Recent News
Dr. Collins has served on our board of directors since November 2023. She is currently the Chief Medical Officer at Enliven Therapeutics. Prior to Enliven, she served as Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President at Five Prime Therapeutics, where she was responsible for the strategy and execution of the company’s clinical development plans until its acquisition by Amgen in April 2021.
Previously, Dr. Collins held positions of increasing responsibility at Gilead Sciences, most recently as Program and Clinical Lead for Gilead’s GS-5829 (BET inhibitor) and GS-4059 (BTK inhibitor) programs, and Amgen, most recently as Global Lead of Oncology Biosimilars. Dr. Collins currently serves on the board of directors for Kura Oncology. Prior to her career in the biopharma industry, Dr. Collins practiced as a medical oncologist/hematologist for 12 years. She earned her MD from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, completing her residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital and oncology fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine, and her BA from Bryn Mawr College.
Ms. Hunter has served on our board of directors since August 2023. Ms. Hunter most recently served as President of Cardinal Health where she led the Specialty Solutions Business. Prior to Cardinal Health, Ms. Hunter was Senior Vice President of the Global Immunology Business Unit at UCB in Brussels from September 2015 to September 2020. She has also held leadership positions at Boehringer Ingelheim as Senior Vice President and General Manager in its Biosimilars Business, and at IQVIA as Vice President of Global Business Partnerships Commercial Solutions.
Ms. Hunter also held senior leadership positions in commercial and strategic marketing for biologics and oncology at Centocor, a Johnson & Johnson company. She also led the oncology business at Wyeth (today part of Pfizer) in the United States and CNS and women’s health at Novo Nordisk in Denmark. Early in Ms. Hunter’s career, she held sales and marketing positions at Ciba-Geigy in Switzerland (today part of Novartis). She is currently on the boards of Bavarian Nordic A/S, Vicore Pharma Holdings AB and Sutro Biopharma, Inc. Ms. Hunter earned a B.A. from The University of Michigan and her M.B.A. from The University of Chicago – Booth School of Business.
Ms. Hunter has served on our board of directors since August 2023. Ms. Hunter most recently served as President of Cardinal Health where she led the Specialty Solutions Business. Prior to Cardinal Health, Ms. Hunter was Senior Vice President of the Global Immunology Business Unit at UCB in Brussels from September 2015 to September 2020. She has also held leadership positions at Boehringer Ingelheim as Senior Vice President and General Manager in its Biosimilars Business, and at IQVIA as Vice President of Global Business Partnerships Commercial Solutions.
Ms. Hunter also held senior leadership positions in commercial and strategic marketing for biologics and oncology at Centocor, a Johnson & Johnson company. She also led the oncology business at Wyeth (today part of Pfizer) in the United States and CNS and women’s health at Novo Nordisk in Denmark. Early in Ms. Hunter’s career, she held sales and marketing positions at Ciba-Geigy in Switzerland (today part of Novartis). She is currently on the boards of Bavarian Nordic A/S, Vicore Pharma Holdings AB and Sutro Biopharma, Inc. Ms. Hunter earned a B.A. from The University of Michigan and her M.B.A. from The University of Chicago – Booth School of Business.
Mr. Faulkner brings more than 25 years of technical operations, quality, and product launch experience within the biotechnology industry. Mr. Faulkner has experience in product development, manufacturing operations, supply chain, and commercialization of peptides, proteins, monoclonal antibodies, viruses, and combination products. Prior to joining IO Biotech, Mr. Faulkner held senior roles at Homology Medicines as head of CMC management and external manufacturing, product operations lead for the Rare Disease Business Unit at Shire (Takeda), and spent over 15 years at Biogen involved in the development and commercialization of Avonex®, Tysabri®, and Tecfidera®. Mr. Faulkner obtained his Master of Science degree in biotechnology and biomedical science at the University of Massachusetts and has a Master of Business Administration from Boston University.
Dr. Richter is an accomplished pharma/biotech executive with a proven track record of success in management and commercial leadership within both the U.S. and international markets at leading companies including Amgen, Takeda Oncology, and most recently LEO Pharma. She has spent most of her career at Amgen, predominantly in Oncology/Hematology with additional work in General Medicine, and Rare Diseases.
Dr. Richter holds a Ph.D. in Cancer Immunotherapy from the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich, and an MBA in Health Care Management from the University of Bayreuth.
Dr. Mannix brings more than 30 years of pharmaceutical regulatory affairs experience in positions of increasing responsibility at Pharmacia, Amersham Health, BMS, EMD Serono, Kyowa Hakko Kirin, and MacroGenics across multiple therapeutic areas, but with a focus in oncology. Within these companies, he was involved with the development and approval of a number of oncology drugs, including Camptosar® (irinotecan), Aromasin® (exemestane), Ellence® (epirubicin), Yervoy® (ipilimumab), Poteligeo® (mogamulizumab) and Margenza® (margetuximab). Dr. Mannix has a Bachelor of Science in biology and Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Notre Dame and completed an NIH-sponsored post-doctoral fellowship at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Mr. Smith has served on our board of directors since March 2022. From November 2018 until the acquisition of the company by Amgen in April 2021, Mr. Smith served as executive vice president and chief financial officer at Five Prime Therapeutics, a publicly traded company focused on discovering and developing novel immuno-oncology protein therapeutics. Previously, Mr. Smith served in the roles of chief operating officer of IntegenX, Inc. and chief financial officer of Thoratec, Chiron and Anergen, Inc.. Earlier in his career he held finance positions with Genentech, Inc., Syntex Corporation and IBM. Mr. Smith is currently the chair of the audit and strategy committees of Codexis, Inc., the chair of the audit committee of Neurelis, Inc., and a director of Acepodia, Inc. Mr. Smith holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and history from Willamette University and a Master of Business Administration in finance from Golden Gate University.
Mr. Smith brings more than 25 years of legal and compliance experience serving clients in the life science industries. He joined IO Biotech from Yumanity Therapeutics, Inc., a publicly traded biotechnology company, where he served as senior vice president and general counsel.
At Yumanity, he helped lead the sale of the company’s neuroscience assets to Johnson & Johnson and a reverse merger with a privately held oncology immunotherapy company. Prior to Yumanity, Mr. Smith served as senior vice president and general counsel of Minerva Neurosciences, Inc., where he was responsible for all legal, governance and compliance matters, and led the sale of potential royalties to Royalty Pharma for upfront and potential milestone payments of $155 million.
Before joining Minerva, Mr. Smith served as general counsel of Stallergenes Greer plc, and led the North American legal department for EMD Serono, Inc., the biopharmaceutical division of Merck KGaA. Mr. Smith received his J.D. from Suffolk University Law School and his Bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.
Prior to joining IO Biotech, Dr. McDowell served as CVP of global medical affairs-hematology for Bristol Myers Squibb and Celgene, where she built an industry recognized medical affairs practice. Since 2007, Dr. McDowell has served in roles of progressive responsibility in oncology clinical development and medical affairs at leading pharmaceutical companies, including GSK and Merck. Dr. McDowell completed a general surgery residency at Tulane and Charity Hospitals in New Orleans, Louisiana, and a breast cancer surgery fellowship at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. Dr. McDowell received her medical degree from Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia.
Mr. Burkavage brings more than 15 years of experience in senior leadership roles in the biotechnology and accounting industries. Prior to joining IO Biotech, he was the controller at Passage Bio, Inc. and was the director of FP&A at Aclaris Therapeutics, Inc.
Mr. Burkavage began his career as an auditor with the accounting firm of Ernst & Young, LLP, is a Certified Public Accounting (CPA) and holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in accounting from the University of Notre Dame.
Ms. Sullivan is a seasoned life sciences professional with more than 25 years of experience raising capital and building and managing corporate biotechnology and life sciences brands. Ms. Sullivan joins IO Biotech from TABA, BV, where she served as chief financial officer.
Prior to her time with TABA, Ms. Sullivan was chief strategy office for Euronext-listed Kiadis Pharma where she was responsible for all aspects of fundraising and capital formation strategy, repositioning the company after a clinical failure, and played a critical role in the company’s sale to Sanofi.
Prior to Kiadis, Ms. Sullivan served as senior vice president of corporate affairs at Keryx Biopharmaceuticals and as head of corporate communications and investor relations at AMAG Pharmaceuticals, Idenix Biopharmaceuticals and Genencor International.
Ms. Sullivan has her Bachelor’s of Science degree in business from Salem State University and her Master’s of Business Administration from Bentley University.
Dr. Svane is professor and director of the Center for Cancer Immune Therapy (CCIT) at Herlev University Hospital. She has extensive experience in clinical translation of immune therapies and is an advisor for several large pharma companies.
Dr. Eggermont is professor and directeur Général Gustave Roussy Professeur Oncologie, Université Paris-Sud. He has been professor of oncology with the status of «Classe Exceptionelle» in the Paris-Sud University since 2012 and professor of oncological surgery at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam (Holland) since 2003. He also holds a chair position in the international research network on cancer at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam and since 2001 he has filled the Joseph Maisin Honorary Chair of Oncological Surgery at the Louvain Catholic University (Belgium). From 2000 to 2011 he was head of the oncological surgery department of the Daniel den Hoed University Cancer Centre in Rotterdam.
During his career, he chaired the EORTC (European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer) from 2003 to 2006 and ECCO (European CanCer Organization) from 2008 to 2010. He is currently President of the European Academy of Cancer Sciences.
Dr. Andersen is professor and director of the Center for Cancer Immune Therapy (CCIT) at Herlev University Hospital. He has received several honors for his scientific work and is the author of more than 130 papers. He has founded and co-founded several spin out companies with a successful sale of Survac in 2006.
Dr. Dhingra is a medical oncologist and a physician-scientist with a proven track record in academic research, patient care, and drug development. He served as vice president, head of the oncology disease biology leadership team and head of oncology clinical development at Hoffmann-La Roche (“Roche”), during which he led numerous drug approvals, including Herceptin®, Tarceva®, and Avastin®. Prior to joining Roche, he worked in the oncology clinical development group at Eli Lilly and Company.
Dr. Dhingra has served as a faculty member at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Indiana University School of Medicine, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Dhingra is currently a member of the boards of directors of LAVA Therapeutics, Black Diamond Therapeutics, Inc., Replimune, Inc., Autolus Therapeutics plc, and Median Technologies, and he has previously served on the boards of several successful biotech companies, including Biovex, Micromet, Algeta, YM Biosciences, Epitherapeutics, Advanced Accelerator Applications, Exosome Diagnostics and Five Prime Therapeutics.
He is a member of the NCI Experimental Therapeutics Panel. Dr. Dhingra founded KAPital Consulting, LLC in 2008, a company dedicated to helping biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and diagnostic companies realize the clinical and commercial advances in oncology. Dr. Dhingra obtained his M.B.B.S. degree from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, India. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center, New York Medical College and completed his fellowship in hematology and oncology at Emory University School of Medicine.
Dr. Zocca brings more than 18 years of experience in the biotechnology field and has participated in the founding and co-founding of several biotech spinouts. Her focus on translational and clinical immune oncology has led to the development of important immunotherapies for a variety of cancer types. She is a member of the board of directors of DANSK BIOTEK and has held several executive positions in the industry. Dr. Zocca holds a Ph.D. in tumor immunology and a Master of Science in biochemistry. She received her Ph.D. from the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Copenhagen, and the NIH, National Cancer Institute (NCI), Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
Ms. Malier has served as a member of our board of directors since January 2021. In 2013, Ms. Malier joined Kurma Partners, a healthcare-focused investment firm, and she has served as managing partner since January 2015. Prior, she was vice president, R&D strategic planning at Ipsen Pharma, following serving in a global role for the oncology business development in R&D and on the commercial team for Adenuric, and for the gastro-enterology franchise. Ms. Malier is a board member of Xeltis AG, Vivet Therapeutics SAS, Asceneuron AG, Step Pharma SAS as well as a board member and chairman of Corlieve SAS. Ms. Malier was a student in biology and biochemistry at ENS Paris-Saclay and received her degree in biochemistry and her DEA in immunology from the Pasteur Institute.
Mr. Nielsen has served as a member our board of directors since January 2021. Since August 2017, Mr. Nielsen has served as a managing director at Vivo Capital LLC, a healthcare focused investment firm and was recently promoted as a managing partner. Prior, Mr. Nielsen worked within the Novo Holdings A/S organization and its venture activities serving in several roles, including most recently as a senior partner based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Mr. Nielsen is currently a member of the board of directors of Aligos Therapeutics, Inc., Reata Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Harmony Biosciences, ALX Oncology Holdings Inc. and Instil Bio, Inc., all of which are publicly traded companies, and a number of private companies. Mr. Nielsen has previously served on the boards of directors of Akebia Therapeutics, Inc., Crinetics Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Merus, N.V. and Apollo Endosurgery, Inc., each of which is publicly traded. Mr. Nielsen received a M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark and a master’s degree in management of technology and economics from the Center for Technology, Economics and Management, Technical University of Denmark.
Christian joined Lundbeckfonden in 2012 and is the managing partner of Lundbeckfonden BioCapital, the evergreen biotech investment unit of Lundbeckfonden and part of the leadership team of Lundbeckfonden. Christian applies more than 20 years of experience across drug development, biotech and venture capital. He is the chairperson of the board of directors of SNIPR Biome and Cytoki Pharma, and member of the board of directors of IO Biotech, NMD Pharma, Afyx Therapeutics. He was a co-founder, vice president and chief executive officer of 7TM Pharma. Christian holds a Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Ms. Glaub has served on our board of directors since May 2018. Ms. Glaub is co-founder and executive chair for the board of CuraSen Therapeutics, Inc., a position she has held since October 2018. From November 2013 until the acquisition of the company by Merck in July 2016, Ms. Glaub served as a director on the board of Afferent Pharmaceuticals where she has also served as the chief executive officer from August 2014 to October 2016.
Previously, she served as president of Plexxikon, Inc. and held positions as senior vice president and chief financial officer of Cell Genesys, Inc., treasurer of Genentech, Inc, and various finance and treasury roles within Intel Corporation. She currently serves as a director on the board of Escient Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and has previously served on the boards of Codexis, Inc. and Aligos Pharmaceuticals, Inc.. Ms. Glaub also serves as a member of the investment advisory board to the Bailard Healthcare Fund. Ms. Glaub received a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master of Business Administration from Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management.
Dr. Hirth has served as chairman of our board of directors since September 2016. Dr. Hirth founded Plexxikon, Inc., a pharmaceutical company, in 2000 and served as its chief executive officer until May 2013. Dr. Hirth currently serves on the board of directors of Aligos Therapeutics and Vaxcyte, Inc., as well as the boards of several private life sciences companies. Dr. Hirth received a Ph.D. in molecular genetics from Heidelberg University, Germany, and completed his post-doctoral work at the University of California, San Diego.
Prior to joining IO Biotech in 2021, Dr. Al-Hajj has served as senior vice president, translational sciences at Autolus, a clinical-stage publicly-traded company developing next generation CAR-T cell therapeutics since June 2017. Prior to Autolus, he served as vice president of drug discovery and translational medicine at the Sanford Burnham Institute in La Jolla, California, an NIH-designated cancer center, where he led the institute’s drug discovery portfolio and its early development. Earlier in his career, he was senior director of biology and translational medicine at GlaxoSmithKline, where he led Oncology R&D teams developing therapeutics from target ID through mid-stage clinical development utilizing multiple modalities and in various cancer biology and immunotherapy areas. Dr. Al-Hajj received his Ph.D. in molecular genetics and completed postdoctoral training in cancer and stem cell biology at the University of Michigan Cancer Center.
Dr. Zocca brings more than 18 years of experience in the biotechnology field and has participated in the founding and co-founding of several biotech spinouts. Her focus on translational and clinical immune oncology has led to the development of important immunotherapies for a variety of cancer types. She is a member of the board of directors of DANSK BIOTEK and has held several executive positions in the industry. Dr. Zocca holds a Ph.D. in tumor immunology and a Master of Science in biochemistry. She received her Ph.D. from the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Copenhagen, and the NIH, National Cancer Institute (NCI), Bethesda, Maryland, USA.