Using AI to Accelerate the Next Generation of Oncology Immunotherapies

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, came to Genentech in 2007 after more than 20 years as a faculty member at the Yale University School of Medicine. He was chair of his department, a member of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, scientific director of the Yale Cancer Center, and Sterling Professor of Cell Biology and Immunobiology. Dr Mellman has an AB from Oberlin College and Conservatory, a PhD in Genetics from Yale, and was a Fellow at the Rockefeller University with Ralph Steinman.Dr Mellman’s laboratory is known not only for advances in fundamental cell biology in the area of membrane traffic (notably, the discovery of endosomes), but also for applying these insights to understanding the cellular basis of the immune response. Of particular importance to cancer immunotherapy has been his laboratory’s pioneering contributions to elucidating how dendritic cells initiate immunity or maintain immune tolerance. Recently, his group shed light on how T-cell signaling is regulated by immune checkpoints and how personalized cancer vaccines and cell-based therapies can be used to enhance anti-tumor T-cell responses. Dr Mellman ran all of the oncology research at Genentech until the end of 2013 when he decided to concentrate his efforts on cancer immunotherapy and became Vice President of Cancer Immunology. His group was responsible for bringing Genentech’s anti-PD-L1 antibody, Tecentriq® (atezolizumab), to the clinic, an approved blockbuster drug used in treating a growing list of indications including bladder cancer, triple-negative breast cancer, small cell lung cancer and non-small cell lung cancer. Dr Mellman also oversaw the discovery and early development of cancer vaccine programs directed against patient-specific mutant neo-antigens using mRNA (in collaboration with BioNTech, now in Phase II); DNA-based platforms (in collaboration with Vaccibody); tiragolumab (anti-TIGIT, now in pivotal trials); Cotellic® (MEK inhibitor cobimetinib); mosunetuzumab (anti-CD20/CD3 bispecific now in pivotal trials); and ipatasertib (Akt inhibitor).Dr Mellman is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the European Molecular Biology Organization and the former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Cell Biology. He also served on the editorial boards of Cell, the Journal of Experimental Medicine, EMBO Journal and OncoImmunology among others. Dr Mellman is the recipient of many named lectureships, honorary professorships, and awards, including Yale University’s Wilbur Lucius Cross medal and the 2019 Leadership Award in Cancer Immunology from the American Association for Precision Medicine. He has also served on the boards of AACR, SITC, the ASCB, the Melanoma Research Foundation and the Cancer Research Institute.

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. 

Alex Snyder, MD, is the Head of Research and Development at Generate Biomedicines, a therapeutics company that exists at the intersection of machine learning, biological engineering and medicine to create breakthrough medicines across a wide range of biologic modalities. 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. She is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at NYU and Bellevue Hospitals, Section Editor for the Journal for the Immunotherapy of Cancer and 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 a medical oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC).