Team

Jennifer Cochran, Ph.D.

Oncology

Dr. Cochran is a Founder and Chief Scientific Advisor at Red Tree. She was recruited to Stanford University in 2005 as one of the founding faculty members in the Department of Bioengineering. Dr. Cochran is currently the Senior Associate Vice Provost for Research at Stanford, and prior to this role served as the Chair of Bioengineering from 2017-2022. She is the Addie and Al Macovski Professor of Bioengineering, and (by courtesy), Chemical Engineering, and a member of the Cancer Biology, Biophysics, and Immunology graduate programs. Dr. Cochran is the Co-Director of the Stanford/NIH Biotechnology pre-doctoral training program, and the faculty Director of the Protein Therapeutics Initiative at the Stanford Innovative Medicines Accelerator.

Dr. Cochran obtained her Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Biological Engineering. Her research and translational interests span protein-based drug discovery and development for applications in oncology and regenerative medicine, and development of new technologies for high-throughput protein analysis and engineering. Dr. Cochran is a serial innovator and brings extensive company formation and entrepreneurial experience, having founded several companies including TwoStep Therapeutics, Photinia Biosciences, xCella Biosciences (acquired by Ligand, now OmniAb (LGND and OABI) in 2020) and Combangio (acquired by Kala Pharmaceuticals (KALA) in 2021). In 2015, Dr. Cochran co-founded and served as Chief Scientist of Lagunita Biosciences, a healthcare investment company and incubator, a position she held until 2020. Dr. Cochran is a board member at Biograph 55, Kivu Bioscience, Rondo Therapeutics, OmniAb, and Revel Pharmaceuticals, and a board observer at Excellergy Therapeutics and EBVio. She enjoys mentoring students, postdocs, and faculty on technology transfer and life science company formation through various translational programs at Stanford.

Mark M. Davis

Immunology

Mark M. Davis is the Director of the Stanford Center for Human Systems Immunology and the Avery Family Professor of Immunology. He received a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University and a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology with Leroy Hood. He later was a postdoctoral and staff fellow with William Paul at the Laboratory of Immunology at NIH before joining the Stanford faculty. He is well known for identifying many of the T-cell receptor genes, which govern T cell specificity, and work characterizing their binding properties and behavior on cell surfaces, including the demonstration that T cells can detect and respond to even a single antigenic peptide-MHC complex. He and his colleagues also developed a novel way of labeling specific T lymphocytes (“peptide-MHC tetramers”), which is widely used in both clinical and basic immunology studies. His current research interests focus on human immunology, specifically a “systems-level” understanding of an immune response to cancer, vaccination, infection and autoimmunity, as well as developing new tools to better understand human T cell responses. Most recently his group has developed human immune organoids, using tonsil and spleen cells, in order to recreate and study human immune responses in vitro. While it is very likely that human immunity will involve novel mechanisms compared to inbred mice, there has not been a good system to carry out mechanistic studies in an entirely human system. Immune organoids and combinations with other tissues may be the answer to this fundamental problem. Professor Davis is the recipient of many honors and awards, including memberships in the US National Academy of Science, The National Institute of Medicine and The Royal Society.

Karl Deisseroth

Neuro

Karl Deisseroth is D.H. Chen Professor of Bioengineering and Psychiatry at Stanford, and HHMI Investigator. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard (1992), PhD from Stanford (1998), and MD from Stanford (2000). Deisseroth completed medical internship and adult psychiatry residency at Stanford, is board-certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, and founded and directs the Stanford Human Neural Circuitry (HNC) program. In addition to resolving the structural and functional mysteries of natural light-gated ion channels, and exploring how properties of the brain arise from activity of cellular components, Deisseroth has also published a book of literary nonfiction: Projections (Penguin Random House 2021).

Deisseroth was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2010, National Academy of Sciences in 2012, and National Academy of Engineering in 2019. He has received the 2010 Nakasone Prize, 2012 Perl Prize, 2013 Lounsbery Prize, 2013 Gabbay Prize, 2013 BRAIN Prize, 2014 Dickson Prize in Science, 2014 Keio Prize, 2015 Breakthrough Prize, 2015 Lurie Prize, 2015 Albany Prize, 2015 Dickson Prize in Medicine, 2016 BBVA Award, 2017 Massry Prize, 2017 Fresenius Prize, 2018 Gairdner Award, 2018 Kyoto Prize, 2020 Heineken Prize, 2021 Lasker Award, 2022 Horwitz Prize, 2023 Japan Prize, and 2025 Asan Prize.

Scott Delp, Ph.D.

Neuro

Scott Delp is the James H. Clark Professor of Bioengineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Orthopaedic Surgery at Stanford University. He is the Founding Chairman of the Department of Bioengineering at Stanford and Director of the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance, a public-private partnership involving 30 universities that aims to transform human health through discovering the principles of peak performance. Scott’s laboratory develops technologies to advance movement science and human health. Software tools created in his lab, including OpenSim, OpenCap, AddBiomechanics, and Simtk.org, have become the basis of an international collaboration involving thousands of scientists.

He has deep expertise in human movement and the development of technologies to enhance performance. He has published over 300 research articles and has recently released a book from MIT Press entitled Biomechanics of Movement: The Science of Sports, Robotics, and Rehabilitation. Dr. Delp has co-founded six health technology companies and is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.

Nathanael S. Gray, Ph.D.

Oncology

Nathanael Gray is the Krishnan-Shah Family Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology at Stanford, Co-Director of Cancer Drug Discovery, Co-Leader of the Cancer Therapeutics Research Program, Member of Chem-H, and Program Leader for Small Molecule Drug Discovery for the Innovative Medicines Accelerator (IMA). His research uses the tools of synthetic chemistry, protein biochemistry, and cancer biology to discover and validate new strategies for addressing anti-cancer targets. Dr. Gray’s research has had broad impact in the areas of kinase inhibitor and degrader design and in circumventing drug resistance. Dr. Gray’s generalized strategy for structure-based design of inhibitors that stabilize the inactive kinase conformations (type II) has been widely adopted by the research community and has had a significant impact on the development of numerous inhibitors of tyrosine kinases that are currently undergoing clinical development.

Frank Longo, M.D., Ph.D.

Neuro

Dr. Longo received his MD and PhD in neuroscience from the University of California, San Diego and trained as a resident and fellow in neurology at the University of California, San Francisco. He joined the UCSF faculty and was eventually appointed as professor and vice chair of UCSF’s Department of Neurology. Dr. Longo served as the chair of the Department of Neurology at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill (2001-2005) and at Stanford University (2006-2023). His ongoing laboratory research interests at Stanford include elucidation of mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative diseases and translational research targeting such mechanisms.

Dr. Longo is the 2015 recipient of the inaugural Melvin R. Goodes Prize for Excellence in Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery from the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, and he currently serves on the National Advisory Council on Aging for the NIH. He is founder and board chair for PharmatrophiX, a clinical-stage company focused on small molecule therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases.

Crystal Mackall, M.D.

Oncology

Crystal L. Mackall, MD, is the Ernest and Amelia Gallo Family Professor and Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at Stanford University. She serves as the Founding Director of the Stanford Center for Cancer Cell Therapy, Associate Director of the Stanford Cancer Institute, and Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at Stanford. For over 30 years, Dr. Mackall has led a world-renowned translational research program in immuno-oncology. Her pioneering work in fundamental immunology has significantly advanced the treatment of human diseases, with a particular focus on pediatric cancers.

Dr. Mackall’s group was among the first to demonstrate the remarkable eMectiveness of CD19 CAR T-cell therapy in children with leukemia. They also developed a potent CD22 CAR for CAR19-resistant B cell malignancies and are showing promising results with GD2 CAR T cells in the treatment of aggressive pediatric brain tumors. Her team was one of the first to reveal T cell exhaustion as a key barrier to CAR T cell eMicacy and has devised multiple strategies to enhance the potency of human T cells. Recently, her research has uncovered the critical role of macrophage-mediated clearance of T cells and engineered innovative solutions, such as a regulatable “remote-controlled” CAR T cell platform and multiplexed gene regulation using Cas13d-based RNA technology. Her group also pioneered engineering CD47 to overcome immunosuppression within the tumor microenvironment.

Dr. Mackall’s scientific contributions have earned her election to the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the American Academy of Physicians, and fellowships in both the AACR Academy and the Academy of Immuno-oncology. In addition to her academic leadership, Dr. Mackall has co-founded three biotechnology companies focused on cell therapy (Lyell Immunopharma, CARGO Therapeutics and Link Cell Therapies) and established ACCESSforKIDS, a nonprofit advancing cell therapies for pediatric cancers.

Kari Nadeau, M.D., Ph.D.

Immunology

Kari Nadeau, MD, PhD, is the Chair of the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and John Rock Professor of Climate and Population Studies. She practices Allergy, Asthma, Immunology in children and adults. She has published over 400+ papers, many in the field of climate change and health. Dr. Nadeau, with a team of individuals and patients and families, has been able to help major progress and impact in the clinical fields of immunology, infection, asthma, and allergy. Dr. Nadeau is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the US EPA Children’s Health Protection Committee. For more than 30 years, she has devoted herself to understanding how environmental and genetic factors affect the risk of developing allergies and asthma, especially wildfire-induced air pollution. Her laboratory has been studying air pollution and wildfire effects on children and adults, including wildland firefighters. Many of the health issues involving individuals and the public are increasing because of global warming, sustainability practices, and extreme weather conditions. She oversees a team working on air pollution and wildfire research along with a multidisciplinary group of community leaders, firefighters, engineers, scientists, lawyers, and policymakers.

Dr. Nadeau was appointed as a member of the US Federal Wildfire Commission in 2022. Dr. Nadeau earned her MD/PhD from Harvard Medical School in 1995, completing her doctoral work in biochemistry and immunology, followed by a pediatric internship and residency at Boston Children’s Hospital (1995-1997). She moved to California for a fellowship in the Stanford-UCSF Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology Program (2003-2006), joining the Stanford Medical School faculty as an instructor, followed by promotions to assistant professor (2008), associate professor (2011), and professor (2015).

Bill Robinson, M.D.

Immunology

Dr. Robinson is the James Raitt Professor and Chief of the Division of Immunology and Rheumatology at Stanford University. The Robinson laboratory investigates the role of EBV and other microbes in the pathogenesis of autoimmune disease, with a focus on systemic lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis. Dr. Robinson has been elected to the Association of American Physicians (AAP) and the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI). He is an inventor on twenty-one patent applications. He is a Co-Founder of EBVio, a RedTree portfolio company. Dr. Robinson received his BS, MD, and PhD degrees from Stanford University and completed his clinical training in internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

Hugh Rosen, M.D., Ph.D.

Neuro

Dr. Rosen serves as a Pearson Family Professor and Chair, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California where he focused on pursuing his primary interests in the chemical biology of immune regulation by signaling lipids and of receptor therapeutics. This work, in collaboration with Professor Edward Roberts, led to the invention of ozanimod at Scripps Research. Ozanimod is now approved for the treatment of Multiple Sclerosis and Ulcerative Colitis and marketed by Bristol-Myers Squibb as ZEPOSIAR. Two further Scripps Research compounds from the Rosen & Roberts laboratories are in clinical trials; Navacaprant is in Phase 3 trials for Major Depressive Disorder and NMRA-511 in Phase 1b for agitation in dementia. Dr. Rosen was a scientific founder of Receptos, Inc.(RCPT, acquired by Celgene in 2015), and Blackthorn Therapeutics, now Neumora Therapeutics (NMRA). Dr. Rosen served as the President and Chairman of the Board of Activx Biosciences, Inc., a wholly owned biopharmaceutical subsidiary of Kyorin Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. from 2017 until March 2023. He was an independent director of Regulus Therapeutics (NASDAQ: RGLS), now acquired by Novartis. Prior to joining The Scripps Research Institute, Dr. Rosen served in various capacities with Merck Research Laboratories including Executive Director in Immunology, Rheumatology and Infectious Diseases and Chair of the Worldwide Business Strategy Team for Antibacterials and Antifungals.

He received his MB.ChB. (M.D). from the University of Cape Town, South Africa and his D.Phil. in Physiological Sciences from Oxford, where he was a Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 awardee. Dr Rosen has been elected a Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, to the Association of American Physicians and the Henry Kunkel Society. He served as Associate Editor of Molecular Pharmacology (ASPET) for 8 years and on the Editorial Board of J. Biol. Chem. (ASBMB) for 5 years. He has authored more than 200 peer reviewed publications, is an inventor on more than 15 issued US patents, with 28 issued International patents.

Jim Wells, Ph.D.

Oncology

Jim Wells received his BA degrees in biochemistry and psychology from University of California, Berkeley, PhD in biochemistry from Washington State University from Ralph Yount, and Post-doc at Stanford University School of Medicine with George Stark. He began his independent research career in 1982 as a co-founding member of the Protein Engineering Department at Genentech where his group pioneered “gain-of-function engineering” of enzymes, hormones and antibodies. Several biologic products derived directly from these efforts, including engineered proteases, a therapeutic hGH antagonist, and VEGF blocking antibody for cancer.

In 1998, Dr Wells then co-founded Sunesis Pharmaceuticals where he was CSO, and president. At Sunesis, the group developed a novel technology, Tethering, for targeted small molecule drug discovery. The efforts of that group produced a drug for dry eye disease and new RAF inhibitor for cancer and several other compounds for clinical development in cancer.

In 2005 Wells joined the faculty of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Cellular & Molecular Pharmacology at UCSF. He founded the Small Molecule Discovery Center and served as Chair of Pharmaceutical Chemistry. The Wells Lab now investigates how cell surface proteomes change in health and disease by applying mass spectrometry and protein and antibody engineering, to understand and disrupt human-disease-associated signaling processes. He has co-founded half a dozen other companies, most recently EpiBiologics focused on developing extracellular degraders to remove disease causing proteins.

He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Inventors, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Gene Yeo, Ph.D.

Neuro

Gene Yeo, PhD, MBA is the Sanford Stem Cell Institute Endowed Chair and Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of California San Diego, Director for UCSD’s Center for RNA Technologies and Therapeutics, Chief Scientist for Sanford Laboratories for Innovative Medicine and Director for the Sanford Stem Cell Institute’s Innovation Center. Dr. Yeo was trained as a computational biologist in machine learning/artificial intelligence during his PhD at MIT and then studied stem cell biology as a Crick-Jacobs fellow at the Salk Institute. His lab at UCSD has developed some of the most popular molecular and computational technologies to study how RNA processing is affected by RNA binding proteins in development and disease.

Gene has authored ~300 peer-reviewed publications (h-index of 103), is among the top 1% most highly cited scientists and received several prominent academic awards, including the Lee Kuan Yew Fellowship (2001), the Singapore National Research Foundation Visiting Investigatorship Award (2017), San Diego Xconomy Awardee for ‘Big Idea’ (2019), Paul Allen Distinguished Investigatorship (2020), the RNA Society’s Early Career Award (2017), the Elisa Izaurralde Award for Innovation in Research, Teaching and Service (2021) and the inaugural Academia Europaea Sydney Brenner Medal (2023). Gene has founded several biotech companies and serves as scientific advisor to Red Tree Ventures, Proteona (acquired by Singleron), Trotana, EclipseBio, Orbital Therapeutics (acquired by BMS), Insitro, Automera, AmberBio, Radar Therapeutics and Atomic.AI. Gene is among the top 50 life science academic entrepreneurs by BIOS’ Beaker List and received the inaugural Entrepreneurial Achievement Award from the Rady School of Management (2023).