Gordon Ringold, Ph.D.
Co-founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Ringold was most recently CEO of the Glaxo-Wellcome Group's Affymax
Research Institute, where he managed the development of novel technologies
to accelerate the pace of drug discovery. He is a co-founder and director
of Maxygen Corporation, a Managing Partner of Technogen Associates,
L.P., a private investment firm, and has over fifteen years of experience
managing the discovery and development of pharmaceuticals and novel,
enabling life science technologies. Prior to Affymax, Dr. Ringold served
as Director and Vice President of the Institute for Cancer and Developmental
Biology at Syntex, now a division of Hoffman La-Roche. Dr. Ringold received
his B.A. in Biology from UC Santa Cruz, and his Ph.D. in Microbiology
from UC San Francisco. He was on the faculty of the Department of Pharmacology
at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and is currently a consulting
professor there.
August J. Moretti
Chief Financial Officer and General Counsel
Mr. Moretti was for 19 years a member of Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe
LLP, a national law firm, where he represented a number of life science
companies, including Affymax and Maxygen. He received a B.A. degree
from Princeton University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Howard Schulman, Ph.D.
Vice President of Research and Development
Dr. Schulman was most recently full professor of neurobiology at Stanford
University School of Medicine and prior to that full professor of pharmacology
at Stanford. He is a founding co-director of the Stanford Brain Research
Center and former chairman of the Department of Neurobiology, Stanford
University School of Medicine. Dr. Schulman is internationally recognized
for his discovery and subsequent analysis of one of the key protein
kinases responsible for transmitting information from calcium-linked
hormones, neurotransmitters, and cytokines in heart and brain. He has
been a consultant on both pharmacological and technical aspects of drug
discovery to a number of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies,
some of whom are currently developing drugs targeting the kinase in
CNS and cardiovascular arenas. He has 25 years of experience in pharmacology,
signal transduction, biophysics, and biotechnology. Dr. Schulman received
his Ph.D. in biological chemistry at Harvard University, studying lipid
and carbohydrate metabolism. Subsequently he undertook postdoctoral
research focused on pharmacology and signal transduction in the nervous
system at Yale University School of Medicine under the supervision of
Nobel Laureate Paul Greengard, Ph.D.
Keith Joho, Ph.D.
Vice President, Informatics & Bioanalytical Operations
Dr. Joho
was most recently Director of Bioinformatics at Abgenix where he oversaw
the Information Systems, Computational Biology and Library Services
groups. He previously managed Bioinformatics groups at Roche Bioscience
and SUGEN and he was on the faculty of the Department of Biochemistry
and Molecular Biology at the LSU Medical Center in New Orleans. Dr.
Joho received his Ph.D. in Microbiology at the Robert Wood Johnson
Medical School studying RNA Polymerase promoter recognition.
Subsequently, he performed post-doctoral training at the Carnegie
Institution of Washington studying transcription regulation during early
development and RNA-specific zinc finger protein interactions.
Virginia Tolan
Vice President, Human Resources
Ms. Tolan was most recently Vice President, Human Resources for InfoSeek
Corporation, where she helped the company grow from an early-stage venture
to a 710-employee, publicly held firm, which was acquired in 1999 by
Disney Corporation. Ms. Tolan has over twenty years experience as a
human resources professional and previously held human resources management
positions at IDG Books Worldwide and Prudential Insurance. Ms. Tolan
received an M.S. degree in Human Resources and Industrial Relations
from Rutgers University and a B.S. degree in Business Administration
from the University of Colorado.
Christopher Becker, Ph.D.
Vice President, Chemistry
Dr. Becker was most recently Senior Director of Proteomic Technology
at ThermoFinnigan Corp., a leading mass spectrometry instrument company,
where he led new instrument and methods development for proteomic applications.
Prior to that, he was co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at GeneTrace
Systems Inc., where he led development of genomic assays. Dr. Becker
is an internationally recognized expert in the field of mass spectrometric
analysis of biomolecules, and has more than 20 years of relevant experience.
Dr. Becker received his B.A. from Columbia University in chemistry,
his Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley in chemistry, and
performed post-doctoral training at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
William Leschensky, M.D., J.D.
Vice President, Intellectual Property
Dr. Leschensky was most recently an associate at Fish & Neave, a leading
intellectual property law firm, where his practice emphasized both litigation
and prosecution of biomedical patents. He was previously an associate
at Morrison & Foerster where his practice focused on patent litigation.
Dr. Leschensky received his J.D. from Harvard Law School, his M.D. degree
from the University of Illinois, and a B.S. degree in biochemistry from
Iowa State University.
Aaron Kantor, Ph.D.
Director, Cell and Molecular Biology
Dr. Kantor was most recently in research management at AmCell Corporation,
where his group focused on magnetic cell separation for therapeutic
and diagnostic applications. Dr. Kantor was an NIH postdoctoral fellow
at Stanford University where his work focused on cellular and molecular
aspects of B cell immunology and development of flow cytometry applications.
He received his Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of California,
Berkeley and B.S. in Biophysics from the University of Pennsylvania.
Andrea Perrone, M.D.
Director, Clinical Development
Dr. Perrone received her M.D. degree from Georgetown University and
is board certified. She completed her radiology residency at the University
of Pittsburgh and received a B.S. degree in Finance from the University
of Maryland.