Team

Adriann Sax is a co-founder of Vetigenics and serves as Chief Executive Officer. Adriann is responsible for leading and implementing long and short-term initiatives and overseeing business development, fundraising planning and implementation.

As a serial entrepreneur, Adriann was also a founding member of Kadmon Inc. where she led and transformed all aspects of the commercial business. Before Kadmon, Adriann was EVP, BD and Strategy, for King Pharmaceuticals, implementing a renewed, growth strategy leading to the company’s sale to Pfizer in 2010 for $6.5B. She also served as Chief Business Officer, Head of US Operations for Symphogen, CEO of Orsenix and as Entrepreneur in Residence at Fortress Biotech leading many successful investments including licensing the Oncogenuity foundation technology from Columbia.

Adriann started her career at Sterling Drug progressing through a series of operating and executive roles with established companies such as Merck, Bristol Myers Squibb and Roche, and led the global launches of leading oncology and immunology drugs. Adriann holds an MBA from the Keller Graduate School and BS in Animal Science from the University of Delaware. She is an active advisor and board member for many industry associations, academic institutions, and nonpublic company boards.

Dr. Mason is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine. She runs a Translational Research Laboratory developing immunotherapeutics for use in canine companion animals with cancer and autoimmunity. She is internationally recognized for her expertise in bringing immunotherapies to the veterinary field through the performance of clinical trials in companion animals. Dr. Mason has pioneered comparative approaches to immuno-oncology and autoimmunity, utilizing companion animals to guide and inform human drug development. Dr. Mason leads the first canine CAR T cell therapy clinical trial in canine patients with B-NHL and leads the NCI’s first Canine Cancer Immunotherapy Trials network as part of the Cancer Moonshot program. She is a recipient of the NIH Directors Transformative R01 Awards for her collaborative work with Dr. Aimee Payne using dogs with spontaneous autoimmunity to inform the use of genetically engineered T cells to treat pemphigus in human patients.

Dr. Siegel is a Professor of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine. He is the Director of the Division of Transfusion Medicine & Therapeutic Pathology and of the Clinical Cell & Vaccine Production Facility, within the Center for Advanced Cellular Therapies. Dr. Siegel’s research has been supported by NIH funding in areas of immunohematology, hemostasis/thrombosis, autoimmunity, and oncology since 1992. He is an internationally recognized authority in antibody phage display and has been responsible for generating scFv phage display libraries from many different animal species. He is responsible for the manufacture of gene-modified human T cell therapies at UPenn for numerous clinical trials including the first genetically modified cellular therapy approved by FDA and licensed by UPenn to Novartis (tisagenlecleucel, Kymriah™).

Dr. Hong Wang serves as Senior Scientist at Vetigenics. Hong is a well accomplished molecular biologist in the fields of immunology and oncology at an academic institute. He joins Vetigenics with the strong experience in studying the cellular signaling mechanisms involved in colon and prostate tumorigenesis associated with inflammation and metabolic syndrome using transgenic mouse models as well as genomic approaches. At Vetigenics, Hong works closely with Dr. Siegel in panning and screening antibodies using phage display library and characterizing the antibodies by immunohistochemical staining, immunofluorescence staining, and flow cytometer. He is also working on the small-scale antibody production using CHO cells.

Lexi Pusey serves as the Quality and Lab Manager at Vetigenics. Working to ensure day to day operations run accordingly and are compliant with all Quality Regulations. She has industrial background experience in cell culture manufacturing for a late-stage cell & gene therapy company. Her skills have become transferable, now working on antibody-based immunotherapies. She also holds a BS in Biology from Coastal Carolina University.