About Adze Biotechnology
Adze Biotechnology is a clinical stage company developing a portfolio of
systemically deliverable oncolytic immunotherapies for the treatment of cancers with significant unmet needs.
Adze Solves Key Problems in Cancer Immunotherapy
Our goal is to help patients overcome cancer immune evasion and enable and drive their immune systems to develop durable anti-tumor immunities.
Our immunotherapies are based on a proprietary oncolytic platform developed at the Mayo Clinic that allows for systemic, targeted delivery and localized amplification of therapeutic payloads in tumors.
Adze immunotherapies kill tumors directly through cell lysis and can carry clinically validated immune-stimulatory and checkpoint inhibitor proteins to reprogram the tumor microenvironment.
Checkpoint inhibitors (CPIs) comprise a $28+ billion market. However, there are four major shortcomings with CPIs:
- CPIs don’t kill cancer cells directly. CPIs merely “release the brakes” on a patient’s CD8+ T cells, which then kill cancer cells.
- T cells often cannot specifically recognize cancer cells to kill them.
- T cell function often becomes impaired due to factors in the tumor microenvironment.
- T cells often can’t infiltrate many types of tumors. These are referred to as ‘cold’ tumors.
Adze oncolytic immunotherapies solves these problems by:
Killing cancer cells directly, while releasing tumor neoantigens.
Allowing T cells to recognize cancer cells via the released neoantigens.
Delivering immune stimulatory payloads to stimulate T cell function.
Generating markers of immunogenic cell death which increases T cells infiltration in tumors (turning ‘cold’ tumors ‘hot’).
Leadership Team
Sidney Hopps
CEO and Co-Founder
Sidney Hopps has 18 years of experience in international financial markets in equity and equity derivatives securitization and sales in New York, Chicago, London, and Paris.
Learn More
Mr Hopps spent many years working with biotechnology companies in the public markets while at UBS and First Albany Corp. Prior to co-founding Adze Biotechnology, Mr Hopps was a partner in Global Diversified Fund Management, a hedge fund based in Connecticut. Then Mr. Hopps spent seven years as the CEO of Jivana Biotechnology. Mr Hopps is a member of 700 for Science, a collaborative community dedicated to bringing early stage biotechnologies to life.
Dr Paola Grandi
CSO
Paola is the Chief Scientific Officer at Adze Biotechnology.
Paola is responsible for directing the pre-clinical and translational research programs at Adze Biotechnology.
Learn More
Paola earned a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Ferrara (Italy) in 2001 before moving to the U.S. to pursue her interests in oncolytic Herpes Simplex Virus-based vectors.
After four years at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Paola joined the Departments of Neurological Surgery and Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine where she developed the next-generation Oncolytic HSV-based vectors armed with novel payload combinations that altered the tumor microenvironment (TME) to promote the development of anti-tumor immunity.
As an NIH funded principal investigator, she carried out pioneering work to combine the use of retargeted HSV vectors with cellular microRNA regulation of viral genes in non-tumor tissue to limit vector oncolytic activity to brain tumors.
Her academic research produced the patent that provided the core technologies to establish a start-up oncolytic vector company, Oncorus, Inc. in Cambridge, MA.
Paola was the scientific founder and the Director of Tumor Immunology Virology at Oncorus where she provided robust scientific guidance and leadership for ongoing multi-disciplinary drug discovery programs.
From 2018 to 2024 Paola was the Chief Scientific Officer at CG Oncology.
Patrick Sage
Co-Founder
Mr. Sage, a registered patent attorney since 1993 and founder of Kalamazoo, Mich.-based Hueschen & Sage, PLLC, specializes in advising innovator pharmaceutical, dermatological and fine chemical companies in portfolio development, prosecution, management, agency registration, enforcement and partnering.
Learn More
Mr. Sage graduated from Kalamazoo College with a BA in Biology in 1986, and from Loyola University in Chicago with a JD in 1992. He started his career as a biochemist with The Upjohn Company, conducting pharmacological research on putative Alzheimer’s compounds.
William Surman
Interim Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Surman is an experienced Chief Financial Officer and Investment Banker with additional experience as an operating executive with a successful record of fixing businesses, growing revenues, and increasing profits. Mr. Surman has experience across a broad range of industries including B2B financial services, equipment leasing and specialty manufacturing.
Learn More
He also is an advisor to early-stage companies on development issues including reinventing business models, improving financial performance, and building productive teams. His investment banking experience includes equity and debt capital raising, complex financial instruments as well as managing acquisition and sale transactions.
Mr. Surman earned an MBA in Finance and Marketing from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a B.A. in Economics from Carleton College.
Michael Williams
Advisor
Michael is an experienced international executive, business leader and entrepreneur with 30+ years of experience in healthcare and technology.
Learn More
Michael has held leadership positions in leading healthcare companies around the world, including BMS, Pfizer and Takeda, as well as C-Suite roles with biotech and digital health startups.
Michael's roles have included: Chief Business Officer at Abreos Biosciences, Chief Operating Officer at Intarcia Therapeutics, Head of Global Marketing at Takeda Pharmaceuticals in Zurich and Chicago, Vice President, Global Commercial Development, Primary Care Business Unit at Pfizer, and VP European Marketing & Operations at Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Dr Richard Vile
Advisor
My primary research interests are centered on the development of gene-, viro-, adoptive T cell and immuno-therapies for cancer.
Learn More
We use murine and human models to test strategies by which oncolytic viruses can be delivered systemically to metastatic disease and how oncolytic viroimmunotherapy can be combined with adoptive T cell therapy to improve the efficacy of either alone. In addition, we have a long term interest in defining how the immune system can be re-educated to recognize and react against tumor associated antigens. Our pre-clinical studies are focused on translational relevance and we are focused on developing improved immunotherapies for malignant melanoma and pediatric brain tumors. I am currently the PI or co-Pi on three different clinical trials in collaboration with our clinical partners in London and Leeds in the UK, and i am carrying out, or have completed, 5 clinical trials of oncolytic viroimmunotherapy at Mayo Clinic.
Kenneth Templin
Co-Founder
In Memoriam. Ken Templin was a retired Business Resource Manager from Caterpillar where he spent almost 37 years working in both the engine and machinery businesses in multiple locations throughout the world.
Gloria R Olivier, Ph.D.
Advisor
Gloria Olivier, Ph. D., serves on the Mayo Clinic Ventures executive team in the Department of Business Development.
Learn More
Senior lead for the Biopharma team focusing on opportunities with the highest strategic value for the Mayo Clinic.
Dedicated to identifying and guiding new business partnerships and collaborations to commercialize emerging technologies, Dr. Olivier’s work supports the future of medicine at Mayo Clinic and worldwide. She serves on the board of the global Alliance of mRNA Medicines and in the board of several start-up companies.
Before joining Mayo Clinic Ventures in 2017, Dr Olivier conducted research in cancer at Mayo Clinic. Born in Chile, she is the first in her family to pursue a graduate degree.
Dr. Olivier holds a Ph.D. from the Medical College of Georgia, an MS from the University of Concepcion and executive education from Harvard University. She is a registered Patent Agent with the USPTO.
We turn cold tumors hot and make tumors visible to the patient’s immune system.
Adze Biotechnology is developing a growing platform of immunotherapies that utilize our proprietary and targeted oncolytic viral backbone. Our oncolytic backbone enables systemic delivery of immunotherapies and checkpoint inhibitors that self-amplify (conditionally replicate) locally in tumors.