About us

Experienced finance professional and entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in both capital markets and project development. Worked for more than 10 years as a successful VP Senior Investment Advisor with Canadian brokerages firms BMO Nesbitt Burns and Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management, from which he has accumulated considerable expertise in most aspects of raising and managing capital. Over the last 15 years, Mr. Plouffe was instrumental in the success of various Canadian and International private and public companies in sectors such as biotech, mining and technology.

Dr. Phinney is a recognized leader in life sciences commercialization with more than 20 years of experience spanning pharmaceutical R&D, biotech innovation, and strategic ecosystem development. She has held various roles at Abbott and AbbVie, pharmaceutical companies in the United States, directing alliances and leading strategic planning and business operations across global R&D.

More recently, she was senior director of partnerships and business development at adMare BioInnovations, where she supported the creation of multiple biotech ventures emerging from Canadian academia. She brings entrepreneurial experience as a co-founder of Block Biosciences Inc. and Discovery-2-Innovation Life Sciences Consulting, through which she has guided numerous biotech start-ups and academic groups in both the United States and Canada.

Dr. Lambert graduated from Christ’s College, University of Cambridge (England, UK), with a degree in Natural Sciences in 1972. He then earned a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge in 1976, working on the structure of glycolytic enzymes under the supervision of Professor Richard N. Perham.

Dr Lambert’s postdoctoral training was at the University of California, Davis (1976 – 1980), working on ribosome structure in the laboratory of Dr Robert R. Traut, and at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK (1980 – 1982), working on the arom multienzyme complex in the laboratory of Dr John R. Coggins.

In 1982, Dr. Lambert joined the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, as the second scientist recruited to work on the ImmunoGen-funded programs to develop antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and immunotoxins as anti-cancer therapeutics.

Dr. Lambert joined ImmunoGen in 1987 when the Company established independent research laboratories in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After working in a variety of roles at the Company, Dr. Lambert served as Chief Scientific Officer from 2008 until 2015. In 2016, he became a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Company until his retirement at the end of 2017. He served on the Executive Committee of the company as Executive Vice President, Research, from 2008 until 2016.

During Dr Lambert’s tenure in leadership roles at ImmunoGen, scientists at the Company invented the ADC technology that ultimately resulted in the Genentech/Roche drug, KADCYLA® (approved in 2013 for treating HER2+ breast cancer), discovered the anti-CD38 antibody that became the Sanofi drug SARCLISA®, and created several other ADC molecules that were taken into clinical development. One of these ADCs is ImmunoGen’s drug ELAHERE® that received accelerated approval from FDA in November 14, 2022, for the treatment of folate receptor alpha-positive, platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, and which was converted to full approval on March 22, 2024 (ImmunoGen was acquired by AbbVie in February 2024).

Since January, 2018, Dr Lambert consults with and/or advises a number of start-up and early-stage Biopharma companies and VC firms on ADC research, ADC technologies, ADC programs and ADC development.
Dr Lambert is the author/co-author of over 125 peer-reviewed scientific publications. In 2016, Dr Lambert was elected as a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). In 2018, he was appointed to an Honorary Professorship at The Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK.

Rob Leanna, is a seasoned pharmaceutical industry veteran with extensive experience in antibody–drug conjugates (ADC) and drug-linker chemistry. Over his decades-long career with AbbVie Inc. he has led development, scale-up, and regulatory strategy for complex biologics and conjugated therapeutics. Now an independent consultant, he advises biotech companies on ADC CMC and development strategy.

Dr. Meterissian is a Professor of Surgery and Oncology (tenured), Director of the Breast Center of the MUHC and Head of the MUHC Breast Tumor Site Group. From 2007-2009 he was President of the Canadian Society of Surgical Oncology and from 2013 to 2015 he was President of Breast Surgery International. He has also served as the Medical Advisory Board co-Chair of the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation since 2012.

Dr. Meterissian is involved in a number of clinical and basic science research projects related to breast cancer. In 1999, along with Dr. Morag Park (the Director of the Goodman Cancer Center), he set-up the McGill Functional Genomics Group which includes an extensive solid and liquid tissue bank for breast cancer. This Tumor Bank has led to a number of landmarks papers including the discovery of the Stromal-derived Protein Predictor (SDPP) published in Nature Medicine in 2008. He presently is involved  in clinical research collaborations with the U de M Polytechnique Institute funded by NSERC and translational research projects with Dr. Luke McCaffrey of the Goodman. He is also on the Scientific Committee of the McPeak-Sirois group representing the MUHC. This is a Clinical Trials Research Group bringing together the large cancer centers in the province. As part of this group he has recently set-up a Breast Cancer Metastases Registry supported by major pharma. This registry will include, in a prospective fashion, clinical data on metastatic breast cancers from across the province and their management.