VANQUA BIO - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Partner, Omega Funds
Bernard joined Omega Funds in 2020. He has extensive experience in the life sciences and biotech industry, marked by a number of successful transactions involving financings and M&A. Bernard serves currently on the boards of Vanqua Bio, Lexeo Therapeutics, and Endeavor Biomedicines. Bernard was also involved in the firm's investments in Atea Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AVIR) and Icosavax (NASDAQ: ICVX).
Bernard previously served as SVP and Managing Director at Sanofi Ventures, having first joined Sanofi in 2010 as Vice President, Deputy Global Head, Business Development. Over his 7-year tenure, Sanofi Ventures invested in 28 new companies and generated 14 exits (12 NASDAQ IPOs, 1 trade sale and 1 option deal).
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Director of Cell and Molecular Pharmacology at Vanqua
- Vice President, Biology
Dr. Ysselstein is the Director of Cell and Molecular Pharmacology at Vanqua. Prior to joining Vanqua, Dan worked at Northwestern University with Vanqua Co-Founder Dimitri Krainc. His work focused on using induced pluripotent stem cell-derived models to expand the understanding of basic CNS diseases including Parkinson's and Frontal Temporal Dementia. Previously, Dan worked on alpha synuclein structural biology where he identified a new therapeutic approach to modulate alpha synuclein misfolding.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Scientific Advisor
- Chairman, Department of Neurology, and Director, Simpson Querrey Center for Neurogenetics at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine / Chair of the Vanqua Bio Scientific Advisory Board
Dimitri Krainc, M.D., Ph.D. currently serves as the Ward Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurology and Director of the Simpson Querrey Center for Neurogenetics at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. Previously, he spent over two decades at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School where he completed his research and clinical training and served on the neurology faculty. His group discovered how to improve degradation of aggregation-prone proteins such as mutant huntingtin and a-synuclein by the lysosomal pathway. They identified a positive feedback loop between alpha-synuclein and lysosomal glucocerebrosidase in synucleinopathies (Cell, 2011). Using patient-specific neurons, his lab discovered a link between mitochondrial and lysosomal dysfunction in neurodegeneration of human but not mouse midbrain neurons (Science, 2017). Based on these findings, Dr. Krainc's group initiated the development of activators of lysosomal glucocerebrosidase as targeted therapeutics for Parkinson's disease. Their recent discovery of direct contacts between mitochondria and lysosomes and organelle dynamics has implications for various neurological and other disorders (Nature, 2108). Dr. Krainc is a Venture Partner at OrbiMed and serves of SABs of several biotechnology companies. He received numerous awards for his work and is an elected member of the Association of American Physicians and the National Academy of Medicine.
Job Titles:
- Scientific Advisor
- Professor Emeritus in the Departments of Pediatrics, and of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry, and Microbiology at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine
Dr. Grabowski received his M.D. from the University of Minnesota where he also completed his Pediatric residency and fellowship training in Human Genetics. After 13 years at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York where he established the MSSM Lysosomal Disease Center, he moved to Cincinnati where he was the A. Graeme Mitchell Chair of Human Genetics, and Director of the Division of Human Genetics within the Children's Hospital Research Foundation (CHRF). He is Professor Emeritus in the Departments of Pediatrics, and of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry, and Microbiology at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He has published over 355 scholarly works on the basic and clinical science of lysosomal diseases, including Gaucher disease, Fabry disease, Pompe disease, the mucopolysaccharidoses, and lysosomal acid lipase deficiencies. His was the founding Chair of the American Expert Medical Committee of the Project Hope/Genzyme-Sanofi Gaucher Initiative, a philanthropic program to treat Gaucher disease in Egypt and other countries. He has served on this committee for over 30 years. He was the Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) at Synageva from January 2014 to June 2015 and was in charge of developing many programs and platforms before the company was purchased by Alexion. He became the CSO at Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals until June 2019. Currently, he is an independent consultant to several companies and foundations developing therapies for the unmet needs of those with rare diseases.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- CFO - Rhythm Pharma
- Chief Financial Officer of Rhythm Pharmaceuticals
Hunter Smith has been Chief Financial Officer of Rhythm Pharmaceuticals since August 2017, and served as interim Chief Executive Officer from March to July 2020. Since joining Rhythm, Hunter led the company's initial public offering and subsequently raised additional capital totaling over $1 billion. As a member of Rhythm's executive leadership team, Hunter has played a critical role in charting Rhythm's corporate strategy and enabling its growth and development. He has over 30 years' of leadership experience in global finance and management roles across multiple industries, functional disciplines, and geographic regions. He joined Rhythm from Celgene Corporation, where he served as Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer of the Company's Inflammation and Immunology Business Unit. In this role, Hunter provided finance leadership for the global launch of Otezla®, co-led the integration of Receptos, Inc. following its acquisition by Celgene, and led global business planning and analysis for operations in over 16 countries. Before joining Celgene, Hunter worked for fourteen years in roles of increasing responsibility at Bunge Limited. Hunter previously served on the Board of Directors of Aeglea BioTherapeutics, Inc. and chaired its Audit Committee, until its merger with Spyre Therapeutics in 2023. He also previously served as an Independent Director of Genessee & Wyoming Inc. and as a member of the Compensation and Governance Committees, from 2015 until its acquisition by Brookfield Infrastructure Partners in December 2019. He holds an MBA in Finance from NYU's Stern School of Business and a BA in History, with honors, from Northwestern University.
Job Titles:
- Chief Business Officer
- Member of the Leadership Team
Jack has served as Vanqua Bio's Chief Business Officer since April 2021. Prior to joining Vanqua Bio, he was an investment professional on the private equity team at OrbiMed Advisors LLC, a healthcare investment firm. Prior to OrbiMed, he was an equity research associate at Citi, covering medical device companies. He holds a B.A. cum laude in economics from Boston College.
Job Titles:
- Scientific Advisor
- Pharmaceutical Consultant, St Andrews Advisors, LLC
Dr. Summers has over 30 years of drug discovery and pharmaceutical research management experience. He currently serves on the board of directors, scientific advisory board and as an advisor to several biotechnology companies and venture capital firms.
Previously, Jim was Vice President of Neuroscience Research at AbbVie, where he led efforts located in Ludwigshafen Germany, Lake County, IL and Cambridge, MA focused on the discovery of new drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, pain, and psychiatric disorders. Under his leadership, teams have advanced more than twenty compounds into clinical development. Jim established new research sites in Cambridge Massachusetts and Shanghai China, was an architect of several strategies that defined the future direction of global research organizations, and championed multiple successful outlicensing deals, biotech collaborations and venture investments.
Jim earned a Bachelor of Science degree, summa cum laude, in chemistry from Denison University and a doctorate in organic chemistry from Harvard University.
Job Titles:
- Chief Medical Officer
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Acting Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Cedarbaum serves as our acting Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Cedarbaum is a neurologist/clinical trialist with sub-specialty in Movement Disorders. He has spent the majority of his career as an executive in the pharmaceutical industry, leading teams in the areas of neurodegenerative, neuropsychiatric and retinal disorders at Regeneron, Elan, Cytokinetics and Bristol-Myers Squibb and Biogen. His research activities have encompassed efforts to develop novel clinical outcome measures and biomarkers, including digital health technologies for clinical trials. He has served as chair of the ADNI Private Partner Scientific Board, the Industry Scientific Advisory Board of the Michael J. Fox Foundation-sponsored Parkinson Progression Markers Initiative, and as industry co-chair of the Critical Path for Parkinson's consortium. He has authored or-co-authored over 120 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters. Dr. Cedarbaum currently holds appointments in the departments of Neurology and Psychiatry at Yale Medical School.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Director of Medicinal Chemistry at Vanqua
- Executive Director, Chemistry
Dr. Zheng is the Director of Medicinal Chemistry at Vanqua. Prior to joining Vanqua, Jianbin worked at Northwestern University with Dr. Dimitri Krainc and Dr. Richard Silverman as a research assistant professor. His work focused on medicinal chemistry efforts of early drug discovery for CNS diseases and study of drug-protein interactions. Previously, Jianbin worked on several drug discovery projects as a principal investigator at the East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Co - Founder and CEO of Vanqua
Dr. Sullivan is co-founder and CEO of Vanqua. In addition, he has been a Venture Partner with Orbimed since January 2019. Previously, he was the Vice President of Research at Abbvie where he was responsible for the company's research efforts in a variety of therapeutic/disease areas including oncology, immunology, neurology, hepatitis C and cystic fibrosis. Jim has advanced more than 100 compounds into clinical development across a number of disease states and technology platforms. These include products on the market for HCV (Mavyret and Viekira), the first-in-class Bcl2 selective inhibitor, Venclexta, for hematological cancers, a new oral agent for patients with rheumatoid arthritis, RINVOQ, and multiple compounds currently in Phase II or III clinical trials. He has authored/co-authored more than 130 scientific publications and is an inventor on 11 patents. Jim is an adjunct faculty member at Northwestern University and serves on the board of several companies and foundations including Regis Technologies, Genomics Medicine Ireland, Genuity Science, MATTER Healthcare Incubator, Chicago Biotechnology Accelerator and the Pistoia Alliance. He earned his bachelor's degree and Ph.D. in biochemistry from Trinity College Dublin and conducted post-doctoral research in neurobiology at Northwestern University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Executive Partner at OrbiMed
Mr. Silverstein is an Executive Partner at OrbiMed. Jonathan joined OrbiMed in 1999 to focus on private equity and structured transactions in small capitalization public biotechnology and medical device companies. He was previously a Director of Life Sciences in the Investment Banking Department at Sumitomo Bank. Forbes® Magazine named Jonathan one of the top 100 venture capitalists in the world when it placed him on the "Midas List" seven times in the last decade. He holds a J.D. and an M.B.A. from the University of San Diego, and a B.A. in Economics from Denison University.
Job Titles:
- Chief Scientific Officer
- Member of the Leadership Team
Dr. Hunt serves as our Chief Scientific Officer. Prior to joining Vanqua Bio, Kevin was Executive Director of Drug Discovery for Edgewise Therapeutics where he oversaw internal and external medicinal chemistry, preclinical CMC, ADME, and non-GLP toxicology. Kevin has discovered multiple clinical candidates for life threatening diseases and has published over fifty patents and publications. Previously, he led target validation and preclinical development activities as a faculty member in the Center for Alzheimer's and Neurodegenerative Diseases at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Before UTSW, Kevin was Site Head of the Calico Life Science outpost in Dallas where he focused on novel treatments for Parkinson's disease and evaluated potential new targets. Kevin began his career at Array BioPharma in Boulder leading teams that discovered multiple clinical and pre-clinical candidates for allergic diseases, oncology, and neurogenerative disorders. Kevin was a Presidential Honors Scholar and Varsity Cross Country Runner at Tarleton State University where he received his B.S. in Chemistry. He earned a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Indiana University and was a George E. Hewitt Foundation for Medical Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The Scripps Research Center.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Partner on the Private Equity Team
- Partner, OrbiMed
Dr. Ashiya is a Partner on the private equity team at OrbiMed where she has been involved in a number of the firm's private and public company investments. Prior to joining OrbiMed in 2010, Mona covered the biotechnology industry as a member of J.P. Morgan's biotechnology equity research team. Her previous experience includes positions at the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development and the Harvard Business School. Mona has also published scientific articles in various peer reviewed journals. She earned a B.A. degree from the University of California at Berkeley, a Ph.D. in Cellular, Molecular, and Developmental Biology from the University of Pittsburgh, and was a post-doctoral fellow at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
Job Titles:
- Chief Development Officer
- Member of the Leadership Team
Omer Siddiqui serves as our Chief Development Officer. Prior to joining Vanqua, Omer was overseeing the development operations and project management at Harpoon Therapeutics to progress clinical programs in the clinic. Previously, Omer was a member of the early leadership team at Alector, a biotech company working on leveraging the immune system to discover cures for neurodegenerative diseases. At Alector, he served as head of clinical development operations and led the strategy and execution of trials for the portfolio of drugs in the clinic across multiple neurological indications. He has successfully built high-performing cross functional teams to oversee clinical programs in various organizations. Previous career experience includes leadership roles at Allakos, a biotechnology company developing antibodies for the treatment of allergic, inflammatory and proliferative diseases, and at Genentech research and early development. Omer received an MSc in Biotechnology at Johns Hopkins University and a BSc in Biology from the University of Western Ontario, Canada.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Physician
- Biotech Executive
Dr. Sutherland is a physician-scientist focused on developing novel treatments for patients with rare and difficult-to-treat conditions, across multiple therapeutic areas. He was previously Chief Executive Officer of Seeker Biologics, a privately-held biotechnology company discovering and developing targeted therapies for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. Prior to joining Seeker, Dr. Sutherland was President of Translate Bio, leading teams responsible for developing the company's mRNA technology in cystic fibrosis and other rare diseases, until its acquisition in 2021. Prior to joining Translate Bio, he served in various research, development and medical affairs roles at Sanofi, including as Global Head of Rare Diseases Development, where he and his colleagues designed and executed innovative clinical development programs for novel therapies in lysosomal storage diseases, rare neurological conditions, and rare blood disorders. Dr. Sutherland also serves as an independent director of Krystal Biotech.
Before joining industry, Dr. Sutherland was Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado and Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at National Jewish Health in Denver, where he cared for patients and led an NIH-funded research program. Dr. Sutherland holds a BA from Oberlin College, an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health, and an MD from the University of Chicago. He trained in Internal Medicine at UCSF, followed by a fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Colorado.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Partner at Avoro Ventures
Dr. Chuluunbaatar is a Partner at Avoro Ventures. Uya has over 15 years of healthcare experience across a range of functions including venture capital, public equity investing, technology transfer and academic research. Prior to joining Avoro Ventures, Uya was a Principal at Amzak Health where she led private and public biotech investments. Prior to Amzak, Uya was a sell side biotech equity research analyst at Goldman Sachs, covering large and mid-cap companies. Uya completed her Ph.D in Microbiology at New York University School of Medicine, conducting research in virus-host interactions. Her work was published in several scientific, peer-reviewed journals. She holds a B.S. in Biochemistry from Cornell University. Uya currently serves on the board of Hemab Therapeutics.