Independent development advisor
I have been in the business of science for 25+ years, working as a drug discovery biologist and platform technologist in both early-stage biotech companies and big pharma.
Over that time, I have witnessed wonderful programs reach clinical stages. I have also seen others stall or fail during the IND phase. During my years in drug development I realized that finding the right partners can change the trajectory of a program entirely.
Today, my role is to help ambitious biotech teams to move their projects forward through one-on-one guidance and connecting them to the right partner.
Career
Independent Development Advisor
Boston, Cambridge, MA (2024 – Present)
I help teams during early-stage drug discovery decisions across small molecules, biomarkers and the RNA field. Connecting biotech teams to expert partners in drug development: clinical development and bioanalysis.
Provided solutions across RNA research, development, and manufacturing lifecycle. Brokered partnerships and collaborations.
Neutrolis, Cambridge, MA
Head of Discovery (2022-2024)
Led enabling technologies and IND-enabling in vitro pharmacology, including development of LNP–mRNA delivery approaches for engineered protein therapeutics and biomarker-driven precision medicine in autoimmune/inflammatory disease, resulting in one pending U.S. patent.
Sai Life Sciences, Cambridge, MA & Hyderabad, India
Senior Director, Discovery Biology Business Development (2021-2022)
Leveraged scientific depth and network relationships to secure new clients and expand discovery biology capabilities.
Wave Life Sciences, Cambridge, MA
Senior Director, Platform & Innovation (2019-2020)
Led platform initiatives spanning RNA editing and in vivo biology operations, including scaling internal capabilities and CRO execution models.
TargetRNA, Nashua, NH
President & CSO (2017-2020)
Founded TargetRNA, a start-up focused on enabling rapid discovery of small-molecule therapeutics targeting RNA. Led fundraising, team building, platform development, scientific strategy, and company operations.
Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR), Cambridge, MA.
Investigator III – Developmental and Molecular Pathways (2006-2017)
Led RNA-targeting drug discovery efforts in neuromuscular diseases, spearheading a myotonic dystrophy program approved at the highest research level and catalyzing the institute-wide global RNA Initiative.
Developed and deployed high-throughput biochemical, cellular, and imaging platforms, executed a 1.5M-compound high-throughput screening (HTS), and discovered novel small-molecule chemotypes that reversed disease phenotypes in patient-derived cellular models.
Piloted muscle atrophy and facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) programs later adopted by the Musculoskeletal Disease Area, with compounds advancing toward clinical development.
Helped establish the Drug Discovery Incubator and co-founded the Academic HTS Partnership Program, building early discovery biology capabilities and leading a synthetic lethality screen in p53-mutant cancers that launched an institute-wide oncology program.
Co-founded and led a proteomics-based target identification platform supporting multiple disease areas through mechanism-of-action and target discovery studies.
These contributions were recognized with the NIBR Team Award (2010) and NIBR Star Award (2013).
DAIAMED, (f.k.a. Suntory Pharm. Res. Labs), Cambridge, MA
Principal Scientist I, Biochemistry (2002-2005)
Advanced HTS-ready biochemical assays and developed protein-stability approaches that enabled determination of the first 3D structure of ZAP kinase.
3-Dimensional Pharmaceuticals, Exton, PA.
Research Fellow (1996-2002)
Helped develop and industrialize ThermoFluor® (differential scanning fluorimetry/DSF) into a core discovery platform and led biophysics/HTS operations supporting internal programs and major partnerships. These contributions included five issued U.S. patents covering ThermoFluor®/thermal shift assay methods.
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy
Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC.
Ph.D., Biochemistry