Alain Vicari

Biography

 He brings to Calypso Biotech more than 18 years of translational immunology in basic and clinical research as well as drug discovery experience in diverse fields including cancer, auto-immune diseases and vaccines. A co-founder of Calypso Biotech, Alain has held various positions with increasing responsibility in large Pharma and Biotech companies, in Europe and North America. ​Prior to Calypso Biotech, Alain was Director of Immunology in the Biologics and Immunology platform at Merck-Serono from 2009. He was responsible for managing a team of scientists and technicians developing and performing cellular assays to support drug discovery programs. He also initiated and led several drug discovery programs – notably for gastrointestinal diseases - from inception up to entry into the non-clinical development phase, including a new biological entity program which progressed from start to Clinical Trial Application submission in 4 years. Before joining Merck Serono, Alain worked in Ottawa, Canada, at Coley Pharmaceutical Group, where he was from 2005 Director of Immunology and also responsible for the Clinical Immunology laboratory, running pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetics assays for Coley’s DNA-based immunostimulatory investigational drug in HCV. In 2008, Coley became Pfizer Vaccines Research, Ottawa laboratories where Alain held a position as Senior Principal Scientist. Alain started his carrier in the biopharma industry at the DNAX Research Institute in Palo Alto, California, as a post-doctoral fellow in 1994 and then the Schering-Plough Research Institute in Dardilly, France, where he eventually became head of the Experimental Medicine and Animal Models department. Alain holds a doctorate in veterinary medicine from the Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire de Lyon, France, and a PhD in Immunology from the Université Claude Bernard, Lyon, France. He is co-inventor on several patents and author of 51 peer-reviewed original articles and reviews.

Research Interest

 Pharmaceutical Sciences