Apriori Bio, a biotechnology company aimed at providing humanity with variant-resilient protection against rapidly-evolving viruses, announced today that Harry Kleanthous, Ph.D., has been appointed Chief Scientific Officer. Kleanthous will oversee the advancement of Octavia™, Apriori’s biology-informed artificial intelligence platform, and the development of a pipeline of vaccines to protect against current and emerging viral threats.
“We are thrilled to welcome Harry to our executive team,” said Lovisa Afzelius, Ph.D., MBA, General Partner at Flagship Pioneering and Co-Founder, Chair and CEO of Apriori. “His extensive experience in immunology and vaccine development, and innovative approach to scientific research will be invaluable as we continue to advance our Octavia platform. We are confident that he will play a key role in Apriori’s continued growth and success.”
Kleanthous joins Apriori from SK bioscience, where he served as Executive Vice President of Vaccine R&D Strategy and External Innovation and oversaw external R&D partnerships. Previously, he was a Senior Program Officer in Global Health at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, where he managed a $150 million portfolio of investments through the pandemic and brought novel technologies for COVID-19 to licensure. As the former Head of Research for North America at Sanofi Pasteur, Kleanthous developed pipelines targeting infectious diseases, and transitioned several research programs into development. He also previously served as the Vice President, Research at Acambis. Kleanthous holds a Ph.D. in medical molecular microbiology from the University of London and has authored more than 90 articles on viral and bacterial vaccinology.
“I am delighted to join Apriori Bio at this exciting time for the company, where the need for improved vaccines to better protect us from both seasonal viral variants, as well as emerging global public threats, is clear,” said Kleanthous. “The innovative work being done here to develop variant-resilient vaccines is not only uniquely pioneering, but also crucial to our global public health mission. I look forward to collaborating with the talented team at Apriori to drive innovation and create transformative solutions through partnerships with academia, industry and philanthropy.”
Apriori, a 2023 World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, received a grant in July from CEPI to further advance the Octavia platform with a focus on influenza viruses. The research Apriori conducts on this front will feed into and be supported by CEPI’s newly established Biosecurity function. The company also recently announced the addition of public health leaders to its Board of Directors, including Seth Berkley, M.D., former CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, Arup Chakraborty, Ph.D., Scientific Advisor and Academic Partner at Flagship Pioneering, and Ashish Jha, M.D., former White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator.
About Apriori Bio
Apriori is working to create a world that is protected against viral threats. Our pioneering approach centers on a unique technology platform, Octavia™, which allows us to survey the entire landscape of existing and potential variants to design new vaccines against the most threatening viruses. Octavia can also inform public health policy in real time by predicting the impact of emerging variants. Apriori was founded in 2020 in Flagship Labs, a unit of Flagship Pioneering. For more information visit www.aprioribio.com or follow us on LinkedIn and X at @AprioriBio.
