Team

Masha Fridkis-Hareli, M.Sc., Ph.D. is an immunologist, consultant and inventor with over 30 years of experience in academia and industry. During her post-doctoral training at Harvard University she designed and developed a group of novel compounds for treatment of autoimmune diseases that advanced to Phase II clinical trials. From 2001 to 2005, Dr. Fridkis-Hareliserved as Principal investigator at the Molecular Immunology Foundation at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. From 2006 through 2011, she held a variety of positions with increasing responsibilities at Resolvix Pharmaceuticals, Charles River Laboratories, and TaligenTherapeutics, where in the role of Associate Scientific Director she contributed to discovery and development of Taligen’s drug pipeline leading to acquisition by Alexion Pharmaceuticals. Her areas of expertise include in vitro pharmacology, protein- and cell-based assays, flow cytometry and preclinical immunotoxicology. Dr. Fridkis-Hareli is a co-author of over 100 publications and 17 issued patents. She is an Adjunct Professor at the Harvard Extension School, Northeastern University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Framingham State University, where she teaches courses in biotechnology and immunology at the Graduate Biotechnology Programs. Dr. Fridkis-Hareli is a Past President of the Association for Women in Science in Massachusetts. She holds a B.A. in Biology from Technion, Israeli Institute of Technology, an M.Sc. in Molecular Microbiology from the Hebrew University and a Ph.D. in Immunology from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. 

Katherine J. Turner, M.S., Ph.D. is a biologist, consultant, and an industry expert in biopharmaceutical drug discovery and development with over 30 years of experience. She rose through numerous positions of increasing responsibilities at Genetics Institute and its successor Wyeth to Vice President Immunology and Homeostasis and research co-chair of the Immunology and Transplantation therapeutic area. From 2001 to 2005, Dr. Turner served as Vice President, Validation Biology at BiogenIdecInc., where she directed biological research in immunology, oncology, neurobiology, and fibrosis. In 2006 she joined a small company NUCR Pharmaceuticals and was appointed Vice President Research and Development in June 2007.  In these roles, DrTurner made key contributions to the discovery and development of numerous recombinant cytokines, growth factors and therapeutic antibodies. She was CDO at Attogen, a small start up focused on biologics for oncology and inflammation, an associate at CBT advisors, a consulting firm in Cambridge MA and an independent research and development consultant to start-up and small companies, and a Senior Vice President of Research at Scholar Rock LLC, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the treatment of serious diseases in which protein growth factors play a fundamental role.  She serves as a mentor and advisor to several small companies and sits on several boards. Dr. Turner holds a B.Sc. Hons in Biology from the University of Sussex, Brighton, England and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia.  She carried out post-doctoral research at the University of London, UK and Brandeis University, Waltham MA.

Dalia Cohen, M.Sc., Ph.D. is a pharmaceutical industry expert in the intersection of drug discovery, personalized medicine and genomic technologies with over 25 years of experience. She is a Chief Scientific Officer at NemDX, a diagnostic company offering their proprietary assays to rapidly identify cancer mutations, bacteria or proteins in patient’s samples. Dr. Cohen is a Senior Advisor to Outcome Capital, a firm providing M&A, capital raise and advisory services in life science markets, and a founder of ALN Associates, a life sciences consultancy providing services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and academia and venture capital firms. Dr. Cohen served as the Chief Scientific Officer at Asterand where she designed, led and implemented the company scientific strategy. Before this appointment, Dr. Cohen served as the Chief Scientific Officer of Rosetta Genomics, a microRNA-based diagnostic company. During her four years at Rosetta Genomics, she led the company’s product development and launched three cancer diagnostic tests. Prior to joining Rosetta Genomics, Dr. Cohen worked for 15 years at Novartis and held several executive positions including Vice President & Global Head of the Functional Genomics Department where she led multi-disciplinary teams in Switzerland and the United States. Prior to Novartis, Dr. Cohen was at Sandoz Pharmaceutical as a Research Fellow in the Oncology department and was the Group Leader for the development of several compounds. Dr. Cohen was an Adjunct Professor at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School from 2003 to 2013. Dr. Cohen is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Massachusetts Life Science Center and on the Scientific Advisory Board for MyoSyntax, Cambridge BioSource, Rhenovia, RealBio and on the Strategic and Scientific Advisory Board of Emerald Bio. Dr. Cohen also serves as a mentor for new entrepreneurs. On March 2013, Dr. Cohen was elected to serve on the MassBioForum Advisory Board. Dr. Cohen has published over 60 scientific papers. Dr. Cohen holds a M.Sc. in virology and a Ph.D. in Cell Biology from the Faculty of Medicine at Technion, Israeli Institute of Technology, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.