About Us

David Aubuchon is Obsidian’s Senior Vice President of Finance, responsible for financial operations of the Company. Mr. Aubuchon joined Obsidian with more than 25 years of experience in finance leadership roles, primarily in life sciences industry. Prior to Obsidian, Mr. Aubuchon served as Vice President, Head of Finance and Chief Accounting Officer at Sigilon Therapeutics, Inc., where he was responsible for all finance and accounting functions. Prior to that Mr. Aubuchon held senior finance positions with Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, Ocata Therapeutics and Sepracor Pharmaceuticals (now Sunovion Pharmaceuticals). Mr. Aubuchon began his career at Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers) and earned his CPA in Massachusetts. Mr. Aubuchon holds a B.A. from University of Massachusetts, Amherst and an MBA from Babson College.

Melanie Call is Obsidian’s Senior Vice President and Head of Program Development, where she leads program management across all internal and external programs at the company, including shepherding Obsidian’s lead candidate through investigational new drug-enabling studies. Ms. Call brings over 25 years of product development, program management and strategic planning experience across multiple therapeutic areas in cell therapy, protein and small molecule therapeutics, and drug delivery. Prior to joining Obsidian, Ms. Call led the Accelerating Center at the Cell and Gene Therapy Center at IQVIA. Prior to IQVIA, she was Vice President, Strategic Planning and Operations at ImmunoCellular Therapeutics, a company focused on the development of cell therapies in oncology. Previously, Ms. Call worked at Amgen for more than 20 years in product development and R&D project management. While at Amgen, she provided operational leadership for more than 20 cross-functional product development teams, creating and executing global strategic plans that included integrated project planning, product profile development and risk management. Ms. Call holds an MBA from Washington State University and a B.A. in zoology from the University of Idaho.

Ryan Daws is Obsidian’s Chief Financial Officer and Head of Business Development, a role in which he defines and drives the financial and corporate growth of the Company. Mr. Daws brings over 20 years of strong biotech operating and transactional experience combined with significant investment banking experience. Mr. Daws most recently served as a Managing Director in the Healthcare Investment Banking Group at Robert W. Baird & Co. with a focus on life sciences companies. Prior to Baird, Mr. Daws was the Chief Financial Officer of Concert Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Prior to that, Mr. Daws was a life-science-focused investment banker at Stifel, Nicolaus and Cowen. Mr. Daws holds a B.S. in finance and an international MBA from The Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina.

Lee Giguere, J.D., is Obsidian’s Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary. Mr. Giguere has wide-ranging experience and expertise in legal, healthcare compliance and corporate governance for public life science companies. He most recently served as general counsel and secretary at the biotechnology company Chiasma, Inc., where he was responsible for all legal, compliance and human resource matters. Before joining Chiasma, he spent several years with Karyopharm Therapeutics Inc., an innovation-driven pharmaceutical company, as Deputy General Counsel and Assistant Secretary, and at Boston Scientific Corporation as Senior Securities and Governance Counsel. Mr. Giguere began his legal career as an associate in the business law practice with Goodwin Procter. Mr. Giguere earned his J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law and his B.S. from Northeastern University.

Parameswaran Hari, M.D., M.S., is Obsidian’s Chief Development Officer.  Dr. Hari brings decades of experience designing, managing and leading complex cell and gene therapy clinical programs, including TIL therapies. Previously, Dr. Hari was Senior Vice President, Clinical Science at Iovance Biotherapeutics, where he led solid tumor adoptive cell therapy programs across multiple tumor types and indications, including new IND submission, first in human phase 1 studies and BLA submission efforts. Prior to Iovance, Dr. Hari was the Chief of Hematology and Oncology at the Medical College of Wisconsin, where he led national cooperative multi-PI trial groups in cell and gene therapy and multiple myeloma. He also served the American Society of Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (ASTCT) as its secretary. Dr. Hari received his M.B.B.S at Kerala University, M.D. at Central University of Pondicherry, and his M.S. at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Madan Jagasia, M.D., M.S., is Obsidian’s Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Jagasia is a highly experienced physician executive with an extensive oncology and cell therapy-focused clinical background and deep industry experience developing tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) treatments for cancer. Prior to joining Obsidian, Dr. Jagasia was Executive Vice President, Medical Affairs at Iovance Biotherapeutics, where he was responsible for managing national medical affairs, strategic congress planning, advocacy, strategic alliances and external research collaborations. Before Iovance, he was Chief Medical Officer and Executive Medical Director of Cancer Patient Care Center, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC), where he co-led Translational Research and Interventional Oncology Research Program at VICC. Dr. Jagasia began his career as a faculty member in the Division of Hematology-Oncology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr. Jagasia has his M.B.B.S from the GS Medical College & KEM Hospital, an M.S. and a Master of Management in Health Care from Vanderbilt University.

Kirsten Kester is Obsidian’s Senior Vice President of Business Development, a role in which she defines and executes the company’s corporate and business development strategy. Previously, she was Senior Director at Huron Consulting (formerly Frankel Group), where she served on the leadership team for the life sciences practice. At Huron, Ms. Kester advised a diverse set of biopharma companies and their investors on corporate strategy, commercial strategy, pipeline and portfolio planning, and clinical development strategy. She also advised clients on business development transactions and led due diligence in support of investment decisions. Prior to joining Huron, Ms. Kester held roles in the Healthcare Investment Banking Group at Goldman Sachs and at Generation Health, a start-up pharmacogenomic testing company that was acquired by CVS Caremark. She holds a B.A. in biology from Harvard College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Jan ter Meulen, M.D., Ph.D., is Obsidian’s Chief Scientific Officer. A veteran researcher in pharmaceutical, biotechnology and academic settings, Dr. ter Meulen brings more than 25 years of operational and strategic research experience to Obsidian. Previously, as Chief Scientific Officer of Immune Design, Seattle, he was responsible for devising and communicating the immuno-oncology research strategy of the company, building its pipeline, and participating in the IPO and later sale of Immune Design to Merck & Co. in 2019. Before Immune Design, Dr. ter Meulen was Head of Vaccine Basic Research at Merck Research Laboratories, where he had operational responsibility for the entire vaccine discovery pipeline, and before that, Head of Antibody Discovery at Crucell N.V., Leiden, The Netherlands. He has held appointments at the German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, the Bernhard Nocht Institute of Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, and the Institute of Virology at the Philipps-University, Marburg, Germany. Dr. ter Meulen was an International Scholar of the Howard Hughes Medical Research Institute, and a consultant for scientific agencies in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, South Africa and for the European Commission.

Jennifer Peterson is Obsidian’s Chief People Officer and responsible for talent, culture, and organizational development. Ms. Peterson brings nearly 20 years as an human resources (HR) executive in diverse, dynamic, rapidly growing private and public global software and biotech companies. She most recently served as Vice President of People at Inari Agriculture, where she was the Company’s first HR executive and led global growth from 50 to 150 employees, the transition from exploratory research to strategic execution, and established cultural pillars of inclusion, collaboration and innovation. Previously, Ms. Peterson was Senior Vice President, Human Resources at Monotype, Inc. and Intralinks, Inc., where she implemented people strategies to enable strategic transformations, and led threefold growth. Jennifer holds a B.A. in sociology from Franklin & Marshall College, and a certificate in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion from Cornell University’s ILR School.

Shyam Subramanian, Ph.D., is Obsidian’s Chief Technical officer and heads technical development, manufacturing and quality. In this role he leads all aspects of CMC, including process development, analytical development, external manufacturing and supply chain for Obsidian’s product portfolio. He also is responsible for the quality assurance function that supports all of Obsidian’s GxP activities. Dr. Subramanian brings over 25 years of post-discovery through commercialization product development experience in complex biologics, including products in the cell and gene therapy space. Prior to joining Obsidian, Dr. Subramanian was the Head of Cell Therapy Development & Manufacturing at Casebia Therapeutics, leading the CMC development of several novel CRISPR-edited T-cell therapy product candidates for autoimmune diseases. Prior to Casebia, Dr. Subramanian spent over 20 years in biopharma—Merck, Chiron, Teva and Johnson & Johnson—with responsibility for early- and late-stage process development, technology transfer and manufacturing support for viral and bacterial vaccines, antibodies and gene therapy vectors. Dr. Subramanian holds a Ph.D. in chemical and biomolecular engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

Maria Fardis, Ph.D., is Executive Chair of Obsidian’s Board of Directors and a Venture Partner at Frazier Life Sciences. She has over 20 years of scientific and management experience in numerous public and private companies. Dr. Fardis previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Iovance Biotherapeutics. As CEO at Iovance, she led the transformation from an early-stage development company to a company with multiple late-stage programs for the treatment of solid tumors. Prior to Iovance, Dr. Fardis served as the Chief Operating Officer of Acerta Pharma B.V., where she worked on the development of Calquence^® until the company’s acquisition by AstraZeneca. Prior to that, she worked at Pharmacyclics, Inc., where she was a key contributor in the creation of a broad clinical program leading to global approvals for Imbruvica^® in multiple hematologic malignancies, and where she served as Chief of Oncology Operations and Alliances. Prior to joining Pharmacyclics, Dr. Fardis held increasing senior positions in medicinal chemistry and the project and portfolio management department at Gilead Sciences, Inc., where she was involved with multiple therapeutic areas including antivirals, oncology, and cardiovascular therapeutics and worked on the development and life cycle management of Letairis^®.

Peter Barrett is a partner at Atlas Venture and focuses on investments in therapeutics that significantly improve patients’ quality of life. At Atlas, Dr. Barrett has been involved in the creation of several novel therapeutic and drug discovery platform companies. He is currently chairman of Synlogic, and serves on the board of Obsidian Therapeutics and Larimar Therapeutics. Prior to joining Atlas in 2002, Peter was Co-Founder, Executive Vice President, and Chief Business Officer of Celera Genomics. Dr. Barrett helped launch Celera as a publicly traded entity in 1999. He led Celera’s strategic alliances and acquisitions, and participated in raising nearly $1 billion in capital for the company. Prior to Celera, he held senior management positions at PerkinElmer, most recently serving as Vice President, Corporate Planning and Business Development. During his tenure, he expanded the life science business units through a series of licensing agreements, partnerships and acquisitions. Dr. Barrett is currently Vice Chairman of the advisory council of the Barnett Institute of Chemical and Biological Analysis at Northeastern University, as well as adjunct professor at the Barnett Institute. He also serves on the Board of PerkinElmer. He received a B.S. in chemistry from Lowell Technological Institute (now known as the University of Massachusetts, Lowell), and a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from Northeastern University. He also completed Harvard Business School’s Management Development Program. Outside the office, Dr. Barrett is a skier, competitive sailor, theater lover and frustrated actor.

Cariad Chester is a member of Obsidian’s Board of Directors and a Partner at The Column Group Crossover Fund (TCG X). Prior to joining TCG X, Mr. Chester was a Managing Director at Aquilo Capital, where he led investments in biotechnology companies developing human therapeutics. Prior to Aquilo Capital, he served as a research scientist in the lab of Dr. Holbrook Kohrt at Stanford University. His research focused on understanding tumor-immune system interactions during cancer onset, progression, and treatment. He has authored or co-authored over 20 peer-reviewed manuscripts and presented research at conferences in Canada, the U.S., and China. Mr. Chester has also worked in clinical trial management, helping to launch and coordinate phase I, first-in-human trials of investigational immunotherapeutic agents, and formerly operated a consulting practice advising early-stage companies on assay development and pipeline prioritization. Mr. Chester received his B.A. from Swarthmore College, where he double majored in neuroscience and comparative religious studies.

Jason Gardner, D. Phil. is Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Magenta Therapeutics. He has more than 20 years of experience in stem cell science and industry leadership roles. He worked at Glaxo Smith Kline for 11 years, most recently as Vice President and Head of the R&D Satellite in Boston. He created and led the Regenerative Medicine Unit, established partnerships with The Harvard Stem Cell Institute, and The Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy, from which the first stem cell medicine (Strimvelis™) was approved. Prior to that, Dr. Gardner was the Head of the Center of Excellence for External Drug Discovery (CEEDD) and was a member of the clinical project team that led the late-stage development and NDA approval for Tykerb™ for breast cancer. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in hematopoietic stem cells with Professor David Scadden at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Gardner was educated in the U.K. and holds a doctorate from Oxford University and graduate and undergraduate degrees from Cambridge University.

Michael Gilman, Ph.D., is a scientist, general manager, biotech executive and serial entrepreneur. Dr. Gillman is currently Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Arrakis Therapeutics. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Scholar Rock and the Novartis Venture Fund and of the Scientific Advisory Board of FutuRx, a biotech accelerator in Israel. Previously, he served as Chief Executive Officer of Obsidian Therapeutics. He was Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Padlock Therapeutics, a venture-funded company focused on autoimmune disease, acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2016. Prior to Padlock, Dr. Gillman served as Senior Vice President, Early-Stage Pipeline, at Biogen Idec, with responsibility for managing the company’s development programs through clinical proof-of-concept. He joined Biogen Idec in March 2012 following its acquisition of Stromedix, a venture-backed company focused on fibrosis and organ failure, where he was Founder and Chief Executive Officer. Prior to founding Stromedix in 2006, Dr. Gillman served as Executive Vice President, Research at Biogen Idec, with responsibility for the company’s discovery research activities in Cambridge and San Diego. From 1994 to 1999, he was at ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, where he was Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer. From 1986 to 1994, he was on the scientific staff of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, where his research focused on mechanisms of signal transduction and gene regulation. Dr. Gillman was a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Robert Weinberg at the Whitehead Institute. He holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from University of California, Berkeley, and a S.B. in life sciences from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Heidi Hagen is a member of Obsidian’s Board of Directors. Ms. Hagen has extensive experience in operations management and commercializing innovative technologies, including 20 years in the cell and gene therapy industry. Currently, Ms. Hagen is Chief Technical Officer of Sonoma Biotherapeutics, a privately-held company leading the development of adoptive Treg cell therapies for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. She also serves on the Board of Directors for cell therapy company Vericel. Most recently, she served as interim CEO and sat on the board for Ziopharm Oncology, Inc., a publicly traded company developing immune-oncology gene and cell therapies. She is also Co-Founder and former Chief Strategy Officer of Vineti, a software platform company for cell and gene therapy supply chain management. Formerly, she served as Global COO for SOTIO Biotech a.s. and the Senior Vice President of Operations for Dendreon. She began her career at Immunex Corporation and worked for ten years in a range of roles in drug development and operations management. Ms. Hagen has a B.S. in cell and molecular biology, an M.S. in bioengineering, and an MBA from the University of Washington.

Madan Jagasia, M.D., M.S., is Obsidian’s Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Jagasia is a highly experienced physician executive with an extensive oncology and cell therapy-focused clinical background and deep industry experience developing tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) treatments for cancer. Prior to joining Obsidian, Dr. Jagasia was Executive Vice President, Medical Affairs at Iovance Biotherapeutics, where he was responsible for managing national medical affairs, strategic congress planning, advocacy, strategic alliances and external research collaborations. Before Iovance, he was Chief Medical Officer and Executive Medical Director of Cancer Patient Care Center, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC), where he co-led Translational Research and Interventional Oncology Research Program at VICC. Dr. Jagasia began his career as a faculty member in the Division of Hematology-Oncology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr. Jagasia has his M.B.B.S from the GS Medical College & KEM Hospital, an M.S. and a Master of Management in Health Care from Vanderbilt University.

Matthew Norkunas, M.D., M.B.A., currently serves as the chief financial officer of Generation Bio. Prior to Generation Bio, he was chief financial officer at SomaLogic, where he helped lead a complete strategic overhaul for the company, closed several large business development deals, and oversaw strong commercial growth both in the US and overseas. Previously, Matt served as senior equity analyst at Marsico Capital Management, where he was the firm’s primary health-care investment specialist. Matt began his career as a practicing anesthesiologist. He earned a Master of Business Administration from Columbia Business School, a medical degree from University of Maryland School of Medicine, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

Rob Ross, M.D. serves as the chief executive officer of Surface Oncology. Prior to becoming CEO, he served as Surface’s chief medical officer, overseeing all clinical and regulatory operations and development efforts. Rob has extensive biotech experience, including leading the clinical development of genetically modified cellular therapies in thalassemia and sickle cell disease at bluebird bio. Rob was also the head of oncology at bluebird, building a multifaceted oncology program, led by the anti-BCMA chimeric antigen T cell therapy (Abecma) in collaboration with Celgene. Previously, he worked at Genentech and Infinity Pharmaceuticals on both small molecule and antibody programs from Phase I through pivotal trials and was a faculty member at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, treating patients with genitourinary malignancies. Rob earned his bachelor’s degree from Stanford University, his master’s degree from Harvard Medical School and his medical degree from Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. Rob did his residency in internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and his fellowship in hematology/oncology at the combined program at the Dana Farber/Massachusetts General Hospital.

Daniel G. Anderson, Ph.D., is the Samuel A. Goldblith Professor of Applied Biology, Associate Professor, Chemical Engineering and Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, and member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT. He received his Ph.D. in molecular genetics from the University of California at Davis. At MIT, he pioneered the use of robotic methods for the development of smart biomaterials for drug delivery and medical devices. His work has led to the first methods for rapid synthesis, formulation, analysis and biological evaluation of large libraries of biomaterials for use in medical devices, cell therapy and drug delivery. In particular, the advanced drug delivery systems he has developed provide new methods for nanoparticulate drug delivery, non-viral gene therapy, siRNA delivery and vaccines. His work has resulted in the publication of over 230 papers, patents and patent applications. These patents have led to a number of licenses to pharmaceutical, chemical and biotechnology companies, and a number of products that have been commercialized or are in clinical development.

Mike Briskin, Ph.D., is Chairperson of the Scientific Advisory Board at Obsidian Therapeutics. Dr. Briskin brings more than 20 years of industry experience in multiple areas of drug discovery, including molecular biology, immunobiology, oncology and inflammation. Prior to Obsidian, Dr. Briskin founded and ran discovery research at Jounce Therapeutics, a company developing biotherapeutics for immune-oncology indications. Prior to Jounce, he was Senior Director of Immunology at Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, where he led the company’s efforts aimed at translational studies with a lead therapeutic compound in rheumatoid arthritis, as well as programs in inflammation and oncology. Prior to Merrimack, Dr. Briskin was a scientific consultant for Healthcare Ventures, one of the world’s largest venture capital firms. Previously, he was Director of Inflammation – Cell Migration at LeukoSite and subsequently Millennium Pharmaceuticals, where his early discovery work led to the development and subsequent approval of a novel T Cell homing inhibitor, Entyvio® (vedolizumab), for Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn’s disease. Dr. Briskin also led efforts in target identification and validation for the Millennium/Aventis collaboration and led discovery efforts in the company’s biotherapeutic and small molecule programs. Dr. Briskin holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology and a B.A. in biology from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Chris Klebanoff, M.D., is an assistant member, Center for Cell Engineering, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and a member investigator, The Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. Dr. Klebanoff is a cellular immunologist and medical oncologist with 17 years of experience in the pre-clinical and clinical development of T cell-based immunotherapies for the treatment of solid and hematologic cancers. Prior to joining Memorial Sloan Kettering, he was an assistant clinical investigator and a NIH-Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Scholar at the U.S. National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. As a member of the NCI Surgery Branch’s senior staff, he participated in the early phase clinical development of numerous T cell-based therapies which would later be licensed to commercial entities. These include the anti-CD19 28-zeta CAR that would become Yescarta® (axicabtagene ciloleucel), gene engineered TCR therapies targeting NY-ESO-1, MAGE-A3/6, and HPV E6, and neoantigen selected TIL therapies for a diverse range of solid cancers. Dr. Klebanoff’s laboratory investigations have contributed to the mechanistic understanding of how lymphodepletion enhances adoptive immunotherapies and how T cell differentiation status influences cellular persistence and clinical outcomes.

Lewis L. Lanier, Ph.D., is an American Cancer Society Professor, the J. Michael Bishop M.D. Distinguished Professor and Chairman of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of California, San Francisco, Leader of the Cancer Immunity Program of the UCSF Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center and Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at UCSF. Dr. Lanier received his Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. After postdoctoral studies, first at the Lineberger Cancer Center at UNC, Chapel Hill and then as a Damon Runyon – Walter Winchell Cancer Research Fellow at the University of New Mexico, he joined the Research & Development Department at the Becton Dickinson Monoclonal Center in Mountain View, California, advancing to Associate Director of Research and was a Becton Dickinson Research Fellow. In 1990, he joined the DNAX Research Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology in Palo Alto, California, where he advanced to Director of Immunobiology. In 1999, Dr. Lanier joined the faculty of UCSF. His research group studies natural killer cells, which recognize and eliminate cells that have become transformed or infected by viruses. In recognition of his scientific contributions, he was awarded the William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic Tumor Immunology from the Cancer Research Institute in 2002. In 2005, he was given the Rose Payne Award for contributions to the field of immunogenetics by the American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics; in 2010 was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences; and in 2011 was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was awarded the 2017 Excellence in Mentoring Award from the American Association of Immunologists, served as President from 2006-2007, and named an AAI Distinguished Fellow in 2019. Dr. Lanier serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of several pharma and biotech companies and research institutes and Editorial boards of scientific journals.

Vic Myer, Ph.D., is President and Chief Scientific Officer at Chroma Medicine and an Advisor at Atlas Venture. He also serves as an Independent Board member at KromaTid, Inc, an advisor to the NIH SCGE, and an SAB member at both Obsidian Therapeutics and Life Edit Therapeutics. Previously, he was Chief Technology Officer of Editas Medicine where he led the genome editing platform, CMC and chemistry departments. He has more than 20 years of experience in the biotech industry. At the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, he led a large, technology focused target discovery, target validation and lead finding group in the Developmental and Molecular Pathways department for 11 years. Prior to Novartis, Dr. Myer focused on industrializing and using ‘omics technologies at Millennium, Akceli and Corning. He has B.S. from Cornell, a Ph.D. from Yale and did his post-doc at MIT/The Whitehead.

Kim Schluns, PhD is a Senior Director at Kite Pharma. Previously, she was on faculty in the department of Immunology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Her research there was focused on IL-15, and specifically how transpresentation of IL-15 by certain cell types drives distinct responses depending on the stage of lymphocyte differentiation and lymphocyte subset. Dr. Schluns completed her PhD in Cell Biology from Loyola University Chicago in 1998 where she studied cytokine regulation by human thymic epithelial cells. She then obtained postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Leo Lefrancois, Ph.D. at the University of Connecticut Health Science Center conducting research elucidating the crucial roles of IL-7 and IL-15 in T cell homeostasis and memory CD8 T cell differentiation.

Christina Smolke, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at Stanford University. Dr. Smolke earned her B.S. degree in chemical engineering with emphasis in biology from the University of Southern California and her Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, where she also did her postdoctoral training in the department of Molecular and Cell Biology in the laboratory of Dr. Karsten Weis. Dr. Smolke’s laboratory develops foundational tools that drive transformative advances in our ability to engineer biological systems. The Smolke Lab has pioneered the design and application of a broad class of RNA molecules, called RNA devices, that process and transmit user-specified input signals to targeted protein outputs, thereby creating genetic switches for programming cellular behaviors. Her laboratory is applying these technologies to address key challenges in cellular therapeutics, targeted molecular therapies, and green biosynthesis strategies.

Tom Wandless, Ph.D., is Obsidian’s Scientific Founder and a Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology at Stanford University. Dr. Wandless earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from Harvard University and his B.S. in biochemistry from Trinity University. Following his undergraduate studies, he worked in the laboratory of Stuart Schreiber where he helped elucidate the molecular mechanisms of the immunosuppressive drugs, FK506 and cyclosporin. Based on those studies, he then developed the first chemical dimerizer system to control specific gene transcription in T cells. He spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow with Chris Walsh at Harvard Medical School before starting his own lab at Stanford in 1995. The Wandless Lab concentrates on the invention of molecules and techniques that enable better studies of biological processes, inventing tools and techniques that provide new experimental windows into mechanisms that cells use to maintain protein homeostasis. In particular, his work over the last 15+ years on the use of small molecules to regulate protein folding and stability serves as the basis for Obsidian’s Drug Responsive Domain technology.

Cassian Yee, M.D., is Professor in the Departments of Melanoma Medical Oncology and Immunology, Co-Director of the Adoptive Cellular Therapy Platform and Director of Solid Tumor Cell Therapy at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center. He received his medical training in Canada, residency at Stanford and fellowship at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He is an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigators, recipient of Clinical Translational Scientist Award from Burroughs Wellcome Fund, CPRIT Clinical Investigator award, Co-Leader of the Stand Up to Cancer- American Association for Cancer Research / Cancer Research Institute Immunotherapy Dream Team, and Member of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. Over the last 20+ years, Dr. Yee has pioneered a form of adoptive cell therapy, known as Endogenous T Cell (ETC) therapy, using peripheral blood to generate antigen-specific memory T cells for the treatment of patients with cancer. His lab has performed several seminal first-in-human studies using a well-defined, uniform population of ex vivo expanded antigen-specific T cells to delineate the requirements for effective immune-based therapies He is author of publications in top-tier journals including The New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Science, Nature Medicine, Journal of Clinical Oncology and Journal of Experimental Medicine. He holds international patents and seeks to extend immunotherapy-based cancer treatments globally with collaborators. His work converges multidisciplinary approaches in bioengineering, metabolism, molecular immunology and cellular biology to develop effective immunotherapy strategies and adoptive cellular therapy, in particular, as a treatment modality for patients with malignant diseases.