YATIRIBIO - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• ADVISOR
• Member of the Advisory Board

Job Titles:

• CBO / FOUNDER
• Celgene Corporation in 2001 As a Research Scientist
• Co - Founder at Yatiri

Afshin Mahmoudi is a co-founder at Yatiri Bio and serves as a VP of Business Development. Mr. Mahmoudi is an accomplished pharmaceutical professional with over 20 years of comprehensive experience in drug discovery, small and large molecules, management and business development focusing on oncology. He received his B.S. and M.S. in Genetics from the University of Iowa in 1995. In 1997 he moved to Seattle and began his first job as a Research Technician, and by 1999 he joined the private sector and was hired by Targeted Genetics Corporation to work on process development of Adeno-associated virus (AAV). Mr. Mahmoudi joined Celgene Corporation in 2001 as a Research Scientist and was a key member of Structure-Based Drug Design (SBDD). He was instrumental in establishing the downstream purification and characterization group responsible for Celgene's first novel structure. He was also the Project Manager of multiple targets leading to drug candidates. By 2010, he pioneered the large molecule production and characterization within biotherapeutics. In addition, he was a primary business liaison between Celgene and other partners to integrate new innovative technologies in developing novel therapeutics for a wide range of diseases. Today, Mr. Mahmoudi serves as an impactful and visionary member of the leadership team at Yatiri Bio. He is a passionate, dedicated professional guiding the company's business strategy and innovation into the future

Job Titles:

• HEAD
• HEAD of PROTEOMICS

Job Titles:

• ADVISOR
• Member of the Advisory Board

Job Titles:

• ADVISOR
• Member of the Advisory Board
• CEO of Synbal

Dr. Webb is currently CEO of Synbal(www.synbal.com), Chairman of the Board at Agragene (www.agragene/com)and Adjunct Professor at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI). He was Chairman of the Board of Sorrento Therapeutics from 2012-2014and is also former chairman of the Board of BIOCOM (2012), a former member of the Executive Committee of the Board of CONNECT, a member of the Board of Directors of the La Jolla Institute of Allergy and Immunology, and a member of the dean's Advisory Council of the College of Science and Mathematics at Cal State University, San Marcos. He also serves as a consultant and advisor to several biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Webb joined Celgene-San Diego in September2003 as Vice President, Research. During this time, the Research Division placed six drugs into clinical development; four of which are still in clinical studies (Phases I and II) in the areas of cancer and inflammation/autoimmunity (one with Array Biopharma). He was the first Project Leader for the development of Otezla (Apremilast) leading it through its IND and Phase I trials; now approved for psoriasis and other autoimmune diseases. Between 1995 and 2003, he held a series of senior management positions in several biotechnology companies where he developed and led drug discovery programs focused on inflammation, asthma, cancer, and diabetes. These included Syrrx (Vice President of Drug Discovery, 2001-2003)where he led a team that discovered and developed a log liptin for type II diabetes; OSI Pharmaceuticals(Corporate Vice President, Drug Discovery 1999-2001)where he was associated with the development of Tarceva; and Cadus PharmaceuticalCorporation (Vice President of Research and Chief Scientific Officer, 1995-99)and also Adjunct Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at New York Medical College. From 1987 to 1995, Dr. Webb was at Syntex, Inc., (Distinguished Scientist and Director, Institute of Immunology and Biological Sciences)and was responsible for all of the inflammation and immunology research programs world-wide. He was part of the development team for CellCept.He was also a consulting professor of Cancer Biology at Stanford University. From 1973-1987 he was an Associate Member of the Department of Cell Biology, Roche Institute of Molecular Biology and Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons. From 1971-73 he was a Dernham Junior Fellow of the American Cancer Society, California Division at UCSF. He received his Ph.D. from Rutgers University in 1971. He has published over 200 papers and abstracts and has been a member of numerous editorial boards and study sections in Immunology.

Job Titles:

• ADVISOR
• Member of the Advisory Board

Job Titles:

• ADVISOR
• Member of the Advisory Board

Greg Reyes, M.D., Ph.D. has over 30 years of experience as a senior leader in biotech and large pharma exploring drug discovery and development in multiple therapy areas. His leadership positions included leading Drug Discovery for Celgene Corporation and site head for their San Diego Calif facility (now part of Bristol-Myers Squibb) and prior to that leading the Oncology franchise at Biogen Idec (now Biogen). His resume also includes heading Discovery Biology at the Ann Arbor campus for Pfizer Inc. and leading the Tumor Biology and Infectious Diseases group at Schering-Plough (now Merck). Over the years his teams have nominated and progressed well over 50 compounds, both small molecules and biologics, from discovery into preclinical and clinical development. One of those compounds, developed under his leadership at Schering-Plough, was Victrelis™ (boceprevir) which gained approval as one of the first antiviral treatments for chronic hepatitis C. This seminal work to discover the first HCV protease inhibitor led to the 2012 Prix Galien Award shared by Victrelis™ and Vertex's Incivek™ as the ‘best pharmaceutical agent' in both the UK and US. Greg obtained his M.D. and Ph.D. (Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics Department) degrees from The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, followed by medical training at Stanford University Hospital, Palo Alto, CA and a Damon Runyon Cancer Research Fellowship with the late Dr. Henry Kaplan at his Cancer Biology Research Lab, Stanford School of Medicine. He has nearly 100 scientific publications and 50 US and foreign patents and patent applications. He currently serves as an advisor to the New Agents Committee of the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) organization and is past member of a number of senior advisory councils including the National Advisory General Medical Sciences (NAGMS) Council (National Institutes of Health), Past Chair of the External Advisory Committee to the International Outreach Program (St. Jude Children's Research Hospital) and past member of the Standing Review Committee for the Research Centers in Minority Institutions, National Center for Research Resources (National Institutes of Health).

Job Titles:

• SCIENTIST I

Job Titles:

• ADVISOR
• Member of the Advisory Board

Job Titles:

• ADVISOR
• Member of the Advisory Board

Job Titles:

• ADVISOR
• Member of the Advisory Board
• Ernest W. Hahn Professor

John R. Yates is the Ernest W. Hahn Professor in the Departments of Molecular Medicine and Neurobiology at The Scripps Research Institute. His research interests include development of integrated methods for tandem mass spectrometry analysis of protein mixtures, bioinformatics using mass spectrometry data, and biological studies involving proteomics. He is the lead inventor of the SEQUEST software for correlating tandem mass spectrometry data to sequences in the database and developer of the shotgun proteomics technique for the analysis of protein mixtures. His laboratory has developed the use of proteomic techniques to analyze protein complexes, posttranslational modifications, organelles and quantitative analysis of protein expression for the discovery of new biology. Many proteomic approaches developed by Yates have become a national and international resource to many investigators in the scientific community. He has received the American Society for Mass Spectrometry research award, the Pehr Edman Award in Protein Chemistry, the American Society for Mass Spectrometry Biemann Medal, the HUPO Distinguished Achievement Award in Proteomics, Herbert Sober Award from the ASBMB, and the Christian Anfinsen Award from The Protein Society, the 2015 ACS's Analytical Chemistry award, 2015 The Ralph N. Adams Award in Bioanalytical Chemistry, the 2018 Thomson Medal from the International Mass Spectrometry Society, the 2019 John B. Fenn Distinguished Contribution to Mass Spectrometry award from the ASMS, and the 2019 HUPO Award in Discovery. He was ranked by Citation Impact, Science Watch as one of the Top 100 Chemists for the decade, 2000-2010. He was #1 on a List of Most Influential in Analytical Chemistry compiled by The Analytical Scientist 10/30/2013 and is on the List Of Most Highly Influential Biomedical Researchers, 1996-2011, European J. Clinical Investigation 2013, 43, 1339-1365 and the Thomson Reuters 2015 and 2019 List of Highly Cited Scientists. He has published over 1000 scientific articles with >139,877 citations, and an H index of 183 (Google Scholar). Dr. Yates served as an Associate Editor at Analytical Chemistry for 15 years and is currently the Editor in Chief at the Journal of Proteome Research.

Job Titles:

• COO
• FOUNDER

Job Titles:

• ADVISOR
• Member of the Advisory Board

Dr. Chapman is a veteran of large and small biotech companies.  He is well versed in all aspects of drug discovery, from target selection, validation, screening, hit-to-lead, lead optimization, preclinical testing, candidate selection, and early clinical development. He has worked with small molecules as well as therap eutic antibodies.   Mark has led cross-functional teams, established partnerships with CROs, clinicians, and academic groups, and is adept at addressing key questions in a cost-effective manner. He has deep knowledge in oncology and has additional experie nce in endocrinology and immunology.  He holds a BA in genetics (UC Berkeley), a PhD in Biochemistry (University of Arizona), and trained at the Salk Institute. Dr. Chapman actively consults for a number of start-up/small biotech companies. Past clients include Celgene, Aragon Pharmaceuticals, Sanofi Aventis, and Molecular Response.

Job Titles:

• ADVISOR
• Member of the Advisory Board

Mike Breider, D.V.M., Ph.D. is a Board Certified Veterinary Pathologist with extensive experience as a manager and scientist in various aspects of Drug Discovery and Development. Recently retired, Mike's last position was with Celgene Pharmaceuticals as the Head of Exploratory Toxicology in the San Diego laboratory. The responsibilities of that group in Celgene consisted of conducting early non-GLP toxicology studies, working with Discovery scientists to develop predictive animal models of human disease, and collaborating with Celgene clinical scientists to develop and evaluate immunohistochemical biomarkers of clinical efficacy. Previous positions in other pharmaceutical companies included Senior Direc tor of Preclinical Development at Ambit Biosciences in San Diego from 2007 to 2010. In this role, Mike was responsible for managing the toxicology, pharmacokinetics, and project management functions. Before joining Ambit, during his 1992 - 2007 tenure at Parke-Davis/Pfizer Research and Development in Ann Arbor MI, he was responsible for leading both Inflammation and CNS Development Teams. In addition, Mike held various management and scientific positions in Pfizer/Parke-Davis including Head of Preclinica l Safety Portfolio Management, Head of Pathology, Director of Investigative Pathology, and staff toxicopathologist. He was actively involved in several successful drug development projects leading to NDA approval, including Lipitor®, Rezulin®, and Lyrica®. Prior to his career in the pharmaceutical industry, from 1984 to 1992, Dr. Breider was a tenured faculty pathologist at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine, where he conducted an active research program of infectious disease pathog enesis and mechanisms of endothelial cell damage. Dr. Breider is an ACVP board-certified veterinary pathologist in anatomic pathology. He received a Ph.D. in Veterinary Pathology from Texas A&M University in 1985, DVM from Oklahoma State University in 19 78, and B.S. in Agricultural Science in 1978. Dr. Breider also served as a veterinary practitioner in a mixed animal practice in rural North Dakota from 1978 - 1980.

Job Titles:

• CEO
• FOUNDER

Pilgrim Jackson, Ph.D. co-founded Yatiri Bio in 2020 and currently serves as CEO. Prior to founding Yatiri Bio Dr. Jackson worked at Celgene for 13 years where he built and lead multidisciplinary teams to tackle challenging drug discovery problems in the areas of inflammation and oncology. Most recently Dr. Jackson was the head of the systems proteomics group, a team specifically built to produce vast amounts of biologically relevant data and, more importantly, turn that data into actionable knowledge. In this capacity he was able to identify numerous novel protein degrader targets. Additionally, this approach uncovered biological pathways and mechanisms of action that revealed new biomarkers. Dr. Jackson was actively involved in several drug discovery projects that delivered 6 therapeutics to the clinic across biologic, PROTAC, and small molecule modalities, resulting in 4 patents. He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from University of California Santa Cruz in 2005 and a B.S in Molecular Biochemistry and Biophysics from Yale University in 1998.

Job Titles:

• CCO
• FOUNDER
• Vice President of Commercial and R & D at AnaSpec, Inc

Raman Afshar serves as the Vice President of Commercial and R&D at AnaSpec, Inc. since 2015 and is responsible for the company's new product development, marketing campaigns, and worldwide sales. Raman earned a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of California, Santa Cruz and Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts degrees in Molecular Biology and General Chemistry from San Jose State University. Raman enjoys and takes great pride in participating in Manufacturing Day, an organization formed in Fremont that is dedicated to inspiring colleges students to pursue careers in manufacturing and engineering.

Job Titles:

• HEAD of BIOINFORMATICS

Job Titles:

• VP LEGAL AFFAIRS

Sam Tahmassebi has over 20 years of experience representing startup companies in intellectual property and transactional matters. His expertise is in the prosecution of patent applications, counseling on IPstrategy, invalidity and non-infringement opinions, IPdue diligence in relation to mergers and acquisitions, venture capital investments, and initial public offerings (IPO), preparation and/or negotiation of licensing contracts, confidential disclosure agreements (CDA), material transfer agreements (MTA), collaboration agreements, consultation agreements, and IP-related documents associated with SEC filings. He is currently an adjunct professor of law at the University of Utah, S.J. Quinney School of Law. Dr. Tahmassebi received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, San Diego, Revelle College. He then went on to obtain his Ph.D. in organometallic chemistry from the University of Washington. Dr. Tahmassebi then worked as a research associate at the University of Rochester, where he designed organometallic catalysts for the production of organosulfur compounds. Subsequently, he was an adjunct professor of chemistry at University of San Diego.Dr. Tahmassebi received his J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law in May of 2000, graduating cum laude. He received CALI Awards in Criminal Law, UCC Sales, and Commercial Paper, Patents and Tradesecrets, Biotechnology Law, and Intellectual Property law. Upon graduation, he was admitted to the Order of the Coif.