Meet Pheast

About

Alexandria Beans

Alexandria is a researcher with experience in protein production, engineering, and characterization. At Pheast, Alexandria is dedicated to the production and characterization of proteins, with a focus on antibody development. Alexandria brings to Pheast a natural sense of curiosity and motivation to solve problems, especially when it comes to protein science and molecules in the laboratory. Alexandria received a bachelor's degree in genetics from the University of California, Davis.

About

Grace Blacker

At Pheast, Grace Blacker is a research associate studying the innate immune checkpoints. Prior to joining Pheast, Grace was a California Institute for Regenerative Medicine scholar at Stanford, where she studied in the lab of Dr. Irving Weissman. She researched host-pathogen immune system interactions. Grace received her B.S. in cellular and molecular biology from Humboldt State University.

About

Aditi Bapat

Aditi brings expertise in cancer biology with a focus on tumor-associated macrophages. At Pheast, she is part of the discovery team identifying and investigating new immuno-oncology drug targets. Prior to Pheast, Aditi completed her Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Minnesota, with Dr. Kaylee Schwertfeger. Her thesis focused on the role of macrophages in triple negative breast cancer, and she has experience in several in vitro and in vivo techniques.

About

Cornelio Balmaceda

Cornelio Balmaceda has more than 25 years of experience handling animals in the biotechnology industry. At Pheast, Cornelio is responsible for the care and observation of animals involved in research studies. Additionally, he assures adherence to industry standards. Prior to Pheast, Cornelio held animal technician positions at Ambys Medicines, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Mousera, and SRI International. As an experienced animal technician, Cornelio is motivated by the promise of helping patients live healthier and longer lives.

About

Rachel Brewer

Rachel Brewer has nearly 10 years of research experience spanning the fields of stem cell biology and immuno-oncology. At Pheast, Rachel is a senior associate scientist where she studies potential immunotherapy targets. Prior to joining Pheast, Rachel was a life science research professional at Stanford University School of Medicine under the direction of Dr. Weissman. Prior to that, Rachel was a California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) scholar at Stanford University School of Medicine under the direction of Dr. Longaker and Dr. Chan. Rachel has been published in Nature for her work on innate immune checkpoint inhibitors and Cell for her work on the identification and characterization of the human skeletal stem cell. Additionally, she has published protocols on mouse skeletal stem cell isolation. Rachel received a master’s degree in stem cell biology and a bachelor’s in cell and molecular biology from Humboldt State University.

About

John Burg

John has more than a decade of experience in protein biochemistry, structural biology and antibody discovery. At Pheast, John oversees research, data analysis, and project direction for the Protein Sciences team. Prior to joining Pheast, John led a team at Ligand Pharmaceuticals supporting antibody discovery, with a focus on antigen production and validation. Prior to Ligand, he served as Director of Biochemistry at Ab Initio Biotherapeutics, where he led protein biochemistry and molecular pharmacology efforts. John received his postdoctoral training at the Stanford University School of Medicine and his Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

About

Jen Cao

Jen has over 15 years of experience in cancer research working with small and large molecules. At Pheast, Jen leads the Translational Science team that develops the biomarker strategies to drive the preclinical and clinical development of our investigational cancer therapeutics through all phases of the portfolio. Previously, Jen served as a biomarker scientist at Forty Seven Inc. and Gilead, where she led translational efforts for CD47 and SIRPA clinical programs. Prior to those roles, she worked at Pharmacyclics (AbbVie-Sunnyvale) developing novel therapeutics in the hematology/oncology space. Jen completed her postdoctoral training at Stanford University and received a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from the University of Toronto.

About

Ken Dinyarian

Ken brings more than a decade of experience leading IT operations in high-growth biotech and VC-backed environments. At Pheast, he oversees a comprehensive IT infrastructure that supports both research and corporate operations, managing a team of system administrators, engineers, and support personnel. Ken’s approach blends strategic planning with hands-on technical leadership, ensuring technology systems align with business goals while maintaining a focus on user experience and team productivity. He has a proven track record of scaling infrastructure, optimizing workflows, and enabling cross-functional collaboration across rapidly evolving organizations.

About

Mimi Enea

Mimi Enea has 14 years of office management and executive assistant experience, with eight of those years in the bioscience industry. At Pheast, Mimi is the senior executive assistant to the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Scientific Officer. Prior to joining Pheast, Mimi was an Executive Assistant and Director of People and Performance at Lagunita Biosciences. She also has experience in public relations and marketing. Mimi Enea received a B.A. in communications from St. Mary’s College of California.

About

Douglas Faget

Douglas has a background in cancer biology and immuno-oncology and brings an innovative approach to the biology team to advance new immunotherapies. At Pheast, Douglas studies cellular mechanisms and functions in the setting of immuno-oncology. During his postdoctoral training at Washington University in St. Louis, he worked with various mouse models of metastatic and primary breast cancer to investigate the role of stress-induced pathways in the tumor immune microenvironment. Specifically, this study identified a new immunotherapy combination that was effective to treat metastatic breast cancer in mouse models. Douglas received a M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Oncology from the Brazilian National Cancer Institute and a bachelor’s degree in Medical Biology from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

About

Sarah Fernandes

Sarah Fernandes has more than 15 years of experience in scientific research and project management in the biotech industry and academia. At Pheast, Sarah is the director of project management, overseeing multiple initiatives in several departments. Prior to joining Pheast, she held project management positions at MyoKardia, Bristol Myers Squibb and Circle Pharma. In these roles, Sarah supported IND filing and initial drug development of therapies in several therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular, neurology, and oncology. Prior to her roles in project management, she was a research scientist at Gilead Sciences and MyoKardia (acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb). Sarah completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Cardiac Cell Therapy at the University of Washington and received a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Pays de Loire University and a Pharm.D. from Burgundy University, both in France.

About

Giovanni Forcina

Giovanni is a glycobiologist with nearly 10 years of experience in cancer cell biology and cell death. At Pheast, Giovanni works on understanding target mechanisms of action and developing strategies to evaluate targets in clinical studies on the translational science team. Prior to joining Pheast, he leveraged rare disease biology to develop new cancer therapeutics at Grace Science. As a postdoctoral fellow and graduate student, Giovanni developed a new method of measuring cell death in populations of cancer cells and uncovered novel signaling pathways that regulate cell death. Giovanni received a Ph.D. in biology from Stanford University and a B.Sc. in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale University.

About

Justin Hansen

Justin Hansen has eight years of experience in immune regulatory pathways. At Pheast, he is responsible for screening cellular phagocytosis signals, validating potential therapeutic targets, and exploring new systems to identify cell surface phagocytosis inhibitors. Prior to joining Pheast, Justin was a part of the assay automation team at Vir Biotechnology, where he studied host-pathogen interactions. Prior to Vir, he worked on several initiatives at General Proximity. Specifically, Justin led molecular biology, cell-line engineering, and platform development to solidify screening systems to identify bifunctional molecules that can reactivate mutated transcription factors. Prior to General Proximity, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at Merck where he studied inflammatory proteins in the setting of metabolic diseases. Justin’s research has been published in Cell for his work characterizing host-pathogen interactions in the innate immune system. Justin received his Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and his B.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of Notre Dame.

About

Suzana Kahn

Suzana has 14 years of experience in immuno-oncology research and preclinical drug discovery and development. At Pheast, Suzana manages research initiatives studying immuno-oncology therapeutics. Prior to joining Pheast, Suzana was a senior scientist at Genentech, where she oversaw development, implementation, and execution of clinical biomarker strategies for compounds in the clinical stage. Prior to Genentech, Suzana was at Bristol Myers Squibb, where she led immuno-oncology programs focused on tumor-associated myeloid cells. She completed her postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Irving Weissman at Stanford University. Suzana received a Ph.D. in cancer biology from Sorbonne University in France and B.S. in biomedical sciences from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

About

Kiren Khanduja

Kiren Khanduja joined Pheast Therapeutics in November 2023 as Director of CMC and brings more than 15 years of experience in the biotechnology industry across process development, manufacturing, and CMC strategy for drug substance and drug product. Prior to Pheast, Kiren was Director of Process Development and Manufacturing at Pionyr Immunotherapeutics, where she led outsourced CMC activities and had a key role in stakeholder management with CDMO partners, corporate partner Gilead Sciences, and Ikena Oncology post-merger. Prior to Pionyr, Kiren worked at Boehringer Ingelheim, leading late-stage development activities for CDMO clients, including process characterization and validation. Earlier in her biotech career, she worked at Perseid Therapeutics and Genentech. Kiren earned an M.S.E/B.S. in chemical and biomolecular engineering from Johns Hopkins University.

About

Pin-Joe Ko

Pin-Joe has more than 10 years of experience in the field of cancer cell biology. At Pheast, Pin-Joe leads the Discovery department to uncover new immuno-oncology targets. Prior to joining Pheast, he worked at SyntheX Inc., where he developed therapeutics for hard-to-drug cancer targets. Pin-Joe received his Ph.D. from Stanford University and his dissertation research characterized a role for protein lipidation in regulating non-apoptotic cell death. He received his B.A. in biology from Columbia University.

About

Thomas Lopez

Tom brings protein science expertise with more than a decade of experience in protein design, generation, and biophysical characterization with a strong focus on protein-protein interactions, antibody discovery, and developability. Prior to joining Pheast, Tom gained expertise in optical biosensing assays working with the antibody discovery group at Surrozen. He received his Ph.D. in biology from Stanford University.

About

Thomas Marty

About

Ivy Nguyen

Ivy brings with her more than 15 years of experience in human resources. At Pheast, Ivy is the Head of Human Resources, where she is a thought partner to leadership, focused on building working relationships, supporting culture and cultivating a growth mindset among the team. Prior to joining Pheast, she led Human Resources activities at Forty Seven Inc., from Series B through IPO and its eventual acquisition by Gilead Sciences. In addition she has supported several life sciences organizations from inception through IPO. Ivy received a B.S. in Business Administration with a focus on Human Resources Management.

About

Kevin O’Connor

About

Karmen Pantoja

Karmen is a business operations professional with experience in auditing and developing efficient operations. At Pheast, Karmen supports the goal of operational excellence and providing the team with best-in-class tools. Prior to joining Pheast, Karmen has worked with 5+ start-ups, from a dozen to more than 100 employees. She began her operations career in digital marketing supporting the operational growth and scaling of a remote company where she oversaw processes streamlining and creation; alongside executing team culture initiatives. Karmen received bachelors degrees in Political Science and Peace Studies from Chapman University.

About

Kaleana Plares

Kaleana supports the development and validation of Pheast’s drug candidates within the protein sciences team. She brings hands-on experience in cancer research from both academic and start-up environments. Prior to joining Pheast, Kaleana worked at start-ups, including DeepCell, which leverages AI for cell imaging and analysis, and Tizona Therapeutics, which focused on developing novel immunotherapies for cancer patients. Kaleana earned both a Bachelor's in biology and a Master's in biotechnology from San Jose State University. Through the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine’s SCILL program, she completed a two-year stem cell research internship in a pediatric leukemia lab at Stanford University.

About

Shefah Qazi

Shefah has over 14 years of experience in biomedical research, specializing in protein biochemistry and engineering. At Pheast, Shefah leads multiple programs that support the development and validation of our drug candidates. Before Pheast, she was a scientist at Gritstone Bio overseeing peptide-MHC I/II complex production for antibody and vaccine development in the onco-immunology space. Shefah received her post-doctoral training in molecular and cellular biology from Indiana University, a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Montana State University and a B.S. in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.

About

Moises Rivera

Moises has more than 30 years of experience working in the biotech field including academia and industry. At Pheast, Moises oversees the function, safety, and quality of laboratory equipment and operations. He has worked in the vivarium for over 10 years, then as lab manager in wet lab and operations for more than 20 years. Moises is familiar with laboratory operations, equipment, purchasing, and set up. He has specialized his knowledge in laboratory management at the collegiate level by taking courses in construction technology and is familiar with electrical and building codes and needs.

About

Joseane Sampaio

Joseane has experience in molecular biology, toxicology, and pharmacology. At Pheast, Joseane works with the in vivo studies, researching and developing in vivo models for efficacy and toxicology to be used on drug candidates. In addition to her lab expertise, Joseane practiced as a pharmacist in Brazil with more than eight years of experience in the community setting, management, and compounding. Joseane received a master’s degree in toxicology from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil and a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from URI Erechim in Brazil.

About

Tiffany van Londen

Tiffany’s background spans over a decade in healthcare innovation, business development, and user experience design. At Pheast, she orchestrates the company’s operational framework to support strategic development and leads the operations team. Prior to Pheast, Tiffany played pivotal roles at several startups, utilizing her skills in project management, design research, and information architecture across a variety of applications. Her diverse background encompasses roles at Stanford and NYU-X Lab, where her work focused on patient-centered design, specifically focused on the patient journey through radiation oncology. Tiffany holds an M.A. in digital media design for learning from New York University and a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Cruz.