Best Startup
At Best Startup US we track over 1,000,000 US startups and over 3 million people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top United States based CEO’ operating in the Therapeutics space. If you think a CEO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.us.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Anthony P Mack
Founding Chairman & CEO of Virpax Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Anthony P. Mack has more than 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and finance industries. Prior to founding Virpax in 2016, Mr. Mack founded Scilex Pharmaceuticals and served as President and CEO until February 2018. Scilex was sold to a publicly-traded company. Mr. Mack founded his first pharmaceutical company ProSolus Pharmaceuticals in 2009, where he served as President before selling the company to Mission Pharmacal in 2015. Mr. Mack has held high-level management positions with Purdue Pharma, Endo Pharmaceuticals, Novartis, and EKR Therapeutics. He has led training, marketing, and commercial distribution for billion-dollar pain management products and has forged key strategic alliances. Mr. Mack holds an Executive MBA in Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing from Saint Joseph’s University.
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About Virpax Pharmaceuticals Inc.: Our product candidates are being developed to manage global unmet needs in the areas of cancer and non-cancer pain, PTSD, and CNS Disorder.
Chris Gibson
Co-Founder & CEO of Recursion Pharmaceuticals
Chris completed his PhD in Bioengineering at the University of Utah in the fall of 2013 before taking a leave of absence from medical school (he was enrolled in the MD/PhD program) to found and grow Recursion. He developed the core technology underlying this venture while in the lab of Dr. Dean Li. Chris comes from a family of entrepreneurs, is a graduate of Rice University with degrees in bioengineering and managerial studies, and recently completed an intense course in entrepreneurship at Stanford GSB. Chris is also a Board Member of CureHHT, a patient advocacy group for Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia. Chris enjoys cycling on both the road and the trails that cut through Utah’s great wilderness,as well as spending precious time with his family.
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About Recursion Pharmaceuticals: Recursion Pharmaceuticals is a digital biology company, developing a drug discovery platform and pipeline with machine learning.
Stephanie Tilenius
CEO, Founder of Vida Health
Stephanie is CEO & Founder of Vida Health.
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About Nextdoor, Vida Health: Vida Health is a virtual care platform that provides health coaching from experienced health care providers and medical institutions.
Alyson Watson
Founder & CEO of Modern Health
Alyson Friedensohn is a founder and CEO at Modern Health.
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About Modern Health: Modern Health is a mental well-being platform for innovative companies offering therapy, coaching, and self-guided courses all in one app.
Raja Dhir
Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Seed Health
Raja Dhir is a life sciences entrepreneur and Co-Founder of Seed Health, a venture-backed microbiome company pioneering the application of bacteria for both human and planetary health. He leads Seed’s R&D, academic collaborations, technology development, clinical trial design, supply chain, and intellectual property strategy. Together with Dr. Jacques Ravel, he Co-Chairs Seed’s Scientific Advisory Board–an interdisciplinary group of scientists and doctors who lead research teams and teach at institutions including the teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and the Trial Innovation Unit of Mass. General Hospital (MGH). Raja has designed clinical trials with leading academic institutions including the teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and the Trial Innovation Unit of Mass. General Hospital (MGH). Raja has unique expertise translating scientific research for product development with a track record that includes patented inventions to stabilize sensitive compounds to improve alpha-diversity of the gut microbiome (derived from micro-algae) and most recently, the co-invention of microbial technologies to protect honeybee populations (Apis mellifera) from neonicotinoid pesticides and pathogen colonization. His work also includes biofermentation and scale-up for both facultative and strict anaerobic organisms. Raja has negotiated multiple joint-ventures, strategic partnerships, technology transfer and licensing agreements with publicly traded companies (NYSE, LSE) and academic institutions (Harvard Medical School, UCLA). To date, entities he has co-founded own the rights to 15+ patents and research emerging from $25MM+ of non-dilutive funding over 10+ years from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and National Institute of Health (NIH). Raja serves on the Editorial Board for the scientific journal, Microbiome. He is a member of the Microbiome Think Tank at Mass. General Hospital (MGH) and sits on the Advisory Committee for the International Scientific Association of Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP). Raja is also a Director and Co-Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board for Micropia, a $20MM microbial ecology / education platform and the world’s first museum dedicated to microbes.
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About Seed Health: Seed Health is a microbial company that focuses on therapeutics, consumer health innovations, and environmental solutions.
Ara Katz
Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Seed Health
Ara Katz is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Seed Health, a microbial sciences company pioneering the application of bacteria to impact human and planetary health. She has worked at the intersection of technology, consumer, design, and media is now working to steward a new standard in probiotics and how science is communicated to change how we discern evidence from evangelism to make the most informed choices for our bodies, our health, and our world. Ara previously co-founded and served as CMO of mobile commerce marketplace, Spring (backed by LMVH, sold to ShopRunner), and was on the founding team of social commerce company, BeachMint (sold to Conde Nast), where she launched six direct-to-consumer, influencer subscription brands. She is an angel investor and advisor in companies such as mindbodygreen, Stadium Goods (recently sold to FarFetch), RXDefine, women’s healthcare startup, Mahmee, and new biomaterials company, C16. Ara has been a fellow at the MIT Media Lab’s Center for Future Storytelling and CCA’s Design MBA program, was named in Marie Claire’s “The New Guard: The 50 Most Influential Women in America”, listed on Business Insider’s “Silicon Alley Top 100” and “36 Rockstar Women in NYC Tech”, and Create + Cultivate’s 100 List for STEM.
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About Seed Health: Seed Health is a microbial company that focuses on therapeutics, consumer health innovations, and environmental solutions.
Andrew Adams
CEO of Headway
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About Headway: Headway is a mental healthcare system provider that helps patients connect with therapists and submit insurance claims online.
Alexander Isakov
Founder & CEO of Lattis Surgical
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About Lattis Surgical: The Lattis team developed a Contained Tissue Extraction (CTE) device, using bladeless technology.
Paul Chang
President, CEO/CSO and Lead Founder of ARase Therapeutics
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About ARase Therapeutics: Arase Therapeutics is a science-focused oncology company developing therapies that modulate cancer-relevant cell signaling pathways.
Mike McSherry
CEO & Founder of Xealth
CEO at Xealth.
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About Xealth: Xealth is a platform for digital health, enabling clinicians to prescribe and monitor digital tools from within the EHR workflow.
Rachel E. Haurwitz
Co-founder, President & CEO of Caribou Biosciences
Rachel is a co-founder of Caribou Biosciences and has been President and CEO since its inception. She has a research background in CRISPR-Cas biology, and is also a co-founder of Intellia Therapeutics. Rachel is an inventor on several patents and patent applications covering multiple CRISPR-derived technologies, and she has co-authored scientific papers in high impact journals characterizing CRISPR-Cas systems. In 2014, she was named by Forbes Magazine to the “30 Under 30” list in Science and Healthcare, and in 2016, Fortune Magazine named her to the “40 Under 40” list of the most influential young people in business. Rachel earned an A.B. in Biological Sciences from Harvard College, and received a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley.
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About Caribou Biosciences: Caribou Biosciences is a biotechnology company that develops CRISPR technologies and allogenic cell therapies for oncology.
Robert Alexander
Chief Executive Officer of Allakos
Robert Alexander has been involved in the formation and leadership of numerous biotechnology companies. Robert Alexander was CEO of ZS Pharma where he led the initial public offering and sale of ZS Pharma to AstraZeneca. Prior to ZS Pharma, Robert Alexander was a Director at Alta Partners, a venture capital firm, and was also Executive Chairman and interim CEO of SARcode Bioscience. During his time at Alta Partners, he led investments in SARcode Bioscience (acquired by Shire), Lumena Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Shire), ZS Pharma (acquired by AstraZeneca), and Allakos. Prior to Alta Partners, Robert was a Principal in MPM Capital’s BioEquities Fund. Robert Alexander joined MPM from Genentech, where he worked in the Business Development group. Robert Alexander is on the Board of Directors of Allena Pharmaceuticals. He holds a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Bachelor Science in Zoology from Miami University of Ohio.
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About Allakos: Allakos is a biotechnology company that develops antibody-based therapeutics to treat various allergies and diseases.
Simba Gill
President & CEO of Evelo Biosciences
Simba Gill, PhD is an entrepreneur, investor and CEO who believes passionately that science and globalization will dramatically improve life in the 21st century. Dr. Gill is currently the CEO of Evelo, Sr. Partner at Flagship Ventures, and Executive Chair of Blackfynn. Dr. Gill founded or had lead roles in moksha8, Epirus, Maxygen, Verdia, Avidia, Codexis, Systemix and Valentis, four of these companies have been taken public and three were acquired through strategic trade sales. Exit valuations were between $400M – $6B. Dr. Gill has also led, built and launched several commercial businesses/products generating annual revenues of between $150M-$2B. Dr. Gill has founded and/or had lead roles in pioneering companies in the fields of antibodies, stem cells, directed molecular evolution, immunodiagnostics and the cancer microbiome. He has also been an investor, advisor, founder and CEO of several emerging market life science companies. Dr. Gill was a Partner at TPG, focused on investments in Life Sciences and Emerging Markets. Early in his career, Dr. Gill was co-head of Worldwide Marketing for Recormon. He also led corporate and market development and strategy from inception to commercialization of the Elecsys system, which became one of the world’s most widely used immunodiagnostic platforms. Dr. Gill served on the Board of Directors of the Tuberculosis Alliance, The Djerassi Resident Artists Program and the International Advisory Board of INSEAD. Dr. Gill was also the founder of Dispatches, an in-depth written and photojournalism periodical focused on key global issues. Dr. Gill has an MBA from INSEAD and carried out his PhD with focus on developing humanized antibodies to treat cancer. This work was done at King’s College, London in collaboration with the LMB at Cambridge and Celltech.
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About Epiva, Evelo Biosciences, moksha8 Pharmaceuticals, TPG Growth: Evelo Biosciences is dedicated to improving the lives of patients globally through the development of monoclonal microbials.
Daniel Perez
Co-Founder, CEO of Hinge Health
With a long personal history of MSK injuries including several leg surgeries, Dan has long been passionate about improving outcomes for musculoskeletal disorders. Originally from Miami, Dan pursued a PhD in the medical sciences at the University of Oxford (currently paused), founding the Oxbridge Biotech Roundtable and OneStart, a large healthcare accelerator program. As CEO, Dan brings startup technology experience and healthcare expertise to Hinge Health.
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About Hinge Health: Hinge Health is a patient-centered digital clinic for treating chronic musculoskeletal conditions.
Jonathan Montagu
President & Chief Executive Officer of HotSpot Therapeutics
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About Atlas Venture, HotSpot Therapeutics: HotSpot Therapeutics is a developer of a therapy platform designed to discover medicines and provide proper treatment.
Charles Homcy
M.D., Chief Executive Officer of Maze Therapeutics
Charles Homcy is a partner at Third Rock Ventures, where he focuses on the formation of companies that discover and develop novel therapeutic approaches. He brings significant experience building and leading successful biotech companies and has played an integral role in the launching and building of Third Rock Ventures’ portfolio companies, including Ambys Medicines, Global Blood Therapeutics, Pliant Therapeutics, Relay Therapeutics, Goldfinch Bio, CytomX and MyoKardia. Prior to Third Rock Ventures, Charles co-founded Portola Pharmaceuticals, where he served as president and CEO. Earlier, he served as president of research and development at Millennium, following the company’s acquisition of COR Therapeutics in 2002. Charles joined COR in 1995 as executive vice president of research and development and served as a director of the company from 1998 to 2002. From 1997 to 2008 Charles was a clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco Medical School and an attending physician at the San Francisco VA Hospital. He was previously president of the medical research division of American Cyanamid-Lederle Laboratories. Charles currently serves on the boards of Portola Pharmaceuticals, Ambys Medicines, Global Blood Therapeutics and Pliant Therapeutics. Charles holds an A.B. and M.D. from Johns Hopkins University, where he presently serves on the board of trustees.
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About Maze Therapeutics, Third Rock Ventures: Maze Therapeutics is an operator of a biotechnology firm used to focus on translating genetic insights into new medicines.
Cheng Liu
Founder, CEO of Eureka Therapeutics
Cheng Liu is the founder and CEO of Eureka Therapeutics, a California biotech company dedicated to antibody research and discovery for cancer immunotherapy. Prior to founding Eureka, Dr. Liu was a Principal Scientist in antibody drug discovery at Chiron (now Novartis), where he championed anti-CSF1 antibody program for treatment of bone metastasis to human clinical trials. He is the inventor of multiple issued US patents in drug discovery. In 2007, he was awarded Special US Congressional Recognition for his contributions to improving human health. Dr. Liu received his B.S. in Cell Biology and Genetics from Beijing University and a Ph.D. in Molecular Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley.
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About Eureka Therapeutics: Eureka Therapeutics is a biotechnology company focusing on immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer.
Fred Aslan
President & CEO of Artiva Biotherapeutics
Born and raised in Brazil, Fred Aslan is the founder of Adavium Medical (previously known as ADVANCE Medical). He is also affiliated with Venrock, a leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm he joined in 2006. While a full-time investor at Venrock prior to founding Adavium, Fred Aslan was a co-founder and board member of Receptos Pharmaceuticals, a NASDAQ-listed biotech company, which was subsequently acquired by Celgene for more than $8 billion. He also led Venrock’s investment in Zeltiq, a NASDAQ-listed medical device company that was valued at more than $1 billion. Prior to Venrock, he was Director of Business Development and led Investor Relations at CuraGen, a NASDAQ-listed oncology-focused biotech company, and was a strategy consultant with Boston Consulting Group (BCG). He was named the “2014 Business Professional of the Year” by the Brazilian government, recognizing the achievements of Brazilian professionals living outside of Brazil. He is also a board member of Femasys, a US-based women’s health medical device company, and BayBrazil, a Silicon Valley-based not-for-profit organization promoting ties between Silicon Valley and Brazil. Fred Aslan received a B.S. in Biology from Duke University, an M.D. from Yale and an M.B.A. from Harvard.
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About Adavium, Artiva Biotherapeutics: Artiva Biotherapeutics is a biotech company focused on developing and commercializing allogeneic natural killer (NK) cell therapies.
Nishan de Silva
Chief Executive Officer of AFYX Therapeutics
Nishan de Silva brings 20 years of experience in biotechnology operations, biopharmaceutical venture capital, and healthcare management consulting. He previously served as president, chief operating officer, and director of Poseida Therapeutics, where he oversaw clinical development, regulatory, manufacturing, finance, and business development activities. Prior to Poseida, he was chief financial officer and vice president of finance and strategy at Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. (LGND). Earlier in his career, Nishan de Silva served as a principal at private equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC, responsible for late-stage biopharmaceutical investment opportunities, and was an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company. He holds a B.A. summa cum laude in biology from Harvard University, an M.D. from The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and an M.B.A. with Distinction in healthcare management from The Wharton School.
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About AFYX Therapeutics: AFYX Therapeutics is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company
Nishan de Silva
Chief Executive Officer of AFYX Therapeutics
Nishan de Silva brings 20 years of experience in biotechnology operations, biopharmaceutical venture capital, and healthcare management consulting. He previously served as president, chief operating officer, and director of Poseida Therapeutics, where he oversaw clinical development, regulatory, manufacturing, finance, and business development activities. Prior to Poseida, he was chief financial officer and vice president of finance and strategy at Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. (LGND). Earlier in his career, Nishan de Silva served as a principal at private equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC, responsible for late-stage biopharmaceutical investment opportunities, and was an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company. He holds a B.A. summa cum laude in biology from Harvard University, an M.D. from The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and an M.B.A. with Distinction in healthcare management from The Wharton School.
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About AFYX Therapeutics: AFYX Therapeutics is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company
Amit Vohra
Co-Founder, President & CEO of Promaxo
Promaxo is led by Dr. Amit Vohra who is a serial entrepreneur, business strategist and advisor to several healthcare and technology startups. Amit is a Partner in Advanced Biopharma Consulting, a management consultancy offering strategic business development and commercialization services in the life sciences space. He also serves as an advisor to Cricking, MedDx and HealthyX and a strategy consultant to Precision Biopsy and Weinberg Medical Physics. Prior to Promaxo, Amit was the CEO/President of Convergent Life Sciences wherein he took a MRI-US fusion product, for targeted laser ablation of soft tissue cancer, through FDA clearance within 18 months of Company formation. Previously, as VP of Strategy and Operations at Eigen, he led the development and successful commercialization of two class II medical devices in the prostate biopsy space. In 2009, Amit co-founded Navya Biomedical Technologies, a biotechnology company using proprietary polyhydroxy fullerenes (PHF) for non-invasive imaging and destruction of solid tumors. Amit has a Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from University of Florida, and an Executive MBA (Fuqua Scholar) from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.
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About 8chili, Neuro42, Promaxo, TriOcula Technologies: Promaxo is commercializing customer-centric MRI systems and robotic guidance tools for live diagnosis and treatment in a physician’s office.
Bill Haney
CEO & Co-founder of Dragonfly Therapeutics
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About Blu Homes, Dragonfly Therapeutics, Dragonfly Therapeutics, Skyhawk Therapeutics, Uncommon Productions: Dragonfly Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotech developing novel immunotherapies that harness the innate immune system to treat disease.
Roger Jeffs
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Liquidia Technologies
Roger Jeffs retired as President and co-CEO at United Therapeutics in 2016 after a successful 18-year tenure. Dr. Jeffs joined United Therapeutics Corporation during its start-up phase in 1998 as Director of Research, Development, and Medical, and served as the company’s President and Chief Operating Officer from 2001 to 2014 and President & co-CEO from 2015-2016. While at United Therapeutics, Dr. Jeffs helped lead the IPO, oversaw the clinical development and regulatory approval of six products for rare diseases, and managed the commercial effort that led to >20% CAGR and $1.5B annual revenue run rate. United Therapeutics was consistently recognized as one of the fastest growing companies and best places to work during his tenure. Dr. Jeffs received the 2015 Wings of Hope Award from the Solving Kids’ Cancer organization in “recognition of his visionary leadership in advancing cancer research while prioritizing the lives of children”. Dr. Jeffs previously held positions at Amgen, Inc. and Burroughs Wellcome Co where he held roles in clinical development. Dr. Jeffs holds an undergraduate degree in chemistry from Duke University and a Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. Dr. Jeffs previously served on the Board of Directors for United Therapeutics, Dova Pharmaceuticals, and Sangamo Therapeutics and currently serves on the Boards of Albireo Pharma, and Axsome Therapeutics.
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About Liquidia Technologies: Liquidia Technologies is a clinical biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of human therapeutics.
Harry Gruber
CEO, Co-Founder & President of Tocagen
Harry E. Gruber, M.D., one of the pioneers in gene therapy, co-founded Tocagen and led the company as chief executive officer before assuming the role of president, research and development in November 2016 and president, science and innovation in October 2017. He has been a member of the board of directors since August 2007. Dr. Gruber served as our chief executive officer from August 2007 to November 2016 and served as chairman of our board of directors from August 2007 to October 2014. Dr. Gruber is a co-founder of Tocagen and has been the co-founder and/or co-inventor of key technology for the following publicly held companies: Viagene Inc., a gene therapy company acquired by Novartis Pharmaceuticals; Gensia Inc., a biopharmaceutical company acquired by Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries, Ltd.; INTERVU Inc., a technology company acquired by Akamai Technologies, Inc.; Kintera, Inc., a technology company acquired by Blackbaud. He is the author of more than 100 original scientific articles and an inventor on more than 100 issued and pending patents. Dr. Gruber holds a medical degree and bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and trained in Internal Medicine, Biochemical Genetics and Rheumatology/Immunology at the University of California, San Diego, where he subsequently joined the medical school faculty until founding Gensia Inc.
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About Tocagen: Tocagen is a biopharmaceutical company developing gene therapy products for the treatment of cancer.
Aoife Brennan
CEO of Synlogic
Aoife Brennan joined Synlogic in September 2016 as chief medical officer and is responsible for the oversight and direction of the company’s clinical development strategy and operations. Aoife previously spent six years at Biogen, where she was in roles of increasing responsibility and most recently served as vice president and head of the Rare Disease Innovation Unit, which included programs ranging from pre-clinical to commercial. She has also led programs across multiple therapeutic areas including the late phase development of nusinersen for spinal muscular atrophy and ALPROLIX™ and ELOCTATE™, treatments for Hemophilia B and Hemophilia A. Prior to joining Biogen, she was director of clinical development at Tolerx, a start-up biotech company focusing on immunotherapy for Type 1 diabetes. Aoife holds a medical degree from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland and has completed post-graduate training in internal medicine, endocrinology and metabolism. She has completed post-doctoral training in clinical research and metabolism at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and is a graduate of the Harvard Medical School Scholars in Clinical Science Program.
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About Synlogic: Synlogic is a biotechnology company that develops synthetic biotic medicines to perform metabolic functions to treat diseases.
Eric Hobbs
CEO of Berkeley Lights
Eric D. Hobbs joined Berkeley Lights in May 2013 and was appointed Chief Executive Officer in March 2017. Prior to becoming CEO, Eric held various senior management roles, including most recently, Senior Vice President of Operations and Consumables. Prior to Berkeley Lights, Eric led the design, development, and launch of 3 new product architectures at FormFactor, Inc. as a senior member of both R&D and Operations organizations. He holds more than 62 U.S. and International patents. Eric has lectured both at UC Berkeley and Stanford speaking on Engineering Design, Invention, and Optimization Algorithms. Eric earned his Ph.D. & M.S. in MEMS Design and Microfluidic Devices at UC Berkeley. He received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from U.S.C.
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About Berkeley Lights: Berkeley Lights is a provider of research and development services using micro-droplet technology that change the biological processes.
Vivek Kopparthi
CEO, Co-Founder & Executive Chairman of NeoLight
Vivek Kopparthi is Co-founder & CEO of NeoLight, a lean medical device start-up developing a disruptive technology to treat Jaundice in infants.
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About NeoLight, PriZm Therapeutics: Neolight is a medical device company that develops phototherapy beds to cure jaundice in pre-term and full term babies.
Krishna Vaddi
Chief Executive Officer of Prelude Therapeutics
Kris Vaddi, Ph.D. founded Prelude and served as the chief executive officer and member of the board of directors since 2016. Previously, Kris had a 12-year career at Incyte starting as a founding scientist and an executive director in 2002 and most recently as a group vice president. Kris initiated and championed JAK research programs at Incyte that led to the discovery, development and approval of Jakafi® (ruxolotinib) for Myelofibrosis and Polycythemia Vera and Olumiant® (Baricitinib) for rheumatoid arthritis. Kris received his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from APAU in India and his Ph.D. from University of Florida.
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About Prelude Therapeutics: Prelude Therapeutics is a developer of novel therapies intended to target key drivers of cancer cell growth, survival and resistance.
Anthony Manley
Chief Executive Officer of Invo HealthCare Holdings
Anthony Manley joined Catapult Learning in January 2011 and currently serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.In this capacity, Anthony is charged with leading Catapult’s field operations team and the non-public school sales team. Anthony brings extensive experience running diversified educational services businesses, managing sales organizations, and building online products. Prior to joining Catapult, Anthony spent more than eight years with Kaplan, Inc., where he served in numerous senior management roles, including General Manager of its K-12/Pre-College business unit. Prior to that role, he worked for Columbia University’s Teachers College, where he helped pioneer web-based professional development and support for teachers. Anthony holds a bachelor’s degree from Fordham University. Anthony currently serves on the boards of Harlem Prep Elementary and Middle charter schools in New York City.
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About Invo HealthCare Holdings: Founded in 1993 by Patrick McClain, an Occupational Therapist, and Mary McClain, an Educator.
Corey McCann
President and Chief Executive Officer of Pear Therapeutics
Corey M McCann M.D., Ph.D. is the President and CEO of Pear Therapeutics, a company developing prescription digital therapeutics and drug/software combinations for treatment of severe medical conditions. Previously, he was an investor with MPM Capital, where he evaluated new healthcare investment opportunities, managed relationships with strategic partners, and oversaw strategy and execution at portfolio companies. Prior to MPM, he was an Engagement Manager with McKinsey & Company, where he advised pharmaceutical, medical device, and biotechnology companies on the acquisition, development, and commercialization of life science technologies. He led McKinsey’s central nervous system (CNS) expertise group, advising clients across the healthcare value chain. Corey has previous investment experience with RiverVest Venture Partners, where he performed diligence on early stage investments, and at NeuroInsights, where he evaluated brain related technologies. Corey is also a co-founder, advisor, or Board Director at AgNovos Healthcare, Alcyone Lifesciences, Dragonfly Sciences, Edumedics, Resolute Bio, Selexys Pharmaceuticals, and Zillion Health. Dr. McCann trained as a physician-scientist via the Medical Scientist Training Program. For his PhD, he studied the molecular biology of synapses at Harvard University and at Washington University in St Louis. He was also a post-doctoral researcher at the Massachusetts General Hospital where he developed imaging techniques for the visualization of the brain. Dr. McCann received his M.D. from Washington University in St. Louis. He graduated summa cum laude from The Pennsylvania State University where he was an Evan Pugh Scholar, receiving a B.S. in Biology with minors in neuroscience, biochemistry, and molecular biology.
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About Pear Therapeutics: Pear Therapeutics is a software-based digital therapeutics platform designed to treat disease and enhance the efficacy of pharmaceuticals.
Shantanu Gaur
Co-Founder & CEO of Allurion Technologies
Shantanu Gaur co-founded Allurion in 2009 during his second year at Harvard Medical School and is our Chief Scientific Officer. A Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow, Shantanu graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard College with an S.B. in Biology and significant coursework in polymer chemistry. Shantanu graduated from Harvard Medical School in 2013. He grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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About Allurion Technologies, Genetic Alliance: Allurion Technologies develops a medical device for weight loss that can be delivered and removed without surgery or endoscopy.
Nello Mainolfi
Founder, President & CEO of Kymera Therapeutics
Nello Mainolfi is the Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer at Kymera Therapeutics.
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About Kymera Therapeutics: Kymera Therapeutics is a biotechnology company that specializes in the field of targeted protein degradation.
Greg Verdine
Co-Founder, President & CEO, CSO of LifeMine Therapeutics
Greg Verdine is the Founder of Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute & he attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1986.
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About FogPharma, Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, LifeMine Therapeutics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Wave Life Sciences: Discovering powerful new drugs from eukaryotic microbes by combining Genomics with AI and Synthetic Biology.
Greg Colip
Founder, Managing Member & CEO of Cell Point
Since its beginning, Greg Colip is a founding member of Cell>Point and has provided financial support to the company. Mr. Colip brings over 38 years of experience in healthcare marketing and legal. Prior to establishing the company with Jerry Bryant and Terry Colip, Mr. Colip was a corporate mergers and acquisition lawyer and served as Deputy General Counsel for Panhandle Eastern Corporation (which has since been split up with part of the company’s subsidiaries owned by Duke Energy and the remaining part-owned by CMS Energy), provided legal counsel and development work for various independent power projects, served as Vice President and General Counsel for the Gulfco Division of Chromalloy American Corporation and was a production/marketing manager for The Upjohn Company (now part of Pharmacia). At Panhandle Eastern, Mr. Colip was involved in numerous complex venture, merger, spin-off, and acquisition transactions, including the $2.4 billion acquisition of Texas Eastern Corporation and the $1.2 billion drop down and spin-off of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation. At Upjohn, Mr. Colip was the production/marketing systems manager for the corticosteroid and anticoagulant product lines. Mr. Colip received his bachelor’s degree in production management and industrial engineering in 1970, followed by his M.B.A. two years later and a J.D. in 1978. His higher education was at Indiana University, and Greg is proud to call it his Alma Mater.
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About Cell Point: Cell Point is a biotechnology company developing universal molecular imaging agents and intra-nuclear metallic therapeutics.
Frank Litvak
Chairman and CEO of Conor MedSystems
Frank Litvak, MD has been a director of the Company since March 2012. Dr. Litvack served as Chairman (from 2002) and CEO (from 2003) of Conor MedSystems, Inc., a publicly-held company focused on the development of vascular drug delivery systems, until its acquisition by Johnson & Johnson in February 2007. From 2000 to 2005, Dr. Litvack was Chairman of Savacor, Inc., a medical device company that was acquired by St. Jude Medical, Inc. in late 2005. Since 2000, Dr. Litvack has been a Professor of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles. From 1989 until 1997, Dr. Litvack was a founder and director of Progressive Angioplasty Systems Inc., which was acquired by United States Surgical Corporation. Since 1996, Dr. Litvack has been a member of Calmedica, LLC. Since 1985, Dr. Litvack has been an attending cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Dr. Litvack co-directed the Cardiovascular Intervention Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center from 1986 to 2000. Dr. Litvack currently serves as a director of several privately-held corporations. Dr. Litvack holds an M.D. from McGill University.
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About Conor MedSystems, Entourage Medical Technologies, Pura Vida Investments: Conor Medsystems, LLC, founded in 1999, is a developer of innovative controlled vascular drug delivery technology.
Gerald McMahon
President & CEO of Harpoon Therapeutics
Dr. McMahon joined Harpoon in December 2016 bringing more than 25 years of biotechnology leadership, scientific innovation and creative deal-making experience. Dr. McMahon was previously president and CEO of Kolltan Pharmaceuticals, an oncology biologics company acquired by Celldex in 2016, and senior vice president of R&D oncology at MedImmune, the biologics arm of AstraZeneca. He also served as a venture partner at Bay City Capital and in executive leadership roles at Poniard Pharmaceuticals and SUGEN (ultimately acquired by Pfizer), where he was a key player in the development of innovative oncology drugs Sutent® and Palladia®. Dr. McMahon holds an academic appointment at the Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center at Yale University, and held previous appointments at Tufts University School of Medicine, department of hematology & oncology at the New England Medical Center, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his BS in biology and PhD in biochemistry from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
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About Harpoon Therapeutics: Harpoon Therapeutics is a clinical-stage immunotherapy company developing novel T cell engagers (TriTACs) for the treatment of cancer.
Franz Hefti
CEO of Prevail Therapeutics
Franz Hefti is the CEO of Prevail Therapeutics and he holds a Ph.D. from the University of Zurich and completed his postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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About Prevail Therapeutics: Prevail Therapeutics is a biotechnology company focused on developing novel gene therapies for patients with Parkinson’s disease.
Ben Lewis
CEO of Limbix
Ben Lewis is the co-founder of Tapjoy. He has an undergraduate degree in engineering from the University of Michigan, and his first job out of college was working as an engineer on Xbox Live. After spending some time at Microsoft, he returned to Michigan for his MBA where he focused on entrepreneurship and technology. Ben then moved to Google where he spent 4 years as a Product Manager, working on products such as the Toolbar, Search, and Checkout. Ben left Google to found Tapjoy, which began with the launch of TapDefense. Ben now leads the Tapjoy product team and manages accounts for the top publishers.
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About Green Shoots Distribution, Limbix: Limbix is a prescription digital therapeutics platform that provides mental health treatment for young people.
Paul Garofolo
Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer, & Chairman of the Board of Locus Biosciences
Paul has been a member of multiple Executive Management teams of both publically traded multi-national corporations and successful startup opportunities. He currently serves as the CEO of Locus Biosciences, an emerging biotech focused on the discovery and development of a novel class of CRISPR/Cas Antimicrobials. Paul also serves as Vice President of the Friends Board at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, and as a Visiting Professor at North Carolina State University’s Poole College of Management. He serves as an executive-in-residence for the HiTEC Graduate Program, the University’s Entrepreneurship Collaborative.
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About Locus Biosciences: Locus Biosciences develops CRISPR-engineered precision antibacterial platform designed to revolutionize the treatment of bacterial disease.
Eric Poma
Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer of Molecular Templates
Eric Poma, Ph.D. has served as Molecular Templates’ Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer since the Company’s inception in 2009.From March 2005 until September 2008, Eric Poma was Vice President of Business Development of Innovive Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Cytrx Corporation), a biotechnology company. From 2001 to 2005, he served as the Associate Vice President of Business Development at ImClone Systems, Inc.(now Eli Lilly and Company) a biotechnology company focused on antibody therapeutics. As the founder and in his role as Chief Scientific Officer at MTEM, he led the invention of technology underlying MTEM’s platform technology and what constitutes the whole of MTEM’s current lead and preclinical pipeline candidates. Eric Poma received his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology and B.A. in Biology and from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his M.B.A. from New York University.
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About Molecular Templates: Molecular Templates develops novel therapeutic compounds for cancer.
Richard Adcock
Chief Executive Officer of ImmunityBio
In January 2021, Richard (Rich) Adcock was named Chief Executive Officer of ImmunityBio. He was the former CEO of NantKwest and has been in healthcare leadership positions for for 30 years. He is known for his experience in developing cultures centered on quick, strategic innovation. He is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt, ensuring that such initiatives are complemented by strong quality systems across the organization. Adcock formerly served as CEO of Verity Health, where he oversaw a successful reorganization process. He started his career in 1992 as a co-founder and Vice President of Research and Development for Micro Medical Systems, where he helped pioneer the development of early Cardiology Electronic Medical Records. Following the company’s purchase by GE Healthcare in 1999, Adcock acquired prominent responsibilities in healthcare innovation. He eventually received an MBA in Healthcare Management and joined Sanford Health, where he was President and later Chief Innovation Officer.
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About ImmunityBio, NantKwest: ImmunityBio is an offshoot of Soon-Shiong’s NantWorks conglomerate, developing molecular-level cell-based treatments for diseases.
Mark McKenna
Founder, President and CEO of Prometheus Biosciences
Mark McKenna currently works as President and Chief Executive Officer at Prometheus Biosciences. He previously worked at Bausch + Lomb as Senior Vice President and General Manager.
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About Prometheus Biosciences: Prometheus Biosciences develops and commercializes pharmaceutical and diagnostic products to help physicians individualize patient care.
Martyn Gross
Co-Founder & CEO of Zerigo Health
Advisor at Cooler Heads Care & Chief Business Officer at Mindera.
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About Dthera Sciences, MiNDERA Corporation, Zerigo Health: Clarify Medical is a developer of a handheld medical device used to treat psoriasis, eczema, and vitiligo .
Alexandria Forbes
President & CEO of MeiraGTx
Dr. Alexandria Forbes has served as our President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of our board of directors since March 2015. Prior to joining MeiraGTx, Dr. Forbes served as Senior Vice President of Commercial Operations at Kadmon Holdings, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, from September 2013 to April 2015 and currently serves as a member of its board of directors. Prior to Kadmon Holdings, Inc., Dr. Forbes spent eleven years as a healthcare investor at Sivik Global Healthcare, a healthcare hedge fund, from September 2000 to November 2008, and at Meadowvale Asset Management, a healthcare hedge fund, from January 2010 to June 2012. Before entering the hedge fund industry, Dr. Forbes was a Human Frontiers/Howard Hughes postdoctoral fellow at the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center from March 1997 to September 2000. Prior to this, Dr. Forbes was a research fellow at Duke University, and also at the Carnegie Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Forbes received an M.A. in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from Oxford University.
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About MeiraGTx: Meira Gene Therapy is a clinical-stage company developing novel treatments for inherited and acquired genetic disorders.
Michael T. Heffernan
President , CEO & Chairman of the Board of Collegium Pharmaceutical
Michael Heffernan has 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and related healthcare industries. He is currently Co-Founder, President, CEO of Collegium Pharmaceutical. Collegium is specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development of pharmaceutical products for the treatment of chronic pain. He was also previously the founder, President and CEO of Onset Therapeutics, a dermatology focused company that develops and commercializes products for the treatment of skin related illnesses and was responsible for the spin-off of this business to create PreCision Dermatology. Michael held prior positions as Co-Founder, President and CEO of Clinical Studies Ltd., a pharmaceutical contract research organization that he successfully sold. He also served as President and CEO of PhyMatrix, a public $400 million integrated healthcare services company where he was hired to restructure the company. Michael started his career at Eli Lilly and Company and served in numerous sales and marketing roles. He has also been a member of the Board of Directors, Advisor and Angel Investor in a number of healthcare companies. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of TyRx, a venture backed medical device company, Cornerstone Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRTX), a specialty pharmaceutical company and PreCision Dermatology. Michael earned his B.S. Degree in Pharmacy from the University of Connecticut and is a Registered Pharmacist.
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About AvengeBio, Collegium Pharmaceutical: Collegium Pharmaceutical is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development of products for the treatment of chronic pain.
Joseph Ciaffoni
President and Chief Executive Officer of Collegium Pharmaceutical
Joe Ciaffoni was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of Collegium Pharmaceutical in July 2018. Joe Ciaffoni joined Collegium Pharmaceutical in May 2017 as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining Collegium, he served as President, U.S. Branded Pharmaceuticals of Endo International plc. Before that, Joe Ciaffoni held various positions of increasing responsibility at Biogen, including Senior Vice President, Global Specialty Medicines Group, Senior Vice President, U.S. Commercial and Vice President, U.S. Neurology Field Operations and Marketing. Prior to joining Biogen, he was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Shionogi Inc. and President of Shionogi Pharmaceuticals. Joe Ciaffoni also previously served as Vice President, Sales for Schering-Plough (now Merck) and held several commercial leadership roles at Sanofi-Synthelabo (now Sanofi) and Novartis. Joe Ciaffoni received a B.A. in Communications and an M.B.A. from Rutgers.
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About Collegium Pharmaceutical: Collegium Pharmaceutical is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development of products for the treatment of chronic pain.
Fabian Gerlinghaus
Co-Founder & CEO of Cellares
Fabian Gerlinghaus is the CEO and Co-Founder of Cellares.
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About Cellares: Cellares is a life sciences technology company that develops the Cell Shuttle to automate cell therapy manufacturing.
Josh Bilenker
Founder, President & CEO of Loxo Oncology
Josh Bilenker serves as a Partner of Aisling Capital. Previously, Josh Bilenker was a Medical Officer in the Office of Oncology Drug Products at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. While at the FDA, he conducted clinical reviews of IND-stage and licensed biologic oncology products. Prior to joining the FDA, Josh Bilenker trained at the University of Pennsylvania in internal medicine and medical oncology, earning board certification in these specialties. Josh Bilenker currently serves as a director of LensAR, Inc., Roka Bioscience, Inc., T2 Biosystems and ViewRay, Inc and as a board observer at Aragon Pharmaceuticals. He is also a Board Member of the NCCN Foundation and of BioEnterprise. Josh Joshua H. Bilenker, M.D., founder of Loxo Oncology, serves as President and Chief Executive Officer, and sits on the board of directors.Previously, Josh Bilenker was a Partner at Aisling Capital, a multi-strategy healthcare investment firm based in NY, where he remains a Venture Partner. From 2004-2006, Josh Bilenker was a Medical Officer at the U.S. FDA in the Office of Oncology. Josh Bilenker trained at the University of Pennsylvania in internal medicine and medical oncology, earning board certification in these specialties. Josh Bilenker received his M.D. from The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He received his A.B. from Princeton, awarded summa cum laude in English.
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About Aisling Capital, Loxo Oncology, Treeline Biosciences: Loxo Oncology is a biopharmaceutical company focused on targeted cancer therapies for genetically-defined patient populations.
Ravi Pamnani
CEO and Co-Founder of Intact Therapeutics
Ravi Pamnani is the CEO and co-founder of Intact Therapeutics. Prior to that, he served as a director of marketing and medical affairs for Transcend Medical. Ravi studied at Stanford University.
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About Intact Therapeutics: Intact Therapeutics is a makers of smart gels for local drug delivery for gastrointestinal diseases.
Colleen Cutcliffe
Co-Founder and CEO of Pendulum Therapeutics
Colleen Cutcliffe is the Co-Founder and CEO of Pendulum Therapeutics.
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About American Diabetes Association, California Life Sciences Association, Pendulum Therapeutics: Pendulum Therapeutics is a biotechnology company improving health through products targeting the microbiome.
Maurice Ferre, M.D.
CEO & Chairman of InSightec
Dr. Maurice R. Ferré was the founding President and Chief Executive Officer of MAKO Surgical Corp, serving from 2004 until the acquisition of the company by Stryker Corp. for $1.7 billion in 2014. In June 2007, Dr. Ferré received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2007 award for emerging companies in Florida. In 1993, he founded Visualization Technology, Inc., a medical device company for image-guided surgery, where he served as Chief Executive Officer until 2002 when the company was acquired by GE Healthcare, the healthcare division of the General Electric Company. Dr. Ferré served as Vice President of Strategic Development for GE Navigation, a Division of GE Healthcare, until 2004. Dr. Ferré holds an M.D. and a Master’s degree in Public Health from Boston University.
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About DermaSensor, InSightec: InSightec develops and manufactures MR-guided Focused Ultrasound technology devices for image-guided acoustic surgery.
Mark Frank
Co-Founder & CEO of SonderMind
Mark Frank is the CEO and Co-Founder of SonderMind, which is redesigning behavioral health to be more accessible, approachable and utilized. The company provides a comprehensive solution for patients to receive high-quality therapeutic care, health plans and systems to address improving outcomes, and therapists to grow as clinicians and thrive in a private practice setting. Prior to SonderMind, Mark was the CEO and Founder of Next Oncology, a radiation oncology management services organization that he sold six years after founding. He was also the co-founder of SafeImageMD (sold in 2016), a SAAS solution for physicians and patients to manage medical imaging data. He is currently Chairman of the Board for an ACO-focused urgent care company, AfterOurs Inc. Mark graduated with a degree in Computer Science from West Point and served as an Army officer for five years, earning a Bronze Star during his time in Iraq. Following the Army, he earned both his MBA and Masters of Engineering Management at Northwestern University. Prior to his entrepreneurial efforts, Mark was an investment banker with Morgan Stanley, focusing on healthcare M&A. He is married with three extremely active elementary-school children
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About SonderMind: SonderMind is a digital health and telehealth company redesigning behavioral health to become more accessible, approachable, and utilized.
Liang Schweizer
Co-founder, President and CEO of HiFiBiO
Liang Schweizer is the Co-founder, President and CEO of HiFiBiO Therapeutics. Previously, she co-founded Harbour Biomed and served as its CSO, successfully transforming a technology platform company to an antibody drug discovery enterprise. Before launching her entrepreneurial career, Liang served as Head of Asian Cancer Research at Sanofi, advancing Sanofi’s Asia-Pacific oncology pipeline as well as contributing to global oncology programs from preclinical to clinical efforts. Before joining Sanofi, Liang Schweizer was a director at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, heading a group of scientists at Leads Discovery and Optimization (LDO), overseeing 60+ in vitro pharmacology projects across different therapeutic areas. Under her leadership, the team made significant contributions to 4 marketed drugs and impacted over 20 clinical candidates. She is also a co-inventor of multiple BMS Immunoncology (IO) clinical candidates. Liang Schweizer graduated from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) majoring in Biology. She received her Master’s degree in Microbial Engineering at the University of Minnesota with minor in Chemical Engineering. Liang earned her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University in Zurich, Switzerland. Her postdoctoral training was with Dr. Harold Varmus, a Nobel Laureate, at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), New York.
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About HiFiBiO: HiFiBiO provides proprietary single cell technologies for applications in drug and biomarker discovery and development.
Richard Glickman
CEO of Aurinia Pharmaceuticals
Richard Glickman has served as Chairman of ESSA’s board of directors since October 2010, and is responsible for the management of the board of directors to ensure ESSA has appropriate objectives, an effective strategy and is operating in accordance with a high standard of corporate governance. Richard was a co-founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Aspreva Pharmaceuticals Inc. Prior to establishing Aspreva, Richard was the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of StressGen Biotechnologies Corporation. Richard currently serves on the board of directors of Cardiome, Vida Pharmaceuticals and Engene Inc., and is Chairman of the board of directors of Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc. In addition, Richard has served on many other biotechnology boards of directors. Richard received the 2004 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the Pacific Region Life Sciences Group, both Canada’s and British Columbia’s Top 40 under 40 Award for Entrepreneurs, the 2006 BC Biotech Leadership Award and the Lupus Foundation of America Leadership Award.
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About Aurinia Pharmaceuticals, Aurinia Pharmaceuticals, enGene, Lumira Ventures: Aurinia develops and commercializes therapies to treat targeted patient populations suffering from serious auto-immune diseases.
Michel Vounatsos
Chief Executive Officer of Biogen Idec
Michel Vounatsos is Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer at Biogen. Michel brings extensive global biopharmaceutical experience and a track record of innovative stakeholder engagement to his leadership of the company’s commercial organization. Michel joined Biogen in 2016 after a 20 career at Merck, where he most recently served as President, Primary Care Business Line and Merck Customer Centricity. In this role, he led Merck’s global primary care business unit, a role which encompassed Merck’s cardiology-metabolic, general medicine, women’s health and biosimilars groups, and developed and instituted a strategic framework for enhancing the company’s relationships with key constituents, including the most significant providers, payers and retailers and the world’s largest governments. Michel previously held leadership positions across Europe and in China for Merck. Earlier in his career, Michel held management positions at Ciba-Geigy. Michel received his C.S.C.T. certificate in Medicine from the Universite Victor Segalen, Bordeaux II, France, and his M.B.A. from the HEC School of Management in Paris.
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About Biogen Idec: Biogen Idec is an American biotechnology company that provides therapeutics for neurological, autoimmune, and rare diseases.
Tony Coles
Chairman and CEO of Yumanity Therapeutics
Anthony Coles was named Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Yumanity Therapeutics, LLC, a company focused on transforming drug discovery for neurodegenerative diseases, in October 2014. Prior to this, from October 2013, Anthony Coles served as Chairman and CEO of TRATE Enterprises LLC, a privately-held company. Anthony Coles served as President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company (“Onyx”), from 2012 until 2013, having served as its President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of its board of directors from 2008 until 2012. Prior to joining Onyx in 2008, he was President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors of NPS Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a public biopharmaceutical company (“NPS”). Before joining NPS in 2005, he served in various leadership positions in the biopharmaceutical and pharmaceutical industries, including at Merck & Co., Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated. In addition to having previously served as a director of Onyx and NPS, he was formerly a director of Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings and Campus Crest Communities, Inc. Anthony Coles has been a director of the Company since April 2014. He is a member of the Compensation Committee and the Finance Committee.
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About Yumanity Therapeutics: Yumanity Therapeutics is a biotechnology company that transforms drug discovery for diseases caused by protein misfolding.
Gibb Clarke
CEO and Co-Founder of Blockade Medical
Gibb Clarke is co-founder and CEO of Blockade Medical and has more than 10 years experience as a medical device executive with a specific focus on new technology development for the interventional neurovascular marketplace. Prior to co-founding Blockade, Gibb co-founded Pulsar Vascular, Inc. in 2006. A novel therapeutic approach for challenging and complex cerebral aneurysms. Gibb successfully raised multiple rounds of venture capital as well as helped craft and manage the clinical and regulatory strategy for both CE Mark and US approvals. Prior to Pulsar, Gibb played a critical early role in helping Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, WA, plan for and execute the development of The Seattle Neuroscience Institute, a neuroscience center for excellence. Gibb’s efforts resulted in Swedish Medical investing in excess of $35M into the development of its now flagship neuroscience center located in Seattle, WA. Gibb also spent 8 years in the US Marines Corps serving as a team leader in the elite Marine Recon unit. Military schoolings include Amphibious Recon Course, Army Ranger School, US Navy Dive School, and Army Jump School. Gibb is an avid endurance athlete, having competed in over 200 races.
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About Blockade Medical: Founded in 2011, Blockade Medical is a privately held company dedicated the development of catheter based therapeutic devices for the
Zachary Hornby
Chief Executive Officer & President of Boundless Bio
Zachary Hornby brings a dozen years of life sciences business experience to Ignyta. Prior to joining Ignyta, Mr. Hornby was senior director of business development at Fate Therapeutics where he was responsible for pharmaceutical partnerships and non-dilutive funding. Mr. Hornby has also served in various business and commercial roles at Halozyme Therapeutics (NASDAQ: HALO), Neurocrine Biosciences (NASDAQ: NBIX) and TKT (now Shire Human Genetic Therapies), and was a life sciences consultant at L.E.K. Consulting. Mr. Hornby holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in biology from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
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About Boundless Bio, City Hill Ventures: Boundless Bio is a precision oncology company developing therapeutics directed against extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) in aggressive cancers.
Amber Salzman
President & CEO & Co-Founder of AAVLife
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About AAVLife, Ohana Biosciences, Stop ALD Foundation: AAVLife is a privately held company dedicated to advancing gene therapy for rare diseases.
Andrew Allen
Co-founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Gritstone Oncology
Andrew Allen is a co-founder and the chief executive officer of Gritstone Oncology, a cancer immunotherapy company that develops personalized cancer therapeutics. Prior to that, he co-founded and served as the chief medical officer and executive vice president of clinical and pre-clinical development at Clovis Oncology. Before joining Clovis Oncology, Allen served as the chief medical officer of Pharmion Corporation, beginning in 2006. From 2004 to 2006, he was the vice president of BioPharma Development and head of the Oncology Therapeutic Unit at Chiron Corporation. Allen qualified in medicine at Oxford University and earned his PhD from Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine in London. He lives in San Francisco, California, United States.
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About Gritstone Oncology, Revitope Oncology: Gritstone Oncology is a clinical-stage biotech company that develops tumor-specific cancer immunotherapies to fight multiple cancer types.
Nima Farzan
Chief Executive Officer of Kinnate Biopharma
Nima Farzan is the chief executive officer of Kinnate Biopharma. He has his MBA from Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree in Human Biology from Stanford University.
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About Kinnate Biopharma: Kinnate Biopharma develops precision oncology therapeutics to treat patients with genomically-defined cancers.
Andrea Choe
Founder & CEO of Holoclara
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About Caltech, Holoclara: Holoclara is a immunotherapy company that offers autoimmune disorders with nematode derived molecules.
Athena Countouriotis
President and Chief Executive Officer of Turning Point Therapeutics
Athena Countouriotis became president and chief executive officer and was named to the Turning Point Therapeutics board of directors in September 2018. She has broad oncology biotech leadership experience, guiding multiple development programs to approval. Her experience includes large and small molecule therapeutics in hematologic and solid tumor indications, with multiple regulatory approvals in the U.S. and Europe. She joined Turning Point Therapeutics in May 2018 as executive vice president and chief medical officer to advance the clinical development of repotrectinib. She previously served as senior vice president and chief medical officer for Adverum Biotechnologies, and before that as senior vice president and chief medical officer of Halozyme Therapeutics. Athena Countouriotis also served as chief medical officer of Ambit Biosciences, where she helped lead the company’s initial public offering and was responsible for the clinical development of quizartinib until the company’s acquisition by Daiichi Sankyo in November 2014. Earlier in her career, Athena Countouriotis led various clinical development organizations within Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb for oncology therapeutics including Sutent®, Mylotarg™, Bosulif® and Sprycel®. Athena Countouriotis also serves on the board of directors of Trovagene and NuMedii. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, and an M.D. from Tufts University School of Medicine. She received her initial medical training in pediatrics at the University of California, Los Angeles, and additional training at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Program.
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About Turning Point Therapeutics: Turning Point Therapeutics is a structure-based drug design pharmaceutical company.
Steve James
President and Chief Executive Officer of Pionyr Immunotherapeutics
Steven James has 25 years of experience in the life sciences industry, including the creation and leadership of multiple companies. He is currently President and CEO of Pionyr Immunotherapeutics and was the President and CEO of Labrys Biologics from 2012 until it was acquired by Teva Pharmaceuticals in 2014. Prior to joining Labrys, Steven James was President and CEO of KAI Pharmaceuticals from 2004 until the company was acquired by Amgen in 2012. His previous positions have included Senior Vice President of Commercial Operations at Exelixis, Chief Business Officer at Sunesis Pharmaceuticals and VP of Business Development at Isis Pharmaceuticals (now Ionis). He began his career in new product planning at Eli Lilly. Steven James is Chairman of Antiva Biosciences, and a director of Chrono Therapeutics. He was formerly on the board of Cascadian Therapeutics (acquired by Seattle Genetics) and a past director of Ocera Therapeutics (acquired by Mallinckrodt). Steve holds a Masters in Management from the Kellogg School of Northwestern University and an undergraduate degree from Brown University.
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About Pionyr Immunotherapeutics: Pionyr Immunotherapeutics is a developer of cancer immunotherapies designed to target the tumor microenvironment.
Konstantin Mehl
CEO, Founder & President of Kaia Health
Konstantin is a serial entrepreneur. His last company foodora, a global food delivery company was sold to delivery hero in 2015 after reaching 500 employees and 5,000 drivers. His current company Kaia has the mission to build the biggest platform for chronic disease management, powered by computer vision. His angel investments include more than 20 companies in the US and Europe. He holds a dual Masters from Columbia University and a Bachelors degree from Technical University Munich.
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About Kaia Health, Kaia Health: Kaia Health is a digital therapeutics company that creates evidence-based treatments for a range of medical disorders.
Jonathan Solomon
CEO of BIOMx
Jonathan Solomon is the CEO of BiomX.
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About BIOMx: BIOMx is a microbiome therapeutics company developing synbio phage therapies to eradicate harmful bacteria in chronic diseases.
Victor Perlroth
Chairman & CEO of Kodiak Sciences
Victor Perlroth co-founded Kodiak Sciences in 2009 and is the company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Together with a talented core team, he has built Kodiak on a foundation of scientific excellence with a simple mission—to design and develop novel medicines for highly prevalent diseases. Under Perlroth’s leadership, Kodiak is building a pipeline of potentially life transforming ophthalmology drug candidates. Previously, Perlroth served as Venture Partner and then Entrepreneur in Residence at MPM Capital, a dedicated healthcare venture capital investment firm. In 2003, Perlroth co-founded Avidia, a biopharmaceuticals drug discovery and development company where he served as General Manager and Vice President of Corporate Development. In this role, at various times he had broad management responsibility across both corporate and research and development activities. Perlroth was one of two principals involved in the acquisition of the company by Amgen for $450 million. Earlier, Perlroth worked at Guzik Technical Enterprises, the industry-leading provider of test equipment to the hard disk drive industry, where he was Chief Operating Officer. Perlroth earned his M.D. and M.B.A. degrees from Stanford University and an A.B. in Molecular Biology summa cum laude from Princeton University.
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About Kodiak Sciences: Kodiak is designing and developing novel therapies for the treatment of retinal disease.
Arthur T. Sands
Chief Executive Officer of Nurix Therapeutics
Arthur T. Sands, M.D., Ph.D. has served as the Chief Executive Officer at Nurix and a member of the company’s board of directors since September, 2014. In 2015, Dr. Sands and his management team completed a strategic collaboration with Celgene for the discovery, development and commercialization of novel small molecule therapeutics in oncology, inflammation and immunology that included an upfront payment of $150 million and significant milestones, royalties and options for commercialization of drugs. Prior to joining Nurix, Dr. Sands co-founded Lexicon Pharmaceuticals and served as President, Chief Executive Officer and a Director from 1995 to 2014. At Lexicon, Dr. Sands pioneered the development of large-scale gene knockout technology for use in drug discovery and guided the evolution of Lexicon from a research-stage company to a drug development company Dr. Sands holds an M.D. and a Ph.D. from Baylor College of Medicine and a B.A. in economics and political science from Yale University.
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About DeCART Therapeutics, Nurix Therapeutics: Nurix develops small molecule inhibitors for the treatment of proliferative and degenerative diseases.
Anand Parikh
Founder & CEO of Faeth Therapeutics
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About Faeth Therapeutics, Virta Health: Faeth Therapeutics is a data-driven company that focuses on using metabolism to rethink the science of cancer.
Ronald Berenson
Co-founder & CEO of Viracta Therapeutics
Ronald Berenson is president and CEO at KitoTech Medical Inc .
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About Aequus, KitoTech Medical, Viracta Therapeutics: Viracta Therapeutics is a precision oncology company focused on new treatment of virus-associated malignancies.
Ivor Royston
CEO & President of Viracta Therapeutics
Ivor Royston is president & CEO, Viracta Therapeutics.
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About Viracta Therapeutics: Viracta Therapeutics is a precision oncology company focused on new treatment of virus-associated malignancies.
Alex Katz
Founder and CEO of Two Chairs
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About Two Chairs: Two Chairs provides high-quality, in-person psychotherapy at thoughtfully-designed clinics.
Terry Rosen
CEO of Arcus Biosciences
Terry Rosen is the CEO at Arcus Biosciences.
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About Arcus Biosciences: Arcus Biosciences is a biopharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, and commercializes novel therapies for the treatment of cancer.
Jason Fisherman
President & CEO of C4 Therapeutics
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About AlloMek Therapeutics, C4 Therapeutics: C4 Therapeutics develops novel early stage therapies that eliminate disease-causing proteins.
Myron Holubiak
Chief Executive Officer of Citius Pharmaceuticals
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About Citius Pharmaceuticals: Citius Pharmaceuticals is a specialty pharmaceutical company dedicated to the development and commercialization of therapeutic products.
Bill Gruber
President & CEO of Solace Therapeutics
Prior to this role as President and CEO of Solace Therapeutics, he co-founded Interlace Medical in August 2006 and served as their President and CEO until Interlace was acquired by Hologic in January 2011. Bill has extensive experience in organizational development and in product development for rapid growth businesses. Prior to Interlace, Bill spent five years at Cortek Inc., a spinal products company. As Cortek’s V.P. of Sales and Marketing, he built sales from $612K to over $10M. During his last two years, he was the V.P. of New Business Development and Marketing. In this role, he was instrumental in creating Soteira, a Cortek subsidiary, focused on devices for treating vertebral compression fractures. Prior to Cortek, Bill spent 10 years at Boston Scientific Corporation. Before leaving Boston Scientific Corporation, he held the position of Director of the $172M Global Atherosclerotic Therapy business. Prior to entering the medical device sector, Bill spent five years in sales and marketing roles at Procter and Gamble.
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About Solace Therapeutics: Solace Therapeutics develops and commercializes non-surgical office-based treatments for common bladder disorders.
Jen Nwankwo
Founder, CEO of 1910 Genetics
Jen Nwankwo is the Founder and CEO at 1910 Genetics.
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About 1910 Genetics: 1910 Genetics is a biotechnology company integrating AI, computation, and biological automation to improve drug development.
Paul Grayson
President and CEO of Bird Rock Bio
Paul Grayson is the Partner at Versant Ventures.
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About AccessBioVentures, Bird Rock Bio, Tentarix Biotherapeutics: Bird Rock Bio is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing innovative immuno-inflammatory regulators.
Zack Gray
Co-Founder & CEO of Ophelia
Zack Gray is the Founder and CEO at Ophelia .
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About Ophelia: Ophelia offers medication and support for quitting opioids.
David Benshoof Klein
Founder & CEO of Click Therapeutics
David Benshoof Klein is a healthcare investor and entrepreneur with over 13 years life science industry experience; he has played key roles in founding, financing and developing more than 10 life science companies. In 2012, Mr. Klein co-founded Click Therapeutics, Inc. which focuses on engineering, validating and commercializing Digital Therapeutics™ applications to benefit people with brain disorders and neuropsychiatric dysfunction. He formerly served as Managing Director at a life science asset management firm & senior consultant to Pfizer.
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About Click Therapeutics: Click Therapeutics delivers safe and effective digital treatments to patients in need.
Robert J. Hariri, M.D., Ph.D.
Founder, Chairperson, and Chief Executive Officer of Celularity
Robert J. Hariri joined us as a Director in July 2011 and was elected Chairman of the Board in April 2012. Robert Hariri has served as the chairman and chief scientific officer of Celgene Cellular Therapeutics, a division of Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ: CELG), since 2014. From 2002 to 2014, he served in various positions at Celgene Cellular Therapeutics, including chief executive officer and president. Prior to joining Celgene Cellular Therapeutics, Robert Hariri was founder, chairman and chief scientific officer at Anthrogenesis Corporation/LIFEBANK, Inc., a privately held biomedical technology and service corporation involved in the area of human stem cell therapeutics, which was acquired by Celgene Corporation in 2002. Robert Hariri also serves as president of Human Longevity Cellular Therapeutics, Inc., a privately-held genomics and cell therapy-based diagnostic and therapeutic company focused on extending the healthy, high performance human life span, which he co-founded in 2013. He has also served as co-founder, vice chairman and chief scientific officer of Neurodynamics, a privately held medical device and technology corporation. Robert Hariri is an adjunct associate professor of pathology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and has also held key academic positions at Weill Medical College of Cornell University and the Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Science, including serving as the director of the Center for Trauma Research. Robert Hariri is also a director of Cryoport, Inc. (NASDAQ: CYRX), Bionik Laboratories Corp. (OTCQX: BNKL), Provista Diagnostics and Rocket Racing, Inc. Robert Hariri is a member of the scientific advisory board for the Archon X Prize for Genomics, which is awarded by the X Prize Foundation. Robert Hariri also serves as a trustee of the J. Craig Venter Institute, a trustee of the Liberty Science Center and a commissioner of the New Jersey Commission for Cancer Research. Robert Hariri received the Thomas Alva Edison Award in 2007 and 2011, The Fred J. Epstein Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012 and numerous other honors for his contributions to biomedicine and aviation. He has served as a member of the board of visitors at Columbia University School of Engineering & Applied Sciences and the Science & Technology Council of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Robert Hariri received his undergraduate training at Columbia College and Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and was awarded his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Cornell University Medical College. Robert Hariri received his surgical training at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center and directed the Aitken Neurosurgery Laboratory and the Center for Trauma Research. We believe Robert Hariri’s training as a scientist, his knowledge and experience with respect to the biomedical and pharmaceutical industries and his extensive research and experience qualifies him to serve on our Board of Directors.
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About Celularity, Human Longevity, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, MYOS: Celularity is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing off-the-shelf placental-derived allogeneic cell therapies.
Chad Robins
Co-Founder, President & CEO of Adaptive Biotechnologies
Chad Robins is Adaptive’s President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder. He has held executive-level positions in real estate, investing and medical technology, including: Pulte Homes, Connaught Real Estate Finance, and HealthAxis.com. Chad Robins started his career in banking for companies such as Wasserstein Perella and Bank of America. In 2012, Chad Robins was a “40 Under 40” Seattle Leaders honoree. In 2015, he and his brother, Harlan Robins, were honored as one of Goldman Sachs 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of the Year. Chad Robins was also a finalist for the Ernst & Young 2016 Entrepreneur Of The Year® Award in the Pacific Northwest. While in college and looking for a way to combine his adventuresome spirit with a vast learning opportunity, he spent 100 days in the wilderness with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLs) where he gained his open and interactive leadership style along with his strong teamwork mentality. A Cornell University honors graduate with a major in entrepreneurship and business, Chad Robins obtained his MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with a major in finance and concentrations in marketing and operations. In addition to the Adaptive Biotechnologies board, Chad Robins holds board positions for the American Heart Association (Puget Sound) and Pavia Systems. He is also the co-founder and Director of Aortica Corporation, a company that is simplifying endovascular repair (EVAR) for abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA).
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About Adaptive Biotechnologies: Adaptive Biotechnologies translates a scale and precision of the adaptive immune system into products to diagnose and treat disease.
Daphne Koller
Founder & CEO of Insitro
Daphne Koller is CEO and Founder of insitro, a company using machine learning and high-throughput biology to transform drug discovery. Daphne was the Rajeev Motwani Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, where she served on the faculty for 18 years. She was the co-founder, co-CEO and President of Coursera for 5 years, and Chief Computing Officer of Calico, an Alphabet company in the healthcare space. She is the author of over 200 refereed publications appearing in venues such as Science, Cell, and Nature Genetics. Daphne was recognized as one of TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2012. She received the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2004 and the ACM Prize in Computing in 2008. She was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 2011 and elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2014 and of the International Society of Computational Biology in 2017.
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About Engageli, Insitro: Insitro is a drug discovery and development startup that utilizes machine learning and biology to transform drug discovery.
Eric Ostertag
Chief Executive Officer & Founder of Poseida Therapeutics
Eric Ostertag is the CEO at Poseida Therapeutics.
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About Hera Testing Laboratories, Poseida Therapeutics: Poseida Therapeutics is a biotechnology company that utilizes genome engineering capabilities to develop targeted life-saving therapeutics.
Jon Heimer
CEO of Olink
As President and CEO of Olink Proteomics the vision and goal is to facilitate and implement Precision Medicine via discovery and development of validated protein targets to identify smaller protein signatures for e.g. stratification and prediction and advance them in to clinical decision making. Jon is an entrepreneur and has spent the last 25 years in various biotech start-up companies, developing and commercializing medical devices and biotech drugs. He studied economy at the Uppsala University and has an MBA from IHM Business school in Stockholm. Jon was part of a small team that started Swedens latest most successful biotech which grew to 800 people around the world, market leader in its segment, went public and eventually sold to Galderma. Prior to joining Olink Proteomics as President and CEO he ran a small orphan drug company developing two drugs into late stage clinical trials through the FDA with novel treatments for hyperoxaluria.
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About Olink: Olink develops ground-breaking technologies for biomolecular analysis.
J. Joseph Kim
Co-Founder/President/CEO/Director of Inovio Pharmaceuticals
J. Joseph Kim is the Co-Founder/President/CEO/Director at Inovio Pharmaceuticals.
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About Inovio Pharmaceuticals, The Aspen Institute: Inovio is a biotech company focusing on bringing to market DNA medicines for diseases associated with HPV, cancer, and infectious diseases.
Ronald Renaud
Chief Executive Officer of Translate Bio
Ronald Renaud has served as the President and chief executive officer of Idenix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. since October 2010. Prior to this, Ronald Renaud has served as the chief financial officer of Idenix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. since June 2007 and additionally as Chief Business Officer since June 2010. Ronald Renaud brings a unique mix of skills to this role with his finance experience at public biotechnology companies and on Wall Street, as well as his science background. Prior to joining Idenix, Ronald Renaud served as chief financial officer of Keryx Biopharmaceuticals. In this role he was responsible for the strategic planning and development of the finance function to support the company’s growth and its late-stage product candidate development. Prior to his position at Keryx, he spent several years as a senior biotechnology equity analyst for leading investment banks including Bear Stearns, Schwab SoundView and JP Morgan. Additional industry experience includes Mr. Renaud’s more than five years at Amgen Inc., where he held positions in clinical research, investor relations and finance. Ronald Renaud holds a Masters in Business Administration from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Arts from St. Anselm College in Manchester, NH.
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About Translate Bio: Translate Bio is a biotechnology company that specializes in biotechnology, RNA therapeutics, and rare diseases.
Douglas E. Williams
President & CEO of Codiak Biosciences
Douglas Williams is the President and CEO at Codiak BioSciences.
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About Codiak Biosciences: Codiak is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on pioneering the development of exosome-based therapeutics.
Carl Spana
CEO & Pres of Palatin Technologies
Carl Spana is a co-founder, the chief executive officer, and president at [Palatin Technologies](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/palatin-technologies#/entity), a biopharmaceutical company that develops targeted receptor specific peptide therapeutics for the treatment of diseases. Previously, he served the same company as executive vice president and chief technical officer.
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About Palatin Technologies: Palatin Technologies, a biopharmaceutical company, develops targeted receptor specific peptide therapeutics for the treatment of diseases.
Sofie Qiao
President and Chief Executive Officer of Vivace Therapeutics
Dr. Qiao is the founding president and CEO of Vivace Therapeutics & Virtuoso Therapeutics.
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About Virtuoso Therapeutics, Vivace Therapeutics, WuXi Healthcare Ventures: Vivace Therapeutics is a venture-backed start-up dedicated to discovering and developing cancer therapeutics by targeting a novel pathway.
Jonathan Winger
CEO of Omniox
Jonathan Winger is co-inventor of the H-NOX technology, company Co-Founder, and Senior Director of Biochemistry and Manufacturing. He directs the design and biochemical characterization of protein variants with the kinetic and stability properties appropriate for each of the diseases in which H-NOX will be used, as well as oversees in-house protein production and quality control. He also manages the transfer of upstream and downstream processes for scale-up and GMP manufacturing of material for toxicology studies and clinical trials. Jonathan has 18 years of experience in diverse biochemical and biophysical methods for production and study of H-NOX and other heme proteins. He has published a number of peer reviewed research papers, co-authored several book chapters, and is an inventor on multiple patents. Prior to Omniox, he was an American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellow with John Kuriyan at the University of California, Berkeley, where he developed expertise in biophysical techniques including X-ray crystallography, small-angle X-ray scattering, and NMR. He obtained his PhD in Medicinal Chemistry with Michael Marletta at the University of Michigan, where he used spectroscopy and enzymology to investigate the role of soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC), an H-NOX domain-containing protein, in nitric oxide signaling pathways. Insights gained from this work contributed to the conception and founding of Omniox.
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About Omniox, Omniox: Omniox, a biotechnology company, commercializes technologies used in identifying and treating cancer, cardiovascular disease and trauma.
Tassos Gianakakos
CEO of MyoKardia
Tassos Gianakakos is the chief executive officer of [MyoKardia](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/myokardia), a biopharmaceutical company that develops novel, small molecule therapeutics addressing the key clinical needs of patients with genetic heart diseases. He was previously the SVP and chief business officer of MAP Pharmaceuticals. Prior to MAP, Gianakakos led the formation of Codexis before which he was the director of business development at Maxygen. Prior to Maxygen, he was a process engineer in Merck & Co.’s vaccine division. Gianakakos holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and economics from MIT, a master’s degree from Northwestern University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
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About MyoKardia: MyoKardia is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that develops targeted therapies for the treatment of rare cardiovascular diseases.
Drew Titmarsh
CEO and Co-founder of Dynomics
Drew is a bioengineer and entrepreneur focused on building multi-disciplinary teams that bring powerful new solutions to large problems. He is currently working on Dynomics, a cardiovascular drug discovery company using miniature, engineered heart organoids to discover molecules to restore heart function.
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About Dynomics: Molecules to restore heart function.
Michael Tusche
Co-CEO of Treadwell Therapeutics
Michael Tusche, Ph.D. MBA serves as a Co-Chief Executive Officer of Treadwell Therapeutics. Dr. Michael Tusche brings over a decade of experience as a scientist, investor, and entrepreneur to his role of co-CEO of Treadwell Therapeutics. Previously, Michael was the Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of Nirsum Laboratories, Inc., a startup biotechnology company developing small molecule therapeutics for Neuroscience indications. At Nirsum, Dr. Tusche was the Co-inventor of the company’s foundational Intellectual Property and a Principal Investigator of an NIH/NIDA grant, funding the company’s operations into mid-stage clinical studies. Prior to Nirsum, Michael was the Senior Biotechnology Analyst at Mountain Brook Capital Management, LLC, a Healthcare focused Long/Short equity only Hedge Fund, where his focus was Investments in publicly listed Biopharmaceutical companies. Before Mountain Brook, Dr. Tusche was an Associate at MLV and Co., a boutique investment bank with a focus on capital raising and advisory work for Life Science-based companies. Dr. Tusche also led Biologic drug discovery at the Campbell Family Institute in Toronto, Canada, where he managed a multidisciplinary R&D team in the pre-clinical development and validation of novel drug candidates. Michael started his career as a Scientist in drug discovery at Bayer AG in Japan, where he worked on early-stage development of small molecule GPCR antagonists for allergic and inflammatory diseases. Dr. Tusche received his B.Sc. (with Distinction) in Biochemistry from the University of Victoria. He also received a Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Toronto where he trained in the laboratory of Dr. Tak Mak. Michael received his M.B.A. from the University of Toronto. He is a co-author on several peer-reviewed publications, the recipient of numerous scientific and business awards, and named inventor on issued US patents focusing on small molecule and biologic therapeutics.
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About Treadwell Therapeutics: Treadwell Therapeutics is a clinical-stage oncology company that develops medicines to address unmet needs in patients with cancer.
Michael Zeglinski
SVP and CEO, Optum Specialty and Infusion Pharmacy of BriovaRx
Michael Zeglinski serves as Senior Vice President, Specialty Pharmacy, at OptumRx, the nation’s third-largest pharmacy benefits manager (PBM), and part of Optum, a leading information and technology-enabled health services business. The parent company, UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), is a diversified health and well-being company, which provides services to more than 120 million people worldwide and includes UnitedHealthcare, the nation’s leading health care provider. Bringing more than 25 years of experience in the pharmacy distribution and specialty pharmaceutical business, including home infusion therapies, Mr. Zeglinski also serves as Chief Executive Officer of Avella and BriovaRx, the OptumRx specialty pharmacies. Both Avella and BriovaRx provide full-service, innovative, patient-centric specialty pharmacy services that serve a diverse customer base, from patients and providers to payers and pharmaceutical manufacturers, with strong focuses in the oncology and limited distribution drug space through 26 specialty pharmacies nationwide. Mr. Zeglinski is responsible for leading the division’s strategy, growth and sales efforts, product development, clinical programs, analytics and outcomes, and operations. In 2015, Mr. Zeglinski joined OptumRx via the acquisition of Catamaran Corporation, a pharmacy benefits management company, where he served as the Senior Vice President of Pharmacy Operations. Prior to Catamaran, he held roles at several of the largest specialty pharmacy organizations, including Quantum Health Resources, Olsten/Gentiva Health Services, Accredo Therapeutics, CVS ProCare, PharmaCare Specialty Pharmacy, and CVS Caremark Specialty. Throughout his career, Mr. Zeglinski developed and implemented numerous pharmacy operating systems and disease-specific care management programs, which focused on increasing patients’ specialty pharmaceutical adherence rates, documenting cost saving interventions and improving quality of life for patients/members. He is also Green Belt certified in Lean Six Sigma processes focusing on the healthcare industry. Mr. Zeglinski holds a Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA, and pursued his Master’s degree in Fine Arts in Music from Carnegie Mellon University. He is a member of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) and the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) and has held licenses in 14 states as a registered pharmacist.
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About BriovaRx: AxelaCare is a provider of immune globulin and other intravenous home infusion therapies.
Kuldeep Singh Rajput
Founder & CEO of Biofourmis
Kuldeep Singh Rajput is the CEO and Founder of Biofourmis, a fast-growing digital health company filled with committed, passionate people who care about augmenting personalized care and empowering people with complex chronic conditions to live better and healthier lives. Biofourmis is pioneering an entirely new category of digital health, by developing clinically-validated software-based therapeutics to provide better outcomes for patients, smarter engagement and tracking tools for clinicians, and cost-effective solutions for payers. Recognized as the “Forbes 30 Under 30”, Kuldeep has demonstrated strong leadership experience with building teams, developing talents, and successfully growing, and managing strategic partnerships with global pharmaceutical manufacturers, health systems and Payers. Under his leadership, Biofourmis has raised over US$45 Million in venture capital from leading Venture Capital firms including Sequoia Capital, MassMutual Ventures, Singapore Govt-linked EDBI, Aviva plc, and Mayo Clinic Ventures. He uses his background and experience in biomedical engineering and data from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to unfold his vision of “Predicting and Preventing Serious Medical Events using AI”. During his Ph.D. studies at the National University of Singapore (NUS), he built bioelectronic implants, which aim to control biological processes and treat diseases by modulating electric impulses. He believes in giving back and is part of the Milken Institute Young Leaders Circle (YLC), supporting the mission of providing people access to education and healthcare for stable economic growth. Kuldeep has been featured in major publications and has been a keynote speaker at numerous prestigious conferences like TED. Specialties: Entrepreneur, Fund Raising, Building Companies, Digital Therapeutics, Licensing, and Deal Structure, Healthcare Strategy, Digital Healthcare, Wearable Biosensors, Pharmaceuticals
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About Biofourmis: Biofourmis is a biotechnology company that augments personalized care and therapies using digital therapeutics.
Rekha Bansal
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of NovelMed Therapeutics
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About NovelMed Therapeutics: NovelMed Therapeutics is a biotechnology company developing novel therapies for orphan and non-orphan diseases.
Rohan Dixit
Founder and CEO of Lief Therapeutics
Founder at Lief Therapeutics. Formerly neuroimaging of meditation at Harvard-MIT-MGH Martinos Center, resting state neuroscience at Stanford Medical Center.
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About Lief Therapeutics: Lief is a discreet biosensing patch that measures your heart and breath.
Wes Kaupinen
President and CEO of Palvella Therapeutics
Wes Kaupinen has served as president and CEO since Palvella’s inception. Mr. Kaupinen brings more than 15 years of entrepreneurial life sciences experience as an operating executive and early stage investor. Prior to Palvella, Mr. Kaupinen was a senior executive at Insmed Incorporated (NASDAQ: INSM), a global biopharmaceutical company focused on the unmet needs of patients with rare diseases, where he served as senior vice president of corporate development and commercialization. While at Insmed, he led the global corporate development and U.S. commercial functions, with key responsibilities including corporate strategy, acquisitions and in-licensing, R&D pipeline strategy, patient advocacy, marketing, and pricing and reimbursement. Previously, Mr. Kaupinen was a principal at Quaker Partners, a life sciences venture capital firm with $700mm under management, where he worked on several public and private venture capital investments in the life sciences space. At Quaker, he was responsible for the recruitment of new senior leadership to Insmed to execute on the company’s rare disease strategy, and he was involved in Quaker’s investments in Horizon Pharma (NASDAQ: HZNP) and Achillion Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ACHN). In addition, he led Quaker’s Series A investments in Intact Vascular (backed by NEA, Quaker, and HIG) and TELA Bio (backed by OrbiMed, Quaker, and Signet), playing a key role in the investor syndication, leadership recruitment, and corporate strategy development for each. Mr. Kaupinen has operating experience at two Johnson & Johnson operating companies, including Cordis Cardiology where he worked on the CYPHER sirolimus-eluting stent, the first drug-eluting stent ever launched which leveraged the multi-modal therapeutic properties of sirolimus to significantly improve outcomes for patients with coronary ischemic disease. Earlier in his career, Mr. Kaupinen was an associate at Apax Partners, a global private equity firm, and an analyst in the Life Sciences Investment Banking Group at Robertson Stephens. Mr. Kaupinen has served as a board director or observer for more than ten companies, including Palvella, Intact Vascular, and TELA Bio. He is currently the chief strategy officer for The Castleman Disease Collaborative Network, a non-profit dedicated to finding a cure for Castleman Disease, a rare autoimmune disease. Mr. Kaupinen earned an M.B.A. from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where he was the recipient of the William L. Kissick MD Scholarship Award. He holds a B.A. in economics from The University of Virginia.
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About Palvella Therapeutics: Palvella Therapeutics focuses on relentlessly and selflessly serving abandoned patient populations with therapies.
Kenneth Mills
Chief Executive Officer, President and Director of REGENXBIO
Ken Mills is the founding President and Chief Executive Officer of REGENXBIO.He was previously the Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Business Development at Meso Scale Diagnostics, a privately held life sciences company. There, he served as a member of the founding management team, and worked to establish the company’s operations and ongoing business strategy. In this position, Mills supervised all company activities, including direct management of corporate and business development, strategic planning, finance, and accounting activities. Prior to his tenure at Meso Scale Diagnostics, he was Director of Business Development for IGEN International, a medical diagnostics company. Mills received an S.B. in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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About REGENXBIO: REGENXBIO develops adeno-associated viral vector-based therapeutics and research tools, offering NAV, a recombinant AAV-vector.
Saqib Islam
CEO of SpringWorks Therapeutics
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About SpringWorks Therapeutics: SpringWorks Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing medicines for patients with severe rare diseases and cancer.
