About
Creating best-in-class, next generation cancer immunotherapies
Genocea harnesses the immune system to reveal the optimal targets for each patient to develop cancer immunotherapies that we hope will be better, more accessible and more affordable. Our proprietary ATLAS™ technology is a clinically validated platform that selects therapeutically relevant antigens that drive powerful anti-tumor immune responses. ATLAS is the only platform able to identify Inhibigens™ that can reverse or dampen the immune responses.
Girish joined Genocea in December 2018 as Chief Business Officer. In this role, he leads Genocea’s business development efforts. His broad skill set spans business development, corporate and R&D strategy, product portfolio management, commercial planning, and alliance management – experience he gained at previous positions at the Ipsen Group, a global specialty biopharmaceutical company, which included Vice President: Global Head of External Innovation, and positions at Pfizer, Inc., which included Executive Director: Head of Strategy, Innovation & Operations for Pfizer’s External R&D Innovation team. His previous roles also include business development and oncology pipeline market planning positions at Genentech, Inc. and life science consulting experience at L.E.K Consulting. He received a B.A. in Biophysics with General and Departmental Honors from Johns Hopkins University, a Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology following an M.S. in Biology from the California Institute of Technology, and has completed executive education in Corporate Governance at Northwestern University – Kellogg School of Management.
Fun Facts about Girish: While he’s enjoying being back in the northeast after nearly two decades in California, he remains a die-hard San Francisco Giants fan.
Chip has served as our President and Chief Executive Officer since February 2011 after serving as our Chief Business Officer from August 2010 to February 2011. Chip has also served on our board of directors since February 2011. Prior to joining Genocea, he served as Chief Business Officer at Vanda Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company he co-founded in 2004. While at Vanda, he led the company’s strategic and business development activities and played a central role in raising more than $400 million through business development deals and equity financings.
Prior to Vanda, Chip was a principal at Care Capital, a venture capital firm investing in biopharmaceutical companies, after serving in a variety of commercial and strategic roles at SmithKline Beecham (now GlaxoSmithKline). Chip holds a B.A. from Harvard University and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Fun Facts about Chip: is happiest when exploring with his wife and children; his favorite Twitter follows are Muppets.
Tom joined Genocea in October 2018 as Chief Medical Officer with 20+ years of academic and industry experience in immuno-oncology and cancer drug development. Most recently, he served as Chief Medical Officer of Gadeta B.V., a Dutch cell therapy company pursuing novel cancer targets, where he steered a novel cell therapy technology into first-in human clinical studies. He previously served as Chief Medical Officer of Celldex from 2006 to 2017, where he led all aspects of clinical and regulatory development including strategy, tactics, and execution. While at Celldex, Tom actively built and oversaw Clinical Science, Medical Affairs, Safety, Clinical Operations, Statistics, Regulatory Affairs, and Project Management, managed collaborations with large global pharmaceutical partners, and participated in investor relations activities. He also served as Chief Medical Officer at GenVec and as Senior Director of Clinical Science at Medarex.
Prior to joining the industry, Tom supervised clinical efforts at the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program (CTEP) of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and worked on the development of rituximab and idiotype vaccines at Stanford University. Dr. Davis received his B.A. in Biophysics from Johns Hopkins, his M.S. in Physiology and his M.D. from Georgetown University, and completed a fellowship in medical oncology at Stanford University.
Fun Facts about Tom: is a lifelong sailor and amateur explorer who is still trying to convince his wife that the one with the most boats wins, despite the endless hours required for upkeep.
Diantha joined Genocea in March 2019, bringing broad life science financial leadership experience to the company. Most recently, Diantha served as Vice President, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer at Bioverativ, Inc. Prior to Bioverativ, she served as U.S. and Global Commercial Controller at Biogen and held a number of positions as an Executive Director at Merck and Co. While at Merck, her experiences spanned roles in venture investment, business development, joint ventures, and alliances, as well as operational controls and technical accounting. In addition, she gained extensive experience in SEC reporting, Sarbanes Oxley compliance, transaction support and risk management while at PricewaterhouseCoopers. She received a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Public Policy from Colby College and masters’ degrees in both Accounting and Business Administration from Northeastern University. Diantha is also a Certified Public Accountant licensed in the state of Massachusetts.
Fun Facts about Diantha: enjoys traveling and skiing especially with her family and is an avid Boston sports fan.
Jess joined Genocea in 2007, soon after the company was founded, and currently serves as Chief Scientific Officer. She is widely recognized as a pioneer in the development of novel vaccines directed toward T cell immunity and has more than 20 years of experience in immunology, cancer, infectious disease, and vaccine development. She leads Genocea’s efforts to develop T cell-directed vaccines and immunotherapies against cancer using the company’s proprietary ATLAS platform to identify and characterize both common and personalized antigens.
Prior to joining Genocea, Jess served in a variety of roles developing vaccines and immunotherapies for cancer, infectious disease, autoimmunity, and allergy at companies including Mojave Therapeutics and Antigenics (now Agenus). Jess received a B.S. in Animal Science and a Ph.D. in Cellular Immunology from Cornell University, and performed her post-doctoral work at Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. She is a member of Women in Bio, the American Association of Immunologists, the American Association for Cancer Research, the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, the President’s Council of Cornell Women, and the American Society for Microbiology. She is also an inventor on numerous pending and issued patents and is the author of multiple peer-reviewed scientific publications.
Fun Facts about Jess: can trace her roots back to the original U.S. colonies, is an avid skier, and, in fact, hates being hot and would be just fine living somewhere with year-round snow!
Ray joined Genocea in January 2021 as EVP, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Manufacturing, bringing 20+ years of industry experience having led technical, quality and manufacturing operations at commercial and clinical stage biopharmaceutical companies. Most recently, Ray served as President and Chief Operating Officer of American Type Culture Collection (ATCC), and an Officer and member of the Board of Directors of both ATCC and ATCC Global. Ray brings extensive management experience to Genocea, including translational sciences, the application of Lean Six-Sigma management, and commercial launch of multiple billion-dollar biologic, vaccine, and small molecule products.
Prior to ATCC, Ray worked in senior manufacturing and technical operations roles at Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. and Synthetic Biologics, Inc. after spending 15 years in areas of increasing responsibility in Merck and Company, Inc.’s manufacturing organization. At Merck, Ray lead a complex science, technology, and engineering organization at a manufacturing site responsible for supporting Merck’s $5 billion vaccine business.
Ray earned a bachelor’s degree in Biology from Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Virginia and received his PhD in Microbial Ecology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He has served as peer reviewer for a half dozen scientific journals, co-authored 17 peer-reviewed manuscripts, as well as multiple patents.
Fun Facts about Ray: Ray enjoys outdoor activities including cycling, mountain biking, swimming, and participating in triathlons (though running is his least favorite part of the race!).
Jackie joined Genocea in February 2021 as Chief Legal and Compliance Officer. Jackie brings over 15 years of legal and strategic leadership experience. Most recently Jackie served as Vice President, Assistant General Counsel at Bristol-Myers Squibb, where she led the Worldwide Hematology and Cell Therapy legal team. Previously Jackie led Celgene Corporation’s CAR T legal team, supporting clinical development and launch preparedness for therapies in development. Prior to her time at Celgene, Jackie held positions of increasing responsibility at Novartis Oncology and Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation where she advised on a wide array of matters relating to pre-clinical and clinical development, commercialization and market access, employment, litigation and government investigations, and compliance.
Jackie began her legal career at Kaye Scholer, LLP and clerked for the Honorable Gladys Kessler of the United States District Court in Washington, D.C. She holds a J.D. and Master of Laws in international and comparative law from Duke University School of Law and a B.A. from Bucknell University.
Fun Fact about Jackie: Jackie enjoys practicing yoga and boxing, and does not find the two to be contradictory.
Kenneth Bate has served as a member of our board of directors since September 2014 and as our chairman since December 2018. Mr. Bate is currently a director of AVEO Pharmaceuticals, Catabasis Pharmaceuticals, Epizyme Inc. and Madrigal Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Bate previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Archemix Corp. and NitroMed Inc., Chief Financial Officer of Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Biogen Inc., and co-founded JSB Partners LLC, a banking and advisory services firm for biopharmaceutical and life sciences companies. He holds an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. from Williams College.
Dr. Ali Behbahani has served as a member of our board of directors since February 2018. Dr. Behbahani is a General Partner on the healthcare team at NEA since 2018, having worked for the fund since 2007, specializing in investments in the biopharmaceutical and medical device sectors. He is also currently a member of the board of directors of CRISPR Therapeutics, Adaptimmune, Cardionomic, CVRx, Ivantis, Minerva Surgical, Oyster Point Pharma and Solace Therapeutics.
He has previously worked as a consultant in business development at The Medicines Company and held positions as a Venture Associate at Morgan Stanley Venture Partners from 2000 to 2002 and as a Healthcare Investment Banking Analyst at Lehman Brothers from 1998 to 2000. Dr. Behbahani conducted basic science research in the fields of viral fusion inhibition and structural proteomics at the National Institutes of Health and at Duke University. He graduated summa cum laude and received his bachelor’s degree with distinction in Biomedical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Chemistry from Duke University, earned an M.D. from The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania.
Katrine Bosley has served as a member of our board of directors since March 2013 and, until December 2018, served as our chairperson. Ms. Bosley is currently Chairman of the Board of Arrakis Therapeutics. Ms. Bosley served as the Chief Executive Officer of Editas Medicine Inc., a genome editing company, from shortly after its inception through its IPO and entry into clinical development. Prior to Editas, Ms. Bosley was the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at The Broad Institute and was Chief Executive Officer of Avila Therapeutics. Before Avila, she was Vice President, Strategic Operations at Adnexus Therapeutics, a Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, and was Vice President, Business Development at Adnexus prior to that. She joined Adnexus from Biogen Idec where she held roles in business development, commercial operations, and portfolio strategy in the United States and Europe.
In addition to serving as a director of our Company, Ms. Bosley currently serves as a director of Galapagos NV and Massachusetts Eye and Ear. Ms. Bosley graduated from Cornell University with a B.A. in Biology.
Chip has served as our President and Chief Executive Officer since February 2011 after serving as our Chief Business Officer from August 2010 to February 2011. Chip has also served on our board of directors since February 2011. Prior to joining Genocea, he served as Chief Business Officer at Vanda Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company he co-founded in 2004. While at Vanda, he led the company’s strategic and business development activities and played a central role in raising more than $400 million through business development deals and equity financings.
Prior to Vanda, Chip was a principal at Care Capital, a venture capital firm investing in biopharmaceutical companies, after serving in a variety of commercial and strategic roles at SmithKline Beecham (now GlaxoSmithKline). Chip holds a B.A. from Harvard University and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Fun Facts about Chip: is happiest when exploring with his wife and children; his favorite Twitter follows are Muppets.
Michael Higgins has served as a member of our board of directors since February 2015. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Kindex Pharmaceuticals. From 2015 through 2019 he served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Polaris Partners. Prior to Polaris, Mr. Higgins served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals from 2003 through 2014, playing a key role in Ironwood’s evolution from a privately funded discovery organization through its initial public offering and the launch of its first commercial product. Under his leadership, the company was able to raise more than one billion dollars to help support the development of the business during that period.
From 1997 through 2003, Mr. Higgins worked at Genzyme Corporation in a variety of leadership roles including Vice President, Corporate Finance and Vice President, Business Development. While at Genzyme, he was involved with multiple businesses including the Cell Therapy, Gene Therapy, and Orphan Disease business units. Previously, Mr. Higgins served as Chief Financial Officer of Procept, Inc., from 1992 to 1997, and led the company through its initial public offering. He currently serves as a director of Pulmatrix, Inc. and Is Chairman of the Board at Voyager Therapeutics. Mr. Higgins began his pharmaceutical career as a sales representative for Schering-Plough Corporation. He earned his B.S. from Cornell University and holds an M.B.A. from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.
Gisela M. Schwab, M.D. has served a member of our board of directors since February 2020. Dr. Schwab is President, Product Development and Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer at Exelixis. In this role since February 2016, Dr. Schwab leads Exelixis’ product development program, helping to advance product candidates through development and regulatory approval to commercial launch. In her various roles with the company since 2006, Dr. Schwab has supported the approvals of COMETRIQ® and CABOMETYX® and continues to work to expand the cabozantinib franchise with the goal of bringing advanced treatment options to patients with cancer. Dr. Schwab joined Exelixis from Abgenix, Inc., a human antibody-based product development company, where she was Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer and held other executive-level clinical development positions during her tenure. Prior to working at Abgenix, from 1992 to 1999, Dr. Schwab held positions of increasing responsibility at Amgen Inc., most recently as Director of Clinical Research and Hematology/Oncology Therapeutic Area Team Leader. Dr. Schwab also serves as a member of the board of directors of Cellerant Therapeutics, Inc., and Nordic Nanovector AS. Dr. Schwab holds a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Heidelberg, trained at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and the National Cancer Institute and is board certified in internal medicine and hematology and oncology.
Chief Scientific Officer, ClearPath Vaccines Company
Former Chief Scientific Officer, Wyeth Vaccines
Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical School
George Siber, M.D. has served as a member of our board of directors since 2007. Dr. Siber is an internationally recognized vaccine expert with decades of experience in developing innovative vaccines. Dr. Siber’s prior professional experiences include Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of Wyeth Vaccines Research, overseeing the development, approval and marketing of six innovative childhood vaccines including Prevenar 7, the first pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, Meningitec, the first Meningococcal C conjugate vaccine, Rotashield, the first rotavirus vaccine and FluMist, the first live nasal influenza vaccine. Prevenar 7 has dramatically reduced the burden of pneumococcal disease in the countries that have introduced it and has become the largest selling vaccine (more than $6 Billion per year). Previous to Wyeth, Dr. Siber served as Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Massachusetts Biologic Laboratories. Under his leadership, the specific immune globulins to CMV (Cytogam) and to RSV (Respigam) the precursor product to Synagis were developed and licensed to MedImmune. Currently, Dr. Siber is Co-Founder and Director of Affinivax which is developing a 24V pneumococcal vaccine and a Klebsiella/Pseudomonas vaccine. Dr. Siber received his undergraduate degree at Bishop’s University in Lennoxville, Quebec and his medical degree from McGill University in Montreal. In 2016, The Sabin Vaccine Institute awarded the Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal Award to Dr. Siber for his outstanding contributions to immunology and infectious disease research through the development of life-saving vaccines for childhood diseases, including pneumococcus, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) and meningococcus.
Deputy Director Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins
The Dana and Albert “Cubby” Broccoli professor of oncology
President-elect of the American Association for Cancer Research (2017-2018)
Co-chair of the Blue Ribbon Panel for the National Cancer Moonshot Initiative
Dr. Jaffee is a distinguished leader in preclinical and early clinical development of vaccines for breast and pancreatic cancers. At Johns Hopkins, Dr. Jaffee is the Deputy Director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center; Associate Director of the Bloomberg-Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy; and Co-Director of the Skip Viragh Center for Pancreas Cancer Clinical Research and Patient Care. Dr. Jaffee is the leader of the Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C)-Lustgarten Foundation Dream Team: Transforming Pancreatic Cancer to a Treatable Disease and serves as Chair of the National Cancer Advisory Board for the National Cancer Institute and Cancer Research Institute’s Scientific Advisory Council. She graduated magna cum laude from Brandeis University before receiving her medical degree from New York Medical College.
Marcela Maus, M.D., Ph.D., is currently an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, the Paula O’Keefe Chair in Oncology and Director of Cellular Immunotherapy at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center, an Attending Physician in the Hematopoietic Cell Transplant and Cell Therapy division of Oncology at MGH. She is an Associate Member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, and an Associate Member of the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard.
Dr. Maus is internationally known for her work as a translational physician-scientist in the field of immunology, particularly as it relates to T-cell immunotherapies and cellular therapies in the treatment of cancer. Her laboratory focuses on the biology of human T cell activation, costimulationm, and memory, and on the application of human T cell therapies to human disease, including forward and reverse translation of engineered T cell therapies in early-phase clinical trials. She has authored over 100 papers indexed in pubmed and holds multiple NIH R01 grants and several Investional New Drug appplications (IND’s).
Dr. Maus holds an undergraduate degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and graduate degrees (M.D., Ph.D.) from University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Maus trained in internal medicine at University of Pennsylvania and in hematology and medical oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, is board-certified in these three disciplines, and practices medical oncology. She also serves on several scientific and clinical advisory boards for the biotechnology industry as well as external academic medical centers.
Chief Scientific Officer, ClearPath Vaccines Company
Former Chief Scientific Officer, Wyeth Vaccines
Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical School
Dr. Siber is an internationally recognized vaccine expert with decades of experience in developing innovative vaccines. Dr. Siber’s prior professional experiences include Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of Wyeth Vaccines Research, overseeing the development, approval and marketing of six innovative childhood vaccines including Prevenar 7, the first pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, Meningitec, the first Meningococcal C conjugate vaccine, Rotashield, the first rotavirus vaccine and FluMist, the first live nasal influenza vaccine. Prevenar 7 has dramatically reduced the burden of pneumococcal disease in the countries that have introduced it and has become the largest selling vaccine (more than $4 Billion per year). Previous to Wyeth, Dr. Siber served as Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Massachusetts Biologic Laboratories. Under his leadership, the specific immune globulins to CMV (Cytogam) and to RSV (Respigam) the precursor product to Synagis were developed and licensed to MedImmune. Currently, Dr. Siber is Chief Scientific Officer of ClearPath Vaccines Company, a vaccine development company focused on developing novel vaccines with high medical need to create a global vaccine portfolio for Astellas Pharma. Dr. Siber received his undergraduate degree at Bishop’s University in Lennoxville, Quebec and his medical degree from McGill University in Montreal. In 2016, The Sabin Vaccine Institute awarded the Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal Award to Dr. Siber for his outstanding contributions to immunology and infectious disease research through the development of life-saving vaccines for childhood diseases, including pneumococcus, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) and meningococcus.
Assistant Member, Earle A. Chiles Research Institute, Providence Cancer Institute, Portland, OR
Dr. Tran is an expert in targeting mutated neoantigens using adoptive cell transfer (ACT) therapy. His studies have provided the most direct evidence that T cells targeting neoantigens can mediate tumor regression in patients with metastatic epithelial cancers. Dr .Tran earned his Ph.D. at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada, and received postdoctoral training at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health under the direct mentorship of Dr. Steven A. Rosenberg, a leader and pioneer in human cancer immunotherapy.
Chief of Hematology and Medical Oncology, New York University Langone Health Center
Anne Murnick Cogan and David H. Cogan Professor of Oncology, Department of Medicine
A renowned leader in the development of mouse models of lung cancer, Dr. Wong has made tremendous contributions to the understanding of the origins of cancer and the molecular determinants of treatment responses. Following a distinguished career at Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Dr. Wong is currently Professor of Medicine and a practicing clinical oncologist at NYU Langone Health Center. While at Dana-Farber, Dr. Wong fostered partnerships with the pharmaceutical industry that accelerated cancer drug discovery. He directed the pioneering Belfer Center for Applied Cancer Research, a research center dedicated to translating current oncology research into clinical trials. Dr. Wong earned his M.D. and Ph.D. in the Integrated Program in Cellular, Molecular, and Biophysical Studies at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He was trained in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and in hematology-oncology at Dana-Farber. He is a recipient of the 2010 Team Science Award from the American Association of Cancer Research.