Dr. La Monica joined the Johnson and Johnson Boston Innovation Center in April 2013 as Senior Director of Infectious Diseases and Vaccines Scientific Innovation.  From 2009 to 2012 he was at Idera Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge MA, where he was Vice President of Biology.  From 1991 to 2009, Dr. La Monica served most recently as Director of Antiviral Research at the Istituto di Ricerche di Biologia Molecolare (IRBM), Rome, Italy, a research site of Merck Research Laboratories.  Prior to that, he held the positions of Director of Oncology and Director of Cancer Immunology and Genomics.  

During his career, Dr. La Monica has lead research efforts targeting HCV, has managed research teams involved in the development of cancer vaccines and cancer immunotherapy strategies.  Additionally, he has been responsible for the evaluation of novel oligonucleotide-based compounds targeting TLRs as vaccine adjuvants or as therapeutic agents for the treatment of autoimmune diseases.

Dr. La Monica earned his B.A. degree in Biology from the University of Rochester in 1982.  His graduate studies were completed at Columbia University, where he earned a Ph.D. in Microbiology in 1988.

Barbara brings 25 years of leadership experience in pharma and biotech to bear on new drug discovery. During her time at Bayer Pharma she helped establish a new oncology department, and served as project leader for sorafenib, approved for kidney and liver cancers. Successive leadership positions at Chiron, Millennium Pharmaceuticals and Takeda consolidated a very broad-based expertise in advancing large and small molecule projects to and through clinical trials. Barb has deep experience on clinical development teams and a solid understanding of what it takes to get a drug approved. Over her career Barb has built a host of teams, from large departments to small specialty groups, and now as a co-founder of the infectious disease startup Decoy Therapeutics. Barb is passionate about bringing a new anti-viral therapeutic peptide platform to bear on COVID-19 and future emerging and re-emerging viral pathogens.

Mark Prausnitz is Regents’ Professor and J. Erskine Love, Jr. Chair of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He earned a BS degree from Stanford University and PhD degree from MIT, both in chemical engineering. Dr. Prausnitz and colleagues carry out research on biophysical methods of drug delivery using microneedles, lasers, ionic liquids and other microdevices for transdermal, ocular and intracellular delivery of drugs and vaccines. Dr. Prausnitz teaches an introductory course on engineering calculations, as well as two advanced courses on pharmaceuticals. He has published more than 280 journal articles and has co-founded five start-up companies including Micron Biomedical and Clearside Biomedical.

Tanima Sinha comes to us from BARDA, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) within the offices of the Assistance Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).  As a lead interdisciplinary scientist at BARDA, she is responsible for overseeing, contracts with industry to further develop promising pandemic influenza and Zika virus vaccine candidates; and SARS-CoV-2 pre-clinical task orders, by providing technical and scientific direction along with regulatory and budgetary oversight. 

Prior to her tenure at BARDA, Tanima gained valuable regulatory knowledge at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), Division of Antiviral Products (DAVP) as a Regulatory Health Project Manager. 

Before moving to a more administrative scientific role, Tanima acquired laboratory experience from her work at USAMRIID (U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases) and laboratories at the National Cancer Institute-Frederick Cancer Research & Development Center (NCI-FCRDC).

Tanima received her Bachelor of Science in Microbiology from the University of Pittsburgh and Master of Science degrees from the Johns Hopkins University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London.

Stephen Pitt, Ph.D. is the Head of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS US North East which includes the JLABS @ NYC, JPOD @ Boston, JLABS @ LabCentral, JLABS @ M2D2 and JPOD @ Philadelphia. He is responsible for external engagement, innovation sourcing, company onboarding, portfolio management, operational excellence, educational programming and P&L. He catalyzes and supports the translation of science and technology into valuable solutions for patients and consumers across the pharmaceutical, medical device, consumer and healthtech sectors.

Steve joined JLABS from GlaxoSmithKline, where he was Senior Director of Emerging Science Innovation and Head of the Digital Innovation Hub R&D Team.  At GSK, Steve led externally focused R&D teams that shifted pipeline strategies from basic symptom relief to holistic disease management to transform self-care.  He also created partnerships with academic institutions, start-ups, corporate partners, hospital systems, and other novel outsourcing collaborators with the aim to build breakthrough technology platforms and products.

Prior to GSK, he continually increased his responsibility as an R&D leader over 15 years in drug discovery, pharmaceutical development and consumer healthcare at Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Bayer, and in biotech.  His experiences include drug discovery and advancing compounds to clinical trials, pharmaceutical development and commercialization of novel Rx Drugs, and consumer health product development in upstream innovation groups to shape and launch new external technologies.

Steve earned his Ph.D. in Molecular Pharmacology from Cornell Medical School and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.  At Cornell, Steve pioneered computational molecular dynamic drug discovery approaches.  He also holds several patents and has published in top scientific journals.

As Regional Head of JLABS @ Washington, DC, Sally sets the strategic direction and oversees all operational activities for JLABS in the greater Washington metro region, including Maryland and Virginia. In this role, Sally is responsible for the process of evaluating and selecting a strong portfolio of innovators for JLABS @ Washington, DC, and building strategic partnerships with corporate, academic, government and industry organizations that aim to strengthen the region’s life sciences innovation network.

Sally joined JLABS after serving as Senior Director, Strategy & Operations on the Global External Innovation team at Johnson & Johnson, where she supported portfolio management and reporting and strategic business development efforts across the organization. Prior, Sally was with Janssen R&D, Immunology, where she managed a team in research operations and alliance management for the early discovery to early development portfolio. Sally understands well the needs of healthcare entrepreneurs, having launched her research career at a San-Diego based biotech startup and then working internationally for a UK-based governmental economic development agency creating early-stage biotech and academic collaborative programs aimed at accelerating the development of products to address the needs of patients and consumers.

Sally received her MBA from the University of California Berkeley, Haas School of Business, where she was recognized by ‘Poets and Quants’ as one of the ‘Top 50’ EMBA students across US & International Programs in 2016; a Master of Science Degree in Microbiology / Immunology from Virginia Tech; and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology from Virginia Tech.