Thomas Beck, MDReturn to Top

Director

Dr. Beck is a partner at Fidelity Biosciences which he joined in 2007. Most recently, he served as President, Chief Operating Officer at Dyax Corp. Prior to that, he held positions at UCB Pharma (Corporate Vice President, Director of Global Research and Development), CytoMed, Inc (Chairman and Chief Executive Officer), and Enzytech, Inc (President). He began his industry career at Smith Kline and French, where he held positions in both clinical development and business development. Dr. Beck is Board-certified in Internal Medicine and Nephrology and was Assistant Professor of Medicine at Temple University School of Medicine prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry. He received his B.S. degree from Yale University and his M.D. from Cornell University.

Jason Brown, PhDReturn to Top

Director

Jason is a Vice President with Thomas, McNerney & Partners. He joined Thomas, McNerney in 2007 after spending four years as a member of the investment team at Forward Ventures, where he played an active role in Forward-led rounds of investment totaling over $50 million. Prior to joining Forward, Jason conducted research in antimicrobial drug discovery and bacterial genomics as a postdoctoral fellow in Infectious Diseases at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development. Jason earned a Ph.D. in Biology at the University of California, San Diego, where he was a National Science Foundation Fellow, and a B.S. in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from Purdue University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Stephen Collins, MD, PhDReturn to Top

President, Chief Executive Officer, Director

Dr. Collins career has focused on the research and clinical development of therapeutics for CNS disorders. Prior to joining NTP as its CEO, he was Chief Scientific Officer & VP Clinical Affairs of Ovation Pharmaceuticals, a CNS-focused biopharmaceutical company acquired by Lundbeck A/S for $900 million. Dr. Collins joined Ovation in 2003, shortly after its formation and was responsible for establishing the company's R&D group and growing it into a team of over 60 professionals. He was also responsible for establishing the safety and post-marketing research groups as well as all scientific and medical in-licensing activities. His R&D team performed the preclinical and clinical activities for four development programs of Ovation, which resulted in two approved NDAs, two programs in global Phase III, one program in Phase II, multiple INDs, and life-cycle management projects for the firm's marketed assets. Prior to Ovation, Dr. Collins was Global Senior Director of CNS and Pain at Johnson & Johnson, overseeing the early-stage development of neurologic, pain and psychiatric agents. He was also a member of the CNS in-licensing advisory team. Prior to Johnson and Johnson, he worked in Abbott Laboratories' Pharmaceutical and Hospital Products Divisions. While there, he developed drugs for neurologic, psychiatric and pain indications and was responsible for the preclinical and clinical programs that supported the successful filing and approval of multiple NDA and sNDA submissions. Previous to his industry experience, Dr. Collins was in the Departments of Neurology and Neurosciences at Case Western Reserve University, where he founded the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center as well as the Drug Development Center of the Department of Neurology. Prior to that he was on the faculty of the University of California, San Francisco's, Department of Neurology, where he had completed residency and Fellowship training. Dr. Collins earned his MD and PhD at Case Western Reserve University and performed his undergraduate studies in Physics at the University of California, Berkeley.

Rajeev Dadoo, PhDReturn to Top

Director

Dr. Dadoo is a partner at SR One, a venture capital fund that is wholly owned by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), which he joined in 2003. He also serves as a director of CyDex and Nucleonics. He is an observer on the boards of Synovex, Novalar and Concert Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Dadoo has been involved with SR One's investments in Trigen, Hypnion, Predix Pharmaceuticals, Rib-X Pharmaceuticals, Octoplus, Linguagen, iPierian and Pinnacle Pharmaceuticals. In addition to his role at SR One, Dr. Dadoo spent time with the Competitive Excellence group within GSK working on company-wide strategic projects for GSK's Corporate Executive Team. Prior to SR One, Dr. Dadoo worked at Genentech, where his role included technology and clinical development. He was a member of the Chemistry, Manufacture and Controls team responsible for the clinical development of Raptiva. Before Genentech, Dr. Dadoo worked in a product development role at Bio-Rad Laboratories exploring "lab-on-a-chip" technologies. In addition, Dr. Dadoo has worked at Genome Therapeutics in the business development group and at the NJTC Venture Fund. He was a co-founder of Unimicro Technologies, a company that was created to develop and commercialize instrumentation for biomedical analysis. He holds an MBA degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, a Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from Stanford University, and a BA degree in Chemistry and Mathematics from Knox College. He also is an alumnus of the Kauffman Fellows Program.

Luke Evnin, PhDReturn to Top

Director

Luke Evnin is managing director of MPM Capital, a venture firm dedicated to life sciences investing. Dr. Evnin co-founded MPM's asset management business in 1997 to launch MPM's first venture fund and established the San Francisco office for the firm in 1999. Previously, Dr. Evnin was at Accel Partners for over seven years including four as a General Partner. At Accel Partners, he was involved in biopharmaceutical, medical device and healthcare service companies for Accel's funds III, IV and V. Dr. Evnin earned his Ph.D. in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of California-San Francisco, and he received his A.B. in Molecular Biology magna cum laude from Princeton University. He serves on the External Advisory Board for QB3, the Advisory Board for Mission Bay Capital (the internal venture investment vehicle for QB3), the External Advisory Board for the Lewis Sigler Institute of Quantitative Genomics at Princeton, and is the Chairman of the Scleroderma Research Foundation.

Corey Goodman, PhD Return to Top

Director

Dr. Goodman is Founding Partner of venBio, Adjunct Professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and Chair of the Board of Directors of Limerick BioPharma, Second Genome, Oligasis, and Ossianix, and member of the Board of Mirna Therapeutics. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. Dr. Goodman was previously President of Pfizer's Biotherapeutics and Bioinnovation Center and a member of its Executive Leadership Team. He is a co-founder of Exelixis, Renovis, and Second Genome, and served as CEO of Renovis prior to its acquisition. Dr. Goodman is also a member of the California Council on Science and Technology, the Pacific Institute, the Board of the McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience, BayBio, Biotechnology Institute, Bay Area Science and Innovation Consortium, New York Stem Cell Foundation, QB3 (UCSF-UCB-UCSC) Industry Advisory Board, Stanford's BioX Biosciences Advisory Council, Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation, and is former Chair of the National Research Council's Board on Life Sciences. During his academic career, Dr. Goodman spent over two decades as a professor of biology and neuroscience at Stanford and U.C. Berkeley, and earning numerous scientific awards such as the Alan T. Waterman Award from the National Science Board, the Gairdner International Award for Achievement in Medical Sciences, and the March-of-Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology. He was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, Evan Rauch Chair of Neuroscience, and co-founded the Wills Neuroscience Institute. Dr. Goodman received his B.S. from Stanford University, Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley, and was a postdoctoral fellow at U.C. San Diego.

Elaine Jones, PhDReturn to Top

Director

Dr. Jones joined Pfizer Venture Investments as Executive Director, Venture Capital in 2008. She is responsible for making and managing venture investments for Pfizer and currently manages the PVI investments in Aquinox Pharmaceuticals (Vancouver, British Columbia), Flexion Therapeutics (Boston, MA), Merus B.V. (Utrecht, The Netherlands), Neuronetics Inc. (Malvern, PA), NeuroTherapeutics Pharma (Chicago, IL), and TetraLogic Pharma (Malvern, PA). Elaine brings 12 years of venture capital experience and a strong background in research and product assessment, built on her significant experience in pharmaceutical drug discovery and business development to the PVI team. Most recently, Elaine was a General Partner with the venture fund, EuclidSR Partners. There, she was responsible for the fund’s investments in Acurian, Fluidigm, InnaPhase and Targacept. Prior to joining ESR, Dr. Jones began her private equity career in 1999 at S.R. One, GlaxoSmithKline’s venture fund, where she managed investments including Adolor, Avantium, Nucleonics, Scynexis and Vicuron. Previously, she served as Director of Scientific Licensing for SmithKline Beecham and was a research scientist in SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceutical R&D. Dr. Jones is a graduate of Juniata College and received her Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Pittsburgh.