About Us

Choon co-founded immunoSCAPE in 2016 and serves as CEO and Chairperson. Previously, Choon was the Senior Director of the PharmBio cluster in A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research) responsible for formulating Singapore’s Biomedical Research strategy. Prior to this, he was CEO Asia for LEO Pharma, a global pharmaceutical company headquartered in Denmark. He doubled the business of LEO in 15 Asian countries by breaking new ground in key countries and pushing for professionalism in key functional areas. Choon started his career in the biopharmaceutical industry at GSK, USA; and later at Scios Inc (Fremont, CA), a subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson J&J. He rose through the ranks in J&J to become Country Manager of Janssen-Cilag Singapore, another J&J subsidiary. Choon’s first career was with the Singapore Armed Forces as a combat officer and he holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel (Retired).

Choon holds an MBA from the University of Michigan’s Ross Business School and completed Executive Education at IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland. He graduated with a BSc (Economics) from the London School of Economics under a scholarship from the Singapore Armed Forces.

Alessandra co-founded ImmunoScape and serves as COO and Board Director. With a clinical background in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Parma, she has 25 years of international experience in the immunotherapy and immunomonitoring fields, having worked in both academic and industry environments across Italy, US, France and Singapore.

Alessandra started as a Research Fellow at the Istituto Zooprofilattico della Lombardia e dell’Emilia, where she focused on diagnostic and immunomonitoring techniques for viral diseases. In the late 90’s, as a Research Associate at the University of Virginia, she worked on the development of bispecific antibody constructs for the clearance of blood-borne pathogens and tumors.

Alessandra joined IDM Pharma in 1999, and as a Manager of Research Programs led investigations in cancer immunotherapy strategies and preclinical studies on dendritic cell and macrophage-based drug candidates targeting melanoma, bladder cancer and osteosarcoma. In 2006, she joined Singapore Immunology Network, A*STAR, where she rose to Head, Translational Immunology, and expanded into business development and IP valorization while supporting clinical studies in antibody immunotherapy and vaccines. She has published 25 peer-reviewed scientific papers in the field of immunology.

Naonori (Nori) Kurokawa – Partner, UTEC – joined UTEC in August 2009. He focuses on physical science and life science investments: advanced material, nanotechnology, optoelectronics, imaging technology, life science tools, diagnostics, medical devices and therapeutics. He has been taking key roles in the investments of Microwave Chemical, 908 Devices, FLOSFIA, Quantum Biosystems, MOLCURE, Elixirgen Therapeutics, ImmunoScape, along with other companies.

Prior to UTEC, Nori joined ARCH Venture Partners as an intern in February 2008. He received his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business where he won the first place and the award for the most innovative plan in Edward L. Kaplan New Venture Challenge 2008. He earned his Ph.D. in applied physics from Osaka University in 2003.

David Michael is Managing Partner at Anzu Partners, where he co-leads the firm’s life sciences investments. He has helped develop and financed a portfolio of innovative life sciences companies, including BioSkryb, Inc (single cell genomics), InterVenn (glycoproteomics), and TeraPore Technologies (advanced bioseparations).  

Prior to his work at Anzu, Mr. Michael spent 24 years at The Boston Consulting Group, where he was a Senior Partner and served in numerous leadership roles, working in the firm’s offices in Silicon Valley, Hong Kong, and Beijing. Mr. Michael has a B.A. in economics from Harvard and an MBA from Stanford.

Adrian Woolfson is Cofounder, President, and Executive Chairman of Replay, a VC-backed genome writing, gene editing, and genome engineering company based in La Jolla, California. He was formerly Executive Vice President and Head of Research and Development at Sangamo Therapeutics based in San Francisco, London, and France, where he led the first ever in vivo genome editing human study, the development of a novel CAR-Treg platform, led an allogeneic CAR-T cell collaboration with KITE/Gilead, transitioned the giroctocogene fitelparvovec hemophilia A gene therapy program into a registrational Ph3 (AFFINE Study) led by Pfizer, and played a key role in closing a ~$3B deal with Biogen and a ~$1B deal with Novartis. He was Chief Medical Officer at the 5AM, Abingworth, Versant, LSP-back cancer neoantigen company Nouscom, based in Basel Switzerland and Rome, where he led the development of the first personalized melanoma cancer neoantigen vaccine into a Ph1 study. Prior to that he was Global Clinical Leader of Early and Late Stage Immuno-Oncology/Hematology at Pfizer in New York, where he led the registrational Ph3 of Pfizer’s SMO inhibitor Daurismo and established a portfolio of I-O studies for Pfizer’s PD-L1 inhibitor Bavencio. He was Global Clinical Lead in Oncology at Bristol-Myers Squibb in Princeton, where amongst other things he led the development of a novel JAK2 inhibitor. His undergraduate medical training was at King’s College, UK, where he was awarded the Jelf Medal. His clinical medical training  was completed at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, UK and his post-graduate medical training was at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, UK. He was the Charles and Katherine Darwin Research Fellow at Darwin College Cambridge and a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK where he worked with inventor of monoclonal antibodies and Nobel Prizewinner César Milstein. This led to the discovery of soluble CD1 antigens, a novel method for refolding immunoglobulin supergene family domains, the development of CD1d tetramers, and the demonstration that protein aggregation in Huntington’s disease is directly causal to the disease pathology. He has authored over 100 publications and the named inventor on several patents including the first ever I-O triplet therapy. He is a Founding Member and Executive Advisory Committee member of the GEN Biotechnology journal, the author of two critically acclaimed books Life Without Genes and An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Genetics, and a regular contributor to Science, Nature, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.

Evan Newell, ImmunoScape’s co-founder & Scientific Advisor, pioneered the use of mass cytometry and pMHC-tetramer staining for phenotypic profiling of antigen-specific T cells. He is currently an Associate Professor Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, and Joint Associate Professor, Computational Biology Program in the Public Health Sciences Division, at Fred Hutch.

Evan began his pMHC-tetramer work at Stanford as a postdoctoral fellow in Mark Davis’ laboratory, and continued to advance the methodology to identify novel correlates of clinical outcomes for a variety of diseases as a Principal Investigator at Singapore Immunology Network, A*STAR, prior to joining Fred Hutch in Seattle. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers in the field of immunology.

Philip Greenberg is a Professor in the Department of Medicine/Oncology Division and in the Department of Immunology at the University of Washington (UW), Head of the Program in Immunology at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC), and an Investigator of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. The research in his laboratory has focused on: (a) elucidating the immunobiology of T cell responses to tumors and chronic viral infections, including the nature of the target antigens recognized or that evade detection; (b) defining the basis for successful T cell eradication of tumors and chronic viral infections, and/or the reasons for failure to accomplish this, including the cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for acquisition of T cell dysfunction; (c) assessing the roles of TCR affinity and intracellular signaling modules in determining T cell fate and the nature of T cell responses; and (d) genetic engineering of T cells to enhance the efficacy of adoptive T cell therapy in not only relevant preclinical mouse models but also in human clinical trials in patients with cancer or with chronic viral infections. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Biology  at Washington University and M.D. in Medicine at State University of New York.

He has authored more than 280 manuscripts and received many honors including Cancer Research Institute’s William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Tumor Immunology, Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer Richard Smalley Memorial Career Award, American Society of Hematology E. Donnall Thomas Prize for Pioneering Research Achievements in Hematology, and the Precision Medicine World Conference Luminary Award; and he has been elected to numerous honorary societies. He was an elected member of the Board of Directors for the AACR, currently serves on advisory boards for several major cancer centers, and also serves on numerous editorial boards, including Cancer Cell and Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy, and as an Editor-in-Chief for the AACR journal, Cancer Immunology Research.

Paul Thomas is a Member in the Department of Immunology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, TN and an adjunct Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center. His work focuses on understanding the principle of T cell receptor recognition and specificity during development, infections, and in tumors.

Dr. Thomas obtained his undergraduate degree in Biology and Philosophy at Wake Forest University. He did his PhD training at Harvard University, working on the innate immune response to Schistosoma-associated carbohydrates and their role in promoting Th2 responses. From there, he moved to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for a postdoctoral fellowship with Peter Doherty on T cell responses in the influenza model. In 2009, he started his own lab St. Jude, from which he has published over 150 peer-reviewed papers on TCR biology, immunological mechanisms of disease severity in human viral infections, and cellular immunology.

Dr. Reeves is a Team Leader in the Vaccine and Immunotherapy Center at Massachusetts General Hospital and an Instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School. His principle research interests focus on understanding immune responses in the areas of infectious disease and immuno-oncology. He and his team utilize a blend of standard and high-parameter assays and tailored methods for data analysis and visualization to interrogate immune function and inform the development of novel vaccine and immune modulation strategies.

Rachel Humphrey is a medical oncologist who is currently serving as the Chief Medical Officer
of Black Diamond Therapeutics, and Independent Board Director at Xilio Therapeutics. Among
her many prior roles, she has served as both Board Director and as Chief Medical Officer for
CytomX. She’s also held various senior level roles in cancer drug development including
AstraZeneca (SVP, Head of the Immuno-oncology department), and Bristol Myers Squibb (VP,
Clinical Development). Dr. Humphrey’s career is notable for, among other things, overall
supervision of the (early and late-stage) clinical development of ipilimumab (Yervoy) at BMS
and sorafenib (Nexavar) at Bayer. She is also the lead singer and one of the co-founders of the
band, The Checkpoints, a blues band made up of luminaries in immuno-oncology, including the
Nobel Laureate, Jim Allison, and is featured in the movie “Jim Allison: Breakthrough”, which
was released in the fall of 2019.

Adrian Woolfson is Cofounder, President, and Executive Chairman of Replay, a VC-backed genome writing, gene editing, and genome engineering company based in La Jolla, California. He was formerly Executive Vice President and Head of Research and Development at Sangamo Therapeutics based in San Francisco, London, and France, where he led the first ever in vivo genome editing human study, the development of a novel CAR-Treg platform, led an allogeneic CAR-T cell collaboration with KITE/Gilead, transitioned the giroctocogene fitelparvovec hemophilia A gene therapy program into a registrational Ph3 (AFFINE Study) led by Pfizer, and played a key role in closing a ~$3B deal with Biogen and a ~$1B deal with Novartis. He was Chief Medical Officer at the 5AM, Abingworth, Versant, LSP-back cancer neoantigen company Nouscom, based in Basel Switzerland and Rome, where he led the development of the first personalized melanoma cancer neoantigen vaccine into a Ph1 study. Prior to that he was Global Clinical Leader of Early and Late Stage Immuno-Oncology/Hematology at Pfizer in New York, where he led the registrational Ph3 of Pfizer’s SMO inhibitor Daurismo and established a portfolio of I-O studies for Pfizer’s PD-L1 inhibitor Bavencio. He was Global Clinical Lead in Oncology at Bristol-Myers Squibb in Princeton, where amongst other things he led the development of a novel JAK2 inhibitor. His undergraduate medical training was at King’s College, UK, where he was awarded the Jelf Medal. His clinical medical training  was completed at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, UK and his post-graduate medical training was at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, UK. He was the Charles and Katherine Darwin Research Fellow at Darwin College Cambridge and a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK where he worked with inventor of monoclonal antibodies and Nobel Prizewinner César Milstein. This led to the discovery of soluble CD1 antigens, a novel method for refolding immunoglobulin supergene family domains, the development of CD1d tetramers, and the demonstration that protein aggregation in Huntington’s disease is directly causal to the disease pathology. He has authored over 100 publications and the named inventor on several patents including the first ever I-O triplet therapy. He is a Founding Member and Executive Advisory Committee member of the GEN Biotechnology journal, the author of two critically acclaimed books Life Without Genes and An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Genetics, and a regular contributor to Science, Nature, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.