Tom Cirrito, PhD, is one of the few biotechnology entrepreneurs to have led a biotech company from early-stage development to an IPO and successfully guided a drug development program from concept to FDA approval.
Prior to co-founding Varro, Dr. Cirrito founded and served as CEO of multiple life sciences startups, including Filament Biosolutions, Biotagenics, Immunovent, and AGelity BioMechanics. He also served as Managing Partner at the biotech venture studio Astonishing Labs. Prior to that, he joined Stemline Therapeutics as its second employee, overseeing all aspects of operations, drug development and business development. He conceived of and led all aspects of clinical, manufacturing and toxicology for development of Elzonris©, a biologic therapy for a rare form of leukemia, from preclinical through FDA approval. Dr. Cirrito was also a co-inventor of Stemline’s brain cancer vaccine, SL-701. Stemline went public on Nasdaq and in 2020 was acquired for $677 million.
Dr. Cirrito is an inventor on multiple patents and patent applications and has authored several papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals. From 2007 to 2016 he served on the Business and Advisory Board of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation. Dr. Cirrito also taught Bioentrepreneurship at NYU Metrotech from 2014 to 2015. He earned a B.A. in Biological Sciences and a Ph.D. in Immunology from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
