Fabiana Zappala

Fabiana Zappala joined Flagship after completing the 2020 Flagship Pioneering Fellowship. In her role, she works on a team of entrepreneurial scientists to launch and grow new biotech ventures. In addition to exploring new venture concepts, she supports the operation of portfolio companies by developing intellectual property, research plans, and business strategy.

Fabiana earned her Ph.D. in bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania and her B.S. in chemical engineering from MIT. Her Ph.D. research involved developing personalized bispecific antibodies for oncology immunotherapy. Specifically, she investigated the use of patients’ anti-tumor antibodies as the targeting moiety in a bispecific construct. She also developed a conjugation method to modify native antibodies with a T cell recruitment domain. During her graduate training she was a fellow at Penn’s tech transfer office, completed coursework at Wharton, and worked at a local incubator and a student-founded startup.