Management
Anthony Ford, PhD
Co-founder, President and Chief Executive Officer
Kathleen Sereda Glaub, MBA
Co-founder and Executive Chair of the Board of Directors
Gabriel Vargas, MD, PhD
Chief Medical Officer
Michael P. Dillon, PhD
Chief Technical Officer
Peter Butera
Senior Vice President, Operations
Renee Martin, PhD
Vice President, Translational Science
Distinguished Advisors
Robert Booth, PhD
Distinguished Advisor, Co-founder, Scientific Advisory Board
Mehrdad Shamloo, PhD
Co-founder, Chair of Scientific Advisory Board
Board of Directors
Simon Tate, PhD
Simon is a Managing Director at Intermediate Capital Group (ICG) and has 32 years of experience in R&D. He has spent most of his career working in the fields of Pain and Neuroscience. He was one of the founders of Convergence Pharmaceuticals, and as Chief Scientific Officer and head of R&D, he led Convergence to its successful acquisition by Biogen for $675M in 2015. Following this acquisition, Simon joined Biogen, where he assumed the role of Vice President and Head of the Pain Therapeutic Area. Prior to Convergence, Simon was Vice President and Head of Pain, Epilepsy, and Migraine drug discovery and early development in GSK, where he held senior roles in Neurology, Psychiatry, and Discovery Sciences during his 20-year career. Originally trained as a Biochemist, Simon graduated from the University of Dundee, where he had the privilege to work with Sir Philip Cohen, who was, at the time, the world’s third most cited professor.
Kathleen Sereda Glaub, MBA
Ms. Glaub brings more than 30 years of experience in corporate development and strategy, financing and company-building for innovative life science and technology companies. She became a co-founder of CuraSen in 2018. Ms. Glaub also serves on the board of directors of Escient Pharmaceuticals, IO Biotech and Codexis, Inc.
Following Ms. Glaub’s appointment to the board of Afferent Pharmaceuticals in 2013, she joined the company as chief executive officer in 2014. Ms. Glaub led the company’s advancement of AF-219/MK7264 (gefapixant) to Phase 3 readiness for the treatment of chronic cough, raised $80 million in additional private funding for Afferent, and led the 2016 sale of the company to Merck for $1.25 billion.
Previously, Ms. Glaub served as president of Plexxikon for 12 years, where she led the company’s business and financing strategies, negotiated several multi-million-dollar partnerships, and led the sale of the company to Daiichi Sankyo for nearly $1 billion in 2011. She also was instrumental in Plexxikon’s advancement of multiple novel molecules to the clinic, as well as advancement of Zelboraf®, a targeted treatment for melanoma, along with its companion diagnostic to market approval in 2011. She previously held positions as senior vice president and chief financial officer of Cell Genesys, treasurer of Genentech, and various finance and treasury roles with Intel Corporation.
Ms. Glaub received her BA from the University of California, Berkeley, and her MBA from Northwestern University.
Patrick Enright, MBA
Mr. Enright is a managing director and founder of Longitude Capital. Prior to Longitude Capital, Mr. Enright was a managing director of Pequot Ventures where he co-led the life sciences investment practice. Prior to Pequot, he was a managing member of the Delta Opportunity Fund at Diaz & Altschul Capital Management. Mr. Enright began his investment career at PaineWebber Development Corporation. Mr. Enright also has significant life sciences operations experience, including senior executive positions at Valentis, Boehringer Mannheim (acquired by Roche) and Sandoz (now known as Novartis). Mr. Enright currently serves on the boards of Aimmune, Aptinyx, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Orbus Therapeutics and SutroVax. Selected prior board memberships include Codexis, Corcept Therapeutics, Esperion Therapeutics, Horizon Pharmaceuticals, InfaCare Pharmaceutical, MAP Pharmaceuticals, Prestwick Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Lundbeck), and Sequenom.
Mr. Enright holds a BS in biological sciences from Stanford University, and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
Anthony Ford, PhD
Dr. Ford brings more than 30 years of neuroscience research, pharmacology, drug discovery and development experience from leading biopharmaceutical companies to his role as co-founder and chief executive officer. He became a co-founder of CuraSen in 2018. Dr Ford also holds senior advisory roles with Site1 Therapeutics and PharmNovo, both developing innovative therapies for pain and related indications, and for New Leaf Venture Partners, where he had previously held the title of venture partner. He is also an advisor to the Stanford SPARK program.
Prior to CuraSen, Dr. Ford co-founded Afferent Pharmaceuticals, and as chief scientific officer led the discovery and development of first-in-class P2X3 antagonists, including AF-219/MK-7264 (gefapixant), for chronic cough through Phase 3 readiness until the company’s acquisition by Merck in 2016 for more than $1 billion. Previously, he held several positions at Roche Pharmaceuticals (Palo Alto), including lastly as vice president of research and head of neuroscience, where he initiated and drove innovative programs in neurobiology.
Dr. Ford was trained in pharmacology at Bradford University and received a PhD in neuropharmacology from Nottingham University. He has published extensive research with a strong focus on therapeutics for poorly addressed neuroscience diseases.
Ronald Hunt
Mr. Hunt is a Managing Director at New Leaf Venture Partners, and focuses on early to late stage investments in biopharmaceuticals. He was one of the founders of New Leaf in 2005, and today has over two decades of experience investing in, and building companies focused on developing novel medicines that address important unmet medical needs. Prior to his start in venture capital in 1998, Mr. Hunt was a strategy and operations consultant to clients in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. His experience also includes a number of sales and marketing positions with Johnson & Johnson and SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Hunt is a graduate of The Wharton School (MBA) and Cornell University (B.S.).
Loretta Tse, PhD
Loretta Tse joined TCM in July of 2015. Previously, Dr. Tse ran a biotech consulting business and worked with various venture funds and start-up companies. Prior to that, Dr. Tse was Managing Director, Technology Transfer and Industry Relations at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, where she ran an office that was responsible for protection and commercialization of research output and formation of start-up companies, was an Associate at Oxford Biosciences Partners, an early stage Life Sciences venture fund, and worked in business development at several early stage biotech companies prior to joining Oxford. Dr. Tse holds a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and a B.S. in Biochemistry from University of California, Davis.
Scientific Advisory Board
Mehrdad Shamloo, PhD
In 2008, Dr. Shamloo joined Stanford University and established the Behavioral and Functional Neuroscience core laboratory as well as his own research laboratory focused on the understanding of normal and pathological brain functions in disorders such as Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, stroke and autism. Currently, Dr. Shamloo’s efforts and research are directed towards the neurodegenerative pathways responsible for selective neuronal vulnerability of sensitive brain nuclei in degenerative disorders. Through these investigations, the aim is to understand the processes leading to the functional and behavioral malfunction in these neurological disorders, and to subsequently develop novel therapeutics to treat them. Dr. Shamloo seeks to accelerate the translation of experimental discoveries into novel therapeutic approaches and improve the quality of life for patients with brain disorders. Previously, Dr. Shamloo held positions at various biopharmaceutical companies with extensive focus on CNS drug discovery and preclinical development, including AGY Therapeutics and Affymax.
Dr. Shamloo received his doctoral degree from the Wallenberg Neuroscience Center of Lund University in Sweden.
Jillian Baker, BM BS MRCP PhD
Dr. Baker has conducted and published extensive research in the field of molecular pharmacology and receptor signaling and is a noted authority on the pharmacology of adrenoceptors. She has pursued both research and clinical medicine concurrently as a joint career and was awarded a Wellcome Trust Clinician Scientist Fellowship (2004-2010) to continue research while completing clinical training. In 2010, Dr. Baker was appointed honorary consultant in respiratory medicine in Queen’s Medical Centre and in 2013 a professor of drug discovery and respiratory medicine in the School of Life Sciences.
Dr. Baker began specialist registrar training in respiratory medicine in Nottingham and was awarded a Wellcome Trust Clinical Training Fellowship to do a basic science PhD in pharmacology in Nottingham under the supervision of Professor Steve Hill and Professor Ian Hall. Dr. Baker obtained her medical degree from the University of Nottingham and completed junior doctor training in Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham City Hospital and Derbyshire Royal Infirmary.
Robert Booth, PhD
Dr. Booth has spent more than 30 years in the biopharmaceutical industry, most recently as founder and chief executive officer of Virobay Inc. Additionally, he has served as operating partner and senior advisor at TPG Biotech. Prior to Virobay, Dr. Booth was the chief scientific officer at Celera Genomics, where he was responsible for all discovery and development activities. Dr. Booth conceived and initiated the BTK inhibitor program that was ultimately licensed to Pharmacyclics and from which Imbruvica was developed and approved. Dr. Booth served on the board of directors of Pharmacyclics until its acquisition by AbbVie. Prior to Celera, Dr. Booth was senior vice president for Roche in Palo Alto, California. Dr. Booth was a member of the global research management team and the business development committee, which oversaw licensing opportunities.
Dr. Booth received his BSc and PhD in biochemistry from the University of London.
Kathleen Poston, MD
Since 2009, Dr. Poston has held a faculty position at Stanford University Medical Center. Dr. Poston’s research focuses on the development of novel neuroimaging biomarkers to improve diagnostic accuracy and monitor the efficacy of investigational treatments for Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders. Her current studies focus on cognitive and memory problems in people with Parkinson’s disease. She has been awarded grant funding by the NIH and the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s disease research. She is co-investigator for the Stanford Alzheimer’s Disease Center, which is funded by the National Institute for Aging and focuses on early cognitive problems in both Parkinson’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease. She is also co-investigator for the NINDS funded Morris K. Udall Center of Excellence for Parkinson’s Disease Research.
Dr. Poston completed her Neurology residency training at UCSF, where she was Chief Resident. She also completed a fellowship in clinical movement disorders under the mentorship of Dr. Stanley Fahn at Columbia University and post-doctoral research training in functional neuroimaging with Dr. David Eidelberg at the Feinstein Institute. Dr. Poston received her bachelor of science in bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, her master’s degree in biomedical engineering and her MD at Vanderbilt University where she also received the Medical Student Prize for Excellence in Neurology.
Luca Santarelli, MD
Dr. Santarelli has more than 20 years of experience in academic and industrial R&D, having led drug programs in neuroscience, rare diseases, ophthalmology, metabolic and G.I., from discovery research to commercialization. Dr. Santarelli is founder and CEO of VectivBio, a biotechnology company focused on rare conditions. He was previously CEO and co-founder of Therachon AG, a company focused on discovery and development of therapeutics for rare pediatric conditions acquired by Pfizer in 2019. Prior to Therachon, he spent 11 years at Roche, most recently serving as senior vice president and head of neuroscience, ophthalmology and rare diseases, as well as small molecule research. In this capacity, he advanced over 20 new molecular entities to the clinic and various NMEs to registration studies including ocrelizumab in multiple sclerosis, gantenerumab in Alzheimer’s disease, balovaptan in autism, and risdiplam in spinal muscular atrophy. Dr. Santarelli also co-founded BrainCells, a company focused on the discovery of novel antidepressants that stimulate the growth of new neurons, with Nobel laureate Eric Kandel, MD, Rene Hen, PhD, and Fred Gage, PhD.
Dr. Santarelli completed his MD and Psychiatry residency at the University of Turin, Italy, and a postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University, focusing on the molecular mechanisms of psychiatric disorders and adult brain stem cells. His work has been published in Nature, Science, Nature Neuroscience, Archives of Neurology and JAMA Psychiatry.