NURA BIO™ - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Dr. Sumner is a Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She received her BA from Princeton University and her MD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She completed her internal medicine internship and neurology residency at the University of California, San Francisco and her neuromuscular fellowship at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Her scientific training included a Neurogenetics fellowship at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Dr. Sumner cares for patients with inherited neuromuscular diseases and co-directs the Johns Hopkins SMA and CMT clinics. Dr. Sumner's research focuses on the genetic and cellular pathogenesis of inherited motor neuropathies/neuronopathies with particular attention to identification of disease genes, characterization of molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying disease pathogenesis, and preclinical development of therapeutics. She has served as an advisor to SMA nonprofit foundations, government and private companies involved in therapeutics development for SMA. She is the coeditor of the only comprehensive book on SMA: Spinal Muscular Atrophy Disease Mechanisms and Therapy.

Job Titles:

• Principal at Samsara Biocapital

Dr. Freedland is Principal at Samsara Biocapital, which he joined in 2017. Prior to Samsara, Dr. Freedland was a Principal at Sofinnova Ventures, where he focused on biopharmaceutical investments. He played a central role in Sofinnova's investments in Civitas (acquired by Acorda), NextCure, NuCana Biomed (NCNA), Principia Biopharma, Spark Therapeutics (acquired by Roche), Ziarco (acquired by Novartis) and ZS Pharma (acquired by AstraZeneca). Prior to Sofinnova, Dr. Freedland was a Principal at Novo A/S. Before his transition to healthcare investing, he was a Vice President in the healthcare investment banking practice at Morgan Stanley, where he advised on over $12 billion of strategic and financing transactions in the biopharmaceutical and life science tools/diagnostics sectors. Prior to transitioning to life science finance, he worked as a Research Scientist for Roche, focusing on preclinical drug discovery and novel target identification for psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases. He received his PhD in Pharmacology from Wake Forest University School of Medicine and his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. He holds a BA in Psychology and Religious Studies from Connecticut College.

Job Titles:

• Senior Vice President, Development Sciences

David joined Nura Bio as Senior Vice President, Development Sciences in November 2021. Over the past three decades, he has worked in early drug development functions of large pharma and biotech companies. After starting his career at the preclinical pharmacokinetics group at Sandoz Pharmaceuticals, David joined Amgen as one of the initial pharmacokinetics scientists there. Later he headed up the pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism department of Amgen, in support of small molecule drug discovery and development efforts. He was also the West Coast Site Head for the Global Preclinical Development at Johnson and Johnson, and later served as the Vice President of Preclinical Safety Assessment at Rigel Pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining Nura, David was Senior Vice President of NCE Development at Foresee Pharmaceuticals, a Taiwanese-based biotechnology company. David's passion is to enable lead optimization of drug candidates, bring the molecules through preclinical and early clinical development, and provide translation information for proof-of-concept studies in patients. He received his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of California at San Francisco, with his research work focused in the areas of pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and drug metabolism.

Job Titles:

• Director of the Byers Eye Institute
• Professor and Chair

Dr. Jeffrey Goldberg is Professor and Chair of Ophthalmology and Director of the Byers Eye Institute at Stanford University. His clinical effort is focused on patients in need of medical or surgical intervention for glaucoma and other retinal and optic nerve diseases, as well as cataract. His research is directed at neuroprotection and regeneration of retinal ganglion cells and the optic nerve, a major unmet need in glaucoma and other optic neuropathies, and his laboratory is developing novel molecular, stem cell and nanotherapeutics approaches for eye repair. Dr. Goldberg received his BS magna cum laude from Yale University, and his MD and PhD from Stanford University where he made significant discoveries about the failure of optic nerve regeneration. He did his clinical training in ophthalmology followed by glaucoma at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, and was awarded a fellowship from the Heed Foundation. Dr. Goldberg was named the 2010 Scientist of the Year by the Hope For Vision foundation, and received the Cogan award from the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology in 2012. He was elected in 2010 to the American Society of Clinical Investigation, an honorary society of physician scientists. He directs an NIH-funded research laboratory and is one of the scientists funded by the National Eye Institute's Audacious Goals Initiative. In addition, Dr. Goldberg has developed significant expertise with implementing FDA clinical trials for optic nerve neuroprotection and regeneration. His goal is to translate scientific discoveries to patient therapies.

Job Titles:

• Co - Founder
• Director of the Vollum Institute at Oregon Health

Dr. Marc Freeman is the Director of the Vollum Institute at Oregon Health and Sciences University, having moved from the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 2016 where he was Vice-Chairman of Neurobiology. Since 2003, his laboratory has focused on neuron-glia signaling after injury, in particular how neurons undergo auto-destruction and signal to non-neuronal cells for timely clearance, and how these events modulate disease pathology. The Freeman lab was the first to discover SARM1 as a potent, axon-intrinsic, pro-degenerative factor. Dr. Freeman's research also aims to understand in molecular terms the basic functions of glial cells during nervous system assembly and pruning, neural circuit maintenance and physiological function, and ultimately animal behavior. Dr. Freeman completed his BS at Eastern Connecticut State University (1993), received his PhD at Yale University working with John Carlson (1999) and carried out his postdoctoral studies at the University of Oregon with Chris Q Doe (1999-03). Freeman was an Alfred P Sloan Research Fellow, Smith Family New Investigator, HHMI Early Career Scientist and HHMI Investigator.

Job Titles:

• Co - Founder
• Distinguished Chair in Basic Biomedical Research

Dr. Steve McKnight is the Distinguished Chair in Basic Biomedical Research in the Biochemistry Department at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Dr. McKnight received his undergraduate training in biology at the University of Texas, and his PhD training also in biology at the University of Virginia. For postdoctoral training, he worked under the mentorship of Dr. Donald Brown at the Carnegie Embryology Department in the late 1970's, and has since held positions at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the Carnegie Embryology Department and the Biochemistry Department of UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Dr. McKnight has been involved in the creation of several biotechnology companies including Tularik, Inc., Peloton Therapeutics and Nura Bio. Throughout his career, Dr. McKnight has utilized innovative biochemical, molecular biological and biophysical approaches to study regulatory phenomena that control complex biological processes.

Job Titles:

• the Column Group As a Venture Partner
• Venture Partner, the Column Group

Dr. Josey joined The Column Group as a Venture Partner in 2020. Previously he served as the President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Peloton Therapeutics, Inc., from 2013 until its acquisition by Merck in 2019. He joined Peloton in 2011 as the first employee in the role of President and Chief Scientific Officer. For over thirteen years, Dr. Josey was employed at Array BioPharma Inc., a company that he helped to build as a member of the founding management team. There he rose to Vice President of Discovery Chemistry. Dr. Josey's previous experience also includes Amgen, Inc. and the Glaxo Research Institute. He received a B.S. degree in chemistry from Colorado State University, a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from The University of Texas at Austin, and an M.B.A. from the University of Colorado. He was a Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Postdoctoral Fellow at the California Institute of Technology. In addition to Nura Bio, Dr. Josey currently serves on the Board of Directors for VHL Alliance, Circle Pharma, Inc. (Chair), and Day One Biopharmaceuticals.

Job Titles:

• Founding President, CEO and Board Chairman of Revolution Medicines

Dr. Goldsmith is Founding President, CEO and Board Chairman of Revolution Medicines. He previously was Partner with Third Rock Ventures in its West Coast office. Prior to Third Rock, Dr. Goldsmith served in senior management roles in private and public biotechnology companies. He was President and Chief Executive Officer of Constellation Pharmaceuticals from 2009 to 2012, and since 2012 has been the company's Board Chairman. He was the first CEO of both Global Blood Therapeutics and Nurix Therapeutics, as well as CEO of Cogentus Pharmaceuticals and Senior Vice President of Genencor International. He also served as senior executive-in-residence at Prospect Venture Partners. After postgraduate training at the Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School and UCSF, Mark joined the faculty of the UCSF School of Medicine, led a dynamic research laboratory within the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology and taught and practiced medicine at the San Francisco General Hospital/UCSF. He has co-authored 85 scientific publications and is co-inventor on multiple issued patents and applications. Mark holds an AB from Princeton University and an MD and PhD in microbiology and immunology from UCSF. He was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians.

Job Titles:

• EVP & Chief Medical Officer of Annexon Biosciences

Dr. Keswani is EVP & Chief Medical Officer of Annexon Biosciences, a position he has held since June 2019. He is an accomplished physician-scientist with broad R&D expertise in multiple therapeutic areas and is a former Neurology faculty member at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and an elected Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, United Kingdom. Dr. Keswani has held senior executive positions in the pharmaceutical industry, including Roche, where he was Senior Vice President and Global Head of Neuroscience, Ophthalmology and Rare Diseases Research and Early Development. During his tenure at Roche, his group successfully advanced five molecules to Phase 3 development. Prior to Roche, he was Vice President, Exploratory and Clinical Translational Research at Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he was responsible for multiple therapeutic areas including Immunology, Neuroscience, Rare Diseases, Fibrosis and Virology. He also held R&D leadership roles at Eli Lilly & Co. and Amgen, Inc. where he prosecuted the development of the now-approved CGRP antibodies for migraine prevention, Emgality and Aimovig. Dr. Keswani completed his residency in Neurology and fellowships in Neuroimmunology and Neurophysiology at Johns Hopkins, where he cared for patients with diverse neurological diseases and ran a R01-funded neuroimmunology research lab. He graduated in medicine at St. Bartholomew's Hospital and holds an Honors BSc degree from St. Mary's Hospital, London in Pathology & Basic Medical Sciences (Immunology).

Job Titles:

• Chief Scientific Officer
• Member of the Founding Scientific Team at Nura

Shilpa is a member of the founding scientific team at Nura Bio and serves as Chief Scientific Officer. She is spearheading Nura Bio's state-of-the art neurobiology capabilities as well as playing a pivotal role in driving research strategy and preclinical pipeline development. Prior to Nura Bio, Shilpa spent several years at Amgen and NGM Biopharmaceuticals. Most recently, as a Project Team Lead at Amgen, she successfully launched and supported drug discovery programs in the neuroscience therapeutic area with a focus on neurodegenerative diseases. Shilpa received her undergraduate degree in biological sciences from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani, India. Her PhD research conducted in the lab of Professor David Eisenberg at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, UCLA, was focused on defining fundamental structural features of aggregation-prone proteins implicated in neurodegenerative diseases. Shilpa was also a Bio-X Genentech Foundation postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University with Professor Axel Brunger.

Job Titles:

• Founding Member and Chair of the Nura Bio Board of Directors

Dr. Kutzkey is a founding member and Chair of the Nura Bio board of directors. He is Managing Partner, The Column Group (TCG), which he joined in 2007 shortly after the firm's inception. He has since played an active role in the launch of more than a dozen of the firm's portfolio companies. His primary focus is company creation, often taking interim management roles at new start-ups until the recruitment of a permanent leadership team. Dr. Kutzkey has served as the acting CEO of Nurix Therapeutics, Peloton Therapeutics, Neurona Therapeutics, Surrozen and Nura Bio. Dr. Kutzkey was formerly a scientist at KAI Pharmaceuticals, focused on the discovery and development of selective protein kinase C inhibitors. Prior to KAI, he attended UC Berkeley as a graduate student in the lab of Dr. Robert Tjian, completing his PhD in 2005. Dr. Kutzkey earned his undergraduate degree at Stanford University.