based company focused on the NLRP3 inflammasome.
Throughout her career, Ms. Dorton has advised executive leaders and boards of directors on capital markets, fund raising, mergers and acquisitions, and other strategic transactions, collectively valued at more than $50 billion. As CFO, she has built financial, legal, and operational functions to support companies through aggressive growth and transition including IPO preparation. She has served on several public company boards and has demonstrated strong leadership as Lead Director, Audit Chair and Governance Committee Chair. She meets the qualifications of an SEC financial expert, is a National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) Corporate Governance Fellow, and serves on the NACD Lead Director Steering Committee. Ms. Dorton was named as one of Women Inc's 2019 Most Influential Corporate Directors.
Dr. Turka received his MD degree from the Yale University School of Medicine, and trained in Internal Medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Dr. Turka was a renal fellow at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, and then joined the faculty of the University of Michigan. In 1994 Dr. Turka joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was the C. Mahlon Kline Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Renal Division. In 2009 Dr. Turka moved to Boston and was at the Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was Co-Director of the Center for Transplantation Sciences, and the Harold and Ellen Danser Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. In 2018, Dr. Turka moved to biotech, as the Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of Rheos Medicines and subsequently the Chief Scientific Office and Head of Translational Medicine at Rubius Therapeutics.
Among the notable discoveries of Dr. Turka's laboratory were novel approaches to transplantation tolerance, the role of Toll-like receptors in T-cells, and pathways required for the maintenance of regulatory T-cell function. He was also an early contributor to the field of T cell costimulation including work that help lead to the development of abatacept and belatacept for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and renal transplantation. Dr. Turka has served as President of the American Society of Transplantation, Chair of the NIAID Board of Scientific Counselors, Editor in Chief of The Journal of Clinical Investigation, and Deputy Director of the Immune Tolerance Network. He was elected to membership in the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 1995, and the Association of American Physicians in 2003.
Job Titles:
- Executive
- Member of the Board
Maggie Wilderotter is a seasoned executive who, as CEO, has led both Fortune 500 companies and start-ups in her career. In addition, she has extensive Board leadership serving on over 35 public company and 14 private company Boards of Directors.
Today, Mrs. Wilderotter serves on the public boards of Costco Wholesale Corporation, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Cadence Design Systems, Lyft and is Board Chair at DocuSign. She serves on the private board of Tanium as well as a number of non-profit organizations. Mrs. Wilderotter is also a Senior Advisor to the Blackstone Group, Okta, and Atairos Private Equity.
Mrs. Wilderotter was Chief Executive Officer of Frontier Communications from November 2004 to April 2015, and then Executive Chairman of the company until April 2016. During her tenure with Frontier, the company grew from a regional telephone company with customer revenues of less than $1 billion to a national broadband, voice, and video provider with operations in 29 states and annualized revenues in excess of $10 billion.
Previously, Mrs. Wilderotter was Senior Vice President of Global Business Strategy and ran the Worldwide Public Sector at Microsoft. Before this, she was President and CEO of Wink Communications Inc., Executive Vice President of National Operations for AT&T Wireless Services Inc., Chief Executive Officer of AT&T's Aviation Communications Division, and a Senior Vice President of McCaw Cellular Communications Inc.
Mrs. Wilderotter previously served on the President's National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) as both Vice Chairman and Chairman during her 4-year tenure ending in 2014. Mrs. Wilderotter also served until January 2017 on the President's special Commission responsible for a recommendation report to the new President of the United States on Enhancing National Cybersecurity.
Mrs. Wilderotter holds a bachelor's degree in economics from the College of the Holy Cross. She has been awarded an Honorary Doctor of Engineering degree from the Stevens Institute of Technology and an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Rochester.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Molecular Immunology
Job Titles:
- Chief Business & Strategy Officer
An accomplished biotechnology executive, Peter DiLaura has nearly 25 years of experience in corporate development, strategy, and business leadership. He joined the company in 2020 from Third Rock Ventures, where he served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence, focused on building innovative therapeutic companies. Prior to Third Rock, Peter spent five years as the Chief Executive Officer of Second Genome, a therapeutics company developing novel drugs from microbiome science. Earlier in his career, Peter led all corporate development at Ingenuity Systems, a systems biology company. Peter began his career in life sciences as a consultant in the New York office of The Wilkerson Group.
Peter holds a BS in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
At Sonoma Biotherapeutics, Peter is responsible for corporate development, strategic planning, and operations.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Board
- Founder, Chief Scientist and Board Chair of Altos Labs
Dr. Klausner is currently founder, Chief Scientist and Board Chair of Altos Labs, and founder and Executive Chairman of Lyell Immunopharma, Inc. He is former Chief Executive Officer of Lyell, founder and Director of Juno Therapeutics, founder and Director of GRAIL, and Executive Chairman of Wisdo, a third-generation internet company. He is also the Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Mindstrong, Co-Founder of Lifemine Therapeutics and Director of Xtremity Prosthetics. He is the former Senior Vice President, Chief Medical Officer, and Chief Opportunity Officer of Illumina Corporation. He is the former Executive Chairman of Audax Health. He currently Chairs the Grand Challenges in Cancer program of Cancer Research UK. Previously, he has served as managing partner of the Venture Capital firm, The Column Group, was the Executive Director of Global Health for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Dr. Klausner was appointed by Presidents Clinton and Bush as the eleventh Director of the U.S. National Cancer Institute between 1995 and 2001. Dr. Klausner served as chief of the Cell Biology and Metabolism Branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development as well as a past president of the American Society of Clinical Investigation. He has served in senior advisory roles to the US, Norwegian, Qatari and Indian governments. He previously chaired the International Advisory Board for Samsung and chaired the Strategic Oversight Council of Sanofi.
More specific to his own research accomplishments, Dr. Klausner has provided valuable mechanistic insights into cellular processes such as intracellular trafficking, translation, and protein assembly. He has also contributed to the understanding of post-translational gene regulation mechanisms through his study of iron metabolism. Furthermore, his investigations into the von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) protein have led to further classification of the protein's tumor suppressive function in the context of renal cell carcinoma. His discovery of the T Cell Zeta chain and how T cells are activated was the basic science breakthrough that led to successful cell-based CAR-T cancer therapy.
Throughout his career, Dr. Klausner has consistently worked to apply the principles of science and technology to address the global cancer burden. He is currently working to develop innovative screening and diagnostic tests to facilitate early detection of various cancers.
Dr. Klausner is well known for his work in cell and molecular biology, immunology, and human genetics, and has been the author of more than 300 scientific articles and several books, in addition to receiving numerous awards, honorary degrees and other honors. He has served as an Advisor to the Presidents of the Academies for counter-terrorism, and Liaison to the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy. He oversaw the writing of The National Science Education Standards, the first such standards for US Science Education. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Terry Rosen has been leading successful drug discovery and development organizations in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries for over 30 years.
In 2015, he co-founded Arcus Biosciences, a drug discovery company focused on the treatment of cancer by blocking tumor-induced immunosuppression. Previously, he was co-founder and CEO of Flexus Biosciences, a company created to develop small-molecule drugs to reverse tumor immunosuppression, which was acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb early in 2015 for $1.25 billion. Prior to Flexus, Terry served as Vice President, Therapeutic Discovery (TD) at Amgen and as the site head for Amgen South San Francisco, having joined Amgen with the acquisition of Tularik in 2004. He was named Amgen Washington site head in 2006, transitioned to a leadership role heading Chemistry Research and Discovery in 2007 and became the head of Protein Sciences in 2011. He and his leadership team were responsible for the creation of the TD organization, a group of 550+ staff responsible for all of Amgen's large and small molecule drug discovery efforts.
Prior to joining Amgen, Terry held several executive positions at Tularik, including Executive Vice President, Operations, Vice President, Research Operations, and Vice President, Medicinal Chemistry. He has also held scientific and management positions at Pfizer and Abbott Laboratories. Terry serves on the Salk Institute Board of Trustees, the SAB and leadership committees of the University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute, the Board of Trustees of the UC Berkeley Foundation, the Caltech Biology & Bioengineering Chair's Council, and the Board of the California Life Sciences Association.
Job Titles:
- Scientific Advisor
- Associate Professor of Microbiology
Yvonne Chen, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics at the University of California Los Angeles. Dr. Chen is also a Member Researcher of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, Member of the Broad Stem Cell Research Center, and Co-Director of Tumor Immunology Program of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Dr. Chen's lab is focused on applying synthetic biology and biomolecular engineering techniques to develop robust cell-based therapies. They are specifically interested in engineering multi-functional T cells that can identify and effectively eliminate tumor cells partly by overcoming the various defense mechanisms associated with cancer and their microenvironments.
Prior to joining UCLA, Dr. Chen was a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows and conducted postdoctoral research at the Seattle Children's Research Institute and the Department of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School. The Chen lab's work on engineering next-generation T-cell therapies for cancer has been recognized by the NIH Director's Early Independence Award, the NSF CAREER Award, the Hellman Fellowship, the ACGT Young Investigator Award in Cell and Gene Therapy for Cancer, the Mark Foundation Emerging Leader Award, and the Cancer Research Institute Lloyd J. Old STAR Award.