Over the past two decades, Selecta's founders have been at the forefront of their respective fields of nanotechnology and immunology cumulating to the launch of Selecta Biosciences in 2008. Professor Robert Langer's laboratory at MIT - the largest biomedical engineering lab in the world - has an unparalleled track record in shaping and advancing the field of drug delivery through breakthrough discoveries in the area of biomaterials and drug delivery. Professor Omid Farokhzad's laboratory at Brigham and Women's Hospital-Harvard Medical School has pioneered the high-throughput development and screening of multifunctional nanoparticles for a broad range of medical applications.

In parallel, research in the laboratory of Professor Ulrich von Andrian at Harvard Medical School has generated profound insights into the molecular and cellular mechanisms that regulate immune responses. His group has identified key events that allow the immune system to detect and respond to infectious viruses. Observing these infectious viruses, which in effect serve as natural models of nanometer-scale particles, have prompted the founders to formulate novel and powerful strategies that exploit precisely engineered, targeted synthetic nanoparticles as delivery vehicles for bioactive molecules that potently induce or modulate the immune response.

Robert Langer is the David H Koch Institute Professor at MIT. Dr. Langer has written approximately 1,150 articles. He also has approximately 800 issued/pending patents worldwide. Dr. Langer has received over 180 awards, including the 2006 United States National Medal of Science, the Charles Stark Draper Prize (considered the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for engineers), the 2008 Millennium Prize, and the 1998 Lemelson-MIT prize. By age 43, Dr. Langer was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Sciences.

Omid Farokhzad is an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School (HMS). Dr. Farokhzad has written more than 70 papers and is an inventor of more than 60 issued/pending patents. Technologies developed or co-developed by Dr. Farokhzad have formed the foundation for the launch of two venture-backed biotechnology companies, BIND Biosciences and Selecta Biosciences. Dr. Farokhzad was named among the Nano50 winners of 2007 by Nanotech Briefs and in 2009 he received the All Star Distinguished Achievement Award from the Mass High Tech (MHT) Journal for his contributions to the life sciences industry.

Ulrich von Andrian is the Edward Mallinckrodt Jr. Professor of Immunopathology at Harvard Medical School. A recipient of several professional awards, Dr. von Andrian is an internationally recognized expert in the basic exploration of immune responses to exogenous and endogenous challenges, such as infections, tumors, and immune diseases. Using in vivo microscopic imaging technologies developed in his laboratory, Dr. von Andrian has identified how different immune cells migrate and communicate in living tissues and how immunomodulatory drugs can be designed to control and modify these events. He co-founded Selecta to apply these insights to the development of rationally engineered immunobiologics for the treatment and prevention of human diseases.