phd-scientist
(2)
Kim Jaffe
Kim Jaffe, PhD, is Chief Business Officer at BlueSphere Bio, a Pittsburgh-based clinical-stage biotech building personalized T-cell receptor therapies for cancer using its TCXpress discovery platform. A bench scientist turned dealmaker, she trained in cell and molecular biology at Northwestern and Princeton, ran cell-line development and R&D at clinical-stage oncology companies, and now leads strategy, partnerships, and business development as the company pushes TCR T-cell candidates toward high-risk leukemias.
Sofia Touami
Sofia Touami, Ph.D., is the Chief Business Officer of Lycia Therapeutics, a South San Francisco biotech pioneering lysosomal targeting chimeras (LYTACs) - a platform invented by Nobel laureate Carolyn Bertozzi to degrade disease-causing extracellular proteins. A trained organic chemist who earned her Ph.D. at Stanford and did postdoctoral work at The Scripps Research Institute, Touami has built a career as one of biotech's sharpest dealmakers, having orchestrated major transactions including Frontier Medicines' landmark global collaboration with AbbVie before joining Lycia in July 2023. She helped close Lycia's oversubscribed $106.6 million Series C in May 2024, positioning the company to bring its LYTAC-based autoimmune therapies into clinical trials.