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Avanish Vellanki is committed to advancing better treatment options for patients, bringing over 20 years of experience across the healthcare and investment banking sectors. He began his career on Wall Street at Bear Stearns in equity research and later joined Citigroup’s Global Healthcare Investment Banking group, where he advised on large-cap global biopharmaceutical strategic and financing transactions.

In 2009 Avanish joined Proteolix where he contributed to the development of a therapy for patients with multiple myeloma. He went on to serve as Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer at Aptose Biosciences. In 2017 Avanish co-founded Rain Oncology where he served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer through its evolution from a private to a public biotechnology company and through a global registrational clinical trial for its lead precision oncology program.

Avanish holds a BA from Carleton College, an MBS in biochemistry from the University of Minnesota, and MBA from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.

Michael (Mike) Cooke, Ph.D. is the Chief Scientific Officer of Stratus Therapeutics. Mike brings over 30 years of experience in biopharmaceutical research working to discover and develop novel therapies to improve patient outcomes in bone marrow transplant and across autoimmune disease.

Prior to joining Stratus, Mike was Senior Vice President of Research for Cell and Genetic Therapies at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. At Vertex he worked with a team of scientists to develop innovative Cell and Genetic Therapies resulting in the approval of Casgevy an ex-vivo crisper-based genetic therapy to treat Sickle Cell Disease and Beta Thalassemia; advance Zimislecel, a stem cell derived pancreatic islet cell therapy to treat Type 1 Diabetes and develop a Crisper based gene therapy to treat Duchene’s Muscular Dystrophy.

Mike received his Ph.D in Biochemistry from the University of Washington where he studied the role of the src-family kinase, fyn in T cell development and activation with Dr. Roger Perlmutter. He did postdoctoral work at Stanford University with Dr. Chris Goodnow on the molecular mechanism of immune tolerance. In 1994 he joined the hematopoietic stem cell company SyStemix Inc. in Palo Alto, Ca where he was Director of Functional Genomics. He become a founding member of the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) in 1999 where he led a multidisciplinary team responsible for target and therapeutic discovery to treat autoimmune disease, enhance vaccine efficiency and improve bone marrow transplant, resulting in several clinical programs some of which are still active. In 2016, he moved to Boston to become CSO of Magenta Therapeutics a biotechnology company focused on bone marrow transplant and later IFM Therapeutics to discover compounds modulating innate immunity.

Mike has more than 65 publications and is an inventor on numerous patents. His passion to use cutting edge science to improve patient lives.

Robert Negrin, M.D. is a professor of medicine and former Chief of the Division of Blood and Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy at Stanford University.

His research focuses on developing a more fundamental understanding of immune mediated reactions such as graft vs host and graft vs tumor reactions with a particular interest in immune regulatory mechanisms. Dr. Negrin has published over 300 manuscripts and 44 book chapters. He has won a number of awards including fellowships from the Damon Runyon Walter Winchell Cancer Fund and the Jose Carreras International Leukemia Foundation. He was a recipient of a Distinguished Clinical Science Award from the Doris Duke Foundation. He received the E. Donnall Thomas lectureship from ASTCT.

Dr. Negrin is currently the President-Elect of the American Society of Hematology and will be President in 2026. Previously, he served as the President of the International Society of Cellular Therapy and the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation (currently American Society of Transplantation and Cellular Therapy)

Dr. Negrin received his undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley and MD from Harvard Medical School. He trained in Internal Medicine and Hematology at Stanford University and joined the faculty at Stanford University in 1990.

David H. Kirske is Chief Financial Officer at Stratus Therapeutics, bringing extensive experience in finance, accounting and investor relations for both public and emerging private companies across biotechnology, technology, and manufacturing sectors. His expertise spans financial management, operations, and capital strategy across both debt and equity markets.

Prior to joining Stratus, David served as Chief Financial Officer at CTI BioPharma, where he played a key leadership role through its acquisition by Sobi in 2023 for $1.7 billion. Prior to CTI, he was Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Helix BioMedix, overseeing all financial and administrative functions. Earlier in his career, David held senior finance roles at F5 Networks and Redhook Brewery, where he helped guide both companies through successful initial public offerings. He also held a controllership position at Cray Computer, managing financial operations for corporate and international entities.

David holds a B.A. in Business Administration from the University of Puget Sound.

Claire Barry brings over 20 years of extensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry, serving as an EU Qualified Person (QP) with specialized expertise in aseptic processing, quality assurance, and quality systems. She has demonstrated a strong ability to drive quality excellence in complex environments, with a particular focus on sterile product manufacturing.

Before Stratus, Claire successfully led the quality function in obtaining a MIA for an Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products manufacturing facility in the West of Ireland. Claire works cross-functionally with product development, operations, and leadership teams to create and implement robust quality systems, drive innovation, and mitigate risk, to foster a culture of accountability and high performance.

Claire holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the National University of Ireland Maynooth and a Master of Science degree from Trinity College Dublin.

Jay Sorensen brings over 25 years of GMP Manufacturing, Validation, Supply Chain, and Facilities experience to support clinical production of cell and gene therapies and commercial production of monoclonal antibody-based biologics.

He has successfully brought manufacturing processes, facilities, materials management, and validation areas into GMP compliance for clinical and commercial use, partnering with Quality Assurance, Regulatory, and Process Development departments with specific emphasis on aseptic processes for cell therapies and large-scale bioreactor production for monoclonal antibodies. This has led to a 100% success rate for the approval of INDs and site licenses for GMP Manufacturing.

Before joining Stratus, Jay held roles of Vice President of Manufacturing at Fate Therapeutics, Sr. Director of Manufacturing and Operations at ViaCyte, and Manager of Manufacturing Sciences and Technologies at IDEC, Biogen IDEC, and Genentech.

Jay obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in Biochemistry and Cell Biology at the University of California San Diego.

Vijaya Tirunagaru, Ph.D. is Vice President of Translational and Clinical Science at Stratus Therapeutics, bringing more than 25 years of pharmaceutical industry experience across research, translational and clinical spanning multiple therapeutic areas, including oncology, metabolic disorders, pain, and neuroscience.

Before Stratus, Vijaya was Senior Vice President and head of research at Rain Oncology, where she led scientific strategy, translational research, biomarker development for phase 2/3 programs and early-stage program development. Earlier in her career, Vijaya held roles of increasing responsibility at AstraZeneca and Aragen Life Sciences leading drug discovery teams to deliver clinical candidates in multiple therapeutic areas, disease area strategy, novel drug discovery target identification, translational/clinical strategy, competitive intelligence and business development.

Vijaya holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad, India.

Ranga brings over 15 years of experience in the biotechnology industry, with deep expertise in strategic growth and corporate development. At Stratus, Ranga leads internal operations, business development, and other key growth initiatives.

Before Stratus, Ranga served as Chief of Staff to the CEO at Rain Oncology and Head of Business Development, where he played a key role that ultimately culminated in the company’s acquisition. Earlier in his career, Ranga held roles of increasing responsibilities at Amgen, contributing in the areas of commercial operations, competitive strategy and market insights.

Ranga holds a M.Sc. (Biological Sciences) degree from BITS Pilani, India and a Master of Business and Science (MBS) from Keck Graduate Institute – a member of the Claremont Colleges.

Eric is a seasoned legal and contracts executive with over two decades of experience across consumer retail and biotechnology. Prior to joining Stratus, he served as the Head of Legal Operations at Denali Therapeutics, where he oversaw the Contracts, Records, and Paralegal teams and played a key role on the Legal Leadership Team. His remit included shaping legal strategy and ensuring organizational compliance, with a particular focus on privacy and operations within the Development function.