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Team

Team

Leadership Team

Chief Executive Officer

Mike Solomon, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer

John Reardon, Ph.D.
Chief Operating Officer & Chief Financial Officer

Barclay “Buck” Phillips
VP of RNA Biology

Katie Warner, Ph.D.
VP, Lead Discovery

Kendra Hightower, Ph.D.
VP, Drug Discovery

Don Hertzog, Ph.D.
Senior VP of Research

Manjunath “Manju” Ramarao, Ph.D.
VP of Human Resources

Celia Reyes
Chief Executive Officer

Mike Solomon, Ph.D.

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.

Chief Scientific Officer

John Reardon, Ph.D.

John has more than 30 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, with the last 14 spent in operational roles within small, virtual or partially virtual therapeutic-focused companies.

Most recently, John was head of research and development at HemoShear Therapeutics and chief scientific officer at Revivo Therapeutics; biotechnology companies focused on children’s rare diseases and neurodegeneration, respectively.

John was chief scientific officer at Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals where he led the discovery and non-clinical development of two drugs for treatment of acute decompensated heart failure. Cardioxyl was sold to Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2015 for $2.2 billion. John was a founder and executive vice president of research and development at Integrated Oncology Solutions, a spin-out from Duke University prior to joining Cardioxyl.

Prior to John’s career in small biotech, he spent 19 years with Burroughs Wellcome, Glaxo Wellcome and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), rising to the position of senior vice president of discovery research biology where he oversaw all early lead discovery activities across all the therapeutic areas at GSK.

John received his B.S. in chemistry from Willamette University. He earned his Ph.D. in chemistry at The Ohio State University and completed postdoctoral fellowship in enzymology at Brandeis University.

Chief Operating Officer & Chief Financial Officer

Barclay “Buck” Phillips

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.

VP of RNA Biology

Katie Warner, Ph.D.

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.

VP, Lead Discovery

Kendra Hightower, Ph.D.

Kendra has over 25 years of experience in chemical and biological sciences encompassing pharmaceutical, academic, and government R&D and pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Prior to joining Ribometrix, Kendra was a senior study director at biomarker leader Metabolon. In this role, she was engaged in enabling and interpreting metabolomics studies to provide biological insights for projects across the pharmaceutical and life sciences including target identification, mechanism of action evaluation, biomarker discovery, and clinical trial support. She spent 14 years at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) where she provided biochemical support and leadership for drug discovery programs across a wide range of drug targets and therapeutic areas including infectious disease, oncology, and metabolic disease.

Kendra co-led the Biological Sciences department at GSK in Research Triangle Park, NC, which carried out a broad range of preclinical work for drug discovery and development programs. While at GSK Kendra worked on two efforts that led to marketed drugs, the HIV integrase inhibitor Tivicay and the BRaf inhibitor Tafinlar.

Kendra obtained a B.S. in biochemistry from the University of Maryland, College Park. She then obtained her Ph.D. in biology, with a concentration in biochemistry, from The Johns Hopkins University. She was a Damon Runyan Cancer Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at Duke University Medical Center.

VP, Drug Discovery

Don Hertzog, Ph.D.

Don has more than 27 years of pharmaceutical industry medicinal chemistry and drug discovery experience.

Don comes to Ribometrix from HemoShear Therapeutics where he was head of chemistry, leading all aspects of chemistry for HemoShear’s drug discovery programs in rare diseases. He previously served as vice president of early lead identification at Abide Therapeutics, where he led a team of chemists devoted to identifying hit molecules and transforming them into leads worthy of further optimization to drug candidates.

Before joining Abide, Don was the site head for the Molecular Discovery Research Department of Medicinal Chemistry and director of medicinal chemistry for metabolic diseases at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), overseeing a team that progressed several molecules into preclinical development and clinical trials. This work was highlighted by Don’s leadership of the chemistry team that discovered GW856464, GSK’s clinical entry in the highly competitive field of MCH R1 antagonists for the treatment of obesity.

Don began his industrial career at Bayer Pharmaceuticals, where he was part of a team that advanced a glucagon antagonist into human trials for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.

Don earned his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Emory University and a B.A. degree in chemistry from Hendrix College. He completed an NIH-sponsored postdoctoral fellowship at The Scripps Research Institute and has more than 40 total publications, patents, and invited presentations. Don was co-chair of the 2014 ACS National Medicinal Chemistry Symposium and has served as a member of the Long-Range Planning Committee of the Medicinal Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society, ACS.

Senior VP of Research

Manjunath “Manju” Ramarao, Ph.D.

Manju has more than 20 years of experience biopharmaceutical research and development senior management and portfolio management.

Most recently, Manju held a senior executive position at the Biocon-Bristol-Myers Squibb R&D Center, BBRC, in Bangalore, India. He served as an executive director, site leader for research, and early development and head of discovery biology and translational medicine with responsibility for scientific strategy, a wide range of preclinical programs and platforms, and management of the large R&D organization. Research under his oversight spanned multiple therapeutic areas, including oncology, immunology, fibrosis, and cardiovascular disease. Manju joined Bristol-Myers Squibb and worked at BBRC since its inception in 2009. He was instrumental in building a world class research center with state-of-the-art capabilities and talent recruited from across the world.

Prior to his roles at BMS, Manju worked for eight years at Pfizer, Wyeth, in Cambridge, MA, leading biology programs in immunology and pain.

Manju received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. from Bangalore University, India, and his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois. His post-graduate experience included a post-doctoral fellowship and an instructor position at Harvard Medical School.

VP of Human Resources

Celia Reyes

Celia has over 20 years of human resources business partner experience covering several sub-categories of the life sciences industry.
Celia joins Ribometrix after recent engagements with Mainstay Medical Group and Acadia Pharmaceuticals. Prior to those engagements, she was Executive Vice President, Corporate – Human Resources at Biotix where she spent 13 years building the company from a product development through product launch, and ultimately its acquisition by Mettler-Toledo in 2017. Celia had responsibility for aspects of human resources including talent acquisition, benefits and compensation, training and development and performance management. Prior to Biotix, Celia held biopharma HR roles with Roche, Millipore-Sigma, and Solvay.
Celia received a B.S. from Spencer College in El Salvador and, over the course of her career, has participated in multiple advance human resources training and courses work at institutions including School of Anderson, UCLA; University of California; Institute of Applied Management and Law; Kennesaw State University and San Francisco State University.

Team

Aaron

“It’s important to work hard, stay humble, and not let the criticism or the compliments go to your head.” – Jessica Sanchez

Abha

“There is science in dance and art in science.” - Mae Jemison

Amanda

"You try and fail, try and fail, but the only true failure is when you stop trying.” – Albert Einstein

Andy

"My job is to bring clarity to a research enterprise increasingly defined by big data and help scientists move beyond the Excel spreadsheet"

Barry

“I enjoy finding appropriate roles for technology and gadgets in life and work”

Brian

“Teamwork is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results” – Andrew Carnegie

Brittani

“Take chances, make mistakes, get messy.”-Ms. Frizzle, The Magic School Bus

Caleb

"Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one's own sunshine." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Charlie

Chris

"Ask for help: that’s what separates the people who do things from those who just dream. You have to act and be willing to fail." Steve Jobs

Coby

“Have no fear of perfection; you’ll never reach it.” – Marie Curie

Delita

“Never be limited by other people’s limited imaginations” – Dr. Mae Jemison

Denise

"You should never, never doubt something that no one is sure of" - Roald Dahl

Derek

“Expect the unexpected” - Oscar Wilde

Devon

“We must understand the need for change. An unexamined life is not worth living.” – Marvin J. Ashton

Elizabeth

“The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.” - Neil deGrasse Tyson

Ericka

“Live each day to the fullest”

Holly

"People at Ribometrix work together toward the best possible solution."

Jamie

“If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.” Admiral William H. McRaven

Jen

“But still try, for who knows what is possible?” – Michael Faraday

John

“Science is but a perversion of itself unless it has as its ultimate goal the betterment of humanity.” -Nikola Tesla

Jonathan

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”-Mahatma Gandhi

Karolina

“Remember, no matter where you go, there you are.”- Buckaroo Banzai

Krista

"'The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team." - Phil Jackson

LaShanda

“The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied” – King Solomon

Logan

“Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge” – Carl Sagan

Matt

“Years ago, RNA was kind of a bit player...now we think RNA is really the important thing.” – Jack Szostak, Nobel Laureate

Matt

“It’s only a model."

Melissa

"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." Carl Sagan

Melissa

“So, in the face of overwhelming odds, I'm left with only one option: I’m going to have to science the shit out of this.” The Martian

Mindy

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life”. - Confucius

Monica

“There is a single light of science, and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere.” – Isaac Asimov

Nick

”The world could always use more heroes”

Nicole

"If I have seen further, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants" - Sir Isaac Newton

Patrick

“It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” – Ursula K. Le Guin

Raquel

“At RBX I am always excited to collaborate with colleagues to tackle new challenges. I truly feel part of a great team!”

Roheeth

“If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?” - Albert Einstein

Sarah

“Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.” ― Zora Neale Hurston

Scientific Advisors

Founder

Kevin Weeks, Scientific Advisor

William S. Marshall, Ph.D.

Joshua Mendell, Ph.D.

John Schneekloth, Jr., Ph.D.

Gene Yeo, Ph.D.
Founder

Kevin Weeks, Scientific Advisor

Kevin is a founder of Ribometrix and a Kenan Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The vision of his laboratory is to use chemical principles to explore the central role of RNA in biology with a focus on real-world problems and understanding human disease. RNA SHAPE technologies, invented in his laboratory, are used worldwide. The Weeks laboratory is applying SHAPE and other chemical technologies to challenging problems in biology, including the RNA-mediated reactions central to functions of mRNAs, lncRNAs, and viral RNAs.

Dr. Weeks obtained his BA with Honors and Department Honors in Chemistry from the College of Wooster and completed his Ph.D. at Yale, securing the Richard Wolfgang Prize for most Distinguished Dissertation in Chemistry. Dr. Weeks is a Fulbright and a Searle Scholar, an NIH EUREKA awardee, a Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Life Member in Clare Hall at the University of Cambridge, and has taught many hundreds of undergraduates their first year chemistry.

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.

Joshua Mendell, Ph.D.

Dr. Joshua Mendell is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, a Professor of Molecular Biology, and a member of the Harold C. Simmons Cancer Center and the Center for Regenerative Science and Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, in Dallas, Texas.

Since 2004, Dr. Mendell has directed a research laboratory focused on investigating RNA biology in normal physiology and disease. In particular, the Mendell laboratory has devoted significant effort towards elucidating functions of noncoding RNAs, including microRNAs, miRNAs, and long noncoding RNAs, lncRNAs, and has made major contributions to our understanding of how these RNA transcripts contribute to diseases such as cancer.

For his work in this area, Dr. Mendell has been the recipient of several prestigious awards including the Allan C. Davis Medal for the Outstanding Young Scientist in the State of Maryland in 2007, the AACR Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cancer Research in 2010, and the O’Donnell Award from the Academy of Medicine, Engineering, and Science of Texas in 2016.

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

Gene Yeo, Ph.D.

Gene Yeo is a Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, UCSD. Dr. Yeo has a BSc in Chemical Engineering and a BA in Economics from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, a Ph.D. in Computational Neuroscience from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from the UCSD Rady School of Management. Dr. Yeo’s research interest is in understanding and manipulating RNA processing in development and disease using induced pluripotent stem cell and murine models. His lab demonstrated in vivo RNA targeting with CRISPR/Cas proteins with proof of concept in repeat expansion disorders. The Yeo research group members also developed enhanced CLIP for the purposes of large-scale mapping of protein-RNA interactions.

Gene’s lab is an active participant in RNA genomics technology and therapeutics development. Dr. Yeo is on the Editorial Boards of the journals Cell Reports and Cell Research. Dr. Yeo is a recipient of Alfred P Sloan Fellowship in recognition of his work in computational molecular biology (2011) and the inaugural Early Career Award from the International RNA Society (2017). Gene is a co-founder of several biotech companies including Locana, Eclipse Bioinnovations, Enzerna and Proteona. Gene serves or had served on the scientific advisory boards of the Allen Institute of Immunology, Locana, Eclipse Bioinnovations, Proteona, Aquinnah, LGC, Nugen and Ribometrix.

Board of Directors

Chairman

Mike Clayman, MD
Chief Executive Officer

Mike Solomon, Ph.D.
Founder

Kevin Weeks, Scientific Advisor

Mike Ross, Ph.D.

John Gustofson, MBA

Mike Dial, Ph.D.

Hakan Goker, Ph.D.

William S. Marshall, Ph.D.
Chairman

Mike Clayman, MD

Mike Clayman, M.D., co-founded Flexion Therapeutics in 2007 and has since served as its president and CEO, guiding the discovery and development of ZILRETTA® for osteoarthritis-related knee pain. He also serves as chairman of the board of Anokion SA, a Swiss biotechnology company focused on treating autoimmune disease.

Before founding Flexion, Dr. Clayman had a distinguished career at Eli Lilly and Company, leading numerous divisions engaged in a broad range of activities, 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 holds a B.A. from Yale University and an M.D. from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.

Chief Executive Officer

Mike Solomon, Ph.D.

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.

Founder

Kevin Weeks, Scientific Advisor

Kevin is a founder of Ribometrix and a Kenan Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The vision of his laboratory is to use chemical principles to explore the central role of RNA in biology with a focus on real-world problems and understanding human disease. RNA SHAPE technologies, invented in his laboratory, are used worldwide. The Weeks laboratory is applying SHAPE and other chemical technologies to challenging problems in biology, including the RNA-mediated reactions central to functions of mRNAs, lncRNAs, and viral RNAs.

Dr. Weeks obtained his BA with Honors and Department Honors in Chemistry from the College of Wooster and completed his Ph.D. at Yale, securing the Richard Wolfgang Prize for most Distinguished Dissertation in Chemistry. Dr. Weeks is a Fulbright and a Searle Scholar, an NIH EUREKA awardee, a Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Life Member in Clare Hall at the University of Cambridge, and has taught many hundreds of undergraduates their first year chemistry.

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.

John Gustofson, MBA

John Gustofson is a Managing Director of AbbVie Ventures and invests across AbbVie’s therapy areas of Immunology, Oncology, and Neuroscience.

Prior to joining AbbVie, John worked at AstraZeneca as a Director of Strategic Partnering and Business Development focused on oncology licensing. John has 20+ years professional experience as a bench scientist and in various roles of market and business development. In addition John has worked in numerous biotechnology companies including Altus Pharmaceuticals, Therion Biologics, Boston Life Sciences and Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals. John also spent approximately 4 years in strategy consulting to the life sciences industry.

John holds a Master Degree in Molecular Biology from the Miami University and an MBA from the Boston University.

Mike Dial, Ph.D.

Experienced investor and scientist, Mike Dial has over a decade of experience working with early-stage life science and healthcare companies. Mike joined Hatteras in 2009 from Silicon Valley Bank, where he was a Vice President in the Corporate Finance Group focused on emerging tech and life science companies and venture capital funds. Prior to SVB, he held research scientist positions in the Department of Biochemistry at UNC-Chapel Hill, the Laboratory of Structural Biology at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and the UNC-Duke Michael Hooker Proteomics Center. He has performed research in the fields of cell cycle regulation, proteomics, and cancer therapy.

Mike is a Professor of the Practice at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is the Manager for the Carolina Research Ventures Fund, a $10M fund dedicated to UNC-Chapel Hill related start-ups. He holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Biophysics from UNC-Chapel Hill.

Mike serves on the boards of Ribometrix, StrideBio, and Genturi and is a board observer at Spyryx. Previously, Mike was involved with G1 Therapeutics, Viamet, Lysosomal Therapeutics, Artizan Biosciences, and Curoverse among others, and has held various operational roles in Hatteras portfolio companies. Mike has also served on committees and panels for the North Carolina Biotech Center, Council for Entrepreneurial Development, SEBIO and PTP NEXT.

Hakan Goker, Ph.D.

Hakan Goker, Ph.D., is a senior investment director at M Ventures, corporate venture arm of the biopharmaceutical division of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. Hakan has been investing for the past 12 years and joined M Ventures in 2013. Previously Hakan was a partner at Aescap Venture and prior to that was part of Atlas Venture life sciences team.

Since 2006, Hakan has been instrumental in the creation, financing, and corporate strategy of multiple biotechnology companies globally including Artios, Asceneuron, Storm, Bicycle, and F-star. Hakan received his PhD in cancer biology from the Institute of Cancer Research/ University of London and continued his scientific career with post-doctoral work at the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Centre/Royal Marsden Hospital. He gained his BSc Honours, from University College London. Hakan currently is a board member at Artios Pharma, Asceneuron, Forendo, Macrophage Pharma, Ribometrix Inc., Storm Therapeutics, Synaffix, Tocopherx, and is the chairperson of iOnctura.

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.