Developing
Cell Generated
Immunotherapies
to Eradicate
Solid Tumors

Dr. David Moller has extensive experience in biopharmaceutical R&D across a range of therapeutic areas and modalities. He currently serves as Chief Scientific Officer at Poxel SA, a clinical stage biotechnology company pursuing novel therapies for rare metabolic diseases. David also led R&D efforts as CSO at Sigilon Therapeutics; this technology employs immune-privileged engineered cell implants for the treatment of chronic diseases – including hemophilia and lysosomal storage diseases.  

David’s past experience includes 20 years leading R&D efforts at Merck and Eli Lilly. While Vice President, Metabolic Disorders at Merck, David’s team discovered and delivered several key additions to the pipeline – including sitagliptin (JanuviaTM). As Vice President Endocrine-Cardiovascular and Clinical Investigation at Lilly, David’s team delivered numerous additions to the pipeline including: dulaglutide (TrulicityTM), novel insulins, dual incretin agonists (tirzepatide), and several Phase II-III molecules targeting musculoskeletal, urologic and cardiorenal disorders. While leading global discovery and develop efforts in these areas, David had additional responsibility for scientific assessments of BD projects and execution of partnerships involving clinical stage programs, preclinical projects and technology platforms. At Eli Lilly, David also served as Vice President, Business Development – in this role, he established and led the Emerging Technology and Innovation team; a Boston based effort focusing on access to early phase external innovation across all disease areas including oncology and novel platforms – plus establishing and leveraging flexible funding models and venture capital partnerships. David has also held additional recent roles including as SAB member at Axcella Health and as strategic advisor to TVM Capital.  

David received a B.S. from Brown University and an M.D. from University of Cincinnati. He completed clinical and research training programs at George Washington University and Harvard. David also served on the Harvard faculty for several years where his laboratory discovered important clues to the molecular pathogenesis of metabolic disorders. David has published more than 130 peer-reviewed papers; his honors include election to the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, and appointment as an adjunct professor at the Karolinska Institute.

Katy Rezvani M.D, PhD is the Sally Cooper Murray Chair in Cancer Research, Professor of Medicine, Chief of Section for Cellular Therapy, Director of Translational Research and Director of the GMP Facility at MD Anderson Cancer Center. She also serves as the Executive Director of the Adoptive Cell Therapy Platform at MD Anderson. Her research laboratory focuses on the role of natural killer (NK) cells in mediating immunity against hematologic and solid tumors. The goal of this research is to understand mechanisms of tumor-induced NK cell dysfunction and to develop strategies to genetically engineer NK cells in order to enhance their in vivo anti-tumor activity and persistence. Findings from Dr. Rezvani’s lab have led to the approval and funding of several investigator-initiated clinical trials of NK cell immunotherapy in patients with hematologic malignancies and solid tumors, as well as the first-in-human clinical trial of off-the-shelf CAR-transduced cord blood NK cells in patients with relapsed/refractory lymphoid malignancies. Dr. Rezvani’s work is supported by multiple grants from the National Cancer Institute, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the American Cancer Society, Stand Up to Cancer and the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT). Dr. Rezvani completed her medical training at University College London, followed by Fellowships of the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Pathologists of the United Kingdom, a Ph.D. in Immunology from Imperial College London and postdoctoral studies at the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Omid Veiseh is a Co-Founder of Avenge Bio and an Assistant Professor and CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research in the Department of Bioengineering at Rice University. He received a dual Ph.D. in Materials Science & Engineering and Nanotechnology from the University of Washington. Dr. Veiseh completed his postdoctoral research with Prof. Robert Langer and Prof. Daniel Anderson at MIT and Harvard Medical School. Over the course of his career he has authored, or co-authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications including those in Nature, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Materials, Nature Medicine, and is an inventor on 20 pending or awarded patents, many of which have been licensed for commercialization by 3 separate biotechnology companies. He is Co-Founder of Sigilon Therapeutics. Throughout his career he has received numerous awards and fellowships including: a $2 million CPRIT Scholar In Cancer Research Award from the state of Texas, and was named one of MedTech Boston’s 40 Under 40 Healthcare Innovators for 2017.

Dr. Jazaeri is a Professor and the Vice Chair for Clinical Research in the Department of Gynecologic Oncology and Reproductive Medicine at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.  As the Director for the Gynecologic Cancer Immunotherapy Program, he has helped establish a broad base immune-oncology program for gynecologic cancers that include adoptive cell therapies, intraperitoneal immunotherapies, and translational immunobiology. His other areas of research interest include innovative clinical trial designs and identification of novel immunotherapy targets for gynecologic cancers.

José Oberholzer, M.D., is a physician-scientist with a long track record in cell therapy. Dr. Oberholzer, brings a wealth of highly valuable cell encapsulation expertise to AvengeBio’s Scientific Advisory Board. He is an endowed Professor of Surgery, Experimental Pathology and Biomedical Engineering, and the director of the Charles O. Strickler Transplant Center at the University of Virginia. Previous to that he was a Professor of Surgery and Bioengineering, and Chief of the Division of Transplantation at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Dr. Oberholzer graduated from the University of Zurich Medical School in Switzerland and obtained a master’s in health care management from Harvard University. He completed his surgical training at the University of Geneva (Switzerland), as well as at the University of Alberta in Edmonton (Canada), where he completed a fellowship in hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery and transplantation.

Dr. Rahul Sheth is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Interventional Radiology at MD Anderson. Dr. Sheth received his undergraduate degree in Chemistry and Physics at Harvard University and his MD degree through the Health Sciences and Technology program at Harvard Medical School.  After a medicine internship at the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Sheth returned to Boston and completed his residency training in diagnostic radiology as well as fellowship training in Interventional Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital. As a clinician-scientist, Dr. Sheth studies how locoregional therapies can have positive systemic ramifications for cancer patients. His research interests include optical molecular imaging, tumor microenvironmental factors affecting minimally invasive cancer therapies, photothermal ablation, and cancer immunology.

Mallinckrodt Professor of Immunopathology at Harvard Medical School

Program Leader, Basic Immunology at Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard

Director, HMS Center for Immune Imaging

Dr. Ulrich H. von Andrian, “Uli”, received his medical degree from the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Germany, where he also conducted doctorate research on blood-brain barrier dysfunction following brain injury.  In 1989, he joined the La Jolla Institute for Experimental Medicine and UCSD as a postdoctoral fellow working with Dr. Karl-E. Arfors.  His postdoctoral research involved the development of intravital microscopy techniques that led to the discovery of the multi-step leukocyte adhesion cascade in vivo.  After a second postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Eugene C. Butcher at Stanford University, Dr. von Andrian joined the Faculty of Harvard Medical School in 1994. He was appointed to his current position in 2006. His scientific research is focused on the regulation and function of immune cells in health and disease. To this end, his laboratory employs intravital microscopy techniques combined with other experimental approaches to study the migration, communication, differentiation and function of immune cells in living animals.

Nathan Reticker-Flynn is a Biomedical Engineer and tumor immunologist working at the interfaces of cancer metastasis, tumor evolution, adaptive immunity, and immuno-oncology. He received his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology while working with Dr. Sangeeta Bhatia as part of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. His doctoral studies focused upon developing technologies for interrogating interactions between tumors and extracellular matrix during metastatic progression. Dr. Reticker-Flynn performed his postdoctoral studies in the laboratory of Dr. Edgar Engleman at Stanford University School of Medicine. There, his work has focused on using systems approaches and mouse models to investigate tumor-immune interactions during metastasis and responses to immunotherapies. His discoveries include the revelation that effective immunotherapies require systemic activation of anti-tumor immunity and that lymph node metastases serve to reeducate adaptive immune responses in a manner that promotes distant metastasis. He currently focuses on using systems approaches and mouse models to elucidate the mechanisms of tumor-immune tolerance during metastatic progression and to develop novel immunotherapies to treat patients with metastatic disease.