David Cruz Walma, DPhil/DMD

Volunteer, Program Development Officer

Geoffrey Lynn M.D., D.Phil

Senior Vice President
Barinthus Biotherapeutics

As Senior Vice President at Barinthus Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ, BRNS), Geoffrey Lynn, MD, PhD, is helping to lead innovation and pipeline strategy for developing next generation immunotherapies for cancer, autoimmune and infectious diseases.

Prior to joining Barinthus, Dr. Lynn led Avidea Technologies, Inc. as CEO and founder from its launch at Johns Hopkins to its acquisition by Vaccitech, Plc in 2021. His role at Avidea involved leading financing, team expansion, and operational management including overseeing research and development of a diverse portfolio of immunotherapy candidates supported by varied revenue sources.

Dr. Lynn trained as a visiting scientist in the laboratory of Professor Christopher Jewell at the Fischell Department of Engineering at UMD and as a post-doctoral fellow with Dr. Robert Seder at the Vaccine Research Center of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Dr. Lynn received a Medical Degree from Johns Hopkins University and obtained a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Oxford as an NIH-Oxford-Cambridge Scholar and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. He received his B.S. in chemistry from Elon University where he was a Goldwater Scholar.

Elodie Ghedin, Ph.D.

Co-Scientific Director
NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program

Dr. Dr. Elodie Ghedin obtained her Ph.D. in 1998 from McGill University’s Institute of Parasitology in Montreal, Canada. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at NIAID on the cell biology of Leishmania donovani, in 2000 she joined The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR; now the J. Craig Venter Institute) where she worked with Dr. Najib El-Sayed on the annotation of trypanosomatid genomes. There she led her own group on the Brugia malayi and Influenza Virus genome projects. In 2006 she joined the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine where she was part of the Department of Computational and Systems Biology and the Center for Vaccine Research. In 2014 she moved to New York University where she was a professor of biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, and a professor of epidemiology in the School of Global Public Health. From 2017 to 2019, she served as director of NYU’s Center for Genomics and Systems Biology. In May 2020, Dr. Ghedin joined NIAID’s Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases as a senior investigator. She also holds an affiliated position with New York University. Dr. Ghedin is a MacArthur Foundation Fellow (2011), a Kavli Frontier of Science Fellow (2012), and an American Academy of Microbiology Fellow (2017).

Source: https://irp.nih.gov/pi/elodie-ghedin

Mary Dasso, Ph.D.

Co-Scientific Director
NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program

Dr. Mary Dasso is a Senior Investigator in the Division of Intramural Research, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD-DIR). Dr. Dasso received her BA in Chemistry from the Clark Honors College at the University of Oregon. She was awarded a Marshall Scholarship to study at the University of Cambridge. After receiving her PhD in Biochemistry, she was awarded a Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellowship to work at the University of California, San Diego. She then moved to the NICHD-DIR, where she continues to lead a highly active research group. Dr. Dasso’s studies focus on non-canonical roles of the nuclear transport machinery. Proteins of the nuclear pore complex (nucleoporins) have been implicated in cellular functions beyond nucleocytoplasmic transport, including chromosome organization, gene expression, cell signaling and cell-cycle control. Understanding the activities of individual nucleoporins has been historically difficult because of their multifaceted nature, abundance, and unusual stability. To overcome these issues, she developed human tissue-culture cells that allow conditional depletions of individual nucleoporins, and used this system to define the mechanisms through which individual nucleoporins contribute to nuclear pore structure, nuclear trafficking, gene expression and development. She is currently investigating tissue-specific roles of nucleoporins, with the hope of understanding how disruption of nucleoporin functions causes genetic diseases and neurodegenerative conditions. Beyond her own laboratory, Dr. Dasso has held Intramural NIH leadership positions, including recent service as the NICHD-DIR Acting Scientific Director. She has received numerous awards in recognition of her accomplishments, including a 2020 NIH Director’s Award and a 2021 NICHD Merit Award, as well as selection as a fellow of the American Society for Cell Biology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Source: https://irp.nih.gov/pi/mary-dasso

Jenny Dworzak, MD, PhD

Director of Business Development 

Dr. Dworzak is a physician-scientist experienced in early-stage life science and health-tech commercialization, health system strategy and operations; and development of both enterprise and consumer-facing digital health tools.

She is currently, serving on advisory boards of early stage health-tech startups and investing at the intersection of technology and healthcare to drive value, precision, and equity.