Jeff Bluestone, PhD
Managing Director
Before joining Vie Ventures, Jeff was a Co-Founder and CEO of Sonoma Biotherapeutics from 2019 to 2025, where he led the development of novel engineered regulatory T cell therapies for autoimmune diseases. He subsequently transitioned to Senior Advisor and continues to support the company’s scientific and translational strategy.
From 2015 to 2019, Jeff served as President and CEO of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, a multi-institutional collaboration advancing next-generation cancer immunotherapies through coordinated research and clinical programs.
Jeff has served on the board of Gilead Sciences since 2020.
Earlier in his career, Jeff held senior leadership roles across academia and national research initiatives that shaped modern immunology and immune tolerance. He was the founding Director of the NIH-funded Immune Tolerance Network, overseeing a global clinical research platform focused on transplantation, autoimmunity, allergy, and asthma. He also served as Director of the UCSF Diabetes Center and held multiple senior academic and leadership positions at the University of California, San Francisco.
Jeff is the A.W. and Mary Margaret Clausen Distinguished Professor Emeritus at UCSF and has published more than 500 scientific papers. His work contributed directly to the development of multiple landmark immunotherapies, including abatacept, ipilimumab, and teplizumab, the first FDA-approved therapy to delay the onset of type 1 diabetes. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Scientific & Translation: Four+ decades
SonomaBio, Parker Institute, Immune Tolerance Network, UCSF
Co-Founder & CEO,
2019-2025
Senior Advisor, present
CEO & President,
2015-2019
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