Mika Kakefuda Derynck, M.D.

Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Derynck is the Chief Medical Officer of Amunix. She is an accomplished drug developer with over 25 years of experience in cancer research, including a 15-year career at Genentech/Roche. She has deep expertise in oncology drug development, which spans multiple therapeutic modalities, tumor types, and all phases of development. During her tenure at Genentech/Roche, she oversaw the approvals and/or global development for over a dozen drugs, including Perjeta^®, Avastin^®, Tecentriq^®, Cotellic^®, ipatasertib, taselisib, pictilisib, and apitolisib. Most recently, she served as the Global Head for Cancer Immunotherapy, GI/GU Cancers, Angiogenesis Franchises and China Oncology Development. She also served as the Co-Chair of the Cancer Immunotherapy Committee (CITC), the GI/GU Franchises Committee, and the Breast Cancer Disease Area Team. Dr. Derynck was also a Senior Group Medical Director of Exploratory Clinical Development at Genentech, serving as the development lead for multiple early-stage programs. Before Genentech, Dr. Derynck was an Assistant Clinical Professor in the UCSF Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology and Division of Hematology / Oncology. Dr. Derynck holds a B.A. from Boston University and an M.D. from Boston University School of Medicine. She completed an internal medicine residency at Johns Hopkins, followed by a fellowship in Hematology / Oncology at UCSF and a postdoctoral fellowship at UCSF.

Maninder Hora, Ph.D.

Chief Technical Operations Officer

Dr. Maninder Hora currently serves as the Chief Technical Operations Officer of Amunix. Dr. Hora has served the biopharmaceutical industry for more than 30 years with demonstrated leadership in process, analytical and pharmaceutical sciences, manufacturing and quality functions. He has been part of teams that have successfully filed 50+ INDs and registered 11 biopharmaceutical products worldwide. Prior to joining Amunix, he served as the Chief Technical Operations Officer of Nektar Therapeutics, where he spearheaded strategic direction and execution of all process and product development as well as manufacturing activities. Prior to Nektar, he served as Vice President of Product Operations & Quality at Facet Biotech/ PDL BioPharma (now a part of Abbvie) and Vice President of Process and Product Development at Chiron Corporation (now Novartis). Prior to that, he held positions of increasing responsibilities at Chiron, Pfizer and GSK.

Dr. Hora received his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology in Bioengineering (Materials) in 1980 and held a Fulbright fellowship at the University of Washington, Seattle. He holds 23 US Patents and has authored scores of publications and delivered numerous presentations in international forums. He serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for Cristal Therapeutics, an emerging nanotechnology-based biopharmaceutical company.

Bryan Irving, Ph.D.

Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Bryan Irving currently serves as the Chief Scientific Officer of Amunix. He has 30 years of experience in immunology, with nearly 20 years in industry focused on discovering and progressing immune drug candidates into the clinic for both autoimmune and oncology indications. Prior to joining Amunix, he served as Chief Scientific Officer of Five Prime Therapeutics, where he led research and preclinical drug development, and as Vice President of Cancer Immunology at CytomX Therapeutics, where he led immune applications of their protease-activatable, prodrug technology (included T cell bispecifics and T cell checkpoint targets). Prior to CytomX, he worked 12 years as a scientist at Genentech in the Departments of Immunology and Oncology/Cancer Immunology, where he was a key inventor and research leader for the PD-L1 immunotherapy atezolizumab (Tecentriq).

Dr. Irving received his Ph.D in Immunology from the University of California, San Francisco, and a B.A. in Physiology from the University of California, Berkeley. His doctoral work, performed in the laboratory of Dr. Arthur Weiss, pioneered the single-chain chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) technology. He performed post-doctoral work at Harvard and UCSF on early T cell development. His work has been published in top tier journals including Cell, Science, Cancer Cell, Nature Immunology, and Immunity, and he is an inventor on patents that include the single-chain CARs and atezolizumab. Dr Irving is also a musician and studied clarinet performance at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, NY.

Anne Keane, J.D.

Senior Vice President of Regulatory and Quality

Anne Keane, J.D. is the Senior Vice President of Regulatory and Quality. Anne is an experienced regulatory leader with extensive experience across numerous therapeutic areas and phases of development. She has contributed to more than 20 development programs at both small and large companies including Lyell, Achaogen, Genentech, Merck KGaA, Jazz and Arginox Pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining Amunix, Anne served as the Vice President of Regulatory Lyell Immunopharma, where she had the opportunity to lead the drafting of a Friends of Cancer White Paper: Designing the Future of Cell Therapies, which proposed a number of opportunities to accelerate early cell therapy research. While at Achaogen, Anne led the regulatory and clinical quality organizations through the development and approval of Zemdri^®, an important new antibiotic for gram negative infections. Earlier experience includes leading successful regulatory filings for Avastin^® and Perjeta^®.

Anne received a law degree from the University of Washington Law School and a Physician Assistant Degree from the Albany Medical College Physician Assistant program.

Zeeshan Merchant

Chief Financial Officer

Zeeshan Merchant serves as Chief Financial Officer of Amunix. Mr. Merchant has over 15 years of experience in biotechnology as an investment banker and investor. Prior to joining Amunix, Mr. Merchant worked as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley, serving as an Executive Director in the firm’s healthcare investment banking group. In this role, Mr. Merchant advised U.S. and Asia based biotechnology companies on financings and strategic matters, and successfully executed over 50 transactions, including $20 billion in financing and $25 billion in mergers and acquisitions. Prior to Morgan Stanley, Mr. Merchant worked as Senior Analyst at Ayer Capital, a healthcare dedicated investment fund. In this role, Mr. Merchant identified and analyzed biotechnology and healthcare investments globally. Prior to Ayer Capital, Mr. Merchant worked as a private equity Associate at TA Associates, a leading, global growth private equity firm.

Mr. Merchant received a B.A. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. 

Darcy Mootz, Ph.D.

Chief Business Officer

Dr. Mootz is the Chief Business Officer of Amunix. Before joining the company, she was an independent consultant working with VCs and pharmaceutical companies on a wide range of corporate development and strategy projects, including new company formation, product launch strategy, and M&A strategy. Prior to that, she served as Chief Business Officer of ORIC Pharmaceuticals, where she had a broad role spanning corporate development and a variety of operational functions. While VP of Corporate Development at Achaogen, she helped the company complete a successful IPO, led the project team for the company’s lead Phase 3 antibiotic (now launched as ZEMDRI), and helped raise over $200M in capital. Earlier experiences include playing key roles in a successful M&A while at BiPar Sciences, and in a successful new indication launch for Avastin while at Genentech.

Dr. Mootz started her career in industry at L.E.K. Consulting, where she worked with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies on a wide range of projects. She earned a B.S. in Biology from Duke University and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Harvard University.

Volker Schellenberger, Ph.D.

President and Chief Technology Officer

Dr. Volker Schellenberger is a co-founder of Amunix and currently serves as President and Chief Technology Officer. Dr. Schellenberger has extensive industry experience in protein engineering and drug discovery. Previously, he headed the Protein Engineering department at Genencor, where he invented combinatorial consensus mutagenesis, selection by micro-compartmentalization, as well as mutator technology. In addition, he initiated and led collaborations with Seattle Genetics that focused on antibody-enzyme fusion proteins. Prior to his work on biotherapeutics, Dr. Schellenberger directed projects optimizing enzymes for industrial applications as well as microbes for metabolic pathway engineering.

Dr. Schellenberger received his Ph.D. from Leipzig University, where he studied protease catalyzed peptide synthesis. After postdoctoral studies at the Institute for Protein Research in Pushchino (Russia), he moved to the University of Göttingen where he developed a novel method for the production of peptides from recombinant peptide-multimers. After a postdoctoral fellowship with Bill Rutter at the University of California, San Francisco, Dr. Schellenberger joined Genencor in 1994. Dr. Schellenberger is the author of over 40 scientific papers and an inventor on more than 70 issued and pending patent applications. He is also the recipient of the Karl Lohmann award of the German Society of Biochemists.

Angie You, Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer

Angie serves as Chief Executive Officer of Amunix Pharmaceuticals Inc. Prior to joining Amunix, Dr. You served as Chief Business & Strategy Officer and Head of Commercial at Sierra Oncology (NASDAQ: SRRA), a publicly listed hematology and oncology drug development company, where she helped the company through a successful initial public offering. She also led the company’s strategic and transactional business and commercial efforts, including building its robust pipeline through acquisition and licensing of several product assets. Prior to Sierra, Dr. You served as Chief Business Officer of Aragon Pharmaceuticals, a private oncology drug discovery and development company, where she was responsible for finance, operations, human resources, and business development. At Aragon, Dr. You helped secure several rounds of financing as well as leading the business development process that resulted in the company’s acquisition by Johnson & Johnson. In previous roles, Dr. You served as Chief Business Officer at Synosia Therapeutics and Ren Pharmaceuticals. Before joining Ren Pharmaceuticals, Dr. You focused on new company formation at Venrock Ventures. In addition, Dr. You currently serves on the board of directors of ORIC Pharmaceuticals.

Dr. You earned a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Harvard University and a B.A. in Chemistry from Harvard College.

Nicky Barber, CPA

Vice President of Finance

Nicky Barber serves as the Vice President of Finance at Amunix. She is a skilled finance executive with over 20 years of experience guiding financial strategy and managing the accounting function for both private and publicly traded companies in the life sciences and medical tech industry. Prior to joining Amunix, Ms. Barber was Corporate Controller at Invuity Inc., where she oversaw the accounting team and worked with the C-Suite to ensure SEC/SOX compliance as a public company. As an integral part of the Invuity diligence team in the company’s acquisition by Stryker, she oversaw the transition of the accounting function as well as determined the accounting and cash impact upon acquisition close. Prior to Invuity, Ms. Barber was the Corporate Controller at Singulex where she was responsible for accounting and general administration, as well as preparation of IPO-related filings. In addition to these roles, Ms. Barber worked at Chemocentryx and at Exelixis in various accounting functions where her roles and responsibilities included SEC/SOX oversight, financial oversight of clinical trials, payroll, equity, and taxes. Ms. Barber received a B.A. in Biopsychology from Vassar College and is an active California Certified Public Accountant.

Katherine Bock

Vice President of Investor Relations & Corporate Communications

Katherine Bock has approximately 20 years of experience in the healthcare industry, including positions of increasing responsibility in finance/investor relations, communications, corporate strategy, corporate development and research. She most recently served as Head of Investor Relations & Corporate Strategy at Arcus Biosciences where she executed on the company’s successful $348 million financing in May of 2020 and navigated investors, as well as sell-side analysts, through deal economics and announcement of the company’s 10-year partnership with Gilead to develop next-generation cancer immunotherapies. Previously Katherine Bock led Corporate Development & Investor Relations at Nevro, a medical device company focused on neuromodulation. During her tenure, she held various roles which included taking the company public on the NYSE in 2014, as the first medical device company to price above their range since 2007. She also helped lead subsequent financings, including the largest medtech follow-on in at least 10 years and a convertible raise of $172.5 million. Katherine was also an Associate in Lazard’s Healthcare Investment Banking Group where she focused primarily on M&A advisory roles and capital market transactions. She has held additional positions at Adverum Biotechnologies, Genentech (a Member of the Roche Group) and Corgentech. Katherine has over 5 years of biotech research experience including positions in the small molecule Translational Oncology Group at Genentech and the Oncology Group at Corgentech.

Katherine received her M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 2009 and received her B.S. in Applied Mathematics at San Francisco State University in 2002.

Katherine has also been active in the community with the Board of the Northern California Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society as the former Treasurer.

Michelle Heath

Head of People

Michelle Heath serves as the Head of People at Amunix. She has over 20 years of experience in both strategic and hands-on HR leadership in the biotechnology and non-profit sectors, including companies such as Christine Mathews Consulting, CytomX Therapeutics, Monogram Biosciences, Codexis, R2 Technology and BUILD. She brings extensive experience working in companies during high growth periods. Leveraging her collaborative and creative approach to HR, she has been responsible for building and managing systems, processes, and resources to support high performing teams and overall business strategy. Michelle holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Robert Jones

Vice President of Contracts

Robert Jones serves as the Vice President of Contracts at Amunix. He brings over 18 years of extensive contract negotiation experience in both small and large companies, including Sierra Oncology, Pharmacyclics, Gilead, and Abbott Vascular. Before joining Amunix, Robert served as Senior Director of Contracts at Sierra Oncology, where he negotiated manufacturing, collaboration, and clinical supply agreements, and managed CRO contract-related issues. He was also responsible for all domestic and international clinical trial contracts, as well as informed consent form reviews. Prior to Sierra Oncology, Robert worked at Pharmacylics, where he led the Contracts Management team through the development and approval of Imbruvica (ibrutinib), developed the infrastructure between Contracts Management and Finance, and provided leadership on budgeting, contract negotiation, and outside counsel management across functions.

Robert attended Clarendon College and Phoenix College.

Ursula McCurry

Vice President of Clinical Operations

Ursula McCurry serves as the Vice President of Clinical Operations at Amunix. Ursula is a seasoned clinical operations leader with over 20 years of global clinical development experience across a number of established and emerging biotech and pharmaceutical companies including Genentech, Exelixis, Astex, and QLT Inc. She has led global clinical operations programs spanning a variety of therapeutic areas and all phases of clinical development, contributing to over 20 programs and subsequent multiple regulatory approvals at both small and large biotech companies. She also brings significant partnership and alliance management experience. Prior to joining Amunix, Ursula served as Clinical Program Director at Genentech, leading multiple programs from entry into the clinic into phase three development, including taselisib and GDC-9545. She has also served as part of Drug Safety teams, ensuring quality, compliance, pharmacovigilance, and safety reporting.

Ursula received a Master of Arts degree from Simon Fraser University and a certificate in Biotechnology, Clinical Trial Design and Management from San Francisco State University.

Nabeela Rasheed, Ph.D., J.D.

Vice President of Intellectual Property

Dr. Nabeela Rasheed serves as the Vice President for Intellectual Property at Amunix. Before joining Amunix, Dr. Rasheed served as Section Head of Intellectual Property at AbbVie, where she devoted her time to building and securing intellectual property portfolios in therapeutic areas including immunology, oncology, antiviral, women’s health, renal disease, and neuroscience. Prior to that, she spent 20 years working at a law firm specifically focused on intellectual property law as it applies to the biopharmaceutical industry, as well as advising clients on related regulatory and legislative changes in fast-evolving legal markets. She has been integrally involved in implementing strategic plans and launches of several pharmaceutical products.

Dr. Rasheed is a member of the State Bar of Illinois, holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Liverpool, United Kingdom, and a Juris Doctorate Degree from Chicago Kent College of Law.

Geetha Shankar, Ph.D.

Vice President of Clinical Science and Clinical Operations

Dr. Geetha Shankar serves as the Vice President of Clinical Science and Clinical Operations at Amunix. She has over 25 years of experience in drug discovery and development, with expertise extending from high throughput screening and drug discovery, to clinical development (IND to phase III), regulatory filings, and market access. Before joining Amunix, Dr. Shankar spent 10 years at Genentech as Group Clinical Science Director. In this capacity she oversaw US, EU, and global approvals of Tecentriq^® in non-small cell lung cancer. She was also a key contributor on the PI3K program and worked in both breast and lung cancer indications on proof-of-concept studies. Prior to Genentech, she worked at Exelixis for six years, first as a team leader on drug discovery projects, and later transitioning to clinical development. In the latter function, she worked on early trials for cabozantinib in medullary thyroid cancer. Prior to Exelixis, she worked at Ceretek LLC, an oncology startup focused on lipid G-protein coupled receptors.

Dr. Shankar received a Ph.D. in Molecular Pharmacology from Northwestern University School of Medicine and an M.S. in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. She also holds a B.Pharm. from the College of Pharmacy in Bangalore, India.

Gary T. Taniguchi, Ph.D.

VICE PRESIDENT OF BIOANALYTICAL SCIENCES

Dr. Taniguchi serves as the Vice President of Bioanalytical Sciences at Amunix. He has over 25 years of experience in biopharmaceutical drug development from pre-IND to post-marketing in the areas of oncology, inflammation, and rare diseases like MPS and PKU. Gary has strategic and scientific expertise in the areas of CMC analytical and bioanalytical, which includes analytical characterization and comparability and PK, immunogenicity and PD biomarker development. Prior to joining Amunix, he has led analytical, bioanalytical, and/or Quality groups at various companies including Coherus BioSciences, BioMarin, Genentech, Abbott, and PDL BioPharma/Facet Biotech (now part of Abbvie). While at Genentech and BioMarin, Dr. Taniguchi along with other biopharmaceutical industry scientists wrote the early manuscripts for strategies in detecting and characterizing the immunogenicity of biotherapeutics.

Dr. Taniguchi received his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry majoring in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of California at San Francisco.

Jamie Brush, M.D.

Frazier Healthcare Partners

Jamie Brush, M.D., is a General Partner and Portfolio Manager on the Frazier Life Sciences team. Jamie co-leads the Frazier Life Sciences Public Fund (FLSPF) with Albert Cha and serves as a co-Portfolio Manager for the FLSPF. Jamie led Frazier’s public investments in Trillium Therapeutics (NASDAQ: TRIL; acquired by Pfizer), Translate Bio (Nasdaq: TBIO; acquired by Sanofi Pasteur), Iveric Bio (Nasdaq: ISEE), Rocket Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: RCKT), Krystal Biotech (Nasdaq: KRYS), and co-led Frazier’s investments in ARMO (Nasdaq: ARMO; acquired by Eli Lilly), and Ignyta (Nasdaq: RXDX; acquired by Roche).

Prior to joining Frazier, Jamie was a management consultant with the Boston Consulting Group, where he was a core member of the Healthcare Practice. In this capacity, he led projects involving Biotechnology mergers and acquisitions, R&D, manufacturing, and business development strategy. Jamie received his M.D. from the University of Southern California, where he was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha honors society, and his B.A. from Middlebury College. He completed his post-graduate training in Internal Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

Rich Heyman, Ph.D.

Chairman of the Board of Directors

Dr. Rich Heyman is an accomplished scientist and biopharma executive with over 25 years of experience leading innovative biotechnology companies. Dr. Heyman previously served as Chief Executive Officer of Seragon Pharmaceuticals, a company focused on drugs targeting hormone dependent cancers, until its acquisition by Roche in 2014. Dr. Heyman was also the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Aragon Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Johnson & Johnson in 2013. Prior to Aragon, Dr. Heyman held leading scientific and business roles at several biotechnology companies, including X-Ceptor Therapeutics and Ligand Pharmaceuticals. At Ligand, Dr. Heyman led the development of Panretin^® and Targretin^®, which were approved by the FDA for the treatment of cancer.

In addition to serving on the Amunix Pharmaceuticals Board of Directors, Dr. Heyman is a Director at Gritstone Oncology, Yumanity Therapeutics, Metacrine Inc., Vividion Therapeutics, Mavupharma, and ORIC Pharmaceuticals. He is also the Vice Chairman of The Salk Institute and author or inventor of more than 120 publications and patents.

Dr. Heyman was an NIH postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute and received a Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Minnesota and a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Connecticut.

David Hirsch, M.D., Ph.D.

Longitude Capital

Dr. Hirsch is a Managing Director and Founder of Longitude Capital. Prior to Longitude Capital, Dr. Hirsch was a Vice President of Pequot Ventures, where he worked in the life sciences practice. Prior to Pequot Ventures, Dr. Hirsch was an Engagement Manager in the pharmaceutical practice of McKinsey & Company.

Dr. Hirsch currently serves on the boards of Collegium Pharmaceutical (NASDAQ: COLL), Inflazome, Molecular Templates (NASDAQ: MTEM), Poseida Therapeutics, Rapid Micro Biosystems, Tricida (NASDAQ: TCDA) and Velicept. Previous boards include Civitas Therapeutics (acquired by Acorda), Precision Therapeutics and Zavante Therapeutics (acquired by Nabriva). Dr. Hirsch also led Longitude Capital’s investments in Amarin (NASDAQ: AMRN) and Cadence Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: CADX).

Dr. Hirsch holds a Ph.D. in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an M.D. from Harvard Medical School and a B.A. in Biology from The Johns Hopkins University.

Ciara Kennedy, Ph.D., M.B.A.

Ciara Kennedy served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Amplyx Pharmaceuticals from 2016 until its acquisition by Pfizer in 2021. Dr. Kennedy has a proven track record of delivering significant results and advancing therapeutic and diagnostic programs across multiple therapeutic areas and stages of development in the biotech industry. Amplyx has successfully raised over $140M to develop novel treatments for immunocompromised patients. Dr. Kennedy has successfully in-licensed, and advanced into Phase 2 studies, programs to address a variety of life-threatening conditions. Dr. Kennedy is also a founder of Reneo Pharmaceuticals and Mirum Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Kennedy serves as an independent Board member of, privately held, Aristea Therapeutics. Prior to Amplyx, Dr. Kennedy served as Chief Operating Officer at Lumena Pharmaceuticals, until the company’s acquisition by Shire Pharmaceuticals in 2014 and as Vice President, Head of Cholestatic Liver Disease at Shire post acquisition. As COO of Lumena, Dr. Kennedy played a critical role in the development of assets licensed from Pfizer and Sanofi, financing the company and preparing to take the company public. Prior to Lumena, Dr. Kennedy held several positions at Cypress Bioscience Inc. where she played a key role in the company’s FDA approval and launch of Savella^® for Fibromyalgia, corporate acquisitions and the in-licensing of several clinical assets. Prior to joining Cypress Bioscience, Dr. Kennedy held several positions in the Program and Alliance department of Biogen Idec, managing multiple projects spanning the drug discovery and development continuum. A Ph.D. scientist by training Dr. Kennedy received her doctorate at the Queen’s University of Belfast, Northern Ireland. In 2004 Dr. Kennedy became a member of the inaugural class of the Rady School of Management at UCSD and graduated with a Master of Business Administration in 2006.

Trisha Millican

Chief Financial Officer, Metacrine

Trisha Millican has 20 years of leadership experience in the life science industry encompassing debt and equity financings, mergers and acquisitions, licensing transactions, co-development and promotional arrangements, and commercial product launches. She is currently the Chief Financial Officer of Metacrine. Prior to Metacrine, Ms. Millican was the Senior Vice President of Finance at Seragon, a private biotechnology company focused on developing Selective Estrogen Receptor Degraders (SERDs) targeting hormone dependent cancers, which was acquired by Genentech. Prior to Seragon, she served as Vice President of Finance at Aragon, a discovery-stage small molecule company focused on therapeutics for the treatment of hormone- resistant cancers, which was acquired by Johnson and Johnson. Prior to Aragon, Ms. Millican worked in various senior financial management roles at Zogenix, a pharmaceutical company developing and commercializing innovative central nervous system therapies for people living with serious and life- threatening rare central nervous system disorders and medical conditions. Ms. Millican spent five years with the public accounting firm Deloitte LLP. She holds a B.S. in Accountancy from the University of San Diego and is a certified public accountant in the state of California.

Otello Stampacchia, Ph.D.

Omega Funds

Otello founded Omega Funds in 2004 and leads the firm’s investor relations and strategic initiatives. He is a member of the firm’s investment committee and is also heavily involved in a number of Omega’s therapeutic areas of interest, particularly in oncology, rare diseases and inflammatory disorders.

Previously, Otello was in charge of life sciences direct investments and diligence for healthcare venture fund of fund investments at AlpInvest Partners, one of the largest private equity asset managers worldwide. Before AlpInvest, he was the portfolio manager of the Lombard Odier Immunology Fund, a $3 billion listed investment vehicle in Geneva, Switzerland, investing in public and private healthcare companies worldwide. Previously, Otello was a member of the HealthCare corporate finance and M&A team at Goldman Sachs (London and New York offices). Before Goldman, he helped co-found the healthcare investment activities at Index Securities (now Index Ventures). Otello has a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Geneva, holds a European Doctorate in Biotechnology from the EU, and obtained an MSc in Genetics from the University of Pavia.

James N. Topper, M.D., Ph.D.

Frazier Healthcare Partners

Jamie is a Managing General Partner of Frazier Healthcare Partners' Life Sciences team. Since joining Frazier in 2003, he has led and served as a board member for a number of Frazier’s successful life sciences investments, including Acerta Pharma BV (sold to AstraZeneca), Calistoga Pharmaceuticals (co-founder, sold to Gilead Sciences), Rempex (sold to The Medicines Company), Incline (co-founder, sold to The Medicines Company), Alnara (sold to Lilly), Portola (co-founder, NASDAQ: PTLA), CoTherix (sold to Actelion), and Threshold (NASDAQ: THLD). He currently represents Frazier on the boards of Alcresta Therapeutics, Allena Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ALNA), Alpine Immune Sciences (NASDAQ: ALPN), AnaptysBio (NASDAQ: ANAB), Aptinyx (NASDAQ: APTX), Entasis Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ETTX), and Mavupharma. He is also a board observer for Sojournix.

Prior to joining Frazier, Jamie was the head of cardiovascular R&D at Millennium Pharmaceuticals and ran Millennium San Francisco (formerly COR Therapeutics). Before the merger of COR and Millennium, he served as the Vice President of Biology at COR and was responsible for all research activities. He served on the medical school faculties at Stanford and Harvard Medical School prior to joining COR.

Jamie received his M.D. and Ph.D. in Biophysics from Stanford and holds a B.S. from the University of Michigan. He did his postgraduate training in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Disease at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. He has authored over 50 publications and was the recipient of a Howard Hughes Scholars Award while on the faculty at Stanford.

Frank Watanabe

Chief Executive Officer, Arcutis

Frank Watanabe is the President, CEO and Director of Arcutis Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARQT), a late-stage dermatology biotech company. Mr. Watanabe has extensive experience across general management, marketing, sales management and business development in US, international and global markets. Under his leadership, Arcutis has raised more than $700M in private and public financings, and has advanced multiple novel therapies from bench through the clinic, with a first FDA regulatory filing expected in 2021. Prior to joining Arcutis, he was co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Kanan Therapeutics, a cardiovascular drug development company, and before that, was Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development at Kythera Biopharmaceuticals. Earlier in his career, he was an executive at Amgen, Inc., where he was involved in the development of Repatha^® for hyperlipidemia and Aimovig^® for migraine. Previously, he was an executive with Eli Lilly and company, and an official in the U.S. Government. He was also a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy Reserves for 25 years. Mr. Watanabe earned his M.A. in National Security Studies, and his B.A. in International Relations, both at Georgetown University.

Angie You, Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer

Angie serves as Chief Executive Officer of Amunix Pharmaceuticals Inc. Prior to joining Amunix, Dr. You served as Chief Business & Strategy Officer and Head of Commercial at Sierra Oncology (NASDAQ: SRRA), a publicly listed hematology and oncology drug development company, where she helped the company through a successful initial public offering. She also led the company’s strategic and transactional business and commercial efforts, including building its robust pipeline through acquisition and licensing of several product assets. Prior to Sierra, Dr. You served as Chief Business Officer of Aragon Pharmaceuticals, a private oncology drug discovery and development company, where she was responsible for finance, operations, human resources, and business development. At Aragon, Dr. You helped secure several rounds of financing as well as leading the business development process that resulted in the company’s acquisition by Johnson & Johnson. In previous roles, Dr. You served as Chief Business Officer at Synosia Therapeutics and Ren Pharmaceuticals. Before joining Ren Pharmaceuticals, Dr. You focused on new company formation at Venrock Ventures. In addition, Dr. You currently serves on the board of directors of ORIC Pharmaceuticals.

Dr. You earned a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Harvard University and a B.A. in Chemistry from Harvard College.

David Chang, M.D., Ph.D.

David Chang, M.D., Ph.D., is the President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Allogene. He previously served as Executive Vice President, Research & Development, and Chief Medical Officer of Kite, a Gilead Company. He has an industry-leading track record of innovation in the field of oncology drug development, including the development of YescartaTM (axicabtagene ciloleucel), the first CAR T therapy approved for non-Hodgkin lymphoma. From 2002 to 2014, he held senior leadership roles at Amgen, including Vice President of Global Development and Head of Hematology-Oncology. During this time, David spearheaded personalized therapy strategies underlying the success of Vectibix^® (panitumumab). He also provided therapeutic area leadership to pivotal programs for Blincyto^® (blinatumomab), a bispecific T cell engager antibody in acute lymphocytic leukemia and for IMLYGICTM (talimogene laherparepvec), a first-of-its-kind oncolytic immunotherapy in melanoma. Prior to joining Amgen, David held dual appointments as Associate Professor of Medicine and of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. He obtained a B.S. in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and MD and PhD degrees from Stanford University. David completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a fellowship in medical oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard Medical School, where he was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute postdoctoral fellow.

Fred Ramsdell, Ph.D.

Fred Ramsdell, Ph.D., is a veteran biotechnology leader in immunology with nearly three decades of experience and a founder of Sonoma Biotherapeutics where he serves as CSO. Immediately prior to Sonoma, he served as CSO of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy where he helped build and advance the research portfolio from the inception of the institute and remains an advisor.

After a fellowship at the NIH, Fred joined Immunex, studying T-cell activation and tolerance, with a focus on gene discovery and characterization. He later joined Darwin Molecular (acquired by Celltech R&D), to establish the immunology program. There, he led the team that discovered and characterized FoxP3, a gene critical to the function of regulatory T-cells (and the award of the Crafoord Prize in 2017). Fred joined ZymoGenetics in 2004, where he led teams studying novel proteins with potential regulatory activity in lymphoid cells. In 2008, Fred helped to build Novo Nordisk’s Inflammation Research Center in Seattle. 

He earned his doctoral degree in microbiology and immunology from the University of California, Los Angeles and holds a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and cell biology from the University of California, San Diego.