Management Team
Robert Young
Founder & President
30+ years leading discovery at Merck resulting in $80B+ in revenue from development of Singulair®, Vioxx®, Arcoxia®, Previcox®, Tredaptive® and Odanacatib. Recipient of Heroes of Chemistry award and two time recipient of Prix Galien.
Jon Polak
CEO
Carried Mesentech from idea to clinical company raising $20 million. Previously founder of Datapoint Diagnostics in the field of psychiatric diagnostics. Prior to that he worked in debt capital markets where he created the first depth-of-book electronic market for distressed debt famously deployed in trading distressed asset-backed securities, discussed in the book "Back from the Brink." Jonathan is trained in electrical and computer engineering (University of Toronto) and an MBA (Rotman School of Management).
Pat Tam
Chief Development Officer
Dr. Tam has 20 years of industrial experience in nonclinical and clinical drug development. Pat trained as a toxicologist and has expertise across early-phase drug development, pharmacology, bioanalytical method development and Phase I-II clinical program development and operations.
Paul Kostenuik
Chief Science Officer
Paul has 35 years of R&D experience in academia and industry. As lead scientist on Amgen's denosumab program, Paul supported the molecule throughout its preclinical and clinical development programs, regulatory approval, and blockbuster commercial status. One of Amgen's most collaborative and published scientists, Paul managed >150 industry-academia collaborations and has authored >120 peer-reviewed manuscripts. Dr. Kostenuik is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry, where chairs the Industrial Technologies Board of an NIDCR-sponsored Regenerative Medicine Consortium
Karen Long
Karen has 25 years experience in regulatory affairs and development of novel drugs and medical devices. She has degrees in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences and has worked on a diverse portfolio of products from liposomes to lasers.
Gang Chen, PhD
Dr. Chen has over 20 years of experience in the biotech industry and played instrumental roles in two public companies (AnorMED and Cardiome). He has extensive experience in medicinal chemistry, process development, and analytical chemistry. He is the joint inventor of nine patents and co-author of 30 peer-reviewed journal articles.
Srinivas Kantham
Medicinal Chemist with four years for Postdoctoral research experience on the development of bone targetting conjugates. Previously worked on development of drug-like small molecules as amyloid-beta fibrillation inhibitors for Alzheimer's Disease.
Directors
Robert Young
Founder & President
30+ years leading discovery at Merck resulting in $80B+ in revenue from development of Singulair®, Vioxx®, Arcoxia®, Previcox®, Tredaptive® and Odanacatib. Recipient of Heroes of Chemistry award and two time recipient of Prix Galien.
Jon Polak
CEO
Carried Mesentech from idea to clinical company raising $20 million. Previously founder of Datapoint Diagnostics in the field of psychiatric diagnostics. Prior to that he worked in debt capital markets where he created the first depth-of-book electronic market for distressed debt famously deployed in trading distressed asset-backed securities, discussed in the book "Back from the Brink." Jonathan is trained in electrical and computer engineering (University of Toronto) and an MBA (Rotman School of Management).
David C. Dvorak
David served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Zimmer Biomet (NYSE and SIX: ZBH) from 2007 to 2017. During his 16-year tenure with Zimmer Biomet revenues and capitalization grew by 500% to $7.7 billion, and 300% to $26 billion respectively.
Jay Mohr BA, MBA
Partner emeritus of Locust Walk Partners, Founding CEO and Director for Gloucester Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Celgene for $640M). Currently serves as Director of the T1D Exchange, a nonprofit organization accelerating therapies for type 1 diabetes.
Dr. Samuel Wu MD, PhD
Previously managing director of MedImmune (AstraZeneca) Ventures, principal at SV Life Sciences. Prior to his VC career, Sam was an Engagement Manager with McKinsey and Company. Sam obtained an M.D. Ph.D. from Stanford University School of Medicine and an S.B. magna cum laude from Harvard University.
Barbara Yanni
Barbara Yanni currently serves as an independent director of two public clinical-stage biopharmaceutical companies: Trevena (TRVN) and Vaccinex (VCNX). She is also a member of the Board of Supervisory Directors of Pharming Group NV and former director of Akcea (AKCA), Abionyx (ABNX) and Symic Bio.
Ruoxi (Rosy) Hu
Rosy is a member of the investment team at Morningside. Previously, she was on the investment team at Mass General Brigham Ventures where she focused on company creation and led early-stage seed investments. Rosy was trained as a molecular biologist. She received her PhD from Harvard University and undergraduate degree from Queen’s University in Canada.
Advisors
Kirsten Gruis
Previously chief medical officer at DiaMedica Therapeutics, Edgewise Therapeutics and Agilis Biotherapeutics, neuromuscular franchise head at Roche and senior development roles at Wave Life Sciences Ltd., Idera Pharmaceutics, Inc., Alynylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Pfizer Inc. Prior to her pharma career Kirsten was an Associate Professor at SUNY Upstate and the University of Michigan. Kirsten obtained an M.D. from the University of Iowa College of Medicine and a Master of Science in Clinical Trial Design and Statistical Analysis from the University of Michigan, School of Public Health.
David Karpf, MD
Dr. Karpf is responsible for 12 INDs and 6 NDAs/WMAs. In particular, he led the phase 3 for Fosamax (Alendronate) at Merck. Thereafter, he was ran the bone area for Roche where he got Boniva (Ibrandonate) approved. Lastly, he led the clinical development of Transcon GH at Ascendis.
Joseph Lane
Director of Metabolic Bone Diseases and Osteoporosis; formerly Chief of the Bone Tumor Service (osteogenic sarcoma, Ewing’s sarcoma) at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
Roland Baron DDS PhD
Prior to joining at MGH, Baron was professor of orthopedics and cell biology at Yale University School of Medicine and editor-in-chief of the Journal of the International Bone and Mineral Society. Formerly head of bone diseases at Hoechst Marion Roussel (Aventis).
Michael Underhill
Leading foundational research on mechanisms regulating the development, maintenance and regeneration of the skeleton. Professor in the Dept. of Cellular and Physiological Sciences and the Biomedical Research Centre, UBC.
Peter K. S. Siegl, Ph.D.
Practical experience advancing candidates into clinical development gained over 27 year tenure at Merck Research Labs, holding global responsibilities in discovery, development and portfolio management.