Fearless drug hunters

Before co-founding Jupiter, Ned co-founded Syrrx (acquired by Takeda), Achaogen (NASDAQ: AKAO), Kythera Biopharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: KYTH, acquired by Allergan), UNITY Biotechnology (NASDAQ: UBX), companies that together created four approved medicines (ALOGLIPTIN, TRELAGLIPTIN, ZEMDRI, and KYBELLA). Ned earned his PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology at UC Berkeley and his AB in Biology from Harvard College. Ned is an inventor on 70 allowed patents.

Before co-founding Jupiter, Ned was Director of the National Cancer Institute (2017-2022), Acting Commissioner of the FDA (2019), and Director of the Lineberger Cancer Center at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. He serves on several boards, including G1 Therapeutics (NASDAQ: GTHX), which he co-founded, Nucleus Radiopharma, and the American Cancer Society. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and holds an MD and a BS in Mathematics from UNC, Chapel Hill.

Gianpietro is a professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he leads the Immunology program. He received his medical degree at the University of Milan with subsequent clinical training in hematology at the University of Parma and research fellowships at Ospedali Riuniti di Bergamo and Baylor College of Medicine. After serving on the faculty at Baylor, he established the Cellular Immunotherapy Program at the UNC Lineberger Cancer Center.

Jan was a member of the faculty at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, where he also served as Chairman of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. In 2011, Jan co-founded UNITY Biotechnology (NASDAQ: UBX) and, in 2021, Cavalry Biosciences. Jan earned his PhD in Cell Biology at Nijmegen University, the Netherlands, and is an inventor on 17 granted patents.

While at Eli Lilly, John led the oncology medicinal chemistry group, delivering compounds into clinical development, and was responsible for Lilly’s global structural biology and biophysics groups. While at Dracen Pharmaceuticals, he was Head of Discovery Chemistry, identifying novel agents to treat cancer. John received his PhD in organic chemistry from Harvard University and his BS in chemistry from Purdue University. John is an inventor on over 30 allowed US patents.

Professor at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Matthias trained in CAR T-cell therapy with Michel Sadelain at MSKCC and bioengineering at MIT. In 2017 his group published an mRNA nanoparticle-based method to program antigen recognition into lymphocytes. In 2019 he co-founded Tidal Therapeutics, acquired by Sanofi in 2021. His group developed biomaterial implants for in situ programming of CAR T-cells. His MD is from the Medical University of Lubeck and his PhD in cancer immunotherapy from Cornell.

Pritha is an Assistant Research Professor at the Joint BME department of NCSU and UNC-Chapel Hill and co-founder of Jupiter moon Persistence Therapeutics. With multiple patents, including one commercialized, her expertise lies in biomaterials and cell therapy. She holds her PhD in Chemical Science from CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology and her MSc from the University of Calcutta.

Robert is co-founder and CEO of Ganymede Oncology, the acting CEO of Azkarra Therapeutics, and previously served as CSO and Co-Founder of Dracen Pharmaceuticals. Prior to that, he was CSO and SVP of Research at Ignyta (acquired by Roche) and CSO of Oncology Research at Eli Lilly. Robert has contributed to over 20 oncology clinical development candidates, including 5 FDA-approved agents. Robert holds a PhD in Pharmacology and a BS in Biochemistry from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

William is the Rush S. Dickson Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Genetics, and Pharmacology at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is Co-Leader of the Cancer Genetics Program and Co-Director of the Precision Oncology Program at the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. He holds an MD from the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, and a BA in Economics and Biology from Wesleyan University.

Yev is a professor jointly between the University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University. Yev’s research interests span organic chemistry, materials science, and cellular immunotherapy. Yev earned his PhD in Chemistry from Harvard University and his BA in Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania.

Before joining Jupiter, Alessia led sponsored preclinical studies on the effectiveness of NAD+ biosynthetic precursors against age-associated diseases at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. Alessia earned her PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Genoa in Italy, and later pursued postdoctoral research at Washington University in St. Louis. Alessia has authored over 30 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Prior to joining Jupiter moon Cavalry, Brit investigated mechanisms of neurodegenerative senescence at UNITY Biotechnology. He holds a PhD in Cancer Biology from the University of Virginia and conducted postdoctoral work at UCSF. He also holds an MS in Molecular Biology from the University of Oregon and a BS in Biology from the University of New Mexico. He has authored publications for such journals as Cell and Nature and is the author of multiple patents.

Bruce founded Portico Lifescience Ventures, a management/engineering consulting/investing firm. Previously, he was VP and Global Head of the Heart Failure Franchise at LivaNova, President and CEO of Valtech Cardio, and Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Minnesota. Bruce received BS, MS, and PhD degrees from the University of Minnesota. Bruce is an inventor on over 500 patents and an author of over 200 peer-reviewed publications.

Charles is CEO of Persistence Therapeutics. Previously, he held senior roles at Fortress Biotech (NASDAQ:FBIO), spearheading creation of new companies and acquisition of technologies. As CBO of Cyprium Therapeutics, he was key to the development and sale of their lead asset. As head of business development at Mustang Bio (NASDAQ:MBIO), Charles led the expansion of its oncology and rare disease therapies. He earned an MD from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and a BA from Brooklyn College.

Prior to Jupiter, Dan was responsible for small-molecule nonclinical development at Vedere Bio II and a Senior Principal Investigator at Cyclerion Therapeutics, a spin-out of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, where he led a small molecule discovery team that advanced multiple candidates into clinical development. Dan earned his PhD in Molecule Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale and SBs in Biology and Chemistry at MIT.

In addition to serving as Head of Finance at Jupiter, David is a Partner at van den Boom & Associates, a Life-Science-focused accounting and finance firm. David spent nearly ten years at Ernst and Young. His experience spans across both privately backed and publicly traded Life Science companies, supporting several clients from seed stage through IPO. David earned a BA in International & Global Studies from Brandeis University and an MBA and MS in Accounting from Northeastern University.

Iasmini comes to Jupiter with a background in Accounts Payable/Receivable and twelve years of experience as an Executive Assistant. Fluent in three languages, Iasmini’s essential work keeps everyone at Jupiter organized.

Before joining Cavalry, Janine did a three-year fellowship at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital followed by over15 years in cancer research at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. She received her PhD in Genetics and BS in Medical Sciences from Leiden University in the Netherlands.

Jessie most recently was CSO of Bakx Therapeutics and Tilos Therapeutics (acquired by Merck). She has held leadership positions in oncology drug discovery at Pfizer, Merck, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Belfer Center), EMD Serono, and Schering-Plough. Jessie earned a BS in biochemistry at KSU, a PhD in neurobiology from UNC-Chapel Hill, and trained as a post-doc at UT Southwestern Medical Center. She is currently on the Board of Sensei Bio.

Leigh began her career in genomics at the Broad Institute. After graduate school, she spent over 13 years at Amgen where she served in leadership roles commercializing products across therapeutic areas. Prior to joining Jupiter, Leigh was a Vice President at Applied Molecular Transport and Chief Operating Officer at Aktiv Pharma Group. Leigh earned her MBA and SM in Biological Engineering at MIT and her BS in Molecular and Cellular Biology and BA in Anthropology from the University of Arizona.

Ning’s research spans protein sciences, structural biology, drug-protein interactions, and mechanisms of action. She was Head of Protein Sciences at Roivant Sciences and Head of the Protein Biochemistry and Biophysics team at BAKX Therapeutics. She spent over 22 years at AstraZeneca and contributed to the development of Durlobactam, approved by the FDA as part of XacDuro. Ning holds an MSc and BS in Biochemistry from Nanjing University and has authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications.

Prior to Jupiter, Rob worked with UNITY Biotechnology, and completed post-doctoral work at the Buck Institute, where his research focused on using biochemistry and proteomics to understand developmental biology and neurodegenerative disease. He has over a decade of experience in regulatory affairs, drug discovery, biomarkers and bioinformatics, and therapeutic protein design. Rob holds a PhD from UC San Diego and a BS from the University of Vermont.

Scott was the founding biologist and spent 19 years in drug discovery at Theravance, contributing to filing 10 INDs and 2 approved medicines, before joining UNITY Biotechnology as Director of in Vivo Pharmacology, leading teams in eye and lung treatments. Most recently, as VP of Research at Deciduous Therapeutics, he focused on immune-mediated clearance of senescent cells in the metabolic and IPF spaces. Scott attended Johns Hopkins University and earned his BS in Biochemistry from UC San Diego.

Tim helps launch new Moons and currently serves as co-founder and CSO of Jupiter Bioventures’ first moon, Cavalry Biosciences. Tim has 10 years of drug discovery experience and has held positions at Silver Creek Pharmaceuticals (Merrimack Pharmaceuticals spin-out), UNITY Biotechnology, and Encoded Therapeutics. Tim earned his PhD in Cancer Biology at Stanford University and his BS in Biology from Hope College in Holland, MI.

In addition to his role with Jupiter, by night Zach is a Partner at Mission BioCapital where he leads independent investments and supports portfolio companies through interim executive roles. Zach earned his PhD at Harvard Medical School in Biological and Biomedical Sciences, where his collaborative work was recognized by AAAS as Science’s 2018 Breakthrough of the Year, and his BS in Biology at the George Washington University.