Team

Meet Our Team of Experts

We are a collaborative and solutions-focused team with diverse skills, perspectives, and ideas.

Ribometrix team conversing

Our Leadership

The Ribometrix management team has decades of drug development, RNA biology, and company-building experience. Our leaders are responsible for directing the company’s science, strategy, and operations, as well as supporting and developing Ribometrix employees.

Mike Solomon

Mike Solomon, Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer

Mike has more than 20 years of experience in the biotechnology industry, with more than 17 focused on creating and operating early stage therapeutic-focused companies.

Mike served as Venture Partner at SV Health Investors where he led the seed round for Ribometrix before taking the CEO role. Previously, he served as chief operating officer at Decibel Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on broadly treating hearing disorders. Mike’s involvement at Decibel resulted from his role as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Third Rock Ventures, where he led the team that created Decibel’s business plan resulting in a $52 M Series A round.

Prior to Decibel, Mike was chief operating officer at Ember Therapeutics, a Third Rock Ventures company focused on obesity and diabetes, and chief business officer at Link Medicine, a neurodegeneration-focused biotechnology company that was sold to AstraZeneca. Mike was a founder and VP of discovery at Epizyme Therapeutics, a company focused on epigenetic modulators that is now a publicly traded company, and VP of discovery at Hypnion, Inc, a sleep disorder company that was sold to Lilly in 2007 for $325 million. Mike spent two years as a biotechnology analyst at Bank of America Securities. He started his career at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, where he was project leader for multiple programs.

Mike received his B.S. in chemistry from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He earned his Ph.D. in organic chemistry at the University of Wisconsin and completed postdoctoral work in synthetic organic chemistry at Scripps.

Barclay Phillips

Barclay “Buck” Phillips

Chief Operating Officer & Chief Financial Officer

Buck has more than 30 years of experience in biotech finance, business development, operations, and governance.

From 2008 to 2019, Buck served as the chief financial officer for three separate NASDAQ listed, development stage biotechnology companies; G1 Therapeutics, Novavax, and Micromet, acquired by Amgen in 2012 for $1.2 billion. In addition to his role as CFO, at G1 Therapeutics he also held the title of SVP, Corporate Development. During his tenure as CFO, Buck was responsible for all finance and accounting functions, financing strategy, successfully raising over $1.4 billion, Wall Street and investor relations, public relations, corporate strategy, and corporate development.

Prior to his CFO roles, Buck had extensive experience in life science venture investing and public market investing, serving for nine years as the managing director of Vector Fund Management, a late-stage life sciences venture capital fund with over $250 million in committed capital and approximately 30 venture investments in biotechnology, medical technology, and healthcare services companies. In addition, he was biotechnology analyst and director of venture Investments for INVESCO Funds group, a no-load mutual fund family with a healthcare sector fund franchise totaling over $3.5 billion in assets under management.

Buck received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Katie Warner, Ph.D.

Katie Warner, Ph.D.

SVP, RNA Biology

Katie co-founded Ribometrix with Kevin Weeks and was an early pioneer in SHAPE technologies, showing in 2009 with Dave Mathews and Kevin Weeks that SHAPE data can be used to model RNA secondary structure with high accuracy.

Katie continued her work with Adrian Ferré-D’Amaré and Chris Abell to show the first structure-based proof-of-principle that RNA is targetable by fragments. She has solved multiple RNA-small molecule crystal structures, including the fluorogenic RNAs “Spinach” and “Corn.”

Katie received a B.A. in chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an M.Phil. in pathology and Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Cambridge. Katie was a Beckman Scholar, a Churchill Scholar, an RNA Society/Scaringe awardee and an NIH-Oxford-Cambridge Scholar.

Jessica Sorrentino, Ph.D.

Jessica Sorrentino, Ph.D.

SVP, Translational Medicine

Jess brings a strong scientific background in biotechnology preclinical and clinical research and development in oncology.

Prior to joining Ribometrix, Jess was the Vice Preclinical of Translational Medicine at Istari Oncology supporting the development of an oncolytic virus for the treatment of multiple tumor indications including GBM, melanoma, and NMIBC. Additionally, Dr. Sorrentino was the Director of Translational Medicine and Biomarkers at G1Therapeutics where she led the translational program of three clinical-stage small molecule inhibitors including NDA approval of Trilaciclib in SCLC. Dr. Sorrentino has also served as an independent consultant working for other life science companies.

Dr. Sorrentino earned a Ph.D. in toxicology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill studying the role of chronic environmental toxicant exposure leading to both an advanced aging and tumorigenic phenotype. Jess was also a Howard Hughes Scholar in the UNC Graduate Translational Medicine Training Program. Lastly, she earned her B.S. in molecular genetics from the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY.

Orshi Kocsis, MBA

Orshi Kocsis, M.B.A.

VP, Human Resources

Orshi brings more than 17 years of human resources experience to Ribometrix. Orshi comes to Ribometrix from Research Square Company, where she served as Vice President of HR, partnering with leaders on all facets of human resources, including recruitment, onboarding, benefits, compensation, training, coaching, performance management, and leadership development. She has worked with organizations across the globe from Australia to Japan and the U.S.

Orshi earned an MBA in human resources from the University of Technology, Sydney, and is a certified HR professional with PHR and SHRM-CP certifications.

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“RNA is the central conduit of information in every cell, if you target RNA biology, you can target almost anything. Ribometrix has the tools and the team to make this happen.”
Kevin Weeks, Founder and Scientific Advisor
Ribometrix

The People Behind the Science

Every Ribometrix team member is dedicated to discovering and developing small-molecule drugs that modulate RNA biology so we can help patients.

Abha Bais

Abha Bais, Ph.D.

Senior Scientist I
Raquel Martinez Chacin

Raquel Martinez Chacin, Ph.D.

Senior Scientist I
Murty Changalvala

Murty Changalvala, Ph.D.

Associate Director, Medicinal Chemistry
Chris Echeverri

Chris Echeverri, Ph.D.

R&D Alliances & Contracts
Mattew Friedersdorf

Mattew Friedersdorf, Ph.D.

Associate Director, Translational Medicine

Lorena Ibranji, B.S.

Senior Research Associate I
Jonathan Kearns

Jonathan Kearns, B.B.A.

Senior Director, Finance & Accounting
Krista Marran

Krista Marran, B.A.

Scientist II
Brittani Patterson

Brittani Patterson, B.S.

Scientist II
Roheeth Pavana

Roheeth Pavana, Ph.D.

Associate Director, Medicinal Chemistry
Matt Smola

Matt Smola, Ph.D.

Associate Director, RNA Biology
Caleb Sutherland

Caleb Sutherland, Ph.D.

Associate Director, RNA Biology
Nicholas Taylor

Nicholas Taylor, B.S.

Scientist I
Sarah Bober

Sarah Thompson, B.S.

Senior Research Associate I

Andrew Truong, Ph.D.

Scientist I
Barry Wilson

Barry Wilson, B.A.

Associate Director, Information Technology
Allen Zhang

Allen Zhang, M.S.

Senior Accountant

Scientific Advisors

Kevin Weeks

Kevin Weeks, Ph.D.

William S. Marshall, Ph.D.

William S. Marshall, Ph.D.

William S. Marshall, Ph.D., is an independent life sciences consultant to various biopharma companies, investors, foundations and academic institutions. Prior to that he was the President, Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder, and Director of miRagen Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: MGEN). miRagen discovered and developed a series on microRNA modulators, three of which demonstrated clinical proof of concept in the areas of hematological malignancy, fibrosis, and induction of neo-angiogenesis. miRagen merged with Viridian Therapeutics in 2020. Prior to founding miRagen, Dr. Marshall was Vice President of Technology and Business Development for Bioscience at Thermo Fisher Scientific. In this role, he was responsible for leading technology assessment and strategic planning for the Thermo Fisher Biosciences Division, a unit with revenues of approximately $1 billion that manufactures and supplies a wide range of products and services across the general-chemistry and life-sciences arenas.

Dr. Marshall was one of the scientific founders of Dharmacon, Inc., which was acquired by Fisher Scientific International, serving as the Executive Vice President for Research and Operations and General Manager. Prior to joining Dharmacon, Dr. Marshall served in many capacities at Amgen, Inc., most recently as Associate Director of Research, Site Head for Research and Head of the Nucleic Acid and Peptide Technology Department. In these positions, he participated in a wide variety of therapeutic development approaches throughout the drug discovery process leading to the development of clinical candidates.

Dr. Marshall earned his B.S. in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his Ph.D. in chemistry in the laboratory of Professor Marvin Caruthers at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is author and co-author of over 50 research papers and 80 patents. Dr. Marshall currently serves on the Board of FluoroFinder, LLC.

John Schneekloth, Jr., Ph.D.

John Schneekloth, Jr., Ph.D.

John Schneekloth, Jr., Jay, is a Senior Investigator and head of the Chemical Genetics Section in the Center for Cancer Research at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health in Frederick, MD. Dr. Schneekloth has an A.B. in Chemistry from Dartmouth College, and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Yale University. After a postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton University, he began his independent career at the NIH in 2011.

Dr. Schneekloth’s research focuses on chemical biology approaches to target RNA and DNA. The Schneekloth laboratory has pioneered the use of small molecule microarrays as a high throughput platform for the discovery and characterization of RNA-binding small molecules. His work has emphasized the discovery of new chemical and biophysical techniques to understand the selectivity and specificity of molecular interactions with nucleic acids. These efforts enable the development of chemical probes to investigate the role of RNA in diseases such as cancer. His research focuses on targeting challenging, therapeutically valuable nucleic acid targets in cancer such as MYC- and RAS-family genes. Dr. Schneekloth is also active within the research community, where he is currently Secretary of the ACS Division of Medicinal Chemistry.

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Board of Directors

Mike Clayman, MD

Mike Clayman, M.D.

Chairman

Mike Clayman, M.D., co-founded Flexion Therapeutics in 2007 and served as its president and CEO, from its inception in 2007 to its acquisition by Pacira Biosciences in 2021. During that time, he guided the discovery and development of ZILRETTA® for osteoarthritis-related knee pain. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Anokion and Nido Biosciences and as a Board member of Adipo Therapeutics.

Before founding Flexion, Dr. Clayman had a distinguished career at Eli Lilly and Company, leading divisions engaged in a broad range of functions, from discovery research to clinical investigation to global regulatory affairs. Among his roles, he served as general manager of Chorus, Lilly’s early-phase development accelerator, and as vice president of Lilly Research Laboratories. Prior to Lilly, Dr. Clayman was an assistant professor in the School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where his research centered on the immunopathogenesis of renal disease.

Dr. Clayman is the recipient of the Physician Scientist Award from the National Institutes of Health. He earned a B.A., cum laude, from Yale University and an M.D. from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. Following an internship and residency in Internal Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco Moffitt Hospitals, Dr. Clayman completed clinical and research fellowships in Nephrology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Mike Solomon

Mike Solomon, Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer

Mike has more than 20 years of experience in the biotechnology industry, with more than 17 focused on creating and operating early stage therapeutic-focused companies.

Mike served as Venture Partner at SV Health Investors where he led the seed round for Ribometrix before taking the CEO role. Previously, he served as chief operating officer at Decibel Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on broadly treating hearing disorders. Mike’s involvement at Decibel resulted from his role as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Third Rock Ventures, where he led the team that created Decibel’s business plan resulting in a $52 M Series A round.

Prior to Decibel, Mike was chief operating officer at Ember Therapeutics, a Third Rock Ventures company focused on obesity and diabetes, and chief business officer at Link Medicine, a neurodegeneration-focused biotechnology company that was sold to AstraZeneca. Mike was a founder and VP of discovery at Epizyme Therapeutics, a company focused on epigenetic modulators that is now a publicly traded company, and VP of discovery at Hypnion, Inc, a sleep disorder company that was sold to Lilly in 2007 for $325 million. Mike spent two years as a biotechnology analyst at Bank of America Securities. He started his career at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, where he was project leader for multiple programs.

Mike received his B.S. in chemistry from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He earned his Ph.D. in organic chemistry at the University of Wisconsin and completed postdoctoral work in synthetic organic chemistry at Scripps.

Mike Ross, Ph.D.

Michael Ross, Ph.D. serves as a Managing Partner of SV Life Sciences, SVLS. He was the tenth employee at Genentech, where he worked for 13 years in various roles including team leader and Vice President of Development. Dr. Ross also started Genentech’s protein engineering and small molecule discovery effort as Vice President of Medicinal and Biomolecular Chemistry. He was the founding CEO of Arris Pharmaceutical, MetaXen, ExSAR, and CyThera, now Novocell, and was also Managing Partner at Didyma, LLC, a biotechnology management consulting firm.

Dr. Ross currently serves or has served on the board of directors of several biotechnology companies, including Aderis Pharmaceuticals, Adimab, Alinea, Archemix, Arris Pharmaceuticals, Arsanis, Carta Proteomics, CyThera, Glycofi, Epimmune, Genencor, Ikano, Itero Biopharmaceuticals, Link Medicine, MetaXen, Mpex, NKT Therapeutics, Rempex, Rinat, Sutro Biopharmaceuticals, and Xenova. He also serves on the faculty of Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College.

Dr. Ross received his Bachelor of Arts, A.B., from Dartmouth College, his Doctor of Philosophy, Ph.D., degree in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology, Caltech, and completed a Post-Doctorate program in molecular biology at Harvard University.

Christian Schubert

Christian Schubert, Ph.D.

Christian serves as Vice President and Head of AbbVie Ventures, where he directs AbbVie’s strategic venture capital investments into emerging science and technologies in core therapeutic areas of interest with a team of dedicated investment professionals located in Cambridge, MA, San Francisco, CA, and Oxford, UK.

He joined the organization in July 2022 from Atlas Venture, where helped conceive, launch, and operate the next generation of biotech companies as Entrepreneur in Residence, EIR. Prior to Atlas, Christian served as Global Head of R&D External Innovation at the Servier Group and Managing Director of Servier BioInnovation. An established leader in external innovation and partnering in the biotechnology sector with deep experience in both academic research, early-stage venture, and commercial business development – having held prior roles at Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development and at Biogen Corporate Development and Strategy – Christian is passionate about the use of human genetics, translational ‘omics, and human biology for the identification and validation of novel targets, biomarkers, and patient segmentation in early-stage R&D.

Trained in human genetics, neurobiology, and biochemistry in the U.S., Germany, England, and Switzerland, Christian holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, and M.Sc. and B.Sc. degrees from the Technical University of Munich, Germany. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA.

Mike Dial, Ph.D.

Mike Dial, Ph.D.

Mike Dial, Ph.D. serves as General Partner with Hatteras Venture Partners, an early-stage, healthcare-focused venture capital firm. Mike has over 15 years of experience working with early-stage life science and healthcare companies. Prior to joining Hatteras in 2009, Mike worked for Silicon Valley Bank as a Vice President in their Corporate Finance Group focused on emerging tech and life science companies and venture capital funds. He started his career as an analytical chemist at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and has held additional research scientist positions in the Department of Biochemistry at UNC-Chapel Hill and the UNC Michael Hooker Proteomics Center. He has performed research in the fields of cell cycle regulation, proteomics, and cancer therapy. Mike has held various operating roles in Hatteras portfolio companies and has been a founding investor in multiple biotech companies, including G1 Therapeutics, Atsena Therapeutics, and Ribometrix.

Mike is a Professor of the Practice at Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC-Chapel Hill and holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry and biophysics from UNC-Chapel Hill.

Hakan Goker, Ph.D.

Hakan Goker, Ph.D.

Hakan Goker, Ph.D., is Managing Director of M Ventures and heads the biotechnology investments covering healthcare and life sciences. Hakan joined M Ventures in 2013 and has been investing in the sector for 15 years. Previously, Hakan was a partner at Aescap Venture investing in European opportunities. Hakan started his investment career at Atlas Venture where he was part of the investment team in London focusing on global investment opportunities in healthcare and medical technologies across the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

He was instrumental in the creation and financing, business, and R&D strategies of multiple companies in their formation years including Orphazyme, Bicycle, Nimbus Discovery, and f-Star while at Aescap and Atlas. Hakan continues his active investing role and represents M Ventures on multiple portfolio companies. He comes from an academic background receiving his Ph.D. in oncology from the Institute of Cancer Research/ University of London, UK and continuing his scientific career with post-doctoral work at the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Centre/Royal Marsden Hospital. He gained his B.Sc. Hons, from University College London. Hakan is based in Amsterdam at the M Ventures head office.

William S. Marshall, Ph.D.

William S. Marshall, Ph.D.

William S. Marshall, Ph.D., is an independent life sciences consultant to various biopharma companies, investors, foundations and academic institutions. Prior to that he was the President, Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder, and Director of miRagen Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: MGEN). miRagen discovered and developed a series on microRNA modulators, three of which demonstrated clinical proof of concept in the areas of hematological malignancy, fibrosis, and induction of neo-angiogenesis. miRagen merged with Viridian Therapeutics in 2020. Prior to founding miRagen, Dr. Marshall was Vice President of Technology and Business Development for Bioscience at Thermo Fisher Scientific. In this role, he was responsible for leading technology assessment and strategic planning for the Thermo Fisher Biosciences Division, a unit with revenues of approximately $1 billion that manufactures and supplies a wide range of products and services across the general-chemistry and life-sciences arenas.

Dr. Marshall was one of the scientific founders of Dharmacon, Inc., which was acquired by Fisher Scientific International, serving as the Executive Vice President for Research and Operations and General Manager. Prior to joining Dharmacon, Dr. Marshall served in many capacities at Amgen, Inc., most recently as Associate Director of Research, Site Head for Research and Head of the Nucleic Acid and Peptide Technology Department. In these positions, he participated in a wide variety of therapeutic development approaches throughout the drug discovery process leading to the development of clinical candidates.

Dr. Marshall earned his B.S. in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his Ph.D. in chemistry in the laboratory of Professor Marvin Caruthers at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is author and co-author of over 50 research papers and 80 patents. Dr. Marshall currently serves on the Board of FluoroFinder, LLC.

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