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.

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.

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.

Steve Abella, MD, PhD
Chief Medical Advisor

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Julie Cherringtron, PhD
Business Advisor

20+ years of biotech executive management experience. CEO QUE Oncology, Arch Oncology, Revitope Oncology, Zenith Epigenetics, and Pathway Therapeutics. Vice President of Preclinical and Clinical Research at SUGEN. 

Our Strategic Partners