Biotech 2050 Podcast

Ms. Zaderej has served as Axogen’s President, Chief Executive Officer, and a member of our Board of Directors since September 2011 and the Chairman of our Board of Directors since May 2018. Since May 2010, she has served as the Chief Executive Officer of Axogen’s wholly owned subsidiary, Axogen Corporation, and a member of the Board of Directors of Axogen Corporation. Ms. Zaderej joined Axogen Corporation in May 2006 and served as Vice President of Marketing and Sales from May 2006 to October 2007 and as Chief Operating Officer from October 2007 to May 2010. From October 2004 to May 2006, Ms. Zaderej worked for Zaderej Medical Consulting, a consulting firm she founded to assist medical device companies build and execute successful commercialization plans. From 1987 to 2004, Ms. Zaderej worked at Ethicon, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company, where she held senior positions in marketing, business development, research & development, and manufacturing. Ms. Zaderej is a member of the University of Tampa Board of Trustees and the MedExec Women Board of Advisors. Ms. Zaderej has an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Business and a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University.

John Glasspool is CEO and member of the Board of Directors of Anthos Therapeutics. Mr. Glasspool is also a member of the Board of Directors of Dalcor Corporation. He was formerly the Executive Vice President, Head of Corporate Strategy and Customer Operations at Baxalta Incorporated (NYSE: BXLT), formerly Baxter BioScience (NYSE: BAX). Prior to joining Baxter in August 2012, Mr. Glasspool was Head of Region Europe and Novartis Vaccines & Diagnostics (NYSE: NVS), a member of the V&D Executive Committee. Mr. Glasspool served as a board member, Vice President and President of the European Vaccine manufacturers (EVM), from 2010 until December 2012. Previously, Mr. Glasspool was Head of Global Pricing & Market Access and Head of Global Commercial Operations in Novartis Pharma, where he led the functions in embedding the needs of customers and consumers for brands at all stages of their lifecycle development, launch, and in market. Mr. Glasspool joined Novartis as Head of Marketing for Neuroscience. He was promoted to Global Head Cardiovascular & Metabolism Business Franchise in 2006, during which time he grew the franchise sales over a three-year period.

Dr. Sullivan is co-founder and CEO of Vanqua. In addition, he has been a Venture Partner with Orbimed since January 2019. Previously, he was the Vice President of Research at Abbvie where he was responsible for the company’s research efforts in a variety of therapeutic/disease areas including oncology, immunology, neurology, hepatitis C and cystic fibrosis. Jim has advanced more than 100 compounds into clinical development across a number of disease states and technology platforms. These include products on the market for HCV (Mavyret and Viekira), the first-in-class Bcl2 selective inhibitor, Venclexta, for hematological cancers, a new oral agent for patients with rheumatoid arthritis, RINVOQ, and multiple compounds currently in Phase II or III clinical trials. He has authored/co-authored more than 130 scientific publications and is an inventor on 11 patents. Jim is an adjunct faculty member at Northwestern University and serves on the board of several companies and foundations including Regis Technologies, Genomics Medicine Ireland, Genuity Science, MATTER Healthcare Incubator, Chicago Biotechnology Accelerator and the Pistoia Alliance. He earned his bachelor’s degree and Ph.D. in biochemistry from Trinity College Dublin and conducted post-doctoral research in neurobiology at Northwestern University.

Paula Soteropoulos brings to Ensoma more than 30 years of experience in the biopharma industry in areas of drug development, manufacturing, business development, global commercialization with P&L accountability, company building and organizational development. Her leadership throughout her career spans a broad range of therapeutic areas, including rare disease, cardiovascular and metabolism, infectious disease, renal, and transplant and oncology. In addition to Ensoma, Paula is a strategic advisor to 5AM Ventures and a member of the Board of Directors of uniQure and Rallybio. Previously, Paula served as the founding CEO and board member of rare disease therapeutic developer Akcea Therapeutics. There, she led the company through its IPO, as well as significant growth — employing over 270 staff in 13 countries and overseeing six drugs in its portfolio with two rare disease drug approvals and commercial launches. Prior, Paula served as senior vice president and general manager, cardiometabolic and rare disease businesses and strategic alliances at Moderna Therapeutics. She also spent more than 20 years at Genzyme Corporation, most recently as vice president and general manager, cardiovascular, rare diseases. Paula holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in chemical and biochemical engineering from Tufts University and an executive management certificate from the Darden School of Business, University of Virginia. Paula serves on the advisory board for the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department of Tufts University.

Jake Becraft is co-founder and CEO of Strand Therapeutics, an emerging biotechnology company at the forefront of mRNA therapeutics. With colleagues at MIT’s Synthetic Biology Center, he led the development of the world’s first synthetic biology programming language for mRNA. Jake has been featured in Fierce Biotech, Bloomberg, and the Boston Business Journal, among others, for his vision and mission at Strand of applying this unique platform for real-world disease applications. Jake was recently named a Termeer Fellow and listed on MIT Technology Review's 35 Innovators Under 35 and Boston Business Journal’s 40 Under 40. Outside of science, Jake is an active backcountry snowboarder and trains Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Lex Rovner is the CEO and cofounder of 64x Bio, a spinout of Harvard Medical School and the Wyss Institute at Harvard University. Using novel high throughput genome engineering and screening technologies in a design loop with computational tools, 64x Bio is developing new ways of generating highly optimized cell lines for the manufacturing of viral vectors. These fundamental advances enable pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to bring more lifesaving cell and gene therapies to patients by reducing the cost and complexity of manufacturing, a critical bottleneck in this multibillion dollar market. Lex was a postdoc in George Church’s lab and cofounded the company along with George, Pam Silver, Jeff Way, and David Thompson. She received her Ph.D in molecular, cellular and developmental biology at Yale University. Josh Mandel-Brehm is President & Chief Executive Officer of CAMP4 Therapeutics and holds a dual appointment as entrepreneur partner with Polaris Partners. Mr. Mandel-Brehm previously held key business development and operations leadership roles at leading biotech companies. Most recently he served as part of the Business Development group at Biogen, where he led multiple strategic activities and corresponding transactions, which included expanding Biogen’s non-malignant hematology franchise and overseeing seminal investments to enter the ophthalmology field. Mr. Mandel-Brehm also played an integral role advancing Biogen’s gene therapy strategy, executing a series of external collaborations. Prior to Biogen, Mr. Mandel-Brehm held several roles of increasing responsibility at Genzyme as part of the business development group for the company’s rare disease business unit. Mr. Mandel-Brehm earned a BA in Biology from Washington University in St. Louis and holds an MBA from the University of Michigan. Nabiha Saklayen is CEO & co-founder of Cellino. Cellino’s proprietary technology makes personalized stem cell-derived therapies scalable for the first time. Nabiha was selected as a Pioneer in MIT Tech Review's 35 Innovators under 35 list for her patented inventions in cellular laser editing. She received her Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard University as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) International Fellow. She is also the inaugural Tory Burch Foundation Fellow in Genomics at the Innovative Genomics Institute led by Nobel Laureate Dr. Jennifer Doudna. Nabiha is also a TED speaker and co-creator of I Am A Scientist, an educational program running in 50 states that inspires children to explore science.

Tim Sweeney, MD, PhD, is co-founder and CEO of Inflammatix. Tim has extensive experience in medical practice (general & trauma surgery), bench research, and bioinformatics / machine learning. While training at Stanford he helped invent the core technology on which Inflammatix is based, is named on over a dozen patents related to medical diagnostics, and has published >100 manuscripts & abstracts. He is PI (through Inflammatix) on multiple development contracts from DARPA, BARDA, and NIH, and brought Inflammatix to recognition as the ‘Most Disruptive Technology’ at AACC in 2019, and the “Fierce 15” list in 2020.

Al leads teams in early-stage discovery up through non-clinical development, identifying new drug candidates for advancement into clinical research. Al joined Sage as CSO in 2011, with more than 20 years of drug discovery experience focused primarily in the neuroscience arena. Most recently, he was Vice President of Chemistry and Pharmacokinetic Sciences at Lundbeck USA, where he was responsible for the drug discovery, analytical, computational and pharmacokinetics departments focused on synaptic transmission and neuroinflammation. Earlier, as Senior Director and Head of the Neuroscience Discovery Chemistry Department of Wyeth Research, Al led a group that successfully delivered more than 15 drug candidates into clinical development in a broad range of neuroscience indications. He has co-authored more than 125 manuscripts and abstracts, and is a co-inventor on 50 patents and patent applications. Al holds a B.S. in chemistry from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of California, Irvine and was an American Chemical Society postdoctoral fellow at Colorado State University.

Dr. Stuart Peltz founded PTC Therapeutics in 1998 and has served as Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors since the company’s inception. Under his leadership, PTC has grown from a research organization to a publicly traded, global commercial organization with multiple approved products and a foundation of strong technology platforms that continues to drive a robust discovery pipeline for patients with rare disorders. PTC now has a footprint in more than 50 countries, with offices in 20 countries and more than 1,000 employees. Prior to founding PTC, Dr. Peltz was a Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University. Dr. Peltz is a recognized scientific leader in RNA biology in the area of post-transcriptional control processes involving mRNA turnover and translation, with more than 30 years of research and over 100 publications in this area. Dr. Peltz has received a number of business and scientific awards. Notably, he was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science in 2010. He was recognized as PharmaVoice’s 100 Most Inspiring People in 2009 and received the Dr. Sol J. Barer Award for Vision Innovation and Leadership in 2014. He earned a Ph.D. from the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at the University of Wisconsin.

Patrick Kleyn joined Rhythm in 2018 with over 25 years’ experience in human genetics and genomics, and he was named as head of TRAD in 2021. Prior to joining Rhythm, Patrick has held leadership roles in academia, biotech and large pharmaceutical companies, as his work has focused on the application of genomic technologies for drug and biomarker discovery and development. He began his career at Millennium Pharmaceuticals initially working on obesity target discovery and ultimately leading the genomics organization. He subsequently served as Chief Scientific Officer at Gemini Genomics and as Head of Scientific Planning at the Broad Institute during its inception and launch. He left the Broad to co-found Ligon Discovery and subsequently joined EMD Serono as the Head of External Innovation at its Boston site. Patrick earned his bachelor’s of Natural Sciences at Cambridge University, his Ph.D. in human genetics at University College London and carried out postdoctoral research in neuromuscular diseases at Columbia University.

Jacob(Jake)Rubens, Co-Founder, Chief Innovation Officer Jake is Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Tessera Therapeutics, as well as a Principal at Flagship Pioneering. Jake joined Flagship Pioneering in 2015 and works as part of a venture-creation team, founding and growing companies based on new biotechnology. At Flagship, Jake launched Kaleido Biosciences and co-founded Sana Biotechnology. Jake was the Head of Innovation at Cobalt Biomedicine, where he invented and developed the company’s Fusosome platform prior to its merger with Sana Biotechnology. Before joining Flagship, Jake received his Ph.D. in microbiology from MIT, working in the Synthetic Biology Center with Professor Tim Lu with the support of a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. At MIT Jacob invented gene circuits that allow engineered cells to do novel analog, digital, and hybrid computations, enabling the emerging field of “intelligent” cell therapies. Jake’s work has resulted in multiple pending patents and publications, including articles in Nature and Nature Communications. Jake was honored in 2017 in Forbes' 30 under 30 list in science. Hari Pujar, Chief Operating Officer Hari is Chief Operating Officer of Tessera, as well as Operating Partner at Flagship Pioneering. At Tessera, his responsibilities span across research, manufacturing, program strategy and management and IP. Hari is a global Biopharmaceutical executive with 20+ years of value creation in the biologics and vaccine industry. Before Flagship, Hari served as Chief Technology Officer of Spark Therapeutics, leading the technical operations, process and technology development and quality assurance organizations. At Spark, Hari was responsible for growing and scaling the company’s cutting-edge technology capabilities for an expanding development pipeline. Prior to Spark, Hari was head of Technical Development & Manufacturing at Moderna Therapeutics. At Moderna, he built and led the technology and early manufacturing organizations that delivered on supply for more than a dozen clinical programs in a brand-new technology area. Previously, Hari held a variety of scientific and cross-functional leadership positions during 18+ years at Merck & Co in the company’s commercial, R&D and manufacturing divisions, culminating in the franchise leadership of pediatric and adult vaccines representing over $2B in revenue. Hari has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society and the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers.