The Verge Team
ALICE ZHANG
Chief Executive Officer, Co-founder
Alice is the CEO and co-founder of Verge Genomics. Alice has been named a Forbes 30 Under 30 Featured Honoree, MIT Technology Review’s Innovator Under 35, and SF Business Times’ 40 Under 40. Prior to Verge, she spent seven years at the forefront of systems biology research at the National Cancer Institute, the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton University, and UCLA. She spent five years in the UCLA-Caltech MD/PhD program, where she helped author several papers on gene networks involved in neuroregeneration. Alice received her bachelor’s degree from Princeton University in Molecular Biology and was a recipient of the prestigious Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. In her spare time, Alice also is an angel investor and advisor for startups at the intersection of technology and biology.
JANE RHODES, PHD/MBA
Chief Business Officer
Jane brings more than 20 years of drug discovery, company building and strategy leadership in the biotech industry. She spent 18 years at Biogen, where her notable achievements include founding the Value Based Medicine (VBM) Innovation Hub. Based on her work, she co-founded Qr8 Health, a software development company pioneering the development of patient assessment tools that are now used as standard of care in neurology clinics across the world. Most recently, she served as VP of Corporate Strategy and Business Development at Forma Therapeutics. Prior to her work in business strategy, she spent a decade leading discovery research culminating in more than 35 peer reviewed publications and 9 patent filings. Jane obtained her PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Manchester and MBA from Babson College.
VICTOR HANSON-SMITH, PHD
Head of Computational Biology
Victor is one of the world's leaders in mathematical modeling of eukaryotic genome evolution. He has co-authored over 11 publications in peer-reviewed journals such as Nature and Science; his work has been featured in the NYTimes and Washington Post. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Oregon, and completed his postdoc in Sandy Johnson's group at UCSF. Additionally, he is a full-stack Django web developer on Amazon Web Services, with 15 years experience engineering in C/C++, Python, and Java.
IRENE CHOI, PHD
Director of Drug Discovery
Irene has nine years of experience leading multiple neuroscience drug discovery programs from idea to clinic. Prior to Verge, she led early discovery, pharmacology, and program teams at Nektar Therapeutics. There, she helped bring several drugs to clinic, including NKTR-181, a first-in-class mu-opioid analgesic currently in Phase 3 clinical trials. Irene completed her post-doctoral training in Catherine Rivier's group at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and received her Ph.D. in Neurosciences from the University of New Mexico.
MARK ROSEN, PHD
Director of Medicinal Chemistry
Mark is a medicinal chemist with over 15 years of experience bringing innovative drug candidates from concept to the clinic. Prior to Verge, he served as Director of Medicinal Chemistry at Akebia Therapeutics and most recently Regulus Therapeutics. Mark was also the co-founder and scientific head of Aetheria Therapeutics, a Johnson & Johnson spinout company. Prior to Aetheria, he led medicinal chemistry and drug discovery programs at Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) for over a decade. Mark earned his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of California, Irvine in the labs of Professor Larry Overman.
BEN JACKSON, JD/MBA
VP of Operations and Finance
Ben has been managing and growing startups for more than a decade, most recently as Head of Operations at NoRedInk, where he lead strategy, FP&A, budgeting, recruiting, and people operations. He joined NoRedInk as employee #4 and the first business hire, helping the company scale to 75 employees and several million ARR. Ben was previously an attorney at Gunderson Dettmer where he advised tech companies on corporate and financing matters, and a co-founder of Rhythm Rhyme Results, an educational music company. Ben holds a JD/MBA from Stanford University and an AB in Linguistics from Harvard College.
MICHELLE MIGHDOLL, MBA
Data Acquisition and Strategic Initiatives, Principal
Michelle has over eight years of experience working with healthcare and biotech startups, including managing business relations, partnerships, and strategy. She spent seven years with the Lieber Institute for Brain Development, growing its operations and building one of the largest, most carefully-curated human brain banks in the world. Michelle has a strong neuroscience background, with clinical training in developmental neuropsychiatric disorders and neurodegenerative diseases, and has coauthored over 10 publications in peer-reviewed journals. Michelle holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Economics with majors in Health Care Management/Policy and Legal Studies/Business Ethics, also from Wharton, and a minor in Nutrition.
RAJ BHATNAGAR, PHD
Computational Biologist
Raj has over ten years of experience working at the interface of engineering and biology. His work draws inspiration from information theory and control systems to couple quantitative biological models with precise experimentation. Raj has co-authored eight publications in the fields of applied mathematics and computational biology, including a paper demonstrating a sequencing pipeline that enables a 10-100 fold decrease in the cost of profiling transcriptome activity. He received his BA in Mathematics and his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 2011. He completed his postdoc in computational biology at UCSF.
TONY ALTAR, PHD
Senior Scientific Fellow and Advisor
Tony has over 35 years of experience leading CNS drug discovery and development teams from idea to commercial success. As the former Global Head of Neuroscience at Otsuka, he led the team that discovered aripiprazole (Abilify™), the highest grossing drug worldwide in 2014, and elucidated its mechanism of action, enabling first-in class, FDA-approved uses in bipolar disease, depression, and schizophrenia. As Chief Scientific Officer at Assurex Health, he created pharmacogenomic products for ADHD and pain, and commercial successes yielded an acquisition by Myriad Genetics in 2016. As CSO of Psychiatric Genomics, his teams were the first to pioneer microarray-based drug discovery in psychiatric diseases, revealing insulin signaling deficiency in schizophrenia. Tony also co-founded the Regeneron vision program, directed The Biomarkers Consortium of 125 government and industry participants, and led teams at Genentech. Tony has published over 135 papers in journals including Science and Nature. He obtained his bachelors at UCLA, PhD in Psychology at UC Santa Barbara, and held a post-doctoral position in Psychobiology at UC Irvine.
ROBERT GALEMMO, PHD
Consulting Medicinal Chemist
Robert A. Galemmo Jr, PhD is a creative medicinal chemist, scientific and managerial leader. Throughout his career, Dr. Galemmo has led teams responsible for multiple clinical and development candidates in ‘Big Pharma’ and biotech. He initiated the medicinal chemistry effort for the new factor Xa anti-coagulant Apixaban/Eliquis, led the team that identified the MET kinase inhibitor JNJ 38877605, currently under clinical development in the EU for solid tumors, and discovered the clinical leukotriene antagonist RG 12525 for asthma. He has broad therapeutic area experience including CNS, Oncology, Cardiovascular, Inflammation and Gastrointestinal. Dr. Galemmo is named as an inventor on 42 US patents; he is the author of more than 50 scientific publications.
KATJA HEBESTREIT, PHD
Computational Biologist
Katja has spent over 10 years using transcriptomics and epigenomics to study the molecular biology of aging, neurodegeneration, and cancer, and has co-authored publications in journals such as Science, Nature, Nature Medicine, and Bioinformatics. After receiving her diploma in Statistics at the University of Dortmund, she became an expert in the analysis of DNA methylation data at the University of Münster, where she also received her Ph.D. She completed her postdoc in Anne Brunet’s group at Stanford University where she studied the transcriptomes of aging neural stem cells.
ERIK MILLER, PHD
In vitro Senior Scientist
Erik has spent the last decade working at the intersection between molecular/cell biology and functional genomics. His work combines experimental molecular and cell biology techniques, such as culture mammalian tissue culture (ES cells, fibroblasts, neural differentiation, ex vivo neurons), with analysis of ultra high-throughput sequencing of functional genomic data such as ChIP-seq, MNase-seq, ATAC-seq, and others. He has co-authored seven publications in journals such as Nature, Cell, and Nature Genetics. Erik graduated manga cum laude from the University of Washington with a BS in Microbiology and received a Ph.D. in Genetics from Stanford University while working with Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Gerald Crabtree.
NINGZHE ZHANG, PHD
Senior Scientist, Drug Discovery
Ningzhe is one of the world’s leaders in neurodegenerative stem cell modeling with 15 years of experience developing cutting-edge iPSC and rodent models of neurodegeneration. Ningzhe was the first scientist to genetically correct Huntington disease in a patient derived stem cell model. He has led industry collaborations with Novartis and BioMarin that have resulted in drugs now in active development. Ningzhe has co-authored over ten publications in journals such as Neuron and Cell Stem Cell. He received his Ph.D. from University of Rochester and spent ten years in Lisa Ellerby’s group as a postdoctoral fellow and staff scientist at Buck Institute for Research on Aging, focusing on understanding and treating Huntington disease with cutting edge technologies such as iPSC models, high throughput screening and CRISPR genome editing.
SWATI NAPHADE, PHD
In vitro Scientist
Swati has over 10 years of cross-disciplinary experience. Her areas of expertise include CNS injury and neuroinflammation, iPSC-based modeling of neurodegenerative diseases, and stem cell and gene therapy. She received her Ph.D. from the Ohio State University where she was a recipient of a pre-doctoral University Fellowship award. Her dissertation was centered on elucidating the role of a neurotrophic growth factor, Progranulin, in a spinal cord injury mouse model, for which she secured competitive grant funding to support independent research. Swati then pursued her postdoctoral work at UC San Diego where she studied mechanisms underlying hematopoietic stem cell-mediated tissue repair in Cystinosis, a rare pediatric lysosomal storage disease. More recently, as a postdoctoral fellow and staff scientist in the Ellerby lab at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, her research was focused on stem cell modeling of Huntington’s disease (HD), evaluating matrix metalloproteinases as therapeutic targets for HD, CRISPR genome editing, and studying cellular senescence in HD.
KATHERINE KURYLO
In vitro Scientist
Katherine has over a decade of experience in developing cell based assays for high throughput screening and target validation. Her work at Five Prime Therapeutics, in collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline, culminated in a published patent where Katherine is a co-inventor for a novel target to treat respiratory disease. More recently, Katherine developed functional cellular assays supporting several immuno-oncology programs at Nurix. Katherine received her BS in Bioengineering from UC Berkeley. In her spare time, Katherine enjoys cycling, hiking, and training her Japanese Akita.
AURORA MARTINEZ-HORTA
Senior Research Associate
Aurora started out in research five years ago in a small neuronal development lab at UC Davis. There, she developed her in vivo skills and begun contributing to research involving developmental diseases such as autism and schizophrenia. In addition to her in vivo work, she honed her histology skills, which led to her work being featured on the cover of a scientific journal. Recently, she made the transition into industry where she worked at an oncology biotechnology startup in which she assisted pharmalogical efforts to develop drug candidates for various cancers. She graduated from UC Davis with a BS in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior.
WENDY LIANG
Senior Research Associate
Wendy is a medicinal chemist with over a decade of Biotech/Pharmaceutical industrial experience, combining medicinal chemistry strength and CRO management to deliver high impact and innovation to teams. At Genentech, her work on the estrogen receptor project led to a drug candidate. She also extended her research experience to CRO management at Genentech. She managed all aspects of outsourcing activities and operations and liaised between CROs and internal scientists. Prior to Genentech, she worked at Hoffmann-La Roche and Roche Palo Alto. She is a co-author of three patents and seven scientific publications. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, hiking, and volunteering at her kid's school.
KYLE HAZEN
Computational Biologist
Kyle previously worked as a research associate in the biological sciences department at the University of Birmingham, UK. While there, he developed and applied machine learning models to research human aging and epigenetics. As part of his research, he adapted methods from neural network analysis to predict key interactions in age associated diseases. Prior to Verge, he co-founded a startup developing a brain computer interface powered by machine learning for individuals with neurodegenerative diseases, which won a Y-Combinator grant. Kyle completed his MSci in Biochemistry in 2017 with first class honors.
EKATERINA STOMAKHINA, MS
Research Associate
Ekaterina started in research during the first year of her undergraduate program. Her first research project was in biomonitoring and was recognized in the All-Russian Research Competition in the area of Innovation Projects in Ecology and Environmental Protection. During those years she realized that in order to understand the whole picture in biological processes of interest she was lacking the knowledge and techniques in genetics and in 2016 she graduated with an MS in Evolution, Ecology, and Systematics from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich where her main focus of studying was genetics. She then made a transition to industry and worked for two years at a pharmaceutical company where she developed in vivo skills. In her spare time Ekaterina enjoys traveling, outdoor activities, and photography.
JENNY KAMINSKY
Executive Assistant to CEO
Jenny serves as an Executive Assistant to the CEO at Verge Genomics. Previously, she worked for a local startup in San Francisco as employee #8 as an Executive Assistant and member of the people operations team, proving support as the company scaled to 25 employees across the US. Prior to relocating to California, she worked for startups and charities on the East coast. Jenny has over 20 years professional administrative experience, holds an MBA from the Simmons Graduate School of Management and a BS in Psychology from Boston University. In her free time, Jenny serves as a board member of the non-profit and advocacy group OCA Organization- San Mateo chapter, enjoys volunteering for various causes around the Bay Area, and is passionate about supporting Verge in improving the lives of patients suffering from various diseases.
SHANNON STONE, PHD
Scientific Recruiter
Shannon completed her PhD in Chemical Biology at Caltech in 2017, under the mentorship of Prof. David Tirrell, where she created chemical tools for cell-specific proteomics. While there, she also founded and led the Caltech's Women in Chemistry group to provide support and mentoring to the community. After defending her thesis, she started scientific recruiting because her technical background allows her to source and screen the right candidates for scientific roles. She loves speaking with everyone about their various scientific projects and is passionate about creating the most talented and diverse team at Verge.
ZACH PARTON
Laboratory and Technical Operations Associate
Zach's undergraduate studies focused on Cognitive Science and Neurolinguistics, where a desire for more hands-on research led him to managing a brain bank. There, he supported and co-authored several papers related to Alzheimer's, Fronto-temporal dementia, and the relationship of pathology to aphasia phenotypes. He developed techniques for tissue staining and clearing, as well as inventory maintenance and monitoring. With almost a decade of experience in computer systems, Zach most recently worked on data architecture and visualization in his entry into drug development. He’s excited by prospects of laboratory automation to facilitate the fastest, most accurate discovery processes possible.
Board
JIM SUMMERS, PHD
Industry Advisor
Dr. Summers has over 30 years of drug discovery and pharmaceutical research management experience. He currently serves on the board of directors and as an advisor to several biotechnology companies.
Previously, Jim was Vice President of Neuroscience Research at AbbVie, where he led efforts located in Ludwigshafen Germany, Lake County, IL and Cambridge, MA focused on the discovery of new drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, pain, and psychiatric disorders. Under his leadership, teams have advanced more than twenty compounds into clinical development. Jim established new research sites in Cambridge Massachusetts and Shanghai China, was an architect of several strategies that defined the future direction of global research organizations, and championed multiple successful outlicensing deals, biotech collaborations and venture investments.
Jim earned a Bachelor of Science degree, summa cum laude, in chemistry from Denison University and a doctorate in organic chemistry from Harvard University.Dr. Ehrich received a B.A. degree from Princeton University and was a predoctoral fellow in molecular genetics at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany. Following an M.D. degree at Columbia University, he completed a residency in internal medicine, subspecialty training in rheumatology, and a postdoctoral fellowship in immunology at Stanford University. Dr. Ehrich is based in the Boston, MA office.
THOMAS LARGE, PHD
Industry Advisor
Thomas Large is CEO and Co-Founder of Blue Oak Pharmaceuticals, a company focused on using systems neurobiology and informatics approaches to discover and develop drugs for mental health. Previously, he led discovery, preclinical research and translational medicine for ten years at Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (originally Sepracor Inc.). Under his leadership, the discovery group at Sunovion developed a target-agnostic approach for CNS drugs by integrating research collaborations worldwide.
Prior to Sunovion, Dr. Large was a scientific leader and manager for eight years at Eli Lilly in neuroscience research, where he led several projects that resulted in clinical candidates for anxiety, psychosis and pain. During his tenure with Eli Lilly, Dr. Large also managed a group developing innovative approaches for drug targets in the central nervous system (CNS), endocrine and oncology therapeutic areas.
Dr. Large holds a PhD in Neurobiology/Physiology from Northwestern University and completed a Howard Hughes postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Large has served as a faculty member of the Department of Neurosciences at Case Western Reserve University Medical School.
GWEN MELINCOFF
Industry Advisor
Gwen is the Vice President, Business Development at BTG plc. Previously she was Senior Vice President at Shire Strategic Investment Group. Gwen Melincoff is a key force behind many of Shire's M&A and technology licensing agreements, and she has played a crucial role in helping the global specialty biopharmaceutical company grow. Through her former position as head of Shire's Strategic Investment Group and in other business development executive roles at the company, she's helped expand Shire's reach and product roster a number of times.
SAIRA RAMASASTRY
Industry Advisor
Saira Ramasastry, Managing Partner of Life Sciences Advisory, is a seasoned industry insider with over 18 years of transaction and advisory experience. Prior to LSA, Saira helped found and establish the leading life sciences franchise on Wall Street at Merrill Lynch and was responsible for emerging biotech coverage. Saira is a recognized thought leader on life sciences public-private alliances and is frequently called upon as a speaker. She serves on the Industry Advisory Board of the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, lead business advisor for the European Prevention of Alzheimer's Dementia (EPAD) consortium and as a Special Advisor for the G8 Dementia Initiatives. She serves on the Boards of Directors of Sangamo Biosciences (NASDAQ: SGMO), Repros Therapeutics (NASDAQ: RPRX) and Pain Therapeutics (NASDAQ: PTIE).
HANI GOODARZI, PHD
Scientific Advisor
Dr. Hani Goodarzi is an Assistant Professor at the University of California, San Francisco. With a dual background in computational and experimental genomics, he brings a multidisciplinary approach to studying human disease. His research is focused on developing strategies that enable an unbiased search for previously unknown pathways that drive oncogenesis, metastasis, and neurodegeneration. By developing novel technologies for genome-wide measurement of hard-to-quantify RNA molecules, he has made key discoveries about the role of oncRNA, tRNAs, and tRNA fragments in cancer metastasis. On the computational front, Dr. Goodarzi is focused on building network analytical models that help elucidate key pathways and processes that drive human disease. In 2017, for his contributions to cancer research, he was awarded the Martin and Rose Wachtel Award in Cancer Research and was recently named a Kimmel scholar. He was previously a recipient of the prestigious Blavatnik award for young scientists as well as the Tri-institutional Breakout prize.
Board of Directors
Emily Melton (DFJ)
Melanie Leitner (ALS Investment Fund)
Dave Madge (WuXi)
Investors
