Envisioning a better future for immune-mediated inflammatory disease (IMID) patients

Juan Ángel Patiño Galindo is a Computational Biologist at IMIDomics, having joined the team in March 2024. His primary responsibilities involve analyzing multi-omic data from IMID patients, with a particular emphasis on scRNA-seq. Prior to his role at IMIDomics, Dr. Patiño served as a Senior Scientist in the Department of Microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (New York, USA). There, he focused on various aspects of virus-host interactions, conducting genomic profiling of a wide range of viruses to uncover evidence of adaptation under clinically relevant conditions. Additionally, he investigated the genomic and transcriptomic differences in the immune systems of humans and other mammalian viral reservoirs.

Before his tenure at Mount Sinai, Juan worked as a Postdoctoral Scientist in the Department of Systems Biology at Columbia University. During this time, he developed machine learning methods to study viral evolution, including recombination and adaptation, as well as characterizing transcriptomic changes associated with diseases such as viral infections and cancer. Dr. Patiño holds a B.Sc. in Biology (2010) and a Ph.D. in Biotechnology (2017) from the Universitat de València.

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Mr. Clay joined IMIDomics in May 2023 as a Controller. He oversees the daily accounting activities, collaborates with cross-functional teams, and liaises with external auditors and tax advisors to ensure timely and accurate financial reporting, among other things, for the US headquarters and the Barcelona establishment.

Mr. Clay has over 30 years of accounting and finance experience. He has been serving as Controller for Bay City Capital since 2018, a leading life sciences Venture Capital firm. Prior to joining Bay City Capital, Mr. Clay was a Controller for 17 years at Rosewood Capital, a private equity firm in San Francisco. He has also worked as a Senior Accountant at Siebel Systems, and as an Accounting Supervisor at United Parcel Service. Mr. Clay received a BA in Accounting and Political Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

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Dr. Littman, Ph.D., is the Helen L. and Martin S. Kimmel Professor of Molecular Immunology at the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine of NYU Langone Medical Center and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical institute. Previously, he served as Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of California San Francisco. Dr. Littman is a scientific founder and a member of the Scientific Advisory Boards of Vedanta Biosciences and Immunai and is a member of the Pfizer Board of Directors. He serves on a number of other advisory boards, including ChemoCentryx, Inc., Vor Biopharma, the Broad Institute, the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard, and the Whitehead Institute.

Dr. Carrascosa is the head of the Dermatology Department at Hospital Universitat Germans Trias i Pujol and an associate professor of medicine at Autonomous University Barcelona. He is an expert in inflammatory and autoimmune dermatosis, psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, contact dermatitis, and photobiology. Dr. Carrascosa serves as the chair and coordinator of the Spanish Group on Psoriasis within the Spanish Society of Dermatology (AEDV) and GEIDAC (Dermatitis & Allergy), and he is a principal investigator (PI) or study initiator (SI) in more than 60 research projects. He has authored and co-authored 215 publications and holds editorial roles in prestigious journals such as the American Journal of Clinical Dermatology, Frontiers, and Life. Dr. Carrascosa also serves as a reviewer for journals such as The Lancet and the British Journal of Dermatology, among others. Moreover, he is a member of the scientific committee of the Spin Scientific Board (Skin Inflammation and Psoriasis International Network).

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Dr. Calvo holds the position of head of the Rheumatology Department at Hospital Universitario Araba in Vitoria. Additionally, he serves as an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Universidad del País Vasco (UPV). Within the field of rheumatology, Dr. Calvo plays a pivotal role as the coordinator of the EASSER group, which focuses on systemic autoimmune diseases. Furthermore, he is a scientific committee member of the RELESSER-TRANS and RELESSER-PROS projects—both prospective registries dedicated to the study of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) patients. Dr. Calvo's engagement extends to international research collaborations, notably his participation in an SLE study named LUMINA at the University of Alabama Birmingham in the United States. He has authored and co-authored over 178 scientific publications, predominantly in the fields of SLE and Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). He is the first author of the SER consensus document on the use of biologics of SLE.

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Dr. Domenech holds the position of head of the Digestive Diseases Department at Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol, and he is also a professor of Medicine at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He serves as the coordinator of the ENEIDA registry (National IBD registry) and is responsible for the coordination of the Research and Scientific Evaluation Committee. Additionally, he has served as the past president of GETECCU (Spanish Working Group on Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis). Currently, Dr. Domenech is the president-elect of the Catalan Society of Gastroenterology. He also leads the IBD Research Group at the Center for Biomedical Research Network on Liver and Digestive Diseases in Madrid. Throughout his research career, Dr. Domenech has focused on areas such as postoperative recurrence of Crohn's disease, response to corticosteroids in ulcerative colitis, and the impact of IBD in the elderly population. He has authored and co-authored over 200 scientific publications, primarily centered around Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBDs). Notably, he is the first author of the GETECCU recommendations for the management of Crohn's disease recurrence after surgery.

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Dr. Cañete is the senior consultant Rheumatologist in the Arthritis Unit, Rheumatology Dept., Hospital Clinic and senior researcher in IDIBAPS, Barcelona. He is an expert in outpatient clinic and translational research in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and psoriatic arthritis (PsA). He has led research projects (supported by ISCIII grants) in the immunopathology of synovial tissue, genetics, and diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers. Dr. Cañete is principal investigator of the IDIBAPS group in the IMI2 European Commission Official Research Projects and HIPPOCRATES consortium. He is a former member of the board of experts to assess research projects for the Spanish Agency for Biomedical Research in IMIDs. He is the author and co-author of 200 original articles in impact journals, a member of the EULAR task force (RA, PsA), and a regular reviewer for Annals Rheumatic Diseases, Rheumatology, Nature Review Rheumatology, and Biomedicine, among others.

Dr. Andreu is the head of the Rheumatology Department and the unit head of Systemic Autoimmune Diseases at Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro Majadahonda (Madrid). He also holds the position of associate professor of medicine at Autonomous University Madrid. Dr. Andreu serves as the principal investigator of the Sjögren registry of the Spanish Society of Rheumatology (SER), manages rheumatoid arthritis initiatives for the Spanish Society of Rheumatology (SER), and is the principal investigator of RELESSER-TRANS and RELESSER-PROS, both prospective registries of SLE patients. He has authored over 180 scientific publications (H-index 37) and co-authored the consensus of the SER on biologics in RA. Dr. Andreu has formerly held the positions of president of SER and president of the Spanish National Commission of Rheumatology.

Josefina Cortés Hernández is a highly dedicated medical professional with specialized expertise in both Internal Medicine and Rheumatology. Currently holding the position of head of the Lupus Unit, she also leads the Lupus Research Unit at Vall d'Hebron Research Institute. Beyond her clinical responsibilities, Josefina serves as the Principal Investigator for a FIS grant focusing on basic/translational research. Notably, she is also the Principal Investigator for 10 impactful international clinical trials.

In 2008, Josefina began her journey with Vall d'Hebron Research Institute as a postdoctoral researcher. Over the years, she has risen to the position of Principal Investigator in more than 4 grants, spanning both basic and clinical research. As a crucial member of the medical team in the Lupus Unit, under the guidance of Dr. Josep Ordi-Ros, Josefina actively contributes to over 25 clinical trials related to Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

Prior to joining VHIR, Josefina embarked on her professional career in 1999 at Hammersmith Hospital (Imperial College). There, she focused on researching animal models of lupus while concurrently specializing in Rheumatology. This valuable experience has led to her authorship of over 25 scientific articles. In 1997, Josefina completed her Internal Medicine specialty at Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, where she also conducted her doctoral thesis under the mentorship of Dr. Josep Ordi-Ros.

Dr. Littman, Ph.D., is the Helen L. and Martin S. Kimmel Professor of Molecular Immunology at the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine of NYU Langone Medical Center and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical institute. Previously, he served as Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of California San Francisco. Dr. Littman is a scientific founder and a member of the Scientific Advisory Boards of Vedanta Biosciences and Immunai and is a member of the Pfizer Board of Directors. He serves on a number of other advisory boards, including ChemoCentryx, Inc., Vor Biopharma, the Broad Institute, the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard, and the Whitehead Institute.

Laila Aledón has been a Laboratory Technician at IMIDomics Translational Immunology Research Lab since June 2023. She is in charge of the inventory of consumables and reagents, as well as handling and processing biological samples, performing immune cell-based experiments, including ingle-cell data generation. Laia graduated in Biology from the University of Valencia, and obtained a Master's degree in Biomedicine from the University of Barcelona. She trained in immunohistochemical and immunofluorescence assays in the Human Anatomy and Histology Department at University of Salamanca. She also was trained in selective culture of trisomic cell lines derived from adenocarcinoma, preparation of metaphase chromosomes, scratching assays, DNA & RNA extraction, chemotherapy resistance and cell proliferation assays at the Antibody production group at LEITAT, and as an intern at IDIBAPS. Prior to joining IMIDomics, Laila worked as laboratory technician at the Genomics Unit of the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute (IJC) processing and extracting DNA, performing DNA methylation arrays on Illumina's platform and DNA pyrosequencing. Also, at the IJC, she was Lab Manager at the Cancer Epigenetics group and she collaborated with the Cell Immortalization Unit, improving her management skills and gaining a broad experience in the isolation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), B cell immortalization with Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) and cell culture.

Kim Hawkins has been the Executive Assistant for the CA division of IMIDomics since June 2022. Her role includes project management, research, presentations, handling expenses, managing travel, and coordinating meetings and calendars. She has over 20 years of experience in office management, human resources, and executive support; she has an associate degree in business management and is a former business owner.

Elena Granell has served as Operations Manager at IMIDomics since 2015. She assists the Executive Team in project management efficiency and productivity. She oversees daily workflow processes, including finance, budgeting, scheduling, accounting, taxes, and auditing, as well as supporting legal and staffing processes for our European Operations.

Ms. Granell has more than ten years of experience in managing projects, business administration, and office management. Her expertise ensures compliance with internal and external policies, procedures, and legislation, including personnel, finance, administration, and regulatory frameworks.

Victor Rojas has been the IT Administrator at IMIDomics since March 2022. He has over 13 years of experience working with implementation, management, and the hardening of corporate networks. Mr. Rojas role includes overseeing the IT infrastructure and management and developing solutions to support the employees. Before joining, he worked as an MSP providing consulting services to 12 companies in the Bay Area, including Bay City Capital since 2015 and IMIDomics since 2017.

Ana Tirado, Ph.D., joined IMIDomics in April of 2023 as a Scientific Project Manager, managing several national and international cohorts. Prior to this, she was Scientific Clinical Monitor at VHIR, working on cohort projects jointly with IMIDomics. Her main responsibilities are project planning, management, execution, and project closure. Dr. Tirado has experience in observational studies and clinical trials as a coordinator. She earned her Ph.D. with a focus on somatosensory recovery in the epidermis and dermis of burned patients at the Burns Unit of Vall d’Hebron Hospital-UAB. She also has studied at the University of Oslo, Norway, and the Shriners Hospital-UTMB University of Texas, USA, and has been an Associate Professor at the University of Vic. She has a Dietetics bachelor’s degree from the University of Barcelona; an MSc in Metabolic Pathways and Nutrition from the University of Barcelona and the University of Rovira i Virgili; an MSc in Neuroscience from the University of Barcelona, and a European master’s diploma in project design and management.

Damiana Alvarez-Errico joined IMIDomics in April 2023 as a Senior Immunologist to lead the Translational Immunology Research lab. Damiana is responsible for the conception, design, and conductance of molecular and immune-cell-based experiments aimed at the early functional validation of both novel identified targets, and precision medicine criteria obtained from the multidimensional integration of data from IMID patients. She has a comprehensive, long-standing experience in the guidance and performance of forefront research focused on unraveling the basis of inflammatory and autoimmune disorders. Damiana´s expertise is reflected by her authorship of a total of 41 publications (h-index of 22), many as a senior author in high-impact journals. She is a Review Editor of the Editorial Board of the Molecular Innate Immunity section of Frontiers in Immunology. Damiana holds a PhD in Health and Life Sciences, from Universitat Pompeu Fabra (2006). She trained on in- vivo models of inflammation at NIH (USA) (2006-2009). In 2010 she joined IDIBAPs to study the signaling regulation of allergic inflammation in humans. In 2013, at the Chromatin and disease group at Cancer Epigenetics and Biology Program of IDIBELL she led ground-breaking research on epigenetic regulation of the innate immune response in health and disease, including the first-time description of abnormal DNA methylation of inflammasome genes in autoinflammatory syndromes, and the generation of a single cell multi-omic roadmap of iPSCs derived myelopoiesis in humans. Prior to being appointed at IMIDomics, Damiana was Head of the Genomics Unit team at the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute (2019-2023). Damiana´s scientific proficiency is strongly devoted to the development of novel strategies to generate high-quality insights of immune dysregulation in IMIDs with the ultimate goal of improving patients ́ life.

Yolanda Guillén joined IMIDomics in January 2022 as a Bioinformatics Scientist to analyze and integrate multi-omic data from IMID patients, using the most innovative NGS techniques. She is a computational biologist with a degree in Biotechnology (2009) and a Ph.D. in Genetics (2014) from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Dr. Guillén has more than ten years of experience implementing NGS technologies in projects framed in multiple disciplines, from evolutionary genetics to cancer research. In 2014 she joined the Microbial Genomics group at IrsiCaixa to characterize the genetic content of the human gut microbiota, and its role in immune system deterioration. In 2018 she joined the Cancer and Stem Cells group at Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques Hospital del Mar, one of the most experienced groups in Hematopoiesis in Spain. She has participated in different publications regarding the genetic mechanisms driving stem cell generation and maintenance in leukemia, colorectal cancer, and hematopoiesis. She is also an Assistant Professor at Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, where she supervises students developing their MSc thesis in Bioinformatics.

Tianlu Li, Ph.D., is a Genomic Scientist at IMIDomics, with more than ten years of experience in the field of biochemistry and molecular biology. Her main focus for the last six years has been the study of omics data in different types of autoimmune diseases as well as in the context of immune cell differentiation. She joined IMIDomics in 2021, where she integrates her translational experience in the company with the aim of developing precision medicine. Dr. Li received her master’s degree in biomedical science from the University of Melbourne, Australia, in 2010 and earned her Ph.D. from the University of Valencia, Spain, in 2015. Subsequently, she did her post-doctoral training at the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute, where she studied the identification of epigenetic biomarkers and alterations in molecular pathways of cells of the immune system in the context of autoimmune diseases including systemic sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and giant cell vasculitis. During these years, she has participated in numerous national and international projects, which resulted in a number of publications in high-impact journals.

Jordi Lladós, Ph.D., is a Software Engineer at IMIDomics, with more than ten years of experience working in computational research projects, including the fields of robotics, distributed computing, and computational biology. Dr. Lladós is responsible for providing big data management and high-performance computing solutions for the data analysis team, as well as interactive data visualization environments for IMIDomics partners. He earned his MSc and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from the University of Lleida, Spain, graduating in 2018.

Sergio H. Martínez-Mateu, MSc, joined IMIDomics in 2017 as a Machine Learning (ML) Scientist, applying statistics and ML in the context of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. He has contributed to research projects involving the management, analysis, and integration of genetics, transcriptomics, epigenetics, metabolomics, proteomics, and clinical data. Mr. Martínez-Mateu focuses primarily on disease subtyping and treatment response prediction using omics and multi-omics data. He received his double bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain, in 2017 and earned his MSc in Statistics and Operations Research at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain, in 2020.

Adrià Aterido, Ph.D., is a Computational Biologist at IMIDomics, with deep experience analyzing genomic data in the field of autoimmunity. He joined IMIDomics in 2017, where he is currently performing immunogenomic and gene regulatory profiling of disease patients with the aim of improving their diagnosis, management, and treatment in the clinical setting. Dr. Aterido’s main focus has been translating high-throughput gene sequencing data into clinically relevant information for patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs). He received his bachelor’s degree in biotechnology from the Universitat de Lleida (Spain, 2012); his master’s degree in bioinformatics for Health Sciences (2014), and his Ph.D. in Biomedicine from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Spain, 2019). Subsequently, he did his post-doctoral training at the Rheumatology Research Group at Vall d’Hebron Hospital Institute of Research, where he made significant contributions to identifying new genetic variations associated with susceptibility, disease heterogeneity, and critical therapeutic outcomes in autoimmunity. Dr. Aterido’s original research has been published in top-tiered medical journals for the rheumatology and dermatology communities.

Clara Fermoselle, Ph.D., joined IMIDomics in January 2022 as a Scientific Project Manager at IMIDomics joined IMIDomics in January 2022, where she took the responsability of planning and executing scientific projects. Prior to joining IMIDomics, she was a Bioanalytical Project Manager for more than nine years at Kymos, a bioanalytical CRO company. Dr. Fermoselle has significant experience in the management of projects under GLP, GMP, and GCP guidelines, from the development and validation of innovative bioanalytical techniques to the management of clinical and preclinical samples analysis projects. She graduated from the University Autònoma of Barcelona in 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in biotechnology. She received her master’s degree in respiratory medicine from the University of Barcelona in 2010 and earned her Ph.D. from the University Pompeu Fabra, Spain, in 2012.

Maribel Pérez has been the Senior Scientific Project Manager at IMIDomics since January 2022. She leads the development and execution of research projects, collaborates with principal investigators, medical and laboratory staff, scientists, and bioinformatics, and manages the assigned project team by supervising the monitoring activities and ensuring fulfillment of regulations and timings along the project lifecycle. Prior to this, she was Project Manager at VHIR, working on cohort projects jointly with IMIDomics.  Since July 2021. Ms. Pérez has over 25 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, leading global medical affairs teams and projects related to diverse immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (dermatology and rheumatology) as well as in allergy, immunology, and oncology. She worked in relevant positions such as Global Medical Advisor in psoriasis at Almirall, Global Medical Advice and Marketing Manager at Uriach and Medical Affairs Manager at Schering-Plough Spain for the Biotech Unit. She has significant experience in the drugs lifecycle and clinical research to support clinical development, registration, and marketing authorization for EU, Canada, LATAM, Japan, and SE Asia, among other territories. She holds a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from the University of Barcelona and also received the diploma of Expert in Project Management from La Salle-Ramon LLull University and a MMkt by EADA.

Ignacio Ruiz has been the Senior Director of Operations at IMIDomics since November 2021. He leads the operations of the Barcelona site, including local strategy, contracting, recruitment, operations analytics, and support areas. Prior to joining IMIDomics, Mr. Ruiz was the Senior Director of Sales Excellence and Account Strategy International at Alexion Pharma, a company focusing on biological therapies for rare diseases. He has extensive experience in biopharma companies that focused on IMID, such as Wyeth, UCB and Alexion. He also led several translational medicine forums called BEIBiopharma in Inflammatory Diseases, among others. Mr. Ruiz has over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, especially in national and international leadership positions and managing cross-functional teams. Mr. Ruiz received a BA in Biology from the University of Barcelona and an MBA from ESADE.

Dr. Ramon Felciano is a senior executive and entrepreneur with 25 years of experience in the life sciences and digital technology industries. He currently serves as Founder and Principal at Digital Alchemy; a strategy consultancy focused on data-enabled growth strategies, capital allocation, product innovation, and business models for digital health, life sciences, and private equity & venture organizations. Dr. Felciano previously served as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Vice President, Strategy for QIAGEN N.V., where he founded and led strategy for QIAGEN Digital Insights (QDI), QIAGEN's acclaimed business unit for the artificial intelligence, data science, and bioinformatics markets. Dr. Felciano also founded Ingenuity Systems, the global leader in AI-driven genome interpretation and drug discovery for pharma, biotech, and life sciences enterprises (exited to QIAGEN in 2013). While at Ingenuity, Dr. Felciano was PI for a large-scale DTRA-funded innovation program for AI-driven drug discovery program for broad-spectrum, host-directed countermeasures. Dr. Felciano received his Ph.D. and M.S. in Biomedical Data Sciences from Stanford Medical School and his B.S. in Computer Science and B.A. in English and French Literature from Stanford University.

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Dr. Christiane Honisch is Senior Vice President of the Diagnostics Division (Evognostics) at Evotec, responsible for building novel patient stratifications based on omics technologies and machine learning along Evotec’s drug discovery target identification.

She is an independent member of the board of directors at PathoQuest, a genomic expert dedicated to the microbiology testing market.

With over 20 years of experience in developing assays and cutting-edge technology like next-generation sequencing and mass spectrometry for the Life Science and Diagnostics industry, she joined Evotec from Eppendorf AG, where she was Head of Global Business Intelligence and Development.

Prior to Eppendorf, Christiane was Director of Microbiology Markets at Illumina, Inc. in San Diego, CA, and Director of Infectious Disease Research at Roche Molecular Diagnostics in San Francisco, CA. Her career started as a key individual in the development of nucleic acid mass spectrometry for infectious diseases, oncology, and prenatal diagnostics at Sequenom, Inc., San Diego, CA.

Prior to joining DNS Capital in 2019, Mr. Stal was a member of The Pritzker Organization in Chicago. While there, he was responsible for sourcing, executing, and leading investments across a wide range of industries, including healthcare and insurance. His previous experience includes working as a Strategy Consultant for Monitor Group (now Monitor Deloitte) and managing a portfolio of options and equities for Peak6 Investments. Brian has served on the board of directors of GreyCastle Holdings and as a shareholder representative for Vi Senior Living. Mr. Stal received his M.B.A. with honors from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and his B.S. with honors and distinction from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Mr. Weiss is a healthcare, biopharma, and medical tech visionary who has been recognized as one of the healthcare industry’s most influential people. He is the Founder and Chairman of Real Chemistry, a global health innovation company that uses real-world data, proprietary technologies, and analytical insights to solve the healthcare industry’s most significant engagement and commercialization challenges. He also serves as an Executive Advisor of New Mountain Capital, Real Chemistry’s investment partner. Mr. Weiss is a Board member of Indapta Therapeutics, as well as a Board member and contributor to the LAGRANT Foundation, the Cancer Research Institute, the Commons Project, and the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association.

Mr. Bradbury is a Life Sciences Executive with over 35 years of experience creating and implementing strategies that transform businesses, bring novel medicines to market, and maximize shareholder value. He is the managing member of BioBrit LLC, a life sciences consulting and investment firm, as well as Executive Chairman and co-founder of Equillium, (NASDAQ: EQ), a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company focused on developing products to treat severe autoimmune and inflammatory disorders. Previously, he served as President, CEO, and Director of Amylin Pharmaceuticals until their acquisition by Bristol-Myers Squibb. He serves on the boards of a number of leading healthcare companies.

Dr. Lanier, Ph.D., is an American Cancer Society Professor, J. Michael Bishop MD Distinguished Professor and Chairman of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), and Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. Dr. Lanier received his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from UNC – Chapel Hill. After postdoctoral studies, he joined the R&D Department at the Becton Dickinson Monoclonal Center, advancing to Associate Director.  In 1990, he joined the DNAX Research Institute, where he advanced to Director of Immunobiology, and in 1999 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 contributions, he was awarded the William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic Tumor Immunology from the Cancer Research Institute (2002), received the Rose Payne Award for contributions to the field of Immunogenetics by the American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (2005), was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences (2010), and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2011).  He served as President of the American Association of Immunologists (2006-2007) and was named an AAI Distinguished Fellow in 2019.

Dr. Weiss received his B.A. from Johns Hopkins University and his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago.  He is currently the Ephraim P. Engleman Distinguished Professor of Rheumatology at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), where he has been on the faculty since 1985.  He served as Division Chief of Rheumatology at UCSF from 1988-2011.  He was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator from 1985 to 2022.  Dr. Weiss studies signal transduction in the immune system, focusing on the roles of tyrosine kinases and phosphatases in regulating lymphocyte activation and how abnormalities in tyrosine phosphorylation pathways lead to immunologically mediated diseases.  He is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  He is a co-founder and on the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) of Nurix Therapeutics.  He is also on the SABs of BlueSphere Bio, BridGene Biosciences, Genentech, and Jasper Therapeutics.

Dr. Engel obtained his M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Barcelona. After training as a postdoctoral fellow at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute of Harvard Medical School, Dr. Engel became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Immunology at Duke University School of Medicine. He is currently a Professor of Immunology and head of the Immunology Unit in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Barcelona. His research is focused on lymphocyte cell-surface molecules and their role in the regulation of immune responses. He is also an expert in the production and characterization of monoclonal antibodies. 

Dr. Veillette is a world-recognized immunologist and medical oncologist interested in signal transduction mechanisms in the immune system. Over the past three decades, he has identified and characterized numerous intracellular molecules and receptors that play a crucial role in normal immune regulation. A number of these molecules are directly or indirectly involved in the pathogenesis of leukemias, lymphomas, and other malignancies. They have also been linked to the development of immunodeficiencies and auto-immunity. These proteins are potential targets for therapeutic immunoregulation in the treatment of cancer, auto-immune diseases, and viral infections.  Dr. Veillette uses state-of-the-art genetic, molecular, biochemical, and cellular approaches to study these molecules.  His work has resulted in numerous publications in top scientific journals and the awarding of several prizes and prestigious grants.  He is invited to give conferences all over the world and to organize important international scientific conferences and is on the editorial board of important scientific journals. Dr. Veillette’s research is currently funded by CIHR and the Terry Fox Research Institute.  He is the recipient of a Tier Canadian Research Chair. Dr. Veillette is a member of the COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force and the Long COVID Task Force of the Government of Canada.  He is also the Executive Director of the Marathon of Hope Cancer Centres Network (MOHCCN).

Eric Perakslis, PhD, was previously the Chief Science and Digital Officer at the Duke Clinical Research Institute. He was earlier a Rubenstein Fellow at Duke University, where his work focused on collaborative efforts in data science that spanned medicine, policy, engineering, computer science, information technology, and security. Immediately prior to his arrival at Duke, Eric served as Chief Scientific Advisor at Datavant, Lecturer in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School, and Strategic Innovation Advisor to Médecins Sans Frontières.

Eric was Senior Vice President and Head of the Takeda R&D Data Science Institute, where he built an integrated institute of more than 165 multi-disciplinary data scientists serving all aspects of biopharmaceutical R&D and digital health. Prior to Takeda, Eric was the Executive Director of the Center for Biomedical Informatics and the Countway Library of Medicine, an Instructor in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, and a faculty member of the Children’s Hospital Informatics Program at Boston Children’ Hospital.

During his time at HMS, Eric focused on the approval of the Department of Biomedical Informatics as a full academic department, the development of the NIH Undiagnosed Diseases Network, industry collaborations, leading the technology efforts for multiple Ebola response programs, and building active research programs in medical product development, regulatory science, and cybersecurity.

Prior to HMS, Eric served as Chief Information Officer and Chief Scientist (Informatics) at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In this role, Eric authored the first IT Strategic Plan for FDA and was responsible for modernizing and enhancing the IT capabilities as well as in silico scientific capabilities at FDA.

Prior to his time at FDA, Eric was Senior Vice President of R&D Information Technology at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals R&D and member of the Corporate Office of Science and Technology. While at J&J, Eric created and open-sourced the tranSMART clinical data system, which is now being freely used by hundreds of healthcare organizations. During his 13 years at J&J, Eric also held the posts of VP R&D Informatics, VP and Chief Information Officer, Director of Research Information Technology, and Director of Drug Discovery Research. Prior to working at J&J, Eric was the Group leader of Scientific Computing at ArQule Inc.

Eric has served on the editorial board of Cancer Today magazine and as the Associate Editor for Novel Communications for the Journal of Therapeutic Innovation and Regulatory Science. Eric has also served on Science and Technology Advisory Committees and in leadership roles for the American Society of Clinical Oncology, NuMedii, Precision for Medicine, the Survivor Advisory Board at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, the Kidney Cancer Association, OneMind4Research, and the Scientist - Survivor program of the American Association for Cancer Research. Internationally, Eric has served as the Chief Information Officer of the King Hussein Institute for Biotechnology and Cancer in Amman, Jordan.

Eric has a PhD in chemical and biochemical engineering from Drexel University. He also holds BSChE and MS degrees in chemical engineering.

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Dr. Vermeire, M.D., Ph.D., is a staff member at the Gastroenterology Department of the University Hospitals Leuven as well as Professor of Medicine and Research Director for the Biomedical Sciences Group at the Catholic University of Leuven. She has been actively involved in the development of therapeutics for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and has authored more than 500 peer-reviewed articles. Dr. Vermeire previously served as President of the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organization and of the Belgian IBD Research and Development Group.

Dr. Salter-Cid, Ph.D., is the Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) at Pioneering Medicines, where she is responsible for spearheading a portfolio of groundbreaking treatments. She was previously the CSO at Gossamer Bio and spent more than a decade at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS). At BMS, Dr. Salter-Cid served as Vice President and Head of Immunology, Small Molecule Immuno-Oncology, and Genomics Discovery, overseeing the development of therapeutics for autoimmune diseases and cancer.

Dr. Richard M. Myers received his B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Alabama in 1976, his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1982, and did his postdoctoral training at Harvard University. He joined the faculty of the UCSF Medical Center in 1985, then moved to Stanford University School of Medicine in 1993, where he was Professor and Chair in the Department of Genetics and Director of the Stanford Human Genome Center. In 2008, Dr. Myers became President, Science Director and a Faculty Investigator of the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, a non-profit research and teaching enterprise in Huntsville, Alabama. His research uses genomics to study how genes and their regulation affect a variety of human traits, including neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders, diseases of the immune system, cancer, and childhood genetic disorders. Dr. Myers serves on several advisory panels and editorial boards for the U.S. National Institutes of Health, Canada Genome Enterprises, The Coalition for the Life Sciences, and several universities. He is an Associate Editor of the journal Genome Research. He serves as a science advisor to Decheng Capital, Pfizer and several biotech companies. With Dr. Sara Marsal, he is co-founder and science advisor of IMIDomics, Inc.

Dr. Julià has over 18 years of experience in the generation and analysis of high throughput omic data in IMIDs and leads IMIDomics’s data collection and generation, integration, and analysis.

Dr. Julià is currently the head of the Rheumatology Research Group at the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute in Barcelona (Spain). He has led the first genome-wide association studies in immune-mediated inflammatory diseases in a Southern European population, identifying new susceptibility genes and associated biological pathways. He has extensive experience in translational research in IMIDs, authoring several studies in this area, and is a co-inventor of granted patents on treatment individualization. He has developed several bioinformatic approaches for the analysis of high-throughput data, improving state-of-the-art methods. He received a B.A. in Biology and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry in 2010 from the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Juan Harrison is a biotechnology and pharmaceutical executive focused on company formation, strategy, partnering, venture investment, and licensing transactions. He joined IMIDomics as CEO in 2020, is currently Chief Administrative Officer, and had previously provided advisory services to the company beginning in 2019.  Prior to IMIDomics, he was Vice President and Head of Strategic Academic Alliances at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for establishing several broad drug discovery alliances, including the Tri-Institutional Therapeutics Discovery Institute (Weill Cornell Medicine, Rockefeller University, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center), the Alliance for Innovative Medicines (Stanford University), the Seattle Partnership for Research in Innovative Therapeutics (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the University of Washington, and Seattle Children’s Hospital), and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. He previously was VP at Takeda Ventures, where he invested in several companies, including Envoy Therapeutics, later acquired by Takeda. Mr. Harrison has been working in the biopharmaceutical industry since 1985 and has held senior positions in Alza Pharmaceuticals, Connetics, PowderJect, and XenoPort. He received a BS in Combined Science from Santa Clara University with an emphasis in Chemistry and Biochemistry.

Dr. Perez is Chief Development Officer for IMIDomics, Inc, and brings decades of operational leadership experience.  He collaborates closely with the IMIDomic’s research team to identify and prioritize targets for future development, plans and leads the development of medicines against these targets, and manages relationships with external partners to leverage necessary expertise and resources that drive the pipeline forward.

Prior to joining IMIDomics in 2021, Dr. Perez co-founded Naia Pharmaceuticals (US) and Naia Limited (a Cayman Islands company) and served as Executive Chairman. He was previously a venture partner at Bay City Capital. Earlier in his career, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of Berlex Biosciences (the U.S. arm of Schering AG). He led R&D efforts in the United States, Berlin, and Kobe, initiated multiple clinical trials, and oversaw the execution of numerous collaborations, licensing deals, spinouts, and acquisitions until he left the company upon its acquisition by Bayer.

Dr. Perez has published extensively and has been elected to multiple scientific societies and nominated to the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Perez serves on the Board of Directors of Presidio Pharmaceuticals, the Scientific Advisory Board of Cardium, and the President’s Council for the Gladstone Institutes at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Previously, he was a member of the Board of Directors of BayBio, Cleveland Biolabs, Hyperion Therapeutics, and the Scientific Advisory Board for GSK, China.

He received his medical degree in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He completed his medical training at Beth Israel-Mount Sinai in New York and a fellowship in Rheumatology and Immunology at New York University. He served on the faculty at New York University as an Assistant Professor of Medicine and at UCSF as a Professor of Medicine before joining the pharmaceutical industry.

Ms. Vuong is Chief Financial Officer at IMIDomics, joining the company in November 2020. In this role, she manages the financial and treasury operations, accounting and tax reporting, and human resources, among other things, for the US headquarters and the Barcelona establishment.

She has been serving as Chief Financial Officer for Bay City Capital since 2010, a leading life sciences Venture Capital firm, where she manages all aspects of accounting and tax for their VC Funds and their Management Companies. Prior to that, Ms. Vuong was an Assistant Controller at Spectrum Equity, a Senior Accountant at Episcopal Homes Foundation, an Office Manager/Accountant at Anderegg Builders, and an Accounting Assistant at A.G. Spanos Construction. Ms. Vuong brings over 25 years of experience across corporate accounting, treasury, tax, audit, and internal controls. She received a B.S. in Business Administration, with an emphasis in accounting, at the University of the Pacific.

Dr. López-Figueroa is the Chief Operating Officer at IMIDomics, where he oversees the company's day-to-day administrative and operational functions.  Dr. López-Figueroa brings deep entrepreneurial experience to IMIDomics’s leadership.  As Managing Director at Bay City Capital since 2001, he started several innovative companies in the Bay City Capital portfolio, including BrainCells Inc. and Synchronicity Pharmaceuticals. Dr. López-Figueroa was involved in many successful investments, including Ion Torrent Systems (acquired by Life Technologies), NextWave Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Pfizer), and Civitas (acquired by Acorda Therapeutics).

In addition, Dr. López-Figueroa is the Scientific Liaison for the Pritzker Neuropsychiatric Disorders Research Consortium, a collaborative research enterprise comprised of a group of leaders in psychiatry, neuroscience, and genetics from Stanford University, University of Michigan, Cornell University, HudsonAlpha Institute of Biotech, and the University of California at Irvine.

Dr. López-Figueroa has over 25 years of experience in the field of neuroscience, has won numerous awards during his academic research career, and has published extensively. He completed post-doctoral work at the University of Michigan and at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Dr. López-Figueroa received a Ph.D. in Medicine and Surgery and an MS in Molecular and Cell Biology from the Universities of Las Palmas and La Laguna, Spain, respectively.

Dr. López-Figueroa serves on the boards of Oryzon Genomics (ORY.MC) and Cantero Therapeutics (a BridgeBio’s Pharma (BBIO) subsidiary). He is an investment advisor to Nina Capital.

Mr. Zweifach joined IMIDomics as President and Chief Business Officer in 2022, having advised the company leadership since the company’s inception.  He brings decades of life-science operational, financial, transactional, and investment leadership to the company.

Mr. Zweifach is a senior executive with 30 years in the life sciences industry. Most recently, he was Chair of Palladio Biosciences and Janpix, which were merged into Centessa Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: CNTA), a company created by Medicxi through the merger of ten private biotech companies. He is also the Chair of Carisma Therapeutics, the Executive Chair of Kaerus Biosciences, a Non-Executive Board Member of Compugen, Board Member of Essa Pharma, and advisor to several life science companies across several therapeutic areas. He has shepherded the growth of several significant life sciences companies, including serving as co-founder and CEO of Nuvelution Pharma, Inc. as co-founder and CEO of Ascendancy Healthcare, Inc. Mr. Zweifach was previously Managing Director and CFO of Bay City Capital.

Professor Marsal co-founded IMIDomics and laid the foundation of the company’s technology through her work with the IMID Consortium and the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital (HUVH).  She has performed pioneering studies in genomics of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) that were published in top-tier journals in biomedical research. Using high throughput molecular analysis approaches, she has identified new molecular profiles associated with diagnosis and treatment response in this group of diseases. Since 2006, she has been the director of the IMID Consortium, a network of 90+ reference clinical researchers in rheumatology, dermatology, and gastroenterology that is devoted to the discovery of new clinically useful biomarkers through multi-omic approaches. She also directs the IMID-Biobank, a large unique sample collection of >15,000 patients from the most prevalent IMID diseases. Professor Marsal serves on a variety of advisory panels from the pharmacological and biotechnological sectors. She is also a co-founder and science advisor of IMIDomics. Recently she has been appointed as a coordinator in a large H2020 European grant on combinatorial therapies in IMIDs using systems approaches.

Dr. Marsal graduated in Medicine and Surgery from Navarra University in 1985, after which she completed her Ph.D. at Barcelona University in 1990. In 2000, she started the Rheumatology Research Group in HUVH, a translational research lab on IMIDs. Since 2012, she has been an associate Professor of Rheumatology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. Professor Marsal is currently the head of the rheumatology department at the HUVH.

Dr. Craves is the Executive Chairman and CEO of IMIDomics and has been involved in the company since it was founded. He was formerly the Founder of Bay City Capital life science investment firm.

As a leader in healthcare venture capital, Dr. Craves brings both scientific skills and deep operational expertise to the companies in which he invests. This allows him to source outstanding investment opportunities and to support exceptional management teams in creating value. He has been associated with some of the most significant exits in the biopharmaceutical industry, including Reliant Pharmaceuticals, a company he founded then sold to GlaxoSmithKline in 2007 in the single largest all-cash transaction for a venture-backed biotech company at that time. Today, Dr. Craves brings decades of experience to the leadership of IMIDomics.

Dr. Craves has been named to the Forbes Midas List, which recognizes the most successful investors in the venture capital asset class across both the technology and healthcare industries. He currently serves on the Boards of IMIDomics, Inc., Madrigal Pharmaceuticals, Synchronicity Pharma and the Gladstone Foundation. Previous investments and board participation, in addition to Reliant Pharmaceuticals, include Medarex, Inc., Incyte Biosciences, Dermira Pharmaceuticals, Twist Bioscience and Ion Torrent. He earned a BS in Biology from Georgetown University and a Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of California, San Francisco.