AURAVAX - Key Persons


Dr. George Church

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Scientific Advisory Board
  • Scientific Advisor
  • Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School
Dr. George Church is Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr. Manu Sebastian

Job Titles:
  • Scientific Advisor
Current Associate Professor at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas. Dr. Manu Sebastian is a board-certified pathologist and toxicologist.

Dr. Mei Wu

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Scientific Advisory Board
  • Scientific Advisor
Dr. Mei Wu works at Wellman Center for Photomedicine within Massachusetts General Hospital/HMS and studies the molecular mechanisms in association with immune responses.

Dr. Stephen Johnston

Job Titles:
  • Scientific Advisor
  • Director for the Center for Innovations
Dr. Stephen Johnston is currently the director for the Center for Innovations in Medicine (CIM) at The Biodesign Institute and a professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University.

Eden Cooper

Job Titles:
  • Finance
Venture consultant, entrepreneur, and investor who has helped raise multiple oversubscribed rounds of funding in fintech, biotech, and sustainable energy. He has a BA in Economics from SDSU and is a CFA Charterholder.

Laurence Cooper

Job Titles:
  • Senior Member
Scientist, physician, educator, innovator, C-suite executive, and entrepreneur, with over 20 years of leadership and experience in innovating and leading teams to help solve complex and noteworthy problems in cancer, gene therapy, and immunotherapy.

Matthew Meyer

Job Titles:
  • Business Development
Attorney with over two decades of industry experience at both large pharma (Pfizer and Novartis) and building and financing biotech companies, including establishing operational structures, and obtaining licenses and partnerships to support the success of such start-ups.

Michael Chambers

Job Titles:
  • Strategic Advisor
Co-founder and CEO of Fargo-based Aldevron that specializes in the contract production of nucleic acids (e.g., plasmids, mRNA), recombinant proteins, and antibodies generated via genetic immunization.

Navin Varadarajan

Job Titles:
  • Lead Scientist
Co-founder of AuraVax and Professor at the University of Houston. Navin has an MS in Organic Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and a PhD in Biochemistry/Molecular Biology from The University of Texas at Austin. Navin completed his post-doc at MIT in Boston, Massachusetts.