Osamu Takahashi is Inspirna’s Vice President of Clinical Development. Dr. Takahashi brings over 26 years of comprehensive experience in oncology, which includes clinical experience as an oncology surgeon, work in basic and translational research, and extensive involvement in clinical development within the pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Takahashi has held various positions including global development lead and global clinical lead and has led numerous programs focused on molecular targeted and immune-oncology therapies at multiple companies, such as Taiho Oncology, Gilead Sciences, and AstraZeneca. Dr. Takahashi holds an M.D. from Asahikawa Medical University, a Ph.D. from Hokkaido University, and an M.B.A. from the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Our Mission
Target previously untreatable common cancers with small molecules and biologics by exposing newly discovered drivers of metastasis. Through our proprietary and clinically-validated miRNA-DRIVEr platform and microRNA mapping, Inspirna reveals new cancer drivers in areas of high unmet need.
ABOUT US
Inspirna, previously known as Rgenix, is a privately-held clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of novel cancer drugs that target key pathways in cancers of high unmet need.
Our Approach to Oncology Drug Development
Our miRNA-DRIVEr platform exposes previously-undruggable drivers of metastasis that determine short- versus long-term survival in cancer indications with large patient populations and high unmet need not adequately addressed by the current standard of care.
Our drug development strategy enables practical treatment options that allow patients to supplement their standard of care with innovative but well known therapeutic modalities such as small molecules and ADCs.
Inspirna is poised to become a global company with ongoing Phase 3 preparation activities.
Leadership
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Usman “Oz” Azam, M.D.
Chief Executive Officer
Usman “Oz” Azam, M.D.
Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Usman “Oz” Azam serves as Chief Executive Officer of Inspirna. With over two decades of drug development experience, Dr. Azam most recently served as Chief Executive Officer of Empyrean Neuroscience, a genetic engineering company advancing a pipeline of neuroactive compounds targeting disorders of the central nervous system, and before that was President and Chief Executive Officer of Tmunity Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing genetically engineered CAR-T cell therapies for solid tumor applications in cancer. Prior to Tmunity, he served as Global Head of Cell and Gene Therapies at Novartis, where he was responsible for commercial operations, business development licensing, new product commercialization, clinical development, regulatory affairs, and other aspects of the global cell and gene therapies business. Dr. Azam has also held roles as Chief Executive Officer of Novaccel Therapeutics, Chief Medical Officer of Aspreva Pharmaceuticals, and Chief Medical Officer of Ethicon Johnson & Johnson. Earlier in his career, he held positions at Johnson & Johnson, GSK, and Pfizer. Dr. Azam received his M.D. from the University of Liverpool School of Medicine and is board certified in obstetrics and gynecology in the United Kingdom.
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David Darst, M.B.A.
Chief Financial Officer & Chief Operating Officer
David Darst, M.B.A.
Chief Financial Officer & Chief Operating Officer
David Darst co-leads Inspirna’s financing, business and corporate development, and drug development efforts. As COO & CFO, he is responsible for implementing the company’s strategic and operational objectives through its intellectual property generation and prosecution, licensing activities, budgeting, and cross-functional CMC, nonclinical, and clinical efforts. Prior to joining Inspirna, he was an investor at OrbiMed Advisors, the world’s largest private healthcare dedicated investment firm. There, he invested in leading private and publicly traded companies developing therapeutics for life-threatening and debilitating disorders.
Mr. Darst was a co-founder and Director of Potentia Pharmaceuticals, which spun out Apellis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: APLS), which acquired its assets. Apellis’ complement inhibitor, pegcetacoplan, is an FDA approved drug for the treatment of geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration (SYFOVRE™) and paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (EMPAVELI™). Mr. Darst has an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.A., cum laude, from Harvard College. He is a former Director of the Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy (ACGT) and sits on the Rockefeller University Advisory Council.
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Karim Benhadji, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
Karim Benhadji, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Benhadji serves as Inspirna’s Chief Medical Officer. He brings 20 years of experience in biopharmaceutical oncology drug development, and most recently served as Chief Medical Officer of GV20 Therapeutics. He previously served as Senior Vice President, Head of Clinical Development and Operations at Taiho Oncology where he oversaw the development of early and late phase portfolio assets, including the FDA approval of LYTGOBI® (futibatinib) in cholangiocarcinoma and the Phase 3 SUNLIGHT that led to the FDA approval of LONSURF® (trifluridine/tipiracil) in combination with bevacizumab in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. Prior to joining Taiho Oncology, Dr. Benhadji spent 13 years with Eli Lilly and Company in oncology development roles of increasing responsibility, including overseeing several immuno-oncology programs. Dr. Benhadji received his M.D. from the University of Oran, and completed his Oncology fellowship in the universities of Oran and Paris. He also received a Master of Science in Pharmacology and Therapeutics in Oncology from the University of Paris.
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Anne Assmus, Ph.D.
Head of Business Development
Anne Assmus, Ph.D.
Head of Business Development
Anne Assmus heads business development at Inspirna, where she focuses on strategic partnerships for the target discovery platform, preclinical and clinical stage programs.
Prior to joining Inspirna, Ms. Assmus was VP of Business Development at Affimed, Inc. where she supported the partnering of the NK cell platform and clinical programs.
Ms. Assmus brings over a decade of business development experience to Inspirna across technologies ranging from antibodies, cell therapies and cancer vaccines, to small molecules and diagnostics and across stages of programs from target discovery to phase 3. She holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Passau in Germany, an M.Sc. in Molecular Biology from Heidelberg University in Germany, and a B.Sc. in International Business from Copenhagen Business School in Denmark.
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Nayomi Thomas, PHR
Associate Director of HR & Legal
Nayomi Thomas, PHR
Associate Director of HR & Legal
Nayomi Thomas is the Associate Director of HR and Legal of Inspirna, Inc. Ms. Thomas manages Inspirna’s corporate records, 401K, HIPAA compliance, human resources, and payroll. She also prepares policies and procedures, provides contracts support and maintenance, and daily office management. Ms. Thomas has 20 years of corporate experience. Prior to working with Inspirna, Ms. Thomas worked with JPMorgan Chase as a trust officer in the Mortgage-Backed Securities Department negotiating contracts and managing investors’ cash flow, and at Viagogo as a corporate paralegal managing the contracts process and supporting human resources. Ms. Thomas has a Bachelor of Arts from Bernard M. Baruch College.
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Steve Wald, M.S.
SVP, Chemistry & Pharmaceutical Sciences
Steve Wald, M.S.
SVP, Chemistry & Pharmaceutical Sciences
Steve Wald, M.S. is responsible for chemical, analytical and formulation development, and manufacturing scale-up, of Inspira’s drug candidates. Prior to joining Inspira, he was Vice President of Manufacturing at Epizyme with similar responsibilities for their Phase 2 oncology assets.
Previously, Mr. Wald worked as a consultant for other biotechnology companies, and before that, spent 25 years at Sepracor. He led Sepracor’s chemistry and pharmaceutical science group that culminated in five NDAS, including oral solids, sterile solutions, and a complex metered dose inhaler. He also led a new department responsible for the launch and commercial supply of Lunesta® and various respiratory products. He has a M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering degree from the University of California, Berkeley and a B.S. from Cornell University.
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Darren Wong, Ph.D.
SVP, Translational Medicine
Darren Wong, Ph.D.
SVP, Translational Medicine
Darren Wong has over 20 years of experience in drug discovery and development, supporting small molecules and biologics for a variety of indications including extensive oncology expertise. Dr. Wong completed his Postdoctoral fellowship at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School and obtained his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of California, San Francisco. He most recently served as Senior Vice President of Research at Exarta Therapeutics, where he was responsible for developing scientific, clinical and regulatory strategies for early discovery projects to IND filings. He previously served as Vice President of Pharmacology and Toxicology and Senior Director of Biology and Pharmacology at Concert Pharmaceuticals. Before that, he was Director of Pharmacology at Medivation. Dr. Wong is Inspirna’s Senior Vice President of Translational Medicine. -
Osamu Takahashi, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A.
VP, Clinical Development
Osamu Takahashi, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A.
VP, Clinical Development
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Kimberly Hoffman
SVP, Development Operations
Kimberly Hoffman
SVP, Development Operations
Kimberly Hoffman leads overall clinical operations at Inspirna and is responsible for planning and execution of our clinical trials with a focus on quality and compliance, as well as management of the clinical operations department including strategic planning, resourcing, finances, outsourcing, and process development and improvement.
Ms. Hoffman is an accomplished clinical operations executive with more than 28 years of progressive leadership experience in both large pharmaceutical companies including Merck and Wyeth, and in biotechnology companies including Cabaletta Bio (Autoimmune Cell Therapy), Northern Biologics (Oncology Biologics), and Morphotek (Oncology Biologics). She excelled in building and overseeing clinical operations functions including clinical trial management & monitoring, document management, data management, medical writing, and clinical supply logistics.
Ms. Hoffman has led cross-functional teams in conducting global clinical trials across all phases of clinical development in therapeutic areas including infectious disease, autoimmune disease, and most notably in Oncology with over 15 years experience. Her clinical trial management experience includes several first-in-human phase 1 dose escalation and expansion trials, and multiple proof of concept and registrational trials including an 1100 patient, 29 country, registrational trial in ovarian cancer. Ms. Hoffman holds a BS in Public Health.
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Isabel Kurth, Ph.D.
SVP, Research
Isabel Kurth, Ph.D.
SVP, Research
Isabel Kurth, Ph.D. received her M.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Bern, Switzerland, and her Ph.D. from the Institute of Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC), University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Following a brief postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University, Dr. Kurth joined The Rockefeller University to continue her research studies.
As a protein biochemist, her interest has focused on various aspects of cellular proliferation in cancer, bacteria and immunology, with emphasis on DNA replication, DNA repair and telomere biology. She has authored numerous book chapters as well as international reviews and her research discoveries have been published in leading journals including Nature, the EMBO journal, Journal of Experimental Medicine, and Nature Structural Molecular Biology. Dr. Kurth is a recipient of the ISREC Ph.D. fellowship and a postdoctoral fellowship from the Swiss National Research Foundation.
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Corey Sohmer, M.B.A.
VP, Finance & Accounting
Corey Sohmer, M.B.A.
VP, Finance & Accounting
Corey Sohmer brings to Inspirna more than 25 years of progressive leadership experience in finance and accounting, including approximately 15 years in small to medium size publicly traded biotechnology companies. He is responsible for the accounting and finance functions of the company. His past experience includes building out financial infrastructures, accounting, capital raises, operations and Sarbanes-Oxley implementation.
Prior to joining Inspirna, he was the VP of Finance and Business Development at Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Director of Corporate Finance at Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals, and Senior Director of Financial Planning and External Reporting at EpiCept Corporation. Mr. Sohmer has an M.B.A. and a Bachelor of Science from Bentley University and is licensed as a C.P.A. (inactive) in the State of New Jersey.
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Robert W. Busby, Ph.D.
Head of DMPK
Robert W. Busby, Ph.D.
Head of DMPK
Robert W. Busby, Ph.D. is an accomplished scientific and organizational leader with over 25 years of pharmaceutical R&D experience. He was previously Vice President of Clinical Pharmacology, Analytical Pharmacology & DMPK at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals. At Ironwood, Dr. Busby played a critical role in bringing Linzess (linaclotide) to patients, and was part of that drug development program from early discovery through approval and launch. In his 15 years at Ironwood (formerly Microbia), he led the initial effort to build essential drug discovery capabilities and helped the company make the transition from start-up to a successful public company. Dr. Busby established and led multiple departments at Ironwood covering a broad range of scientific disciplines and contributing at all stages of drug discovery and development. Dr. Busby has worked in many therapeutic areas and has extensive experience going from discovery into development having authored essential content and summaries for over three dozen Investigational New Drug applications (INDs). Prior to Ironwood, he worked at SmithKline Beecham (now GSK) in the medicinal chemistry and biomolecular discovery departments and also in the Drug Metabolism department at DuPont. Dr. Busby holds a Ph.D. in Bioorganic Chemistry from The Johns Hopkins University and a BS in Chemistry from Drexel University.
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Eduardo J. Martinez, Ph.D.
Head of Medicinal Chemistry
Eduardo J. Martinez, Ph.D.
Head of Medicinal Chemistry
Eduardo J. Martinez, Ph.D. received a Ph.D. from the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University in synthetic organic chemistry under the mentorship of Nobel laureate, Professor E. J. Corey.
Dr. Martinez has over 25 years of experience working as a medicinal chemist in small molecule drug discovery companies. He primarily oversees drug design, compound synthesis, and drug optimization strategies. As a consultant for over a decade, he has had the opportunity to initiate, implement, and advise on a wide variety of projects, shepherding them from early discovery towards the clinic.
Previously, Dr. Martinez served as V.P. of Chemistry at Inspirna where he managed the medicinal chemistry efforts, process optimization, and formulation development for the Abequolixron (RGX-104) program, currently in Phase 1B/2 clinical trials.
Dr. Martinez has also served in scientific leadership roles at Euclises Pharmaceuticals Inc., SARmont, LLC, and Sea Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Early in his career, he worked for Ironwood Pharmaceutical, Inc., where he helped discover and advance several drugs into clinical trials for hypercholesterolemia. Prior to graduate studies, he worked in the Process Research group at Bristol-Myers Squibb and he has taken entrepreneurial sabbaticals at Janelia Farms Research Campus, The Rockefeller University, and Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory.
Clinical Advisory Board
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Sohail Tavazoie, M.D., Ph.D.
Co-Founder & Chair of Scientific Advisory Board
Sohail Tavazoie, M.D., Ph.D.
Co-Founder & Chair of Scientific Advisory Board
Dr. Sohail Tavazoie is the Leon Hess Professor, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Faculty Scholar and Head of the Meyer Laboratory of Systems Cancer Biology at The Rockefeller University. He is the director of the Black Center for Metastasis Research at Rockefeller University and a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer.
He received his undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley and his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard Medical School. Following internship and residency training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and postdoctoral training at Harvard, he conducted oncology fellowship training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Tavazoie has been the recipient of the NIH Innovator Award, the Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Prize, and the DOD Era of Hope Award. He is an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and a member of the National Academy of Medicine’s emerging leaders’ forum.
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Masoud Tavazoie, M.D., Ph.D.
Advisor & Co-Founder
Masoud Tavazoie, M.D., Ph.D.
Advisor & Co-Founder
Dr. Masoud Tavazoie is a physician-scientist by training. He has 15 years of experience spanning the fields of pharmacology, oncology, and small-RNA biology. He is co-inventor on multiple patents related to both small-molecule and biologic therapeutics in oncology and was instrumental in the development of the Inspirna drug discovery platform.
Dr. Tavazoie received his undergraduate degree in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley, and his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the College of Physicians & Surgeons at Columbia University. Following an internship in Internal Medicine, he completed clinical training in Dermatology at NYU, where he was later appointed as the Marion Sulzberger Research Fellow with a focus on discovery and development of novel immuno-therapeutic approaches to the treatment of melanoma and other solid tumors. He has authored publications in leading journals such as Nature, Cell Stem Cell, Nature Neuroscience, and Neuron. Among his awards are the NIH Medical Scientist Training Program Fellowship, the Brunie Neural Stem Cell Award, and the Lowenfish Prize for creative research in Dermatology.
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Antoni Ribas, M.D., Ph.D.
Advisor
Antoni Ribas, M.D., Ph.D.
Advisor
Dr. Antoni Ribas, M.D., Ph.D. is Professor of Medicine, Professor of Surgery, and Professor of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Director of the Tumor Immunology Program at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC) and the Chair of the Melanoma Committee at SWOG. Dr. Ribas Trained at the University of Barcelona, with postdoctoral research and clinical fellowships at UCLA.
He is a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI). Antoni is a physician-scientist who conducts laboratory and clinical research in malignant melanoma, focusing on gene engineered adoptive cell transfer (ACT) therapies, anti-CTLA4 antibodies, anti-PD-1 antibodies, BRAF and MEK inhibitors and nanoparticle-siRNA, which have been published in major journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Nature Medicine and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. His NIH, State of California and private foundation-supported research laboratory develops models of disease to test new therapeutic options and studies mechanism of action of treatments in patients. He has been instrumental in the clinical development of several new agents approved by the FDA, including pembrolizumab (Keytruda), vemurafenib (Zelboraf), dabrafenib (Tafinlar), and trametinib (Mekinist).
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Yelena Janjigian, M.D.
Advisor
Yelena Janjigian, M.D.
Advisor
Dr. Yelena Y. Janjigian is a medical oncologist and Chief of the Gastrointestinal Oncology Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She specializes in the treatment of malignancies of the gastrointestinal tract, including esophagus and stomach cancers.
Her research focuses on development of new treatments for patients with esophagus and stomach cancers. Dr. Janjigian has a special interest in finding the best treatments for persons with cancer based on the molecular characteristics of their tumor specimens. She also runs clinical and translational studies designed to develop better prevention, early diagnosis, staging, and treatment strategies.
In addition, Dr. Janjigian is a principal investigator for numerous clinical trials at Memorial Sloan Kettering. Her research has been supported by grants from the National Cancer Institute, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), and The Society of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
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Hossein Borghaei, D.O., M.S.
Advisor
Hossein Borghaei, D.O., M.S.
Advisor
Dr. Hossein Borghaei earned his degree at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and completed a residency at Graduate Hospital in Philadelphia. Since completing his fellowship training at Fox Chase, he has been involved in a number of clinical trials aimed at developing new, antibody-based therapies and immunotherapies for patients with lung cancer.
In addition to his clinical practice and participation in immunotherapy-based clinical trials, Dr. Borghaei is the principal investigator (PI) of a laboratory that develops new monoclonal antibodies and novel immune-modulating drugs, with the aim of bringing these approaches to the clinic. He served as the PI of a phase III randomized study that proved the effectiveness of nivolumab in the treatment of patients with advanced non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer after progression on prior chemotherapy. This work led to the approval of nivolumab, one of the first immunotherapy-based drugs to be approved for lung cancer in this setting.
Dr. Borghaei is a member of the thoracic core committee at Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) and, until recently, was a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer panel. He is the recipient of an American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Young Investigator Award and an ASCO Career Development Award. Dr. Borghaei is a long-standing member of ASCO, AACR, IASLC, SITC and ECOG thoracic committee.
Dr. Borghaei has been a recipient of the Robert Krigel Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence from Fox Chase Cancer Center, ASCO’s Young Investigator Award and the Career Development Award from ASCO. His work has been published in The New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Clinical Oncology, The Lancet Oncology, Leukemia Research, Journal of Thoracic Oncology, Clinical Cancer Research, Clinical Lung Cancer, and Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.
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Jean-Pierre Bizzari, M.D.
Advisor
Jean-Pierre Bizzari, M.D.
Advisor
Dr. Jean-Pierre Bizzari is a world-renowned oncology expert who brings over 35 years of broad experience in oncology drug development. Dr. Bizzari served as Executive Vice President and Global Head of Oncology at Celgene Corporation, responsible for Celgene’s clinical development and operations-statistics teams across the United States, Europe, and Asia/Japan where he oversaw the development and approval of leading oncology products, including REVLIMID® (lenalidomide), VIDAZA® (azacitidine), ISTODAX® (romidepsin) and ABRAXANE® (nab-paclitaxel). In addition, he was chairman of Celgene’s hematology oncology development committee and a member of the company’s management committee. Prior to Celgene, Dr. Bizzari was the Vice President, Clinical Oncology Development for Sanofi-Aventis (formerly Rhône-Poulenc, Rhône-Poulenc Rorer and Aventis) where he oversaw the approval of Eloxatin® (oxaliplatin), Taxotere® (docetaxel) and Elitek® (rasburicase). Dr. Bizzari joined the pharmaceutical industry in 1983 as Head of Oncology at the Institut de Recherches Internationales SERVIER (France). Dr. Bizzari is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the French National Cancer Institute, and the European Organization of Research and Treatment of Cancer and Chairman of the New Drug Advisory Committee. He also serves on the boards of Halozyme Therapeutics, Onxeo, Oxford BioTherapeutics, Pieris Pharmaceuticals, Nordic Nanovector and Transgene. Dr. Bizzari received his medical degree from the Nice Medical School and has trained at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, The Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, and The McGill Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Research Centre (formerly the McGill Cancer Center) in Montreal, Canada.
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Josep Tabernero, M.D., Ph.D.
Advisor
Josep Tabernero, M.D., Ph.D.
Advisor
Josep Tabernero, M.D., Ph.D. is the Director of the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO) and Head of the Medical Oncology Department of Vall d’Hebron University Hospital. He is also Co-Director of VHIO´s Gastrointestinal and Endocrine Tumours Group and the Research Unit for Molecular Therapy of Cancer (UITM). Dr. Tabernero is Principal Investigator of several phase I pharmacodynamic studies and translational projects with molecular targeted therapies, as well as phase II and III studies with novel chemotherapeutics. Dr. Tabernero previously served as ESMO president for the 2018-2019 term and currently serves as a member of several editorial boards, including Clinical Cancer Research, Cancer Discovery, Clinical Colorectal Cancer, and Annals of Oncology. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain.
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Alan P. Venook, M.D.
Advisor
Alan P. Venook, M.D.
Advisor
Alan P. Venook, M.D. is the Madden Family Distinguished Professor of Medical Oncology and Translational Research at the University of California (UCSF) San Francisco and the Shorenstein Associate Director for Program Development at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Venook served as the Founding Chair of the National Cancer Institute’s Hepatobiliary Task Force and from 2011 to 2016 served as Chair of the GI Cancer Committee in the Alliance. A nationally recognized expert in colorectal and liver cancers, Dr. Venook served as Principal Investigator for the CALGB/SWOG 80405 trial which, amongst other findings, helped to clearly demonstrate the difference in outcome between colon cancers developing in the right vs. left side of the large intestine. Dr. Venook received his B.A. from Rutgers University and his M.D. from the UCSF School of Medicine.
Board of Directors
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Dieter Weinand
Chairman of the Board, Inspirna
Dieter Weinand
Chairman of the Board, Inspirna
Dieter Weinand is the former CEO of Bayer Pharma AG, and is an experienced business leader with over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He earned an M.S. in pharmacology and toxicology from Long Island University, New York, and a B.A. in biology from Concordia College, New York. During his career, he has held various responsibilities in general management, commercial, operational and strategic leadership roles, leading business operations globally, for companies including Bayer, Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Sanofi. He has also led the launch and marketing of products across primary care, specialty care, and oncology therapeutic areas. He is currently Chairman of the Board of Inspirna, Replimune (REPL), Fore Biotherapeutics, and Mnemo Therapeutics.
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Usman “Oz” Azam, M.D.
Chief Executive Officer, Inspirna
Usman “Oz” Azam, M.D.
Chief Executive Officer, Inspirna
Dr. Usman “Oz” Azam serves as Chief Executive Officer of Inspirna. With over two decades of drug development experience, Dr. Azam most recently served as Chief Executive Officer of Empyrean Neuroscience, a genetic engineering company advancing a pipeline of neuroactive compounds targeting disorders of the central nervous system, and before that was President and Chief Executive Officer of Tmunity Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing genetically engineered CAR-T cell therapies for solid tumor applications in cancer. Prior to Tmunity, he served as Global Head of Cell and Gene Therapies at Novartis, where he was responsible for commercial operations, business development licensing, new product commercialization, clinical development, regulatory affairs, and other aspects of the global cell and gene therapies business. Dr. Azam has also held roles as Chief Executive Officer of Novaccel Therapeutics, Chief Medical Officer of Aspreva Pharmaceuticals, and Chief Medical Officer of Ethicon Johnson & Johnson. Earlier in his career, he held positions at Johnson & Johnson, GSK, and Pfizer. Dr. Azam received his M.D. from the University of Liverpool School of Medicine and is board certified in obstetrics and gynecology in the United Kingdom.
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Eric Rowinsky, M.D.
Consultant, Cancer Drug Development and Registrational Strategies
Eric Rowinsky, M.D.
Consultant, Cancer Drug Development and Registrational Strategies
Dr. Eric Rowinsky is principally focused on the comprehensive development and registration strategies of cancer therapeutics of all types. Dr. Rowinsky obtained his B.A. degree from New York University and his M.D. from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Following his residency in internal medicine at the University of California, he completed fellowship training in medical oncology and clinical pharmacology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. From 1987 to 1996, Dr. Rowinsky served as an Associate Professor of Oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where he performed seminal clinical development and pharmacologic studies on paclitaxel, docetaxel, irinotecan, topotecan, among other agents. From 1996-2004, he served as the Director of Clinical Research and later Director of the Institute for Drug Development of the Cancer Therapy and Research Center in San Antonio, where he held the SBC Endowed Chair for Early Drug Development from 1996-2005 and was a lead investigator on early developmental studies of many classes of targeted therapeutics such as erlotinib, gefitinib, panitumumab, temsirolimus, ridaforolimus, trabectedin, and many other agents. He was also Clinical Professor of Medicine in the Division of Medical Oncology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio from 1996-2006.
From 2005-2007, Dr. Rowinsky served as the Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President at ImClone Systems, responsible for clinical development and regulatory affairs. From 2007-2009, he was an Executive Vice President of ImClone Systems, which became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eli Lilly after its acquisition. Dr. Rowinsky and his team at ImClone were responsible for approvals of cetuximab (Erbitux) in various indications, as well as ramucirumab in four indications and necitumumab in one indication. Dr. Rowinsky was the Head of Research and Development, Executive Vice President, and Chief Medical Officer at Stemline Therapeutics from 2012-2015. He is also an Adjuvant Professor of Medicine at New York University School of Medicine. Prior to joining ImClone in 2005, Dr. Rowinsky was a longstanding NCI principal investigator on anticancer drug development grants and integrally involved in pivotal clinical and preclinical investigations which lead to the development of both classical chemotherapeutics and targeted therapies, including a wide variety of cytotoxic and targeted anticancer therapeutics.
Dr. Rowinsky is the Editor-in-Chief of Investigational New Drugs, an Associate Editor and Editorial Board Member of Cancer Research (Associate Editor and Reviews Editor), Clinical Cancer Research, Annals of Oncology, Cancer Biology and Therapy and several other oncology journals and has published approximately 310 manuscripts in both the preclinical and clinical research fields. He has also served on the Board of Directors, Scientific Advisory Board and Project Advisory Boards of biopharmaceutical companies and has advised and/or presented aspects of New Drug Applications to the FDA on several occasions. Dr. Rowinsky’s honors include receipt of the career development award of the American Cancer Society and the 6th Annual Emil J. Freireich Award for outstanding achievement of a young researcher in clinical cancer therapeutics. He has also served on the Board of Scientific Counselors of the NCI. Dr. Rowinsky is on the board of directors of several public companies, including Biogen Idec Inc., Verastem, Inc., Purple Biotech, Inc., and Fortress Biotech Inc.
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Priscilla Sugianto, M.D.
Principal, Vivo Capital
Priscilla Sugianto, M.D.
Principal, Vivo Capital
Priscilla Sugianto M.D., M.B.A. is a Principal at Vivo Capital. Prior to Vivo, Priscilla worked at C-Bridge Capital, as an Assistant Vice President on the Investment team, where she was involved in all biopharma investment processes. In addition to equity investment, she was also involved in licensing, royalty, debt, and cross-border transactions. She also has experience in the digital health space, with companies such as Flare Capital, Doctor on Demand, and Virta Health.
Ms. Sugianto received her B.S. in Biochemistry, summa cum laude, from University of California Los Angeles. Ms. Sugianto earned her M.D. from Stanford University School of Medicine and M.B.A from Stanford Graduate School of Business. While at Stanford and UCLA, she undertook research in drug discovery in hematology, oncology, and dermatopathology under the support of NSF, NIH, and Amgen. Her work has been published in multiple peer-reviewed journals, including: Cell Metabolism, Molecular Pharmacology, and Developmental Cell.
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Michael Ginder
Research Analyst, Sands Capital
Michael Ginder
Research Analyst, Sands Capital
Michael Ginder is currently a research analyst at Sands Capital, a leading growth-oriented investment firm. Since joining in 2011, he has invested in life sciences businesses across the private and public markets, with a primary focus on therapeutics. In addition to Inspirna, he also serves on the board of Prilenia Therapeutics. Mr. Ginder earned a B.S. in Commerce from the University of Virginia in 2011 and has been a CFA charterholder since 2015.
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Antoine Papiernik
Managing Partner, Sofinnova Partners
Antoine Papiernik
Managing Partner, Sofinnova Partners
Antoine Papiernik is a Managing Partner at Sofinnova Partners, which he joined in 1997. Mr. Papiernik has been an initial investor and active board member in public companies like Actelion, Auris, ProQR, NovusPharma (then sold to CTI), Movetis (then sold to Shire), Mainstay, Pixium Vision and Stentys, which went public respectively on the Zürich stock exchange, the NASDAQ, the Milan Nuovo Mercato, the Belgium Stock Exchange, the Dublin Stock Exchange and EuroNext Paris, in Cotherix (initially NASDAQ listed, then sold to Actelion), CoreValve (sold to Medtronic), Fovea (sold to Sanofi Aventis) and Ethical Oncology Science (EOS, sold to Clovis Oncology).
He has also invested in and is a board member of private companies ReCor, MD Start, Shockwave Medical, Reflexion Medical, ProQR and Gecko Biomedical. Mr. Papiernik has an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania. In 2012 and 2011, Mr. Papiernik was selected by Forbes for its “Midas List” of the world’s top venture capital investors. Mr. Papiernik is one of the only Europeans on the list, and one of the few life science investors as well.
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Raymond Camahort, Ph.D.
Partner, Novo Ventures
Raymond Camahort, Ph.D.
Partner, Novo Ventures
Raymond Camahort joined Novo Ventures in 2015 and has over 15 years of combined research, business development, and venture capital experience. Mr. Camahort has served as a Board Observer at Checkmate Pharmaceuticals, Arcellx, Stride Bio, and Inspirna. Prior to joining Novo Ventures, Mr. Camahort worked in business development at the Harvard University Office of Technology Development where he focused on licensing technologies developed in the Departments of Chemistry and Stem Cells and Regenerative Biology. Mr. Camahort completed a National Institute of Health (NIH) post-doctoral training fellowship at Harvard University while concurrently holding a business development role at Partners Healthcare Research Ventures and Licensing. Mr. Camahort was a pre-doctoral fellow at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, Missouri, and he holds a PhD from the University of Kansas in biochemistry and molecular biology, and a BS in biological sciences from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
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Peter Van Vlasselaer, Ph.D.
Venture Partner, SR One
Peter Van Vlasselaer, Ph.D.
Venture Partner, SR One
Peter Van Vlasselaer, PhD has over 30 years of experience in the biotech industry. He was most recently the Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of ARMO Biosciences, which shortly after its public offering (ARMO) was acquired by Eli Lilly. Before that, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of iPierian (acquired by BMS), ARRESTO (acquired by Gilead) and AVIDIA (acquired by AMGEN).
In addition to founding ARMO, he was the founder of ARRESTO, co-founder and Executive Chair of TrueNorth (acquired by Bioverativ) and he was a member of the start-up teams of InterMune (ITMN) and Dendreon (DNDN). He was involved in the development of several products, some of which obtained regulatory approval (Provenge, Actimmune, Esbriet, Enjaymo).
He currently serves on the boards of Asceneuron and Inspirna. Dr. Van Vlasselaer has a degree in Zoology and a PhD in Immunology from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. He was a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Division of Immunology and Rheumatology at Stanford University Medical School and DNAX Research Institute. Dr. Van Vlasselaer has authored several peer reviewed scientific publications and book chapters and he is an inventor on multiple patents.
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Jue Pu
R&D, Lepu Medical
Jue Pu
R&D, Lepu Medical
Jue Pu leads the cancer biomarker and liquid biopsy research and development at Lepu Medical. She also leads international investment for Lepu Medical, with successful investments including Viralytics (acquired by Merck). Ms. Pu holds a Master of Science degree in Materials Science Engineering at Stanford University. Ms. Pu holds a dual undergraduate degree, summa cum laude, from the Wharton School of Finance and Materials Science Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania.
