New York — May 12, 2025 — The Human Immunome Project (HIP) congratulates Dr. Hans Keirstead and Immunis, Inc. for receiving a prestigious XPRIZE Healthspan Semi-finalist award and announces a strategic leadership transition at the conclusion of his two-year term as HIP CEO. Existing HIP Board Chair Jane Metcalfe takes on an Executive Chair role for the next stage of HIP’s operational launch. Keirstead remains an active Board member, continuing to contribute his vision and expertise to HIP.
“We thank Hans for his pivotal work in developing the operational and strategic plan for HIP, which provide a strong foundation from which to launch our pilot phase of operations. We are also delighted to see Immunis advance in the XPRIZE Healthspan awards, which hold such promise for improving healthspan for all,” said Metcalfe.
“My commitment to HIP remains unwavering because I believe unlocking the immunome will transform human health,” said Dr. Keirstead. “I’m excited for the next phase of HIP’s growth, standardizing the clinical and data protocols that will enable HIP to reach scale.”
A global non-profit, HIP is creating a publicly available dataset of human immune variation of populations around the globe to empower AI models of the human immune system and transform human health. As HIP enters its operational phase, HIP’s Co-Chief Scientific Officers, Dr. Shai Shen-Orr and Dr. John Tsang, both renowned world leaders in systems human immunology, are convening a global scientific partner network to develop common clinical study and data generation protocols to advance the HIP mission.
- Shai Shen-Orr is a Professor at the Faculty of Medicine at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, head of the Systems Immunology & Precision Medicine laboratory, and the Founding Director of the Technion Institute for Healthy Aging. He is also the cofounder and chief science officer of CytoReason, a pharma/AI global leader in computational modeling, developing an artificial intelligence model that integrates the breadth of molecular data in health and disease to provide data-driven insights. CytoReason’s systems are installed at six of the top 15 pharma where they help guide decision makers in drug development and diagnostics.
- John Tsang is a systems immunologist, computational biologist, and engineer. He is Professor of Immunobiology and Biomedical Engineering at Yale University and the Founding Director of the Yale Center for Systems and Engineering Immunology (CSEI), which is a cross-departmental research center of systems, quantitative, and synthetic immunology. He is an Investigator and the Yale Lead of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) Biohub New York. Before coming to Yale, he spent more than a decade at the NIH Intramural Program as the Chief of the Multiscale Systems Biology Section and Co-Director of the NIH Center for Human Immunology (CHI).
“At HIP, our next focus is on convening a scientific network of global partners to develop and harmonize human study, sample collection, and large-scale data generation protocols to decode and develop AI models of the human immune system,” said Dr. Tsang. “This collaborative and global approach will accelerate our understanding of immune system variability and its impact on health across populations,” added Dr. Shen-Orr.
About the Human Immunome Project (HIP)
The Human Immunome Project (HIP) is a global nonprofit dedicated to comprehensively mapping and modeling the human immune system with the goal of accelerating medical research, advancing drug and diagnostic discovery, and, ultimately, improving health outcomes for populations globally. HIP is a US-registered 501(c)(3) organization.
About Immunis and XPRIZE Healthspan
Dr. Hans Keirstead is Chair of Immunis, Inc., a clinical-stage, venture-based biotech company developing stem cell-derived biologics to address age and immune-related disease. Immunis has been recognized as an XPRIZE Healthspan Semi-Finalist, (one of 40 companies so recognized). This prestigious prize, a seven-year, $101 million global competition, aims to catalyze the development of therapeutic treatments that restore muscle, cognition, and immune function by a minimum of 10 years.
Contact
media@immuneproject.org
Responses