Dr. Kalos is an expert in T cell therapy and immunotherapy with 30 years of experience in cell therapy, immuno-oncology, and oncology vaccines, bringing extensive scientific and operational expertise to these fields. He is the Founder and Managing Director at Next Pillar Consulting, where he provides consulting and advising services in the biopharmaceutical and venture space. Additionally, he serves as a Senior Venture Partner and Head of Cell Therapy for Orange Grove Bio, an integrated biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing therapies to improve patient lives; at Orange Grove Bio, he is also the CEO of the subsidiary company IpiNovyx. Dr. Kalos serves on Corporate Boards of Directors and Scientific Advisory Boards for various public and private biopharmaceutical companies.

Over the span of his career, Dr. Kalos has held C-suite, executive, and leadership roles in several organizations. These roles include Executive Vice President and Head of R&D at ArsenalBio, where he led the R&D and product development strategy for the company’s first product; Vice President of Immuno-Oncology and Oncology Cell Therapies at Janssen, where he led internal and external corporate strategies in cell therapy, neoantigen vaccines, and immuno-oncology; and Chief Scientific Officer of Immuno-Oncology at Eli Lilly and Company, where he established and integrated internal and external strategies in immuno-oncology, including biologics, bi-specifics, vaccines, and cell therapy.

Before joining the biopharmaceutical sector, Dr. Kalos spent 10 years in academia, where he established and led translational laboratories at City of Hope and the University of Pennsylvania. At the University of Pennsylvania, he founded and directed the Translational and Correlative Studies Laboratory, where his team developed the paradigm for translational research in cell therapy and played a pivotal role in the early development of the CTL019 program, which led to the approval of Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel).

Dr. Kalos earned his PhD from the University of Minnesota and completed post-doctoral training in the laboratory of Phil Greenberg at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Over the course of his career, he has co-authored over 85 peer-reviewed manuscripts, including numerous high-impact and field-defining articles, and holds 32 issued patents in cell therapy, immunotherapy, and vaccines. He is also an active advisory member for international immunotherapy consortia and societies and frequently speaks at national and international scientific meetings.