Lou Reese
Lou Reese is an American entrepreneur, businessman and philanthropist. He is the co-founder of Vaxxinity, Axxium Life and Cana Life.[1][2][3]
Early life and education
Reese was raised in Dallas, Texas where he attended Greenhill School.[citation needed] He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2004.[4][2] He attended and later dropped out of Columbia Business School.[4]
Career
Reese began his professional career as an investment banker at J.P. Morgan.[2][4] He founded Jack Green Group (JGG), an investment and advisory firm active across real estate, renewable energy, and life sciences in 2011.[4] Early ventures included sustainable construction and demolition, LEED-certified multi-family real estate development, and the development of solar energy integrators in Hawaii – each a vehicle for environmental impact.[5][4] Reese is the son of Louis Garfield Reese III, a Dallas real estate developer credited with pioneering investment and revitalization in the Deep Ellum and Lower Greenville Avenue districts of Dallas, Texas;[6][7] Reese has continued the family's real estate interests in these districts.[citation needed]
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, Reese co-founded COVAXX to develop both a diagnostic and a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2.[8][9] The vaccine, UB-612, was designed specifically to be affordable, stable without cold-chain infrastructure, and manufacturable at scale in emerging markets.[10][8] The FDA granted Emergency Use Authorization for the company's COVID-19 antibody test,[11][12] and UB-612 successfully completed its Phase 3 trial, meeting all endpoints in a head-to-head comparison against Pfizer, Astra-Zeneca and Sinopharm's COVID-19 vaccines.[13] In 2021, COVAXX merged into Vaxxinity which listed on NASDAQ (ticker:VAXX) raising $85 million at IPO.[14][15]
Reese is also developing active immunotherapy medicines (AIM) through Axxium Life for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other chronic diseases using a proprietary AI-driven drug design platform.[3][5] His stated goal is to replace expensive biologic drugs with cheaper, safer, more accessible peptide-based alternatives.[5]
The technology has already been commercialized by another of his companies, Shanghai ShenLian Biomedical Corporation, in billions of doses in animal health applications, vaccinating roughly 25% of the world's swine population annually.[4][2]
The lead candidates in humans include UB-311, a Phase-3 ready active immunotherapy to treat and prevent Alzheimer's and UB-312 for Parkinson's.[3][16] UB-312 was the first drug to show target engagement of toxic alpha-synuclein inside the central nervous system with results published in Nature Medicine in 2024.[17][18]
Reese also co-founded Cana Life focused on ending preventable AIDS deaths through the development of novel HIV therapies, specifically targeting multi-drug resistant HIV.[4] Research results on UB-421 has been published in collaboration with the NIH in New England Journal of Medicine,[19][20] The Lancet,[21] and Nature.[4]
Philanthropy
Reese's philanthropic engagement spans medicine, public health, and the arts.[22]
Give to Cure is widely described as the world's first nonprofit dedicated to crowdfunding clinical trials research.[23][24] Reese modeled the organization on the March of Dimes' citizen-powered funding of the polio vaccine.[25] The non-profit has since evolved to include support for psychedelics research for PTSD and depression for veterans, as well as re-wilding causes.[citation needed]
He has served as an advisor to the National Intelligence Council and a founding director of the LIU Global Institute.[22] He was also a partner member of the VIA Art fund, a nonprofit that funds public art installations designed to foster civic thought leadership.[22]
Reese is a board member of MAHA Action, a nonprofit associated with the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) public health movement advanced by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as U.S. Secretary of Health of Human Services.[26]
Recognition
Reese and Mei Mei Hu have been recognized as Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalists in New York, 2019 and recipient of the Pioneer in Technology Award at the Brain Mapping Foundation.[4][3] He is a member of YPO[4] and a member of the LAPD Leadership Advisory Board.[citation needed]
Personal life
Reese is married to Mei Mei Hu, his business partner and co-founder across multiple ventures.[27][8] They have three children together and spend time between Dallas, Texas and Costa Rica.[3]
References
- ↑ "Lou Reese". Vaxxinity. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Board of Directors". Vaxxinity Investor Relations. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 "Home". Axxium. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
- ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 "JGG Holding". JGG Holding. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Bottomley, Andrea (January 14, 2022). "Vaxxinity looks to pioneer the next revolution in pharma". PharmaVoice. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
- ↑ Wilonsky, Robert (July 1, 2008). "Lou Reese, One of Deep Ellum's "Pioneering" Land Owners, Has Died". Dallas Observer. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
- ↑ Korosec, Thomas (June 7, 2000). "Hide and seek". Dallas Observer. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 "Vaxxinity CEO Mei-Mei Hu: Advancing Vaccine Research and Health Equity". Clinical Trials Arena. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
- ↑ "UB-612 COVID-19 Vaccine". Precision Vaccinations. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
- ↑ Hethcock, Bill (November 15, 2021). "Dallas-Based Vaxxinity Prepares for $100M IPO; Aims to Turn Immune Systems Into 'Antibody Factories'". Dallas Innovates. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
- ↑ "COVAXX Announces Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of UBI SARS-CoV-2 ELISA Antibody Test for COVID-19" (Press release). Business Wire. January 21, 2021. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
- ↑ "Covaxx's COVID-19 antibody test receives US FDA emergency use clearance". S&P Global Market Intelligence. January 21, 2021. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
- ↑ "Safety and immunogenicity of UB-612 heterologous booster in adults primed with mRNA, adenovirus, or inactivated COVID-19 vaccines: a randomized, active-controlled, Phase 3 trial". eClinicalMedicine. The Lancet. July 2025. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
- ↑ "Vaxxinity Announces Closing of IPO and Partial Exercise of Underwriters' Option to Purchase Additional Shares" (Press release). Vaxxinity. November 18, 2021. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
- ↑ Block, Jonathan (November 18, 2021). "Vaxxinity nets gross proceeds of $85M from IPO". Seeking Alpha. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
- ↑ "Vaxxinity, Inc. (VAXX) Profile". Yahoo Finance. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
- ↑ "Target engagement and immunogenicity of an active immunotherapeutic targeting pathological α-synuclein: a phase 1 placebo-controlled trial". Nature Medicine. June 20, 2024. doi:10.1038/s41591-024-03101-8.
- ↑ "Vaxxinity UB-312 Parkinson's Trial Results Published in Nature Medicine" (Press release). BioSpace. June 20, 2024. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
- ↑ Wang, Chang-Yi; Wong, Wing-Wai; Tsai, Hung-Chin; et al. (April 18, 2019). "Effect of Anti-CD4 Antibody UB-421 on HIV-1 Rebound after Treatment Interruption". New England Journal of Medicine. 380: 1535–1545. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1802264.
- ↑ "Novel antibody may suppress HIV for up to four months" (Press release). NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. April 18, 2019. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
- ↑ "Ex vivo sensitivity to broadly neutralizing antibodies and anti-CD4 antibody UB-421 of infectious viral isolates from people living with multidrug-resistant HIV". eBioMedicine. The Lancet. 104: 105151. 2024. doi:10.1016/j.ebiom.2024.105151.
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 "Louis Garfield Reese, IV". Global Health Care Initiative. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
- ↑ "Give To Cure Launches Crowdfunding Nonprofit to Accelerate Drug Development" (Press release). Business Wire. November 3, 2015. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
- ↑ "Give To Cure Launches Crowdfunding Nonprofit To Accelerate Drug Clinical Trials". Crowdfund Insider. November 4, 2015. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
- ↑ "Give to Cure, a Crowdfunding Approach to Alzheimer's". Inside Philanthropy. December 18, 2014. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
- ↑ Action, MAHA. "MAHA ACTION WELCOMES BIOTECH PIONEER LOU REESE TO ITS BOARD OF DIRECTORS". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2026-04-22.
- ↑ Grom, Taren (July 20, 2022). "Woman of the Week: Vaxxinity's Mei Mei Hu". PharmaVoice. Retrieved April 21, 2026.
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