Team

Dr. Alpert is a scientist who founded Emmune, Inc., to develop eCD4-Ig and adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors for treating and preventing HIV infection. Dr. Alpert received his Ph.D. in Virology from Harvard University, and his B.S. in Biological Sciences from Cornell University. After completion of his Ph.D., Dr. Alpert was recognized with the 2012 Bernard N. Fields Prize, which is awarded to the M.D. or Ph.D. candidate within the Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology of Harvard Medical School who best exemplifies the virtues of intellectual creativity, collegiality, and compassion displayed by former Department Chairman Bernard N. Fields. Dr. Alpert’s research has focused on experimental vaccine approaches for HIV. His Ph.D. research at the New England Primate Research Center (NEPRC) at Harvard Medical School aimed to understand the immune responses elicited by live-attenuated vaccines against simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), and how these immune responses are able to provide complete protection in the absence of detectable neutralizing antibodies. In the course of this research, Dr. Alpert developed the assay for measuring antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) that has since been adopted as the ‘gold standard’ by the field. Dr. Alpert’s measures of ADCC based on this assay were used for the primary immune correlates analysis of the RV144 HIV vaccine clinical trial. Based on the extraordinary difficulty of eliciting protective antibody responses against HIV, Dr. Alpert has re-focused on AAV-expressed eCD4-Ig as the fastest, simplest, and most plausible route to effective vaccine-like protection against HIV. To advance these efforts, Dr. Alpert founded Emmune, Inc. with Drs. Michael Farzan, Charles Bailey, Matthew Gardner, and Guocai Zhong.

Life-long prophylaxis or treatment through a single administration of a gene therapy vector would be transformative for many diseases, including HIV, but irreversible intervention is not without risk. In case of adverse events, it would be important to have the option of inactivating the therapeutic gene or vector. Dr. Zhong’s research focuses on developing switches for controlling therapeutic genes delivered by gene therapy vectors. In addition to turning off a therapeutic gene in case of adverse events, switching technology enables dosing. The ability to inactivate or reduce the dose of a therapeutic gene is an important safety feature.

Dr. Trimarchi’s received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His post-doctoral fellowship was in the laboratory of Dr. Constance Cepko at Harvard Medical School. Before joining Emmune, Dr. Trimarchi ran his own academic research laboratory at Iowa State University. Dr. Trimarchi leads AAV vector optimization at Emmune.

Dr. Hao’s Ph.D. is from the University of Waterloo in Canada. Prior to Emmune, Dr. Hao was a biochemist in the Department of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute. Dr. Hao’s expertise and work at Emmune focuses on protein biochemistry, including analytical and preparative chromatography.

Kimberly Conkright is a highly-experienced scientist who joined Emmune after nearly a decade working as a research assistant in laboratories at The Scripps Research Institute. Kimberly’s responsibilities at Emmune include ensuring the operational success of pharmacokinetics studies in rats and mice. This includes the preparation and maintenance of IACUC protocols, administering recombinant proteins and AAV vectors to animals, sample and data collection, and overseeing other personnel involved in these studies.

Barney Alfant possesses a Master’s degree in Medical Sciences from the University of Florida. His past employments include Florida Biologix, a GMP biological manufacturing facility, which produced both recombinant proteins and AAV vectors for human clinical trials. Prior to joining Emmune, Barney was in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Farzan at The Scripps Research Institute, where he worked in Dr. Farzan’s eCD4-Ig and AAV programs. In total, Barney has fifteen years of hands-on experience in research laboratories. At Emmune, Barney’s responsibilities include molecular cloning, virological assays (e.g., virus neutralization), protein production, protein characterization, and pharmacokinetics studies.

Jihyeon Moody earned her Master’s degree in International Business from Graduate School of Pan-pacific studies, KyungHee University, South Korea. She ensures Emmune is in compliance with single audit and update HR policy. She is an Accounting and Financial professional with over 10 years of experience in financial modeling, detailed budget analysis, database mining, and formulating results from multiple sources into actionable information.