Dr. Glickman was most recently co-founder, VP and Head of Research for Actym Therapeutics,
where she was the lead inventor of Actym’s core technology. The associated issued and pending
patents cover Actym’s novel attenuated S. typhimurium platform for delivery of nucleic acids to
tissue and tumor-resident macrophages, with the goal of eliciting an antiviral program to treat
checkpoint-refractory solid tumors, as well as vaccinate against respiratory viruses.
In 2020, Dr. Glickman was named the #5 top-ranked female Series A co-founder in the country,
with an oversubscribed Series A of $34M for Actym co-led by Boehringer Ingelheim Venture
Fund and Panacea Ventures, with participation from Illumina Ventures, Korea Investment
Partners and JLo Ventures.
Prior to Actym, Dr. Glickman was a Senior Scientist at Aduro Biotech (NASDAQ:ADRO; now
Chinook Therapeutics, NASDAQ:KDNY), where she initiated the first-in-human STING agonist
program. Dr. Glickman was co-first author on the seminal journal article describing the
unprecedented potency of small molecule STING agonists in preclinical tumor models, as well
as co-authoring several additional STING papers and multiple issued and pending patents. Her
seminal studies on STING not only furthered our understanding of the central role of this
pathway in immune sensing of DNA viruses and cancer, but also led to the development of the
first-in-human small molecule STING agonist, ADU-S100, of which Dr. Glickman is a co-
inventor.
ADU-S100 was the subject of a $750M ($200M cash upfront and $50M initial equity
investment) strategic co-development alliance between Aduro and Novartis, where Dr. Glickman
served as the lead Aduro scientist on the Joint Development Team.
Prior to Aduro, Dr. Glickman was one of the first scientific hires at Catalyst Biosciences
(NASDAQ:CBIO), where she developed core technology in multiple bacterial, yeast and
mammalian expression platforms. Dr. Glickman constructed Catalyst’s protease therapeutic
compounds for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and colitis, as well as Catalyst’s lead
hemostasis compound Factor VIIa, marzeptacog alfa (MarzAA), currently in late-stage clinical
development.
Before Catalyst, Dr. Glickman was at Hawaii Biotech Inc. (HBI), where she constructed HBI’s
recombinant subunit West Nile vaccine and performed preclinical development of HBI’s
recombinant subunit Dengue vaccine (acquired by Merck in 2010).
While at HBI, Dr. Glickman conceived of and performed Hawaii Biotech-sponsored research in
collaboration with Professor John Bertram at the University of Hawaii on CDX-085, a novel
derivative of the carotenoid astaxanthin for the treatment of cardiac disease and cancer, of which
Dr. Glickman is a co-inventor. This collaboration resulted in multiple first-author publications, 9
issued patents, and the formation of Cardax Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:CDXI).
Dr. Glickman has multiple years of academic research experience from Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory (LBNL) and UCSF’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology,
researching molecular biology, genetics, virology and cancer. These include early efforts to
utilize transgenic mice to study genetic disease and immune development pathways, as well as
researching poliovirus and vaccinia (MVA) vectors for HIV and cancer.
Prior to that, she performed gene mapping studies for the Human Genome Project at Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), including mapping the human macrophage gene CD68,
and the intracellular adhesion molecule gene ICAM3.
Dr. Glickman has 18 issued patents with multiple pending applications, over 20 publications, and
completed the successful filing of two Investigational New Drug (IND) applications. As an
undergraduate at UC Berkeley, she double majored and earned degrees in Molecular & Cell
Biology and Psychology. She earned her Ph.D. in Cancer Immunology from Northwestern
University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, where she was a Department of Defense Predoctoral
Fellow studying mechanisms of immune suppression during breast cancer metastasis. She was
also selected to be among the top 30 Northwestern graduate students invited to participate in the
Kellogg School of Management’s Management for Scientists and Engineers Program, where she
earned a certificate MBA.