About Dragonfly
We harness the power of the immune system to fight disease
Our Mission
Our mission is to revolutionize disease treatment by inventing therapies that harness the body's immune system for vastly improved patient outcomes.
Dragonfly's therapies are designed to be potent as single agents as well as in treatment combinations with existing disease-targeting therapies – such as T cell treatments for cancer.
Our founders and Scientific Advisory Board are major figures in disease biology and immunology, and launched Dragonfly to harness the power of the immune system to provide breakthrough treatments for patients.
Tyler Jacks, Ph.D.
Dragonfly Co-founder | Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research | Professor of Biology at MIT | Chair of Dragonfly Scientific Advisory Board
Prof. Tyler Jacks is the founding Director of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT – a National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Cancer Center. His lab uses cutting-edge technologies to study cancer genetics and cancer immunology, with discoveries that led to the founding of Dragonfly.​ Prof. Jacks has pioneered the use of gene targeting technology to study cancer-associated genes and to construct mouse models of many human cancer types, closely recapitulating human disease and yielding novel insights into tumor development as well as new strategies for cancer detection and treatment. Jacks was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the inaugural class of Fellows of the AACR Academy. Jacks served as Chair of the National Cancer Advisory Board at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), was co-chair of the White House's Cancer "Moonshot" Blue Ribbon Panel.​ was a member of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Board of Directors, and was elected President of the AACR in 2009. He is the president of Break Through Cancer Foundation. Jacks has a bachelor’s degree in Biology from Harvard, and a Ph.D. from UC San Francisco.
Bill Haney
Dragonfly Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer & Chairman of the Board of Directors
An inventor and entrepreneur, Bill Haney started his first company as a college freshman, inventing and building air pollution control systems for power plants. Since then he has started or helped start more than a dozen technology companies.​ Bill was a founding member of the national environmental advisory board for the US Environmental Protection Agency, the President's Circle for the National Academy of Sciences, has won a Humanitarian Award from Harvard Medical School, an Achievement Award from the ACLU and serves or has served on boards for Harvard, MIT, State and Federal Government agencies, and the World Resources Institute.​ Bill holds a BA from Harvard College and was a Kennedy School Fellow from 1997-2001.
David Raulet, Ph.D.
Dragonfly Co-founder | Schekman Chair of Cancer Biology at UC Berkeley | Professor of Immunology and Molecular Medicine | Member of Dragonfly Scientific Advisory Board
Dr. David Raulet is the Esther and Wendy Schekman Chair in Basic Cancer Biology at UC Berkeley, Professor, Faculty Director, Immunotherapeutics and Vaccine Research Initiative, and one of the world's leading NK cell researchers. Dr. Raulet directs a research laboratory at UC Berkeley, focused on breakthrough research on how Natural Killer cells and T cells recognize and destroy cancer cells, and how this information can be used for therapy or prevention of disease.​ Dr. Raulet received his Ph.D. in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Heidi Cerwenka, Ph.D.
Professor, Heidelberg University | Vice Dean for Research, Medical Faculty | Acting Director, Mannheim Institute for Innate Immunoscience | Head of the Department of Immunobiochemistry at the CBTM and ECAS | Member of Dragonfly Scientific Advisory Board
Dr. Adelheid (Heidi) Cerwenka, Ph.D., is a world leading scientist in NK cell biology and the innate immune system. After postdoctoral research at the Trudeau Institute New York and at UCSF, she became group-leader at the Novartis Research Institute before being appointed as group-leader at the DKFZ. Cerwenka is head of the Department of Immunobiochemistry at the Centrum für Biomedizin und Medizintechnik Mannheim (CBTM) and European Center for Angioscience (ECAS). She has a Ph.D. from the Institute of Immunology at the University of Vienna, Austria, and the Venia Legendi for Immunology from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Heidelberg.
Betty Diamond, M.D.
Director, Institute of Molecular Medicine & Maureen and Ralph Nappi Professor of Autoimmune Diseases, Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research | Member of Dragonfly Scientific Advisory Board
Dr. Betty Diamond is Director of the Institute of Molecular Medicine at Northwell Health's Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research. A pioneering physician-scientist, Dr. Diamond’s research has transformed our understanding of how autoreactive B cells and antibodies drive autoimmune diseases such as Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. She has published extensively in leading scientific journals, contributing hundreds of influential papers that have shaped modern immunology and autoimmune disease research. A former President of the American Association of Immunologists, Dr. Diamond was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2022 in recognition of her groundbreaking work. After earning her BA from Radcliffe College and MD from Harvard Medical School, she trained in internal medicine at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and completed post-doctoral immunology research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Patrick Hwu, M.D.
President and CEO, Moffit Cancer Center | Member of Dragonfly Scientific Advisory Board
Dr. Patrick Hwu, M.D., is one of the leading tumor immunologists in the country, and a primary force in the development of novel vaccine and adoptive T-cell therapies. His laboratory and clinical work have led to insights and advances in the understanding of the interactions between tumors and the immune system, and the development of cellular immunotherapies. Prior to joining Moffitt as President and CEO, Dr. Hwu was the head of the Division of Cancer Medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he held various leadership roles for 17 years. In 2003, he was recruited as the first chairman of the Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology. He was also the associate director of the Center for Cancer Immunology Research (2004) and chair of the Department of Sarcoma Medical Oncology (2012). Dr. Hwu received his M.D. degree from The Medical College of Pennsylvania.
Lewis L. Lanier, Ph.D.
American Cancer Society Professor and Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, UCSF | Member of Dragonfly Scientific Advisory Board
Dr. Lanier is the American Cancer Society Professor and Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, UCSF, and Leader of the Cancer Immunology Program, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is also the J. Michael Bishop, MD,Distinguished Professor in Microbiology and Immunology at UCSF. Dr. Lanier is an internationally-recognized expert in natural killer (NK) cells and has received numerous awards for his pioneering work in this area. Since the early 1980s, his lab has investigated how NK cells distinguish between normal healthy cells and cells that are transformed or infected with viruses. Dr. Lanier earned his BS from Virginia Tech and PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Eric Morand, M.B.;B.S.-Ph.D
Professor, Monash University | Dean of the Sub-Faculty of Clinical and Molecular Medicine | Head of the Monash Health Rheumatology Unit | Member of Dragonfly Scientific Advisory Board
Professor Eric Morand is a physician-scientist and a clinical rheumatologist who specializes in the study of autoimmune disease. He is Head of Rheumatology at Monash Health, founder of the Monash Lupus Clinic, a founding member of the Australian Lupus Registry & Biobank, and Chair of the Asia-Pacific Lupus Collaboration. He works clinically in lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and complex rheumatology and his lab research focuses on glucocorticoid biology and Tregs. Prof. Morand also serves as a Board member of Rare Voices Australia, and has served on the board of the Australian Rheumatology Association.
Nan Shen, M.D.-Ph.D
Professor, Shanghai Jiao Tong University | Director of the Shanghai Institute of Rheumatology & Shanghai Clinical Research Center for Rheumatic and Autoimmune Diseases | Member of Dragonfly Scientific Advisory Board
Dr. Nan Shen is a distinguished professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the Director of the Shanghai Institute of Rheumatology & Shanghai Clinical Research Center for Rheumatic and Autoimmune Diseases, and Co-Director of the China–Australia Centre for Personalized Immunology. His research primarily focuses on understanding the molecular pathways involved in systemic autoimmune diseases. Dr. Shen is an editorial board member for the Annals of Rheumatic Diseases, Clinical Immunology, and Scientific Reports. He received the Science and Technology Progress Award from the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, and the ACR Rheumatology Research Foundation Edmund L. Dubois, MD, Memorial Lectureship.
Nicolai Wagtmann, Ph.D.
Distinguished Senior Scientist | Member of Dragonfly Scientific Advisory Board
Dr. Nicolai Wagtmann is a seasoned immunologist and therapeutic antibody expert who was formerly Chief Scientific Officer at Dragonfly Therapeutics, Inc., where he led the strategic direction of NK cell-based immunotherapies. He was previously Chief Scientific Officer at Innate Pharma S.A. and held the position of Vice President R&D and Head of Inflammation Biology at Novo Nordisk A/S, where he generated and developed a portfolio of therapeutic antibodies for cancer and inflammatory diseases. Dr. Wagtmann holds a PhD in immunology from the University of Copenhagen, and has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications that span foundational discoveries in NK-cell receptor biology to translational immunotherapy programs, underscoring his deep expertise in both basic immunology and drug development.