Peter Alff

Peter Alff is a biotech operator and investor with nearly two decades of experience spanning biomedical research, startup operations, and venture capital. He holds a B.S. in Biology from Muhlenberg College and a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Stony Brook University, and completed postdoctoral training as a fellow at The Rockefeller University. His scientific grounding underpins a career focused on translating university research into companies.

Before moving into venture investing, Alff was Business Development Manager at NYU's Office of Therapeutics Alliances, where he led opportunity and risk assessment across multiple therapeutic areas — including oncology, auto-inflammation, neuroscience, and infectious disease — and helped facilitate new company formation. He joined Kairos Ventures (Beverly Hills–based, with Alff based in New York) as an Executive in Residence / Entrepreneur in Residence around 2017, where he focused on therapeutics investments and worked closely with scientists from top research universities to launch and run early biotech companies, frequently serving as a startup CEO.

Alff is also a company founder in his own right: he co-founded Calder Biosciences, a nanoscale molecular-engineering and vaccine-platform company that uses patented di-tyrosine crosslinking ("3D Vaxlock") to lock viral proteins in optimal conformations, with lead programs in RSV and influenza. He later served as Vice President of Partnerships at Owkin, leading U.S. partnership and business development efforts at the AI-driven biotech.

Today Alff is a Senior Venture Partner at Orange Grove Bio, a venture-creation firm, where he emphasizes partnership building and venture creation with leading academic medical centers — continuing the academic-spinout, founder-operator model that has defined his career.

• Invests at the earliest (seed / company-formation) stage in therapeutics and biotechnology spun out of top research universities and academic medical centers.
• Core therapeutic areas reflect his diligence experience: oncology, autoimmune/auto-inflammatory disease, neuroscience, infectious disease, and vaccines.
• Operates as a venture-creation / founder-operator investor — not just writing checks but launching companies, taking board seats, and serving as startup CEO (e.g., joining Actinobac Biomed's board as part of Kairos's investment).
• Stated emphasis (per Orange Grove Bio): "partnership building and venture creation with leading academic medical centers" — he looks for differentiated, defensible science with a clear path from bench to clinic.
• Values strong academic founding teams and translatable platform technology; his own founding of Calder Biosciences signals a preference for platform-based, IP-protected approaches.