Key Products

A lack of cancer-specific targets, coupled with lack of long-term persistence and sensitivity, create significant challenges in the field of immuno-oncology. Mnemo is tackling these problems by discovering novel cancer targets while boosting immune activity to treat solid tumors. Mnemo’s approach combines:

– A cancer-specific target discovery engine

– Probes unexplored portions of the genome

– Addresses safety and efficacy across immunotherapy

– Modality agnostic with applications in cell therapy and beyond

Persistent and highly active T cells

– Improve pool of memory T cells

– Drive therapeutic efficacy

– Increase resistance to immune exhaustion

– Prevent tumor relapse

A highly sensitive novel T cell receptor

– HLA-independent

– Addresses low antigen levels

– Elicits enhanced potency

Key Executives

Robert LaCaze, Chief Executive Officer

Robert LaCaze is Chief Executive Officer at Mnemo. An accomplished and recognized leader with a focus on driving innovation and value for patients, Robert brings over 30 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry with a specialty in Oncology. Previously as the Executive Vice President and Head of the Oncology Strategic Business Unit at Bayer, Robert oversaw the Oncology franchise of Bayer AG globally. Before joining Bayer in 2015 as Senior Vice President, Head of Oncology, Robert was the Senior Vice President, Global Oncology at Bristol-Myers Squibb and co-led the Oncology Disease Strategy team with direct responsibility to set and implement the vision, and strategy for the Oncology franchise at Bristol-Myers Squibb, including Immuno-Oncology (I-O). Robert currently serves on the Louisiana Tech College of Business Administration Advisory Board and is a member of AACR and BioCentury. Robert received a Bachelor of Science in business marketing from Louisiana Tech University.

Alain Maiore, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer

Alain Maiore is Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Mnemo. Alain is a serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist who brings 30 years of experience in executive leadership and board member experiences in Europe and the US to Mnemo. Alain started his career as CEO of Gene Shears, Pty Ltd., a company focused on ribozyme technology and one of the first historical gene therapy companies in the world. Alain then moved to Cerep as COO and Evotec as Executive Vice President of Business and Corporate Development, where he contributed to IPOs at both companies and executed large corporate and BD transactions. As a venture capitalist, Alain started out developing Ventech, a biotech franchise in Paris, then moved on to create and lead Kurma Partners for several years. Kurma Partners was built with the idea of assembling one of the first investment partnerships between venture capital and top-tier European academic institutions. Alain is a graduate from Ecole Superieure d’Agriculture d’Angers, and Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Toulouse.

François Gaudet, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer

François Gaudet, PhD, is the Chief Scientific Officer at Mnemo. Previously, as Director & Head of Multiple Myeloma Drug Discovery at Johnson & Johnson he was the Discovery lead for J&J’s CD3 redirection platform. His team produced five CD3 bispecific antibody programs that entered clinical trials in heme malignancies, including teclistamab (BCMAxCD3) and talquetamab (GPRC5DxCD3), both currently in Phase 2. He was also the Discovery lead for J&J’s internal CAR T platform. Prior to J&J, François led cancer epigenetics programs at Novartis. Between J&J and Novartis, François brings nearly 20 years of industry leadership experience in oncology drug discovery. He also authored several scientific publications, including 2 back-to-back papers in Science Magazine. François did his graduate work at MIT in the lab of Rudolf Jaenisch and received his PhD from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

Christine Foster, DPhil, Chief Business Officer

Christine Foster, DPhil, is Chief Business Officer at Mnemo. An accomplished business leader with a strong scientific background, Christine has more than 30 years of industry experience in both biotechnology companies and large pharmaceutical organizations. Christine developed and executed strategic partnerships in the transformative field of genome editing with Intellia Therapeutics and Metagenomi Therapeutics where she guided acquisitions; played a critical role in the execution of deals with Affini-T Therapeutics, Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Novartis; and established novel co-development and co-commercialization relationships with Onk Therapeutics, SparingVision, Kyverna Therapeutics and Avencell. She has led business development, alliance management and corporate development activities through key phases of growth at Acceleron Pharma, Sunovion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Teva Pharmaceuticals, Wyeth (now Pfizer) and GlaxoSmithKline, among others. Trained as a scientist, Christine earned a D.Phil. in pharmacology from the University of Oxford and completed post-doctoral fellowships at Brandeis University in neuroscience and the University of Massachusetts Medical School in cardiovascular diseases.

Sebastian Amigorena, PhD, Scientific Co-Founder and Senior Vice President, Immunology

Sebastian Amigorena, PhD is Scientific Co-Founder and Senior Vice President, Immunology at Mnemo. Sebastian has over 25 years of expertise in immunology and cell biology research. In his graduate and post-doctoral studies, he analyzed the functions of IgG receptors and described the molecular basis of their inhibitory properties. He analyzed dendritic cells’ endocytic and phagocytic pathways and described several unique specializations of both pathways, making significant contributions to our understanding of antigen presentation. Sebastian and his team also contributed to the analysis of cytotoxic T cell dynamic migration in vivo, during the initiation of immune responses in lymph nodes and during the invasion and rejection of solid tumors. More recently, he contributed to understanding the biological role of regulatory T cells, and the epigenetic programming of T cell functions, including memory. After completing a 3-year postdoctoral position at Yale University, Sebastian worked at Inserm AVENIR and became head of the Immunology department (INSERM U932, “Cancer Immunity”) at Institut Curie in 2003, and of the Center for Cancer Immunotherapy in 2017. Sebastian obtained his PhD in Biochemistry at Paris Diderot University in 1990.