As Vice President, Head of Discovery for Marengo Therapeutics, Madan Katragadda leads the group responsible for discovering, designing, and delivering biotherapeutic candidates with optimal biophysical and manufacturable properties. He has more than 15 years of experience discovering and developing a wide range of biotherapeutic modalities spanning peptides, fusion proteins, antibody-drug-conjugates, and multi-specific antibodies. His first foray into biotherapeutics started with the discovery of peptide-based complement inhibitors during his postdoc tenure at the University of Pennsylvania. His work led to out-licensing of an anti-C3 peptide to Apellis pharmaceuticals, who are currently testing it in several inflammatory diseases. At Pfizer, Madan led an Antibody Engineering group, built cross-functional teams to deliver on innovative ideas and new technology platforms and managed several biotherapeutic projects through internal and external collaborations. He delivered several biotherapeutic candidates to treat Inflammatory and oncology indications for preclinical/clinical development. His work at the University of Pennsylvania and Pfizer resulted in several patents and publications.

Madan holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Connecticut and completed his postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania.

As Chief Development Officer of Marengo Therapeutics, Ke Liu joins Marengo with over 20 years of experience in the field of oncology, immuno-oncology, and cell and gene therapy, most recently serving as Senior Vice President and led the key regulatory activities at Sana Biotechnology. Prior to Sana, he spent more than 17 years working at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) where he held leadership roles at the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), and the Oncology Center of Excellence (OCE). Ke has made major contributions to the field of Oncology and led the clinical evaluations and approvals of key first-in-class cancer therapeutics over the past decade, including checkpoint inhibitors, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells, T cell receptor (TCR) modified T cells, genome-edited products, neoantigen-based therapies, adoptive T cell therapies, oncolytic viral therapy, dendritic cell therapy, and combinations of these immune-oncologic therapeutics with checkpoint inhibitors and other agents.

Ke received his M.D. from Henan Medical University in China and his Ph.D. in molecular biology from Cornell University. He completed his internal medicine internship and residency at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, his medical oncology fellowship at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and

additional cancer immunotherapy training at the NCI’s Surgery Branch. Ke is an internist and medical oncologist certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine.

As Chief Financial Officer for Marengo Therapeutics, Svetlana Makhni, brings more than 15 years of experience in finance, business development and operations in the biopharmaceutical industry. She previously served as Chief Financial Officer at Escient Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage biotech company, and before that, she was Chief Financial Officer and Head of Operations at Bierman ABA, a leading national, multi-site provider of behavioral health services. Prior to joining Bierman, she worked for nearly a decade in healthcare investment banking at several top financial institutions including BMO Capital Markets, Goldman Sachs, Westbrook Partners and the Blackstone Group.

Ms. Makhni earned her B.S. in Finance and Accounting from The Wharton School and her MBA from Harvard Business School.

As Vice President, Head of Immunology for Marengo Therapeutics, Jacques Moisan leads the group responsible for preclinical pharmacology testing of biotherapeutic candidates to help understand optimal design and key mechanistic insight into the unique T cell activation profile of Marengo’s novel STAR platform. He brings 14 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry to Marengo, overseeing teams driving concept through molecule screening and regulatory filing. Starting his career at AstraZeneca developing biologics for rheumatological indications, he soon made the transition to the immune-oncology field helping to build and shape multiple checkpoint inhibitor programs as well as T cell agonist approaches. Jacques then joined Lycera, a biotech company developing oral small molecule RORgamma agonists which was part of an exclusive global collaboration agreement with Celgene in 2015. Joining EMD Serono in 2016, Jacques contributed to shape the immune-oncology pipeline and team growth with increasing responsibility finishing with accountability for the T and NK discovery space within the Oncology/Immuno-oncology research department. Throughout his tenure at EMD Serono, he oversaw multiple IND filings and also authorship on numerous patents and publications.

Jacques holds a Ph.D. in Experimental Medicine from McGill University and completed his postdoctoral training at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital with affiliation to Harvard Medical School.

As CEO of Marengo Therapeutics and a director of the company’s board, Zhen Su brings more than two decades of experiences as a physician-scientist and business executive, with expertise in building and leading both R&D and commercial organizations. Prior to joining Marengo, Zhen served as Senior Vice President and Global Head of Oncology for Merck KGaA, where he led the franchise’s turnaround to achieve double-digit organic growth and an annual revenue above €1B. In this role, he also successfully expanded the oncology portfolio including key alliance partnerships with Pfizer ($2.8B), GSK ($4.2B), and Debiopharm ($1.1B). In his earlier role as Chief Medical Officer of EMD Serono and head of its Oncology Medical division, he played an instrumental role in 8 major regulatory approvals across different indications for Bavencio^®, Tepmetko^®, Erbitux^®, and Mavenclad^®. He also held leadership roles with increasing responsibilities at Sanofi Oncology and GSK. Before his industry career, Zhen served on the faculty of Duke University, where he led early clinical studies focusing on mRNA-based and cell-based immunotherapy, and then the University of Florida, where he was the director of the Cell and Gene Therapy program. He is the author of more than 60 publications in immuno-oncology and targeted oncology.

Zhen earned his M.D. from the Technical University of Dresden, completed his post-doctoral training in tumor immunology at Duke University, and received an MBA from the University of Toronto.

As Senior Strategic Advisor to Marengo Therapeutics, Dr. Chabner brings decades of extensive experience pioneering key research in the field of cancer drug discovery and development. In addition to his role at Marengo, he is an Allen Distinguished Investigator, Clinical Director Emeritus for the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, and a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. During his career at the National Cancer Institute, he served as a Senior Investigator in the Laboratory of Chemical Pharmacology, Chief of the Clinical Pharmacology Branch, Director of the Clinical Oncology Program, and Director of the Division of Cancer Treatment. At the NCI, he maintained an active laboratory program in cancer pharmacology, where he led the development of the breast cancer drug Taxol. His research contributed significantly to the development of high dose chemotherapy regimens, and to standard therapies for lymphoma. Dr. Chabner is a senior editor for The Oncologist and in 2006, he received a presidential appointment to the National Cancer Advisory Board at the NCI.

Dr. Chabner received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School.

Dr. E. John Wherry is the Chair of the Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics in the Perelman School of Medicine, Director of the UPenn Institute for Immunology, and the Barbara and Richard Schiffrin President’s Distinguished Professor. He has helped pioneer the field of T cell exhaustion, assisting in identifying the role of the “checkpoint” molecule PD-1 and others for reinvigoration of exhausted T cells in cancer and defining the underlying molecular and epigenetic mechanisms of exhausted T cells. He has received numerous honors in his career, including the Distinguished Alumni award from the Thomas Jefferson University, the Cancer Research Institute’s Frederick W. Alt Award for New Discoveries in Immunology, and the Stanley N. Cohen Biomedical Research Award from the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Wherry received his PhD from Thomas Jefferson University.

Dr. James Gulley brings over 20 years of leadership experience in the oncology field, serving currently as Co-Director of the newly formed Center for Immuno-Oncology (CIO) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health. The work he oversees at the CIO concentrates on focusing the immune response through vaccines or adoptive cellular therapy for solid tumors. He was instrumental in the clinical development of multiple vaccines including PROSTVAC, from the first-in-human studies at the CCR through a completed phase 3 clinical trial.  He currently oversees new efforts in synthetic biology with cell therapy-based approaches including TCR engineered T-cells, CAR-T cells and engineered NK cells. Dr. Gulley has been the recipient of many honors and awards; most recently including the Hubert H. Humphrey Award for Service to America, the Award NCI Director’s Group Award, and the SITC Collaborator Award. He earned his PhD and MD at Loma Linda University. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Emory University, followed by a fellowship in Medical Oncology at the National Cancer Institute.

Dr. Lillian Siu has over 20 years of experience as a senior medical oncologist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, as well as experience as a Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Siu’s main research focus is in precision oncology, biomarkers especially circulating tumor DNA and clinical trials methodology. She is the Director of the Phase I Program, Co-Director of the Bras and Family Drug Development Program, and Clinical Lead for the Tumor Immunotherapy Program at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. Dr. Siu is currently the Editor-in-Chief for American Association for Cancer Research’s newest journal Cancer Research Communications. She is also a scientific editor for Cancer Discovery and is on the editorial board for JAMA Oncology, Cell and Cancer Cell. Dr. Siu earned her MD from the University of Toronto.