Q-STATE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Advisor / Co - Founder, Harvard Professor
- Professor in the Departments of Chemistry
Adam E. Cohen is a professor in the departments of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and Physics at Harvard, with secondary appointments in the Center for Brain Science and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. He is also an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. At Harvard, Adam and his lab have developed numerous tools to study biological molecules and cells, most notably Optopatch technology. This first-of-its-kind technology uses genetically encoded fluorescent reporters to examine electrical activity in neurons. The Optopatch technology is commercially licensed exclusively to Q-State, where it is used to characterize cellular models of nervous system disorders. Adam has received Young Investigator Awards from the Office of Naval Research, the Dreyfus Foundation, the Sloan Foundation, and many other organizations. Technology Review Magazine named Adam one of the top 35 US technological innovators under the age of 35, Popular Science named him one of their "Brilliant Ten" top young scientists, and President Obama awarded him a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. Adam holds an A.B. in chemistry and physics from Harvard, a Ph.D. in experimental biophysics from Stanford, and a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of Cambridge.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Board Member / Chief Executive Officer, ACOVA Integrated Health
- CEO of ACOVA Integrated Health
Chad Martinson currently serves as CEO of ACOVA Integrated Health, a company dedicated to delivering better health outcomes for individuals living with chronic conditions. Chad currently also serves as Director of Q-State Biosciences, Proximagen, MOBE, Plymouth Guarantee and Domaine Serene. Prior to joining ACOVA, Chad held a number of leadership roles in the fields of corporate finance, business unit finance, sales and marketing, and operations. Most recently, Chad served as CFO and Executive Vice President of Operations at Upsher-Smith Laboratories. and as VP of Finance and Business Development in the Neuro division of Medtronic. He holds a B.A. from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts.
In his role as CFO, Chris Watt oversees Q-State's accounting, treasury, reporting, and FP&A functions with over 30 years of financial and operational experience. Most recently, Chris served as Senior Vice President & Head of Finance at Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals where he helped raise over $150 million in capital, drove successful launch of the company's first approved product, and helped lead the eventual sale of the company to La Jolla Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Tetraphase, he spent almost 11 years at Biogen, Inc. in various financial leadership roles, including Senior Director and Finance Lead for the company's global commercial business. Chris has also worked in various financial and operational leadership roles at InterSystems Corporation, Putnam Investments, Procter & Gamble and Shawmut National Corporation. Chris holds a B.A. in economics and German from Colby College and an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan.
Job Titles:
- Board Member / Senior Vice President & Chief Legal Counsel, United National Corporation
- Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Counsel at United National Corporation
Dave Knudson is Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Counsel at United National Corporation, where he provides legal and advisory services to the company. Prior to this role, he served as Sr. Vice President - Strategic Advisor for Sanford Health, the largest rural not-for-profit healthcare system in the country. He also practiced law for 35 years at Davenport, Evans, Hurwitz and Smith in Sioux Falls, focusing on healthcare, banking and corporate transactions. Throughout his career as a lawyer and advisor, Dave has worked closely with Mr. Denny Sanford, chair and owner of United National Corporation and benefactor of Sanford Health, to organize more than $2 billion in charitable gifts to various non-profits. Dave has a long-time interest in public service. He was Chief of Staff to South Dakota Governor Bill Janklow in 1995 and 1999, served four terms in the South Dakota State Senate, and served as the Senate Majority Leader from 2007 to 2010. He ran unsuccessfully in the 2010 Republican primary for Governor of South Dakota. He also served on the board of several organizations, including the Sioux Falls Development Foundation and the Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce. A native of Yankton, South Dakota, Dave is a graduate of Harvard College and the New York University School of Law. He received an M.B.A. from the University of South Dakota School of Business. The Knudson School of Law at the University of South Dakota was named after Mr. Knudson.
Jonathan Thomas ("JT") is the Chair of the Governing Board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), a public agency dedicated to advancing stem cell and gene therapy research and developing cures for people in need. As head of the board, JT is responsible for all aspects of CIRM's $8.5 billion funding program. Before joining CIRM he was a Co-Founding Partner at Saybrook Capital, an investment banking and private equity firm, where he led an early round of financing for Advanced Cell Technology (now Ocata Therapeutics). JT's legal experience includes clerking for White House Counsel Lloyd Cutler in the last year of the Carter Administration and clerking for the Honorable George Mackinnon of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. JT holds a Bachelor's degree from Yale University where he graduated summa cum laude, a J.D. from Yale, and a Ph.D. from Oxford University, where he was a George C. Marshall Scholar.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Advisor / President, Proximagen Ltd
As President of Proximagen, an early clinical stage drug development company, Dr. William Pullman oversees the company's strategic direction and scientific affairs, including pipeline selection and development, and all clinical, medical, and regulatory operations. Before joining Proximagen, William served as Chief Scientific Officer of Upsher-Smith Laboratories. He also formerly held positions as Chief Research and Development Officer and Chief Development Officer at Dyax Corp., Chief Medical Officer at Cubist Pharmaceuticals, and Senior Vice President, Exploratory Development at TransForm Pharmaceuticals. William completed his primary medical training at the University of Western Australia and is a fellow of the Royal Australian College of Physicians. He also received his PhD in Medicine and Clinical Science (Immunology) from the Australian National University.
Graham Dempsey, Ph.D., leads Q-State's research and development efforts. In this role, he oversees all internal development work and ensures successful execution of Q-State's partnered programs with pharmaceutical companies and foundations. Graham began his scientific career at the University of Pennsylvania, developing novel single molecule methods for high sensitivity fluorescence measurements of molecular function. He then joined Harvard University where he developed a new super-resolution imaging technique called stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM), allowing for multicolor, live-cell fluorescence imaging of biological samples with nanometer spatial resolution. The technique was commercialized by Nikon Instruments. Graham received a B.A. in Biochemistry and Physics from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in Biophysics from Harvard University.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Executive Director, Head of Cell Biology
In his role as Executive Director & Head of Cell Biology, Luis Williams manages a team of scientists and researchers in the production and characterization of human pluripotent stem cell-derived neuronal models for Q-State's discovery programs. He has over 15 years of experience in collaborative and independent research projects in the academic and biotech industry sectors, studying multiple neurological disorders including epilepsy, Fragile X syndrome and ALS. Luis received a B.S. in Biology from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua, a M.S. in Molecular Genetics from University of California, Davis, and a Ph.D. in Cell Biology from Harvard University.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Chairman / Founder & Chairman of Multiple Innovative Health Companies
- Founder and Chairman of MOBE
Mark Evenstad is Founder and Chairman of MOBE, Pairnomix, Plymouth Guarantee, Healthware Technologies, ACOVA and Applied Insights. He served as CEO and Vice Chair of Upsher-Smith Laboratories through its sale to Sawai Pharmaceuticals in 2017. Mark is committed to discovering or inventing critical therapeutics and interventions that meaningfully and measurably impact the health and happiness of people. He is inspired to develop and provide these products through businesses that are committed to guiding their customers on their Personal Path to Awesome. Mark is driven by his wife, Rita, and his three children to support their passions and deliver answers where none yet exist resulting in health, happiness, and smiles for everyone.
Job Titles:
- Board Member / University of Alabama
- Director of the Hugh Kaul Precision Medicine Institute at the University of Alabama
Matt Might has been the Director of the Hugh Kaul Precision Medicine Institute at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) since 2017. At UAB, Matt is the Hugh Kaul Endowed Chair of Personalized Medicine, a Professor of Internal Medicine and a Professor of Computer Science. He leverages his expertise in genomics and informatics to drive the Institute's strategic focus on personalized care, especially for ultra-rare genetic disorders. From 2016 to 2018, Matt was a Strategist in the Executive Office of the President in The White House. In 2015, Matt joined the faculty of the Department of Biomedical Informatics at the Harvard Medical School, first as Visiting Professor and since 2017 as Senior Lecturer.
Job Titles:
- Board Member / Director, Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute
- Member and Director of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research
Steven Hyman is a core institute member and director of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; he is also Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology. He has previously served as Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) from 1996 to 2001 and Harvard University Provost (Chief Academic Officer) from 2001-2011. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and has served as President of the Society for Neuroscience (2015) and the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (2018). He holds a B.A. from Yale University, an M.A. from the University of Cambridge, and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Advisor / President of ARNAY Sciences
Sudhir Agrawal, D. Phil, FRSC is a Visiting Professor in the Department of Medicine at The University of Massachusetts Medical School, a member of the Business Advisory Board of The Harvard Medical School's Initiative for RNA Medicine, and a member of advisory board of Lytix biopharma. He is founder and member of Arnay Sciences LLC. He is also a founder of Idera Pharmaceuticals and had held various leadership roles within the company, including Chairman, CEO, President of Research, and Chief Scientific Officer. Sudhir's research interests focus on the discovery and development of nucleic acid therapeutics, including antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs). He has edited four books on oligonucleotides and antisense technology, published hundreds of research papers on these topics, and is listed as a co-inventor of more than 400 patents worldwide.