Drew Pardoll, MD, PhD

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Drew Pardoll, MD, PhD, is the Abeloff Professor of Oncology, Medicine, Pathology and Molecular Biology and Genetics at the Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine. He is the Director of the Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy and Co-Director of the Cancer Immunology Program at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins.

Dr. Pardoll attended Johns Hopkins University, where he earned his MD, PhD, in 1982 and completed his Medical Residency and Oncology Fellowship in 1985. He then worked for three years at the National Institutes of Health as a Medical Staff Fellow. Dr. Pardoll joined the departments of oncology and medicine in 1988. Dr. Pardoll has published over 300 papers as well as over 20 book chapters on the subject of T-cell immunology and cancer vaccines. He has served on the editorial board of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute and Cancer Cell, and has served as a member of scientific advisory boards for the Cancer Research Institute, the University of Pennsylvania Human Gene Therapy Gene Institute, Biologic Resources Branch of the National Cancer Institute, Harvard-Dana Farber Cancer Center, Cerus Corporation, Global Medical Products Corporation, Genecor Corporation, CellGenesys Corporation, Mojave Therapeutics, the American Association of Clinical Oncology and the American Association of Cancer Research.

His more than 300 articles cover cancer vaccines, gene therapies, cancer prevention technologies, recombinant immune modulatory agents for specific pathways that regulate immunity to cancer and infectious diseases.

Alison Simmons, MD, PhD

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Alison Simmons, MD, PhD, is Director of the MRC Human Immunology Unit, UK; Professor of Gastroenterology at the University of Oxford and Consultant Gastroenterologist at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She received her MB BS from Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, University of London and trained in medicine and gastroenterology in London and Cambridge. She undertook a PhD in Oxford before forming a research group at the MRC Human Immunology Unit, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, Oxford. Professor Simmons’ group focuses on immunology of intestinal disease and has provided new insights into inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) pathogenesis. She redefined the cellular map of the intestine, discovering unexpected heterogeneity and charting the basis of mucosal remodeling that fuels inflammation in colitis defining populations of disease associated cells. She has made key contributions to deciphering the function of the strongest IBD susceptibility genes and host pathogen interactions.

She received a National Institutes of Health Research Professorship 2013, a US Harrington Scholar-Innovator award 2014 and is a Wellcome Trust Investigator. Professor Simmons was elected member of Association of Physicians, UK in 2009, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 2011 and Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, 2019. Professor Simmons sits on a range of advisory panels for public and private sector bodies responsible for biomedical research in the US and Europe.

Diane Mathis, PhD

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Diane Mathis, PhD, is currently the Morton Grove-Rasmussen Professor of Immunohematology at Harvard Medical School, Principal Faculty Member at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and Associate Faculty Member of the Broad Institute. Her lab focuses on the fields of T-cell differentiation, autoimmunity and inflammation. Throughout her career, she has trained more than 175 students and postdoctoral fellows.

Previously, Dr. Mathis was a Professor of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and Associate Research Director and Head of the section on Immunology and Immunogenetics at Joslin Diabetes Center through 2008.

Diane currently serves on the advisory boards of Rockefeller University, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Genentech, Pfizer, Amgen and several research institutes worldwide. She was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2003, the German Academy in 2007 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2012. In 2016, she received the FASEB Excellence in Science Award.

Dr. Mathis holds a PhD from the University of Rochester and performed postdoctoral studies at the Laboratoire de Génétique Moléculaire des Eucaryotes in Strasbourg, France and at Stanford University Medical Center. She returned to Strasbourg at the end of 1983, establishing a laboratory at the LGME (later the Institut de Genetique et de Biologie Moleculare et Cellulaire) in conjunction with Dr. Christophe Benoist. The lab moved to the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston in 1999.

Wilson Liao, MD

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Dr. Liao is Professor and Vice Chair of Research in the UCSF Department of Dermatology. He serves as Director of the UCSF Psoriasis and Skin Treatment Center and is deeply engaged in patient care, clinical trials, and basic science research. The Liao laboratory studies the genetics and environmental triggers of psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, and hidradenitis suppurativa.

Dr. Liao directs the UCSF Psoriasis Research Initiative and Biobank with over 1,500 subjects, which is used for genetic and translational research studies. The Liao lab has contributed to the identification over 30 risk variants in psoriasis, including a deletion of the late cornified envelope genes, common variants in UBE2L3 and SH2B3, copy number changes in KIR2DL2, KIR3DS1, and NKG2C, and rare variants in IFIH1 and CARD14. Current projects include the identification of psoriasis and hidradenitis causal variants through genetic mapping and functional genomics, elucidation of inflammatory disease pathways through single cell transcriptional and immunoprofiling technologies, and development of precision medicine approaches.

Matt Chrysler, MBA

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Matt Chrysler is Head of Portfolio & Alliance Management at TRexBio. He joined TRexBio with 15 years of portfolio and commercial experience in both emerging and large biotechnology companies. Most recently, he led New Product Planning at Ultragenyx, driving early-stage pipeline strategy decisions for potential gene therapy, biologic and small molecule therapeutics. Previously at Ultragenyx he was Global Commercial Lead for multiple late-stage programs, including overseeing launch preparations for Crysvita in collaboration with a global pharmaceutical partner. Earlier in his career, he held a variety of portfolio management, corporate strategy and brand management roles at Genentech. He started his career as a Management Consultant at ZS Associates.

Mr. Chrysler earned an MBA and MS in biochemistry from Georgetown University and a BS in microbiology from the University of Washington.

Michael Townsend, PhD

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Dr. Michael Townsend is Vice President, Head of Translational Biology at TRexBio.

Prior to joining the company, he held positions of increasing responsibility over 18 years at Genentech working across a broad range of therapeutic areas and indications while leading a translational research department focused on disease mechanisms, biomarker discovery, and reverse translation. He has supported biomarker discovery, biomarker strategy development, and clinical implementation across all phases of drug development. Dr. Townsend has contributed to multiple IND filings, has co-authored over 50 primary research papers and review articles, and is an inventor on five patents.

Dr. Townsend received his BSc in Biochemistry from Imperial College London and his PhD in Immunology and Molecular Biology from the University of Cambridge. He carried out postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Laurie Glimcher, MD, at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Ali Zarrin, PhD

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Dr. Ali Zarrin serves as Senior Vice President of Drug Discovery at TRexBio, leading a team of scientists with the overall responsibility for target discovery, validation, and preclinical therapeutic development in different disease areas.

Dr. Zarrin joined Early Research and Development at Genentech where he was instrumental in leading several transformational initiatives to advance multiple therapeutic programs from early discovery research covering diverse mechanistic pathways for cancer, inflammatory and autoimmune indications. He also led various disease area research strategies with the focus in autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Dr. Zarrin is an inventor on 5 patents and has over 41 scientific publications on diverse topics in journals including Nature, Nature Immunology, Nature reviews Drug Discovery, Nature Reviews Immunology, Science, Science Signaling and PNAS.

Dr. Zarrin obtained his BS in University of Minnesota and his PhD in Immunology from University of Toronto. He then carried out postdoctoral study in the lab of pioneering geneticist and molecular immunologist, Fred Alt, at HHMI/Harvard.