Board of Directors

Dr. Joanne Smith-Farrell is a mission-driven executive whose career has been dedicated to leading teams in conquering cancer, genetic diseases, and other life-limiting conditions. As President & CEO and Director of Be Biopharma since February 2021, she guides a diverse team of scientists, drug developers, clinicians, and manufacturing specialists in pioneering a new class of in vivo biologics—engineered B cell medicines—to deliver previously impossible solutions for patients with both rare and prevalent diseases.

Before joining Be Biopharma, Dr. Smith-Farrell served as Chief Operating Officer and Business Unit Head, Oncology at bluebird bio. In that role, she and her team built a robust oncology business, marked by breakthroughs such as Abecma—the first-in-class CAR-T therapy for multiple myeloma. She has also held executive positions at Merck, Pfizer, and Gene Logic, and began her career as a consultant with The Boston Consulting Group.

Dr. Smith-Farrell completed her post-doctoral research in biomedical engineering in Professor Robert Langer’s lab at the Harvard-MIT Division for Health Science and Technology, supported by the NIH National Service in Research Award Fellowship. She earned her Ph.D. in physics from The Catholic University of America—where she was recognized as a Herzfeld Scholar and Hubbard Fellow—and holds a B.S. in physics and mathematics from Vanderbilt University.

Aleks Radovic-Moreno, PhD, is a partner at Longwood Fund, where he is involved in building and supporting portfolio companies. Aleks has been a co-founder of several Longwood portfolio companies, including Co-Founder and CEO of Be Biopharma and Co-Founder of Tome Biosciences.

He was previously Senior Vice President at PureTech Health (LSE: PRTC), where he was a co-founder and member of the senior leadership team of several portfolio companies. Dr. Radovic-Moreno was a co-founder of Vor Biopharma (NASDAQ: VOR), where he led a fundraising effort that culminated in a $42M Series A financing led by 5AM Ventures & RA Capital in 2019. He also co-founded and acted as interim CEO of Alivio Therapeutics. He was previously a scientist at Exicure, where he was the lead inventor of AST-008, a TLR9 agonist now in phase 2 trials for treating various solid tumors.

Dr. Radovic-Moreno completed his graduate work as an NSF Fellow in Dr. Bob Langer’s lab at MIT, where he developed novel strategies for managing bacterial infections, including a novel vaccine candidate for chlamydia infections. Dr. Radovic-Moreno was awarded the Alumni Achievement Award by the Pennsylvania State University for extraordinary professional accomplishment by graduates under the age of 35. Dr. Radovic-Moreno received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University and PhD in Chemical and Biomedical Engineering from MIT and the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology.

Dr. Backstrom was most recently executive vice president, head of research and development at Acceleron Pharma. Prior to Acceleron, he held clinical research and development positions of increasing responsibility during his tenure at Celgene, from 2008 to 2019; eventually serving as Celgene’s chief medical officer and head of regulatory affairs.

Prior to Celgene, he served as vice president, global medical affairs and safety at Pharmion. Jay began his career in industry in 1990 at Marion Merrell Dow and continued as part of its successor companies including Hoechst Marion Roussel, where he held positions in clinical research and global drug surveillance and pharmacoepidemiology. He also spent nearly three years at Quintiles in medical and scientific services, including therapeutic head, cardiovascular, respiratory and critical care, where he oversaw extensive clinical work across a variety of cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases.

Prior to his move to industry, Jay served as staff physician and medical director of the Samuel U. Rodgers Community Health Center in Kansas City, Missouri. Jay holds an M.D. from Temple University School of Medicine and received post-graduate training in Internal Medicine at Temple University Hospital. He also earned a Master’s in public health from Saint Louis University School of Public Health.

David Lubner is a senior finance executive with more than 25 years of experience in the life sciences industry. Mr. Lubner served as executive vice president and chief financial officer of Ra Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: RARX) until May 2020 following its acquisition by UCB S.A. Prior to Ra Pharma, he was senior vice president and chief financial officer of Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals and was previously chief financial officer of PharMetrics Inc., a leading patient-based pharmacy and medical claims data informatics company until it was acquired by IMS Health in 2015. He was also chief financial officer at ProScript, where Velcade® (bortezomib), a therapy widely used for the treatment of the blood cancer multiple myeloma, was discovered.

Dan Janney is the managing partner of Alta Partners. Dan Janney joined Alta Partners at its founding in 1996. He has nearly 25 years of successful early stage investing experience in life sciences. Dan’s focus on working with talented entrepreneurs to create companies around novel insights in biology and new approaches to drug discovery has led to the funding and development of 35 companies. Prior to Alta, Dan was a senior investment banker at Montgomery Securities.

Dan is currently on the board of directors of several public and private companies, including Allakos (NASDAQ:ALLK), Be Biopharma, Curasen Therapeutics, ImmuneID, Krystal Biotech (NASDAQ:KYRS), Lassen Therapeutics, Novome Biotechnologies and Prolacta Bioscience. In addition, he led Alta’s investments in Astex Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Supergen), Cellective (acquired by Medimmune), ChemGenex (ASX:CXS acquired by Cephalon), CoTherix (NASDAQ:CTRX acquired by Actellion), Definity Health (acquired by United Health), Dynavax (NASDAQ:DVAX), Endonetics (acquired by Medtronic), Esperion Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ESPR), Ilex Oncology (NASDAQ:ILXO acquired by Millennium Pharmaceuticals), InterMune (NASDAQ:ITMN acquired by Roche), LJL Biosystems (NASDAQ:LJLB acquired by Molecular Devices), Mako Surgical (NASDAQ:MAKO acquired by Stryker) and Triangle Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VIRS acquired by Gilead).

Dan is a member of the president’s council of the J. David Gladstone Institutes and the chair of the board of directors of the California Academy of Sciences. He also serves on the Board of Regents of Georgetown University. He holds a B.A. from Georgetown University and an MBA from the Anderson School at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Dr. Gillis is a Managing Director at ARCH Venture Partners, where he joined in 2005. He is focused on the evaluation of new life science technologies and on the development and growth of ARCH’s biotechnology portfolio companies.

He is a director of Homology Medicines (FIXX) and Carrick Therapeutics. He serves as Director and Chairman of Codiak Biosciences (CDAK), Faraday Pharmaceuticals, eGenesis, HiberCell, Skylark Bio, Walden Biosciences, OncoResponse, Mozart Therapeutics, Bitterroot Bio and VBI Vaccines (VBIV). Dr. Gillis also serves as a director of Takeda Pharmaceuticals (TAK).

Dr. Gillis was a founder and director of Corixa Corp. and served as CEO from its inception and as its Chairman from 1999 until its acquisition in 2005 by GlaxoSmithKline. Prior to Corixa, Dr. Gillis was a founder and director of Immunex Corp., the most successful venture-funded biotech company in the state of Washington. From 1981 until his departure in 1994, he served as Immunex’s Director of Research and Development, Chief Scientific Officer, and as CEO of Immunex’s R&D subsidiary. Dr. Gillis was interim CEO of Immunex Corp. following its majority purchase by American Cyanamid Co. and remained a member of the board until 1997. Amgen, Inc. acquired Immunex in 2002.

Dr. Gillis is an immunologist by training with over 300 peer-reviewed publications in the areas of molecular and tumor immunology. He is credited as being a pioneer in the field of cytokines and cytokine receptors, directing the development of multiple marketed products including Leukine, (GM-CSF), Prokine (IL-2) and Enbrel (soluble TNF receptor-Fc fusion protein) as well as the regulatory approval of Bexxar (radiolabeled anti-CD20).

Dr. Gillis received a B.A. from Williams College and a Ph.D. from Dartmouth College.