Leadership

Joseph A. Fraietta Ph.D.- Director 

After obtaining his degree in Bioscience and Biotechnology, Dr. Fraietta moved to Philadelphia, PA to complete his graduate studies at Drexel University College of Medicine. He conducted research to interrogate the signaling and molecular requirements for the generation of successful effector and memory T cells and to determine why these cells fail to control certain chronic infections. In 2012, Dr. Fraietta graduated with a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology. He then held a position as a research fellow in the Institute for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Disease at Drexel where he discovered and developed novel inhibitors of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

Dr. Fraietta continued his training as a postdoctoral scientist in Carl June’s laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA) where for the next four years he conducted research on the mechanisms underlying the persistence of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. In 2016, Dr. Fraietta assumed the directorship of the Process/Product Development Laboratory (PDL) in the first-of-its-kind Center for Advanced Cellular Therapeutics in the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine. He has published multiple primary research and review articles in the field of T cell immunity to cancer and viruses. Dr. Fraietta also directs graduate as well as undergraduate courses in immunology and virology.

Vanessa E. Gonzalez M.B.A. – Director of Operations

Vanessa E. Gonzalez has a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Puerto Rico and a Master's in Business from Turabo University. She has over 10 years of experience working in regulated laboratories in the pharma (Bristol Myers Squibb Inc., Mayaguez, PR), biotech (Xcyte Therapies Inc., Seattle, WA), and food industries (JLA Laboratory/IEH Inc., Edenton, NC) where she gained extensive knowledge of the cGMP/GLP and ISO 17025 regulations. In 2009, while working in JLA as a supervisor, Vanessa led the microbiology lab to ISO 17025 accreditation. Vanessa joined the TCSL in 2013 to work as a Data Manager and in 2015 formally assumed the responsibilities of TCSL Quality Manager where she led the TCSL's efforts to close the gap between existing practices and GCLP standards. In 2019, as the TCSL became a Service Center she assumed the responsibility of establishing the foundation of the new business model. In 2020, Vanessa was appointed TCSL Associate Director and was promoted to Director of Operations in 2022.  Since then, her focus has been on allocating resources to support the project’s deliverables. To plan and develop budget strategies that ensure the continuity of the lab operations and to manage the correlatives testing from study initiation or contract execution to the end of the study.