About Us

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Michael is a highly experienced and successful pharmaceutical industry veteran. He has worked on eight drug development programs in big PHARMA as the team leader/team member that have led to global regulatory approvals. Within biotech he has been part of teams that have raised Series B and C rounds of financing (~$150MM), one F-1 submission for IPO, one reverse merger and two successful M&As.  He has deep disease-specific and RNA therapeutics technical expertise. He is currently supporting a number of Biotechnology companies in the role of drug development consultant, scientific advisor and/or board director. He is a member of the science advisory boards of Arcturus Therapeutics, Exicure Therapeutics and eFFECTOR Therapeutics and a scientific advisor for Adjuvant Capital.  

Michael was previously the CMO of Amplyx Pharmaceuticals, developing drug treatments for life-threatening viral and fungal infections in immunocompromised patients. The company was acquired by Pfizer, Inc. Prior to Amplyx he was the CMO for Santaris A/S, developing drug treatments for chronic viral diseases, cancer, metabolic/lipid and eye diseases. The company was acquired by Hoffman-La Roche, AG. 

Michael started his career in pharmaceutical medicines with Pfizer Global Research and Development where he worked on multiple infectious diseases and oncology development programs. Under his leadership two antifungal drugs where approved, VFEND® (voriconazole) and ERAXIS™ (anidulafungin). 

Michael was a Non-Executive Director of F2G Ltd., an infectious disease biotechnology company from 2010-2014. He earned his M.D. (MBBS) and BSc. in Pharmacology, from the University of London, UK. 

Christine Esau is Vice President of Biology at Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, which develops RNA medicines that treat intractable diseases by silencing the genes that cause them. Dr. Esau has twenty years of experience in the discovery and development of a broad range of RNA-based therapeutics utilizing multiple modalities. Previously she oversaw preclinical activities at Genevant Sciences and Arcturus Therapeutics for a portfolio of siRNA and mRNA therapeutic programs. She performed pioneering work in microRNA targeting and biology at Ionis Pharmaceuticals and Regulus Therapeutics, moving several programs for cardiometabolic and infectious disease from discovery biology to development candidate selection. Dr. Esau also served as Chief Scientific Officer of AptamiR Therapeutics, developing a microRNA-based therapy for obesity.  Dr. Esau earned a B.S. degree in biology from Caltech and a Ph.D. from MIT.

John currently serves as the Vice President of Nonclinical Development & Clinical Pharmacology at Arena Pharmaceuticals.  He also co-founded DTx Pharma, an RNA medicines company, and currently serves as a member of its Board of Directors.   Dr. Grundy received his B.Sc. in Pharmacy and Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Alberta in 1990 and 1996, respectively.  He currently has over 25 years of experience working in the pharmaceutical industry, including contributing to the development and approval of several therapeutic compounds (Contrave®, Kynamro®, Prialt®, Spinraza®, Tegsedi®, Tysabri®, Waylivra®, and Zonegran®).  Dr. Grundy has also contributed to over 25 peer reviewed scientific publications.  

Gene Yeo is a Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), a founding member of the Institute for Genomic Medicine and member of the UCSD Stem Cell Program and Moores Cancer Center. Dr. Yeo has a BSc in Chemical Engineering and a BA in Economics from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, a Ph.D. in Computational Neuroscience from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from the UCSD Rady School of Management. Dr. Yeo serves as Co-Director of the Bioinformatics and Systems Biology Graduate Program at UCSD. Dr. Yeo is a computational and experimental scientist who has contributed to RNA biology and therapeutics. His primary research interest is in understanding the importance of RNA processing and the roles that RNA binding proteins (RBPs) play in development and disease. Since inception, Dr. Yeo’s lab has focused on uncovering molecular principles by which RBPs affect gene expression, how RBP-mediated post-transcriptional gene networks contribute to cellular homeostasis in stem cells and the brain, and how mutations in RBPs lead to human developmental and neurodegenerative disease. Dr. Yeo has authored more than 180 peer-reviewed publications including invited book chapters and review articles in the areas of neurodegeneration, RNA processing, computational biology and stem cell models; and served as Editor on two books on the biology of RNA binding proteins. Gene is on the Editorial Boards of the journals Cell Reports, Cell Research and eLife, and on the Advisory Board of Review commons. Gene joined UCSD as an Assistant Professor in 2008, was promoted with tenure to Associate Professor in 2014 and to Professor in 2016.  Gene was the first Crick-Jacobs Fellow at the Salk Institute (2005-2008). Other awards include the Alfred P Sloan Fellowship in recognition of his work in computational molecular biology (2011), Alpha Chi Sigma-Zeta Chapter Krug Lecturer (2016), Singapore National Research Foundation Visiting Investigatorship Award (2017), the inaugural Early Career Award from the International RNA Society (2017), the Blavatnik National Award Finalist (2018 & 2019), San Diego Xconomy Awardee for ‘Big Idea’ (2019) and Highly Cited Researcher in Cross-Field category (2019 and 2020), recognizing the world’s most influential researchers of the past decade. Gene is also a Paul Allen Distinguished Investigator (2020) and received the 2021 Elisa Izaurralde Award for Innovation in Research, Teaching and Service from the RNA Society. Gene is a co-founder of biotech companies which includes Locanabio, Eclipse Bioinnovations, Enzerna, Proteona, Trotana and Circ Bio.  Gene serves or had served on the scientific advisory boards of the Allen Institute of Immunology, Locanabio, Eclipse Bioinnovations, Proteona, Circ Bio, Aquinnah, Cell Applications, Tecan, LGC, Sardona Therapeutics, Ladder Therapeutics, Insitro, Trotana, Nooma and Ribometrix. Gene is a senior advisor to Accelerator Life Sciences Partners. Gene’s lab has current or previous support from the National Institute of Health, National Science Foundation, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, TargetALS, ALS Foundation, Department of Defense, Myotonic Dystrophy Association, Myotonic Dystrophy Foundation, Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Takeda, Genentech and Roche.

Pad Chivukula, Ph.D., is the Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Arcturus Therapeutics. Dr. Chivukula has an exceptional and technically solid foundation in nanoparticle technology. Prior to Arcturus, from 2008 until February 2013, Dr. Chivukula was employed by Nitto, where his titles included Group Leader and Chief Scientist. Dr. Chivukula brings over 15 years of experience in drug delivery and therapeutic drug development, including leading the polymeric RNAi research department at Nitto. Dr. Chivukula has a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of Utah where he specialized in nanoparticle technology. 

Adam Mullick is currently Vice President of Cardiovascular and Renal Drug Discovery at Ionis Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Mullick contributed to the early development of Kynamro®, WAYLIVRA®, olezarsen, vupanorsen, pelacarsen and led the research efforts for IONIS-AGT-LRx currently in clinical development for treatment-resistant hypertension. His current research efforts include preclinical development of targets for heart failure and renal disease in addition to leading the efforts to identify methods to enhance heart oligonucleotide delivery. Dr. Mullick earned his Ph.D. in Molecular, Cellular & Integrative Physiology from UC Davis and was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Immunology at The Scripps Research Institute before joining Ionis Pharmaceuticals in 2007.