About us

Our name Enara Bio® is derived from an Arabic word meaning illumination, enlightenment and bringing light into the darkness.

We are the leaders in exploring the hidden depths of cancer and T-cell biology to discover and characterize Dark Antigens®, a novel class of shared immunotherapy targets that arise from altered cellular processes in cancer cells. We believe that Dark Antigens have the core attributes that will enable cancer immunotherapies to improve treatment outcomes for broad patient populations.

Enara Bio is backed by prominent life science investors, including RA Capital, Samsara Biocapital and SV Health Investors. We collaborate with world-leading companies and academic institutions, such as Boehringer Ingelheim and the Francis Crick Institute, to help drive our differentiated science-led approach.

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The Team

Andrew Fadden
Vice President, Corporate Development
Kevin Pojasek
President and Chief Executive Officer
David Watson
Chief Operating Officer
Sophie Papa
Chief Medical Officer
Joseph Dukes
Chief Scientific Officer
David Watson (Chief Operating Officer), Andrew Fadden (Vice President, Corporate Development), Kevin Pojasek (President and Chief Executive Officer), Joe Dukes (Chief Scientific Officer), Sophie Papa (Chief Medical Officer)
Charlotte Howard (Associate Director, Corporate and Executive Administration)
Kate Fynes (Cell Process Development Lead, Principal Scientist), Assa Oumie (Associate Director), Selsabil Dhaouadi (Scientist)
Jo Senra (Associate Director, Preclinical Validation), Veronica Freire-Beneitez (Senior Scientist), Vicki Jefferson (Scientist)
Emily Lam (Senior Scientist), Duncan Howie (Director of Immunology), Suzanne Cole (Principal Scientist),
Luke Williams (Senior Director, Biology)
Beth Turner (Head of Product and Pipeline Project Management), Simon Jarvis (IT Director), Kate Nicholson (Head of Business Operations), Jonathon Dines (Finance Director), Ray Duffy (Director, Facilities & EHS)
Adam Taylor (Senior Director, Business Insights and Strategy), Andrew Fadden (Vice President, Corporate Development), Jonathan Porter (Director, Intellectual Property)
Rayner Queiroz (Senior Scientist), Fabio Marino (Director, Immunopeptidomics), Rose Gathungu (Principal Scientist)
Duncan Howie (Director, Immunology)
Sophie Papa (Chief Medical Officer), Joseph Dukes (Chief Scientific Officer)
Eleanor Denham (Senior Scientist), Phyllis Tea (Research Associate)
Jon Silk (Director, MR1 Research)
Jo Senra (Associate Director, Preclinical Validation), Veronica Freire-Beneitez (Senior Scientist), Vicki Jefferson (Scientist), Emily Tye (Associate Scientist)
Adam Taylor (Senior Director, Business Insights and Strategy), Andrew Fadden (Vice President, Corporate Development)
Ron Wolchinsky (Associate Director, Molecular Immunology)
Emily Lam (Senior Scientist), Suzanne Cole (Principal Scientist), Phyllis Tea (Research Associate), Terri Cornforth (Principal Scientist), Eleanor Denham (Senior Scientist), Duncan Howie (Director of Immunology)

Board of Directors

Scientific Advisory Board

Houman Ashrafian

Chairperson and co-founder

Houman is a Managing Partner at SV Health Investors and co-founded Enara Bio in 2016.

He has founded four SV portfolio companies. Alongside Enara Bio, this includes TRex Bio, a discovery stage company focused on the functional manipulation of T-regs in a tissue-specific and disease-specific fashion to deliver transformative therapies for multiple diseases. Houman is currently a director at TRex Bio, Sytrix, Zarodex Therapeutics and Karus Therapeutics. Houman also serves on the Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF) Investment Committee. Prior to joining SV, Houman co-founded the services company Cardiac Report in 2003, as well as Heart Metabolics in 2008. He went on to become Vice President and Head of the Clinical Science Group at UCB.

Houman is a cardiologist by training, gaining his BM BCh and a DPhil, from the University of Oxford. He was appointed as an Honorary Consultant Cardiologist at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford in 2011. He is also Visiting Professor and head of Experimental Therapeutics at the University of Oxford.