Biotech 2050 Podcast

Yizhen is passionate about investing in and working with persevering entrepreneurs who want to change the world, especially in healthcare and biotech. Yizhen focuses on early stage investments in frontier technologies applied to healthcare and life sciences, with interests across artificial intelligence, engineering, robotics/automation, and new biology. BIOS Community brings together innovation minded life science professionals, uniting founders, VCs, professors, pharma, PhDs, & all those in between to join an exclusive, invite-only community focused on driving patient impact! Learn more: https://www.bios.community Read the Medium post here: https://bit.ly/3cwutlg

Dr. Bexon brings to Vyriad more than 20 years of management experience in clinical development of biopharmaceuticals, including management of multi-site clinical trials and FDA approval of lead assets. Prior to joining Vyriad, Dr. Bexon founded Bexon Clinical Consulting, which provides clinical development support to the pharma and biotech industries. Previously, Dr. Bexon was Vice President of Clinical Development of Idera Pharmaceuticals, from 2007-2009. From 2001-2006, she held a number of positions of increasing responsibility at Roche Oncology, including serving as a key member of the clinical development and life cycle team responsible for Xeloda®. Dr. Bexon earned her medical degree from Bristol University Medical School in the United Kingdom and her oncology diploma at the Institut Gustave Roussy in France.

Martin (Marty) is a cofounder and chief executive officer of Meissa Vaccines. Prior to cofounding Meissa, Marty was an Associate Professor at Emory University and director of the Emory Children’s Center for Childhood Infections and Vaccines (CCIV). He developed an RSV reverse genetics platform technology and novel strategies and methods for making vaccine candidates by synthetic biology. As applied to RSV vaccines, this technology was recognized as Emory University’s innovation of the year in 2013. Marty has more than 70 publications in virology, is co-inventor of 20 RSV-related technologies, and is a frequent national/international lecturer on RSV and vaccines.

Dr. Miller is a Founder and the Chief Operating Officer of Karuna Therapeutics. Dr. Miller is the lead inventor of Karuna’s KarXT platform and served as CEO of Karuna from 2016-2018. He served as a member of our board of directors from April 2012 to March 2019. From August 2008 to July 2016, Dr. Miller held several positions at PureTech Health plc, last serving as a Vice President, Venture Partner, in such capacity served as Chief Operating Officer of Tal Medical and the acting Chief Operating Officer of Entrega, Inc. He is currently a member of the board of directors of Entrega, Inc. Dr. Miller received a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois with highest honors. He completed his doctoral work in chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received the MIT Presidential fellow and National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate fellowship awards. In 2016, Dr. Miller was named one of the top 40 innovators under 40 by MedTech Boston.

Samuel Mazin, Ph.D. Founder and Chief Technology Officer Member, Board of Directors Sam Mazin, Ph.D., co-founded RefleXion Medical in 2009, where he is the inventor of the company’s core technology. While a postdoctoral researcher in Radiology at Stanford University, Dr. Mazin was selected by the Kauffman Foundation as one of 13 postdocs in the nation to commercialize promising innovations. His prior research at Stanford was focused on the design of a novel X-ray computed tomography (CT) system, resulting in several journal papers and a patent, as well as the Joel Drillings Award from the American Heart Association (AHA). His work on a PET-based algorithm received the prestigious Cum Laude award from the SPIE international medical imaging society. He has been invited to speak about biology-guided radiotherapy by cancer centers worldwide. Dr. Mazin received a Bachelor of Applied Science in Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo, Canada, and he holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. Thorsten Melcher, Ph.D. Chief Business Officer Thorsten Melcher, Ph.D., joined RefleXion in July 2019 as chief business officer with over 25 years of experience in biotechnology and pharmaceutical business development. Most recently, Dr. Melcher served as CBO for Xyphos Biosciences, a startup developing next-generation CAR-T products. Previously, he served as senior director of new ventures at J&J, where he championed business development projects focusing on therapeutics in oncology and neuroscience. Dr. Melcher was also vice president at Varian Medical, where he developed a strategy to integrate radiotherapy with diagnostics and therapeutics to improve combination cancer treatment. His other past tenures include co-founding three biotech companies. Dr. Melcher received a Master of Science in Biochemistry from the University of Hannover and he holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Heidelberg University. He completed postdoctoral research in Molecular Biology at the University of California, San Francisco, and was previously on RefleXion’s scientific advisory board.

Heather Wolff joined Decibel in February 2018 as the head of clinical development operations for Decibel Therapeutics. Heather is responsible for Decibel’s clinical operations, regulatory operations, medical writing and data management functions, providing leadership around the company’s development programs. She has a long track record in clinical development, with a focus on building and leading data management groups. Widely recognized as a leader in the space, she has been a key member of both large and small companies including Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Millennium Pharmaceuticals (Takeda), Accenture (ACE), Synta Pharmaceuticals and Genetics Institute (Wyeth). She played a role in successfully gaining FDA approval for Wyeth’s rhBMP-2 in the U.S. and E.U., and also facilitated the acquisition of sNDAs for Millennium’s Velcade product. Heather graduated from Skidmore College with a B.A. in English.

Rachel is a co-founder of Caribou Biosciences and has been President and CEO since its inception in 2011. Rachel is an inventor on several patents and patent applications covering multiple CRISPR-based technologies, and has co-authored scientific papers in high impact journals characterizing CRISPR-Cas systems. In 2014, she was named by Forbes Magazine to the “30 Under 30” list in Science and Healthcare, and in 2016, Fortune Magazine named her to the “40 Under 40” list of the most influential young people in business. In 2018, the Association for Women in Science recognized Rachel with the annual Next Generation Award. Rachel earned an A.B. in Biological Sciences from Harvard College and received a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Ragan has been X4’s President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of the X4 Board of Directors since July 2014. She has more than 18 years of experience building companies in the biotechnology industry. Prior to founding X4, Dr. Ragan consulted as Chief Business Officer at Lysosomal Therapeutics Inc., a private biopharmaceutical company, where she led the company’s business development activities. Prior to that, Dr. Ragan held leadership roles in corporate development and operations at Genzyme Corporation, a Sanofi company, where she led strategic partnering efforts for Genzyme’s Rare Disease business and headed the supply chain planning for Genzyme’s flagship commercial products. Other professional roles include business roles at Hydra Biosciences, Oscient Corporation and Celera Corporation. Dr. Ragan received her B.S. from Tufts University and her Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and completed post-doctoral studies at Harvard Medical School.

Joseph Hernandez is an established leader in biotech entrepreneurship and early-stage technology development. With a strong background in biology, epidemiology, molecular genetics, marketing, and finance, Mr. Hernandez has successfully founded or led six entrepreneurial companies, including Blue Water Vaccines. These companies focus on cutting-edge biotech arenas, and he has raised over $150M in investment capital and commercialized respective products. As founder and CEO of Blue Water Vaccines, Mr. Hernandez is confident that this novel universal influenza vaccine will change the global approach to attacking influenza infection and burden. He is also the CEO of Blue Water Acquisition, a SPAC evaluating healthcare companies for acquisition. He has led the development of life-changing healthcare treatments: a COVID-19 vaccine at Noachis Terra, innovative pain medication at Ember Therapeutics, and cancer therapeutics at Microlin Bio. Mr. Hernandez earned his BS in Neuroscience, MS in Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, and MBA from the University of Florida, and will finish a MSc in Chronic Disease Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Yale University.

Chief Medical Officer, Christopher Wright, MD, PhD, is a neurologist and neuroscientist who brings two decades of medical research and drug development experience in orphan and specialty diseases, including cystic fibrosis, dementia, hepatitis C, rheumatoid arthritis, and epilepsy. While at Vertex, Dr. Wright oversaw the development of ORKAMBI® through Phase 3, and the successful development and rapid approval of KALYDECO®, a lifechanging cystic fibrosis therapy, by the FDA, EMA and other health authorities. He also played an important role in the global development and approval of INCIVEK® for hepatitis C. Prior to joining our team, Dr. Wright led the global development organization at Ironwood, including responsibility for advancing the late stage and lifecycle gastrointestinal and sGC programs. Dr. Wright was an Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and practiced neurology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA for 20 years.