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 Founder operating in the Biopharma space. If you think a Founder 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.
Geraldine Harriman
CSO & Co-Founder of HotSpot Therapeutics
Geraldine Harriman is the Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of HotSpot Therapeutics.
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About HotSpot Therapeutics: HotSpot Therapeutics is a developer of a therapy platform designed to discover medicines and provide proper treatment.
Matthew Milford
Co-Founder of Genetic Foresight
Matthew Milford is the Co-Founder at Foresight.
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About Foresight Mental Health, Genetic Foresight: Genetic Foresight is personalizing medicine to enable safer and more effective prescriptions.
David Maizenberg
Co-Founder and General Counsel of ValenzaBio
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About ValenzaBio: ValenzaBio is developing safe and effective treatment options for patients with autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
Martin Shkreli
Founder & Executive Chairman of Turing Pharmaceuticals
Martin Shkreli is the founder and CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals. He is the founder of Retrophin, LLC (the predecessor of Retrophin, Inc.) and former President of Retrophin, Inc. since its formation. Martin Shkreli is also the founder and managing partner of MSMB Capital Management, a New York hedge fund firm founded in 2006 that manages a variety of partnerships. Prior to MSMB, Martin Shkreli was employed at Intrepid Capital Management from 2004 to 2006 and previously at Cramer Berkowitz & Co, both of which are hedge fund firms based in New York. Martin Shkreli is an experienced biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry investor, particularly in businesses with orphan drugs. Martin Shkreli received his BBA from Baruch College.
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About Shkreli Foundation, Turing Pharmaceuticals: Turing Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company focusing on patients with unmet medical needs.
Eric Young
Partner and Co-Founder of Canaan Partners
Since co-founding Canaan Partners in 1987, Eric has helped launch a multitude of market-leading technology companies from inception to IPO or acquisition. An active investor in the communications and enterprise technology sectors, Eric has generated numerous positive outcomes from startups such as Argon Networks, Capstone Turbine, Copper Mountain Networks; Diffusion Software, Enpirion, Frame Technology, International Network Services, Kalpana, ONI Systems, SandForce, Spectrian and Visigenic Software. Prior to Canaan, Eric was a Senior VP of GE Venture Capital, where he led successful investments in companies such as Nellcor and Octel Communications. Eric also held a variety of sales, marketing and operations management positions at GE in two power-related industrial product businesses. Eric currently sits on the boards of EnStorage, a developer of grid-scale energy storage systems; Cortina Systems, a leading supplier of highly integrated communication devices; Ebates Shopping, number one in online shopping loyalty programs; Lancope, the global leader in network behavior analysis for security, and Xirrus, an innovator in high performance enterprise Wi-Fi systems. Eric earned a BS in mechanical engineering from Cornell University and a MBA from Northwestern University. He is a member of the Advisory Council of Cornell University’s entrepreneurship initiative, Entrepreneurship@Cornell, as well as a frequent speaker to university students at Cornell and Stanford on the transformative power of entrepreneurship.
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About Canaan Partners: Canaan is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in visionaries with transformative ideas.
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.
Igor Khandros
Co-Founder of Berkeley Lights
Igor Y. Khandros Co-Founded Berkeley Lights, Inc. and serves as its Chief Executive Officer. Igor Khandros served as an Advisor of FormFactor Inc. Igor Khandros founded Formfactor Inc. and served as its Executive Chairman. Igor Khandros served as the Chief Executive Officer of Formfactor and also served as its President Igor Khandros served as the Vice President of Development of Tessera Technologies Inc., that he co-founded. he was employed at the Yorktown Research Center of IBM Corporation as a Member of the Technical Staff and a Manager. Igor Khandros was employed at ABEX Corporation as a Research Metallurgist and a Manager, and he served as an Engineer at the Institute of Casting Research in Kiev, Russia. Igor Khandros has been a Director of FormFactor Inc., Igor Khandros holds an M.S. equivalent degree in Metallurgical Engineering from Kiev Polytechnic Institute in Kiev, Russia, and a Ph.D. in Metallurgy from Stevens Institute of Technology.
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About Berkeley Lights, Nutcracker Therapeutics: Berkeley Lights is a provider of research and development services using micro-droplet technology that change the biological processes.
Josiah Hornblower
Founder & Executive Chairman of Shattuck Labs
In addition to serving as Managing Member of Pilgrims & Indians, Josiah has been a Managing Member of Blue Pine Partners, LLC since 2008, an investment and advisory firm that he founded in the community bank sector. From 2004 to 2008, Josiah was a principal of Resource Financial Institutions Group, Inc. (RFIG), a manager of private equity funds focused on investing in community banks. During that period, he served on the Board of Directors of Pacific Enterprise Bancorp, an Orange County, California-based commercial bank. Before joining RFIG, Josiah worked as an equity analyst at Gray Seifert and Co., an investment management firm specializing in financial services, and at Barrett Associates, Inc. At both firms, he researched and invested in regional banks and financial technology companies. Josiah was a director of Portland, Oregon-based Capital Pacific Bank until its purchase by Pacific Continental Corporation (NASDAQ: PCBK) in 2015. Josiah currently serves on the boards of Pelican Therapeutics, Inc. and Population Diagnostics, Inc, and serves as CEO of Shattuck Labs, Inc. Josiah graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Trinity College and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He resides in Austin, Texas.
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About Blue Pine Partners, Pelican Therapeutics, Shattuck Labs: Shattuck Labs is a biotechnology company that provides novel class biologic medicines for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune disease.
Stephen Hays
Founder of What If Ventures
Stephen Hays is the founder, and managing partner of What If Ventures, a VC firm investing in early stage mental health and addiction recovery related startups. What If Ventures was formed in the spring of 2019 and closed its first investment in January 2020. Stephen also founded and managed Deep Space Ventures from 2015 until 2018. During that time he invested in 25 seed and series-A stage startups in the B2B SaaS, esports and FinTech spaces. Personal struggles with addiction and mental health led Stephen to step away from Deep Space Ventures in late 2018 and begin to focus on addiction recovery and mental health both personally and professionally. The Deep Space portfolio has achieved outsized returns with approximately 3x TVPI just 4 years since inception with 5 exits and nearly a dozen series-A and later rounds within its portfolio companies. Prior to founding Deep Space Ventures, Stephen worked as an investment banker for 6+ years in both New York and Dallas. During this time, he executed a numerous capital markets and M&A transactions for Fortune 500 companies. Stephen is a a graduate of West Point and obtained his MBA from the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt.
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About What If Ventures: What If Ventures invests primarily in mental health, addiction, and stigmatized healthcare services from seed stage to pre-IPO.
Michael Richman
Co-Founder, President & CEO of NextCure
Michael Richman has over 24 years of experience working in research, intellectual property and business development capacities in companies such as Chiron Corporation (now Novartis) and MedImmune, Inc. (now Astra Zeneca), where he was Senior Vice President Corporate Development prior to taking on his most recent position at MacroGenics. While at MedImmune, Michael was responsible for all Business Development, Licensing, Intellectual Property, Legal Affairs, Project Management and Strategic Planning functions, and drove over $1.6 billion in transactions. His transactional and M&A experience, management skills and familiarity with the scientific and intellectual aspects of biotechnology product development are invaluable in building young companies. Most recently, Michael was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at MacroGenics – a fully integrated R&D company focused on monoclonal antibodies for cancer, autoimmune diseases, and infectious diseases. Michael obtained his B.S. in Genetics/Molecular Biology at the University of California at Davis and his M.S.B.A. in International Business at San Francisco State University.
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About NextCure: NextCure is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing next generation immuno-oncology-based drugs.
Charles Gersbach
Co-Founder & Scientific Advisor of Locus Biosciences
Dr. Charles A. Gersbach is the Rooney Family Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University, as well as the Director of the Duke Center for Biomolecular and Tissue Engineering. He also has appointments in the Duke University Medical Center in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and the Center for Genomic and Computational Biology. His research interests are in the areas of genome and epigenome editing, gene therapy, biomolecular and cellular engineering, regenerative medicine, synthetic biology, and genomics. Dr. Gersbach received his Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University School of Medicine focusing on the genetic reprogramming of adult stem cells for musculoskeletal tissue regeneration. Dr. Gersbach completed his postdoctoral training at The Scripps Research Institute in molecular biology and biochemistry, focusing on developing new genome editing tools with applications in biotechnology and gene therapy. Dr. Gersbach’s laboratory at Duke University is focused on applying molecular and cellular engineering to applications in gene therapy, regenerative medicine, and basic science. In particular, his research aims to develop new methods to genetically modify genome sequences and cellular gene networks in a precise and targeted manner. These new methods are then applied to correction of genetic diseases, directing stem cell differentiation, regeneration of damaged tissues, or answering fundamental biological questions regarding gene regulation and genome structure and function. Examples of technologies used in his research include genome and epigenome editing, protein engineering, directed evolution, genetic reprogramming, gene delivery, and optogenetics. Dr. Gersbach’s recognitions include the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the Hartwell Foundation Individual Biomedical Research Award, the March of Dimes Basil O’Connor Scholar Award, and the Outstanding New Investigator Award from the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy.
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About Element Genomics, Locus Biosciences, Tune Therapeutics: Locus Biosciences develops CRISPR-engineered precision antibacterial platform designed to revolutionize the treatment of bacterial disease.
Dave Ousterout
Co-Founder & Chief Scientific Officer of Locus Biosciences
Dr. Dave Ousterout is a co-founder and Chief Technology Officer for Locus Biosciences. Dave’s expertise is in protein engineering and early stage applications of new technologies to treat human diseases. Dr. Ousterout earned a BS in Biological & Environmental Engineering from Cornell University, an MS in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University. Dave completed his doctoral studies at Duke University in the lab of Dr. Charles Gersbach, where he developed novel gene editing approaches for correcting mutations that cause Duchenne muscular dystrophy. His other work has spanned across several fields, including designing and engineering viral and non-viral delivery vectors, DNA binding protein engineering and gene regulation. Prior to Locus, Dave was a consultant at McKinsey & Company.
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About Locus Biosciences: Locus Biosciences develops CRISPR-engineered precision antibacterial platform designed to revolutionize the treatment of bacterial disease.
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.
Chase Beisel
Co-Founder & Scientific Advisor of Locus Biosciences
Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (Germany) and North Carolina State University.
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About Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Locus Biosciences, North Carolina State University – NCSU: Locus Biosciences develops CRISPR-engineered precision antibacterial platform designed to revolutionize the treatment of bacterial disease.
Nick Taylor
Co-Founder & Project/Program Manager of Locus Biosciences
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About Locus Biosciences: Locus Biosciences develops CRISPR-engineered precision antibacterial platform designed to revolutionize the treatment of bacterial disease.
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 .
Remo Moomiaie-Qajar M.D.
Co-Founder of Zerigo Health
Dr. Moomiaie-Qajar is a trained surgeon from Yale University with a long academic history of innovating technologies in medicine and translating them into commercially viable products. Dr. Moomiaie-Qajar has 15 years of experience incubating technologies from start-up or early stage level to exit. His background as an academic researcher, physician, and entrepreneur brings an unique trifecta of perspective and experience to Cytonus. He holds a number of US and International Patents and has successfully funded and launched a number of Life Science companies. He is the past CEO of Remo CRO, a full service CRO and Dr. Moomiaie-Qajar is an active member of a number of National Angel Investment Groups and manages a Life Science seed fund.
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About Remo Life Science, Zerigo Health: Clarify Medical is a developer of a handheld medical device used to treat psoriasis, eczema, and vitiligo .
Remo Qajar
Co-Founder of Zerigo Health
Remo Qajar is the Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer at Skylit Medical. Remo’s postgraduate career as an academic researcher and trained Surgeon at the Yale School of Medicine led him to invent a number of medical devices, from implantable respiratory diaphragms to orthopedic and wound care products, some of which have been spun-off into companies. Remo is the founder of InQMEDS LLC. an accelerator of growth for early stage life-science products.
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About Zerigo Health: Clarify Medical is a developer of a handheld medical device used to treat psoriasis, eczema, and vitiligo .
Kristin Brief
Co-Founder and COO of Virex Health
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About Virex Health: Virex is a biotechnology firm that enables widespread testing in life, homes, workplaces, schools, and public spaces globally.
Christoph Westphal
Founder & Executive Chairman of Verastem Oncology
Christoph Westphal is the Co-Founder, Chairman & Board Member at ImmuneID.
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About ImmuneID, Longwood Fund, Longwood Fund, Verastem Oncology: Verastem is a biopharmaceutical company that focuses on discovering and developing novel drugs that selectively target cancer stem cells.
Douglas Mayers
Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Antios Therapeutics
Mr. Douglas Mayers, M.D. serves as Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer at Antios Therapeutics, Inc.
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About Antios Therapeutics: Antios Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company developing innovative therapies for viral diseases.
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.
David Mittelman
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Othram
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About Othram: Othram enables human ID from difficult evidence like touch DNA, mixtures, and decades-old bones.
Robert Nicol
Co-Founder of HiFiBiO
Rob Nicol is director of the Technology Labs at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Under Rob’s guidance, the Technology Labs serve as an advanced R&D group within the institute integrating capabilities in molecular biology, bio-engineering, synthetic biology, microfluidics, bio-informatics, and industrial process design to meet the needs of the Broad community. Rob is also co-founder of the MIT-Broad Foundry for Synthetic Biology. Rob joined the Whitehead Institute / MIT Center for Genome Research in 2001 to apply industrial process design to genome sequencing and directed the Sequencing Operations and Technology Development groups at the Broad for over 12 years, designing and implementing multiple generations of high-throughput DNA sequencing processes. Earlier, as an MIT Leaders for Manufacturing Fellow, Rob worked on production line optimization for Raytheon’s AMRAAM missile and Boeing’s 777. Rob previously worked as a project manager for Fluor Corporation, where he managed multiple, large-scale petrochemical design and construction projects. Rob received his B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Houston, and an M.S. in chemical engineering, M.B.A., and Ph.D. in engineering systems from MIT.
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About HiFiBiO: HiFiBiO provides proprietary single cell technologies for applications in drug and biomarker discovery and development.
Leonard S. Schleifer
Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Regeneron
Leonard S. Schleifer, M.D., Ph.D., founded the Company in 1988, has been a Director and its President and Chief Executive Officer since its inception, and served as Chairman of the Board from 1990 through 1994. From 1984 to 1988 he was Assistant Professor at the Cornell University Medical College in the Departments of Neurology and Neurobiology. Leonard Schleifer received his M.D. and Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Virginia. Leonard Schleifer is a licensed physician and is certified in neurology by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.
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About Regeneron: Regeneron Pharmaceuticals is a biotechnology company that invents life-transforming medicines for people with serious diseases.
George D. Yancopoulos
President, Chief Scientific Office & co-Founder of Regeneron
George D. Yancopoulos, M.D., Ph.D., joined the Company in 1989 as its Founding Scientist and is currently President, Regeneron Laboratories and Chief Scientific Officer. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Columbia University. Dr. Yancopoulos was the 11th most highly cited scientist in the world in the 1990s, and in 2004 he was elected to be a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Yancopoulos, together with key members of his team, is a principal inventor and developer of Regeneron’s three FDA-approved drugs – including EYLEA® (aflibercept) Injection, ZALTRAP Injection for Intravenous Infusion, and ARCALYST (rilonacept) Injection – as well as of its foundation technologies including the TRAP technology, VelociGene, and VelocImmune.
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About Regeneron: Regeneron Pharmaceuticals is a biotechnology company that invents life-transforming medicines for people with serious diseases.
Cheryl Baker
Co-Founder & Chief Scientific Research Officer of BioCurity Pharmaceuticals
Baker received her B.S. summa cum laude, in Chemistry from Rollins College (Winter Park, Florida) in 1994. In 1999, she received her Ph.D in Biochemistry from Texas Tech University. She then completed her post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Cancer Biology at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. From 2001-2003, she conducted research as an Instructor of Surgery at the Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Subsequently, she was an Assistant Professor at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. She holds an Adjunct Professor position at the University of Central Florida Medical School. From 2005-2010, Dr. Baker served as Director of the Cancer Research Institute of MD Anderson Cancer Center Orlando (formerly affiliated with Orlando Health). During her time at MD Anderson-Orlando, she established and led a team of master and doctoral students, research scientists, physician-scientists and professors in multi-disciplinary cancer research projects. Dr. Baker has conducted cancer related research for over 20 years and is the recipient of research funding from local, state, and government agencies. Dr. Baker has published over 45 peer-reviewed manuscripts, book chapters and articles.
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About BioCurity Pharmaceuticals: BioCurity Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company that changes the course of radiation therapy for cancer patients worldwide.
Joseph Moskal
Founder & Chief Scientific Officer of Naurex
Joseph Moskal is chief scientific officer of Aptinyx. He founded Naurex and served as its chief scientific officer until the company was acquired by Allergan. He is also distinguished professor of biomedical engineering at Northwestern University and director of the university’s Falk Center for Molecular Therapeutics. Joseph Moskal previously served as assistant professor and director of the neurosurgery laboratories at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Earlier, he was a staff fellow at the National Institutes of Health. Joseph Moskal is well known for his research on the NMDA receptor. He received a B.S. and a Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame.
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About Aptinyx, Molecular Therapeutics, Naurex, Northwestern University: Naurex is a clinical-stage company developing novel therapeutics for depression and other CNS disorders.
Venky Soundararajan
Co-Founder & Chief Scientific Officer of nference
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About nference: nference.inc, provides an AI based software platform that synthesizes siloed biomedical knowledge for insights and makes it computable.
George Hillman
COO, VP & Co-Founder of Viracta Therapeutics
George Hillman is the Co-Founder, Chief Operating Officer, and Vice President of Viracta Therapeutics.
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About Viracta Therapeutics: Viracta Therapeutics is a precision oncology company focused on new treatment of virus-associated malignancies.
Jin-Long Chen
Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of NGM Biopharmaceuticals
Jin-Long Chen was most recently Vice President of Research at Amgen and head of the Metabolic Disorders therapeutic area. In this role he assumed global responsibility for the company’s research efforts in the areas of metabolism, bone, mineral balance, and muscle. He successfully guided programs from the earliest stages of drug discovery through advanced clinical trials and made key contributions to business development and product commercialization. Jin-Long Chen further bolstered Amgen’s drug portfolio by successfully in-licensing promising clinical candidates and out-licensing suitable clinical-stage molecules. Previously, Jin-Long Chen served as Vice President of Biology at Tularik and was responsible for drug discovery research in oncology, inflammation and metabolic disease. He personally initiated and directed Tularik’s orphan receptor programs, advancing a number of candidates, targeting selected GPCRs and nuclear hormone receptors, to the clinic. Several of these compounds remain in clinical development, including T131, a novel modulator of PPARy activity for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. While at Tularik, Jin-Long Chen was also active in business development, successfully establishing and managing pharma partnerships in support of the company’s metabolic and genomic research programs.
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About NGM Biopharmaceuticals: NGM Biopharmaceuticals is a drug discovery company developing biotherapeutics for the gastrointestinal endocrine system.
James Spudich
Founder of MyoKardia
James Spudich, Ph.D., serves as the Douglass M. and Nola Leishman Professor of Cardiovascular Disease in the Department of Biochemistry at Stanford University. His laboratory studies how enzymes use specific structural elements to carry out their exquisite roles. Specifically, his research has focused on the myosin family of enzymes. Over the last 35 years, Dr. Spudich and scientists in his lab have used an interdisciplinary and multifaceted approach to elucidate the molecular basis of energy transduction by the myosin family of molecular motors. Dr. Spudich also serves as a visiting faculty member at the National Center for Biological Sciences of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Bangalore, India. Dr. Spudich is a co-founder and former director of Cytokinetics and the Stanford University Bio-X program. He currently serves as the chair of the International Affairs Committee for the American Society for Cell Biology, and has previously served as president of the organization. Dr. Spudich has been recognized with numerous honors for his achievements in the field, including the American Heart Association Basic Research Prize and the 2012 Lasker Basic Medical Research Award. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has authored more than 190 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Spudich holds a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and Ph.D. in biochemistry from Stanford University. He completed his postdoctoral work in genetics and structural biology at Stanford University and the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England.
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About MyoKardia: MyoKardia is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that develops targeted therapies for the treatment of rare cardiovascular diseases.
Christine Seidman
Founder of MyoKardia
Christine (Kricket) Seidman, M.D., is a Professor of Genetics and the Thomas W. Smith Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is also an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She joined the staff at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 1987 and is currently the director of the Cardiovascular Genetics Center. Along with her husband Jonathan Seidman, Ph.D., Dr. Seidman has elucidated multiple genetic causes of human disorders affecting the heart and vasculature. The Seidmans’ discoveries include the identification and demonstration of genetic mutations causing hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and dilated cardiomyopathy, as well as the first genetic cause of congenital heart malformations. In addition to recognition received jointly with her husband, Dr. Seidman’s recent honors include Distinguished Scientist, American Heart Association; Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award, The George Washington University; The 21st Annual Glorney-Raisbeck Award; and the Jay and Jean Schottenstein Prize in Cardiovascular Science. She is a member of the Association of University Cardiologists and an elected member to the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Seidman holds an undergraduate degree from Harvard College and an M.D. from George Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Seidman served as an intern and resident in internal medicine at John Hopkins Hospital and received subspecialty training in cardiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital.
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About MyoKardia: MyoKardia is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that develops targeted therapies for the treatment of rare cardiovascular diseases.
Leslie Leinwand
Founder of MyoKardia
Professor at University of Colorado.
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About MyoKardia, University of Colorado: MyoKardia is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that develops targeted therapies for the treatment of rare cardiovascular diseases.
Jonathan Seidman
Founder of MyoKardia
Professor at Harvard Medical School.
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About Harvard Medical School, MyoKardia: MyoKardia is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that develops targeted therapies for the treatment of rare cardiovascular diseases.
Chen Schor
Co-Founder, President & CEO of resTORbio
Schor is a global healthcare industry leader with vast experience in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical devices, business development and private equity. Schor has supported and helped build multiple healthcare companies and led multiple licensing, partnerships and M&A transactions with total value exceeding $8 billion with companies such as GSK, Amgen, Pfizer, Bayer, Teva and EMD-Serono. Prior to joining Novalere, Schor was VP Global Business Development with Teva Pharmaceuticals and had leadership roles at several emerging pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Schor was also a Partner at Yozma venture capital where he led the foundation and growth of multiple companies from inception to significant commercial success. Schor holds a Master in Business Administration, a B.A. in Biology, a B.A. in Economics, and is also a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).
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About Novalere FP, Predix Pharmaceuticals, resTORbio, Synta Pharmaceuticals: resTORbio is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of novel therapeutics.
David Steinberg
Co-Founder of resTORbio
David Steinberg is currently a Venture Partner at Longwood Fund. He was formerly the Chief Innovation Officer at PureTech Health. As a member of PureTech Health, Mr. Steinberg led the development of a number of programs, including Vedanta Biosciences, Calix and Vor Biopharma. He also co-founded resTORbio during his tenure at PureTech Health. Previously, Mr. Steinberg was a strategy consultant with the Boston Consulting Group and Vertex Partners, focusing on R&D and product strategy and strategic alliances for Fortune 500 pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients. Mr. Steinberg also worked as a research associate in Procter and Gamble Pharmaceuticals’ R&D organization. He received his BA in Biology with distinction from Cornell University and graduated with high honors from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business with an MBA in Strategy and Finance.
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About Be Biopharma, PureTech Health, Pyxis Oncology, resTORbio: resTORbio is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of novel therapeutics.
Travis May
Founder & CEO of Datavant
Travis May is the Founder and CEO of Datavant.
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About Datavant: Datavant is a provider of a healthcare data solutions to help institutions share, protect, and match health data.
Lara S. Sullivan
Founder of SpringWorks Therapeutics
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About Pyxis Oncology, SpringWorks Therapeutics: SpringWorks Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing medicines for patients with severe rare diseases and cancer.
Sangeeta Bhatia
Co-Founder of Satellite Bio
Sangeeta Bhatia is Wilson Professor of Engineering, MIT.
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About Broad Institute, Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Satellite Bio: Satellite Bio specializes in cell therapy, regenerative medicine, synthetic biology, cell biology, and tissue engineering.
Wei Wu
Co-Founder and Chief Data Science Officer of Alto Neuroscience
Wei Wu, PhD, is a biomedical engineer and former Instructor at Stanford who has deep expertise in electroencephalogram (EEG) signal processing and artificial intelligence (AI). He is the inventor of the AI methods that have provided breakthrough insights into treatment-relevant brain biomarker signatures, as part of his long-standing Stanford collaboration with Amit Etkin. He has built out Alto’s AI infrastructure and drives its algorithm development. Wei received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Tsinghua University and was a researcher with the Neuroscience Statistics Lab in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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About Alto Neuroscience: Alto Neuroscience is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that creates precision medicines through its AI-driven biomarker platform.
Amit Etkin
Founder and CEO of Alto Neuroscience
Amit Etkin, MD, PhD, is a trained psychiatrist, neuroscientist and has been on the Stanford faculty since 2010. As a tenured Professor, he became an international leader in the neuroscience of psychiatric disorders and their treatments. In recognition of the influence of his ideas and work, Amit received the Director’s Pioneer Award; the most competitive and prestigious NIH grant and the first one given in clinical psychiatry. He has also consistently ranked in the top 0.1% of researchers by citations. Amit brings broad-based scientific and programmatic leadership and a compelling vision for connecting scientific discoveries to pragmatic clinical and business goals. He has a proven track record of success, with publications in high-impact journals, raising extensive public and private funding, and managing a large and diverse team of scientists, clinicians, and engineers towards a shared scientific vision. He received his MD/PhD at Columbia University with Nobel laureate Eric Kandel, completed his psychiatry residency and concurrent postdoc at Stanford University with Alan Schatzberg.
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About Alto Neuroscience: Alto Neuroscience is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that creates precision medicines through its AI-driven biomarker platform.
Aya Jakobovits
Founder and Board Member of Adicet Bio
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About Adicet Bio: Adicet Bio is a biotechnology company that designs and develops of off-the-shelf allogeneic gamma delta T cell therapies.
Rolf Ehrhardt
Co-Founder , President and Chief Executive Officer of BioCision
Dr. Rolf Ehrhardt co-founded BioCision in 2007, after more than 25 years of experience in leadership and innovation in medical research and product development. Prior to growing BioCision into the leading provider of temperature-sensitive sample and drug handling solutions, he was responsible for the early (phase 1a) clinical development of a novel HCV protease inhibitor at Intermune. Before that, Dr. Ehrhardt was the vice president of preclinical development at Corgentech. He was the founding president of BioSeek, where he raised close to $20 million in private financing. Prior to founding BioSeek, Dr. Ehrhardt led a scientific group focused on new target discovery and immuno-therapeutics development at Protein Design Labs (now PDL BioPharma Inc.). Dr. Ehrhardt was a Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG: German Research Foundation) and Fogarty Fellow at the National Institutes of Health, where his focus was on mucosal immunology and inflammatory bowel disease. He has authored more than 40 peer reviewed publications and holds multiple patents. Dr. Ehrhardt earned his M.D. and Ph.D. with distinction from the Technical University of Munich, Germany.
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About BioCision: BioCision develops laboratory tools to standardize pre-analytical sample handling, cryopreservation, and storage.
Shak Lakhani
CEO & Co-Founder of Avro
Shak Lakhani is the CEO and Co-founder of Avro Life Science, a biotech startup developing skin patches for drug delivery. He developed the first iterations of Avro’s novel drug-delivering polymers and now leads business development and day-to-day operations. He began his research career at the age of 15, spending his summers and after school hours working in the McGuigan Lab for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine at the University of Toronto before founding Avro during his studies in nanotechnology engineering at the University of Waterloo. Shak is an alumni of Y-Combinator, the Creative Destruction Lab and the Bayer Grants4Apps program.
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About Avro: Avro Life Science is developing skin patches for generic drug delivery, focusing on therapeutics for children and the elderly.
Jonathan Zhao
Co-Founder and Chairman of Hangzhou Just Biotherapeutics (Just China)
Asia strategy across small molecule, biologics and vaccine. He had also served as the interim head of Pfizer’s Bio-enhancement Development Unit during 2009-2010 in charge of the biosimilar and biobetter strategy development and business operation. Dr. Zhao received his B.S. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Fudan University (Shanghai, China), PhD. magna cum laude in Analytical Chemistry from Ghent University (Ghent, Belgium), and MBA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, USA). He has contributed more than 30 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters.
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About Hangzhou Just Biotherapeutics (Just China), Transcenta: Hangzhou Just Biotherapeutics is a comprehensive high-tech design company.
Chaitan S. Khosla
Founder of Sitari Pharmaceuticals
Dr. Chaitan Khosla is a Professor of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and by courtesy, Biochemistry at Stanford University. His research is focused on two premises, understanding the mechanistic logic line of polyketide synthases for the purpose of engineering novel antibiotics, and the second is focused on the biochemistry of celiac disease particularly involving tissue transglutaminase 2. Dr. Khosla received his B. Tech in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology and his PhD degree at the California Institute of Technology with Professor Jay Bailey studying the expression of the Vitreoscilla Hemoglobin gene. He then went on to finish his postdoctoral work at the John Innes Centre with Prof. David Hopwood. Prof. Khosla has spent his entire academic career at Stanford University. Dr. Khosla has been the recipient for numerous awards including the Alan T. Waterman Award, the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry, the ACS Pure Chemistry Award, and more recently, the James E. Bailey Award. He is an honored member of the National Academy of Engineering and the recipient of a Distinguished Alumni Award from the California Institute of Technology.
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About Alvine Pharmaceuticals, Sitari Pharmaceuticals, Stanford University: Sitari Pharmaceuticals is a biotechnology company developing treatments for multiple disease indications.
Michael Shpigelmacher
CEO and Co-Founder of Bionaut Labs
Michael Shpigelmacher is the CEO and co-founder of Bionaut Labs.
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About Bionaut Labs: Bionaut Labs revolutionizes the treatment of central nervous system disorders with its precision medicine treatment modality.
Khatija Ali
Founder & CEO of BioSapien
CEO, Entrepreneur, MD, Scientist, Inventor.
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About BioSapien: BioSapien is a biotech startup focusing on developing a 3D printed drug delivery platform to provide FDA approved drugs.
Marshall Schreeder
Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder of Conversant Bio
Marshall is the co-founder of Conversant Bio. Prior to Conversant Bio, Marshall was the Managing Partner of Blue Ridge Advisors, a boutique consulting firm that provided strategic advisory services to commercial and non-profit healthcare organizations in North Alabama. Marshall also worked for several years with Wachovia Bank’s private equity and leveraged finance groups where he funded buyout, recapitalization and expansion opportunities for healthcare, media and telecommunication companies. Marshall has extensive experience structuring senior and mezzanine debt, high yield bond and equity financing. Marshall has a BS in Business and Accounting from Washington and Lee University. Marshall serves on the board of directors of Conversant Bio, Randolph School, and Upcaret^Partners (an entrepreneurial advisory firm).
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About Conversant Bio, Discovery Life Sciences: Conversant Bio serves as a trusted partner to many of the top biotech and pharma groups.
Vivek Ramaswamy
Founder & Executive Chairman of Roivant Sciences
Vivek Ramaswamy is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Roivant Sciences. Roivant advances the development and delivery of important medicines in disease areas where the magnitude of R&D investment from industry is disproportionately low relative to societal needs. Roivant also builds technology-focused subsidiaries focused on improving the process of developing and commercializing medicines. Roivant and its family of companies employ over 900 professionals today. Mr. Ramaswamy graduated summa cum laude in Biology from Harvard University in 2007 and began his career as a successful biotech investor where he oversaw investment in numerous companies, including those that helped develop curative treatment regimens for hepatitis C virus. He continued to work as an investor while earning his law degree from Yale Law School, where he was a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow.
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About Roivant Sciences: Roivant Sciences is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of medicines and healthcare technologies to patients.
James Peyer
CEO & Founder of Cambrian Biopharma
James Peyer is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Cambrian Biopharma. James was previously Founder and Managing Partner at Apollo Ventures, the first global longevity-focused venture capital firm, investing across the US and Europe. He led investments in Cleara Biotech, Aeovian Pharmaceuticals, and Samsara Therapeutics, and served on the Board and/or in executive roles for all three companies. James has led companies that have raised over $100M. He serves on the board of Sensei Biotherapeutics, Vineyard Therapeutics, and several more stealth-mode companies. Prior to Apollo, James was a consultant at the New York office of McKinsey & Company, serving major pharmaceutical clients. He earned his PhD in stem cell biology at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center as a National Science Foundation Fellow and received his B.A. with special honors from the University of Chicago.
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About Cambrian Biopharma, Samsara Therapeutics: Cambrian is a distributed development company building therapeutics to lengthen health span.
David Hysong
Founder, Patient & Chairman of SHEPHERD Therapeutics
SHEPHERD is a biotechnology company that develops novel therapeutic candidates for a portfolio of rare cancers. SHEPHERD is also a development partner to other biopharma companies looking to develop their assets in rare cancers. Via SHEPHERD’s in-house capabilities and A.I. platform, DELVE, SHEPHERD can help match any drug with the rare cancers in which it will be most effective.
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About Forbes, SHEPHERD Therapeutics, SHEPHERD Therapeutics, The Aspen Institute: SHEPHERD Therapeutics specializes in finding cure to rare cancers.
John Cumbers
Founder & Executive President of SynBioBeta
John Cumbers is the founder of SynBioBeta, an activity hub for synthetic biology startup companies, industry and investors. He received his PhD in Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry from Brown University. He has a masters degree in bioinformatics from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and an undergraduate degree in computer science from the University of Hull in England. He founded the iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machines competition) team at Brown University in 2005, was an iGEM ambassador to China in 2006/2007 and has been working in the field of synthetic biology and resource utilization in space at NASA Ames since 2008. John led the Planetary Sustainability Collaboratory at the NASA Ames Space Portal where he worked on partnerships that bring new technologies to bear on sustainability challenges on Earth and in space. In 2010, John was the recipient of a National Academies Keck Futures Initiative award to understand the role that synthetic biology could play in NASA’s missions. He has also been involved in multiple start-ups producing food for space and using microbes to extract lunar and martian resources. He was at NASA for 7 years working on these issues and was instrumental in starting NASA’s program in synthetic biology. Thought leader, and community builder, and consultant for both the public and private sector, John is passionate about using biotechnology to make a better world through sustainable technologies. As an authority on the topic, John has built communities in the space synthetic biology arena, published multiple papers on food production in space, terraforming, and the genetics of extremophiles. Constantly educating and connecting those around him, John is a person to know in the industry. His company, SynBioBeta, brings together the entire community together several times each year and gives anyone the opportunity to meet with the bright minds building and shaping the bioeconomy — from venture capitalists and angel investors to entrepreneurs and industry thought leaders.
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About SynBioBeta: Leading community of innovators, investors, engineers, and thinkers who share a passion for advancing synthetic biology
Lev Becker
Co-Founder of Onchilles Pharma
Lev Becker is the Co-Founder of Onchilles Pharma & rMark Bio and also an Associate Professor at the University of Chicago.
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About Onchilles Pharma, rMark Bio, University of Chicago: Onchilles Pharma is a biotechnology company developing first-in-class biologics therapies for the treatment of cancer.
William Rastetter
Co-Founder of Receptos
William Rastetter has been a director and has served as Chairman of the Board since May 2009, and from May 2009 to November 2010 he was our Acting Chief Executive Officer. He is a Co-Founder of Receptos, Inc. William served as a Partner at the venture capital firm of Venrock Associates from 2006 to February 2013. Prior to his tenure with us and Venrock, William was Executive Chairman of Biogen Idec, from the merger of the two companies (Biogen and Idec Pharmaceuticals) in 2003 through the end of 2005. He joined Idec Pharmaceuticals at its founding in 1986 and served as Chairman and CEO. Prior to Idec, he was Director of Corporate Ventures at Genentech, Inc. and served as well in a scientific capacity at Genentech. William also serves as the Chairman of Illumina, Inc., Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc. and Fate Therapeutics Inc. and as a director of Regulus Therapeutics, Inc. He also serves as the lead outside director for Cerulean and an advisor to Leerink Partners, a healthcare focused investment bank. William held various faculty positions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University and is an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow. William holds a B.S. in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard University.
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About Receptos: Receptos focuses on the discovery, development and commercialization of various therapeutics for immune disorders.
Stelios Tzannis
Founder and COO of Aeovian Pharmaceuticals
Stelios Tzannis is the Founder and COO of Aeovian Pharmaceuticals.
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About Aeovian Pharmaceuticals, Delos Pharmaceuticals: Aeovian Pharmaceuticals aims to discover, develop, and commercialize therapeutics for the treatment of rare and age-related diseases.
Michael Demurjian
Manager, Founder, Chairman & CEO of Aspargo Laboratories
Michael Demurjian is a Manager, Founder, Chairman & CEO of Aspargo Laboratories. He is a successful biotech entrepreneur who has founded and successfully built several technology companies; co-founder of Tyme Inc. (Nasdaq: TYME) a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing metabolic-based cancer therapeutics.
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About Aspargo Laboratories: Aspargo Laboratories commercialize the rights of an oral suspension spray formulation of erectile dysfunction medication Sildenafil citrate.
Suma Krishnan
Founder & Chief Operating Officer of Krystal Biotech
Suma Krishnan is the Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Krystal Biotech. She earned a degree of Master of Science in Organic Chemistry from Villanova University.
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About Krystal Biotech, Light Matters Foundation: Krystal Biotech provide significant clinical benefit for patients suffering from rare debilitating disorders..
Mark A. Emalfarb
Founder, Chairman & CEO of Dyadic International
Mark A. Emalfarb is the founder of Dyadic. He has been a member of Dyadic’s board of directors since October 2004, served as its Chairman from October 2004 until April 2007 and from June 2008 until January 2015 and has served as President and Chief Executive Officer from October 2004 until April 2007 and from June 2008 until the present. Since founding Dyadic in 1979, Mr. Emalfarb has successfully led and managed the evolution of Dyadic from its origins as a pioneer and leader in providing ingredients used in the stone-washing of blue jeans to the discovery, development, manufacturing and commercialization of specialty enzymes used in various industrial applications and the development of an integrated technology platform based on Dyadic’s patented and proprietary C1 fungal microorganism. Mr. Emalfarb is an inventor of over 25 U.S. and foreign biotechnology patents and patent applications resulting from discoveries related to the Company’s patented and proprietary C1 fungus, and has been the architect behind its formation of several strategic research and development, manufacturing and marketing relationships with U.S. and international partners. Mr. Emalfarb earned his B.A. degree from the University of Iowa in 1977.
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About Dyadic International: Dyadic International is a biotechnology company, developing and manufacturing bio-based chemicals.
Feng Zhang
Co-Founder of Arbor Biotechnologies
Feng Zhang joined the Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard as a core member in 2011. Dr. Zhang is also an investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT and an assistant professor at MIT with a joint appointment in the departments of brain and cognitive sciences and biological engineering. As a student, he played a major role in the development of optogenetics, a technology that allows the brain’s electrical activity to be controlled with light-sensitive proteins. He is now working to extend this molecular engineering approach to other aspects of brain function, such as gene expression, and to develop new approaches to understanding and eventually treating brain diseases. Dr. Zhang is a Searle Scholar and has received both a Director’s Transformative Research Award and a Directors’ Pioneer Award from the National Institutes of Health. In 2012, he shared the UNC/Perl Prize for his role in the development of optogenetics. Feng Zhang a Co-Founder at Arbor Biotechnologies. Dr. Zhang holds an A.B. in chemistry and physics from Harvard College and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Stanford University.
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About Arbor Biotechnologies, Beam Therapeutics, Editas Medicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sherlock Biosciences: Arbor Biotechnologies is an operator of a bio-discovery company intended to provide human diagnostic development services.
David R. Walt
Co-Founder of Arbor Biotechnologies
David is Professor in the Department of Pathology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, and is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor. David is the Scientific Founder of Illumina Inc. and Quanterix Corp and has co-founded several other life sciences startups. David has published over 300 peer-reviewed papers and has over 75 issued US patents. He has received numerous national and international awards and honors for his fundamental and applied work in the field of optical microwell arrays and single molecules including the American Chemical Society Kathryn C. Hach Award for Entrepreneurial Success, Ralph Adams Award in Bioanalytical Chemistry, the American Chemical Society Gustavus John Esselen Award, Analytical Chemistry Spectrochemical Analysis Award, the Pittsburgh Analytical Chemistry Award, and the ACS National Award for Creative Invention. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. He received a BS in Chemistry from the University of Michigan and a PhD in Chemical Biology from SUNY at Stony Brook, and did postdoctoral studies at MIT.
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About Arbor Biotechnologies, Illumina, Quanterix, Sherlock Biosciences, Torus Biosystems, Ultivue: Arbor Biotechnologies is an operator of a bio-discovery company intended to provide human diagnostic development services.
Winston Yan
Co-Founder of Arbor Biotechnologies
Winston is a biotechnologist discovering and developing applications for novel molecular technologies. Prior to co-founding Arbor, Winston worked in the laboratory of Feng Zhang at MIT and the Broad Institute, where he focused on addressing challenges that limit the in vivo therapeutic applications of CRISPR-Cas nucleases. This included developing smaller orthologs of Cas9 for better packaging into the most therapeutically promising viral vectors for gene therapy, building assays that enhance off-target detection to evaluate the genomic safety of CRISPR-Cas enzymes, and additionally searching for new enzyme systems to power genome engineering capabilities beyond nucleases. Winston graduated magna cum laude with a BS in Physics from Harvard College, and PhD in Biophysics from Harvard University as a part of the Harvard-MIT MD/PhD program. Recognition for his research and entrepreneurship has included the Sir Peter Mansfield Research Fellowship, Herchel Smith Undergraduate Research Fellowship, Olken Brothers’ Award for Entrepreneurial Spirit, Harvard I3 Innovation Challenge Winner, Micron Science & Technology Scholarship Top Awardee, and the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship.
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About Arbor Biotechnologies: Arbor Biotechnologies is an operator of a bio-discovery company intended to provide human diagnostic development services.
David Scott
Co-Founder, Head of Innovation of Arbor Biotechnologies
David works at the intersection of computer science and biology, leveraging emerging data streams to create exciting new biotechnologies. Prior to co-founding Arbor, David completed his PhD in the laboratory of Feng Zhang at MIT and the Broad Institute, where he contributed to the early development of CRISPR-Cas systems for mammalian genome editing applications. As part of this work, David created experimental and computational techniques to enhance the precision of CRISPR-Cas applications and discover novel CRISPR gene editing systems. David is the recipient of the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the Henry E. Singleton Fellowship, and the Angus MacDonald Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. He received his BS in Cognitive Science from the University of California San Diego, where he co-authored several research studies illuminating the early progression of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.
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About Arbor Biotechnologies: Arbor Biotechnologies is an operator of a bio-discovery company intended to provide human diagnostic development services.
David Sabatini
Founder of KSQ Therapeutics
David Sabatini is a Member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, and he is Senior Associate Member at the Broad Institute, Member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, and a Professor of Biology, all with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. David and his lab at the Whitehead Institute study the basic mechanisms that regulate growth, the processes whereby cells and organisms accumulate mass and increase in size, as well as the role of metabolism in cancer and in the mechanisms that control the effects of dietary restriction on tumorigenesis.
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About Broad Institute, KSQ Therapeutics, Navitor Pharmaceuticals, Raze Therapeutics, The Howard Hughes Medical Institute: KSQ Therapeutics is using CRISPR technology within a powerful drug discovery engine to enable high-confidence drug development.
R. Jude Samulski
President, Chief Scientific Officer & Co-Founder of Asklepios BioPharmaceutical
Richard Samulski, Ph.D. serves as the President of Chatham Therapeutics LLC. Samulski has been Scientific Co-Founder of Asklepios Biopharmaceutical, Inc. since 2003 and served as its Chief Executive Officer. In 1993, Samulski co-founded an AAV-based gene therapy company Merlin. He also co-founded Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation in 1999. He also serves as a gene therapy consultant to the FDA. Through the UNC gene therapy center, Samulski has produced within an academic setting an FDA approved AAV clinical vector used to treat children with the neurological disorder of Canavan’s disease. He serves as Professor of Pharmacology of The University of North Carolina. Samulski served at AAV for 25 years. Samulski has been Director of the University of North Carolina Gene Therapy Center for eight years. He serves as a Member of Scientific Advisory Board of Ceregene, Inc. He served at AAV biology as a Member of the scientific advisory board of Avigen, a new AAV research company. Samulski has over 20 patents filed or issued in the area of AAV vectors. Samulski served as a Member of the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC), a committee tasked with assisting the FDA with approving or disapproving gene therapy clinical trials in the United States. Samulski is a recipient of the President’s Distinguished Research Award from the University of Pittsburgh. He completed Post-Doctoral training at Princeton. Samulski’s graduate work (1978-82) demonstrated the first use of AAV as a viral vector and culminated in the first US patent involving non-AAV genes inserted into AAV. Samulski received his PhD in Medical Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Florida and his research focuses on the study of the dependent parvovirus adeno-associated virus (AAV)
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About Applied Genetics Technologies Corporation, Asklepios BioPharmaceutical, U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Asklepios BioPharmaceutical is a biotechnology company developing adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapies for genetic disorders.
Andrew Mazar
Co-Founder and Executive Vice President, Research and Development, and Chief Scientific Officer of Monopar
Andrew Mazar, Ph.D. is the Founder and Head of Product Development at Lung Therapeutics, Inc. Andrew serves as Head of Product Development in addition to his current position as Director of the Center for Developmental Therapeutics and Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Northwestern University. Andrew is recognized internationally for his work on the urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) system and its role in tumor progression. In addition to his research work on the uPA system, Andrew is a veteran of drug discovery having led various oncology drugs from basic research through phase II clinical trials. Prior to Tactic Pharmaceuticals, Andrew was Chief Scientific Officer at Attenuon, where he led the development of three drug projects from discovery into human clinical trials. Andrew was also the Vice President of Biology at Ångstrom Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he discovered the anti-angiogenic peptide Å6, which is currently being evaluated in phase II trials in oncology. Andrew also discovered a novel uPA receptor-targeting peptide Å17, which was licensed to Diatide/Schering AG. Prior to Ångstrom, Andrew spent over seven years at Abbott Laboratories, where he initiated two anti-angiogenesis pilot projects and was involved in the pre-clinicaldevelopment of two biologic agents that went through Phase III trials. Andrew is also the co-inventor on twelve issued patents, forty pending patent applications, ninety-six full publications in refereed scientific journals, and eight book chapters including reviews on the uPA system, mouse tumor models and the therapeutic targeting of cancer. Andrew received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Illinois College of Medicine.
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About Actuate Therapeutics, Lung Therapeutics, Monopar, Northwestern University, Tactic Pharma LLC: Monopar Therapeutics is an emerging biopharmaceutical company focused on developing orphan oncology compounds.
Chandler Robinson
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Monopar
Chandler D. Robinson, MD MBA MSc Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Robinson, in 2010, co-founded and was CEO of Tactic Pharma. He helped lead Tactic through a successful sale of its lead compound. His passion is leveraging his interests in medicine, science, and finance to help bring new therapeutics to patients. The compound Dr. Robinson researched at Northwestern University as an undergraduate, and published on in Science, is currently entering a Phase III clinical trial for Wilson Disease. Among his previous experiences, Dr. Robinson in 2008 worked at Onyx Pharmaceuticals in their Nexavar marketing division, from 2008-2009 as a co-manager of a healthcare clinic in San Jose CA, from 2004 to present as Founder and President of an undergraduate research focused non-profit, and from 2006 to 2007 at Bear Stearns investment bank. He was previously on the board of Wilson Therapeutics, and is currently on the board of Northwestern University’s Chemistry of Life Processes Institute. Dr. Robinson graduated summa cum laude from Northwestern University, earned a master’s degree in International Health Policy and Health Economics from the London School of Economics on a Fulbright Scholarship, an MBA from Cambridge University on a Gates Scholarship, and an MD from Stanford University.
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About Monopar: Monopar Therapeutics is an emerging biopharmaceutical company focused on developing orphan oncology compounds.
Kal Patel
CEO & Co-Founder of BrightInsight
Kal previously was the founder and head of Digital Health for Amgen, an industry leading biotech company. Kal also served as the Global Marketing Lead for Enbrel, with over $4 billion in annual sales. Kal started his career in the Chicago office of the Boston Consulting Group where he was also part of the prestigious Ambassador Program serving Eastern European markets. Kal completed his M.D., MBA and an undergraduate economics degree at the University of Chicago. Kal is an avid fan of the Chicago Cubs and the band U2. He lives outside Los Angeles with his wife and two young daughters.
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About BrightInsight: BrightInsight offers a global regulated digital health platform for biopharma and medtech.
Ferry Tamtoro
CTO & Co-Founder of BrightInsight
Ferry Tamtoro has over 17 years of experience in healthcare technology and digital health within the pharmaceutical and medical devices industries. Ferry has launched multiple digital health solutions, including Class 1, 2, and 3 regulated devices and combination products offering improved medication adherence and patient engagement, remote patient monitoring, medical IoT, diagnostic imaging, remote device management, and patient-provider communications. Products that Ferry has worked on include cloud-based medical-grade platforms, mobile medical apps, connected drug delivery devices, patch pumps, diagnostic imaging devices (CT, PET, and X-Ray), infusion systems software, and population health management solutions. Combining an entrepreneurial and corporate innovation background, Ferry is committed to bringing agile product development to customers in the regulated pharmaceutical and medical devices industries. Ferry holds an MBA from Kellogg School of Management and a BS in Electrical Engineering from University of Wisconsin-Madison. He holds four patents in the area of healthcare technology.
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About BrightInsight: BrightInsight offers a global regulated digital health platform for biopharma and medtech.
Benjamin Lee
Co-Founder & VP, Head of Engineering & Data Science of BrightInsight
As Head of Data Architecture & Analytics, Ben Lee leads data strategy and architecture, developing BrightInsight’s key data assets, user insights, proprietary machine learning and predictive algorithms. Ben brings over eighteen years of experience working in data sciences and advanced analytics within the healthcare & consumer technologies industries. Before joining BrightInsight, Ben led the enterprise data analytics team at Doctor on Demand and was head of the data sciences team at Amgen Digital Health where he developed the data architecture, analytics framework and machine learning algorithms for key Digital Health initiatives, including connected drug delivery devices and medical grade apps. Ben has held leadership positions in commercial analytics, customer insights, payor analytics, and market research in large pharma companies including GSK, Takeda and Abbott. He has also co-founded two startup companies in consumer technologies where he developed full-stack big data and machine learning solutions to drive personalized user engagement. Ben holds a BS in Chemistry from Peking University, a MS in Applied Statistics from the Ohio State University and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management.
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About BrightInsight: BrightInsight offers a global regulated digital health platform for biopharma and medtech.
Lieza Danan
Founder & CEO of LiVeritas Biosciences
Lieza Danan PhD, is a San Francisco Bay Area-based serial biotech entrepreneur who has had Zero to One (Intervenn) and Unicorn (Stemcentrx) biotech startup experience. As Co-Founder & CEO/COO/CSO at Intervenn, she raised $9.4M for Seed to Series A. Subsequently, Genoa Ventures recruited Dr. Danan to reposition its portfolio company, Intabio, for a Series B raise of $18M. Additionally, Dr. Danan has in-house operations expertise as Head of Mass Spectrometry at Stemcentrx. From a technical standpoint, she has 20+ years in the field of mass spectrometry. From the biopharma industry perspective, she applied her mass spec expertise for 10 years working for 6 biopharma, biotech and startup companies with different business models: (1) Outsourcing of cGMP analytical tests at Eurofins Lancaster Labs Inc (ELLI) catering to the needs of over 20 biopharma clients; (2) In-sourcing solutions initiation and expansion of Eurofins LLI scientific talent on-site at client Genentech South San Francisco (4 departments in early- and late-stage drug development); (3) Early stage drug development at Sutro Biopharma (IPO, 2018); (4) End-to-end drug development at Stemcentrx ($5.6Bn Acquisition, 2016, Abbvie); (5) Co-founded glycoproteomics-focused biomarker discovery for Rx target discovery at CDx companion diagnostics at Intervenn Biosciences (Series C, $201M); (6) Strategic advisor and technical consultant to device/instrumentation focused Intabio (Series B, $18M; Acquisition, Jan 2021, Sciex). She received her Bachelors in Science degree in Chemistry at the Ateneo De Manila University in the Philippines, and her Doctorate in Philosophy in Biological Chemistry at the University of California Davis. Prior to attending graduate school at UC Davis, Dr. Danan created and managed her first high-throughput analytical operations laboratory with a team of three analysts at the National Chemistry Instrumentation Center, Philippines, following US EPA regulatory guidelines for trace analysis of environmental pollutants. The round-the-clock operations supported the needs of a local environmental toxicology project in collaboration with and funded by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (Boston, MA).
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About LiVeritas Biosciences: Committed to Truth-telling for Early Success in Drug Development
Neil Desai
Founder, CEO and President of Aadi Bioscience
Neil is the Founder of Aadi Bioscience, Inc. He was former SVP, Global R&D, Abraxis Bioscience; VP, Strategic Platforms, Celgene Corp; Inventor of the nab® technology, Abraxane® and ABI-009. He successfully led the Abraxane team through all development stages. He has over 25 years of experience in novel therapeutic delivery systems with over 100 issued patents, over 40 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, and over 200 presentations at scientific meetings. He is an active participant in FDA and EU Nanotechnology initiatives and a member of the Steering Committee for the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer. He holds board and advisory positions in various start-ups. He holds a M.S and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, USA, and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University Institute of Chemical Technology in Mumbai, India.
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About Aadi Bioscience: Aadi Bioscience develops a potentially mTOR inhibitor for targeted patient populations in oncology and cardiovascular diseases.
Alexis Rovner
Co-Founder & CEO of 64x Bio
Alexis Rovner founded 64-x on August 22, 2017, with George Church, Jeffrey Way, and Pamela Silver, and she serves as its CEO.
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About 64x Bio: 64x Bio builds a platform that increases the speed and scale of mammalian cell line discovery.
Pamela Silver
Founder/Scientific Advisor of 64x Bio
Dr. Silver is Professor of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School. Previously she held academic positions at Princeton University and The Dana Farber Cancer Institute. She has made important contributions in the areas of cell biology, cancer and genome organization. Dr. Silver has published seminal papers on the biology of nuclear transport, and has discovered novel nuclear export inhibitors directed at Crm1 and other pathways.
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About 64x Bio, Harvard Medical School: 64x Bio builds a platform that increases the speed and scale of mammalian cell line discovery.
Jeffrey Way
Founder/Scientific Advisor of 64x Bio
Jeffrey Way founded 64-x on August 22, 2017, with George Church, Alexis Rovner and Pamela Silver.
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About 64x Bio: 64x Bio builds a platform that increases the speed and scale of mammalian cell line discovery.
Jie Fan
Founder and CEO of AccutarBio
Dr. Fan was trained at UC, Berkeley in Biostatistics and obtained his Doctor degree from Cornell/Sloan-kettering in structural biology/Immunology. He was further trained by Dr. Gunter Blobel at Rockefeller University. With a dream of using a hybrid approach (by combining computation design and experimental validation) to accelerate drug discovery, and to reform current “hit-2-lead” drug discovery scheme, Dr. Fan founded Accutar biotech with the support of Dr. Gunter Blobel. Dr. Fan also hold a joint appointment at SUNY, Downstate medical school as a research assistant professor.
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About AccutarBio: AccutarBio employs artificial intelligence to revolutionize drug discovery.
Melanie Matheu
CO-Founder & CEO of Prellis Biologics
Matheu co-founded Prellis Biologics in October 2016, with the mission to create fully vascularized human tissues and organs for transplantation. Her realization that the tiny blood vessels necessary for creating human organs could be replicated using the laser technology at the center of her PhD thesis work, led to development of the blended engineering and biology approach Prellis is using to solve the human organ shortage. Dr. Matheu is an expert in laser-based imaging of the immune system and developed Prellis’ platform technology. She brings her multi-disciplinary experience in specialized laser microscopy, cell biology, physiology, and biophysics to address the unsolved biomedical challenge of rapid 3D printing of large, vascularized tissues.
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About Prellis Biologics: Prellis employs holographic tissue printing technology with rapid fully human antibody discovery, in vitro human disease and ADME/Tox models
John Richard
Head of Corporate Development & Co-Founder of Mereo Biopharma
John is based in Atlanta, Georgia USA and has worked with the team for twelve years. John assists with strategic and commercial diligence activities and has represented Phase4 Partners on the board of Targacept, Altus and Immgenics (acquired by Abgenix) and currently represents Phase4 Partners on the board of Zosano. John is also Senior Business Advisor at Phase4 Partners’ portfolio companies, Albireo and Nabriva. As well as John’s role at Phase4 Partners, he is also a partner with Georgia Venture Partners, a seed stage venture company investing in Georgia biosciences. He was previously at SEQUUS where he was responsible for negotiating the acquisition of the company by ALZA (a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson) and he was the CEO and co-founder of Impath Inc., which became part of Genzyme. John received his MBA from Harvard and his BS from Stanford.
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About Mereo Biopharma: Mereo is a new UK-based speciality biopharmaceutical company.
Steven McCloskey
Founder and CEO of Nanome
Steven McCloskey is Founder and CEO at Nanome Inc.
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About Nanome: Nanome is a virtual reality software company that offers a collaborative XR software platform for molecular design.
Mark Baum
Founder of Eton Pharmaceuticals
Mark L. Baum is the founder of and serves as the CEO of Harrow Health, Inc. (NASDAQ: HROW). For the 2014-2017 periods, Harrow (formerly Imprimis Pharmaceuticals) was named by Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500™ as one of the fastest growing companies in North America. Mr. Baum is also a founder of Eton Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ETON), as well as a founder and board member of Surface Ophthalmics, Melt Pharmaceuticals, and Visionology.com. From 2014-2017, Mr. Baum was a senior advisor to Curology.com, a leading tele-dermatology platform. Prior to Harrow, as the founder of TBLF, LLC, a private investment fund manager, Mr. Baum made more than 200 investments into more than 40 private and public companies. In 1999, Mr. Baum founded YesRx, an HIV-focused pharmacy business. Mr. Baum’s advocacy for drug pricing and patient and physician prescription medication accessibility issues has been featured in Op-Ed contributions for the Wall Street Journal and through appearances on numerous national media outlets. Mr. Baum was named by Ernst & Young LLP as the 2017 Entrepreneur of the Year™ in the life sciences category for the San Diego region. Mr. Baum is a graduate, cum laude, of The University of Texas at Arlington and a 1997 graduate of California Western School of Law.
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About Endra, Eton Pharmaceuticals, Harrow Health, Ideal Power, Surface Ophthalmics, Surface Ophthalmics, Surface Pharmaceuticals: Eton Pharmaceuticals develops proprietary formulations of approved molecules in ways that offer improvements for patients and physicians.
Peder Sande
Co-Founder of Ella Biomedical
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About Ella Biomedical, Lululemon: Ella is bringing mindfulness programs online to manage your pain.
Ronald R. Zimmerman
Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PLx Pharma
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About MediGen Group, PLx Pharma: PLx Pharma develops and commercializes non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for prescription and over-the-counter markets.
Lenard M. Lichtenberger
Scientific Founder of PLx Pharma
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About PLx Pharma, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston: PLx Pharma develops and commercializes non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for prescription and over-the-counter markets.
Jay Mei
CEO & Founder of Antengene Corporation
Jay Mei is the founder, chairman and CEO of Antengene. Prior to founding the company, Dr. Mei has more than twenty years of cancer research and drug development experience, and worked at the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) as well as several multi-national pharmaceutical companies, including Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical R&D (J&JPRD), Novartis Oncology and Celgene Corporation. As an Executive Director of Clinical Development at Celgene Corporation, Dr. Mei successfully led the development of REVLIMID® (lenalidomide) in China. REVLIMID® received CFDA approval and was launched in China in 2013. Outside the China market, Dr. Mei was responsible for the clinical trials of REVLIMID® in more than 30 countries. He was also the clinical lead at Celgene on IDHIFA® (enasidenib) which received the FDA approval for relapsed or refractory AML. Before joining Celgene in 2008, Dr. Mei served in multiple clinical development roles at J&JPRD and Novartis Oncology. Prior to industry, Dr. Mei spent eight years on cancer and clinical research at the NCI. Over more than twenty years of his career in academia and industry, Dr. Mei has been an author on over 70 publications and holds multiple patents.
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About Antengene Corporation: Antengene is a developer of biotechnology and bio-pharmaceuticals intended to provide medicine treatment for tumor.
Cosmas Lykos
Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Skye Bioscience
Cosmas Lykos co-founded Nemus in 2012 and has served as its Chairman of the Board of Directors since August 2014 as well as a strategic advisor since inception. After graduating with Honors from Duke University School of Law in 1993, Cosmas Lykos began his career at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, LLP, an international full-service law firm, as a corporate associate until 1998. From 1998 to 2004, Cosmas Lykos served as Vice President of Business Affairs, General Counsel, Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer of RemedyTemp, Inc., a NASDAQ publicly-traded temporary staffing firm with over 250 directly-owned and franchised offices nationwide. From 2004 until 2008, Cosmas Lykos served as Vice President of Business Development, Chief Legal Officer, Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer of Oakley, Inc., a NYSE publicly-traded sports and technical eyewear, apparel, accessories and retail company. In January of 2008, he became Co-owner and President of the Optical Shop International, a designer and distributor of licensed eyewear brands, including Chrome Hearts and Blinde, through two wholly-owned foreign subsidiaries with a direct and distributor sales network in over 60 countries around the world. Primary responsibilities included developing and implementing OSI’s vision and strategies and the management of its foreign subsidiaries, sales, legal, human resources, finance and administrative functions. In January 2011, Cosmas Lykos negotiated and consummated the sale of OSI to its primary licensor, Chrome Hearts LLC. From January 2011 through present day, Cosmas Lykos has been engaged to provide management and legal advisory services to Chrome Hearts Eyewear LLC and Chrome Hearts LLC. Cosmas Lykos has extensive public and private company board of directors experience. As Chief Compliance and Legal Officer and Secretary of both Oakley, Inc. and RemedyTemp, Inc., Cosmas Lykos attended all board of director meetings and board committee meetings. As an angel investor, Cosmas Lykos has made minority investments in various private companies and has served on their Board of Directors including Dragon Alliance, LLC, a youth lifestyle action sports brand selling eyewear, goggles and apparel in over 40 countries, and Lookmatic.com, an internet e-commerce eyewear company, selling prescription frames and sunglasses direct to consumers.
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About Skye Bioscience: Skye Bioscience is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development, and the commercialization.
David M. Goldenberg
Founder of Immunomedics
Dr. David M. Goldenberg founded Immunomedics in July 1982, and has served continuously since that time as the Chairman of our Board of Directors. He also currently serves as our Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Medical Officer, having been our Chief Strategic Officer from July 2003 to July 2007. Dr. Goldenberg previously served as our Chief Executive Officer from July 1982 through July 1992, from February 1994 through May 1998 and from July 1999 through March 2001. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of IBC Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a subsidiary of Immunomedics. Dr. Goldenberg is a graduate of the University of Chicago College and Division of Biological Sciences (B.S.), the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany) Faculty of Natural Sciences (Sc.D.), and the University of Heidelberg (Germany) School of Medicine (M.D.). He has written or co-authored approximately 1,700 journal articles, book chapters and abstracts on cancer research, detection and treatment, and has researched and written extensively in the area of radioimmunodetection and radioimmunotherapy using radiolabeled antibodies. In addition to his position with Immunomedics, Dr. Goldenberg is President and a Trustee of the Center for Molecular Medicine and Immunology (“CMMI”), an independent non-profit research center, and its clinical unit, the Garden State Cancer Center. In 1985 and again in 1992, Dr. Goldenberg received an “Outstanding Investigator Grant” award from the National Cancer Institute for his work in radioimmunodetection, and in 1986 he received the New Jersey Pride Award in Science and Technology. Dr. Goldenberg was honored as the ninth Herz Lecturer of the Tel Aviv University Faculty of Life Sciences. In addition, he received the 1991 Mayneord 3M Award and Lectureship of the British Institute of Radiology and in 2002, the Elis Bervin Lectureship and Medal from the Swedish Medical Society and the Swedish Oncology Society for his contributions to the development of radiolabeled monoclonal antibodies used in the imaging and treatment of cancer. The International Society for Oncodevelopmental Biology and Medicine named Dr. Goldenberg the co-recipient of the 1994 Abbott Award. In 2005, he received the Paul Aebersold Award from the Society of Nuclear Medicine and was named the Inventor of the Year by the Research and Development Council of New Jersey. Maryann Liebert Inc., publisher of Genetic Engineering News, nominated Dr. Goldenberg in 2006 for the Forbes Enterprise Award for outstanding achievements in the scientific community.
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About Immunomedics: Immunomedics is a biopharmaceutical company that specializes in developing monoclonal antibody-based products for the treatment of cancer.
Peter Thompson
Co-Founder, Chairman, CEO of Silverback Therapeutics
Thompson is currently a Venture Partner with OrbiMed who brings over 20 years of industry experience. He co-founded and was CEO of Trubion Pharmaceuticals and co-founded Cleave BioSciences. In addition to Principia Biopharma, Dr. Thompson serves on the Boards of Cleave BioSciences, Anthera, Methylgene and Response Biomedical. He was an executive of Chiron Corporation and Becton Dickinson. Dr. Thompson is an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awardee, an Affiliate Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Washington, an inventor on numerous patents, and a board-certified internist and oncologist. He was on staff at the National Cancer Institute following his internal medicine training at Yale University. Dr. Thompson received ScB and MD degrees from Brown University.
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About Cleave Therapeutics, OrbiMed, Silverback Therapeutics: Silverback Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company that develops ImmunoTAC therapies targeting previously inaccessible disease pathways.
Cuong Do
Founder & Chairman of M6P Therapeutics
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About BioVie, M6P Therapeutics: M6P Therapeutics develops biotechnology advances for lysosomal storage diseases.
Lan Huang
CEO & Co-Founder of Spring Pharmaceuticals
Dr. Lan Huang, Ph.D., co-founded BeyondSpring Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in 2013 and serves as its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Huang Co-founded BeyondSpring Inc. and has been its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer since November 2014. She has more than a decade of entrepreneurial experience in the Chinese and U.S. biotechnology industry. Prior to founding BeyondSpring, Dr. Huang co-founded Wuxi MTLH Biotechnology Co. Ltd., in 2007, where she served as Chief Executive Officer since 2010 and whose self-designed cancer peptide drug’s China rights were acquired in 2010 by Shanghai Pharmaceutical Group, one of the top three pharmaceutical companies in China. She also co-founded Paramax International in 2008, which was sold to RPS (a global CRO), then to Warburg Pincus in 2011. In 2010, Dr. Huang founded Wanchun Biotech. Her translational research in cancer signaling pathways involving Ras was published in two Nature papers. In addition, Dr. Huang worked with Forward Ventures, where she led partnering initiatives between Forward’s portfolio companies and Chinese pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Huang was trained at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center from 1998 to 2002, where her breakthrough research in solving the first E2-E3 ubiquitin ligase structure involving P53 degradation was published in Science following 10 months of preparation. She serves as Director of Wuxi MTLH Biotechnology Co. Ltd. The immense importance of this field is illustrated by the 2005 award of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to the founders of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation. She has invented and holds patents for a number of biotech products for oncology and dermatology indications. In 2009, she was the recipient of China’s “Thousand Talent Innovator Award.” She received her Ph.D. in Chemistry in four-and-a-half years from the University of California at Berkeley, where she won the graduating Ph.D. woman award from Soroptimist International. Her translational research in cancer signaling pathways involving Ras was published in two Nature papers. Dr. Huang received her B.A., Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Lawrence University, where she served as a trustee from 2012 to 2015. She also studied at Fudan University in Shanghai, China.
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About Spring Pharmaceuticals: Spring Pharmaceuticals is a biotechnology company based in Duncan, South Carolina.
Arnold Levine
Co-Founder of PMV Pharmaceuticals
Arnold J. Levine is currently a Professor Emeritus at The Simons Center for Systems Biology at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and a joint Professor in the Pediatrics and Biochemistry Departments at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey. He received his B.A. in Biology from Harpur College, SUNY and his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He trained as a Postdoctoral Fellow at California Institute of Technology in the laboratory of Robert Sinsheimer. Dr. Levine is a widely acclaimed leader in cancer research. In 1979, Dr. Levine and others discovered the p53 tumor suppressor protein, a molecule that inhibits tumor development. He established the Simons Center for Systems Biology at the Institute for Advanced Study, which concentrates on research at the interface of molecular biology and the physical sciences: on genetics and genomics, polymorphisms and molecular aspects of evolution, signal transduction pathways and networks, stress responses, and pharmacogenomics in cancer biology. Dr. Levine helped shape U.S. science priorities as chairman of an influential 1996 review panel on federal AIDS research funding. He also chaired the National Cancer Advisory Board, which advises the National Academy of Sciences and its Institute of Medicine on cancer policy. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1991 and to its Institute of Medicine in 1995. In April 2001, Levine received the first Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, the largest annual prize in science or medicine offered in the United States. In 1968 Dr. Levine joined Princeton University as an Assistant Professor, becoming a Professor of biochemistry in 1976. In 1979, he moved to the SUNY Stony Brook School of Medicine to Chair the Department of Microbiology. He returned to Princeton in 1984. Between 1984 and 1996, he presided over a major expansion of Princeton’s life sciences programs as Chairman of the Department of Molecular Biology. From 1998 to 2002, Dr. Levine was President of The Rockefeller University.
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About Institute for Advanced Study, PMV Pharmaceuticals: PMV Pharmaceuticals is a developer of p53-targeted small molecule drugs for the treatment of cancer.
Michael Torres
Co-Founder and Vice President of R&D of ReCode Therapeutics
Michael Torres is Co-Founder at Recode Therapeutics.
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About ReCode Therapeutics: ReCode Therapeutics is a genetic medicines company developing targeted, disease-modifying therapies for life-limiting respiratory diseases.
Richard Gallo
Co-Founder and Head of MatriSys Bioscience
UCSD Dermatology Professor Richard L. Gallo MD, PhD is a world leader in the use of microbes as novel medicines. He is a co-founder and head of MatriSys Bio’s Scientific Advisory Board. His work has focused on host defense and mutualistic interactions with microbes on the skin, with a particular interest in antimicrobial peptides and the basic functions of the skin microbiome. Through high-throughput functional screening of the normal human skin microbiome, Dr. Gallo has identified specific strains of commensal Staphylococcus species that kill pathogenic bacteria and enhance skin innate immune defense. One of those common and beneficial commensals on human skin, S. hominis Sh-A9 was shown by UCSD researchers to produce lantibiotic peptides that display specific, potent antimicrobial activity towards Staphylococcus aureus, the pathogen associated with Atopic Dermatitis persistence. The company’s collaboration with the Gallo Laboratory at UCSD has resulted in the establishment of MatriSys Bioscience’s broad patent position to develop numerous therapeutics for large patient populations.
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About MatriSys Bioscience: MatriSys Bio is a clinical stage Specialty Biopharmaceutical Company.
Ajikumar Parayil
CEO & Founder of Manus Bio
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About Manus Bio, Mirakel Technologies: Manus Bio makes nature accessible and affordable for a growing society.
Satheesh Ravula
Co-Founder of Curtana Pharmaceuticals
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About Curtana Pharmaceuticals: Curtana is a biopharmaceutical company that has developed therapies for the treatment of the most aggressive types of brain cancer.
Fabio Tucci
Co-Founder of Curtana Pharmaceuticals
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About Curtana Pharmaceuticals: Curtana is a biopharmaceutical company that has developed therapies for the treatment of the most aggressive types of brain cancer.
Fabio Tucci
Co-Founder of Curtana Pharmaceuticals
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About Curtana Pharmaceuticals: Curtana is a biopharmaceutical company that has developed therapies for the treatment of the most aggressive types of brain cancer.
Tim Guilliams
Founder, CEO of Healx
Tim is a social entrepreneur passionate about delivering the next generation of therapeutics to rare disease patients in need. He is the Founder and Chief Executive of Healx and the Co-Founder and Chair of the Cambridge Rare Disease Network (CRDN), a charity aiming to foster dialogue and awareness around rare diseases in Cambridge, UK. Prior to Healx and CRDN, Tim worked on University-Industry interactions and cluster dynamics in the area of Life Sciences for the UK Government Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). He obtained his PhD in the field of Biophysical Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, where his research related to the development of antibody fragments as novel biophysical and therapeutic tools for Parkinson’s disease. As a PhD student, Tim co-founded multiple successful student societies, including the Cambridge University Science and Policy Exchange (CUSPE), and was involved with Innovation Forum, Oxbridge Biotech Roundtable (OBR) and the Cambridge University Technology and Enterprise Club (CUTEC). He is also a Junior Associate Fellow of the Centre for Science and Policy (CSaP). Before moving to Cambridge, he obtained an MEng & BEng in Bio-Engineering from the University of Brussels (VUB).
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About Healx: Healx is an AI-powered, patient-inspired technology company, pioneering the next generation of drug discovery for rare diseases.
David Brown
Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Healx
David Brown has 40 years experience in the pharmaceutical / biotechnology industry both in research and in senior executive roles. He served with 4 of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies: Zeneca, Pfizer, GlaxoWellcome, and Hoffman La-Roche. Whilst at Pfizer he was named co-inventor on the patent for Viagra, and for 8 years he led the team that invented and developed Viagra through to proof of clinical efficacy in male impotence. The drug is also marketed for treatment of pulmonary hypertension under the trade name Revatio. He also had a pivotal role in the discovery of Relpax, a treatment for migraine. Together these drugs have achieved sales of over $30 billion. While at Roche in Switzerland, he was a Director of the company and, as Global Head of Drug Discovery, he had responsibility for productivity of over 2000 scientists at Roche’s five research sites in the USA, Europe and Asia. David subsequently co-founded antibody company Crescendo Biologics and serves on the boards of Healx Ltd (Chair), ProFactor Pharma Ltd (Chair) and Babraham Institute Enterprise Ltd (Chair). He is a Trustee (Director) of two charities, Antibiotic Research UK, dedicated to solving the looming problem of antibiotic resistance; and Friends of Manjushree Vidyapith School and Orphanage, a charity he co-founded in 2005 to help destitute orphans in South Tibet.
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About Healx: Healx is an AI-powered, patient-inspired technology company, pioneering the next generation of drug discovery for rare diseases.
Karthik Balakrishnan
Founder/CEO of Nodexus
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About Nodexus: Nodexus is democratizing access to live single cells for applications including gene editing, drug development, and more.
Anand Kesavaraju
Founder/Chief Strategy Officer of Nodexus
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About Nodexus: Nodexus is democratizing access to live single cells for applications including gene editing, drug development, and more.
