External Advisory Board

Kay Chandler founded Cooley LLP’s San Diego office in 1992 and recently retired as a partner in the business department of Cooley LLP and member of the life sciences practice group. Throughout her career, she represented public and private life sciences companies in a wide range of corporate and commercial matters, advising biotechnology, diagnostic, medical device and other healthcare companies on complex commercial transactions, including technology licenses and acquisitions, research and development collaborations, supply, distribution and manufacturing agreements, and profit-sharing and co-promotion arrangements. She serves on the boards of directors of the Colorectal Cancer Alliance and Thirona Biosciences, a private biotech company, and continues to provide advisory services to life sciences companies. Kay is currently based in San Diego.

Richard Douglas is on the board of directors of Novavax, is Chairman of the Board of Aldeyra Therapeutics and MaxCyte, an advisor to Red Sky Partners in Cambridge, and Executive Director of Labyrinth Choir. Until 2011, Richard was the Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and a Corporate Officer at Genzyme Corporation. He has over 30 years of biotechnology experience. Richard has a BS in chemistry from the University of Michigan and a PhD in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. He was a postdoctoral fellow in Leroy Hood’s laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. He is a current member and past chair of the University of Michigan Innovation Partnerships National Advisory Board. Richard is currently based in Boston and Florida.

Brian Gallagher has more than 20 years of investing, business development, operational and R&D experience in biotech and large pharmaceutical companies. He joined Abingworth in 2018 and sources and supports deals across a wide range of therapeutic areas and stages of development from start-ups to late-stage venture capital investments. Previously, Brian was a partner at SR One for nine years and established SR One’s Boston office.;Before SR One, he was at Sirtris Pharmaceuticals where he was responsible for corporate development, operations and post-merger integration after the company’s acquisition by GSK. Earlier in his career, Brian held key roles in R&D and operations at Alantos Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Amgen) and at Eisai. He currently serves on the board of eFFECTOR Therapeutics and has previously served as a board member at Nimbus Therapeutics, Navitor Pharmaceuticals, River Vision (acquired by Horizon Pharma), Translate Bio (NASDAQ: TBIO), Aileron (NASDAQ: ALRN), Constellation (NASDAQ: CNST), Dicerna (NASDAQ: DRNA), and other companies. Brian is currently based in Boston.

Larry Hamann is currently Co-Founder, President and CEO of Interdict Bio, a new venture-backed stealth mode biotech company.  Previously, Larry was Global Head, Drug Discovery Sciences at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, with responsibility for Medicinal and Computational Chemistry, Computational Biology, Omics platforms, Biochemistry and Biophysics, Structural and Chemical Biology and Compound Management/Screening. Prior to assuming the role of Head of Drug Discovery Sciences for Takeda, Larry was Corporate VP for Chemistry at Celgene/BMS, where he oversaw medicinal and computational chemistry, biochemistry, structural and chemical biology and screening. In his 30 years in drug discovery, his teams have advanced 18 molecules into the clinic in oncology, immunology, metabolic diseases, virology, and neurology. Included among these are the anti-diabetic drug ONGLYZA™, the anti-hepatitis-C drug DAKLINZA™, and the RNA splicing modulator branaplam for treating spinal muscular atrophy.  Prior to Celgene, he was Executive Director, Global Discovery Chemistry at Novartis, after stints at Bristol-Myers Squibb and Ligand Pharmaceuticals.  In August of 2017, he was awarded the American Chemical Society’s Heroes of Chemistry Award. Larry is currently based in San Francisco.

Chris Kirk co-founded Kezar Life Sciences, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing treatments for autoimmune diseases and cancer. KZR-616, a first-in-class immunoproteasome inhibitor, is currently in three Phase 2 trials across five separate autoimmune diseases. Previously, Chris was VP of Research at Onyx Pharmaceuticals and also served as Director of Pharmacology and Biology at Onyx and at Proteolix, Inc. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board at Karyopharm Therapeutics, Inc., C4 Therapeutics, Inc. and Avidity Biosciences LLC. Chris is currently based in San Francisco.

Dr. Leah Makley is COO of MBC BioLabs, the largest biotech incubator in the Bay Area, where she supports over 135 resident companies with lab space, infrastructure, and operational support. She joined MBC after a decade building and contributing to venture-backed biotech startups developing innovative medicines, including ViewPoint Therapeutics, Deciduous Therapeutics, and currently Ocutheia. Her scientific expertise lies in high throughput screening, protein biophysics, and small molecule drug development in ophthalmology.

Before founding IntrepidaBio, a preclinical biotechnology company dedicated to developing cures for cancer through drugs that alter the body’s first line of defense, innate immunity, Joel Martin was the President and CEO of Cebix Incorporated, a company that advanced a diabetes drug rapidly through a large, international Phase 2b trial, and President and CEO of Altair Therapeutics, a Phase 2 asthma company that was acquired in 2010. Joel was also a partner at Forward Ventures from 2001 through 2008, where he led successful investments in neuroscience and cancer companies such as Hypnion, Predix, and Cellective Therapeutics. He began his career as assistant professor of radiology at UCSD. Joel is currently based in San Diego.

Josh Ney is a partner in the intellectual property department of Barnes & Thornburg LLP and a member of the firm’s life sciences practice group.  He is a registered patent attorney and counsels pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in patent portfolio creation and management, product life-cycle planning, and intellectual property due diligence.  Josh has also represented pharmaceutical companies in patent litigation under the Hatch-Waxman Act.  He has been named as a Top Young Lawyer by DBusiness Magazine in 2014; an IP Star by Managing Intellectual Property magazine in 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2017; and an Up & Coming Lawyer by Michigan Lawyers Weekly in 2018.  Josh is currently based in Ann Arbor and Washington, DC.

Mark Noe is Vice President, Discovery Sciences at Pfizer. The Discovery Sciences group includes structural biology, chemical biology, analytical chemistry, primary pharmacology, functional genomics, compound management, HT ADME and HTS supporting small molecule drug and vaccine design on the East Coast. Mark has pursued projects as a medicinal chemist in the Oncology, Inflammation and Antibacterials groups at Pfizer. As leader of the Antibacterials Chemistry group, his team delivered clinical candidates from the macrolide, penem, oxazolidinone and monobactam classes along with a new class of LpxC inhibitors. He serves on multiple scientific advisory boards for academic institutions and the biotechnology industry. Mark is currently based in Connecticut.

Steve Worland co-founded eFFECTOR, a clinical stage biotherapeutics company developing selective translation regulator inhibitors for cancer and other serious diseases, based on technology originally developed at UCSF. Steve is also a board member of Tracon Pharmaceuticals and Forge Therapeutics. Steve was CEO of Anadys (Hepatitis C and cancer) until its acquisition by Roche in 2011. Previously, he was VP and head of antiviral research at Pfizer and VP responsible for worldwide anti-infectives strategy at Warner-Lambert. Steve is currently based in San Diego.