We are leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs working together to redefine the way we make medicines.

Mario Alberto Accardi, PhD, MEng, is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Orexia Therapeutics (previously Orexia and Inexia). He co-founded and launched the company alongside venture capital fund Medicxi and biopharmaceutical company Sosei Heptares in 2019. Under Mario’s leadership, Orexia Therapeutics progressed from an idea, to a company with multiple orexin agonist programs and enabling technology collaborations.

Previously, Mario was a venture capitalist, most recently as a Venture Partner with Fort Rock Capital where he served on the Boards of vasopharm GmbH and GNS Healthcare. Prior to that, he was part of the life sciences investment team at Entrepreneurs Fund whose notable investments include Optinose (NASDAQ: OPTN) and Prosonix (acquired by Circassia). Mario started his career in strategy consulting with Deallus Consulting.

Mario is a graduate of Imperial College London. He holds a Postgraduate in Genomic Medicine, a PhD in Biomedical Engineering and a First-Class Honours MEng Degree in Mechanical Engineering where he focused on Biomedical.

Mario is the Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Orthonika, Ltd. He serves on the Board of Embody Orthopaedic and on the Strategic Advisory Board of G3 Therapeutics.

Trevor Baglin, MedScD, PhD, is the Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer at ApcinteX and the Chief Medical Officer at Z Factor. He is also a Venture Partner in the Medicxi investment team where he co-founded XO1 (acquired by Janssen Pharmaceuticals).

Prior to joining Medicxi, Trevor was a clinician at Cambridge University Hospitals where he was also Director of Investigative Sciences. His main research interests were in personalized risk profiling, developed from studying the gene-environment interaction leading to thrombosis, and the molecular basis of blood coagulation, which led to his interest in drug discovery and development. He has published more than 300 clinical and scientific papers and led the production of many international and UK clinical guidelines.

Trevor served as President of the British Society for Haematology and President of the British Society for Haemostasis and Thrombosis and was a Founder of the European Congress on Thrombosis and Haemostasis.

He qualified in Medicine from The University of Manchester and was awarded his PhD from the University of Birmingham and Doctor of Medical Science from Cambridge University. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists.

Joseph Birkett, PhD, serves as Chief Executive Officer at PearlRiver Bio. He brings a wealth of experience in oncology research and development, having spent over twenty years across various roles working in mid to large size pharmaceutical companies (Eli Lilly and Company, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Ltd., Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Acerta Pharma, LLC, and AstraZeneca, PLC) as well as smaller biotech and start-up companies.

Joe has been involved in taking assets from pre-clinical development through to regulatory approval across several cancer indications, including the anti-CD20 antibody obinutuzumab (GAZYVA®), and more recently has worked on the development of several BTK inhibitors (BTKi), with very close involvement in the recently approved BTKi acalabrutinib (CALQUENCE®) for CLL/MCL.

Joe also has experience in the solid tumor setting, working on the PARP inhibitor olaparib (ovarian and gastric cancer), IRESSA® (NSCLC), PDL-1/CTLA4 (SCLC) as well as involvement in the cellular therapy field, working on products such as CAR-T, TILs and TCR.

Joe has broad Phase 1-3 clinical trial experience accompanied by experience in business development activities including licensing.

Joe holds a PhD in Molecular Genetics from King’s College London/UCL.

Sarah (Sally) Wurts Black, PhD, joined Orexia Therapeutics in February 2019 and serves as the Head of Biology.

Sally brings over ten years of experience in preclinical narcolepsy research through consulting at Jazz Pharmaceuticals, PLC, leading the in vivo biology department at Reset Therapeutics, Inc., and as a principal investigator at SRI International for projects sponsored by pharmaceutical companies and the National Institutes of Health.

Sally earned her PhD in Neuroscience from the University of California, Los Angeles, USA, prior to her postdoctoral training in the laboratories of Emmanuel Mignot, MD, PhD, at Stanford University and Thomas Kilduff, PhD, at SRI International.

Jamie Coleman, PhD, is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at LockBody Therapeutics. He is a serial entrepreneur with twenty years of experience building companies, and a physiology, software, and data analytics expert. Jamie began his career in Cardiovascular Physiology before setting up his own software companies.

Jamie is the Co-Founder and Chair of CodeBase, the UK’s largest tech incubator with companies such as FanDuel, Outplay, Administrate, CareSourcer and Machines with Vision.  CodeBase companies have raised in excess of $750M and created over 3,000 new jobs in Edinburgh over the past seven years.

Jamie also co-founded UltraHuman, a cancer drug discovery company, which produced the spinouts of Granular Therapeutics, UltraHuman Eight, Ltd., and LockBody Therapeutics.

He is the Founder of the Turing Festival; a Board member of The Edinburgh International Festival; a Board member of ScotlandIS and a Board Member of the Creative Industries Federation.

Jamie has been involved in the interface between software, healthcare, and investment for many years.

Jonny Finlay, PhD, BSc, is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at LockBody Therapeutics. Jonny carries two decades of experience in biologics discovery and development in academia, government and industry and has co-founded a series of biologics drug discovery biotechs in the UK.

Jonny led research teams in Biologics Discovery and Development at Pfizer, Inc. and Wyeth, LLC, and carried out postdoctoral research in recombinant protein engineering at several institutes, including the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, FDA.

Jonny holds a BSc and PhD in Microbiology and Biochemistry.

Roman Fleck, PhD, MBA, is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Janpix and a Venture Advisor to Medicxi (formerly Index Ventures).

Previously, Roman was a Principal at Index Ventures where, among others, he invested in and represented Index Ventures on the boards of GlycoVaxyn (acquired by GSK), Versartis, and Novocure (NASDAQ: NVCR). Earlier at Index Ventures he was involved with Funxional Therapeutics (acquired by Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH) and Micromet (acquired by Amgen).

Roman started his career at Boehringer Ingelheim in Connecticut, USA where he led drug development projects in oncology, inflammation and cardiovascular disease, advancing several compounds from pre-clinical to clinical stage.

Roman received a PhD in Bio-Organic Chemistry from M.I.T. as well as an MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business.

Karl Gibson, PhD, serves as Head of Medicinal Chemistry at Orexia Therapeutics. Prior to joining Orexia, Karl spent five years as a Medicinal Chemist at Merck & Co., Inc. Neuroscience Research Center followed by nine years at Pfizer, leading Medicinal Chemistry teams across the Pain, Urology and Infectious Disease therapeutic areas.

In 2011, Karl co-founded Sandexis Medicinal Chemistry. Since then, he has provided Medicinal Chemistry leadership and design to a number of biotech companies and programs.

Karl obtained his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Cambridge.

Deborah Hartman, PhD, is Chief Scientific Officer at Orexia Therapeutics. Deborah has over twenty years of experience in drug discovery and development and has held multiple leadership roles in the pharmaceutical industry. Most recently, Deborah was the Global Program Leader at Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, Ltd., where she led the development of a multi-asset Orexin Receptor 2 (OX2R) agonist clinical stage franchise. This program provided the first clinical evidence that demonstrated proof of concept for OX2R agonists in enhancing wakefulness across multiple indications including Narcolepsy Type 1 and Type 2, as well as in healthy adults.

Deborah held earlier roles at AstraZeneca, PLC, as Vice President of Respiratory and Inflammation Research in Charnwood, UK; Vice President of Projects in the Innovative Medicines Unit (iMed) for Infectious Diseases in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA; and Vice President of Global Lead Generation Enabling Sciences in Alderley Park, UK, with additional responsibility for sites in Boston, Massachusetts, USA and in Sweden. Deborah started her career in drug discovery at F. Hoffmann-La Roche, AG, in Basel, Switzerland, where she was a Project Leader in the Neuroscience area and later in the Metabolic Diseases group based in New Jersey, USA.

In addition to her experience in major pharmaceutical companies, Deborah also held the position of Vice President of Research at Avaxia Biologics, Inc., a clinical stage biotechnology company in the Boston area which developed a novel platform for orally administered antibody therapeutics.

Deborah received her Bachelor’s Degree in Molecular Biology at Princeton University and holds a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Yale University.

Dr. Steffen Heeger, MD, PhD, is Chief Medical Officer at Pega-One. Steffen has over fifteen years industry experience in the clinical development of targeted cancer therapies. Throughout his career, he led clinical development programs predominantly in the areas of hematological malignancies and in solid tumors.

Steffen is an internationally recognized leader with a strong track record in the clinical development of antibody-based, targeted oncology drugs. His work was instrumental for the development of the blockbuster drug ERBITUX®, a monoclonal therapeutic antibody targeting EGFR, and for successful clinical development of other anti-cancer therapeutic antibodies, e.g. targeting CD19, CD38 and PSMA.

Johannes Heuckmann, PhD, serves as Chief Scientific Officer at PearlRiver Bio. Johannes has several years of senior management experience with a successful track record in leading Research & Development and operational activities (IT, Finance, Operations) in the biotech and diagnostics industry.

Johannes developed early small molecule EGFR exon 20 inhibitors and additional scientific discoveries into PearlRiver Bio’s drug development programs and shaped its novel drug discovery platform.

Johannes has also developed several CE-IVD-labeled hybrid capture-based next-generation sequencing (NGS) diagnostic tests (with reagents and software) and successfully built a start-up into a company with more than 50 employees (acquired by Siemens AG in 2016).

Johannes holds a PhD in Cancer Genomics and has broad scientific expertise in targeting resistance mutations and developing diagnostics.

Jim Huntington, PhD, is Chief Scientific Advisor of ApcinteX and Z Factor. He graduated in 1989 from the University of Kansas with Bachelor’s degrees in Chemistry and Mathematics. While an undergraduate, he worked as a Research Assistant in the Pharmaceutical Chemistry Department and at the Merck subsidiary InterX conducting chemical synthesis and in vitro and in vivo testing of prodrugs and prodrug-like enhancers of skin permeability. He subsequently worked as a Chemist at Alza Corporation in California, USA for three years evaluating compounds that enhance the electrotransport of drugs across the skin.

Jim obtained a PhD from Vanderbilt University in 1997 for work on the biophysical characterisation of members of the serpin family of proteins with Peter Gettins. His research on the serpins continued during a postdoc with Robin Carrell at the University of Cambridge, where he used X-ray crystallography to determine the mechanisms of serpin function and dysfunction. He was appointed Principal Investigator at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research in 1999, University Reader in 2007 and Professor of Molecular Haemostasis in 2011.

Jim’s current research focuses on determining the structures of the molecular engines of blood coagulation, the Xase and prothrombinase complexes, using crystallography and single particle cryo-EM.

Jim has founded several biotech companies, including: XO1 (acquired by Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., in 2015), SuperX and ReBalance in the field of thrombosis; ApcinteX in haemophilia; Z Factor to treat alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency; SDS Therapeutics; and a reagents and services company, Cambridge ProteinWorks.

Alex Martin, MBA, is Chief Executive Officer of Palladio Biosciences. He previously served as Chief Executive Officer of Realm Therapeutics, PLC, (AIM: RLM), which was acquired by ESSA Pharma, Inc., (NASDAQ: EPIX), where he now serves as a Director. Alex was also Chief Operating Officer of Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Inc., (NASDAQ: ICPT) and Chief Finance Officer of BioXell (SIX: BXLN), which was acquired by Cosmo Pharmaceuticals (SIX: COPN).

Alex began his career at SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, where he held roles of increasing responsibility in marketing and business development, and later joined Novartis as Vice President, Global Business Development and Licensing.

Alex is currently Chairman of the Board of Veralox Therapeutics, an active coach and mentor to other senior executives, and a guest lecturer at Wharton and Columbia Business School on biotech, entrepreneurship, and raising capital.

Alex holds a BA from Cornell University and an MBA from Harvard.

Dr. Nick Morrell, MD, MBBA, is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Morphogen-IX and a physician scientist in the field of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH). Nick is also a Professor of Medicine at the University of Cambridge and has published over 250 papers on PAH, receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award from the European Respiratory Society in 2019. He is a Fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences, emeritus National Institute of Health Research UK Senior Investigator and Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine.

Nick’s academic research focuses on the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying PAH. He leads UK and international studies to identify novel genetic drivers of PAH. Nick’s research revealed that deficient bone morphogenetic protein signaling (BMP) is a central causal pathway in PAH, which led directly to the concept behind Morphogen-IX’s approach.

Nick works closely with his co-founders, Dr. Wei Li and Dr. Paul Upton, both at the University of Cambridge.

Lorenzo Pellegrini, PhD and MBA, is the Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Palladio Biosciences. Prior to founding Palladio, Lorenzo was a partner at Care Capital, a leading private equity and venture capital firm investing in drug development companies. During his twelve-year tenure at Care Capital, Lorenzo co-founded and served on the board of several portfolio companies, including Minerva Neurosciences, Inc., (NASDAQ: NERV), BioCritica, Inc., and Sentinella Pharmaceuticals, Inc., among others. He also led the firm’s investments in Elevation Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Sunovion), Anacor Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Pfizer, Inc.) and Agile Therapeutics® (NASDAQ: AGRX).

Before joining Care Capital, Lorenzo conducted pre- and post-doctoral research in the Department of Cell Biology at Yale University and at the Max-Planck-Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt am Main. His original research work was published in leading peer-reviewed scientific journals such as Nature, Cell and Neuron.

Lorenzo received a Laurea in Chemistry, summa cum laude, from the University of Padova, Italy; a PhD in Biochemistry from the Max-Planck-Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt am Main, Germany; and an MBA with honors from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Emiliangelo Ratti , PhD, serves as Research & Development Strategic Advisor at Orexia Therapeutics and was previously a Member of the Board. Emiliangelo was previously a Board member of GSK Spa in Italy, a member of the Research Committee of Farmindustria, the Italian national association of pharma industries, and a member of the Board of Tecnofarmaci, a consortium of Italian pharmaceutical industries for the development of pharmaceutical research.

Emiliangelo is a passionate and inspirational leader and a highly experienced pharmaceutical Research & Development executive with a proven track record of global executive leadership in drug discovery and clinical development in the neuroscience therapy area within major pharmaceutical companies (Glaxo, GlaxoWellcome, GlaxoSmithKline, PLC, and Takeda Pharmaceuticals Company, Ltd.) where he has held senior leadership roles in their Research & Development operations based in continental Europe, UK, USA, Japan and China.

Prior to Orexia, Emiliangelo was Senior Vice President and Global Head of the Neuroscience Therapeutic Area Unit at Takeda and member of the Research & Development Management Committee. He led expansion of the Neuroscience Therapeutic Area strategy and built a highly competitive and innovative neuroscience portfolio for the treatment of diseases in both psychiatry (treatment resistant depression and schizophrenia) and neurology (Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s) as well as a cluster of rare neurological diseases (Narcolepsy, ALS, Epileptic Encephalopathies, and Kabuki syndrome) with therapies based on small molecules, antisense oligonucleotides and gene therapy.

Earlier, Emiliangelo was Founder and Chief Executive Officer of NeRRe Therapeutics, Ltd., a biotech spin-out company from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), which focused on clinical development of a portfolio of neurokinin antagonists, a field in which he is a recognized expert. Prior to this position, Emiliangelo was Senior Vice President, Global Head of the Neurosciences Centre of Excellence for Drug Discovery at GSK and member of the company’s Research & Development Scientific Advisory Board and was appointed Managing Director of GSK Medicine Research Centre in Verona, Italy and Senior Site Leader of the New Frontiers Science Park in Harlow, UK.

At GSK, Emiliangelo built an innovative late-stage drug discovery pipeline in depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, addiction-compulsion, sleep disorders, pain, Alzheimer’s and multiple sclerosis involving a number of novel mechanisms that were progressed into the late-stage clinical development. Before this, Emiliangelo was Drug Discovery Director for one of the three GlaxoWellcome Drug Discovery Groups based in Italy and Spain and Research Director of Glaxo Medicine Research Centre in Verona, Italy.

Emiliangelo is passionate about building vibrant and highly productive organizations that are science driven. He embraces multicultural diversity, engaging and empowering people, and fostering external partnerships.

Dr. Neil H. Shusterman, MD, is Chief Medical Officer at Palladio Biosciences. Neil is board certified in Internal Medicine and Nephrology and is a highly experienced drug developer. During his pharmaceutical industry career of over thirty-one years holding senior leadership positions in large, medium, and small companies, Neil contributed to the development or approval of numerous drugs across multiple therapeutic areas, including argatroban injection, AVEED®, BYSTOLIC®, COMBUNOX™, COREG®™, CORLOPAM™, SAVELLA®, TEVETEN®, VRAYLAR™, and XIAFLEX®.

Prior to joining Palladio Biosciences, Neil worked at Endo Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he was the Chief Medical Officer with responsibility for five departments – Clinical Development and Operations, Medical Affairs, Drug Safety, Biometrics, and Scientific Communications; at Forest Laboratories, Inc., where he was Senior Vice President of Clinical Development at Forest Research Institute with responsibilities for Phase II to IV clinical development for five therapeutic areas – Cardiovascular, Pulmonary, Gastrointestinal/Metabolism, Psychiatry, and Neurology; and at SmithKline Beecham (subsequently GlaxoSmithKline, PLC), where he advanced to Vice President, Cardiovascular Therapeutic Area, North American Medical Affairs, Research & Development with worldwide responsibilities for all Phase II to IV cardiovascular drug development. During his tenure at SmithKline Beecham, Neil led the worldwide pivotal efficacy studies and regulatory filing for COREG®™ (carvedilol), the first beta-blocker approved for the treatment of chronic heart failure (CHF). That approval led to a paradigm-shift in the treatment of CHF, resulting in reduced morbidity and mortality in this devastating condition. In addition, Neil led several large cardiovascular morbidity and mortality studies that recruited 20,000 patients combined at hundreds of sites on three continents.

Before joining the pharmaceutical industry, Neil practiced nephrology at the University of Pennsylvania where he was Assistant Professor of Medicine and directed a large outpatient dialysis program. Neil has published and presented widely on topics in renal medicine, cardiovascular therapeutics, and drug development. He earned his undergraduate degree from the Pennsylvania State University and his MD from Sidney Kimmel Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University.

Dr. Roman Thomas, MD, is a Co-Founder of PearlRiver Bio. Roman received his Medical Degree from the University of Cologne, Germany, in 2000 and began his career as a Physician Scientist at the University Hospital.

In 2004, Roman joined the Cancer Program at the Broad Institute of M.I.T. and Harvard as a Postdoctoral Fellow. He returned to Cologne as a Principal Investigator at the Max-Planck Institute for Neurological Research in 2007.

Roman was appointed Full Professor of Translational Genomics at the University of Cologne in 2012. His scientific focus is on the characterization of cancer genome alterations in lung cancer and on the cell biology implications of such alterations. He has furthermore spearheaded efforts aimed at the translation of cancer genomics into diagnostic as well as therapeutic applications.

Roman also founded NEO New Oncology (acquired by Siemens), and Epiphanes.