Caralee Schaefer, Ph.D. has served as Quince’ Vice President, Nonclinical Development since August 2024. To this role, as a translational research scientist, she brings more than 25 years of nonclinical development experience, with a particular focus on inflammation, autoimmunity, fibrosis, and rare disease research. Dr. Schaefer possesses extensive in vivo proof-of-concept and target validation expertise, including the establishment of robust and reproducible pharmacology models for evaluating novel therapies for autoimmune and fibrotic diseases. Additionally, she has extensive experience leading toxicology, safety pharmacology, and pharmacokinetic assessments for small molecules, biologics, and gene therapies. Dr. Schaefer’s leadership in nonclinical development has resulted in more than 14 Investigational New Drug (IND) applications and three New Drug Application (NDA) submissions in multiple therapeutic areas.
Prior to joining Quince Therapeutics, Dr. Schaefer served as the Senior Director of Pharmacology/Toxicology at 4DMT, where she was responsible for the nonclinical development of multiple novel AAV gene therapies for rare diseases. Prior to 4DMT, she was the Executive Director of Preclinical Development at Cortexyme, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering upstream therapeutic approaches designed to improve the lives of patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and other degenerative diseases. Earlier in her career, she held leadership roles at Indalo Therapeutics, Blade Therapeutics, InterMune, and Berlex Biosciences.
Dr. Schaefer has been a board member of the Inflammation Research Association since 2010 and an officer since 2015 (current past President). She received her Ph.D. in Immunology from Wayne State University and her B.A. in Biology from Adrian College.