PHILADELPHIA — (Oct. 30, 2025) — The Wistar Institute, a global leader in biomedical research in cancer, immunology and infectious disease, is pleased to welcome two new members to its Board of Trustees. David Krupnick and Elliot Menschik, M.D., Ph.D., will join the current board in offering strategic counsel to the Institute as it undergoes a period of significant growth and expansion.
“With the opening of Wistar’s Center for Advanced Therapeutics and the HIV Cure and Viral Diseases Center, we are ideally positioned to further our record of advancing discoveries that have the opportunity to solve some of the world’s most pressing health issues,” said Dario C. Altieri, M.D., Wistar Institute president and CEO, director of the Ellen and Ronald Caplan Cancer Center, and Robert and Penny Fox Distinguished Professor. “David and Elliot’s background and expertise in business development, strategy, and, in particular, the biotech industry all dovetail well with our strategy to accelerate the advancement of our foundational research discoveries into new potential treatments and cures.”
David Krupnick joins with a range of expertise in investing and corporate management. He is currently President and CEO of Webb Medical, a Philadelphia-based medical device manufacturer, where he has helped modernize operations, expand customer base, and increase revenue and profitability. Prior to Webb Medical, David spent more than eight years at Morgan Stanley, where he served as a Vice President across roles in Leverage Finance and Corporate Strategy, including post-merger integration for the Wealth and Institutional Divisions. He is also an active angel investor and advisor, with investments in more than 20 early-stage companies across sectors.
Krupnick is a graduate of Brown University and lives in Philadelphia with his wife and three young children.
Elliot Menschik, M.D., Ph.D. has created, built, and led multiple investor-backed startups in digital health, molecular diagnostics, biomanufacturing, and drug development. He is currently an entrepreneur-in-residence at Amazon where he earlier led its global cloud computing arm Amazon Web Services and worked with investors and their portfolio companies across healthcare, life sciences, and AI/ML. He has previously been a venture capitalist, coached over 100 startup founders, and taught 500+ Penn science and engineering students how to bring technology innovations to market.
Dr. Menschik received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical and computer engineering from The Johns Hopkins University, and his M.D. and Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
ABOUT THE WISTAR INSTITUTE:
The Wistar Institute is the nation’s first independent nonprofit institution devoted exclusively to foundational biomedical research and training. Since 1972, the Institute has held National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Cancer Center status. Through a culture and commitment to biomedical collaboration and innovation, Wistar science leads to breakthrough early-stage discoveries and life science sector start-ups. Wistar scientists are dedicated to solving some of the world’s most challenging problems in the field of cancer and immunology, advancing human health through early-stage discovery and training the next generation of biomedical researchers. wistar.org
