Ferd Massari is CEO of  ProTgen and works in the company’s headquarters in mid-town Manhattan. Prior to ProTgen, Ferd was a C-suite executive at various early-stage companies including President of R&D at Kintai Therapeutics, a company created out of Flagship Pioneering and Chief Medical Officer at various companies such as Deep Genomics and Coley Pharmaceuticals.   Prior to his work over the last 14 years in the entrepreneurial, startup space, Ferd served as  VP and Global Head of Clinical and Medical Affairs in the rare diseases division of Shire, Vice President of Worldwide Medical Affairs at Pfizer, Vice President of Clinical Research at Pharmacia, and Director of Infectious Diseases at Merck Research Laboratories developing treatments for HIV infection.

Ferd trained in internal medicine after obtaining his medical degree at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia under an NHSC scholarship. He received his Allergy & Immunology training at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the laboratory of the Director, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, under a NRSA scholarship researching the immunopathogenesis of HIV.

Juan Carlos (JC) Zúñiga-Pflücker is a Professor and former Chair (2012-2023) of the Department of Immunology, University of Toronto, and a Senior Scientist at Sunnybrook Research Institute. He is a Canada Research Chair in Developmental Immunology. He received a Ph.D. in Genetics-Immunology from the George Washington University, Washington DC, USA, with his graduate studies performed at the National Cancer Institute, USA. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, USA. His research centers on the study of hematopoiesis, Notch signaling, thymus biology and T lymphocyte lineage commitment and differentiation, with a focus on developing model systems for the study of human T lymphocyte development from stem cells, and the generation of T cells for immune-regeneration and immune-regulatory therapies. His laboratory developed the OP9-DL system and then discovered how to generate T cells from stem cells in a stromal cell-free system. These discoveries led to co-founding Notch Therapeutics and ProTgen, Inc., for which he serves as co-chair of the scientific advisory board, and CSO, respectively. He is a Distinguish Fellow of the American Society of Immunologists and has served as Councillor, Vice-President, and President of the Canadian Society for Immunology.

After receiving her Ph.D. in Neuropharmacology, Fei’s industrial career began in 2007 at Theravance as an in vivo pharmacologist and led a lab in driving multiple research projects from exploratory, lead optimization to DC nomination and IND filing. Joining Boehringer Ingelheim in 2015, she has steadily taken on roles of increasing responsibility in Research. During the 13-year she spent in the R&D organizations, Fei and her team have contributed to two approved products and many assets in the clinical pipeline ranging from Ph1 to Ph3. In 2020, she joined the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund USA as an Investment Director and took over the Managing Director role in 2021 to lead the US Operations. Fei has served/is serving Board role in ProTgen, Rgenta Therapeutics, ArrePath, xCures, STRM. Bio, Libra and Abexxa Biologics.