Management Team & Advisors

Faith H. Barnett MD, PhD
Founder, CEO & CSO

Board-certified neurosurgeon and scientist specializing in benign and malignant CNS tumors and tumor biology; Harvard, Harvard-MIT, BWH/Children’s Hospital, MGH; Director of Neuro-Oncology at Scripps Cancer Center; 20+ years tumor and vascular biology, The Scripps Research Institute.

Andre Basbaum, MBA
President & COO

Executive leadership roles in the biotechnology industry, specializing in business operations, finance, and business development. Previously served as CBO/CFO at Siolta Therapeutics and VP of Business Development at ACEA. Held business development roles at Trovagen, SGB, VentiRx, Valeant, and Pfizer.

Steve Abella, MD, PhD
Chief Medical Officer

35+ years of experience leading clinical programs in industry and academia (Professor of Pediatrics Medicine and Oncology Karmanos Cancer Institute and Wayne State University.) Chief Medical Officer at Vida Developmental Sciences, Shasqi, Ranier, BioClin Therapeutics. Executive Director, Senior Director at Gilead and Amgen

James Mackay, PhD
Business Advisor

40+ years in executive management and drug development. 30-year career at AstraZeneca, leading teams that took six drugs through to approval and commercialization. Currently founder & CEO at Kateran Consulting, Inc. Prior roles: CEO and Founder of Aristea Therapeutics and CEO of Ardea Biosciences.

James J. Mullen, JD, PhD
Corporate Patent Attorney Advisor

25+ years of hands-on experience in therapeutic biologics patent practice (Hybritech and beyond);
Previously IP partner at Morrison and Foerster; Stanford University School of Medicine, Adjunct Professor Department of Developmental Biology;
PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology.

Sean Premeau, RAC, PMP
Vice President, Head of Manufacturing &
Technical Operations

20+ years of drug development experience; Previously, Head of CMC at Amplyx Pharmaceuticals, Head of CMC at Aristea Therapeutics.  Drug development roles at Celgene, Pharmatek & Skypharma.

Rick Crum
Director, Corporate Development

10+ years in biotech, specializing in diagnostics, pathology, and genetics. Formerly, COO at HDNA, focusing on plant genetics, molecular breeding, advanced diagnostics, assay development and commercialization.

Jill Walker, PhD
Precision Medicine Development

Founder & CEO of Beacon Scientific Consulting; 25 years of pharma executive experience at AstraZeneca. Specializes in oncology clinical development (Phases 1-3), biomarker discovery and validation, precision medicines, diagnostic development, and strategic partnering.

Miguel Motta, MBA
Business Advisor

Vice President of Strategic Operations and San Diego Head at Biocom; 20+ years as an international business professional, Commercial Operations, Strategy; Prior roles: Chairman, President, CEO, CFO, COO.

Board of Directors

Faith H. Barnett, MD, PhD
Director

Board-certified neurosurgeon and scientist specializing in benign and malignant CNS tumors and tumor biology; Harvard, Harvard-MIT, BWH/Children’s Hospital, MGH; Director of Neuro-Oncology at Scripps Cancer Center; 20+ years tumor and vascular biology, The Scripps Research Institute.

James Mackay, PhD
Independent Director

40+ years in executive management and drug development. 30-year career at AstraZeneca, leading teams that took six drugs through to approval and commercialization. Currently founder & CEO at Kateran Consulting, Inc. Prior roles: CEO and Founder of Aristea Therapeutics and CEO of Ardea Biosciences.

Andre Basbaum, MBA
Director

Executive leadership roles in the biotechnology industry, specializing in business operations, finance, and business development. Previously served as CBO/CFO at Siolta Therapeutics and VP of Business Development at ACEA. Held business development roles at Trovagen, SGB, VentiRx, Valeant, and Pfizer.

 

John Montana
Board Observer

Life Science Advisor & Deal Lead at NuFund Venture Group. John is a highly accomplished strategic R&D leader with extensive experience in managing projects from discovery through post-approval in large and small pharmaceutical organizations.

Strategic and Operating Consultants

Grace Furman, PhD
Regulatory Drug Safety & Toxicology

President & CEO Paracelsus, Inc.; Previously Divisional toxicologist at  P&G, Agouron, and Pfizer. 

Joyce James, PhD
Early Dev, and Clin. Pharmacology.

Founder & CEO, CORVID Consulting; Previously, founding member of Lyric, Pharmaceuticals, VP Odonate, Sr. Dir. at Cytokinetics and Ambit, playing a key role in the development of quizartinib.

Bridget O’ Keeffe, PhD

20+ years clinical strategy and operations (Ph1 to Ph3) at Ambrx, Oncosec, Nektar, Calithera, Clovis, Genentech

Peter Chen, MD, PhD
Board-certified Radiation Oncologist at Scripps Health: lung, CNS, soft tissue, & prostate cancer; Scientific Advisor. 

Meredith Brown-Tuttle, RAC, FRAPS
Regulatory Affairs and QA

20+ years leading regulatory and quality programs; Senior Vice President Regulatory Affairs & Quality at Juvena Therapeutics.

Our Strategic Partners