Leadership Team – Stellanova Therapeutics

Leadership Team

Stephen Rubino, Ph.D.

Executive in Residence

Dr. Rubino currently serves as the Executive in Residence at Stellanova. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Sporos Bioventures and has over 30 years of pharmaceutical and biotechnology company experience in the areas of business development & licensing, marketing, commercial operations, and strategic planning across a wide range of therapeutic areas. Dr. Rubino has extensive experience developing and commercializing oncology products both in the US and EU. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Viracta, and prior to joining Sporos as CEO, Dr. Rubino served as the Chief Business Officer at Celyad Oncology SA and was a member of the Board of Directors of Sermonix Pharmaceuticals. Previously, he was the Chief Business & Strategy Officer at Omega Therapeutics and Global Head of Business Development and Licensing and New Product Marketing for the Cell and Gene Therapies business unit at Novartis Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Rubino received his Ph.D. in virology from Cornell University and an MBA from Baruch College.

Rosa F. Hwang, M.D.

Co-Founder

Dr. Hwang co-founded Stellanova and brings her expertise in the fields of surgical oncology, breast and pancreatic cancer, and translational research on the tumor microenvironment. She is currently a tenured Professor and surgeon-scientist with a joint appointment in the Departments of Breast Surgical Oncology and Surgical Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX. She is also the Associate Medical Director for Surgery at the Nellie B. Connally Breast Center at MD Anderson. Her lab is focused on the role of cancer-associated fibroblasts in tumorigenesis and resistance to therapy and first identified DKK3 as a promising therapeutic target in pancreatic cancer. The anti-DKK3 antibody clones were developed in Dr. Hwang’s lab and have been licensed to Stellanova for drug development targeting cancer and its surrounding microenvironment. She holds an M.D. from the University of Maryland, completed surgery residency at the University of Southern California (USC Keck School of Medicine), clinical fellowship in Surgical Oncology at MD Anderson and a postdoctoral research fellowship in Cancer Biology with Dr. Isaiah J. Fidler at MD Anderson.