Drugging the ferroptosis-sensitive cell state

Luba Greenwood is a leading figure in the biotech and digital health world with vast experience as an executive, investor, and company builder in the biotech, life sciences, diagnostics, and tech sectors. Most recently, Luba has served as the Managing Partner of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute Venture Fund, Binney Street Capital, which she has built and launched. She has also taught at Harvard University at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Previously, Ms. Greenwood served in leadership roles at Google Life Sciences, Verily, and was a VP Global Business Development and Mergers & Acquisitions at Roche, where she also established and led the East Coast Innovation Hub. Ms. Greenwood  has led $5B+ in deals and investments across multiple therapeutic areas and life sciences globally. She has also co-founded companies in the oncology, AI/ML, women’s health and microbiome space.

Luba began her career as a lawyer, practicing at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr. She is a recipient of several awards and honors for her work in the community, including the Science Club for Girls Catalyst Award for her commitment to advocating for women in science and technology.

Vasanthi co-founded Kojin Therapeutics and joined the company in June 2020 to serve as Head of Discovery Biology. Prior to her time at Kojin, Vasanthi trained with Prof. Stuart Schreiber and Prof. Brent Stockwell and made seminal discoveries into the molecular mechanisms and pathophysiological relevance of ferroptotic cell death in cancer and beyond. In addition to her work in basic discovery, Vasanthi co-led a multi-disciplinary academic-industry collaboration at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, aimed at therapeutic modulation of ferroptosis biology.

Vasanthi received an AB in biochemical sciences from Harvard College, completed her PhD in Biology at Columbia University and performed post-doctoral training at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. She has published 12 papers, including in top-tier journals such as Nature and is an inventor on multiple patent applications. In 2018, Vasanthi was awarded a STAT Wunderkind in recognition of her work on ferroptosis.

John joined Kojin Therapeutics in May of 2021 as the Head of R&D.  John will be responsible for driving the direction of the company’s chemistry effort as it relates to modulating ferroptosis via small molecules.  John comes to Kojin after a 22-year career in medicinal chemistry at Bristol Myers Squibb where he was responsible for leading chemistry efforts from hit generation through clinical candidate nomination for various targets.  His teams, both in the US and internationally, provided multiple clinical assets against key targets in the pipeline, specifically CCR1 and IRAK4.  Prior to BMS, John was a National Institutes of Health post-doctoral fellow at the University of California at Irvine.  John received his doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania and his bachelor’s of chemistry from Eastern University.  John is a co-author on 48 peer-reviewed publications and is a co-inventor on 49 issued patents and published patent applications.

Dr. Lakshmi Amaravadi serves as Senior Vice President and Head of Preclinical Development and Translational Medicine at Kojin Therapeutics.  Lakshmi has nearly 30 years of R&D experience during which she contributed to several successful IND filings, clinical development and registration of multiple on market drugs.  Her core expertise is in the area preclinical and clinical development, translational biomarkers, and program/organizational leadership spanning multiple therapeutic areas that include Oncology, Autoimmune, Neurology, Metabolic and Rare diseases.

Lakshmi is an internationally recognized expert in the translational biomarkers and bioanalytics (PK and immunogenicity), authored multiple white papers, collaborated with industry and regulatory leaders in developing best practices in this area.  Lakshmi is active in professional associations and is an elected Board Member of American Association of Pharmaceuticals Scientists and an active leader of Biomarkers and Precision Medicine community.

Prior to Kojin she held roles involving increasing area of responsibility at Biogen, Sanofi, Shire and at Boston Pharmaceuticals. She trained as a post-doctoral fellow at Walther Oncology Centre, IUPUI and Eli Lilly after completing her Ph.D. in Molecular, Cell & Developmental Biology at Indiana State University.

Gaochao joined Kojin in June 2021 as the Head of Enzymology.  Gaochao is supporting drug discovery efforts at all stages with focus on developing/delivering biochemical assays for SAR progression and hit finding as well as detailed mechanistic characterization of compound-target interactions.  He is devising and executing strategies for hit finding and lead optimization efforts.  Gaochao comes to Kojin after working at Janssen Pharmaceuticals for 5 years where he was an enzymology group leader contributing to many classes of enzyme targets across multiple therapeutic areas including Oncology.  Gaochao also had a combined 20-years of early drug discovery experience at AstraZeneca and GSK where he worked on many classes of enzymes, receptors and transporters providing key scientific data to enable milestone transitions from hit generation through clinical candidate nomination. Throughout his industry career, he contributed to discovery of multiple clinical candidates and a marketed drug Avodart, a 5α-reductase inhibitor.  Prior to his industry career, Gaochao received his Ph.D. degree in biochemistry in Professor Ming-Daw Tsai’s laboratory from the Ohio State University and completed an American Heart Association postdoctoral fellowship in Professor Judith Klinman’s laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley.  Gaochao is an author for 40 peer reviewed publications.

Eric joined Kojin Therapeutics in May of 2021 as the Head of Corporate Development & Operations. He is passionate around the intersection between healthcare and innovation including all the novel discoveries driven by biotechnology that is revolutionizing the way we are tackling disease and providing much needed treatments to patients. His previous positions at Pear Therapeutics and Ohana Biosciences, have given him unique experiences and a diverse skill set that allows him to tackle cross-functional challenges effectively. He loves solving complex problems through the use of collaboration and analytics in order to connect the dots to get to compelling solutions.

Gang joined Kojin in March 2022 as the Head of Biomarker Development. Gang is responsible for developing Mass Spec based technology platforms to enable biomarker discovery, mechanistic studies, compound target engagement, and cell-based compound screening.  Gang comes to Kojin after 12 years working at Pfizer’s Internal Medicine Research Unit where he was responsible for developing the workflows associated with study design, sample prep, LC-MS analysis, and data interpretation supporting cell-based assay compound screening.   He also played roles in animal model-based target engagement and biological mechanistic studies allowing for key insights to be discovered.  These findings allowed for successful lead development candidates in Chemistry, precise drug dose prediction in both the preclinical and clinical settings, and clear guidance for CRO based clinical target engagement studies. Prior to his industry career, Gang received his Ph.D. degree in Chemistry in Texas A&M University. Gang is an author for 20+ peer reviewed publications from both industry and academia.

Stuart Schreiber is the Morris Loeb Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, a co-Founder of the Broad Institute, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

His research integrates chemical biology and human biology to advance the science of therapeutics. He is known for his role in the development of the field of chemical biology. Key advances include the finding that small molecules can function as “molecular glues” that promote protein–protein interactions, the discovery of mTOR and its role in nutrient-response signaling, and the discovery of histone deacetylases and that chromatin marks regulate gene expression. His research has been acknowledged through awards including the Wolf Prize in Chemistry and the Arthur Cope Award. His approach to therapeutics discovery guided the development of many biotechnology companies that he founded including Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Ariad Pharmaceuticals.

Benjamin Cravatt is Professor and Norton B. Gilula Chair of Chemical Biology in the Department of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute. His research group is interested in developing chemical proteomic technologies that enable protein and drug discovery on a global scale and applying these methods to characterize biochemical pathways that play important roles in human physiology and disease.

Dr. Cravatt obtained his undergraduate education at Stanford University, receiving a BS in the Biological Sciences and a BA in History. He then received a PhD from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in 1996. Professor Cravatt joined the faculty at TSRI in 1997. Dr. Cravatt’s honors include a Searle Scholar Award, the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry, a Cope Scholar Award, the ASBMB Merck Award, the RSC Jeremy Knowles Award, the AACR Award for Achievement in Chemistry in Cancer Research, and memberships in the National Academies of Medicine and Sciences.

Stephanie Dougan received her PhD in Immunology from Harvard University where she studied lipid antigen presentation by CD1d and NKT cell development. She then performed a postdoctoral fellowship with Hidde Ploegh at Whitehead Institute, where she became adept in somatic cell nuclear transfer and embryo manipulations for the purpose of generating transnuclear and CRISPR genome-modified mice.

Dr. Dougan joined the faculty at Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in 2014, where her lab uses an integrated knowledge of the immune system to study the response to tumors. She is particularly interested in tumors that do not induce a CD8 T cell response at baseline, and has been using pancreatic cancer as a model to develop new immunotherapies for non-T cell infiltrated tumors. She is a Principal Investigator of Cancer Immunology and Virology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute as well as the Associate Professor of Immunology at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Dougan is a Pew-Stewart Scholar in Cancer Research, a Bill and Melinda Gates Global Health Innovation Scholar, a Melanoma Research Alliance Young Investigator, and received a Pathway to Leadership Award from the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and AACR. She is also dedicated to training young scientists, and received a Young Mentor Award from Harvard Medical School in 2019.

Vasanthi co-founded Kojin Therapeutics and joined the company in June 2020 to serve as Head of Discovery Biology. Prior to her time at Kojin, Vasanthi trained with Prof. Stuart Schreiber and Prof. Brent Stockwell and made seminal discoveries into the molecular mechanisms and pathophysiological relevance of ferroptotic cell death in cancer and beyond. In addition to her work in basic discovery, Vasanthi co-led a multi-disciplinary academic-industry collaboration at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, aimed at therapeutic modulation of ferroptosis biology.

Vasanthi received an AB in biochemical sciences from Harvard College, completed her PhD in Biology at Columbia University and performed post-doctoral training at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. She has published 12 papers, including in top-tier journals such as Nature and is an inventor on multiple patent applications. In 2018, Vasanthi was awarded a STAT Wunderkind in recognition of her work on ferroptosis.

Stuart Schreiber is the Morris Loeb Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, a co-Founder of the Broad Institute, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

His research integrates chemical biology and human biology to advance the science of therapeutics. He is known for his role in the development of the field of chemical biology. Key advances include the finding that small molecules can function as “molecular glues” that promote protein–protein interactions, the discovery of mTOR and its role in nutrient-response signaling, and the discovery of histone deacetylases and that chromatin marks regulate gene expression. His research has been acknowledged through awards including the Wolf Prize in Chemistry and the Arthur Cope Award. His approach to therapeutics discovery guided the development of many biotechnology companies that he founded including Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Ariad Pharmaceuticals.

Benjamin Cravatt is Professor and Norton B. Gilula Chair of Chemical Biology in the Department of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute. His research group is interested in developing chemical proteomic technologies that enable protein and drug discovery on a global scale and applying these methods to characterize biochemical pathways that play important roles in human physiology and disease.

Dr. Cravatt obtained his undergraduate education at Stanford University, receiving a BS in the Biological Sciences and a BA in History. He then received a PhD from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in 1996. Professor Cravatt joined the faculty at TSRI in 1997. Dr. Cravatt’s honors include a Searle Scholar Award, the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry, a Cope Scholar Award, the ASBMB Merck Award, the RSC Jeremy Knowles Award, the AACR Award for Achievement in Chemistry in Cancer Research, and memberships in the National Academies of Medicine and Sciences.

Stephanie Dougan received her PhD in Immunology from Harvard University where she studied lipid antigen presentation by CD1d and NKT cell development. She then performed a postdoctoral fellowship with Hidde Ploegh at Whitehead Institute, where she became adept in somatic cell nuclear transfer and embryo manipulations for the purpose of generating transnuclear and CRISPR genome-modified mice.

Dr. Dougan joined the faculty at Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in 2014, where her lab uses an integrated knowledge of the immune system to study the response to tumors. She is particularly interested in tumors that do not induce a CD8 T cell response at baseline, and has been using pancreatic cancer as a model to develop new immunotherapies for non-T cell infiltrated tumors. She is a Principal Investigator of Cancer Immunology and Virology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute as well as the Associate Professor of Immunology at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Dougan is a Pew-Stewart Scholar in Cancer Research, a Bill and Melinda Gates Global Health Innovation Scholar, a Melanoma Research Alliance Young Investigator, and received a Pathway to Leadership Award from the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and AACR. She is also dedicated to training young scientists, and received a Young Mentor Award from Harvard Medical School in 2019.

Director, Children’s Research Institute
Mary McDermott Cook Chair in Pediatric Genetics
Kathryne and Gene Bishop Distinguished Chair in Pediatric Research
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

The Morrison laboratory studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate stem cell function and the role these mechanisms play in cancer. They identified a series of mechanisms that distinguish the self-renewal of stem cells from the proliferation of restricted progenitors in the same tissues and identified niches that maintain stem cells in adult hematopoietic tissues. The Morrison lab has also studied the mechanisms that regulate metastasis, discovering that melanoma metastasis is limited by oxidative stress. Rare metastasizing cells survive this stress by undergoing metabolic changes that reduce the generation of reactive oxygen species and confer oxidative stress resistance. This suggests the possibility of limiting cancer progression with pro-oxidant therapies that exacerbate the oxidative stress experienced by cancer cells. Dr. Morrison completed a B.Sc. in biology and chemistry at Dalhousie University (1991), a Ph.D. in immunology at Stanford University (1996), and a postdoctoral fellowship in neurobiology at Caltech (1999). Dr. Morrison is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator (since 2000) and the founding Director of Children’s Research Institute at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (since 2011). He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2018 and the National Academy of Sciences in 2020. Dr. Morrison served as the President of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (2015-16), testified before the U.S. Congress, and served as a leader in the successful “Proposal 2” campaign to protect stem cell research in Michigan’s state constitution (2008).

Joel Barrish is currently Chief Scientific Officer and Co-founder of Jnana Therapeutics, a company dedicated to the discovery and development of SLC transporter therapeutics. Prior to Jnana, Joel’s first Biotech role was as Chief Scientific Officer of Achillion Pharmaceuticals focused on modulating the Alternative pathway of Complement. Most of Joel’s career was spent as a medicinal chemist in Pharma, where he capped a 28-year career at Bristol-Myers Squibb spending the last five years as Vice President and Head of Discovery Chemistry, working across all therapeutic areas. While at BMS, Joel worked with teams responsible for advancing more than 50 compounds into clinical development, including Sprycel (dasatinib) which he co-invented. Joel and his colleagues made notable advances in the area of kinase inhibitor drug discovery, particularly in immunology and oncology. He is co-author of over 130 peer reviewed publications and is a co-inventor on 40 issued US patents. Prior to moving to BMS, he spent 5 years at Hoffmann-LaRoche as a senior scientist. Joel received a doctorate in Organic Chemistry from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania.

George Demetri, MD, FACP, FASCO, FAACR has dedicated his career to translational research aimed at understanding and treating precisely-defined subsets of sarcomas and other cancers. He was a pioneer in the development of imatinib (Glivec®), the first cancer therapy targeting gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) as a molecularly-defined subset of sarcoma. Subsequently, his work has contributed to the U.S. FDA and worldwide regulatory approvals of several other “smart drugs” for cancer, including sunitinib (Sutent®) and regorafenib (Stivarga®) for GIST, tazemetostat (Tazverik®) for epithelioid sarcomas, as well as pazopanib (Votrient®), eribulin (Halaven®) and trabectedin (Yondelis®) for other sarcomas. In a related contribution, Dr. Demetri served on the Scientific Advisory Board for Plexxikon to develop the first mutant BRAF inhibitor, vemurafenib (Zelboraf®), as a mutation-targeted therapy for a subset of melanomas. More recently, he serves on the Board of Directors of two public companies: Blueprint Medicines in Cambridge, MA, which discovered and developed avapritinib (Ayvakit®) for a mutationally-defined subset of GIST previously resistant to all other therapies, and Translate Bio which is developing mRNA technology for various indications.

He received his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from Harvard College, followed by a research fellowship at the Universite of Besancon, France before attending Stanford University School of Medicine. Subsequently, he completed residency and Chief Residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Washington Hospitals in Seattle, then Fellowship in Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School (HMS). At Dana-Farber, he is the Senior Vice President for Experimental Therapeutics and directs the Sarcoma Center.

Dr. Demetri is a Professor of Medicine at HMS, where he is co-Director of the Ludwig Center at Harvard. He has served on the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Board of Directors and chairs the AACR Science Policy and Government Affairs Committee; he is also a founding director of the annual AACR special workshop on Translational Cancer Research for the Basic Scientist.

Vice President, Oncology Discovery, AbbVie

Steve Davidsen, Ph.D., is Vice President, Oncology Discovery in AbbVie’s R&D organization, where he is responsible for discovery efforts across all Oncology programs and sites.

Prior to AbbVie’s separation from Abbott, Dr. Davidsen served as Divisional Vice President, Cancer Research. He joined the company in 1986 as a research scientist and has held various positions of increasing responsibility in the Discovery organization.

Dr. Davidsen has been a critical leader in building AbbVie’s Oncology pipeline, directing research teams and partnerships that have led to more than 300 current Oncology trials across a broad range of hematologic and solid tumor indications, and multiple FDA approvals. He has more than 70 scientific publications across a diverse range of topics including metalloproteinase inhibitors, kinase inhibitors and the discovery of histone deacetylase inhibitors.

Dr. Davidsen is a member of AbbVie’s R&D Senior Discovery Leadership Team and the AbbVie Oncology Therapeutic Area Strategy Council.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from University of Maryland and Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Texas, Austin. He held a post-doctoral position at the University of California, Berkeley before joining Abbott/AbbVie.

Morris J. Birnbaum, M.D., Ph.D. is a physician scientist who has led research teams investigating fundamental problems in metabolic regulation and their relevance to chronic disease in both an academic and pharmaceutical setting. Research in his academic laboratory included studies related to understanding insulin signaling and resistance, the regulation of glucose transport and lipid synthesis, and muscle metabolism.   Among his scientific contributions, Dr. Birnbaum is credited the cloning of the Glut4 glucose transporter, now recognized as the ultimate target of insulin action in muscle and adipose tissue, demonstrating in vivo that the protein kinase Akt is an obligate intermediate in insulin signaling pathways, and elucidating the control of hepatic lipid and carbohydrate metabolism. In 2014, Dr. Birnbaum accepted a position at Pfizer Inc in Cambridge, MA as Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, initially of the Cardiometabolic and subsequently the Internal Medicine Research Unit, where he was responsible for the discovery and early clinical development of drugs designed to treat metabolic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, heart failure and cachexia. Under his leadership, Pfizer has brought seven novel potential medicines into clinical development.

Dr. Birnbaum earned a PhD and a MD from Brown University and completed an Internal Medicine residency at Barnes Hospital at Washington University in St. Louis followed by postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco and Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York.  Dr. Birnbaum has held faculty positions at Harvard Medical School, the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He served as a member of the American Diabetes Association Research Policy Committee and the Board of Directors of Cerevel Therapeutics and currently is on the Editorial Boards of Science Signaling and Cell Metabolism.

Stuart Schreiber is the Morris Loeb Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, a co-Founder of the Broad Institute, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

His research integrates chemical biology and human biology to advance the science of therapeutics. He is known for his role in the development of the field of chemical biology. Key advances include the finding that small molecules can function as “molecular glues” that promote protein–protein interactions, the discovery of mTOR and its role in nutrient-response signaling, and the discovery of histone deacetylases and that chromatin marks regulate gene expression. His research has been acknowledged through awards including the Wolf Prize in Chemistry and the Arthur Cope Award. His approach to therapeutics discovery guided the development of many biotechnology companies that he founded including Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Ariad Pharmaceuticals.

Luba Greenwood is a leading figure in the biotech and digital health world with vast experience as an executive, investor, and company builder in the biotech, life sciences, diagnostics, and tech sectors. Most recently, Luba has served as the Managing Partner of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute Venture Fund, Binney Street Capital, which she has built and launched. She has also taught at Harvard University at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Previously, Ms. Greenwood served in leadership roles at Google Life Sciences, Verily, and was a VP Global Business Development and Mergers & Acquisitions at Roche, where she also established and led the East Coast Innovation Hub. Ms. Greenwood  has led $5B+ in deals and investments across multiple therapeutic areas and life sciences globally. She has also co-founded companies in the oncology, AI/ML, women’s health and microbiome space.

Luba began her career as a lawyer, practicing at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr. She is a recipient of several awards and honors for her work in the community, including the Science Club for Girls Catalyst Award for her commitment to advocating for women in science and technology.

Amir is a managing partner in Polaris’ Boston office. He joined Polaris in 2002 and focuses on investments in healthcare.

Amir currently represents Polaris as a Director of AgBiome, CAMP4 Therapeutics, Dewpoint Therapeutics, Metacrine Therapeutics, Morphic Therapeutic (NASDAQ: MORF), Primmune Therapeutics, Scholar Rock (NASDAQ: SRRK), and Syros Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SYRS). Additionally, Amir has served as a director of Adnexus Therapeutics (Bristol Myers Squibb), Athenix Corporation (Bayer), Avila Therapeutics (Celgene), Fate Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FATE), Freenome, Living Proof (Unilever), Promedior Pharmaceuticals, Receptos (Celgene), Selecta Biosciences (NASDAQ: SELB), Sun Catalytix (Lockheed Martin), and TARIS Biomedical (J&J).

In addition to his investment role, Amir has served as the CEO of Dewpoint, Jnana, Living Proof, Olivo Labs, and Sun Catalytix. Amir also serves on the Partners Innovation Fund and the Investment Advisory Committee for The Engine at MIT, and helped launch the MIT Sandbox Innovation Fund as its active president.

He has been named to the Forbes Midas List of “Top 100 Venture Capitalists.”

Prior to joining Polaris, Amir completed his ScD as a Hertz Fellow in Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a minor in Biology under the guidance of Dr. Robert Langer. Amir also earned both his MS and BS in Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Cahill is the Founder and Managing Partner of Newpath Partners, a Boston based life science venture fund focused on building therapeutic companies around transformational scientific discoveries. Prior to Newpath, Dr. Cahill worked at Raptor Group where he helped further establish and lead the life-science and technology investment portfolio. Dr. Cahill received both his M.D. and Ph.D. from Duke University. His graduate work, with Professor Robert Lefkowitz (Nobel Laureate), focused on the biophysical and structural properties of cellular receptors and their signaling. His work has led to numerous peer-reviewed publications and awards. He continues to remain active in basic science research. Newpath is a founding investor in most of their life science companies and focuses on uniquely aligning interests between academic scientists, investors, and management teams. Dr. Cahill is directly involved as either a Director or Observer in the following companies: Myeloid Therapeutics, Prime Medicine, Kisbee Therapeutics, Kojin Therapeutics, Chroma Medicine, Exo Therapeutics, and Seven Sense Biosystems. In addition, Dr. Cahill is involved with non-profit and non-partisan groups such as Scientists to Stop COVID-19 (STSC-19) and the Personal Genetics Education Project (pgEd).

Nagesh is an advisor to biotechnology companies with a particular interest in start-up and early-stage ventures focused on the discovery and development of novel therapeutics. He was mostly recently the founding CEO of Scholar Rock, Inc.; during his eight-year tenure, Nagesh took the biotech company public and lead two distinct drug candidates into clinical testing. Previous experiences include being the founding employee and VP of Corporate Development at Avila Therapeutics, Inc. (acquired by Celgene in 2012), and founding employee of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals where he rose to VP, Scientific & Strategic Development. Prior roles include positions at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, and Ontogeny (now Curis, Inc.). Nagesh started in biotech as a scientist at Cambridge NeuroScience, and was a founder of TwistDx, a molecular diagnostics company (now a part of Abbott).

Nagesh completed post-doctoral training at E.K. Shriver Center for Mental Retardation (an affiliate of Massachusetts General Hospital) and Harvard Medical School after receiving his Ph.D. in Neurobiology from the California Institute of Technology. Nagesh received his B.A. in Biology and Chemistry from the University of Colorado, and his M.B.A. from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Management at Babson College.

Gini Deshpande, PhD is a Venture Partner at Cathay Health, part of Cathay Capital’s global cross border platform focused on investing at the convergence of healthcare, life sciences and technology. She has over 20 years of experience creating new products and launching companies across a number of sectors in life sciences. As founder and CEO of NuMedii, she pioneered the field of AI driven drug discovery and led all aspects of company creation, including building the team and advisory board, structuring critical partnerships with pharmaceutical partners and raising the initial rounds of financing. In previous roles, Gini helped early-stage companies Iperian and CollabRx identify optimal markets and raise over $25M as well as being responsible for new product opportunities for life sciences tools market leader Affymetrix’s Academic Business Unit, their largest customer segment. During her time at Children’s Hospital Boston (CHB) as Director of the early-stage incubation business unit, Gini secured grant funding to enable prototype development for six medical device products as well as helping launch several startups in the therapeutics and diagnostics space through collaborations with faculty. She has managed broad, diverse IP portfolios, closed licensing deals worth several million dollars and is an angel investor in companies at the intersection of technology and healthcare. Having co-authored numerous papers, Gini is the recipient of several awards, is a frequent speaker at industry conferences on AI in Healthcare and has served on the Advisory Committee of the BIO Investor Forum for many years.  She is an active advocate for increasing the participation of women in STEM and entrepreneurship and has given talks at the United Nations on this topic. Gini received her PhD in Biological Sciences from Purdue University and did post-doctoral work at Harvard Medical School.

Fabio Pucci is an investor at Leaps by Bayer, the investment arm of the global life sciences company Bayer. Fabio is responsible for developing investment theses and deal execution. He is also involved in the sourcing, screening, and mentoring of companies across a wide spectrum of therapeutic modalities and indications. As an investor, Fabio is also serving as board director or observer for Immunitas, Azitra and, previously, for Hemab. Before joining Leaps by Bayer, he worked at RA Capital, a biotech multistage investment fund. Before that he was a cancer researcher at the Francis Crick Institute in London. Fabio obtained his PhD from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, and has an MBA from the London Business School.

Chuck is Managing Director at AbbVie Ventures, the strategic investment arm of the global, research-driven biopharmaceutical company AbbVie.  Chuck has thirty years of experience in biopharmaceutical R&D, business development and corporate venture capital investing and prior to joining AbbVie, he served as Vice President of Drug Discovery at AtheroGenics, Inc leading teams to advance several programs into the clinic and Chuck began his career at Human Genome Sciences.  Chuck currently participates on the boards of directors for Accent Therapeutics, Faze Medicines, Ribometrix, EndLyz Therapeutics, Disc Medicine, Aquinnah Pharmaceuticals, and the Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives.  Chuck obtained his Ph.D. from Penn State’s College of Medicine and completed his post-doctoral fellowship at the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology.