ARKUDA THERAPEUTICS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Senior Director, Human Resources
Job Titles:
- PARTNER at ATLAS VENTURE ( ARKUDA CHAIRMAN )
Bruce Booth, DPhil, is a partner in the life sciences group and focuses on the discovery and development of novel therapeutics.
Since joining Atlas in 2005, Bruce has been involved in the founding and funding a number of innovative companies with a particular focus on capital efficient models for drug R&D. He currently serves on the board of miRagen Therapeutics (co-founder), Zafgen, Bicycle Therapeutics, Nimbus Discovery (co-founder), Rodin Therapeutics (co-founder), and several other seed-stage biotech companies. Previously, Bruce served on the boards of past Atlas companies Avila Therapeutics (acquired by Celgene), Stromedix (acquired by Biogen), Prestwick (acquired by Biovail), and Proprius (acquired by Cypress Biosciences), among others.
Prior to joining Atlas, Bruce was an investor with Caxton Health Holdings and before that, a consultant at McKinsey & Company, a global strategic management consulting firm. While at McKinsey, he worked extensively with pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms to address R&D productivity issues, as well as portfolio management, new product commercialization, and business development.
Bruce currently serves on UCB Pharma's Scientific Advisory Board, as well as Pfizer's Healthcare "R&D 2020" Innovation Think Tank, and participates on several other advisory boards for pharmaceutical companies and academic medical centers. Bruce is also a trustee of the New York Academy of Medicine. He recently joined the Science Exchange's Reproducibility Initiative Advisory Board, focused on improving the reliability of translational research.
Bruce writes about life science venture capital topics at his blog LifeSciVC.com, which is also syndicated with Forbes. He has published numerous scientific papers and has authored various biotech venture capital review articles, including several in Nature Biotechnology. In 2010, Bruce was named to Boston Business Journal's "40 under 40" list.
As a British Marshall Scholar, Bruce received a D.Phil. (Ph.D.) in molecular immunology from Oxford University. His work focused on the study of HIV and tumor immune responses. He received a BS in biochemistry, summa cum laude, from The Pennsylvania State University.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director, Worldwide Research
- EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WRD / PRINCIPAL, PFIZER VENTURES
Christopher O'Donnell, PhD is Executive Director, Worldwide Research, Development & Medical and Principal, Pfizer Ventures. Chris has 20 years of scientific leadership at Pfizer and a strong track record of delivering clinical candidates across multiple disease areas and modalities. Prior to Pfizer Ventures, Chris built and led the Applied Synthesis Technologies group within Pfizer Worldwide Research & Development organization to accelerate the delivery of Pfizer's small molecule portfolio. Prior to that, Chris built and led Pfizer's Antibody Drug Conjugate Oncology Medicinal Chemistry group which delivered new linker, payload and conjugation methods resulting in 7 conjugates entering clinical development for many different cancer indications. Chris started his career in the Neuroscience Medicinal Chemistry group where he invented and helped deliver numerous clinical candidates, with the most advanced being the AMPA positive allosteric modulator in Phase II that was licensed to Biogen. Chris has co-authored 55 peer reviewed manuscripts and is the inventor/co-inventor on 25 patents.
Chris earned his BS in Chemistry from the University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign and his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and joined Pfizer after his post-doctoral research studies as an American Cancer Society Fellow at the University of California - Irvine.
Within Pfizer Ventures Chris is responsible for identifying, evaluating, making and managing equity investments aligned with the future directions of Pfizer. He currently serves on the boards of Adapsyn Biosciences, ARKUDA Therapeutics, Kymera Therapeutics and Storm Therapeutics (UK) and is a board observer of BioAtla, Petra Therapeutics, Mitokinin and Strata Oncology. Chris briefly served as a board observer on Morphic Therapeutic prior to their entry into the public market.
Job Titles:
- Investment Director
- Investment Director, Abrdn Healthcare Investors
Dr. Kelly Girskis is an Investment Director at abrdn and is responsible for equity research for the abrdn healthcare funds. She joined the firm in October 2023 following the acquisition of Tekla Capital Management where she served as Vice President, Research with a focus on private and public biotechnology investments. Previously, she held positions at SVB Leerink and Ascentia Asset Management. Dr. Girskis earned her B.A. in Neuroscience from the University of Southern California and Ph.D. in Neurobiology from Harvard University.
Job Titles:
- Chief Technology Officer
- Discovery Leader
Duane is a drug discovery leader with over 30 years of experience at top pharmaceutical companies including Schering-Plough, Merck and FORUM Pharmaceuticals working primarily in CNS and cardiovascular drug discovery. During his career as a medicinal chemist, he has garnered an impressive list of awards: National Inventor of the Year (2005), Prix Galien USA - Best Medical Agent Finalist (2011), American Chemical Society Hero of Chemistry Award (2004), Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award (2002). In addition, he has 60 published papers and more than 110 granted or published patents and applications. He is best known as an inventor of the cholesterol absorption inhibitor ezetimibe, used in two highly successful, multi-billion dollar products for treating hypercholesterolemia. Duane received his PhD in Organic Chemistry from The Ohio State University and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Utah.
Job Titles:
- CEO
- CO - FOUNDER
- PRESIDENT
- R & D Leader
Gerhard is a senior R&D leader with more than 24 years of experience spanning discovery through Phase 3. He founded Arkuda Therapeutics in early 2018 to develop therapeutics that improve the lives of patients with serious neurological diseases. He also serves as Advisor to Atlas Venture. From 2016 to 2017, Gerhard was CEO of Quartet Medicine, a biotechnology company focused on non-opioid pain medications. Before that he was Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice President of FORUM Pharmaceuticals. Prior to FORUM Gerhard was Vice President, Scientific Programs and Evaluation for Fidelity Biosciences Group (now F' Prime Capital), the lead investor in FORUM, where he gained experience evaluating a wide variety of therapeutic indications and platforms. Before his tenure in biotech, Gerhard spent 10 years at Bayer Corporation in West Haven, CT, and at Bayer AG, Germany, in various functions, including Director of the Dementia Research Department. That work resulted in the introduction of several small-molecule compounds into early clinical development. Gerhard currently serves as an advisor on the scientific advisory board at Disarm Therapeutics and is a member of the board of directors at Vigil Neuroscience. Gerhard received his PhD and MS degrees in molecular and cellular neurobiology with a minor in biochemistry, graduating summa cum laude from the University of Heidelberg, Germany.
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Neurobiology
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Medicinal Chemistry
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Associate
Job Titles:
- Senior Vice President, Discovery
At Arkuda, Raymond conducts studies in nonclinical model systems that establish a relationship between experimental compounds and their desired effects and side effects in order to provide future guidance on clinical development. He has more than 20 years of CNS drug discovery experience spanning small, mid and large-sized biopharmaceutical companies. Prior to joining Arkuda, he served as Director, Biology and Pharmacology at Concert Pharmaceuticals and held positions of increasing responsibility at Pharmacia, Pfizer, Amgen, FORUM Pharmaceuticals and Quartet Medicine. Throughout his career, Raymond has focused on establishing pharmacology relationships that bridge molecular and cellular pharmacology to animal physiology and behavior. He received his undergraduate degree in microbiology from Texas A&M University and a PhD in cell biology and anatomy from the Oregon Health & Science University. Raymond completed his postdoctoral training at UCLA in the Department of Anesthesiology and in the Neuropsychiatric Institute, where he investigated neuronal ion channel function and synaptic physiology both during development and in neurodegenerative disorders.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director, Cormorant Asset Management
With a career spanning over 25 years of international experience in the healthcare industry, Robert retired from Johnson and Johnson in 2018 as the Global Head of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, LLC. While at J&J, Robert was a member the R&D Management Committee (RDMC), the group chartered to oversee the allocation of the company's $10B annual R&D budget. Under his leadership, the J&J Innovation brand and global platform was launched and became the #1 recognized cross-sector (pharm, med device and consumer) innovation leader with a portfolio encompassing over 400 individual investments, including a globally distributed suite of incubators (JLABS) hosting over 300 start-ups and collectively generating a risk-adjusted enterprise value of over $5B.
Prior to joining J&J, Robert was the founding Executive Director of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at M.I.T. He was previously the CEO of Acretia Inc., and has also held founding and executive positions at ZYCOS Inc. and Pangaea Pharmaceuticals. He has served on the Board of diverse companies and not-for-profit organizations. He has in-depth experience in global organizational management, healthcare product development and fundraising. Robert holds both bachelor and doctoral degrees from the University of Texas System and was an Irvington Fellow in Structural Immunology at Harvard University.