Kate Yen, Ph.D., is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Auron. Prior to founding Auron, she held senior roles at Agios Pharmaceuticals, where she led the IDH translational research team responsible for the preclinical and clinical development of two FDA-approved IDH mutant inhibitors, IDHIFA® for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and TIBSOVO® for AML and cholangiocarcinoma. Her team identified the differentiation induction mechanism of action that facilitated the clinical development of this novel class of cancer therapies. During her time at Agios, Dr. Yen also co-led the discovery of vorasidenib, an IDH1/2 mutant inhibitor that received Fast Track Designation by the FDA for low grade glioma. Prior to joining Agios, Dr. Yen held positions at Merck and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Dr. Yen is an author of 47 peer-reviewed publications. She earned a B.S. in Biology from the College of St. Elizabeth and a Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from UCLA. In her postdoctoral fellowship at UCLA, she developed the Hi-Myc murine model of prostate cancer and studied the molecular mechanisms of tumor initiation and progression.
Glenn Goddard is the Chief Financial Officer at Auron. Glenn brings more than 25 years of experience in the biotechnology industry, including managing financial and business operations, significant fund-raising and investor relations experience, and corporate strategic planning. Before joining Auron, he served as executive vice president, chief financial officer of Intellia Therapeutics, where he led the company through multiple financings, raising approximately $2 billion. Glenn was also the chief financial officer at Generation Bio and the principal financial officer at Agios Pharmaceuticals, where he led multiple private and public financings, including Agios’ initial public offering. Earlier in his career he held key financial leadership roles at Archemix and ImmunoGen.
Glenn is a graduate of Bentley College, where he earned a B.S. in accountancy.
David Millan, Ph.D., is Chief Scientific Officer at Auron. Before joining Auron, Dr. Millan was Vice President of Chemistry at Foghorn Therapeutics, where he built and led the company’s chemistry function and protein degrader platform. At Foghorn, Dr. Millan was a member of the scientific leadership team that oversaw the discovery work for two INDs, as well as a robust preclinical portfolio of programs targeting the chromatin regulatory system. Prior to Foghorn, Dr. Millan was Head of Medicinal Chemistry at FORMA Therapeutics, overseeing programs in tumor metabolism, epigenetics, and protein homeostasis. Earlier in his career, he was a project leader at Pfizer, focused on targets in respiratory and pain. Dr. Millan began his career at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, working on structure-based approaches to kinase inhibitors for oncology.
Dr. Millan has led or overseen the advancement of more than ten development candidates, many of those being first-in-class, across oncology and other disease areas. He earned a B.Sc. with Honors (First class) and Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Flinders University in Australia. Dr. Millan completed his post-doctoral training at the University of Nottingham.
Tom Graeber, Ph.D., is Chief Data Officer at Auron, where he has helped build the company’s AURIGIN™ platform and design experiments to collect proprietary omic data on cellular differentiation. Dr. Graeber has an established career as Professor in the Department of Molecular & Medical Pharmacology, and the Director of the UCLA Metabolomics Center, where his research integrates multi-omic profiling, experimentation, and computational biology. His work in integrated signaling and metabolic networks has repeatedly pointed to the importance of negative and positive feedback loops in cancer phenotypes, and he is investigating approaches to therapeutically disrupting cancer-specific reliance on these feedback mechanisms. Dr. Graeber also serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of Coherus BioSciences.
Dr. Graeber is a recognized innovator, including a recipient of the Giants of Science Passion Award by the American Cancer Society. He earned a B.S. in Physics from UCLA and a Ph.D. in Physics from Stanford University, where he studied the role of p53 in hypoxia-induced apoptosis. Dr. Graeber completed post-doctoral fellowships in signal transduction and computational biology at UCLA.
Laura Antipov, Ph.D., is Vice President, Portfolio Management, at Auron. Prior to Auron, in a senior role at Riffyn, she led collaborations with several global pharmaceutical companies and oversaw a breadth of drug development projects. Prior to that, as an early employee of Silver Creek Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Antipov helped build the company’s drug discovery program from the ground up, leading to a clinical candidate currently in Phase 2 trials for cardiovascular indications.
Dr. Antipov joined Auron shortly after founding, holding multiple roles in R&D strategy, operations, and business development, and playing key roles in building the company’s infrastructure and fundraising efforts. She earned B.S. degrees in both Chemistry and Mathematics from the University of Missouri and a Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from MIT. Dr. Antipov performed her postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School.
Caroline Almon, M.S., is Vice President, Clinical Development, at Auron. Prior to Auron, she worked at Foghorn Therapeutics and Agios Pharmaceuticals where she held senior roles in clinical development focusing on the design, planning and execution of oncology clinical trials from IND submission through Phase 1 dose-escalation or expansion. At Agios, she also oversaw clinical operations and helped build the organization responsible for the development of two FDA-approved IDH mutant inhibitors, IDHIFA® for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and TIBSOVO® for AML and cholangiocarcinoma. Prior to Agios, Ms. Almon worked at Genentech/Roche overseeing late-stage clinical trials in oncology and other disease areas. She began her career at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in clinical research for breast cancer prevention and early detection.
Ms. Almon has worked in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry for close to 20 years and contributed to the development of multiple oncology treatments, including initial approval and indication expansion. She holds a B.A. in Human Biology and M.S. in Epidemiology, both from Stanford University.
Kate Yen, Ph.D., is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Auron. Prior to founding Auron, she held senior roles at Agios Pharmaceuticals, where she led the IDH translational research team responsible for the preclinical and clinical development of two FDA-approved IDH mutant inhibitors, IDHIFA® for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and TIBSOVO® for AML and cholangiocarcinoma. Her team identified the differentiation induction mechanism of action that facilitated the clinical development of this novel class of cancer therapies. During her time at Agios, Dr. Yen also co-led the discovery of vorasidenib, an IDH1/2 mutant inhibitor that received Fast Track Designation by the FDA for low grade glioma. Prior to joining Agios, Dr. Yen held positions at Merck and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Dr. Yen is an author of 47 peer-reviewed publications. She earned a B.S. in Biology from the College of St. Elizabeth and a Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from UCLA. In her postdoctoral fellowship at UCLA, she developed the Hi-Myc murine model of prostate cancer and studied the molecular mechanisms of tumor initiation and progression.
Dr. Levine is a member of the Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program and an attending physician on the Leukemia Service, Department of Medicine, the Laurence Joseph Dineen Chair in Leukemia Research with Special Emphasis on Leukemia in Children and Young People, Deputy Physician-In-Chief, Translational Research at MSK, and a professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. His laboratory has identified myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) predisposition alleles and characterized somatic genetic and epigenetic alterations in MPN and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients, which has led to new mechanism-based therapies.
In 2011, Dr. Levine was elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation and in 2018 to the Association of American Physicians. Dr. Levine is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Dameshek Prize from the American Society for Hematology, a Scholar Award from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the Boyer Award for clinical investigation from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and an NCI Outstanding Investigator Award.
Dr. Levine earned his A.B. from Harvard College and a M.D. from Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Stein is the Chief of Leukemia Service in the Division of Hematologic Malignancies, associate attending physician, clinical investigator and Director of the Program for Drug Development in Leukemia at MSK. He conducts novel Phase 1 clinical trials of compounds that target the genetic and epigenetic basis of myeloid malignancies and serves as the lead investigator at MSK for the BEAT AML master clinical trial. Dr. Stein led the clinical trials of IDHIFA® and TIBSOVO®, isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) inhibitors, in patients with relapsed and refractory AML that led to their FDA approvals.
Dr. Vander Heiden is a professor in the Department of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Director of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. He is also an Institute Member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, and an Instructor in Medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. Using a combination of biochemistry, molecular biology and mouse models, the aim of the Vander Heiden laboratory is to understand how metabolism influences different stages of tumor biology with a goal to improve cancer treatment in the clinic.
Dr. Vander Heiden received his M.D. and Ph.D. degree from the University of Chicago. He also completed clinical training in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital / Dana-Farber Cancer Institute prior to completing a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Morrison received his B.S. in biology from Georgetown University, his M.D. from the University of Connecticut Medical School, completed residency training in Internal Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and completed a fellowship in Medical Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He did postdocs with Philip Leder at Harvard Medical School, and Lee Nadler at the Dana-Farber. He joined Merck & Co., Inc. in 1995, was appointed Head of Clinical Development at Pfizer in 2007, and became Head of Global Medicines Development and Chief Medical Officer at AstraZeneca in 2012. He is currently President, Head of R+D and a board member at Syndax Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SNDX) and an Executive Partner at MPM Capital.
Dr. Morrison has overseen the development of numerous biopharmaceutical products in multiple therapeutic areas, from first-in-human trials through to global regulatory approvals. He is currently a board member of Arvinas (NASDAQ: ARVN), Werewolf (NASDAQ: HOWL) and Repare Therapeutics (NASDAQ: RPTX) and is an advisor to several other private biotechnology companies.
Alexandra joined Polaris Partners in 2019 and serves as a partner in the New York office. She is primarily focused on early stage biotech and healthcare investments. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of BeMeHealth, Podimetrics, SunBird Bio, and Trex Bio, and as a Board Observer to Engine Bio. Prior to joining Polaris, Alexandra was part of the initial research team at Inzen Therapeutics, where she helped develop their platform technologies. She moved to Inzen from Vertex Pharmaceuticals, where she held a research fellowship.
Alexandra received a PhD in Chemical Biology from Harvard University, where she studied natural product discovery. Alexandra performed her undergraduate studies at New York University.
Anna French, PhD is a Partner at Qiming Venture Partners USA, and is based in Cambridge, MA. Prior to joining the Qiming team in 2017, Anna was a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) where she advised leading biopharma companies on their strategy and operations. She also led a global industry-academic consortium focused on cell therapy commercialization. Anna currently serves on the boards of WindMIL Therapeutics, Jasper Therapeutics, Umoja Biopharma and Cardialen and is a board observer with Talaris Therapeutics, and PlateletBio.
Anna earned a D.Phil from the University of Oxford, UK where her research focused on hematological differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. She has over 20 publications in the field of stem cell research.
Dr. Alon Lazarus joined Arkin Holdings’ pharma division in 2013. He serves on the board of several of Arkin’s pharmaceutical companies, including Keros Therapeutics, and Lutris Pharma. Prior to joining Arkin, Dr. Lazarus worked for the healthcare business development department of Yissum, the R&D arm of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Dr. Lazarus holds a Ph.D in molecular biology and an MBA, both from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Serge Messerlian is an Operating Partner at DCVC Bio. He brings significant experience in the life science industry across a range of roles and therapeutic areas, including hematology, oncology, immunology, and rare diseases.
Before joining DCVC Bio, Serge was CEO of Teon Therapeutics, an immuno-oncology biotech. Prior to that, as President of Janssen Oncology, a division of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, he set the strategic direction for the organization, its key brands, and pipeline programs across hematology and solid tumors, as well as platforms including cell therapies and bi-specifics. He also held executive leadership roles at Johnson & Johnson’s Actelion, Baxalta, and Baxter International.
Serge holds a bachelor’s degree in physiology and biotechnology and a master’s degree in human genetics, both from McGill University, and an MBA from the University of Toronto.
Victoria Richon is a scientifically trained executive with leadership experience in biotechnology companies, global pharmaceutical companies and academia. Currently, Dr. Richon is the CEO at Entact Bio. Before joining Entact, Dr. Richon was the President and CEO of Ribon Therapeutics, a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of first-in-class cancer and inflammatory disease medicines. Previously, she was the Vice President and Global Head of Oncology Research and Translational Medicine at Sanofi where she was responsible for the oncology drug discovery and translational medicine portfolio. Prior to Sanofi, Dr. Richon was Vice President of Biological Sciences at Epizyme, Inc., a biotechnology company pioneering the discovery and development of novel therapeutics focused on epigenetics, including Tazverik, the first EZH2 inhibitor approved by the FDA for the treatment of advanced epithelioid sarcoma and follicular lymphoma. Earlier in her career, she was Founder and Executive Director of Aton Pharmaceuticals which was acquired by Merck & Co. Aton was formed to develop HDAC inhibitors, including Zolinza, the first HDAC inhibitor approved by the FDA. Dr. Richon is a member of the Board of Directors of HotSpot Therapeutics, Inc.
Dr. Richon is the author of over 100 papers and carried out postdoctoral studies at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and a BA in Chemistry at the University of Vermont.
Kate Yen, Ph.D., is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Auron. Prior to founding Auron, she held senior roles at Agios Pharmaceuticals, where she led the IDH translational research team responsible for the preclinical and clinical development of two FDA-approved IDH mutant inhibitors, IDHIFA® for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and TIBSOVO® for AML and cholangiocarcinoma. Her team identified the differentiation induction mechanism of action that facilitated the clinical development of this novel class of cancer therapies. During her time at Agios, Dr. Yen also co-led the discovery of vorasidenib, an IDH1/2 mutant inhibitor that received Fast Track Designation by the FDA for low grade glioma. Prior to joining Agios, Dr. Yen held positions at Merck and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Dr. Yen is an author of 47 peer-reviewed publications. She earned a B.S. in Biology from the College of St. Elizabeth and a Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from UCLA. In her postdoctoral fellowship at UCLA, she developed the Hi-Myc murine model of prostate cancer and studied the molecular mechanisms of tumor initiation and progression.
Dr. de Botton is a physician, clinical investigator and head of drug development in acute leukemias in the Department of Hematology at Gustave Roussy Cancer Center in Villejuif, France. He also belongs to the research unit UMR 1170 for novel preclinical research. He is a member of the executive board of the Acute Leukemia French Association (ALFA) that focuses on the clinical and translational research in adult acute myeloid leukemia.
Dr. Chesworth is an entrepreneur in residence at Third Rock Ventures, focused on building new drug discovery and development companies. He has contributed to the research and development of thirteen different compounds entering clinical trials, resulting in two FDA-approved new molecular entities, including TAZVERIK® for the treatment of both epithelioid sarcoma and relapsed/refractory follicular lymphoma. Dr. Chesworth previously served as chief scientific officer at Kymera Therapeutics, head of chemistry and senior vice president of research at Epizyme, head of chemistry at EnVivo, and principal scientist at Surface Logix and Pfizer. Dr. Chesworth holds a BSc in Chemistry from Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine at the University of London and a D.Phil. in Chemistry from the University of Oxford.
Dr. Levine is a member of the Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program and an attending physician on the Leukemia Service, Department of Medicine, the Laurence Joseph Dineen Chair in Leukemia Research with Special Emphasis on Leukemia in Children and Young People, Deputy Physician-In-Chief, Translational Research at MSK, and a professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. His laboratory has identified myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) predisposition alleles and characterized somatic genetic and epigenetic alterations in MPN and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients, which has led to new mechanism-based therapies.
In 2011, Dr. Levine was elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation and in 2018 to the Association of American Physicians. Dr. Levine is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Dameshek Prize from the American Society for Hematology, a Scholar Award from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the Boyer Award for clinical investigation from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and an NCI Outstanding Investigator Award.
Dr. Levine earned his A.B. from Harvard College and a M.D. from Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Su is a pioneering biotech leader with deep expertise in drug discovery and translational medicine. He served as Chief Scientific Officer of Volastra Therapeutics and as Chief Scientific Officer of Decibel Therapeutics. Before that, Dr. Su was a Co-founder and Senior Vice President of Research and Development at Agios Pharmaceuticals, where he led the team responsible for identifying the oncogenic cause of IDH mutants in cancer and the discovery of IDHIFA® and TIBSOVO®, FDA-approved treatments for AML with IDH mutations. He served as General Director and Vice President of the Biomedical Engineering Research Laboratory at ITRI in Taiwan and spent 14 years in scientific leadership roles at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, concluding his tenure as Program Executive and Vice President of the Novartis-Vertex kinase collaboration.
Dr. Su has a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Duke University and completed postdoctoral work through the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation Fellowship in biochemistry and molecular biology at Harvard University.
Dr. Roshal is a practicing hematopathologist, associate attending physician, and Director of the Clinical Flow Cytometry Laboratory in the Department of Pathology at MSK. His major clinical expertise is in development of robust flow cytometry-based assays for assessment of treatment response of hematologic neoplasms. Dr. Roshal’s research interests are in molecular genetic characterization of treatment resistant and rare disease populations and in defining molecular genetic triggers of lineage infidelity and unusual differentiation pathways in acute leukemia.
Dr. Rudin is a medical oncologist at MSK specializing in the care of patients with lung cancer. He is the Chief of the Thoracic Oncology Service, Co-Director of the Druckenmiller Center for Lung Cancer Research, and Sylvia Hassenfeld Professor and Chair in Lung Cancer Research at MSK. Dr. Rudin also has chaired the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Small Cell Lung Cancer Research Consortium since its inception in 2015. He directs a broad program of therapeutic research, including preclinical and clinical investigations to identify and test novel therapeutic approaches to small cell and non-small cell lung cancer. Dr. Rudin is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including an NCI Outstanding Investigator Award, the NCI Director’s Service Award, and the Paul Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer.
Dr. Stegmaier is a professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and the Ted Williams Investigator at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and has advanced the application of genomics to drug and protein target discovery for pediatric malignancies. She is the Vice Chair for Pediatric Oncology Research, Co-director of the Pediatric Hematologic Malignancy Program, and an attending physician providing clinical care in Pediatric Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Stegmaier is also an Institute Member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. She has served as a Council Member with the Society for Pediatric Research and as the Chair for the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Pediatric Cancer Working Group. Dr. Stegmaier is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Joanne Levy, MD, Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement from the American Society of Hematology.
Dr. Stegmaier received her undergraduate degree from Duke University where she graduated valedictorian, medical degree from Harvard Medical School, and trained in Pediatrics and Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Boston Children’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Stegmaier is a recipient of an NCI Outstanding Investigator Award.
Dr. Stein is the Chief of Leukemia Service in the Division of Hematologic Malignancies, associate attending physician, clinical investigator and Director of the Program for Drug Development in Leukemia at MSK. He conducts novel Phase 1 clinical trials of compounds that target the genetic and epigenetic basis of myeloid malignancies and serves as the lead investigator at MSK for the BEAT AML master clinical trial. Dr. Stein led the clinical trials of IDHIFA® and TIBSOVO®, isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) inhibitors, in patients with relapsed and refractory AML that led to their FDA approvals.
Dr. Thomas is a professor of Pathology at the Knight Cancer Institute, Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Oregon, and Associate Medical Director of the Knight Diagnostics Laboratory. His clinical area of expertise is in precision oncology of prostate and kidney cancers. Dr. Thomas directs a translational research program that studies treatment induced metabolic reprogramming in these cancers, with the goal of developing new combination therapies.
Dr. Thomas received his M.D. from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and did his pathology residency and research fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Dr. Vander Heiden is a professor in the Department of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Director of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. He is also an Institute Member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, and an Instructor in Medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. Using a combination of biochemistry, molecular biology and mouse models, the aim of the Vander Heiden laboratory is to understand how metabolism influences different stages of tumor biology with a goal to improve cancer treatment in the clinic.
Dr. Vander Heiden received his M.D. and Ph.D. degree from the University of Chicago. He also completed clinical training in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital / Dana-Farber Cancer Institute prior to completing a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Vyas is a professor of Hematology at Oxford University, and a research-consulting Hematologist with a clinical practice in myeloid disorders (MDS, AML and MPD) and allogeneic stem cell transplant at the MRC Molecular Haematology Unit, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford. He is Co-lead of the Oxford BRC Hematology and Stem Cells Theme, is on the Board of NHSBT, Vice-chair of the MRC Clinical Training Panel and Translational Lead for the UK Therapy Acceleration Program.
Dr. Vyas received his Ph.D. from the MRC Molecular Haematology Unit, University of Oxford, and completed a three-year post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University.
We have fostered a culture that encourages our team to be curious, to think strategically and creatively, and to push the limits of science. We honor diversity and individuality, and are united by a single commitment to serve the patients and families who need new treatments.
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