Andrea van Elsas became Chief Scientific Officer of Aduro Biotech Europe in November 2015. Prior to its acquisition by Aduro in 2015, Dr. Andrea van Elsas co-founded BioNovion and served as Chief Scientific Officer focusing on the development of innovative therapeutic antibodies in the field of immune oncology. From 1999 to 2011, he held numerous positions at Organon in Oss, The Netherlands, and Cambridge, Massachusetts (acquired by Schering-Plough Corporation in 2007 and later by Merck & Co.), and as the Director of Tumor Immunology he ran the immune oncology portfolio including the program that later became known as pembrolizumab. As a postdoctoral researcher from 1997-1999, Andrea worked at the University of California, Berkeley, studying antibodies blocking CTLA-4 for the treatment of cancer and is a co-inventor on the original patents that formed the basis for the development of Yervoy (ipilimumab), the first checkpoint inhibitor approved in 2011 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of melanoma.  

 Immune oncology