Positioned to deliver revolutionary off-the-shelf cancer vaccines

Dan Menichella is a seasoned biotech executive who brings extensive experience in vaccine development, strategic partnerships, and rapid corporate growth. As CEO and CBO of CureVac’s U.S. subsidiary, he built out the Boston operation and delivered four deals in his first year—including a multi-product cancer vaccine collaboration with Eli Lilly worth up to $1.7 billion. He became CEO of CureVac AG in 2018. 

Before CureVac, Dan served as CBO at Bamboo Therapeutics, where he spearheaded the in-licensing of a Duchenne muscular dystrophy programme, unlocking the company’s $43 million Series A and subsequent $645 million buyout by Pfizer. He has significant fundraising experience and has led many large transactions, including partnerships with Lilly, Biogen, and Takeda, while also supporting IPOs and successful exits. 

Dan’s proven ability to forge high-value alliances and advance breakthrough therapeutics underscores his expertise in guiding life science ventures to success.

As co-founder of Infinitopes, Dr Jonathan Kwok championed the creation of Infinitopes’ Precision Immunomics™ platform, which integrates immunopeptidomics, advanced LC/MS, AI/ML and biological validation, to accurately discover tumour-specific antigens.

Jonathan trained in medicine at Cambridge, cancer immunology at Oxford, and entrepreneurship at Stanford. Before founding Infinitopes, he worked as a biotech investment banker, partnering with life sciences teams on capital markets and strategic growth. During this time, he won two Starmine awards for the accuracy of his calls and was fortunate to advise three biotech teams leading early-stage companies that have since become multi-billion-dollar successes.

Jo Brewer, PhD, is a recognised industry leader in cancer immunotherapy and cell therapies, with over 20 years of experience bringing cutting-edge treatments from discovery to the clinic. While serving as CSO at Adaptimmune, she was instrumental in developing autologous and allogeneic T-cell therapies, leading to Tecelra®, the first engineered TCR-T cell therapy for solid tumours to reach the market.

As a founding scientist at Adaptimmune, Jo played a critical role in the development of multiple immunotherapies that led to partnerships with Genentech, Galapagos, Astellas and GSK. She has built and led multiple research teams and played a significant role in the upscaling from a small biotech to 500+ employees, driving innovation across discovery and translational science.

Dr. Lian Ni Lee, a seasoned immunologist, earned her Ph.D. in Immunology from University College London (UCL) and subsequently gained diverse industry and academic experiences at GSK, Pfizer, San Diego and most recently at Oxford University. With over a decade of deep expertise in T cell immunology, Dr. Lee has been instrumental in building Infinitopes' laboratory team, nurturing exceptional scientists from the Oxford Vaccine Group and beyond. Before joining Infinitopes, she spearheaded ground-breaking research, funded by CRUK and the Emerson Collective, focused on developing innovative cancer vaccines, showcasing her commitment to advancing the forefront of immunological research.

Elliot Hershberg is a Partner at Amplify Partners and the author of The Century of Biology newsletter. At Amplify, he invests in early-stage digital biology businesses building platforms and infrastructure to accelerate biomedical progress. His newsletter covers data, companies, and ideas from the frontier of biology. The Century of Biology has been cited by NYT-bestselling books and research reports from leading investment banks. Elliot earned his PhD in Genetics from Stanford University. Previously, he worked as a software engineer building widely used open-source tools for genomics researchers.

Hitesh joined Octopus Ventures as a Venture Partner to support the Biotech team from his previous position as Executive Director and Global Head of Emerging Innovations at AstraZeneca.  

Hitesh has spent over two decades working across all aspects of drug discovery and development. He has supported a myriad of innovations across dermatology, neuroscience, oncology and rare diseases, driven by his mission to see his projects benefit patients. He also remains an active contributor to the life sciences ecosystem, with experience on the board of Apollo LLC (formerly Apollo Therapeutics) as well as the investment committee of life sciences VC, CMS Ventures.  

He has been a leader in pursuit of next-generation therapeutics discovery, exemplified as a key instigator in AstraZeneca’s Open Innovation platform, building relationships and sharing resources and knowledge with external researchers leading to funded start-ups across multi-omics, AI and drug discovery.   

As an active mentor for new start-ups, Hitesh has collaborated with institutions including the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School to offer guidance and advice to founders bringing revolutionary new solutions to market.   

A recognised thought leader, he was voted among Asia Tech’s Top 100 Innovators in 2021, Hitesh holds a DPhil and BA in Chemistry from the University of Oxford, and an MBA from the University of Cambridge.   

Outside work, you’re most likely to find Hitesh flying one of the planes he’s built. 

Julia Schrameier is a Principal at Manta Ray, where she leads the fund’s internal research programme and originates and executes investments aligned with the firm’s mission-driven thematic strategy. Her investment interests span health and life sciences, environmental technologies and other science-led innovation areas, and she enjoys engaging deeply with new technical domains to translate emerging developments into robust investment theses.

Prior to joining Manta Ray, Julia spent three years at Berenberg as a Thematic Equity Research Analyst, where she helped build the firm’s ESG offering and covered long-term, cross-sector investment themes such as demographic change, eSports, metabolic disease, electrification, and agricultural technology.

Julia holds a BSc in Business Administration from LMU Munich and an MSc in Management from Imperial College Business School, and has passed all three levels of the CFA Programme. Outside of work, Julia enjoys hiking – often with founders and co-investors – ballroom dancing, and is the author of several works of epic fantasy fiction.

Professor Mark middleton is Director of the CRUK Oxford Centre and Head of Oncology at the University of Oxford, where he founded the Early Phase Clinical Trials Unit (EPCTU). He trained in medicine and cricket at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge before defecting to Oxford. He did his PhD in Oncology at the Christie Hospital and University of Manchester. His clinical and research interests are in new cancer drug development and the treatment of upper GI cancers and melanoma. Mark has been Chief or Principal Investigator on >100 trials and closely involved in the development of new treatments including DNA repair, immune checkpoint and kinase inhibitors, ImmTACs and oncolytic viruses making him a global thought leader in cancer immunotherapies.

Professor Paul Klenerman, winner of CRUK Cancer Immunology Project Award, is a key opinion leader in the immunology field and a clinical virology and honorary consultant at the University of Oxford. Paul Klenerman trained in infectious diseases at Cambridge and Oxford and holds the Truelove chair in the Department of Medicine at Oxford. As the co-discoverer of MAIT cells, he has worked on T cell responses in infection, especially HCV, and T cell memory to vaccines, including immunological memory. Much of the recent work in his lab focuses on emerging functions of innate-like T cell subsets and their role in disease.

Professor Teresa Lambe is the Calleva Head of Vaccine Immunology and a Professor of Vaccinology & Immunology and PSI Investigator at University of Oxford. Prof Lambe co-designed the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in January 2020, and oversaw the delivery of the immune results needed to support regulatory approval in late 2020. Prof. Lambe was appointed as an honorary OBE for her services to Sciences and Public Health in the 2021 Queen’s Birthday Honours and recieved the Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad in 2022. The Lambe group is currently developing and testing vaccines against a number of outbreak pathogens including a vaccine against Ebola virus diseases (ChAdOx1 biEBOV). In 2023, the team's candidate vaccine against Marburg virus disease was selected by WHO for inclusion in trials to combat Marburg virus disease.

Professor Green has a long-standing research interest in mechanisms of DNA replication and genome stability (with a PhD from UCL in Biochemistry and post-doctoral work in Paris, Sussex and Cambridge). Since 2018, she has headed the Clinical BioManufacturing Facility (CBF), and alongside her team, produced high quality clinical vaccine products for use in first-in-human clinical trials. They made vaccines for academics in Oxford for 20+ years, including vaccines for malaria, rabies, plague, ebola, zika and many others.

David Curiel is a globally recognised pioneer in gene therapy and viral vectorengineering. As the most published and cited author on the biology of adenovirus,David has fundamentally shaped the field and established vector targeting as alegitimate sub-discipline within the scope of gene therapy.

Throughout a distinguished career supported by over $45 million in NIH funding,David has achieved numerous world-firsts, including the initial demonstration ofmRNA as a vaccine platform and the development of the world’s only approvedintranasal COVID-19 vaccine. David’s work has been a catalyst for the biotechindustry, with adenoviral virotherapy agents of his design currently being advancedby companies across the US, Europe, and Asia.

As a pioneer in a pioneering field, David has sought to provide a pathway for thenext generation of gene therapists, having mentored over 100 trainees and led theNIH’s inaugural T32 training grant for gene therapy. David has served an editorialrole for key scientific journals in the gene therapy space and as Editor-In-Chief forEditions 1,2, and 3 of the field’s standard text “Adenoviral Vectors for GeneTherapy”.

Associate Professor Pouya Faridi is a translational cancer immunologist at Monash University and Hudson Institute, specialising in immunopeptidomics and tumour antigen discovery. His work focuses on identifying HLA-presented targets to develop next-generation cancer immunotherapies, including TCR-T and vaccines. He has published extensively in leading journals and works closely with academia and industry to translate discoveries into clinical applications.