Petr Ilyinskii (He/him/his)

Petr Ilyinskii has over 20 years of work experience in the field of biotechnology. Petr began his career as a Research Associate at the Cancer Research Center, received his PhD and later joined the Harvard Medical School as a Faculty Research Associate. At Harvard, Petr was involved in various research projects, including identifying a novel sequence element essential for retroviral replication and studying viral pathogenesis and carcinogenesis.

After that Petr joined Therion Biologics as a Research Scientist and contributed to the development of novel vaccinia virus-based vectors for recombinant vaccines against HIV and oncological diseases. Petr also played a role in designing and producing poxviral vectors and gene expression constructs for clinical and research use.

After his time at Therion Biologics, Petr served as the Director of Virology at Aphios Corporation, where he initiated a fully integrated virology program for the production of an inactivated HIV vaccine and performed screening for anti-HIV therapeutics.

Petr then joined SKBP-CG, Inc as a Research Scientist and worked on developing cell-based assay systems for HTS screening of anti-cancer compounds. Petr also contributed to the post-HTS follow-up of hits in colon and hepatic cell lines, evaluating their in vivo toxicity and efficacy.

After that Petr worked as a Consultant at BioSense for a few months before joining the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center as a Research Fellow. At the medical center, he conducted research on innate and acquired antiviral NK T-cell-directed immune response in picornaviral and HIV-related models.

From 2005 to 2009, Petr served as a Principal Scientist at Cure Lab, where he led research efforts in the development of experimental influenza vaccines. His studies focused on the correlation of immunogenicity of influenza proteins with their intracellular transport and metabolism. Petr also discovered a novel molecular adjuvant during their time at Cure Lab.

In 2009, Petr joined Selecta Biosciences and has held various roles since then. Petr started as a Senior Scientist, designing and developing novel nanoparticle-based immunotherapeutics, vaccines, and immune modulators. Petr then progressed to the positions of Staff Scientist, Senior Staff Scientist, Director, Senior Director, and currently holds the role of Vice President.

Throughout their career, Petr has demonstrated expertise in immunotherapy, autoimmunity, cancer biology, vaccine development, and immune modulation. Petr has a strong background in conducting research, designing experiments, personnel management, and coordinating interdisciplinary interactions between different groups.

Petr Ilyinskii obtained a Ph.D. degree in Virology/Oncology from the Cancer Research Center. Prior to that, he completed their Master of Science (M.S) degree in Biochemistry from Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU).