Dr. Costa joined Tallac in 2022 as Senior Director, Head of Biology. Dr. Costa is a cancer biologist with over 16years of research and drug discovery/development experience in both academia and industry, encompassing the areas of cancer and stem cell biology, tumor microenvironment and cancer immunology. She has over 30 publications and patent applications. Previously, Dr. Costa was Head of Research at Immune-Onc Therapeutics, where she directed multiple immuno-oncology programs, from inception to IND clearance, and collaborated with in early clinical development teams. Prior to Immune-Onc Therapeutics, Dr. Costa was a Principal Scientist at Pfizer, where she was biology lead of various cancer cell-targeted and immuno-oncology programs for heme and solid tumor indications. Additionally, Dr. Costa collaborated with Pfizer’s business development team in the evaluation of external science and lead due diligence team for asset in-licensing/collaboration with small biotech. Dr. Costa completed postdoctoral training in stem cell biology at Stanford University and in cancer biology at University of California San Francisco. Dr. Costa received her PhD in human biology from a joint program of University of Porto, Portugal, and Free University of Brussels, Belgium, and her BS in biochemistry from the University of Coimbra, Portugal.