An Experienced Team of Precision Oncology Experts

Dr. Keith Flaherty is Director of Clinical Research at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. As described in the more than 300 peer reviewed primary research reports he has authored or co-authored, Dr. Flaherty and colleagues made several seminal observations that have defined the treatment of melanoma when they established the efficacy of BRAF, MEK and combined BRAF/MEK inhibition in patients with metastatic melanoma in a series of New England Journal of Medicine articles for which Dr. Flaherty was the first author. Dr. Flaherty also has been a leader in assessing and identifying mechanisms of de novo and acquired resistance to BRAF inhibitor therapy and clinically evaluating next generation inhibitors, work that has had implications for resistance to targeted therapy regimens used to treat other malignant diseases. He is the principal investigator of the NCI MATCH trial, the first NCI-sponsored trial assigning patients to targeted therapy independent of tumor type on the basis of DNA sequencing detection of oncogenes. He serves ECOG as chair of the Developmental Therapeutics Committee and in 2013 was appointed as ECOG Deputy Chair for Biomarker Science. Dr. Flaherty joined the NCI Board of Scientific Advisors in 2018 and AACR Board of Directors in 2019. He serves as editor-in-chief of Clinical Cancer Research.

Dr. Ryan Corcoran is the Director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Center Program and the Scientific Director of the Termeer Center for Targeted Therapy at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center. He is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Corcoran holds an AB from Princeton University and an MD/PhD from Stanford University. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital and his fellowship in Medical Oncology at the Dana Faber Cancer Institute and the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center. Dr. Corcoran directs a research laboratory focused on personalized cancer medicine: the development of therapeutic strategies that target the specific mutations driving individual patients’ tumors. His work focuses on understanding the molecular determinants of response or resistance to anti-cancer therapies. Dr. Corcoran’s laboratory is also studying new ways to utilize liquid biopsy, and specifically analysis of circulating tumor DNA, in the clinic to optimize how we deliver cancer care to individual patients. Dr. Corcoran is a member of the National Cancer Institute Colorectal Cancer Task Force and the Rectal Cancer Task Force, and an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI).

Dr. Ezra Cohen is Co-Director of the San Diego Center for Precision Immunotherapy and an internationally renowned translational researcher. He cares for patients with all types of head and neck cancers, including esophageal, thyroid, and salivary gland cancers. Dr. Cohen is also an Assistant Director for Translational Science and heads the Solid Tumor Therapeutics research program at Moores Cancer Center. Much of his work has focused on squamous cell carcinomas and cancers of the thyroid, salivary gland, and HPV-related oropharyngeal cancers. He is especially interested in developing novel therapies and understanding mechanisms of sensitivity or resistance; cancer screening; and using medication and other agents to delay or prevent cancer (chemoprevention). Dr. Cohen recently served as chair of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Head and Neck Cancer Steering Committee, which oversees NCI-funded clinical research in this disease. He was also editor in chief of Oral Oncology, the most respected specialty journal in head and neck cancer. Prior to joining UC San Diego Health System in 2014, Dr. Cohen was Co-Director of the Head and Neck Cancer Program at the University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center. He earned his medical degree at University of Toronto and completed residencies in family medicine at the University of Toronto and in Internal Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He received a hematology/oncology fellowship at the University of Chicago where he was named chief fellow.

Dr. Luis Diaz is the head of the division of solid tumor oncology at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He was previously a faculty member and physician at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. While at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Diaz was a member of the renowned Ludwig Center for Cancer Genetics and Therapeutics and was Director of the Swim Across America Laboratory. He also founded several entities that focus on genomic analyses of cancers including Inostics, PapGene and Personal Genome Diagnostics, Inc. As a clinical scientist, he harnessed the power of cancer mutations as biomarkers in circulating tumor DNA performing pioneering work establishing liquid biopsies as powerful clinical tools for cancer screening and monitoring. He championed the use of checkpoint inhibitors in the treatment of patients with tumors with high mutational burden. He and his team conceptualized and executed the landmark proof-of-concept study using PD-1 blockade in patients with MSI-H, which led to the historic first pan-tumor FDA approval for any solid tumors with this genetic lesion in May 2017. Dr. Diaz holds a B.S. in microbiology and an M.D. from the University of Michigan. He completed his internal medicine residency training at the Osler Medical Service and his medical oncology fellowship training at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is a member of the teams that received the 2013, 2014 and 2017 AACR Team Science Award. In 2019, he was awarded the Waun Ki Hong Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cancer Research. He is also the leader of the SU2C Colon Cancer Dream Team, Editor-in-Chief of Cancer Discovery and is an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI).

Dr. John Iafrate is a Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, and is Director of the Center for Integrated Diagnostics (CID), a clinical laboratory for molecular diagnostics at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). Dr. Iafrate received his MD/PhD dual degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 2000 and was trained in anatomic and molecular genetic pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Iafrate is a board-certified Pathologist, and has been on staff at MGH since 2005. The CID provides rapid personalized genomic testing to help inform cancer treatment decisions for patients. His research is focused on lung and brain tumors, where he has been closely involved in the clinical development of crizotinib and companion diagnostics in ALK- and ROS1 positive lung cancers. His lab has developed several technologies for sequencing tumors, including SNaPshot and the next-generation sequencing-based Anchored Multiplex PCR, both techniques have been widely used in the molecular diagnostics community.

Dr. Andrew M. Lowy is Professor of Surgery, Chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology and Clinical Director for Cancer Surgery at Moores Cancer Center and UC San Diego Health. Dr Lowy is a physician-scientist who is recognized worldwide for his expertise in the surgical treatment of pancreatic cancer and for investigating novel cancer treatments which incorporate surgery and chemotherapy to treat patients with advanced cancer that has spread to the abdomen. Dr. Lowy is chair of the National Cancer Institute’s Pancreatic Cancer Task Force which is charged with setting the direction of clinical research in pancreatic cancer in the United States. He also serves as surgical liaison to the Pancreas sub-committee of SWOG, which is one of the largest National Cancer Institute cooperative groups. Dr. Lowy’s laboratory focuses on the study of pancreatic cancer signaling and preclinical modeling and he collaborated to develop the first genetically engineered mouse model of pancreatic cancer currently used in laboratories worldwide. His lab has been continuously funded since 1999 by the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute to study pancreatic cancer.

Dean J. Mitchell is the Kinnate Board Chairman, and also currently serves on the Theravance Biopharma, ImmunoGen and Precigen (previously Intrexon) boards of directors. Previously, he was Executive Chairman of the board of directors at Covis Pharma Holdings until its acquisition in March 2020 and Chairman of the board of directors at PaxVax until it was acquired by Emergent BioSolutions in 2018. From 2010 to 2013, he served as President and CEO of Lux Biosciences. Prior, he was President and CEO of Alpharma until its acquisition by King Pharmaceuticals and Guilford Pharmaceuticals before its acquisition by MGI PHARMA. Mr. Mitchell held senior positions at Bristol Myers Squibb, including president of North America Primary Care and International Pharmaceuticals businesses. Mr. Mitchell spent 14 years at GlaxoSmithKline in senior management, product strategy and business development positions, and led the company’s global clinical and commercial development groups.

Mr. Mitchell holds a B.S. in biology from Coventry University, and an M.B.A. from City, University London’s Cass Business School.

Nima brings over two decades of executive leadership experience in the biopharma industry to our team. Prior to joining us, Nima spent seven years at PaxVax, where he was most recently President and CEO. While there, he successfully led a team of 250 people through a number of commercial product launches and negotiated the sale of PaxVax to Emergent BioSolutions in 2018. Prior to PaxVax, he was at Novartis AG in a series of roles of increasing responsibility, most recently as Vice President of US Marketing at Novartis’ Vaccines and Diagnostics division. Prior to Novartis, Nima worked at DoubleTwist, a pioneering genomics company, and was a consultant with Boston Consulting Group. He was a member of the founding Board of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). He is on the Executive Committee of the Northern California Chapter of Young President’s Organization (YPO) and a Trustee at the Hamlin School. He is also a Director of Keros Therapeutics (NASDAQ: KROS). He holds a BA in Human Biology from Stanford University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Jill DeSimone brings more than 40 years of global business expertise in life sciences to Kinnate’s board. Most recently, she served as President of U.S. Oncology at Merck & Co., Inc., where she established the company’s oncology division, growing it from less than $500 million in annual revenue to $9 billion in just eight years. She led three key product launches and more than 45 indication launches, including Keytruda®. Prior to joining Merck, Ms. DeSimone was Senior Vice President of Global Women’s Health at Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd., where she built its first global business unit. Ms. DeSimone began her career at Bristol Meyers Squibb and held roles of increasing responsibility culminating as the Senior Vice President of U.S. Oncology, a role in which she helped launch the first FDA-approved CTLA-4 immune checkpoint inhibitor, Yervoy®.

Ms. DeSimone currently serves as a board member for Oncternal Therapeutics, a clinical-stage oncology company, Affini-T Therapeutics, an immune oncology cell therapy company, the Florida Cancer Specialists Foundation, a nonprofit organization that delivers non-medical aid for individuals undergoing treatment for cancer, and Praxis Precision Medicines, Inc., a clinical-stage company focused on development of therapies for the central nervous system.

She earned a B.S. in pharmacy from Northeastern University and completed a fellowship with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Melissa Epperly is a senior financial operating executive with nearly two decades of life sciences corporate development and financial experience. Ms. Epperly is currently CFO at Zentalis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNTL), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing small molecule therapeutics targeting fundamental biological pathways of cancers. Prior to her current position, she served as CFO of PsiOxus Therapeutics Ltd., a clinical-stage gene therapy cancer company. Prior to that, Ms. Epperly served as CFO and Head of Business Development at R-Pharm US, a commercial-stage oncology company. She previously served as a Director at Anchorage Capital Group, a credit-focused hedge fund; a Vice President at Goldman Sachs in equity research in New York and London where she built GS SUSTAIN; and a management consultant with Bain & Company. She began her career at Morgan Stanley in New York in healthcare investment banking.

Ms. Epperly holds a B.A. in Biochemistry and Economics from the University of Virginia and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Dr. Keith Flaherty is Director of Clinical Research at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. As described in the more than 300 peer reviewed primary research reports he has authored or co-authored, Dr. Flaherty and colleagues made several seminal observations that have defined the treatment of melanoma when they established the efficacy of BRAF, MEK and combined BRAF/MEK inhibition in patients with metastatic melanoma in a series of New England Journal of Medicine articles for which Dr. Flaherty was the first author. Dr. Flaherty also has been a leader in assessing and identifying mechanisms of de novo and acquired resistance to BRAF inhibitor therapy and clinically evaluating next generation inhibitors, work that has had implications for resistance to targeted therapy regimens used to treat other malignant diseases. He is the principal investigator of the NCI MATCH trial, the first NCI-sponsored trial assigning patients to targeted therapy independent of tumor type on the basis of DNA sequencing detection of oncogenes. He serves ECOG as chair of the Developmental Therapeutics Committee and in 2013 was appointed as ECOG Deputy Chair for Biomarker Science. Dr. Flaherty joined the NCI Board of Scientific Advisors in 2018 and AACR Board of Directors in 2019. He serves as editor-in-chief of Clinical Cancer Research.

Carl L. Gordon, PhD, CFA, is a founding Partner and Co-Head of Global Private Equity at OrbiMed. For the last six years (2014 to 2019) Forbes® Magazine named Dr. Gordon one of the top 100 venture capitalists in the world when it placed him on the “Forbes Midas List”. He received a PhD in Molecular Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1993) and a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Harvard College (1987), and was a Fellow at The Rockefeller University from 1993 to 1995.

Dr. Michael Rome joined Foresite Capital in 2016 and is active in the firm’s private and public market investments. Michael is a board director at Kinnate Biopharma with board observer roles (past and present) at Turning Point Therapeutics, Maze Therapeutics, Pharvaris, PACT Pharma, and Nurix Therapeutics. He has also led/co-led investments in several public companies across the Foresite portfolio. Prior to Foresite Capital, he was an analyst at DAFNA Capital Management, covering and formulating investment ideas for small/mid-cap biotech companies.

Michael previously worked in early-stage drug development for an academic start-up out of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA. He received his PhD in Biochemistry from Caltech as an NSF graduate research fellow, and his BS in Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology from UCLA. He has more than 12 years of experience as a research scientist and has authored numerous publications in biomedical research journals.

Dr. Sabzevari is currently President and CEO of Precigen, Inc., a dedicated discovery and clinical stage biopharmaceutical company. At Precigen, Dr. Sabzevari is leading discovery and development of the next generation of gene and cell therapies using precision technology to unmet medical needs in the areas of immuno-oncology, autoimmune disorders, and infectious diseases.

Prior to Precigen, Dr. Sabzevari was co-founder and chief scientific officer of Compass Therapeutics, a fully integrated drug discovery and development company focused on manipulating the immune system to treat human disease. Prior to Compass Therapeutics, Dr. Sabzevari was senior vice president of immuno-oncology at Merck Serono (a subsidiary of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany), where her pioneering efforts led to the foundation of Merck Serono’s immuno-oncology translational innovation platform for developing and advancing therapies, including cancer vaccines, cancer stem cell treatments and approaches to reset the immune system so that it is primed to eliminate cancer cells. Prior to Merck Serono, Dr. Sabzevari led the Molecular Immunology Group at the Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Biology at the US National Cancer Institute (LTIB-NCI), where she was focused on design, development and delivery of novel vaccines and immunotherapies for a range of human cancers.

Dr. Sabzevari has been author or senior author on over 40 scientific publications and has been the recipient of the Mass High Tech’s Women to Watch Award, the PharmaVOICE 100 Award and the NIH Merit Award for major contributions to the field of cancer immunotherapy. Most recently, Dr. Sabzevari received the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Team Science Award for her work on the NCI Cancer Immunotherapy Program Team.

Dr. Sabzevari received her Ph.D. in cell and molecular immunology and completed her postdoctoral work at the department of immunology at the Scripps Research Institute working on various immunotherapeutic modalities in the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases.

Laurie Smaldone Alsup, M.D. has more than 30 years of biopharmaceutical leadership experience in clinical drug development, global regulatory strategy, and product approvals across multiple therapeutic areas including cancer, rare disease and immunologic disorders. She currently serves as Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Medical Officer of NDA Group, a regulatory and product development consulting firm. Prior, she was President and CSO of PharmApprove, a scientific communications consultancy and President and CEO of Phytomedics. During her 20 years at Bristol Myers Squibb she had leadership roles of increasing responsibilities in cancer and infectious diseases clinical development including Senior Vice President of Global Regulatory Science, co-chair of the Brand Development Operating Committee, where she was responsible for late-stage development and commercialization, and Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Business Risk Management. She currently serves on the board of directors at Arvinas Inc., Blackberry Limited, and Theravance Biopharma.

Dr. Smaldone Alsup holds a B.A. in biology from Fordham College and an M.D. from the Yale School of Medicine, where she completed her residency in Internal Medicine and a fellowship in Medical Oncology.

Jim Tananbaum is the founder and chief executive officer of Foresite Capital, a U.S.-focused healthcare investment firm founded in 2011 that has approximately $3 billion in assets under management. Jim assembles the people, ideas and money needed to launch products that save lives and improve healthcare. He is always looking for visionaries: men and women with insights into therapeutics, devices, diagnostics or services that could, with the right support, change the world.

During the last three decades Jim has been a thought partner for some of the most impactful and fastest growth companies of their generation including: 10x Genomics (Nasdaq: TXG), Amerigroup (Nasdaq: ANTM), and Jazz Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: JAZZ).

Since high school, Jim has had two main areas of interest: 1) mathematics and computer algorithms and 2) biology and healthcare. Since founding Foresite Capital, Jim has been optimistic about the merger of these two previously very different fields. His intent has been to place Foresite Capital, its resources and networks at the frontier of this data-driven revolution, and to help build transformative healthcare companies that will significantly improve the quality and effectiveness of the entire U.S. healthcare system.

As an undergraduate, Jim attended Yale, where he graduated with a BS and BSEE in Applied Math and Electrical Engineering/Computer Science.  He then earned an MD from Harvard and graduated from the Harvard/MIT HST Program.  He also earned an MBA from Harvard while playing rugby.

Jim’s first success came while he was still at Harvard Business School when he co-founded GelTex Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:GENZ). For less than $80 million in funding, GelTex brought two drugs to market. The company was acquired in 1999 for $1.4 billion when its lead drug, Renagel (later renamed Renvela), had an annual revenue run rate exceeding $19.5 million. Decades later, Renvela still has annual sales estimated over $850 million. Jim was the founding chief executive of Theravance, Inc. Under his tenure he raised over $350M. Theravance has since split into two parts, one of which is now part of GSK’s respiratory franchise through a joint venture, Innoviva (Nasdaq: INVA), and the other was spun out into Theravance Biopharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: TBPH). Together, they have a combined market capitalization that reaches almost $3 billion as of July 2020.

Jim’s investment experience includes being a co-founder of Prospect Ventures and earlier in his career, a partner of Sierra Ventures, where he established its healthcare services investment practice.