Biotech Leader Spotlight Series

Welcome to Partnology’s Biotech Leader Spotlight Series, where we highlight the remarkable accomplishments and visionary leadership of biotech industry pioneers. This series is about showcasing the groundbreaking strides made by exceptional leaders who have transformed scientific possibilities into tangible realities. Through insightful interviews, we invite you to join us in following the inspiring journeys of these executives who continue to shape the landscape of the biotech industry. This week we are recognizing:

Dr. Jermaine Ross, Co-Founder & CEO

Dr. Jermaine Ross co-founded Alleo Labs in 2023 and serves as CEO and President. He brings years of industry experience in drug discovery and machine learning from his previous executive role as Vice President and Head of Neuroscience at Immuneering Corporation (NASDAQ: IMRX), which he co-led to an IPO in 2021. Prior to that Dr. Ross trained as a neuroscientist and computational biologist at the National Institutes of Health for over 10 years. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, and holds a doctoral degree in Neuroscience from Brown University. He is also a board member of the Alzheimer’s Association in New York City, and is a William H. Gates Sr. Fellow from the Alzheimer's Disease Data Initiative.

Walk me through your career, noting some of the most pivotal moments or decisions throughout:

My motivation to study neuroscience came from my father, who has always been a beacon in my life. He encouraged me from a very young age to focus on mathematics and computers. He had a phenomenal memory but developed Alzheimer’s in the mid-2010s, which was a very difficult journey for my family. That experience was a catalyst for the work I’m doing now, the work I did at Immuneering, and the work I intend to continue for the rest of my life—to develop an effective therapy for treating dementia and memory loss.?

I grew up in Michigan, went to the University of Michigan where I studied molecular biology, and then transitioned to the National Institutes of Health. I had a great mentor at Michigan, Dr. Pamela Raymond, who was a phenomenal neuroscientist. She had a very deep network that included Story Landis, the former director of the NINDS, which is the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) at the NIH. I went to the NIH thinking I’d only be there for about a year as I was studying for med school, but I fell in love with the science and being a scientist, combining what we could do in the lab with what we could predict computationally using sophisticated algorithms.

I really found a home there and ended up staying for well over 10 years. In the meantime, I was also an intramural student. I had the opportunity to study at 美国布朗大学 , earn my doctoral degree in neuroscience, and that was transformational for me, really helping me expand and learn how to ask good questions. I did a postdoc at the NIH as well, which lasted a couple of years.

Then I took some time off to travel the world, visiting over 13 countries. I started in the West and moved all the way around. While in China, I got a call from Teva Pharmaceuticals, which had just acquired a majority equity stake in a small biotech called Immuneering that had a very promising computational bioinformatics team but no neuroscientists. They had all these great programs in development, so given my background, they asked if I’d be interested. I took the call, and from there, it was history.?

I joined as an associate and eventually moved all the way up to Head of Neurosciences and VP, then helped take the company public in 2021. We raised well over $200 million, did the whole cross-over round, etc. It was such a learning process as the company expanded rapidly—my team and responsibilities grew quickly as well. It was a lot of learning as we went, but it was such a fun process.

Shortly after we went public, about a year or so later, we decided to diversify the risk the company was taking, as Immuneering had advanced some oncology assets into the clinic. We decided to split the business into two—Immuneering focusing solely on oncology, while the company I now run, Alleo Labs, focuses on neurology.

Tell me more about the work you did at NIH in crafting data mining and machine learning software to analyze DNA:

The focus of the lab at National Institutes of Health—where I was working under Dr. Ward Odenwald, who passed away a couple years ago—was to leverage the latest technology to gain a better understanding of how proteins are made in the body, how that process is regulated, and how the brain develops overall. A high-level aspect of this work, which many people don’t know, is that most of your DNA serves as instructions for your development as an individual. What’s incredible is that we don’t fully these instructions yet. With the power of computation, we were able to start deciphering that language, and towards the end of my time at the NIH, we actually began to manipulate the DNA, changing how the brain developed in the animals we were studying. That was an extremely rewarding process; we used AI to create synthetic DNA, which allowed us to control how the brain starts developing.

Could you expand on your work in AI/ML drug discovery at Immuneering Corporation?

At the NIH, the work was more focused on the discovery side of science, or what we call basic science—aimed at understanding fundamental principles of biology and neurology. With Immuneering Corporation , however, the objective shifted to a more translational approach, where we aim to identify potential new therapies using AI. There’s a bit of a bridge here since you still need to understand the disease at some level, but much of the discovery and development for medicine is at the therapeutic and human translation level.

What we were able to do, and what we continue to do today, is leverage AI for a number of objectives, one of which is to gain a better understanding of the patient population. For example, diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, once considered single diseases, are now believed to consist of subgroups within those larger populations—meaning many patients fall on a spectrum. We developed a platform that integrates multiple data types to computationally identify these subgroups in a sophisticated way. This process, referred to as multimodal integration, doesn’t quite have the PR appeal of “precision medicine,” but that’s what we’re doing—applying AI to realize the future of precision medicine by identifying the right medicine for the right people.

On the drug development side, we’ve used AI to accelerate the identification of small molecule chemicals that can be developed into medicine. Typically, it takes about seven and a half years to go from concept to proof-of-concept for addressing memory loss in diseased animals, but we were able to achieve this in under two and a half years—a 3x acceleration compared to industry standards. We believe there’s real potential to reduce this even further, possibly down to less than a year.

Tell me more about Alleo Labs - what are you currently working on?

At Alleo Labs we’ve maintained our original mission of developing novel therapies for Alzheimer’s and related dementias, but we’ve also expanded into Parkinson’s disease. What’s enabled this is the wealth of big data—this term was quite popular 5–10 years ago, even before the current AI boom. The fact is, we’ve been able to collect an enormous amount of data on these patients, data we simply didn’t have 10 or 20 years ago. This has allowed us to branch out into diseases like Parkinson’s, where we’re now developing a few assets.

Our focus has always been on collaboration. This was a mantra instilled by Dr. Odenwald and Dr. Collins at the NIH, who always encouraged us as government scientists to establish strong industry-academic and government-academic relationships. I’ve carried this collaborative approach into our company, and we’re constantly seeking partnerships. It’s one of the most exciting aspects of the job.

What do you see as the most promising technologies in biotech over the next 5-10 years?

Yes, we discussed this in a recent review paper titled, “Navigating the Frontiers of Machine Learning in Neurodegenerative Disease Therapeutics.” Essentially, if we think of low-hanging fruit in this field, it’s really in identifying what we call biomarkers—ways of detecting disease much earlier than a clinical diagnosis. This is realistically within reach and is a significant gap in many fields, as identifying those who need treatment is critical for effective intervention. Diagnostic tools like these will greatly support not only the development of outcome-driven therapies but will also aid physicians.

My wife, Dr. Sophia Chen, is a geriatric physician who sees many elderly patients with various conditions. For a physician, it’s incredibly frustrating to diagnose something that may have been mitigated by lifestyle changes 10 or 20 years earlier, had we caught it in time. There’s a real opportunity here for AI to make a substantial impact. Similar to advancements in early cancer detection, these markers could be a game-changer.

With the experience and insights you have gained, what advice would you give to those aspiring to become a biotech founder?

I’d say, don’t be afraid to ask for help. You’d be surprised how many people genuinely want to help you. Many are willing to share their time because they see the potential in you and believe in the mission. It’s similar to one of my roles, which is fundraising for the Alzheimer’s Association. When I first started, I was really nervous about asking for donations. But you quickly find out that when people resonate with the cause—when they’ve had a family member with the disease, for instance—they’re incredibly generous with their support. So I think being ambitious and open to asking for help is key.?

Second, be patient. It really pays off to be patient in this field, especially in therapeutics, where progress takes time. It demands resilience and diligence, so patience is essential. I recently met Jensen Huang, the CEO of 英伟达 , at a conference reception. I asked him directly what advice he’d give to a young CEO. He paused, then answered with, “Don’t do it.” It got a lot of laughs, and he went on to say that a lot of people will doubt you, and you’ll sometimes doubt yourself. People will tell you that you’re wasting your time. Every decade or so, someone might give you a quick pat on the back, only for the criticism to resume shortly after.

What I think he was really conveying, in a way only CEOs can understand, is that it’s one of the loneliest jobs out there. If you’re doing it for recognition or money, you’re in the wrong business. It’s a life contract with yourself and a deep commitment to a mission. He didn’t put it quite that way, but I believe that’s the message he was trying to share.