Getting Under the Hood of AI to Find Its Value for Immuno-Oncology

Andrew Allen, MD, PhD co-founded Gritstone bio, Inc. and has served as President, CEO and a board member since 2015. In 2009, Dr Allen co-founded Clovis Oncology and served as Chief Medical Officer until 2015, driving development of Rucaparib, a PARP inhibitor. Prior he was Chief Medical Officer at Pharmion Corporation, developing Vidaza, the first approved DNA methylation inhibitor, until acquisition by Celgene in 2008. Dr Allen also served in clinical development leadership roles at Chiron Corporation and Abbott Laboratories, and worked at McKinsey & Company. He currently serves on the board of directors of TCR2 Therapeutics and Sierra Oncology (both public biopharma companies) and Revitope Oncology and Verge Genomics (both private biopharma companies). He previously served on the board of directors of Epizyme (developers of the first approved histone methylation transferase inhibitor) and Cell Design Labs (acquired by Gilead Sciences in 2017). Dr Allen qualified in medicine at Oxford University and received a PhD in immunology from Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in London.

Sharon Benzeno, PhD, MBA, is the Chief Commercial Officer, Immune Medicine and leads the Drug Discovery group of Adaptive Biotechnologies, a commercial-stage biotech company that aims to translate the genetics of the adaptive immune system into clinical products to diagnose and treat disease. Before joining Adaptive in 2014, Dr Benzeno was Senior Director at Elsevier Inc., a healthcare informatics company. Prior to Elsevier, Dr Benzeno co-led the oncology business unit at Capgemini SE, a consulting and technology services company. Dr Benzeno came to Elsevier from Capgemini, where she served in a variety of management roles at AstraZeneca plc. Dr Benzeno holds a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from New York University School of Medicine, an MBA in Finance and Leadership from New York University Stern School of Business and a BA in Biochemistry from New York University. Dr Benzeno completed a postdoctoral fellowship in cancer biology at the University of Pennsylvania Abramson Cancer Center.

Ira Mellman, PhD, is President of Research at the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI). A pioneering force in cancer immunology, he brings decades of experience translating fundamental discoveries into transformative therapies. At PICI, Dr. Mellman is focused on advancing scientific strategy, amplifying cross-institutional collaboration and accelerating the development of immune-based treatments that change outcomes for patients.Dr. Mellman joined PICI after more than 15 years at Genentech, where he most recently served as Vice President of Cancer Immunology. There, he led groundbreaking research that helped bring forward Tecentriq® (atezolizumab), anti-TIGIT therapies, and patient-specific neoantigen cancer vaccines as well as multiple other first-in-class immunotherapies. Earlier in his career, he spent two decades at Yale University School of Medicine, where he served as Chair of Cell Biology, Scientific Director of the Yale Cancer Center and Sterling Professor. He is also the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Medici Therapeutics.A world leader in immuno-oncology and cell biology, Dr. Mellman’s scientific contributions span the discovery of endosomes, the elucidation of how dendritic cells initiate immunity or tolerance and the development of the cancer immunity cycle framework. His work has fundamentally shaped our understanding of immune checkpoint biology and the design of next-generation cancer vaccines.Dr. Mellman is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and the European Molecular Biology Organization. He has served on the editorial boards of Cell, Journal of Experimental Medicine and as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Cell Biology. His honors include the AACR Lloyd J. Old Award for Cancer Immunology, Yale’s Wilbur Cross Medal and SITC’s Richard Smalley Award.He holds a PhD in genetics from Yale University and an AB from Oberlin College & Conservatory, and completed postdoctoral work at The Rockefeller University.

Adeeb Rahman, PhD, is the VP of Platform Architecture at Immunai, a biotechnology company focused on mapping the immune system to help discover and develop the next generation of immunotherapies. Dr Rahman received his PhD in Immunology from the University of Pennsylvania and completed postdoctoral fellowships in cancer immunology and human liver disease, after which he has focused his career on developing and deploying advanced technology platforms to better understand human disease. As an Associate Professor and Director of Technology Development at the Human Immune Monitoring Center at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, he established one of the world’s leading comprehensive immune monitoring programs, with a core focus of increasing the utility of high dimensional single cell data for translational and clinical research. In his current role at Immunai he leads a highly multidisciplinary team applying industrial-scale data generation, curation and integration to build a multi-omic single cell data foundation from patient samples, and leveraging machine learning approaches to surface actionable insights to improve preclinical and clinical development decisions. 

Dr Alex Snyder is the Head of Research and Development at Generate Biomedicines, a biotechnology company that uses artificial intelligence, machine learning and protein engineering to create novel medicines. Prior to joining Generate in 2022, Dr. Snyder was a Principal at the biotech incubator Two River, following her role as Associate Vice President and Head of Translational Oncology at Merck. She previously was Translational Medicine Lead at Adaptive Biotechnologies, and started her career as faculty and federally-funded Principal Investigator at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Snyder is a Cancer Steering Committee (CSC) Biomedical Co-Chair for the Executive Committee and co-leads the SITC Biomarker Working Group. She is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at NYU and Bellevue Hospitals, Section Editor for the Journal for the Immunotherapy of Cancer, and was a member of the board of Navigating Cancer. Dr. Snyder received her medical degree and internal medicine training at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Mount Sinai Hospital, followed by medical oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC).