ALPHINA THERAPEUTICS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Professor and Chair, City of Hope
Charles Brenner is one of the world's leading experts on nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD), the central catalyst of metabolism. He discovered the vitamin activity of nicotinamide riboside (NR) and the eukaryotic NR kinase pathway and developed targeted quantitative NAD metabolomic technologies that uncovered the phenomenon that the NAD metabolome is frequently disturbed in conditions of metabolic stress. He runs an active research program on mechanistic dissection and translation of NAD dysregulation as the Alfred E. Mann Chair of the new Department of Diabetes and Cancer Metabolism at City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California. Prior to his faculty position at City of Hope, Charles held faculty positions at Thomas Jefferson University, Dartmouth College and most recently, the University of Iowa.
Charles is an experienced advisor for biotechnology companies including roles on the scientific advisory board of Cytokinetics and Ridgeline. He also currently serves as the Chief Scientific Advisor for ChromaDex.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Scientific Advisory Board
- Physician
- Physician - Scientist at the Yale School of Medicine
- Professor, Yale Medical School
Dr. Ranjit Bindra is a physician-scientist at the Yale School of Medicine and Co-Director of the Yale Brain Tumor Center. His group recently reported the stunning discovery that IDH1/2-mutant tumors harbor a profound DNA repair defect that renders them exquisitely sensitive to PARP inhibitors. This work was published in Science Translational Medicine, Nature Genetics, and Nature, and it has received international attention with major clinical implications. Dr. Bindra is now translating this work directly into patients, in four phase I/II clinical trials. In addition, he is co-PI of a 35-site, NCI-sponsored Phase II trial testing the PARP inhibitor, olaparib, in adult IDH1/2-mutant solid tumors (NCT03212274).
As a biotech entrepreneur he co-founded Cybrexa Therapeutics, a clinical stage company developing a new class of tumor-targeted DNA damaging agents.
Dr. Bindra received his undergraduate degree in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University in 1998, and both his MD and PhD from the Yale School of Medicine in 2007. He completed his medical internship, radiation oncology residency, and post-doctoral research studies at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in 2012.
Job Titles:
- Medical Oncologist and Physician - Scientist
Dr. Timothy Yap is a Medical Oncologist and Physician-Scientist based at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is an Associate Professor in the Department for Investigational Cancer Therapeutics (Phase I Program), and the Departmentof Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology. Dr. Yap is the Medical Director of the Institute for Applied Cancer Science, a drug discovery biopharmaceutical unit where drug discovery and clinical translation are seamlessly integrated. He is also the Associate Director of Translational Research in the Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy, which is an integrated research and clinical trials program aimed at implementing personalized cancer therapy and improving patient outcomes. Prior to his current position, Dr. Yap was a Consultant Medical Oncologist at The Royal Marsden Hospital in London, UK and National Institute for Health Research BRC Clinician Scientist at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, UK.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Alphina Team
- Director, Biochemistry
Emmanuel is an all-around medicinal chemist and a prominent enzymologist. His studies on enzyme-catalyzed reactions delivered a valuable playbook to inhibit or activate various therapeutic targets. He served as a Research Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Bronx, NY). There, he invented analytical platforms for the high-throughput screening of enzyme inhibitors, including the 1-Step EZ-MTase to target and study methyltransferases. Dr. Burgos received his MS in Chemical Engineering from Chimie ParisTech (2001), and his PhD in Synthetic Chemistry from Orsay Paris-XI (2004). He completed his post-doctoral research studies at the Albert Einstein college of Medicine in 2010. Emmanuel joined the team mid-2020 as a consultant to build-up the company pipeline of Alphina's first target and in April 2021 he became employee #1. As Director of Biochemistry, Emmanuel is managing our internal biochemistry/biology research and plays a critical role in overseeing assays and screening platforms at CROs.
Job Titles:
- VP, Head of Biology and Pharmacology
Jeff is a San Diego-based biopharma executive with over 25-years of experience in tumor biology, cancer pharmacology, & oncology drug discovery. He is currently an Executive in Residence at Boxer Capital. Before Boxer Capital, he was Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer and Head of Target Discovery and External Innovation at IDEAYA Biosciences. Prior to that he was co-founder, Senior Vice President and Head of Biology at IDEAYA. Before IDEAYA, he was VP of Biology at Seragon Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Roche/Genentech) where he oversaw all in vitro and in vivo biology and pharmacology that lead to the discovery of 2 novel, clinical stage selective estrogen receptor degraders (SERDs) developed as treatment for hormone receptor positive breast cancer. Previously, Jeff was Senior Director at Aragon Pharmaceuticals which was acquired by Johnson & Johnson. At Aragon, his team was central in pre-clinical development of the novel anti-androgen apalutamide (Erleada™), an FDA approved treatment for early-stage castration resistant prostate cancer. Previously, he was Associate Director of Biology at Apoptos, Inc. and before that a Principal Scientist and Head of Cancer Pharmacology at Kalypsys, Inc.
He did graduate studies at Princeton University and University of California at Berkeley, the later from which he received a PhD in molecular and cell biology. He was a postdoctoral fellow and staff scientist at the University of California at San Francisco and is an author of publications in Annual Review of Cancer Biology, eLife, Science, Nature Genetics, Cancer Cell, Cancer Research and Cancer Discovery.
Job Titles:
- VP, Head of Medicinal Chemistry
John Kadow is a medicinal chemist with considerable experience as a drug hunter in the pharmaceutical industry. Most recently he served as Senior Director of Medicinal Chemistry at ViiV Healthcare where he led a team of medicinal chemists who helped produce drug candidates aimed at improving the lives of people living with HIV. Prior to that he worked at Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. where he reached a position of Group Director of Medicinal Chemistry and co-led teams in the virology and oncology therapeutic areas which progressed more than ten compounds to the development organization including two that realized approvals. John was a member of a BMS Team who received a PhRMA 2014 Research & Hope Award for Excellence in Biopharmaceutical Research for the discovery and early development of an HIV attachment inhibitor. He became a member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering (CASE) in 2015 and is currently serving a two-year term as president that began in July of 2022. John is a co-inventor on more than 135 patent applications and a co-author on many peer-reviewed publications. Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, John did postdoctoral research in synthetic chemistry at Yale University in New Haven, CT. John received his PhD in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from Wayne State University in Detroit, MI, and a BA in chemistry from Hope College in Holland, MI.
Job Titles:
- Scientist, Translational Science
Job Titles:
- Senior Scientist, Biology
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder of HighCape Partners
- Partner, HighCape Capital
Kevin Rakin is co-founder of HighCape Partners and brings more than 25 years of experience as an executive and investor in the life sciences industry. He has co-foundered a number of Yale spin-offs including, together with Dr. Bindra, Cybrexa Therapeutics. He most recently served as President of Shire Regenerative Medicine. Prior to joining Shire, Mr. Rakin was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Advanced BioHealing from 2007 until its acquisition by Shire in 2011 for $750M. Before that, he served as an executive-in-residence at Canaan Partners. Previously, he was a Co-Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Genaissance Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a publicly traded pharmacogenomics company, until its merger with Clinical Data, Inc. in 2005. His Board memberships include Aziyo Biologics, Inc. (Chairman), Wellinks (Chairman) and Cybrexa, Inc.
Dr. W. Lee Kraus is a molecular biologist and endocrinologist who has made significant contributions to our understanding of the mechanisms by which steroid and NAD+ signaling pathways control gene expression. His discoveries at the forefront of chromatin, transcriptional regulation, and genomics have increased our understanding of how signal-regulated transcription factors, coregulator complexes, and histone- and chromatin-modifying enzymes collaborate to modulate chromatin structure and gene expression in a variety of biological systems, from reproduction and metabolism to cancer and inflammation. He has developed and applied new methods and approaches ranging from chemical, biochemical, and molecular to genomic and computational, which have led to key new new insights about gene regulation. Dr. Kraus has also elucidated novel connections between compartmentalized NAD+ biosynthesis and gene regulation mediated by members of the poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) family of enzymes, inlcuding PARP-1, PARP-7, and PARP-16. Finally, Dr. Kraus has developed novel computational tools to integrate and analyze data from a wide variety of genomic approaches to study the immediate and direct effects of estrogen and nuclear NAD+ signaling on the transcriptome. These studies have studies have revealed the diverse ways in which genomes are organized, transcribed, and regulated. In addition, they have revealed new facets of enhancer assembly and function, as well as the expression of thousands of previously unannotated noncoding RNA transcripts of unknown function. Dr. Kraus is a cofounder of Ribon Therapeutics, Inc. and ARase Therapeutics, Inc.
Len's experience spans over 30 years and all stages of drug development, from early discovery through FDA approval with a focus on oncology and genetic diseases. Len is currently Chief Scientific Officer of Vivace Therapeutics and Virtuoso Therapeutics. He was a founder of LEAD Therapeutics, which led to the discovery of Talazoparib, and was later acquired by BioMarin Pharmaceuticals where he served as the Chief Scientific Officer. Len received a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- President
Mark Cockett joined Alphina Therapeutics in May 2022. Mark has over 35 years' experience in biotech and pharmaceutical R&D, and track record of delivering and supporting multiple drugs into development, several of which have made it to market. Most recently Mark was Head of Discovery at ViiV Healthcare delivering HIV therapeutics and also spent 5 years as part of the Executive team at ViiV. Prior to this Mark was Head of Discovery Infectious Diseases at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) where his team delivered drugs to treat HBV, HCV and HIV. Earlier in his career he led Applied Genomics at BMS, was head of molecular and cell technologies at Wyeth and worked with biologic drugs and in oncology at Celltech PLC in the UK. He received his PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology from Strangeway Research Laboratory, an MRC laboratory in Cambridge, UK, and has published over 70 papers during his career.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director, Biology
Job Titles:
- Associate Scientist, Biochemistry
Mitch Raponi has been working in the field of personalized cancer medicine for the past 20 years. Most recently as Vice President of Biomarker Development & Translational Research at BeiGene, he was responsible for designing and executing translational and companion diagnostic strategies to support the development and commercialization of the companies immune-oncology and targeted cancer therapeutic pipeline. Mitch was previously VP of Molecular Diagnostics at Clovis Oncology where his work led to the development and approval of the first NGS-based companion diagnostics for the PARP inhibitor, rucaparib. Prior to this Mitch spent 15 years at Johnson & Johnson building biomarker and companion diagnostic programs within the diagnostics and pharmaceutical franchises. He received his PhD in Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry from the University of New South Wales, Australia, and has published in the fields of gene therapy, cancer genomics, and personalized medicine.
Peter is an Executive in Residence at Canaan Partners and also Managing Partner of Salient Science & Technology, LLC which advises biotech firms on strategic and technical matters in pharmaceutical R&D. Previously, Peter served as Senior Vice President of Development at Boehringer Ingelheim where he was responsible for pre-clinical development of drugs in the therapeutic areas of Immunology/Inflammation, virology and cardio-metabolic diseases. He has worked on the discovery or development of Aptivus®, an HIV protease inhibitor, Viramune®/Viramune XR®, HIV NNRT inhibitor, Atrovent HFA® for COPD/emphysema and Jardiance® for diabetes. His career spanned 28 years including head of R&D and VP of Research.
Peter has a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from SUNY Buffalo and did postdoctoral work in bioorganic chemistry at Pennsylvania State University. He also received an honorary doctorate from the University of Connecticut.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Alphina Team
- Senior Associate Scientist, Cell Biology
Job Titles:
- Director, Business and R & D Operations
Sandra Lobo joined Alphina Therapeutics, Inc. in August, 2022. Sandra has over 20 years' academic and industrial experience in the development and commercialization of new drugs, vaccines and medical device technologies. Prior to joining Alphina, Sandra served as Director at the Nuvance Health biomedical research institute where she defined scientific strategy and worked towards putting together a state-of-the-art precision medicine program and a next-generation biobank. Prior to that, Sandra served several roles as Chief Scientific Officer at Agilvax, Inc., Senior Scientific Director at Syntiron, LLC., and Director at CTE Global, Inc., where she led multi-disciplinary research teams and established and maintained corporate and academic partnerships and other strategic alliances. With a Ph.D. in biomedicinal chemistry from the University of Maryland and a Master's degree in business administration, Sandra has broad scientific as well as business, managerial and financial skills to run scientific programs successfully in a matrix environment. Sandra has published over 30 peer-reviewed papers in the field of human vaccine development, obesity and Type II diabetes, anti-cancer biology, antibiotic design, and microbial biosynthesis and is the primary inventor on two US patents.
Job Titles:
- Chief Financial Officer
- Co - Founder of SHY Therapeutics
Mr. Choy is a co-founder of SHY Therapeutics with over 30 years of experience in life sciences and professional services industries. He provides financial and advisory services to early stage, start-up companies, particularly in strategic planning, operations, business development, and regulatory and government affairs. He serves as a director and co-chair of BioCT, the bioscience industry association for the state of Connecticut and is on the Advisory Board of the BioCT Innovation Commons, a biotechnology start-up incubator in northeastern Connecticut. He also currently serves as Chief Operating Officer of HLK Phamacin, and as CFO of Qx Therapeutics.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Choy served as Vice President, Finance and Administration at Kolltan Pharmaceutics. Prior to Kolltan, Mr. Choy was the CFO of a leading New York/Boston based law firm and, prior to that, held several finance positions at Pfizer Inc. He was also instrumental in the integration of the Warner Lambert and Pharmacia acquisitions. Mr. Choy started his career with Arthur Andersen and Company.
Mr. Choy is a CPA and has an MBA in finance from Syracuse University and holds an accounting degree. He is certified in New York State and a member of the American institute of CPA's.
Schramm studied chemistry and microbiology as an undergrad at South Dakota State University. Following master degree studies in and nutrition and biochemistry at the Harvard School of Public Health he studied mechanistic enzymology with John Morrison at the Australian National University for the Ph.D. degree. Following an NRC - NSF postdoctoral fellowship at the NASA Ames Research Center, Schramm initiated a program in enzymatic transition state analysis at the Department of Biochemistry, Temple University School of Medicine. He expanded the program to include drug design as chair of Biochemistry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, a position he held until 2015. He now leads a research program in enzymology and drug design as Professor and Ruth Merns Chair of Biochemistry. The Schramm laboratory developed combined experimental and computational chemistry approach to understand enzymatic transition states. Enzymatic transition - state structure permits the design of stable molecules as transition state mimics. Together with collaborators, the Schramm laboratory designed and characterized families of transition state analogues. Three have entered clinical trials and others are in preclinical development. Interest in fast protein motions and their contribution to transition state formation led to the pioneering use of isotopically heavy enzymes to explore protein motions at transition states. Schramm has been awarded an NIH Merit Research Award, elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, awarded the Rudi Lemberg Prize from the Australian Academy of Science, the Repligen Award from the Biological Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society and the A.I. Scott Medal from the Texas A&M - ACS Section. Professor Schramm has served as an Associate Editor for the Journal of the American Chemical Society, as a member of Council, General Medical Sciences of the NIH and as Chair of the Division of Biological Chemistry of the ACS. He was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 2007.