About Us
Senior Leadership Team
Dr. Russo is an accomplished biotechnology CEO with over 25 years of experience leading R&D and commercialization in the biopharmaceutical industry across a range of therapeutic areas, including oncology. As an executive leader, Dr. Russo has led successful teams from early discovery research through all phases of clinical development, registration, and commercialization to bring multiple innovative therapies to patients across the United States and Europe. Dr. Russo also played a key role in helping to build Cubist Pharmaceuticals, a leading global anti-infective company that Merck acquired for $9.6B in 2015. In addition to Xilio’s board of directors, Dr. Russo serves as founder and executive chair of Ropirio Therapeutics, a member of the board of directors of Leyden Labs and PRxCision. Dr. Russo also serves on the board of trustees of Tufts Medical Center, the Boston Ballet and Life Science Cares Boston. Dr. Russo holds a B.S. in pharmacy and a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Rutgers University and completed a post-doctoral fellowship with Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Dr. Bialucha is a passionate life science leader with more than 15 years of experience in oncology/immuno-oncology drug discovery and preclinical development. Dr. Bialucha has served as Xilio’s chief scientific officer since August 2022 and joined Xilio as the senior vice president of research in April 2021. He joined Xilio from Immunitas Therapeutics where, as vice president of drug discovery, he led the development of a single cell genomics-based discovery platform and immuno-oncology focused therapeutic pipeline. Prior to joining Immunitas, Dr. Bialucha held roles of increasing responsibility at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, most recently leading the oncology biotherapeutics group, where he directed multiple programs towards successful entry into clinical development across a variety of modalities. Dr. Bialucha serves on the scientific advisory board for the Terri Brodeur Breast Cancer Foundation. Dr. Bialucha received his B.S. in molecular genetics from the University of Sussex and his Ph.D. in molecular cell biology from the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology, University College London. He completed his postdoctoral training in Professor Scott Lowe’s laboratory at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, studying tumor suppressor gene networks using genetic mouse models of cancer.
Dr. Coleman has over 25 years of experience in biotechnology and drug development, including contributing to the successful development and approval of multiple therapies across a broad range of therapeutic areas, including oncology. Dr. Coleman most recently served as Xilio’s senior vice president of nonclinical development. Prior to joining Xilio in June 2022, Dr. Coleman served as vice president, nonclinical development at Acceleron Pharma Inc. (Acceleron), through its acquisition by Merck where he contributed to the development of sotatercept. Prior to Acceleron, Dr. Coleman served in senior scientific roles at Spero Therapeutics, Merck, Cubist Pharmaceuticals and Millennium Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Coleman received a B.S. in toxicology from Northeastern University and a Ph.D. in toxicology from North Carolina State University and completed postdoctoral training at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
Mr. Frankenfield is an accomplished biotechnology executive with over 15 years of experience guiding companies on capital markets and business development transactions, corporate and financial strategy, operations, corporate governance and legal matters. Mr. Frankenfield has served as Xilio’s chief financial officer since August 2024 and chief operating officer since August 2023. Prior to that, he served as Xilio’s chief legal and administrative officer from August 2022 to August 2023, and general counsel from March 2021 to August 2022. In these roles, Mr. Frankenfield has helped lead the execution of Xilio’s corporate and financial strategy as well as operations across multiple business functions. Prior to joining Xilio, Mr. Frankenfield served as vice president of corporate legal affairs at Blueprint Medicines and as a member of its management team. At Blueprint Medicines, he led public company reporting activities, advised on capital markets strategy and supported multiple successful equity offerings, supported commercial product launches and helped executed multiple successful collaborations and partnerships with Roche and Genentech, CStone Pharmaceuticals, and Ipsen. Before Blueprint Medicines, Mr. Frankenfield was a senior associate at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, with a focus on capital markets and strategic transactions, public company reporting and corporate governance matters. Mr. Frankenfield began his career in the advisory practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. He received his B.A. in economics from the College of William & Mary and his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Ms. Hensley is an experienced lawyer and biotechnology executive with extensive experience advising public life science companies across all stages of development and commercialization. Prior to joining Xilio, she served as senior vice president, assistant general counsel and chief compliance officer at Seres Therapeutics, Inc. where she oversaw all corporate legal and compliance matters, including capital markets and licensing transactions, clinical development and commercial launch activities, partnership/collaboration management, and FDA and healthcare regulatory compliance matters. Previously, Ms. Hensley was a corporate associate in the Boston office of Latham & Watkins, where she represented public and private companies in biotechnology and other industries across a range of capital markets and strategic transactions throughout their lifecycle. She received her B.A. in economics from the University of Texas at Austin and her J.D. from the Boston University School of Law.
Dr. Luptakova, a hematologist and oncologist, has approximately 20 years of experience in clinical practice and oncology drug development and most recently served as Xilio’s senior vice president, medical since October 2022. Prior to joining Xilio as vice president, clinical research in December 2021, Dr. Luptakova served as vice president, clinical development at Constellation Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Constellation) through its acquisition by MorphSys AG. Prior to Constellation, Dr. Luptakova served as senior medical director and clinical lead at Tesaro, Inc. where she contributed to the successful development and commercialization of multiple cancer therapies, including Zejula® (niraparib) and Blenrep® (belantamab mafodotin-blmf). Earlier in her career, Dr. Luptakova held roles of increasing responsibility at Takeda Oncology and was an attending physician in the bone marrow transplant and malignant hematology division at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Luptakova received her
medical degree from Comenius University School of Medicine in Bratislava, Slovakia. She completed her internal medicine residency at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Boston and her fellowship in hematology/oncology at Beth Israel Medical Center, Harvard Medical School.
Mr. McBride has served as Chief Information Officer at Xilio Therapeutics since September 2022, bringing more than 25 years of information technology leadership experience to support the company’s mission of developing tumor-activated immuno-oncology therapies. Prior to joining Xilio, Mr. McBride served as Vice President of IT at Affinivax, a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on next-generation vaccine development, where he led the technological re-acquisition of key digital assets following the company’s acquisition by GSK in September 2022. Mr. McBride received a B.A. in Classics from Connecticut College and holds numerous professional certifications, including Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt from Villanova University and Google Cybersecurity Professional
certification. He completed the MIT Technology Leadership Program at MIT Sloan School of Management and holds master certifications in various enterprise software platforms.
Board of Directors
Sara Bonstein has served as a member of our board of directors since August 2021 and as chair of our board of directors since January 2026. Ms. Bonstein has more than 10 years of experience as a chief financial officer for public biotechnology companies, and she currently serves as chief financial officer of Insmed, Inc. where she oversees key financial functions including capital raising, investor relations, accounting, treasury, financial planning and analysis and procurement. Earlier in her career, Ms. Bonstein held finance roles of increasing responsibility at Eli Lilly & Company and Johnson & Johnson. Ms. Bonstein holds a B.S. in finance from The College of New Jersey and an M.B.A. from Rider University.
Akintunde Bello, Ph.D., brings more than 25 years of oncology drug development and leadership experience to Xilio, with deep expertise in early translational medicine and clinical pharmacology across complex biologics and immunotherapies, including anti-CTLA-4 and PD-1 checkpoint inhibitors, T cell engagers and tumor-selective molecules. He most recently served as senior vice president, head of clinical pharmacology, pharmacometrics and bioanalysis at Bristol Myers Squibb Company (BMS) until his retirement in 2025. While at BMS, Dr. Bello oversaw clinical pharmacology and pharmacometrics across multiple therapeutic areas. Prior to BMS, Dr. Bello spent more than a decade with Pfizer Inc. (Pfizer), where he was responsible for overseeing clinical pharmacology for Pfizer’s late-stage oncology development programs. Dr. Bello received a B.Sc. in biomedical sciences from Portsmouth Polytechnic, an M.Sc. in instrumentation and analytical science from University of Manchester and a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences from King’s College, University of London.
Aoife Brennan, M.D., has served as a member of our board of directors since June 2024. Dr. Brennan brings over 16 years of industry leadership and drug development experience to Xilio and currently serves as chief executive officer, president and a member of the board of directors of Climb Bio, Inc. (formerly Eliem Therapeutics, Inc.) since June 2024. Prior to Climb Bio, Dr. Brennan served as chief executive officer, president and a member of the board of directors of Synlogic, Inc. from 2018 until 2023, and previously served as its chief medical officer from 2016 until 2018. Prior to joining Synlogic, Dr. Brennan was vice president and head of the Rare Disease Innovation Unit at Biogen Inc., where she was responsible for research and development for programs ranging from preclinical to commercial-stage within Biogen’s rare disease portfolio. Dr. Brennan currently serves on the boards of directors of FibroGen, Inc. and Cerevance. Dr. Brennan received her medical degree from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland and completed her post-graduate training in internal medicine, endocrinology and metabolism at the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland. In addition, she completed post-doctoral training in clinical research and metabolism at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and is a graduate of the Harvard Medical School Scholars in Clinical Science Program.
Daniel Curran, M.D., has served as a member of our board of directors since December 2020. He has more than 20 years of pharmaceutical experience in strategy, business development, project leadership and development roles. Dr. Curran currently serves as managing partner at Mountainfield Venture Partners, LLC, a biopharma company-creation firm that he co-founded in March 2024. Previously, Dr. Curran served as senior vice president and head of the rare genetics and hematology therapeutic area unit of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd. from January 2019 to December 2023, and prior to that, he held roles of increasing responsibility at Takeda since 2008. Prior to Takeda, he served as vice president, corporate development at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Takeda. Prior to Millennium, Dr. Curran held a business development role in the product planning and acquisition group at DuPont Merck Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Curran currently serves on the board of directors of Tome BioSciences, Inc., a private, programmable genomic integration company. Dr. Curran received an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in chemistry from King’s College.
Robert Ross, M.D., has served as a member of our board of directors since June 2022. Dr. Ross currently serves as chief executive officer, president and board member of Clasp Therapeutics, Inc., a private biotechnology company. Prior to Clasp, Dr. Ross served as the chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors of Surface Oncology, Inc. until its acquisition by Coherus Biosciences, Inc. Prior to that, Dr. Ross also served as Surface’s chief medical officer. Before Surface, Dr. Ross served as the head of oncology at bluebird bio, Inc. and earlier served in roles as senior vice president of clinical development and pharmacovigilance and vice president of clinical development. Prior to bluebird bio, Dr. Ross worked at Genentech and Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Dr. Ross was a Fellow in Medical Oncology and a faculty member at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, where he subsequently maintained a clinical practice until 2015. Dr. Ross currently serves on the board of directors of Obsidian Therapeutics, Inc., a private biotechnology company. Dr. Ross received a B.S. in biological sciences and a B.A. in philosophy from Stanford University, an M.S. in medical science from Harvard Medical School and an M.D. from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He completed his residency training in Internal Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.