NODTHERA - Key Persons
Alan has over 35 years of experience in drug discovery and development in both the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors. His previous roles include serving as Acting CSO at Bicycle Therapeutics, as Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of R&D at Trident Pharmaceuticals, and as Chief Executive Officer of Xenovium Limited. Alan formerly led preclinical development for Neurology at GSK before relocating to Philadelphia as VP and Discovery Performance Unit Head at GSK where he established and led inflammation drug discovery. He also previously served as Head of Drug Metabolism and in vivo Pharmacology at Merck & Co's Neuroscience Research Centre. Alan holds a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from the University of Southampton, a Ph.D. in drug metabolism from the University of Hertfordshire and an M.B.A. from the Open Business School. He has over 50 peer-reviewed scientific publications.
Job Titles:
- Chief Operating Officer
- Healthcare Finance Executive
Alison is a seasoned healthcare finance executive with extensive transactional and operational experience. She formerly held a number of senior finance roles at GlaxoSmithKline, including as Chief of Staff to the Chief Finance Officer, where she was responsible for transforming GSK's reporting processes as well as leading local completions globally of Novartis transaction. Alison also served as CFO of GSK's drug discovery group, where she established the Tres Cantos Open Lab and Catalyst Science Park at GSK's UK R&D site. Prior to working for GSK, Alison led the UK M&A life sciences sector group at Deloitte London. Alison holds a Ph.D. in chemistry and physical chemistry from the University of Wales, Cardiff.
Chris began his research career as an assistant professor in cell biology at Columbia University studying lysosomal enzyme trafficking. He subsequently transitioned to drug discovery research and spent over 20 combined years seeking to identify novel therapeutics as part of the inflammation drug discovery units at Pfizer and Amgen. While at Pfizer, Chris and his research team pioneered studies aimed at understanding cellular processes involved in regulating posttranslational processing of newly synthesized IL-1β. The lead compound that emerged from this effort was later demonstrated by others to be a selective inhibitor of NLRP3 activation, establishing the druggability of this target. Chris later spent several years working as an independent consultant, during which time he helped to launch NodThera. Chris received his Bachelor of Science in biochemistry from Iowa State University and his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Washington. He has over 70-peer reviewed publications.
Job Titles:
- Managing Partner at Sofinnova Partners
Henrijette is a Managing Partner at Sofinnova Partners and an active member of the Capital Funds team, the firm's flagship fund dedicated to early-stage biotechs and medtechs. In addition to being an active member of Nodthera's Board of Directors, her investments and other board roles include Mozart Therapeutics, Muna Therapeutics, Nitrase Therapeutics, Twentyeight-Seven Therapeutics, Asceneuron, Delinia (sold to Celgene), and iOmx Therapeutics. Prior to joining Sofinnova in 2014, Henrijette was part of the team that founded Novo Seeds in 2007, and as an Investment Director, she was instrumental in the creation, financing and building of companies such as Orphazyme (ORPHA.CO; ORPH), Avilex Pharma, EpiTherapeutics (sold to Gilead), and Lysogene (LYS, Euronext Paris). Henrijette holds a combined Ph.D. and Industrial Scientist degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Copenhagen and Novo Nordisk A/S. She did her postdoctoral fellowship at the MIT Center for Cancer Research in Massachusetts.
Jim Trenkle joined Novo Ventures (US) Inc. as a Partner in May 2022. Jim brings a background in R&D, commercialization, and early stage biotech investing and transactions. Prior to joining Novo, Jim was Head of Investments at Sanofi Ventures in Cambridge, MA, where he was responsible for a team making investments into private US-based therapeutics life science companies. Prior to Sanofi, Jim was Vice President of Investments with Pivotal bioVenture Partners in San Francisco. Jim began his career with Gilead Sciences where he held positions of increasing responsibility in medicinal chemistry, project and portfolio management, and commercial strategy, largely focused on hepatitis C and other liver diseases. Jim completed a B.S. in Honors Chemistry at University of Michigan, a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and holds an M.B.A. from University of California Berkeley, Haas School of Business.
Job Titles:
- Partner at Epidarex Capital
Liz is a partner at Epidarex Capital. She has more than 15 years of experience in venture capital fund management and industry, executing transactions both as a direct investor and as a business development executive. Prior to joining Epidarex in 2013, Liz was the head of business development at Chroma Therapeutics, an Oxford-based venture-backed drug discovery and development company focused on inflammatory disorders and oncology. She was involved in all key company strategic decisions and successfully established a number of major company-building alliances. She is a former executive with the life science venture capital team at the Investments Division of The Wellcome Trust, where she provided direct, early-stage equity financing to private companies in the U.S. and Europe. She is also a former member of the life science team at Atlas Venture in London. Liz currently serves on the board of directors of Caldan Therapeutics, EM Imaging and Enterprise Therapeutics. She holds a B.Sc. in biochemistry from the University College Cork and a Ph.D. from the Imperial Cancer Research.
Job Titles:
- Chief Development Officer
Nick is leading the development of NodThera's drug candidates through pre-IND testing. Prior to joining NodThera, he spent over 21 years at Pfizer in the UK and US, where he led successful drug development projects across a variety of therapeutic areas, including allergy, respiratory, inflammation and rare disease. Under his leadership, these projects progressed through early preclinical experimentation and candidate selection to initial clinical studies in volunteers and Phase 2a and Phase 2b studies in patients. Nick received his Bachelor of Science in pharmacology from the University of Portsmouth and his Ph.D. in anatomical neuropharmacology from the University of Oxford.
Job Titles:
- 5AM Ventures in 2003 As a Venture Partner
Scott joined 5AM Ventures in 2003 as a Venture Partner, became a Managing Partner in 2004 and transitioned to Founding Partner in 2017. Scott has over three decades of healthcare management experience with strategic leadership responsibilities that led to FDA approval of three U.S. New Drug Applications (Omniscan™, Teslascan® and Cubicin®). He has served as Chairman and CEO of Cubist Pharmaceuticals, President and CEO of Nycomed Salutar and has also held R&D positions at Salutar and Catalytica. Scott formerly served as Board Chairman of Relypsa (acquired by Vifor Pharma), Novira (acquired by J&J), Aprea (NASDAQ: APRE), Cidara (NASDAQ: CDTX), Albamunity and Halio. He currently serves as Board Chairman of Expansion and is a Board member at NodThera and Nouscom. He was formerly Executive Chairman of Ilypsa (acquired by Amgen), Miikana (acquired by EntreMed) and Semprus (acquired by Teleflex). Scott received his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from MIT where he conducted research in the laboratory of Richard R. Schrock (Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2005). He is an inventor or co-inventor of over 35 U.S. patents and has produced more than 100 peer-reviewed publications.
Job Titles:
- VP, Scientific Operations
Valérie has over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, originally as a medicinal chemist in SmithKline Beecham (US) before joining a small entrepreneurial provider of high-throughput chemistry services in Cambridge, UK. She has since worked in a number of companies, large and small, with increasing responsibility for outsourcing a wide variety of services across all activities of drug discovery, development and clinical. Valérie joined NodThera in 2016 and has led the set up and management of the company's network of external collaborations. Valérie holds a Diplome d'Etudes Approfondies and a Masters in organic chemistry from the University Paris XI (Orsay).