CABALETTA BIO - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- President - Elect of the Society for Investigative Dermatology
Dr. Payne is the Irving Professor and Chair of Dermatology at Columbia University. Her research laboratory focuses on mechanisms and treatments of autoimmunity, with particular focus on autoantibody-mediated diseases such as pemphigus and myasthenia gravis. Dr. Payne's laboratory, in collaboration with Dr. Milone, pioneered the CAAR T cell therapy concept for targeted depletion of autoreactive B cells that formed the scientific basis for the founding of Cabaletta Bio.
Dr. Payne also serves as President-elect of the Society for Investigative Dermatology and medical advisor for the International Pemphigus and Pemphigoid Foundation, which focuses on patient advocacy and education. Dr. Payne's work in the field has been recognized with the Eugene J. Van Scott Award for Innovative Therapy, Top 10 Clinical Research Forum Award, Myasthenia Gravis Foundation Nancy Law Impact Award, and election to the American Society of Clinical Investigation. She received her B.S. degree in Biology from Stanford University and an M.D./Ph.D. degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Washington University School of Medicine before training in dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Marda joined Cabaletta in January 2019 as Chief Financial Officer. From April 2001 to January 2019, Mr. Marda held positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb, including, most recently, as Vice President, Head of Global Corporate Financial Planning & Analysis, and, from 2014 to 2018, as Head of Finance, R&D Operations and Head of Finance, R&D Portfolio Management and Global Medical. Prior to this, Mr. Marda was Executive Director, U.S. Pharmaceuticals from 2012 to 2014, and Assistant Treasurer, Capital Markets from 2008 to 2012. Mr. Marda received his M.B.A. from the Krannert School of Business of Purdue University and his B.Tech in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.
Dr. Das joined Cabaletta in July 2019 and was most recently Executive Director of New Product Planning and Business Development before assuming his new role as Chief Business Officer. He is also a Lecturer in the Health Care Management Department at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining Cabaletta, Dr. Das was a resident physician in General Pediatrics at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Previously, he was an investment banking analyst within the healthcare group at Goldman Sachs. In addition, Dr. Das has spent multiple years consulting in business development and operations for several start-ups in the biotechnology space. Dr. Das received his M.D. from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a B.A. and B.S. dual degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Daniels joined Cabaletta's Scientific Advisory Board in June 2021. Previously, Dr. Daniels was a member of Cabaletta's Board of Directors since October 2018. Since 2018, he has been a partner at 5AM Ventures, where he was previously a venture partner from 2014 to 2018. From 2004 to 2014, Dr. Daniels held positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb, serving as senior vice president, global development and medical affairs from 2004 to 2014. Dr. Daniels also serves on the boards of directors of Nohla Therapeutics Inc., and Novo Nordisk A/S, and on the clinical advisory board of Aprea Therapeutics AB. He previously served on the boards of directors of Spyryx Biosciences, Inc., RareCyte, Inc., and IDEAYA Biosciences, Inc. Dr. Daniels received his M.D. from Washington University in St. Louis and his B.S. and M.S. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at New York Hospital and a fellowship in Rheumatology and Immunology at the University of California, San Francisco.
Job Titles:
- Richard W. Vague Professor
Dr. June is the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. He is currently director of the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies and director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at the University of Pennsylvania. He maintains a research laboratory that studies various mechanisms of lymphocyte activation that relate to immune tolerance and adoptive immunotherapy for cancer and chronic infection. In 2011, his research team published findings, which represented the first successful and sustained demonstration of gene transfer therapy to treat cancer. In 2017, it became the first FDA-approved CAR T cell therapy.
Dr. June has published more than 500 manuscripts and is the recipient of numerous prizes and honors, including election to the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences, the William B. Coley Award, the Richard V. Smalley Memorial Award from the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, the AACR-CRI Lloyd J. Old Award in Cancer Immunology, the Hamdan Award for Medical Research Excellence and the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize. In 2014, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a graduate of the Naval Academy in Annapolis and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, 1979. He had graduate training in immunology and malaria with Dr. Paul-Henri Lambert at the World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland in 1978 and 1979, and post-doctoral training in transplantation biology with E. Donnell Thomas and John Hansen at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle from 1983 to 1986. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee
- Independent Director, George Washington University
- Member of Science & Technology Committee
- Nominating and Corporate Governance / Science & Technology
Dr. Bollard joined Cabaletta's Board of Directors in April 2019. She is the director of the Center for Cancer and Immunology Research at the Children's Research Institute and the director of the Program for Cell Enhancement and Technologies for Immunotherapy at the Children's National Health System, or CNH. She is also a faculty member of the Division of the Blood and Marrow Transplantation of CNH. Since 2013, Dr. Bollard also serves as Professor of Pediatrics and Microbiology, Immunology, and Tropical Medicine at George Washington University and is the associate center director for translational research and innovation within the George Washington Cancer Center. Prior to 2013, Dr. Bollard was Professor of Pediatrics, Medicine, and Immunology at Baylor College of Medicine. She is the immediate past president of the International Society for Cell Therapy, and she served on the Cellular, Tissues, and Gene Therapy Advisory Committee of the FDA until 2019. Dr. Bollard chaired the Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma Committee of the Children's Oncology Group from 2012 to 2020 and in 2021 became the President of the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy. Dr. Bollard received her medical degree from the University of Otago Medical School in New Zealand.
Dr. Chang joined Cabaletta in June 2019 as Chief Medical Officer. Previously, he was Senior Vice President and Head, Inflammation, Autoimmunity & Neuroscience, or IA&NS, Global Medicines Development at AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP, where he oversaw development projects of both biologics and small molecules in a variety of indications and led the late-stage clinical development organization for IA&NS. Prior to AstraZeneca, Dr. Chang served in various positions at GlaxoSmithKline plc, including VP and Head, Immuno-Inflammation, Clinical Development. While at AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline, he provided leadership in driving the clinical development and registration of the only two products approved for systemic lupus erythematosus in the US in over 60 years. From 1997-2022, Dr. Chang was a faculty member in the Division of Rheumatology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his M.D. from New York University School of Medicine, his M.P.H. from Emory University, and his B.S. from Yale University. Dr. Chang completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at the New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical Center and fellowship in Rheumatology at the Hospital for Special Surgery-Cornell University Medical Center. He is a Fellow of the American College of Rheumatology.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine
Dr. Weissman joined Cabaletta's Scientific Advisory Board in December 2021. Dr. Weissman is a professor of Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. He received his graduate degrees from Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. Weissman, in collaboration with Dr. Katalin Karikó, discovered the ability of modified nucleosides in RNA to suppress activation of innate immune sensors and increase the translation of mRNA containing certain modified nucleosides. The nucleoside-modified mRNA-lipid nanoparticle vaccine platform Dr. Weissman's lab created is used in the first 2 approved COVID-19 vaccines by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna. They continue to develop other vaccines that induce potent antibody and T cell responses with mRNA-based vaccines. Dr. Weissman's lab also develops methods to replace genetically deficient proteins, edit the genome, and specifically target cells and organs with mRNA-LNPs, including lung, heart, brain, CD4+ cells, all T cells, and bone marrow stem cells.
Professor Schett is currently Vice President Research of Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, where his research interests include basic, translational and clinical research on molecular and cellular pathogenesis of rheumatic and autoimmune diseases. In September 2022, his group published results on the use of CD19-CAR T cell therapy for patients with severe, refractory lupus (Nature Medicine, 2022), suggesting the potential of CD19-targeting cell therapy to reset the immune system in a cohort of five patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.
Professor Schett serves as Principal Investigator for numerous grant-funded projects focused on rheumatologic and immunologic processes. He is a Leopoldina member of the National Academy of Sciences of Germany, a member of the German Research Foundation (DFG) review board, a reviewer for several academic societies and journals and a collaborator on organizing a large number of international congresses. Professor Schett is widely published with more than 820 peer-reviewed papers and has been honored with several awards, including the Carol-Nachman Prize from Wiesbaden and the Dr. Franciscus Blondel Medal from the city of Aachen for outstanding contributions to the field of rheumatology. He earned his medical degree from the University of Innsbruck and completed his specialty training in internal medicine and rheumatology at the University of Vienna.
Job Titles:
- President, Science & Technology
Dr. Binder was one of Cabaletta's first employees, joining in February 2019, and was most recently Executive Vice President of Science and Technology. At Cabaletta, she established and currently leads the preclinical, translational, manufacturing and quality teams. In addition to her position at Cabaletta, she serves on the Board of Directors of Instil Bio, Inc., a company developing tumor infiltrating lymphocytes for cancer immunotherapy, and as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Immatics N.V., which is developing engineered T cell immunotherapy for cancer. Prior to joining Cabaletta, Dr. Binder was the Chief Technology Officer of Adaptimmune Therapeutics plc, where she led the research team after establishing the U.S. arm of the company and building the early manufacturing, quality and translational research teams, including providing oversight on the build out of a commercial scale cell therapy manufacturing facility. Earlier in her career, Dr. Binder served as Director of Operations for the Translational Research Program at the University of Pennsylvania, where she progressed multiple Investigational New Drug application ("IND") submissions for novel engineered T cell therapies in human immunodeficiency virus ("HIV") and oncology, including the CD19 CAR IND acquired by Novartis (now Kymriah®), the first human gene editing IND, and three TCR engineered T cell therapy studies in oncology and HIV. Prior to that, she served as the Director of Scientific Affairs at VIRxSYS Corporation in Gaithersburg, Maryland where she supported the development of the first clinical lentiviral vector used in humans, for the application of engineered T cell therapy for HIV. Dr. Binder studied viral immunology and translational research at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland where she earned a Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Medicine. She has authored over 30 publications in the field, including top international journals such as Science and Nature Medicine. She is a recognized leader in the biotechnology sector for the translational and clinical advancement of novel T cell therapies for patients with serious diseases.
Ms. Harte-Hall joined Cabaletta in March 2019 and was most recently Vice President of Quality and Compliance before assuming her new role as Chief Compliance Officer. Previously, she was Head of Clinical Quality and Compliance at Adaptimmune Therapeutics, plc, where she built a compliance program and helped establish a culture of integrity to drive ethical behavior in the management and conduct of clinical trials. Ms. Harte-Hall developed and implemented quality and compliance programs focusing on risk management and compliance functions to improve activities such as regulatory monitoring, auditing, and managing alignment with policies, procedures and controls. Ms. Harte-Hall has over 15 years of experience in pharmaceutical and healthcare management and has held various positions in quality and compliance at Centocor Biotech, Inc., Wyeth, LLC and Pfizer Inc. She currently serves as a committee member for the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM) Accelerator Group and a member of the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE). Ms. Harte-Hall holds a Master of Science in Psychology from Capella University and B.A. in Business Administration from St. Leo University.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the National Academies' Forum
Dr. Siegel is the current Chair of the National Academies' Forum on Regenerative Medicine and recently retired Chief Biotechnology Officer and Head of Scientific Strategy and Policy at Johnson & Johnson (J&J). He joined J&J as President of Research and Development, Centocor. He was subsequently promoted through multiple operational roles including Group President of R&D with oversight of biotechnology, immunology, and oncology, with responsibility for the successful discovery and development of several pharmaceutical products including STELARA®, SIMPONI®, SYLVANT®, and most indications for REMICADE®. Dr. Siegel later served as head of global regulatory affairs and biotechnology for Janssen, the pharmaceutical companies of J&J. Dr. Siegel currently chairs the National Academies' Forum on Regenerative Medicine, which is focused on cellular therapies, and a member of the Forum on Microbial Threats. He also served on the Executive Committees and the Boards of Directors of BIO and the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine. Before joining J&J, Dr. Siegel had a distinguished career for 20 years at the FDA Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research in positions of increasing responsibility, including directing the office responsible for review and approval of all therapeutic biologics.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Audit Committee
- Member of the Compensation Committee
- Member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee
- Audit
- Independent Director, Torreya Partners
Mr. Simon joined our board of directors in October 2018. He is an Advisor and co-founder of Torreya Partners, LLC, a global investment banking firm serving companies in the life sciences industry. Prior to co-founding Torreya, Mr. Simon was a Managing Director and head of life sciences investment banking at Citigroup from 2002 to 2005 where he covered global pharmaceutical companies with a focus on large-capitalization players in the US, Europe and Japan. Prior to Citigroup, Mark served as a Managing Director at Robertson Stephens in San Francisco and New York where he was responsible for the covering the biotech investment banking sector. During his tenure overseeing the group, he was involved in raising 45% of all biotech dollars raised in the US from 1999-2001. Prior to joining the investment banking group, Mark was a senior biotech research analyst at Robertson Stephens, and was named a Wall Street All-Star Analyst for three years in a row. He began his career at Kidder Peabody as a biotech research associate in 1984 and participated the IPO of Genzyme and the early financings of companies such as Amgen. Mr. Simon currently serves on the board of directors of Portage Biotech Inc., which is a public biotech company. He is also a Strategic Advisor to the Founder and CEO of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., which is the largest pharma company in India and a board observer of Sun Pharma Advanced Research Company Ltd. Both companies are only public in India where Mr. Simon is focused on accelerating their innovation initiatives. Mr. Simon also serves on the board of several disease advocacy and philanthropic foundations in the oncology, CNS/neuroscience, and metabolic areas. We believe that Mr. Simon is qualified to serve on our board of directors because of his extensive experience of over 30 years in the life sciences industry and biotechnology and specialty pharma transactions.
Job Titles:
- Chief Human Resources Officer
Ms. O'Connor joined Cabaletta in March 2019 as Chief Human Resources Officer. Before joining our company, Ms. O'Connor spent 17 years as a senior executive in Human Resources at Bristol-Myers Squibb, with leadership roles in HR generalist and specialist areas. She has managed global HR teams across many parts of the business, including Research & Development, Commercial, and Corporate Staff. Before joining Bristol-Myers Squibb, Martha spent ten years with Andersen Consulting (Accenture), where she achieved associate partnership as an organization and change management consultant. Martha graduated from Smith College with a bachelor's degree in Economics and Psychology.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Pathology
Dr. Milone is currently an Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and founding member of the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies at the University of Pennsylvania. He has more than 20 years of experience in immunology and more than 15 years of experience in developing genetically engineered T cell therapies, including a post-doctoral fellowship with Carl June, M.D. from 2004 to 2007. He is a co-inventor of CTL019 (tisagenlecleucel), a CD19-targeting chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy, and the first CAR-based T cell therapy to reach regulatory approval in the United States and Europe for patients with B cell malignancies. He is also a co-inventor for several new CAR-T cell therapies for multiple myeloma and solid tumors that are currently in early-phase clinical trials. Dr. Milone leads a team of translational researchers in the development of novel genetically engineered T cells for adoptive T cell immunotherapy.
Mr. Gerard joined Cabaletta in September 2021 as General Counsel. Before joining Cabaletta, he served as Associate General Counsel at Spark Therapeutics, a member of the Roche Group. While at Spark, he supported the global gene therapy Manufacturing, Business Development, Technical Development, Supply Chain, Quality, Alliance Management, Real Estate, IT and Facilities teams. Prior to joining Spark, he worked in roles of increasing responsibility at Sandoz, a division of the Novartis Group, achieving the position of Executive Director, Associate General Counsel, BD&L, Strategy and Portfolio. Mr. Gerard also worked as Assistant General Counsel at Aramark. He began his legal career at K&L Gates LLP, later joining Morrison & Foerster LLP before assuming his roles as in-house counsel. Mr. Gerard holds a J.D. from Cornell Law School and received his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Michigan.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Audit Committee
- Member of the Compensation Committee
- Audit
- Independent Director, Former CFO of Gates Foundation, Former Controller at Merck
Mr. Henriques joined Cabaletta's Board of Directors in February 2019. Since 2015, he has been a senior fellow at the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania, with a focus on impact investing. From 2010 to 2014, Mr. Henriques was the chief financial officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he was responsible for finance and accounting, financial planning and analysis, strategic planning, measurement and evaluation, program-related investments, and information technology. From 1981 to 2008, Mr. Henriques held positions at Merck & Co., Inc., including as Senior Vice President of Finance for Global Human Health, Vice President and Corporate Controller, and Principal Accounting Officer. Mr. Henriques also serves on the boards of directors of Emulate Therapeutics Inc. (formerly Nativis Inc.), Arbutus Biopharma Corporation, a public company, the Heritage Conservancy and Episcopal Community Services and on the board of trustees of the Franklin Institute.
Dr. Basu joined Cabaletta in December 2019 and was most recently Vice President of Preclinical Research and Translational Medicine before assuming his new role as Chief Scientific Officer. Prior to joining Cabaletta, Dr. Basu was Head of Translational Sciences (Medicine) at Adaptimmune Therapeutics, plc, where he led research efforts focused on understanding the mechanisms of resistance and response to T-cell receptor based adoptive immunotherapies to inform next generation approaches and clinical strategies. Before that, Dr. Basu co-led preclinical development efforts for Keytruda® (pembrolizumab) at Merck Research Laboratories. He is a physician-scientist with 17 years of industry and academic experience in adoptive immunotherapy, translational research, autoimmunity, and tumor immunology with prior roles at the National Institutes of Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Basu holds an M.D. from Temple University and completed residency training in Clinical Pathology.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Audit Committee
- Member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee
- Audit / Nominating and Corporate Governance / Science & Technology
- Independent Director, Formerly at AbbVie
- Member of Science & Technology Committee
Scott Brun, M.D. has two decades of experience in various leadership roles at AbbVie, Inc., including 15 years at the predecessor company, Abbott Laboratories. The majority of his career has been focused on leading teams and clinical development organizations across a broad variety of therapeutic areas including autoimmune, neurologic, and renal among others. He was most recently Vice President of Scientific Affairs and Head of AbbVie Ventures, a corporate venture fund responsible for investment opportunities within AbbVie's R&D therapeutic areas as well as technology platforms of interest. Previously, Dr. Brun served as Vice President and Head of Pharmaceutical Development at AbbVie. During his tenure at AbbVie, Dr. Brun oversaw a global organization with responsibilities for AbbVie's entire portfolio of early and late-stage clinical pre-registration pipeline compounds as well as marketed compounds within oncology, neurology, immunology, renal, infectious disease, and women's and men's health therapeutic areas. Prior to joining AbbVie, Dr. Brun spent over 15 years at Abbott Laboratories, where he held positions of increasing leadership responsibility in drug development within the R&D organization. Dr. Brun is currently President at Gold Mast Consulting, LLC, an advisory firm he founded to provide technical advice and strategic guidance related to biopharmaceutical research and development, pipeline portfolio management, commercialization of new therapeutics and strategic communications related to R&D activities. Dr. Brun received his B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and earned his M.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He completed his residency in ophthalmology at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Compensation Committee
- Compensation
- Independent Director, Former CCO of Kite Pharma, Inc
- Member of Science & Technology Committee
Ms. Tomasello joined Cabaletta's Board of Directors in July 2023. She brings over 35 years of experience in the life sciences industry and most recently served as Chief Commercial Officer of Kite Pharma (subsequently Kite, a Gilead Company), where she led the global launch and commercialization of Yescarta™ (axicabtagene ciloleucel), the first approved chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T therapy for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Prior to joining Kite, Ms. Tomasello served as Chief Commercial Officer at Pharmacyclics, Inc, now part of AbbVie, where she led commercial and medical affairs activities for Imbruvica®. Previously, she held senior leadership positions at Celgene Corporation, including President of the Americas, Hematology and Oncology, in which she oversaw over $4 billion in product revenues. During her tenure at Celgene, Ms. Tomasello was responsible for all aspects of commercial sales and marketing for five brands encompassing 11 indications. Prior to this, she was National Director of Hematology for Rituxan® at Genentech, representing the most significant portion of the company's product revenue during her tenure. Earlier in her career, Ms. Tomasello held positions at Pfizer Laboratories, Miles Pharmaceuticals and Proctor & Gamble. She currently serves on the Boards of 4D Molecular Therapeutics, AlloVir and Gamida Cell Ltd. Ms. Tomasello holds a B.S. degree in marketing from the University of Cincinnati and an M.B.A. from Murray State University, KY.
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Chief Executive Officer
- Co - Founder
- President
Dr. Nichtberger has served as Chief Executive Officer, President, and Chairman of Cabaletta Bio since its founding in 2017. He is also a senior fellow and adjunct professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the executive committee of the board of governors of Main Line Health, a not-for-profit regional health system. In 2008, his leadership as founding CEO of Tengion (2004-2011) was recognized nationally with the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year® award for emerging companies. Earlier in his career, Dr. Nichtberger served as the head of global marketing for Merck and in various commercial operating roles at the company from 1995 to 2003. He has previously served as a member of the boards of directors of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (as a founding member), Pennsylvania Bio, (including as chairman), and Biotechnology Industry Organization. From 2008-2019 he was a member of the board of overseers for the School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Nichtberger received his M.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo, his B.S. from The Wharton School and his B.A. from the College of Arts & Sciences, at the University of Pennsylvania. He completed internship, residency, and fellowship in the Department of Medicine and the Division of Cardiology of the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York.