LYCIA THERAPEUTICS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Member of the Scientific Advisory Board
- President
Aetna Wun Trombley, Ph.D. has served as President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of Lycia's board of directors since April 2020. She has also served as an independent director of Carmot Therapeutics since 2016. Prior to joining Lycia, Aetna was President and Chief Operating Officer of NGM Biopharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: NGM), where she had broad strategic and operational responsibilities for nine years. At NGM, she was instrumental in establishing multiple strategic partnerships and a successful initial public offering in 2019. Previously, she served as Chief of Staff for the Chief Executive Officer of Novartis and was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company. She received a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California, San Diego and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from MIT.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California at Berkeley
Job Titles:
- Academic Founder, Lycia / Chair, Scientific Advisory Board / Professor of Chemistry, Stanford University
- Professor of Chemistry, Stanford University
Carolyn Bertozzi, Ph.D. is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Chemical & Systems Biology and Radiology at Stanford University, the Director of Stanford's Sarafan ChEM-H Institute, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In 2022, Professor Bertozzi received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for founding the field of bioorthogonal chemistry, a set of chemical reactions that allow researchers to study molecules and their interactions in living things without interfering with natural biological processes.
Professor Bertozzi has co-founded eight companies advancing her work and other approaches for therapeutic application and has previously served on the scientific advisory boards for GlaxoSmithKline and several other biotech companies. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and OmniAb and previously served on Eli Lilly and Company's Board of Directors from 2017 to 2021.
Professor Bertozzi is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been awarded the Lemelson-MIT Prize, the Heinrich Wieland Prize and a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, among many others. She completed her B.S. in Chemistry from Harvard University and her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director at Versant Ventures
Dr. Ozawa is a Managing Director at Versant Ventures with a focus on investments in the Bay Area and San Diego. Previously, she was COO of Inception Sciences, where she was responsible for strategic business development, operations and finance for the Inception Sciences research sites in San Diego, Vancouver and Montreal. During her tenure at Inception, she assumed leadership roles in the creation and management of six new companies launched in partnership with academic researchers and major biopharmaceutical companies. Prior to Inception, Dr. Ozawa was an investment professional at Versant, where she was involved in several successful investments including Flexion (2014 IPO), BioTie (sale) and Quanticel (sale). Earlier in her career, she worked at Novartis Pharma in the Office of the CEO and was at McKinsey & Company. Dr. Ozawa earned her B.S. in biological sciences with honors and distinction from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in neurosciences from Stanford University Medical School.
Job Titles:
- Distinguished Professor at the Translational Genomics Research Institute
Darrin Lindhout, Ph.D. joined Lycia in September 2020 and currently is our Executive Director, Head of Biologics, providing leadership for our biologics and discovery research efforts. He was most recently Director, Protein Sciences at NGM Biopharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: NGM), where he spent 11+ years building the biologics capabilities. While at NGM, he directly contributed to seven IND candidates and was involved in protein engineering and research processes spanning metabolic, oncology and ophthalmology indications, resulting in more than 20 granted patents pertaining to protein structure/function. Prior to NGM, Darrin completed his post-doctoral research at Stanford University School of Medicine in the Department of Structural Biology in 2008 and received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Alberta in 2005.
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Intellectual Property
Larry Rozsnyai, Ph.D. serves as Vice President of Intellectual Property. Prior to Lycia, he served as Vice President of IP, Licensing and Transactions at Olema Pharmaceuticals, Vice President of IP at Myovant Sciences, and Senior Counsel, Intellectual Property at Gilead. Larry has built patent portfolios supporting multiple commercial products, defended patents from third-party oppositions in Europe, India, and other countries, negotiated and closed research and commercial license agreements, and led other strategic initiatives. Larry received his B.S. in Chemistry from University of California, Berkeley, his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, performed postdoctoral research at Harvard University, and received his J.D. from the University of Washington.
Job Titles:
- President and Chief Executive Officer of Adverum
- President and Chief Executive Officer, Adverum Biotechnologies
Dr. Fischer is President and Chief Executive Officer of Adverum and serves as a member of its Board of Directors since June 2020. Dr. Fischer has more than 25 years of drug development and commercialization experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Before joining Adverum, Dr. Fischer was Senior Vice President and Head of the Liver Therapeutic Area at Allergan, PLC. Previously, he served as Chief Executive Officer of Tobira Therapeutics until its acquisition by Allergan in November 2016 for $1.7bn. Previously, he served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Jennerex, Inc. until its acquisition by SillaJen Biotherapeutics, Inc. Prior to Jennerex, he was Co-Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ocera Therapeutics and President and Chief Executive Officer of Auxeris Therapeutics, Inc. Over the span of his career, Dr. Fischer has held senior management roles at several companies, including Dupont Pharmaceuticals, Dupont-Merck, and F. Hoffmann-La Roche. Dr. Fischer received his undergraduate degree from the University of Geneva and his medical degree from the Geneva Medical School, Switzerland.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Stanford University
Matthew Holdren, Ph.D. serves as Vice President, Head of Nonclinical Development at Lycia. He has extensive expertise in drug development across a range of therapeutic modalities and disease areas, with a proven track record of success in pharmaceutical R&D. At Lycia, Matt leads drug development efforts and is focused on the strategy and operational components of bringing our novel molecules into clinical development. Prior to joining Lycia, Matt was Head of Nonclinical Development at Tenaya Therapeutics, Senior Director of Safety Assessment at Genentech, and Project Toxicologist at Bristol-Myers Squibb/ZymoGenetics. He is a modality-agnostic leader in nonclinical development and has had the privilege to work with multiple teams from early discovery through clinical development. Matt obtained his undergraduate degree in Microbiology and Ph.D. in Pathology from the University of Washington and is a long-standing Diplomat of the American Board of Toxicology.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director at Redmile Group
is a Managing Director at Redmile Group, LLC, a healthcare-focused investment firm. Prior to joining Redmile in 2016, Ming worked in the healthcare space as an investor at Safeguard Scientifics, a consultant at McKinsey & Company and ZS Associates, and an operator at Gilead Sciences. Ming graduated with a B.A. in Computer Science from UC Berkeley and an MBA in Finance and Healthcare Management from the Wharton School of Business.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University
Job Titles:
- Head of Translational Medicine / Early Development
Nadia Tchao, M.D. serves as Executive Director, Head of Translational Medicine/Early Development at Lycia. Nadia has over 17 years of experience leading cross-functional teams to develop innovative clinical development strategies for new drug candidates across a broad range of inflammation indications. She has worked across diverse therapeutic modalities and also served as the translational medicine representative on targets from early-stage research to late development. Most recently she was a Medical Director of Early Development, Inflammation at Amgen for 7.5 years where she led the development of multiple early assets from IND filing through proof-of-concept studies. Nadia earned a BS in Molecular Biology from the University of California, Berkeley and an M.D. from Duke University. She completed her Internship and Residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and a Pulmonary Critical Care Fellowship at the University of California San Francisco where she was an associate professor prior to joining industry.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California at Berkeley / Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Job Titles:
- Director of Stanford 's Sarafan ChEM - H Institute
- Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Chemical & Systems Biology and Radiology at Stanford University
Sarah McWhirter, Ph.D. serves as Vice President, Head of Biology at Lycia Therapeutics. Prior to Lycia, she served as Executive Director of Research and Translational Medicine at Aduro Biotech. At Aduro, Sarah was promoted into roles of increasing responsibility where she was the primary R&D lead for the Novartis partnership developing STING agonists for oncology that led to a first-in-human STING agonist. She and her team also spearheaded discovery efforts that enabled a research collaboration and licensing agreement with Eli Lilly to develop therapeutics for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Prior to Aduro, Sarah supervised research activities in Dr. Mark Schlissel's laboratory at University of California, Berkeley. Sarah earned her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley and conducted postdoctoral fellowship in at Harvard University in the laboratory of Dr. Tom Maniatis.
Job Titles:
- Chief Business Officer
- Member of the Scientific Advisory Board
Sofia Touami, Ph.D. joined Lycia as Chief Business Officer in July 2023. Prior to Lycia, she was Chief Business Officer at Hexagon Bio, responsible for strategic planning, business development, and corporate operations. Previously, she served as Vice President of Business Development at Frontier Medicines, where she led business operations and transactions, including the company's global strategic collaboration with AbbVie. Prior to Frontier, Sofia was Senior Director of Business Development and Alliance Management at NGM Biopharmaceuticals, where she negotiated and managed multiple partnerships with academic, non-profit and industry partners, including Merck, MedImmune, Janssen and Daiichi-Sankyo. Sofia received an A.B. in Chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis, a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Stanford University, and completed postdoctoral work at The Scripps Research Institute.
Job Titles:
- Chief Scientific Officer
- Member of the Scientific Advisory Board
Steve Staben, Ph.D. joined Lycia Therapeutics as Chief Scientific Officer in October 2021. Prior to Lycia, he spent over 14 years at Genentech leading drug discovery programs in oncology and immunology as well as new modality platforms. His basic research interests include new mechanisms for modulation of therapeutic targets, including applications of induced proximity. He has co-authored over 70 peer reviewed articles and patent applications. Steve holds his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director at Blue Owl
Tim Anderson is a Managing Director at Blue Owl and a member of the Healthcare Opportunities Investment Team. In his role, he focuses on investments in biotechnology, diagnostics, and digital medicine companies and sits on the Fund's Investment Committee.
Previously, Tim was a co-founding member and Managing Director of Cowen Healthcare Investments, the predecessor to Blue Owl Healthcare Opportunities. Prior to his role at Cowen Healthcare Investments, Tim was a biotechnology investment banker at Cowen and Company.
He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Lycia Therapeutics, F2G, Anaveon, Autobahn Therapeutics and Scipher Medicine. Tim previously served as a Board Member or Board Observer of Tourmaline Bio, Vectiv Bio Holdings, Therachon, Precision Biosciences, Livongo Health, Cadent Therapeutics, Cullinan Oncology and Compass Therapeutics.
Tim received a BA in both Economics and Government & Legal studies from Bowdoin College.
Job Titles:
- Chairman, Lycia 's Board of Directors / Chair, NGM Biopharmaceuticals
Mr. Rieflin became Chair of Lycia's Board of Directors in December 2020. He is currently Chair of the Board of Directors of NGM (NASDAQ: NGM), after having served as Chief Executive Officer of the company and a member of its Board from September 2010 to September 2018. Prior to joining NGM, he was President of XenoPort, Inc. (NASDAQ: XNPT), which was acquired by Arbor Pharmaceuticals in 2016, and Executive Vice President, Administration, Chief Financial Officer, General Counsel and Secretary for Tularik Inc. (NASDAQ: TLRK), which was acquired by Amgen Inc. in 2004. Previously, he was Vice President, Human Resources, General Counsel and Secretary for AMSCO International, Inc. (NYSE: ASZ). He was also an associate at Sidley & Austin in the corporate and securities department. In addition to Lycia and NGM, he is currently on the Board of Directors of Kallyope, Inc., Lyell Immunopharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: LYEL) and RAPT Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: RAPT). Mr. Rieflin earned his B.S. from Cornell University, his M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and his J.D. from Stanford Law School.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Scientific Advisory Board
- Vice President, Finance
Winsome Chung joined Lycia Therapeutics as Vice President, Finance in May 2022. She has over 20 years of finance, accounting and business operations experience in both private and publicly traded companies across multiple industries including early stage to late stage life science companies. Before joining Lycia, she served as Head of Financial Planning and Analysis at ArsenalBio where she led the corporate and strategic planning function. Prior to ArsenalBio, Winsome held multiple roles at NGM Biopharmaceuticals where she served as Controller as well as Executive Director of FP&A. During her tenure there she built out and scaled the accounting and finance functions and supported the company's initial public offering. Winsome holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley.