Management Team
Chief Executive Officer
Experienced geneticist, biochemist, and entrepreneur. Guided acquisition of Knudra Transgenics by InVivo Biosystems. Participated in raising over $5 M in funding from venture capital. Achieved more than $7 M in non-dilutive funding from SBIRs. Licensed CRISPR technology in 2014 shortly after it was invented. Inventor on 20+ patents. Created more than 40 service product lines. Cultivated a sales and marketing team that achieved more than $10M in market revenue.
Dr. Chris Hopkins, PhD, MBA
Chief Science Officer
Skilled in the development and implementation of cell and gene therapy for Fabry disease and cancer therapeutics. Authored over 150 publications on gene therapy, viral-expressed transgenes, and biochemistry. Inventor on a number of patents. Founder of two cellular therapeutic companies, AVROBIO, Inc, a NASDAQ-traded public company focusing on Rare Disease gene therapy and Tundra Targeted Therapeutics, Inc., focusing on use of bispecific antibodies as immunotherapy treatments in CD30-positive cancers.
Dr. Jeffrey Medin, PhD
Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Ronan Foley, MD
Clinical hematologist and the Director of the Clinical Stem Cell Laboratory at the Juravinski Hospital and Professor of Oncology in the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University.
Advisory Team
Leading expert in Fabry Disease. Professor, Department of Medicine at Dalhousie University. Director of the Nova Scotia Fabry Disease Program. Head, Canadian Fabry Disease Initiative, the largest and most complete non-commercial registry. Past president of the Canadian Society of Nephrology.
Dr. Michael West, MD
Cell and gene therapy expert. Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto, specializing in hematology. Established the largest stem cell transplantation program in Canada. Clinician scientist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre involved in basic, translational and clinical research in cell and gene therapy, tissue regeneration and hematopoietic cell transplantation. Past president of the American Society of Hematology.
Dr. Armand Keating, MD
Expert in epigenetic T-cell modulation. Founder and CMO of Rapa Therapeutics, which is developing rapamycin-reprogrammed T-cells for cancer and autoimmune targeting. Also targeting the use of RAPA-501 cells for ALS, which are manufactured ex-vivo to attain dual TREG/Th2 anti-inflammatory activity and a T-stem phenotype that permits T cell therapy without conditioning chemotherapy.
Dr. Daniel Fowler, MD
Business leader with over 15 years experience in clinical operations. Skilled in project management, team leadership and operational logistics. Experienced in provide strategic insights in life science operations and business development.
Leah Hustad
Dr. Lara Silverman, PhD
Translational scientist with a focus on the cell and gene therapy field. Experience with preclinical and early clinical programs, including CMC, regulatory, intellectual property, and overall strategy. Broad experience enabling early stage clinical testing with allo/auto cell therapies, gene therapy and tissue engineered products
Dr. Dwayne Barber, PhD
Expert in regulatory issues pertaining to lysosomal storage disorders and leukemia. Professor Emeritus at University of Toronto. Authored greater than 70 papers in hematopoietic signalling, leukemia and lysosomal storage disorders. Project manager for Phase 1 clinical trial that utilized gene therapy for treatment of Fabry disease. Deep understanding of regulatory challenges in cell and gene therapy space.