Dr. Jeff Bockman PhD

Dr. Jeff Bockman is Expert Advisor and EVP, Oncology, and Head of the Oncology Center of Excellence at Lumanity (since February 2023), following his tenure as Executive Vice President and Head of Oncology at Cello Health BioConsulting (which became Lumanity). He leads the Oncology and Virology Practices at Lumanity, bringing extensive commercial and strategic perspective to early-stage oncology biotech companies. He is Strategic Advisor to Pilatus Biosciences (since February 2026), Alloplex Biotherapeutics (since March 2024), and Pearl Bio (since August 2023), and a Clinical Advisory Board member at ImmunOS Therapeutics AG, Zurich (since January 2021). He serves as Scientific Advisor to IAG, Image Analysis Group, as Regulatory Oncology Consulting Partner. He is a mentor for the NCI Innovation Conference, a judge for the Citeline Awards, and an advisor to the JPM Biotech Showcase.

Dr. Bockman’s primary focus is commercial and strategic advisory in oncology and virology, with particular depth in immuno-oncology, licensing opportunity and valuation assessments, indication prioritization, and commercial strategy for early-stage biotechs. He has directed hundreds of in-depth licensing opportunity and valuation assessments during his career at Defined Health, Cello Health BioConsulting, and Lumanity, helping pharma and biotech companies from start-up to top-ten Pharma make key decisions across the spectrum from indication prioritization to full commercial valuations.

His scientific background spans medical microbiology, virology, prion biology, and oligonucleotide therapeutics (ribozymes). His doctoral and post-doctoral research was conducted with Nobel Prize Laureate Dr. Stanley Prusiner (prions, University of California San Francisco / George Washington University) and with Dr. Sidney Altman (ribozymes, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 1989). He holds four patents in the use of ribozymes. At Innovir Laboratories (1990 to 1993) he led major research initiatives into oligonucleotide therapeutics (ribozymes) against infectious diseases and cancer, specifically HBV and leukemia, as the second scientist to join the company.

Dr. Bockman’s primary professional contribution to clinical trial processes is as a commercial and strategic advisor on drug development programs for oncology and virology assets, rather than as a clinical PI. He has directed hundreds of licensing opportunity and valuation assessments and commercial evaluations for oncology clinical-stage assets at Defined Health (1994 to 2018), Cello Health BioConsulting (2017 to 2022), and Lumanity (2022 to present). He has served on the scientific advisory boards of ImmunOS Therapeutics (immunotherapy), Valo Therapeutics (2022 to 2024), and hC Bioscience (RNA therapeutics, 2022 to 2024), and provides strategic guidance to Alloplex Biotherapeutics and Pearl Bio in their respective clinical-stage programs.

Dr. Bockman has 12 publications listed on ResearchGate with 785 citations and 923 reads, including foundational prion biology papers co-authored with Nobel Laureate Dr. Stanley Prusiner in PNAS (1985), New England Medical Review (1985), Annals of Neurology (1987), and Journal of Virology (1988), as well as ribozyme therapeutics publications. He holds four patents in ribozyme use. He is a member of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the American Society of Hematology (ASH), the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT), the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC), and the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS). He is a co-founder of Literal Latte, a literary magazine (1994 to 2025), and holds an MA in English/Creative Writing from New York University.

Dr. Bockman received his BA in Biology and Literature from UC San Diego (graduating as high school Valedictorian). He obtained his PhD in Medical Microbiology with a focus on prions from the University of California, Berkeley, conducting research on prions. He undertook post-doctoral training and served as Associate Research Professor at The George Washington University School of Medicine, working on prions. He also holds an MA in English/Creative Writing from New York University. He joined Innovir Laboratories in August 1990 as the second scientist at the company, leading ribozyme therapeutics research through December 1993. He joined Defined Health as Consultant in April 1994, advancing to Vice President (2000 to 2008) and Senior Vice President Oncology (2008 to 2018), before joining Cello Health BioConsulting as Oncology Practice Head (2017) and EVP Oncology Practice Head (2018 to 2022), and subsequently Lumanity.