Executive Team
Ben Gibson
Chief Executive Officer / Co-founder
Business Leadership, Strategy & Execution
Previously MD of Investment Banking at Canaccord Genuity Group
Email / Linkedin
Ken Batchelor, PhD
Head of Research & Development
Drug Discovery & Clinical Asset Development
Former SVP R&D at GSK, Founder & CEO of NovaTarg Therapeutics, Inc.
Email / Linkedin
Board of Directors
Dr. Morris J. Birnbaum, MD/PhD
Non-Executive Director
Former SVP of Pfizer and CSO of Pfizer’s Internal Medicine Research Unit (2014-2022); Previously, a professor and research scientist at UPenn / Perelman School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School.
Linkedin
Ben Gibson
Chief Executive Officer / Co-founder
Email / Linkedin
Scientific Advisory Board
Dr. Morris J. Birnbaum, MD/PhD
Chair of Scientific Advisory Board
Former (2014-2022) SVP of Pfizer and CSO of Pfizer’s Internal Medicine Research Unit (IMRU) responsible for leading Pfizer’s IMRU portfolio and technology strategies in the general areas of cardiometabolic and neurological diseases, spanning from initial drug discovery through clinical proof of concept into late-stage clinical development. Dr. Birnbaum was also responsible for selecting and managing external academic and private collaborations as well as performing scientific diligence for licensing and M&A opportunities, and participated in Pfizer’s Worldwide Research, Development, and Medicine Leadership team. Previously, Dr. Birnbaum had a three-decade career as a Physician Scientist, leading an academic laboratory focused on basic research in fundamental mechanisms in metabolic regulation. His research focused on the study of insulin action, metabolism and how organisms respond to both a deficit and a surfeit of food. He occupied roles at Harvard Medical School, the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Dr. Birnbaum has published over 200 refereed papers in the world’s leading scientific journals.
LinkedIn
Navdeep S Chandel, PhD
David W. Cugell Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Biochemistry, and Molecular Genetics at Northwestern University.
Dr. Chandel’s research has made contributions to understanding the function of mitochondria, beyond their roles as biosynthetic and bioenergetic organelles generating metabolites for the production of macromolecules and ATP. Dr. Chandel has elucidated that mitochondria participate in cellular signaling processes, implicating the necessity of mitochondrial ROS as second messengers for multiple biological processes. Dr. Chandel’s work has established that mitochondrial metabolism and ROS is necessary for tumorigenesis in vivo, leading to our current understanding that both aerobic glycolysis and mitochondrial metabolism are essential for tumor growth. Moreover, Dr. Chandel found that the widely used anti-diabetic drug metformin exerts its effects in disease areas such as Type 2 Diabetes and cancer through inhibition of mitochondrial complex I.
Alessia Fornoni, MD/PhD
Professor, Dept. Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine; Chief, Katz Family Division of Nephrology and Hypertension; Chai, Peggy and Harold Katz Drug Discovery Center.
Dr. Fornoni was formerly the Global Head of Discovery in Cardiovascular and Metabolism at Hoffman-La Roche. She is currently a physician-scientist focused on research on the pathogenesis of chronic kidney diseases, and novel therapeutic strategies to address them. Through her work on kidney metabolism and mitochondrial dysfunction, she has uncovered novel pathogenic mechanisms and therapeutic approaches for glomerular disorders such as Alport Syndrome and diabetic nephropathy.
LinkedIn
Michael Caplan, MD/PhD
Chair, Cellular and Molecular Physiology Department, Yale Medical School
Dr. Caplan's work focuses on understanding the ways in which kidney cells organize and maintain their unique structures. His laboratory also studies the mechanisms responsible for Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease and is working to identify targets for new therapies, with a focus on AMPK and other signaling pathways associated with cellular energetics.
Bio
Dr. Zan Fleming, MD Endocrinology
Executive Chairman, Kinexum Services
At the US FDA from 1986-98, Dr. Fleming was responsible for the therapeutic areas of diabetes, other metabolic and endocrine disorders, growth and development, nutrition, lipid-lowering compounds, and reproductive indications. He led reviews of landmark approvals, including metformin and the first statin, insulin analog, PPAR-agonist, and growth hormone for non-GH deficiency indications. Dr. Fleming oversaw clinical review of the earliest biotech products, including human insulin and growth hormone. Subsequent to his work at the FDA, Dr. Fleming founded Kinexum Services, a strategic & regulatory advisory firm focused on the complex diseases of aging.
LinkedIn
Dr. Ralph DeFronzo, MD Endocrinology
Chair in Diabetes at UT San Antonio Long School of Medicine.
Dr. DeFronzo's major interests focus on the pathogenesis and treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus as well as diabetic kidney disease (diabetic nephropathy) and the central role of insulin resistance in the cardio-renal-metabolic cluster of disorders known collectively as the Insulin Resistance Syndrome. He has helped to define the biochemical and molecular disturbances responsible for insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes mellitus. He led the U.S. development of metformin, and ushered it through FDA approval in 1995, and subsequently dapagliflozin, empagliflozin, and canagliflozin.
Bio