We develop cutting-edge immuno-therapeutics with unparalleled efficacy and durability, specifically designed to combat tumors with low immunogenicity.

 Scientist & Co-founder

Ben is a scientist who developed and optimized the biomaterial scaffold portion of the ATTImmune platform, transitioning from R&D to cGMP to support clinical trials. Prior to Attivare, Ben worked as a staff scientist at Harvard’s Wyss Institute to develop novel diagnostics and therapeutics for sepsis, and before that he worked at Harvard Medical School in a research core to advance therapies against priority pathogens listed by NIAID. He received a BS in Microbiology from the University of New Hampshire. 

Paul Ehrlich, Ph.D. brings extensive experience in pharmaceutical research and development, honed through leadership roles at Abbott Labs, Bayer Healthcare, Pfizer Inc., and FORMA Therapeutics. With a career dedicated to advancing therapies from early research to late-stage clinical trials and regulatory approval, Paul combines scientific innovation with strategic vision to drive impactful results. Paul specializes in designing and optimizing therapeutic hypotheses and screening cascades to identify and refine clinical candidates. His expertise includes developing “fit for purpose” first-in-human clinical studies to establish proof of concept and aligning pivotal trial designs with regulatory agencies across the globe. In addition to his technical acumen, Paul has a proven track record in strategic portfolio management. He excels in evaluating research and development assets to balance risk and maximize value, ensuring optimized returns on investment that align with organizational risk tolerance and long-term goals. By integrating commercial forecasts with overarching registrational strategies and leveraging competitive intelligence, Paul ensures the delivery of sustainable growth and value creation. Throughout his career, Paul has been committed to bridging innovation with strategic insight, ensuring every project is optimized to deliver meaningful outcomes for patients and stakeholders alike. Paul holds a Ph.D. from Colorado State University.

David Mooney is the Robert Pinkas Family Professor of Bioengineering in the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and a Core Faculty Member of the Wyss Institute at Harvard University. He is a member of several national academies and has won numerous awards for his research and his mentorship/teaching. He has published over 400 articles and has been issued numerous patents, several of which have been licensed to companies, resulting in successful commercial products. He is also an active member in major engineering professional societies, an editorial advisor to multiple journals, and serves on several industry and government advisory boards. Dr. Mooney is a leader in the fields of biomaterials, mechanotransduction, drug delivery, tissue engineering and immunoengineering. He is interested in understanding how cells sense signals in their environment and how this alters cell behavior. His laboratory develops biomaterials that exploit these signals to regulate specific cells and their function. They were the first to demonstrate in 3-D culture that the mechanical properties of a substrate regulated stem cell fate. His lab also developed the first implantable biomaterial cancer vaccine that contained biochemical cues to recruit and re-educate the immune system to destroy cancer cells. Dr. Mooney’s goal is to use our knowledge of cell biology in conjunction with materials to boost therapeutic effects. 

Stefan Glück, MD, PhD, FRCPC is a medical oncologist (fully licensed in the state of FL) and is currently a freelance consultant for patients in oncology hematology immunology and for companies including pharma, biopharma, biotech and AI in medicine. He was V.P. Global Medical Affairs, at Celgene Corporation from October 2014 until December 2019. He oversaw oncology activities worldwide, as well as the Immune-Oncology program in solid tumors and hematology. He contributed to activities of Celgene around Early Assets and was part of the very successful BD team identifying assets for collaboration, joint venture and acquisition. In early 2020, after Celgene was acquired by BMS, and when the pandemic hit, he joined remotely REGENERON as VP and Franchise Head, Global Medical Affairs, Oncology – Hematology until December 2021. During the at GMA, he built a team of 27 colleagues virtually and actually never met anyone in person. Between September 2021 and March 2022, he served as SVP med Affairs at VERU Inc. leading the breast cancer program with 2 compounds.  

At present, his focus is on helping small companies to get their innovative products to patients, hopefully prolonging, improving their lives and potentially lead the efforts to cures of cancer for many. 

He previously served as a Sylvester Professor and practicing Medical Oncologist – Hematologist in the Department of Medicine at Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Florida until September 2014. From 2003–2008, he was the Clinical Director of the Braman Family Breast Cancer Institute at UM. His clinical practice focused on patients with breast cancer and during his hospital service, all malignant diseases including hematology and solid tumors. He enjoyed to teach fellows, residents, and medical MD/PhD students in hematology and oncology, bedside and in class courses.  

He has authored or co-authored over 275 articles. In addition, Dr Glück has written or co-written several book chapters, numerous abstracts and has presented more than 500 papers at national and international meetings.  

Additionally, he has been very active with the following companies as an independent scientific and medical advisor for oncology efforts, including Agendia, Amgen, Arvinas, Coherus, GSK, Eisai, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer, Puma, RnaDiagnostics, Roche -Genentech.    

George Church is Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Director of  PersonalGenomes.org, which provides the world’s only open-access information on human Genomic, Environmental & Trait data (GET Conference). His 1984 Harvard PhD included the first methods for direct genome sequencing, molecular multiplexing & barcoding. These led to the first genome sequence (pathogen, Helicobacter pylori) in  1994 . His innovations have contributed to nearly all “next generation” DNA sequencing methods and companies (CGI-BGI, Life, Illumina, Nanopore). This plus his lab’s work on chip-DNA-synthesis, gene editing and stem cell engineering resulted in founding additional application-based companies spanning fields of medical diagnostics ( Knome/PierianDx, Alacris, Nebula, Veritas ) & synthetic biology / therapeutics ( AbVitro/Juno, Gen9/enEvolv/Zymergen/Warpdrive/Gingko, Editas, Egenesis ). He has also pioneered new privacy, biosafety, ELSI, environmental & biosecurity policies. He was director of an IARPA BRAIN Project and 3 NIH Centers for Excellence in Genomic Science (2004-2020). His honors include election to NAS & NAE & Franklin Bower Laureate for Achievement in Science. He has coauthored 716 papers, 156 patent publications & a book (Regenesis). 

Board Member

Lucy Wang is an experienced early stage emerging technology investor and operator. She is a founding general partner at Divergent Capital, a first check investor backing startups commercializing deeply technical & scientific innovations with creativity. 

Prior to founding her own firm, she led deep tech investing at funds such as 11.2 capital and Greycroft. Select investments from Lucy include Immuta, Clay.Run, Covariant AI, Machina Labs, Anthropic AI, Synchron, Remedy Robotics, Reliable Robotics, Motif Neuro, and more. 

As an operator, Lucy most recently served as the COO and Head of Product at Rendered AI, a synthetic data platform, where she led product and customer engagements. Lucy was also a founding team member of Livepeer, a decentralized live video streaming infrastructure built on Ethereum, leading operations and strategy. Lucy is trained as a machine learning scientist with an MS degree from NYU and BA degree from Brown University. 

Board Member

Dr. Turka received his MD degree from the Yale University School of Medicine and trained in Internal Medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Dr. Turka was a renal fellow at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and then joined the faculty of the University of Michigan. In 1994 Dr. Turka joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was the C. Mahlon Kline Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Renal Division. In 2009 Dr. Turka moved to Boston and was at the Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was Co-Director of the Center for Transplantation Sciences, and the Harold and Ellen Danser Professor at Harvard Medical School.   In 2018, Dr. Turka moved to biotech, as the Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of Rheos Medicines and subsequently the Chief Scientific Office and Head of Translational Medicine at Rubius Therapeutics until 2023. He currently focuses on board-work and consulting and is Professor Emeritus at Harvard. 

Among the notable discoveries of Dr. Turka’s laboratory were novel approaches to transplantation tolerance, the role of Toll-like receptors in T-cells, and pathways required for the maintenance of regulatory T-cell function.  He was also an early contributor to the field of T cell costimulation including work that helped lead to the development of abatacept and belatacept for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and renal transplantation. Dr. Turka has served as President of the American Society of Transplantation, Chair of the NIAID Board of Scientific Counselors, Editor in Chief of The Journal of Clinical Investigation, and Deputy Director of the Immune Tolerance Network.  He was elected to membership in the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 1995, and the Association of American Physicians in 2003. 

Board Member

Dr. Joaquim Trias has more than 30 years of experience in drug discovery and development.  He has been involved in multiple successful pharmaceutical startup companies. including Attivare Therapeutics, Arixa Pharmaceuticals, Meissa Vaccines, Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals, Anthera Pharmaceuticals, Peninsula Pharmaceuticals, Vicuron/Versicor Pharmaceuticals, and Microcide Pharmaceuticals. His work in discovery and development led to four drugs approved by FDA. Dr. Trias has authored over 50 peer- reviewed scientific publications and holds several patents. 

Associate Director, In Vivo Pharmacology

Dr. Fernanda Langellotto is an accomplished translational scientist with significant expertise in immunology and vaccinology. With a strong focus on cancer immunotherapy and vaccine development, she has a robust background in preclinical pharmacology, leading innovative research in therapeutic target discovery. As a co-founder and Director of Preclinical In Vivo Pharmacology at Attivare Therapeutics, Dr. Langellotto has significantly advanced immunomodulatory treatments, through her extensive experience in in vivo models and immunological analysis.

University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy, M.S.  Veterinary Medicine
Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn and University of Naples “Federico II”, Naples, Italy
Ph.D. Cellular and Molecular Biology

President, CEO, Chairman of Board of Directors

David Sherris, Ph.D. has over 30 years of experience in translational medicine, encompassing basic research, pharmaceutics, and diagnostics. As a successful serial entrepreneur, he has developed biotechnology companies from the ground up, devising corporate strategy, implementing programs, and guiding companies through funding and acquisitions, achieving multiple exits. Dr. Sherris prides himself on being a hands-on CEO, entrepreneur, business development officer, drug developer, and scientist, rather than merely a delegator.

He has worked with venture capital, investment banks, and angel investors, advising and raising well over $100 million. Dr. Sherris has been employed by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to manage both external collaborations (with academic groups and contract research organizations) and internal scientific programs. He has been a frequently invited guest speaker at biopharmaceutical business and scientific conferences, a published author, and a holder of patents in a diverse range of therapeutic areas including oncology, ophthalmology, dermatology, neurology, gene therapy, and infectious diseases.

Dr. Sherris has held positions of increasing responsibility in both public and private companies. He has developed drugs from the bench to the clinic, as well as partnered technologies with pharmaceutical companies.

Chairman of Board

Attivare Therapeutics was established by a team from the Wyss Institute at Harvard to address the challenge of treating tumors with low immunogenicity.  We are doing this by advancing the development of the ATTImmune platform based on our biomaterial scaffold that can recruit, reprogram, and release target immune cells.  The ATTImmune scaffold can be loaded with a variety of immunomodulators for reprogramming the immune environment.  The ATTImmune platform provides 3D spatiotemporal control of bioactive components, which substantially increases both the magnitude and durability of patient immune responses. In addition, our platform synergizes with standard of care and has applications beyond oncology including the treatment of infectious diseases.