Who We Are

Jeffrey Bluestone, Ph.D. is one of the leading immunologists in the field of T-cell activation and immune tolerance research that has led to the development of multiple immunotherapies, including the first FDA-approved drug targeting T-cell co-stimulation to treat autoimmune disease and organ transplantation and the first CTLA-4 antagonist drugs approved for the treatment of metastatic melanoma.

Dr. Bluestone is an academic leader on a national and international scale. He is former President and CEO of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, and was the founding director of the Immune Tolerance Network, the largest NIH-funded multicenter clinical immunology research program, testing novel immunotherapies in transplantation, autoimmunity and asthma/allergy.  While holding the A.W. and Mary Margaret Clausen Distinguished Professorship at UCSF, Dr. Bluestone also served as executive vice chancellor and provost emeritus at UCSF and was the former director of the UCSF Diabetes Center.

Dr. Bluestone has received numerous awards including: a Guggenheim Fellowship; election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; the National Academy of Medicine; and the National Academy of Sciences; and an appointed member of Vice President Joe Biden’s Cancer Moonshot Blue Ribbon Panel.

Doug Sheehy is a senior biotechnology executive who has managed global legal and compliance operations for multiple companies. Prior to joining Sonoma, Sheehy served as General Counsel and Secretary for Aimmune Therapeutics, Inc., a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company that develops and commercializes treatments for potentially life-threatening food allergies. Aimmune’s lead product, PALFORZIA®, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of peanut allergy in 2020. Aimmune was acquired by Nestle Health Science for $2.6 billion in late 2020. Sheehy previously served as Executive Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer, General Counsel and Secretary of Codexis, Inc., a publicly traded biotechnology company that develops novel treatments for rare diseases and industrial synthetic enzymes for the pharmaceutical and food industries. Prior to Codexis, Sheehy served as Executive Director, Legal at CV Therapeutics, Inc., a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company that developed and commercialized treatments for cardiovascular disease. He started his career as a corporate and securities lawyer in Silicon Valley representing emerging growth companies and venture funds at Gunderson Dettmer.

Sheehy received an A.B. in History from Dartmouth College and a J.D. from American University’s Washington College of Law, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the American University Law Review.

Jessica Stitt, MBA is a global biotech financial executive with over 20 years of experience in corporate transactions, healthcare finance and strategy. She most recently served as Chief Financial Officer at Gyroscope Therapeutics, a global clinical-stage gene therapy company focused on disease of the eye, acquired by Novartis. Prior to Gyroscope, Stitt served as Vice President of Finance and Operations for MyoKardia, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing targeted therapies for the treatment of serious cardiovascular diseases, acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb. She served as Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations for Theravance Biopharma, Inc., after the company’s spin-off from Theravance, Inc., now Innoviva, Inc. She previously held roles in finance at Nektar Therapeutics, Alkermes and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts.

Stitt holds an MBA from Simmons School of Management and a B.A. from Saint Anselm College.

Joseph R. Arron, M.D., Ph.D., has extensive experience in drug and biomarker discovery and development. Previously, he served as the Chief Scientific Officer for Therapeutics at 23andMe, a genetics-driven consumer healthcare and biopharmaceutical company, where he managed a portfolio of more than 25 therapeutic programs, and developed and implemented comprehensive target discovery, translational research, and therapeutic candidate discovery strategies across multiple therapeutic areas. Prior to 23andMe, Dr. Arron was a Scientist at Genentech for over 15 years, and led target discovery, preclinical development and translational research for inflammatory, autoimmune, fibrotic and ophthalmic disorders as Vice President of Immunology Research. Dr. Arron has published more than 100 original articles. In addition to his role as Chief Scientific Officer, he serves as a member of Sonoma Bio’s Scientific Advisory Board.

Dr. Arron earned his Ph.D. in immunology from The Rockefeller University, his M.D. from Weill Medical College of Cornell University and an A.B. in chemistry from Princeton University. He conducted postdoctoral research in developmental biology at Stanford University School of Medicine.