The Antibody Society, Inc., an international non-profit trade association focused on the advancement of antibody research and development, is pleased to announce the election of Drs. Alexey Lugovskoy and John Desjarlais to the Board of Directors, the election of Peter Ros as the Society’s Treasurer, and the promotion of Janice Reichert to Chief Operating Officer. They assumed these roles on January 1, 2023.
These Directors and Officers bring substantial experience and expertise to their new roles. Drs. Lugovskoy and Desjarlais have each made seminal contributions to the field of antibody discovery and development and have critical experience with building successful collaborations, partnerships and alliances. Peter Ros brings finance and accounting expertise and over twenty years of financial experience within biotech business operations, while Dr. Reichert brings expertise in business intelligence and seven years of experience as the Society’s Executive Director to her new role as COO.
Prof. Paul Parren, Chair of the Society’s Board of Directors remarked “I look forward to working with Alex, John, Peter, and Janice in their new roles. Their valued contributions and expertise will enable us to further professionalize the Society and increase its ability to support the field of therapeutic antibody drug development by stimulating the interchange of ideas with opinion leaders and policy makers.”
Alexey Lugovskoy, Ph.D., President and CEO of Diagonal Therapeutics and Entrepreneur in Residence at Atlas Venture.
During his 20+ year career in biotechnology, Dr. Lugovskoy guided multiple oncology, autoimmunity, and rare disease programs into the clinic serving as COO of Dragonfly Therapeutics, CDO of Morphic Therapeutic, Vice President of Therapeutics at Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, and Associate Director of Drug Discovery at Biogen. He is an author of over 100 patents and manuscripts, and an Associate Editor of mAbs. He received an Advanced Certificate for Executives in Management, Innovation and Technology from MIT Sloan School of Management, a Ph.D. in Biophysics from Harvard University, an M.Sc. in Molecular Biophysics, and a B.Sc. in Mathematics and Physics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.
John Desjarlais, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer, Xencor
Dr. Desjarlais is an internationally recognized leader in the field of antibody and protein engineering for the creation of novel therapeutic modalities to treat a variety of diseases, including autoimmune diseases and cancer. Dr. Desjarlais oversees all of Xencor’s discovery research and preclinical activities, from project conception and candidate generation through preclinical proof-of-concept and early development. Prior to Xencor, Dr. Desjarlais was an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Penn State University (1997-2001), where he developed and tested computational methods for the de novo design of proteins. He began his work in the field of protein design as a Jane Coffin Childs Fellow at U.C. Berkeley. Dr. Desjarlais holds a Ph.D. in Biophysics from the Johns Hopkins University and a B.S. degree in Physics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Peter Ros, RA, Vice President of Finance at Lava Therapeutics
Mr. Ros serves as Vice President of Finance at Lava Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on developing bispecific gamma-delta T cell engagers to transform cancer therapy, since January 2020. Prior to joining Lava Therapeutics, he served in various roles at Genmab, including as Senior Director of Accounting and Finance from October 2018 to December 2019, Senior Director of Finance and Accounting, R&D Operations from July 2015 to September 2018 and (Senior) Director of Finance from November 2001 to June 2015. Mr. Ros also served as an Accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers from September 1993 to April 1999. He received a RA title in accountancy from VU Amsterdam (1998) and his HEAO RA degree in accountancy from Windesheim University (1993).
Janice Reichert, Ph.D., Chief Operating Officer of The Antibody Society
Dr. Reichert is an internationally-recognized expert in the development of antibody therapeutics. She served as the Executive Director of The Antibody Society from 2016 to 2022. Dr. Reichert is Founder and Editor-in-Chief of mAbs, a Society-affiliated journal that focuses on topics relevant to antibody research and development. Dr. Reichert has published extensively on development trends for antibody therapeutics, and she has presented her research results as an invited speaker at conferences held worldwide. Dr. Reichert received her PhD in Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania and did her post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School.
About The Antibody Society
The Antibody Society, Inc. is an international non-profit trade association representing individuals and organizations involved in antibody research and development. The Society is an authoritative source of information about antibody therapeutics development, which is disseminated via our website, presentations and publications. In addition, the Society organizes conferences and webinars on antibody research and development and related topics. The Society also serves as the home for the Adaptive Immune Receptor Repertoire Community, which focuses on developing standards and protocols for curating, analyzing and sharing antibody B and T cell receptors. As a business association, the Society can engage with government and international agencies such as the World Health Organization to discuss topics that are important to the antibody community, such as international naming conventions. To keep up to date with antibody-related news, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
