Progress, Potential, and Possibilities Podcast / Show Joseph Ferra, CEO & Dr David Dornan, CSO; Elevation Oncology; Precision Oncology With Antibody Drug Conjugates
Joseph Ferra is CEO of Elevation Oncology ( https://elevationoncology.com/ ), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of precision oncology products, specifically antibody-drug-conjugates (ADCs), for patients with genomically defined cancers, where he brings over 20 years of financial, strategic and leadership experience in the pharmaceutical/biotechnology industry. Prior to becoming CEO, he served Elevation as Chief Financial Officer and Interim CEO. Before joining Elevation, Joseph was Chief Financial Officer of Syros Pharmaceuticals where he led the development and implementation of key financial and capital strategies and contributed to corporate initiatives. Previously, he spent over a decade as an investment banker in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry, where he established a strong track record of advising on equity and M&A transactions. This included serving as Managing Director and Co-Head of Healthcare Investment Banking at JMP Securities and being a member of the investment banking groups at JP Morgan and UBS. Earlier in his career, Joe served in sales and engineering roles in the life science tools industry. He earned his MBA from The Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. He obtained a B.S. in Chemistry with Distinction from Purdue University, where he contributed to published papers and conducted research at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. David Dornan is Chief Scientific Officer of Elevation Oncology where he brings over two decades of industry and academic oncology drug discovery and development experience. His research spans across multiple therapeutic modalities targeting cancer susceptibilities and modulating the immune system to translate into meaningful therapeutic interventions for patients. He joins Elevation Oncology from Bolt Biotherapeutics. As Chief Scientific Officer, he was responsible for the scientific strategy and building of the company’s portfolio in targeted immunotherapies. Prior to this, Dr. Dornan was the head of Oncology Research at Gilead, identifying, validating, and translating oncogenic targets into actionable entities with biologic and small molecule therapeutics and oversaw the integrated oncology strategy team. He began his career at Genentech, where he spent 10 years serving in positions of increasing responsibility and played key roles in target discovery and validation, as well as translational research programs. Dr. Dornan received his Ph.D. from the University of Dundee in Molecular Oncology and Biochemistry and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Genentech.