Leadership
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Geoffrey Lynn, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Geoffrey Lynn is leveraging his background in synthetic chemistry and cellular immunology to lead Avidea’s efforts to develop precision immunotherapies for treating cancer and autoimmune diseases. Dr. Lynn has expertise in designing, GMP manufacturing and assessing safety, efficacy & MOA of polymer-drug conjugate / nanoparticle technologies for immunotherapeutic applications. Previously, Dr. Lynn was a visiting scientist in the laboratory of Professor Christopher Jewell at the Fischell Department of Engineering at UMD and trained as a post-doctoral fellow with Dr. Robert Seder at the Vaccine Research Center of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Lynn attended medical school at Johns Hopkins University; obtained a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Oxford as an NIH-Oxford and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow; and received his B.S. in chemistry from Elon University, where he was a Goldwater Scholar.
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Andrew Ishizuka, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Andrew Ishizuka is an expert in T cell immunology and translational research. Dr. Ishizuka has authored numerous publications describing novel translational research studies related to vaccine-induced T cell responses from mice, non-human primates, and humans. Dr. Ishizuka is a named inventor on multiple patents covering immunotherapy platform technologies. Prior to co-founding Avidea, Dr. Ishizuka was a post-doctoral fellow with Dr. Robert Seder at the Vaccine Research Center, National Institutes of Health. Dr. Ishizuka attended medical school at Duke University and obtained a Ph.D. in Clinical Medicine from the University of Oxford.
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Nick Fullenkamp, MBA
Chief Business Officer
Mr. Fullenkamp has over 15 years of experience in the Life Sciences industry in Corporate and Business Development roles where he has focused on corporate strategy, strategic and financial planning, market analysis, licensing, partnering and M&A. He graduated with a B.S. in Integrated Science and Technology with a concentration in Biotechnology from James Madison University. After several years managing preclinical and clinical studies, he transitioned into corporate and business development roles within the biopharmaceutical industry, most recently with Emergent BioSolutions Inc. and Intrexon Corporation where he led the execution of licensing, partnering and M&A deals valued at over $1.5B. Mr. Fullenkamp obtained a Masters in Business Administration from the Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College, Park.
Scientific advisory board and advisors
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Peter Calabresi, MD
Avidea SAB Member
Director of Johns Hopkins Multiple Sclerosis Center
Peter A. Calabresi, MD is a Professor of Neurology, Neuroscience, and Ophthalmology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Director of the Johns Hopkins Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Center. Dr. Calabresi is also Director of the Richard T. Johnson Division of Neuroimmunology and Neurological Infections. He earned his undergraduate degree from Yale College and medical degree from Brown University. Dr. Calabresi completed residency training at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NY, and a post-doctoral research fellowship at the National Institutes of Health, Neuroimmunology Branch.
Dr. Calabresi serves on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Clinical Investigation and the Multiple Sclerosis Journal. He served as Chair of a grant review committee of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and was a standing member of the NIH Clinical Neuroimmunology and Brain Tumors Study Section. As co-director of the Johns Hopkins Precision Medicine MS Center of Excellence, Dr. Calabresi has been the principal investigator on several clinical trials and also oversees translational laboratory research projects.
His specific laboratory research interest lies in understanding the mechanisms of T lymphocyte differentiation into effector memory T cells and how these T cells interface with glial cells in the brain to modulate remyelination. Dr. Calabresi has published over 350 research papers including numerous articles on imaging and the immunopathogenesis of MS. He was the recipient of a five-year NMSS Collaborative Center grant from the National MS Society to study endogenous remyelination in MS, and the Jacob Javits Neuroscience Investigator award from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Calabresi was co-awarded the Barancik prize for innovation in MS research in 2015, and was elected to the American Association of Physicians in 2017.
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Dan Barouch, MD, PhD
Avidea SAB Member
William Bosworth Castle Professor of Medicine and Professor of Immunology at Harvard Medical School
Dr. Dan Barouch received his Ph.D. in immunology from Oxford University and his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He is currently the William Bosworth Castle Professor of Medicine and Professor of Immunology at Harvard Medical School, Director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a member of the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard, and part of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery. His laboratory focuses on studying the immunology and virology of HIV-1 infection and developing novel vaccine and eradication strategies. His group has also applied their vaccine expertise to preclinical and clinical studies of other infectious diseases of global significance, including Zika virus, tuberculosis, and most recently SARS-CoV-2. His recent work contributed to the development of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, which is now being rolled out in the United States and throughout the world. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2020.
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Nina Bhardwaj, MD, PhD
Avidea SAB member
Director of Immunotherapy, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Prof. Nina Bhardwaj is Director of Immunotherapy at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) and holds the Ward Coleman Chair in Cancer Research. As a leading medical oncologist, she has made seminal contributions to understanding and implementing immunotherapies, including authoring over 200 peer-reviewed publications on the subject, and has actively led several Investigator-Initiated clinical studies evaluating Toll Like Receptor (TLR) agonist- and dendritic cell-based vaccines for the treatment of both cancer and certain infectious diseases. Prof. Bhardwaj is currently leading 3 clinical studies evaluating neoantigen vaccines; is an editor for several journals; and serves on various industry and academic advisory councils. In recognition for Prof. Bhardwaj’s significant contributions to advancing the fields of immunology and oncology, she received the Doris Duke Distinguished Scientist Award and was named one of the Scientific American’s Top 50 Researchers.
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Chris Jewell, PhD
Avidea SAB member
Minta Martin Professor of Engineering, UMD
Christopher M. Jewell is the Minta Martin Professor of Engineering and Associate Chair for Research in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering at the University of Maryland (UMD). He is also a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). Prof. Jewell’s research integrates immunology and biomaterials to decipher the interactions between synthetic materials and immune tissues to improve therapeutic vaccines for cancer and autoimmune diseases. He has authored over 100 manuscripts and patents, including in ACS Nano, Cell Reports, Nature, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Materials, and PNAS. Prof. Jewell’s awards include the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), selection as a Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovator, receipt of the NSEF Young Investigator Award and Owens Corning Award, and selection as UMD’s Graduate Faculty Mentor of the Year. Prof. Jewell graduated with high honors from Lehigh University in 2003 and received his PhD in 2008 from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, working with Prof. David Lynn. He then joined the Boston Consulting Group where he worked in R&D strategy with global pharmaceutical companies. Prof. Jewell undertook postdoctoral training as a Ragon Institute Fellow with Prof. Darrell Irvine at MIT and as a Visiting Scientist at Harvard with Prof. Dan Barouch in the Division of Vaccine Research.
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Tom Dubensky, PhD
Avidea SAB member
CEO, Tempest Therapeutics
Thomas W. Dubensky Jr., PhD is the CEO of Tempest Therapeutics, a South San Francisco based clinical-stage company that is advancing a pipeline of orally available first-in-class small molecule therapeutics targeting oncology. Prior to Tempest, Tom was the Chief Scientific Officer of Aduro Biotech, where he led the development of first-in-class STING agonists. Additionally, Tom served principal roles in leading discovery biology, development and clinical translation in cancer immunotherapy and infectious disease indications at several Biotech companies, including Viagene, Chiron, Onyx, Cerus and Immune Design. Tom has an extensive publication and patent record. He received his BA in Bacteriology and Immunology from the University of California, Berkeley, his PhD at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, and conducted his post-doctoral studies at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Pathology.
Key collaborators
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Robert Seder, MD
CRADA collaborator
Chief of Cellular Immunology, Vaccine Research Center, NIH
Dr. Robert Seder is Chief of the Cellular Immunology Section at the Vaccine Research Center, NIAID, NIH and an internationally-recognized expert in vaccinology and immunology. His lab focuses on understanding the innate and adaptive mechanisms by which various vaccine approaches mediate protective antibody and T cell immunity in mouse, non-human primate and human models with a particular focus on HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, and cancer. Under a Collaborative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), Dr. Seder leads studies evaluating Avidea’s immunotherapies in preclinical models. The research aims to develop new platforms for vaccines and related immunotherapies and determine their immunological correlates of protection and mechanism of action. Dr. Seder earned a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University and an M.D. from Tufts University and completed residency in internal medicine at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. Dr. Seder completed postdoctoral training at NIAID with Dr. William Paul studying how cytokines influence CD4 T helper cell differentiation.
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Richard Laga, PhD
Cofounder and collaborator
Deputy Head, Bioactive Polymers IMC (Prague)
Dr. Richard Laga is an expert in polymer chemistry specializing in polymer-drug conjugates (i.e. small molecule drugs, proteins and genetic material), particularly immunotherapies, for the treatment of cancer and infectious diseases. Dr. Laga is the Deputy Head of the Bioactive Polymers Department and Head of the Laboratory of Polymer Nanotherapeutics at the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry (IMC) of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Dr. Laga was a post-doctoral fellow with Prof. Leonard Seymour in the Department of Oncology at the University of Oxford and completed his Ph.D. in the field of Macromolecular Chemistry in the Department of Biomedical Polymers at IMC under the supervision of Prof. Karel Ulbrich.
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Greg Friedman, MD
Collaborator
Director, Developmental Therapeutics Program, UAB
Dr. Gregory Friedman is a board-certified Pediatric Hematologist-Oncologist who specializes in Pediatric Neuro-Oncology. His primary research focus is the bench-to-bedside translation of oncolytic virotherapy and other immunotherapies for the treatment of pediatric brain tumors. Dr. Friedman is the principal investigator for the first-ever pediatric trial of the engineered oncolytic herpesvirus G207 in children with recurrent or progressive brain cancers. In collaboration with Avidea, Dr. Friedman is investigating Avidea’s immunotherapies for use in combination with oncolytic herpesviruses in preclinical pediatric brain tumor models, with the goal of translating an optimized combination for treating children with malignant brain tumors.