LEADERSHIP
Management
Thomas Butler
Ramses Erdtmann
Juan Pablo Frías M.D.
Heow Tan
Naomi Cretcher
Franco Valle
Steve Morris M.D.
Thorsten Kirschberg Ph.D.
Ravi Upasani
Jim Palmer Ph.D.
Priyanka Mandava
Caroline Perez- Dupont
Hanna Cho
Board of Directors
Thomas Butler co-founded Biomea Fusion in August 2017 and has served as our Chief Executive Officer and as a member of our board of directors since August 2017. He has also been a Managing Member of Point Sur Investors LLC, a biotech investment fund, since January 2016. From 2013 to 2015, Mr. Butler was Senior Manager of Investor Relations at Pharmacyclics Inc., a publicly-traded pharmaceutical company. Prior to joining Pharmacyclics, Mr. Butler was a medicinal chemist at Gilead Sciences Inc., a publicly-traded company, engaging in novel drug design and drug development of HCV polymerase and protease inhibitors, from 2007 to 2013. Mr. Butler holds a B.S. in Chemistry from California State University, Chico, an M.B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles, and an M.S. in Organic Chemistry from the University of California, Santa Barbara. We believe that Mr. Butler is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to the valuable expertise and perspective he brings in his capacity as a co-founder and our Chief Executive Officer and because of his extensive experience and knowledge of our industry.
Ramses Erdtmann co-founded Biomea Fusion in August 2017 and has served as our President and as a member of our board of directors since August 2017. He has also served as our Chief Operating Officer since February 2021. He has also been a Managing Member of Point Sur Investors LLC, a biotech investment fund, since January 2016. From 2008 to 2016, he held a number of leadership roles at Pharmacyclics Inc., a publicly-traded pharmaceutical company, including as the Principal Financial and Accounting Officer, and most recently, Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs. Prior to joining Pharmacyclics, Mr. Erdtmann founded the asset management firm United Properties Immobilien and Anlagen Gmbh and Oxygen Investments, LLC, which he ran from its founding in 1995 to 2009. From 1992 to 1995, Mr. Erdtmann worked at Commerzbank, Germany, where he was an investment banker and portfolio manager for institutional international accounts. Mr. Erdtmann currently serves on the board of directors of Summit, Inc., a publicly-traded biotechnology company and previously served on the board of directors of PolarityTE, Inc., a publicly-traded biotechnology and regenerative biomaterials company. Mr. Erdtmann holds a Diplom Kaufmann degree in Finance and Banking from the Westfaelische Wilhelms Universität of Muenster, Germany. We believe that Mr. Erdtmann is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to his perspective, experience and leadership as a co-founder and the President of our company.
Eric Aguiar, M.D. has served as a member of our board of directors since December 2020. Dr. Aguiar has been a partner at Aisling Capital, a healthcare-focused venture fund, since January 2016. Prior to Aisling Capital, from October 2007 to December 2015, he was a partner at Thomas, McNerney and Partners, a healthcare venture capital and growth equity fund. From 2001 to 2007, Dr. Aguiar was Managing Director of HealthCare Ventures, a healthcare-focused venture capital firm. Previously, Dr. Aguiar was Chief Executive Officer of Genovo, Inc., a privately-held biopharmaceutical company, from 1998 to 2000. Dr. Aguiar currently serves on the board of directors of Invitae Corporation and BridgeBio Pharma, Inc., both publicly-traded pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Aguiar previously served on the board of directors of numerous publicly-traded life sciences companies, including Biohaven Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Eidos Therapeutics, Inc. (prior to its merger with BridgeBio), and Amarin Corporation plc. Dr. Aguiar also served on the board of directors of privately-held Oriel Therapeutics, Inc. (prior to its acquisition by Novartis). Dr. Aguiar is also a member of the board of overseers of the Tufts School of Medicine and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Dr. Aguiar holds a B.A. in College Scholar from Cornell University, a M.D. from Harvard Medical School and is a Chartered Financial Analyst. We believe that Dr. Aguiar is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to his medical background and his extensive experience as an investor in biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.
Bihua Chen has served as a member of our board of directors since December 2020. Ms. Chen is the founder of Cormorant Asset Management, LP, an investment firm focused on innovative biotechnology, medical technology and life science companies, and has managed Cormorant’s hedge fund, as well as its private equity funds since its founding in February 2013. Prior to founding Cormorant, from 2005 to 2010, Ms. Chen served as a sub-adviser to Millennium Management LLC, a multi-strategy hedge fund. Previously, from 2001 to 2002, Ms. Chen was a healthcare analyst and sector portfolio manager for investment advisor American Express Asset Management. Ms. Chen also served as a portfolio manager for the Asterion Life Science Fund from 2001 to 2002, an equity analyst and portfolio manager for Bellevue Research from 2000 to 2001 and an equity analyst for Putnam Investments from 1998 to 2001. Ms. Chen currently serves on the board of directors of Atia Vision, U.S., a privately-held medical innovation hub. Ms. Chen holds a B.S. in Genetics and Genetic Engineering from Fudan University, Shanghai, China, an M.S. in Molecular Biology from the Graduate School of Biomedical Science at Cornell Medical College and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business. We believe that Ms. Chen is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to her demonstrated leadership in her field, her experience as a board member of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies and her experience as an investor in life sciences companies.
Michael J. M. Hitchcock, Ph.D. (Mick) has served as a member of the board since March 2021. Dr. Hitchcock is currently Past Chair of the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) Foundation and Adjunct Professor of Microbiology at UNR Medical School, a position in which he has served since July 2016. Dr Hitchcock’s career in pharmaceutical research and development initially began with Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he served in several infectious disease research and project planning roles from 1980 through 1993. He joined Gilead Sciences, Inc. in 1993 and during his 27 years with the Company, he held a variety of positions, including vice president roles with responsibility for project and portfolio management, alliance management, strategic planning, medical affairs and specific areas of research. He also served as Senior Advisor at Gilead from 2009 through November 2019. During his career, he was involved in the development and commercialization of a number of anti-infective agents, primarily antivirals (tenofovir, adefovir, cidofovir, elvitegravir, oseltamivir, stavudine, didanosine) for treatment of HIV, HBV, influenza, CMV and other viral diseases. Dr. Hitchcock holds a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Melbourne, Australia and B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in biochemistry from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, England. He also conducted post-doctoral research at Georgetown University and NIH prior to joining industry. We believe that Dr. Hitchcock is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to his academic background and his experience as a senior executive in biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.
Sumita Ray, J.D.has served as a member of the board of directors since June, 2021. Most recently, Ms. Ray served as Chief Legal, Compliance & Administrative Officer and Corporate Secretary (CLAO) at Instil Bio (NASDAQ: TIL), an oncology cell therapy company in the tumor infiltrating lymphocyte (TILs) space. Prior to that, Ms. Ray served as CLAO at Calithera for 5 years. Before her time at Calithera, Ms. Ray served on the Executive Management Team of Pharmacyclics, as Chief Compliance Officer and Associate General Counsel, Head of Healthcare and Regulatory Law, until its acquisition by Abbvie. Prior to Pharmacyclics, she served in leadership roles as in-house counsel for Elan Pharmaceuticals, Genentech and AstraZeneca. Ms. Ray started her legal career as a litigator at Montgomery, McCracken, Walker and Rhoads LLP. Ms. Ray has more than 20 years of life science, pharmaceutical and biotechnology experience, spanning private practice and in-house legal and operational roles in various therapeutic areas including Oncology, Neurology and Primary Care. She has legal expertise in FDA regulatory law, global health care law, compliance, privacy, brand support, product launches, collaborations and alliance management, as well as extensive experience leading and managing business functions in these industries. Ms. Ray holds a Juris Doctor from Temple University School of Law and a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology with a minor in Chemistry from the University of Arizona. We believe that Ms. Ray is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to her extensive legal background and experience as a senior executive in biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.
Elizabeth Faust, Ph.D. has served as a member of our board of directors since June 2022. Dr. Faust is the principal and owner of Faust Consulting LLC where she works with start-up and bio-pharmaceutical companies. Most recently, she served as the Executive Vice President of Medical Affairs at Tricida Inc where she built and led Medical Affairs and oversaw the Safety and Pharmacovigilance functions. Previously, Dr. Faust was the Vice President of Medical Affairs at Kite Pharma where she built and led the Medical Affairs function supporting the launch of Yescarta, the first cell therapy for lymphoma before transitioning her responsibilities to Gilead after the acquisition. Before that, she was the Vice President of Medical Affairs at Pharmacyclics where she built and led Medical Affairs through 4 launches for Imbruvica and the Abbvie acquisition. Dr. Faust has also served in senior roles in Medical Affairs at Celgene and Gloucester Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Celgene). She was at Amgen for 12 years in the Research, Development and Medical Affairs departments. Dr. Faust has over 26 years in the bio-pharmaceutical industry. She was a key contributor to the launch of 9 new molecular entities (small molecules, biologics and cell therapy) and 4 successful BLA/NDA submissions. Dr. Faust holds a B.S. in Microbiology from Auburn University and a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics from UCLA. Dr. Faust is qualified to serve on the board of directors due to her extensive experience in drug development and her background as a senior executive in biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.
Scientific Advisory Board
Jeffrey Rubnitz, M.D., Ph.D. is the director of the Leukemia/Lymphoma Division in the Department of Oncology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Dr. Rubnitz completed his M.D. and Ph.D. at the UCSD School of Medicine and his Pediatrics residency and Hematology/Oncology fellowship at Stanford Children’s Hospital. Dr. Rubnitz has a wealth of experience in leading and participating in clinical trials in pediatric leukemia. Over the past few years, Dr. Rubnitz led early phase studies of selinexor, panobinostat, and venetoclax for children with relapsed leukemia. Since becoming Director of the Leukemia/Lymphoma Division in 2014, he focused on expanding St. Jude’s efforts in developmental therapeutics for childhood leukemia. In 2002, he became director of the acute myeloid leukemia (AML) clinical program and subsequently led 3 multi-institutional clinical trials (AML02, AML08, and AML16) that were designed to improve the outcome of children with newly diagnosed AML. Dr. Rubnitz’s research initially focused on the characterization of prognostic factors in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Xianxin Hua, M.D., Ph.D., is a tenured professor of cancer biology, Department of Cancer Biology, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine since 2014. He is also an investigator at Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute (AFCRI), Penn Diabetes Research Center (DRC), and Institute of Translational Medicine and Therapeutics (ITMAT). Dr. Hua holds a medical degree from Hubei Medical college, and Ph.D. degree from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. At University of Pennsylvania, he initiated his research program on investigating the molecular biology and physiology of the pathways regulated by the menin protein, which is encoded by the MEN1 gene whose loss of function mutation is associated with multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1(MEN1) syndrome. His group was the first to propose that menin acts as a scaffold protein, controlling multiple functions including epigenetics, gene transcription, and cell signaling. Findings from his group also helped to elucidate the menin pathway as a hub that control cell proliferation in a context-dependent manner, suppressing growth of endocrine cells such as insulin-secreting beta cells, but promoting growth of a subset of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and colorectal cancer (CRC). Dr. Hua’s group is instrumental in demonstrating that inhibition of the menin gene reverses pre-existing diabetes or prevents the development of diabetes in various preclinical models. Discoveries from Dr. Hua’s group led to multiple patents involving the menin pathways, including some licensed for clinical trials. Dr. Hua has over 100 peer-reviewed publications including over 50 publications in the field of menin biology.
Rohit Kulkarni M.D. Ph.D. is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Margaret A. Congleton Chair and Co-Head of the Section on Islet & Regenerative Biology at Joslin Diabetes Center. He holds a M.D. and Ph.D. from St. John’s Medical College and Royal Postgraduate Medical school in London. His research lab at Harvard focuses primarily on the study of a specific type of cell in the pancreas called islet cells, including but not limited to studying how islet cells behave in various environments and discovering and developing therapeutic treatments for both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. He has been on the Faculty of the Joslin Diabetes Center since 1999 and is currently a Senior Investigator and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Kulkarni is the recipient of the Endocrine Society’s Ernst Oppenheimer Award, the Merck Frosst Distinguished Lectureship and James H. Horner Distinguished Visiting Professorship and is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and Association of American Physicians.
David B. Ball, Ph.D. has been a retired Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at CSU, Chico since 2010. He received a B.S. in chemistry from UC, Berkeley and a Ph.D. from UC, Santa Barbara. He had a post-doctoral appointment at Boston University, taught at the University of Chile, Santiago, and had a teaching-research postdoctoral position at UCSB before starting his independent career at Chico State in 1974. During his academic career at Chico State, Dr. Ball has been recognized as a Retired Faculty Hall of Fame inductee (2019); the Distinguished Emeritus Faculty in the College of Natural Sciences (2018); the Outstanding Research Mentor Award (2008, initial awardee); the Professional Achievement Award (2005); and the CSU Research Award (1998). Dr. Ball has also received several national research awards (NSF, ACS-PRF) on sabbatical leaves at UC Davis, UCSB, and UCSC (1996, 1995, 1992, and 1983). Since 2012, Dr. Ball and his undergraduate co-workers have been involved in collaboration with Professor Ron Tjeerdema, an environmental toxicologist at UC Davis, synthesizing degradation products of herbicides and pesticides used to evaluate their environmental outcome in California rice fields. During his academic career at Chico State, Dr. Ball has mentored fifty plus research students who have gone on to post-graduate studies in organic chemistry with most receiving a Ph.D.
Bruce Lipshutz is a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at UC Santa Barbara (UCSB). Dr. Lipshutz received his Ph.D. at Yale in 1977, after which he moved as an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Research Fellow to Harvard University to work with Nobel Laureate E. J. Corey. After two years he relocated to southern California at UCSB, taking an Assistant Professor position, and in 1989 became a full Professor of Chemistry. After over 25 years on the faculty at UCSB, his research group left traditional organic synthesis and began the journey of converting organic chemistry into a sustainable discipline, focused on the “switch” to Nature’s chosen medium: water. The Lipshutz research group continues to develop new technologies in green chemistry, with the specific goal being to get organic solvents out of organic reactions, as organic solvents are, by far, responsible for most of the organic waste created by the chemical enterprise and derive mainly from the world’s finite petroleum reserves. To accomplish this goal, the concept of “designer” surfactants has been introduced within the area of aqueous micellar catalysis. For these efforts over the past 15 years, several awards both in traditional and green chemistry have been received, most notably the EPA’s Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award, the American Chemical Society’s Green Chemistry Institute’s Peter Dunn Award, and the H. C. Brown Award for Creativity in Organic Synthesis.
David Smith, Ph.D. was Senior Biostatistician at QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Brisbane Australia from 2015 to 2017. Dr. Smith holds a B.A. in Mathematics and a Ph.D. in Statistics. Dr. Smith has decades of experience as a biostatistics expert, with his career spanning clinical research from regulatory, academic, and industry points of view. Most notably, Dr. Smith served as a biostatistical reviewer for the Division of Oncology Drug Products at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for three years, during which time he reviewed more than 40 oncology INDs and NDAs. Dr. Smith was a Professor and Assistant Director of Biostatistics at City of Hope cancer research hospital in Los Angeles from 2000 to 2015, during which time he was a co-investigator on grants from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society, the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. He has designed and analyzed over 50 solid tumor and hematology protocols at all levels of development, from pre-clinical and genomic studies to Phase II/III trials. He served on the board of directors at Pharmacyclics from 2008 to their acquisition in 2015. Dr. Smith is an author and coauthor of over 100 papers in peer-reviewed biostatistics, oncology, surgery, radiation, and immunology journals.
Margaret Tempero, M.D., is a Professor of Medicine, gastrointestinal oncologist, director of the UCSF Pancreas Center, leader of the UCSF Pancreas Cancer Program and editor-in-chief of the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (JNCCN). Her research career has focused on pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, especially in the area of investigational therapeutics. Dr. Tempero has served on the ASCO Board of Directors and as ASCO President. She currently serves on the ASCO Conquer Cancer Foundation Board. She codirected the AACR/ASCO Methods in Clinical Cancer Research and taught this course and similar courses in Europe and Australia. She was founding Chair of the NCI Clinical Oncology Study Section and served as a member and Chair of the NCI Board of Scientific Counselors Subcommittee A. She is a member of the Scientific Steering Committee and Chair of the Clinical and Translational Study Section for the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas. She is or has been on the Scientific Advisory Boards of the Lustgarten Foundation, the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, the V Foundation, The Alberta Canada Cancer Board, and the EORTC. She served as a member of the Oncology Drug Advisory Committee for the FDA. She has served as Deputy Director and Interim Director for the UNMC Eppley Cancer Center. She is Chief Emeritus of the Division of Medical Oncology at UCSF. She served as the founding Deputy Director and was later Director of Research Programs at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Juan Pablo Frias, M.D., is Medical Director and Principal Investigator of Velocity Clinical Research (formerly National Research Institute) in Los Angeles, CA. He received his medical degree from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and completed his Fellowship in Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Frías has held academic positions at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center (Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes) and the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, where he is currently on the clinical faculty. He has been involved in diabetes and metabolism-related research for over 25 years and has authored numerous publications in this field, including first author publications in New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology, Diabetes, Diabetes Care, and Cell Metabolism.
Jeremy Pettus, M.D. is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, San Diego. After being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes himself at the age of 15, Dr. Pettus has dedicated his career toward treating and educating others with the disease. He now specializes in type 1 diabetes clinical and translational research with studies utilizing metabolic techniques such as glycemic clamps to quantify insulin resistance. He also has experience in immunotherapeutics for recently diagnosed patients, islet cell encapsulation/transplantation, and technology-based approaches such as artificial pancreas and continuous glucose monitoring. In addition to his clinical research at UCSD, Dr. Pettus has interests in patient empowerment through education and works with the not-for-profit organization Taking Control of Your Diabetes. With this organization, Dr. Pettus produces educational content for patients living with diabetes.