Thomas Soloway

Chief Executive Officer

Thomas Soloway brings over 25 years of experience in the life sciences industry, with senior roles in strategy, operations, corporate finance and venture capital. He joined T-knife from Audentes Therapeutics, a gene therapy company focused on developing and commercializing innovative products for patients living with serious, life-threatening rare neuromuscular diseases, where he most recently served as Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer. Previously, Thomas served as Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer of Ascendis Pharma A/S, a biopharmaceutical company that utilizes its proprietary TransCon technology platform to address unmet needs in the fields of endocrinology and oncology.

Prior to Ascendis, Thomas co-founded Transcept Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he held positions of increasing responsibility, serving initially as Senior Vice President, Operations and Chief Financial Officer and subsequently as Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer. Prior to Transcept, Thomas was a Principal at Montreux Equity Partners, a venture capital firm focused on providing growth capital for early-stage healthcare and life sciences companies. He holds a B.S. in Entrepreneurial Studies from the University of Southern California and an M.B.A. from Georgetown University.

Megan Baierlein

Chief Operating Officer

Megan Baierlein brings 20 years of experience in the biotech industry where she has held senior roles in portfolio planning, program and alliance management, and clinical operations. Her experience has been gained in a range of therapeutic areas, with a focus on orphan diseases, neurology, and oncology. Megan joined T-knife from Audentes Therapeutics where she most recently served as Chief Operating Officer, overseeing program management, clinical operations, and the general and administrative functions of the company.

Previously Megan served as Executive Director, Program Management at Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc. from 2013 through 2018. From 2009 through 2013, Megan held management positions at BioMarin in both program management and clinical operations. Earlier in her career, she held roles of increasing responsibility at Genentech, Inc and Elan Pharmaceuticals. Megan holds an B.S. in Biology and Kinesiology from the University of Minnesota.

Behzad Kharabi, M.D.

Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Behzad Kharabi is the Chief Medical Officer at T-knife. He was previously at Kite, a Gilead company, where he led the global clinical development for TECARTUS^®, a CD19-directed genetically modified autologous T cell immunotherapy which, under his leadership, received approval for the treatment of relapsed or refractory B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Prior to his role at Gilead, Behzad served as global clinical lead for bi-specific antibodies in multiple myeloma at Janssen Pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, he served as a physician and independent research investigator at the University Hospital of Aachen, Germany, where he received several research awards and grants including the prestigious Ernst-Jung Award for junior investigators. Behzad earned a medical degree from the University of Muenster, Germany and completed research appointments at renowned institutes, including Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and the University of California, San Francisco.

Elisa Kieback, Ph.D.

Chief Technology Officer

Dr. Elisa Kieback is the Chief Technology Officer and co-founded T-knife together with Prof. Thomas Blankenstein. She studied Biology at the Universities of Dresden, Heidelberg, and Glasgow and obtained a Ph.D. in Immunology. She was named one of the 100 most visionary women in 2006 (by the initiative “Germany – Land of Ideas”). In 2010, she received the Marthe-Vogt Award honoring outstanding young female scientists. For the past 15 years she has studied TCRs and their therapeutic application as a researcher. Her work resulted in numerous patents in the field of adoptive T cell therapy.

Ron Krasnow

General Counsel

Ronald Krasnow, J.D., brings over 30 years of legal counsel and executive management experience to T-knife. Previously, Ron was the Chief Operating Officer of Arch Oncology, a company dedicated to antibody therapies for the treatment of cancer. Previously, Ron was General Counsel, Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer at Menlo Therapeutics. Prior to Menlo, Ron served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Relypsa, Inc. At Relypsa, he helped the company grow from start-up, through IPO, commercialization and acquisition as it invented, developed and marketed Veltassa, the first new drug to treat hyperkalemia approved by the FDA in more than 50 years. Earlier in his career, Ron focused on intellectual property and was at Symyx Technologies, Inc. where he spent 10 years in various positions, including Senior Vice President of Intellectual Property. Prior to Symyx, he was an attorney at Fish & Neave representing clients in complex patent litigation and interferences. He has also been a patent examiner at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Ron holds a B.S. in Materials and Metallurgical Engineering from The University of Michigan and a J.D. from The George Washington University Law School. He is admitted to practice in California, New York and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Camille Landis

Chief Business Officer / Chief Financial Officer

Camille Landis brings 20 years of experience in the life sciences industry, with senior roles in strategy, business development, finance and commercial planning. She joined T-knife from Unity Biotechnology, a company dedicated to the development of therapeutics for age-related diseases, where she was Senior Vice President, Corporate Development. Prior to Unity, she served as Chief Business Officer at Eidos Therapeutics, where she oversaw the company’s corporate development and financing activities. Prior to Eidos, Camille was Vice President of Corporate Development at Relypsa, where she was responsible for business development, alliance management and strategic planning.

She led the sale process of Relypsa to Galencia for $1.5 billion and supported the company’s IPO and financing activities. Camille also led corporate development efforts at Affymax and held multiple positions in finance, business development and commercial operations during her tenure. Earlier in her career, Camille served as a life sciences strategy consultant with Navigant Consulting and as an investment banker with Piper Jaffray’s healthcare investment banking practice. Camille holds a B.S. in Biology from the University of St. Thomas and a M.B.A. from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

Peggy Sotiropoulou, Ph.D.

Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Peggy Sotiropoulou brings 20 years of experience in oncology and immune-oncology in the biotech industry and Academia. Peggy joined T-knife from Celyad Oncology, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of CAR-T cell therapies for cancer, where she most recently served as Head of Research & Development, leading the development of multiple autologous and allogeneic CAR-T cell candidates and non-gene edited allogeneic T cell platforms.

Prior to Celyad Oncology, Peggy was a Tenured Research Associate Professor in the Université Libre de Bruxelles leading cutting-edge research on the response and sensitization of recalcitrant tumors to therapy. During her academic career, Peggy concentrated her research on immuno-oncology and fundamental oncology, characterizing cancer onset and progression. She is known for uncovering the way skin stem cells respond to DNA damage and how this leads to cancer onset or ageing, as well as for identifying the gene regulatory networks and signaling pathways that determine cancer cell invasiveness and metastatic potential. Peggy holds a B.S. in Biology from the University of Athens and a Ph.D. in Cancer Immunotherapy from the medical faculty of the University of Crete.

Simone Silva Steiner, Ph.D.

Chief Technical Operations Officer

Dr. Steiner is the Chief Technical Operations Officer at T-knife. She was previously the Head of Technical Development and Manufacturing at Tigen Pharma where she led all activities related to technical development and manufacturing strategy for a TIL product. From 2010 to 2020, Dr. Steiner was in manufacturing and quality roles at Novartis, most recently as the Head of Process Unit CGT Stein where she designed and constructed a cell therapy manufacturing facility and supported the successful manufacturing of Kymriah. During her tenure, she built the company’s cell therapy production capabilities, hiring and training more than one hundred manufacturing associates. At QSV Biologics, a contract manufacturing organization, Dr. Steiner was responsible for process development for multiple projects and worked on the full renovation of QSV’s cGMP manufacturing facility. She obtained her Ph.D. at ETH Zurich and completed her post doc work at the University of Alberta.  

Alexander Mayweg, Ph.D.

Managing Partner, Versant Ventures

Alexander Mayweg, Ph.D., is a Managing Director and also serves as head of Ridgeline Therapeutics, Versant’s Basel-based Discovery Engine. Alex is an accomplished leader in drug discovery and medicinal chemistry across Europe, the U.S. and Asia. He brings to Versant deep operating capabilities, having led successful therapeutics portfolios, programs and teams within Roche Pharma Research and Early Development.

Since joining Versant in 2016, he has been involved in launching and investing in a number of Versant’s portfolio companies including Black Diamond (IPO), Monte Rosa, Bright Peak, Enterprise, T-knife and Matterhorn. Prior to joining Versant, Alex served as global head of chemistry at Roche and over 14 years at the company has held a range of other scientific leadership positions. Prior to Roche, Alex earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry at Oxford University, followed by post-doctorate training at Stanford University. His undergraduate degree was in chemistry from the Imperial College in London.

Thomas Blankenstein, Ph.D.

Scientific Founder of T-knife

Thomas Blankenstein is Director of the Institute of Immunology at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and research group leader at the Max-Delbrück-Center for Molecular Medicine (Berlin). His research focus is on Cancer Immunology. He studied Biology at the Universities of Goettingen and Cologne and became a Professor of Immunology at the Free University in Berlin in 1996. He is one of the pioneers in research on TCR gene therapy in Germany, leading a transregional collaborative research center on adoptive T cell therapy from 2006 to 2018.

Laura Brege

Independent Board Member

Laura Brege serves on the boards of Acadia Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Mirum Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Pacira Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and HLS Therapeutics, Inc. She is also a Senior Advisor at BridgeBio Pharma, a clinical stage biotechnology company developing novel, genetically targeted therapies. From 2012 to 2015, Ms. Brege served as Chief Executive Officer and President of Nodality, Inc., a privately held biotechnology company focused on oncology and immunology. Previously, Ms. Brege held several senior-level positions at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (acquired by Amgen) from 2006 to 2011 including Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Before joining Onyx, Ms. Brege was a general partner at Red Rock Capital Management, a venture capital firm specializing in early-stage financing for technology companies. Prior to Red Rock, she was Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at COR Therapeutics. Earlier in her career, Ms. Brege served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Flextronics and Vice President and Treasurer of The Cooper Companies.

Ms. Brege earned her undergraduate degree from Ohio University and has an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.

Geraldine O'Keeffe

Partner, EQT Life Sciences

Geraldine O'Keeffe is a Partner at EQT Life Sciences, previously known as LSP. She joined the investment team at LSP in 2008 to expand the investment strategy to include innovative healthcare companies on public equity markets.

Prior to joining EQT, Geraldine was a senior analyst at Fortis Bank in Amsterdam where she covered the biotechnology sector in Europe and the US. Previously, she worked at a medical diagnostic company, now part of Diasorin, in Dublin.

Geraldine has a combined honours degree in Microbiology and Biochemistry, a Masters in Biotechnology and a GDBS in Business Studies.

Olivier Litzka, Ph.D. 

Partner, Andera Partners

Olivier Litzka is a partner at Andera Partners and a Director of the Board of T-knife. Olivier has a Ph.D. in molecular microbiology from the LMU in Munich. He started his business career in 1998 with Mercer Management Consulting. In 2000, Olivier joined 3i Group plc with a focus on biopharma and medtech investments, first based in Munich, later in 3i’s Paris office. In 2006, Olivier joined as a partner Andera Partners’ BioDiscovery team and contributed to grow the company to one of the leading Life Sciences Venture Capital investors in Europe. Olivier was on the board of multiple companies which got acquired or went public. Currently he is involved in several biotech and medtech startups in Europe and the U.S.

Josh Resnick, M.D.

Managing Director, RA Capital Management

Josh Resnick is a Managing Director at RA Capital Management. Josh’s primary responsibility at RA Capital is to lead early-stage private investments in and oversee the creation of new companies developing drugs, medical devices, diagnostics, and research tools. Josh holds a B.A. in Chemistry from Williams College, an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business. He has more than 15 years of experience in investing, company formation, and company leadership across all stages of drug development, from discovery through commercialization.

Josh was previously co-lead of SV Health Investors’ U.S. Biotech practice where he was responsible for SV’s US venture creation activities, including its incubator, Brahma Discovery. Before SV, Josh was President and Managing Partner at MRL Ventures Fund, the early-stage therapeutics-focused corporate venture fund within Merck & Co. Prior to MRL Ventures, Josh was a Venture Partner with Atlas Venture and a Partner at Prism Venture Partners, focusing on company formation and seed and Series A investing. Josh is currently a faculty member at Harvard Medical School and continues to practice medicine as an attending physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Debasish Roychowdhury, M.D.

Independent Board Member

Debasish Roychowdhury is Co-founder, Director and CMO of Partner Therapeutics. At T-knife, he is an independent Director of the Board. He is a hematologist/oncologist by training with over 15 years of pharmaceutical industry and senior management experiences. This includes his position as CMO at Seragon through the company’s acquisition by Roche, SVP and Head of the Global Oncology Division at Sanofi, VP for Clinical Development at GlaxoSmithKline, and Director of the Oncology global regulatory group at Eli Lilly. Prior to his roles in industry, he served as faculty member at the University of Cincinnati.

Thomas Soloway

Chief Executive Officer

Thomas Soloway brings over 25 years of experience in the life sciences industry, with senior roles in strategy, operations, corporate finance and venture capital. He joins T-knife from Audentes Therapeutics, a gene therapy company focused on developing and commercializing innovative products for patients living with serious, life-threatening rare neuromuscular diseases, where he most recently served as Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer. Previously, Thomas served as Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer of Ascendis Pharma A/S, a biopharmaceutical company that utilizes its proprietary TransCon technology platform to address unmet needs in the fields of endocrinology and oncology.

Prior to Ascendis, Thomas co-founded Transcept Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he held positions of increasing responsibility, serving initially as Senior Vice President, Operations and Chief Financial Officer and subsequently as Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer. Prior to Transcept, Thomas was a Principal at Montreux Equity Partners, a venture capital firm focused on providing growth capital for early-stage healthcare and life sciences companies. He holds a B.S. in Entrepreneurial Studies from the University of Southern California and an M.B.A. from Georgetown University.

Thomas Blankenstein, Ph.D.

Scientific Founder of T-knife

Thomas Blankenstein is Director of the Institute of Immunology at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and research group leader at the Max-Delbrück-Center for Molecular Medicine (Berlin). His research focus is on Cancer Immunology. He studied Biology at the Universities of Goettingen and Cologne and became a Professor of Immunology at the Free University in Berlin in 1996. He is one of the pioneers in research on TCR gene therapy in Germany, leading a transregional collaborative research center on adoptive T cell therapy from 2006 to 2018.

John B. Haanen, Ph.D., M.D.

Chief Scientific Officer Immunotherapy

Prof. Dr. John B. Haanen is Chief Scientific Officer immunotherapy, Consultant Medical Oncologist and Staff Scientist at the Division of Molecular Oncology & Immunology, at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam. John also serves as Professor of Translational Immunotherapy of Cancer at Leiden University Medical Centre in the Netherlands. John received his medical degree from the University of Leiden, completed his Ph.D. and postdoc at Leiden and the DNAX Research Institute in California, USA, followed by post-doctoral fellowship and training in medical oncology at the Netherlands Cancer Institute. His research focuses on the translation of novel immunotherapy strategies into the clinics, especially adoptive cell transfer programs, immune checkpoint blockade and biomarker research. His clinical practice is focused on melanoma and renal cell carcinoma patients. He is Editor-in-Chief of ESMO journal IOTECH, and is member of the ESMO Council. He serves on various national and international scientific advisory boards and committees, including the editorial board of Current Oncology Reports, Kidney Cancer and ESMO Open.

Richard P. Junghans, Ph.D., M.D.

Boston University School of Medicine

Richard P. Junghans, Ph.D., M.D., is Associate Professor in the Hematology-Oncology Division, Department of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine and President of IT Bio, LLC. Richard has a long-term interest in innovative immunotherapies and specifically cell therapies. He secured FDA Investigational New Drug status for 7 distinct antibody and gene therapy agents and established two on-campus cGMP facilities for gene therapy applications. He has participated as an expert in FDA and NIH colloquia on gene therapy and has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the National Gene Vector Lab (NGVL). He has served on the Cancer Immunology & Immunotherapy (CII) and Clinical Oncology (CONC) study sections of the NIH. He was recipient of the ASCO Career Development Award, the AACR Young Investigator Award, and the NCI Research Career Development Award and was designated as an American Cancer Society Research Scholar. His research has been supported by more than $26 million in research funding and he has published more than 100 scientific articles.

Fiona Thistlethwaite, Ph.D.

University of Manchester

Fiona Thistlethwaite, MB BCHir MRCP, is a Medical Oncology Consultant within the ECMT (Experimental Cancer Medicine Team) at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust and Honorary Professor of Experimental Immunotherapy at The University of Manchester. Fiona has been actively involved in clinical trial development for many years with a research focus on early phase clinical trials in immune-oncology, particularly adoptive cell therapies, combination immunotherapies and immune biomarkers. She is clinical lead for the Advanced Immune and Cell Therapy Team at The Christie and Director of iMATCH (Innovate Manchester Advanced Therapy Centre Hub), one of three Innovate UK funded ATTC (Advanced Therapy Treatment Centres) forming a network with the aim of scaling up activity in the field of cell and gene therapy. Fiona also co-chairs the Manchester Immune-Oncology Network which is connecting scientists and clinicians across this exciting and dynamic field of medicine. She was Christie researcher of the year 2018 and is an ESMO immunotherapy track scientific committee member since 2017.