Our Team
Our leadership team is comprised of leading scientists, operators and entrepreneurs.
Leadership
Shankar Ramaswamy is the Co-Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Kriya Therapeutics. Dr. Ramaswamy was part of the early foundational team at Roivant Sciences, where he was responsible for helping to identify and evaluate assets across therapeutic areas and launch its first public subsidiary company. He went on to be the Chief Business Officer of Axovant Gene Therapies. Dr. Ramaswamy received his MD from Brown University and his undergraduate degree in economics from Harvard University.
Curt Herberts is President and Chief Operating Officer of Kriya. Curt joined Kriya from Senti Biosciences, Inc., where he most recently served as Chief Operating Officer and helped lead Senti to be a public company in 2022. Prior to Senti, Curt served in a variety of leadership roles at Sangamo Therapeutics, culminating as Chief Business Officer, where he led the company’s $3B gene editing collaboration with Kite/Gilead and gene therapy collaborations with Pfizer and Biogen. Previously he was a senior executive at Campbell Alliance Group, a leading management consulting firm specializing in the life science industry. Curt earned his BA from Stanford University in human biology, and his Master of Business and Science from the Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences.
Michele Stone is Chief Scientific Officer at Kriya. Michele joined Kriya from Axovant Gene Therapies, where she was Vice President of Early Development and Head of Nonclinical and Bioanalytical. Prior to Axovant Gene Therapies, Michele was Executive Director of Vaccine Development and Bioanalytical at Liquidia Technologies. She was also the Director of R&D at Aeras where she was responsible for developing and leading partnerships to advance multiple vaccine platforms (viral vector, protein, and nucleic acid) into and through clinical development. In addition, Michele was a Senior Scientist at Canon US Life Sciences where she contributed to the development of diagnostics targeted towards personalized medicine. She received her PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology and completed her postdoctoral fellowship in physiology and neuroscience at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Michele received her undergraduate degree in chemistry at Lynchburg College.
Britt Petty is Chief Manufacturing Officer at Kriya. He joined Kriya from AveXis, a Novartis company, focused on the development and commercialization of gene therapies for neurological genetic diseases, where he was the Chief Technical Officer (interim) and Head of Global Manufacturing. At AveXis, Britt was responsible for manufacturing the company’s commercial and clinical gene therapy products at both internal and external sites across the United States and Europe. He oversaw supply chain, engineering, program management, and manufacturing science and technology functions. Prior to AveXis, Britt held senior manufacturing roles at Biogen, including as the site head for the company’s North Carolina facility. He previously held manufacturing roles of increasing responsibility at Amgen and Eli Lily and Co. Britt received his MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.
Brian Furmanski is the Chief Regulatory Officer at Kriya. Brian joined Kriya from Nuventra Pharma Sciences where he was the Senior Director of Clinical Pharmacology and Regulatory Affairs. Prior to Nuventra, Brian was a Senior Clinical Pharmacology Reviewer at the FDA where he reviewed and provided regulatory and scientific advice on hundreds of IND, NDA and BLA submissions. Before his time at the FDA, Brian was an investigator in the muscle metabolism and repair group at GlaxoSmithKline. He started his career at Siga Technologies where he contributed to the development of novel antiviral therapies. Brian received his PhD in biochemistry from the University of South Carolina and completed his postdoctoral fellowship at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He received his undergraduate degrees in economics and engineering, also from the University of South Carolina.
Mitch Lower is the Senior Vice President of Technical Operations at Kriya. Mitch joined Kriya from AveXis, a Novartis company, where he was most recently the Vice President of Global Engineering and Facilities, responsible for overall implementation and management of the company’s manufacturing capabilities and the support of the AveXis engineering and facilities global network. Prior to AveXis, Mitch held positions of increasing responsibility at Biogen for more than 20 years in roles across technical operations, engineering and facilities, manufacturing, supply chain, and network strategy. He received his MBA from Duke University and, his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at North Carolina State University.
Wayne Yount is the Senior Vice President of Analytical and Formulation Sciences & Quality Control at Kriya. Wayne joined Kriya from KBI Biopharma, Inc., where he was most recently the Senior Vice President of Analytical and Formulation Sciences, responsible for leading a global organization providing analytical and formulation services for biopharmaceutical development. During his 16 years at KBI, Wayne held roles of increasing responsibility, specializing in analytical development, characterization, and formulation development as well as method qualification/validation and clinical through commercial release/stability. Wayne received his PhD in chemistry at Duke University and his undergraduate degree in chemistry from East Carolina University.
Erik Hughes is the Senior Vice President of Technical Development at Kriya. Erik joined Kriya from Biogen where he held various roles including Director of Global Process Sciences and Director of North American Manufacturing Sciences. Within these roles, he was responsible for partner relationships, development of second-generation processes, technology transfer, process scale-up, GMP cell banking, process compliance, and lifecycle management across a portfolio of commercial and clinical products. Prior to Biogen, Erik started his career at Wyeth Research where he worked in upstream process development on Prevnar13® and a meningococcal group B vaccine. He received his PhD in chemical engineering and his undergraduate degrees in economics and chemical engineering from Rice University.
Ashlyn Bassiri is the Senior Vice President of Nonclinical Safety, Immunology and Bio Analytics at Kriya. Ashlyn joined Kriya from CSL Behring where she was the Head of Translational Safety. Prior to that, she was the Pharmacovigilance Leader for all liver-targeted programs and supported the US and European filings for LUXTURNA® at the Philadelphia-based gene therapy company, Spark Therapeutics. She spent ten years in R&D at GlaxoSmithKline where she focused on immune toxicities in both the nonclinical and clinical safety groups, eventually chairing the Immune Safety panel. Ashlyn received her PhD in immunology from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She received her master’s and undergraduate degrees in Biomedical Sciences and Immunology from Ohio University
Nancy Bordelon is the Senior Vice President of Nonclinical Development at Kriya Therapeutics. Dr. Bordelon joins Kriya from Sumitovant where she also served as Senior Vice President of Nonclinical Development. Dr. Bordelon has over 20 years of progressive leadership experience in nonclinical development for early- and late-stage investigational small molecules, biologics, and gene therapies in a variety of therapeutic indications. Dr. Bordelon has served as Head of Nonclinical Development at both Roivant and Sumitovant, where she had overall responsibility for scientific and strategic leadership for nonclinical development encompassing pharmacology, bioanalytical, and toxicology of the entire portfolio of drugs across the companies. She also served as Program Leader at Sumitovant where she spent extensive time providing cross-functional leadership for assets in development, supporting critical decision-making, managing key stakeholder relationships, and engaging with regulatory authorities. Dr. Bordelon received her PhD in toxicology from Texas A&M University and her undergraduate degree in biology from the University of Colorado.
Lily Wan is the Senior Vice President of Business Operations and Corporate Alliance Management at Kriya. Lily joined Kriya from SpringWorks, a company focused on advancing therapies in rare disease and oncology, where she was Director of Program and Alliance Management. She supported development teams to plan and execute on global clinical studies and managed development programs with alliance partners. Prior to SpringWorks, Lily was Senior Director of Program Management at Roivant Sciences where she led planning and organization of drug development projects through NDA preparation and coordination of due diligence reviews for potential in-license assets. She has over 15 years of drug development experience and has held project management roles of increasing responsibility at Aerie, Cempra and Synthon Pharmaceuticals. Lily received her MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her undergraduate degree in chemical engineering at North Carolina State University.
Jennifer Coggburn is the Senior Vice President of People Operations at Kriya. Jennifer joined Kriya in July 2020 from IBM Corporation where she was the Senior Benefits Manager. Previously, she held a variety of leadership positions at Citigroup. Jennifer brings more than two decades of human resources leadership and experience. She received her master’s degree in human resources at the University of South Carolina and her undergraduate degree in management at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Board of Directors
Shankar Ramaswamy is the Co-Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Kriya Therapeutics. Dr. Ramaswamy was part of the early foundational team at Roivant Sciences, where he was responsible for helping to identify and evaluate assets across therapeutic areas and launch its first public subsidiary company. He went on to be the Chief Business Officer of Axovant Gene Therapies. Dr. Ramaswamy received his MD from Brown University and his undergraduate degree in economics from Harvard University.
Roger Jeffs is Co-Founder and Vice Chairman at Kriya Therapeutics. Roger was the President and co-CEO of United Therapeutics Corporation, joining the company during its start-up phase in 1998. He helped lead the company’s IPO, oversaw the clinical development and regulatory approval of six products for rare diseases, and managed the commercial efforts that led to a $1.5B annual revenue run rate. He currently serves on the boards of Axsome Therapeutics, Albireo Pharma and Liquidia Corporation. He previously served on the boards of United Therapeutics, Sangamo Therapeutics, and Dova Pharmaceuticals. Roger received his PhD in pharmacology from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and his undergraduate degree in chemistry from Duke University.
Jim Momtazee is the Managing Partner of Patient Square Capital. Jim has over 24 years of investment and acquisition experience, the vast majority of which was focused on the health care sector. Prior to Patient Square, he spent over 21 years at KKR, initially joining in 1996. He helped establish the firm’s health care industry group in 2001 and subsequently was Head of the Americas Heath Care Team for over ten years. Jim also serves on the board of directors of Apollo Therapeutics and BridgeBio Pharma. He previously served on a number of other boards including Jazz Pharmaceuticals, HCA Healthcare, PRA Health Sciences, Ajax Health, Entellus Medical, Lake Region Medical, and Spirox. He received a BA and MBA from Stanford University.
Neel Varshney, MD is a Founding Partner of Patient Square Capital. He has over 15 years of investment and health care experience. Prior to Patient Square, Neel was a Managing Director within KKR’s Americas Health Care Team, where he focused on health care private and growth equity. Prior to joining KKR in 2016, he was a Vice President at Linden Capital Partners, focused exclusively on health care. Earlier in his career, he was an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company in the health care, private equity, and corporate finance practices and worked in business development at Medtronic. He trained in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), a Harvard academic teaching hospital, where he cared for patients. Neel has served on the Boards of Directors of companies across health care sectors and stages, including Ajax Health, BrightSpring Pharmerica, CORPAK MedSystems, Envision Healthcare, EPIX Therapeutics, Headlands Research, Slayback Pharma, and Virtus Pharmaceuticals. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and MD with Honors from Harvard Medical School and MIT in the Health Sciences and Technology (HST) program. He also holds an MSc in Neuroscience from the University of Oxford. Neel is a Soros Fellow and Rhodes Scholar.
Trit Garg, MD is a Principal at Patient Square Capital. Prior to joining Patient Square, Trit was a Principal at HealthQuest Capital, where he focused on investment opportunities across health care and life sciences. Previously he was a resident physician in Internal Medicine at Stanford University Hospital. Earlier during his medical training, he spent time at KKR in the Americas Health Care team and McKinsey & Company. Trit serves on the Board of Directors of Access TeleCare, Eargo, and Elevage Medical Technologies and is a Board Observer at Zenas BioPharma. He holds a BA with High Distinction from the University of California, Berkeley and an MD and an MBA from Stanford University. Trit maintains an active California medical license.
Ryan Gallagher is a Senior Research Lead in the Patient Square Insights group at Patient Square Capital. Most recently, he was a Principal in the health care practice at Boston Consulting Group where he specialized in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. His doctoral research focused on development and application of high-throughput genome engineering technologies. Ryan received his PhD in Molecular Biology from Yale University, an MSc in Zoology from Oxford University, and a BSc in biochemistry from the University of St Andrews.
Saira Ramasastry is Managing Partner of Life Sciences Advisory, a company that she founded to provide strategic advice and business development solutions for life science companies. Saira is also a Health Innovator Fellow of the Aspen Institute and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. Prior to founding Life Sciences Advisory, she was an investment banker with Merrill Lynch & Company, where she helped establish the biotechnology practice and was responsible for the origination of mergers and acquisitions (M&A), plus strategic and capital markets transactions. Saira holds a BA in Economics with Honors and Distinction and an MS in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University, as well as an M Phil in Management Studies from the University of Cambridge, where she is a guest lecturer for the Bioscience Enterprise Programme and serves on the regional board of Cambridge in America.
Ilan Oren has served as a member of the Board since May, 2020. Ilan also served as Co-Chief Executive Officer of Dexcel Pharma, a privately-owned Israeli group of pharmaceutical companies, since November 2019. He is currently on the board of Clexio Biosciences and Roivant Sciences. Prior to serving as Co-CEO, he served as Vice President for the group and led corporate and business development activities, including formation of strategic ventures, product partnerships, product portfolio selection, product acquisitions, strategic investments, and mergers and acquisitions. Ilan holds an AB in Economics from Harvard College.
Keith Manchester, MD is a partner and the Head of Life Sciences for QVT Family Office (f/k/a QVT Financial LP), an asset management company, where he has been employed since 2005. Keith focuses on investments in both publicly traded and privately owned life sciences companies. Prior to joining QVT, he was Vice President of Business Development from 2002 to 2004 and Director of Business Development from 2000 to 2002 at Applied Molecular Evolution, Inc., a biotechnology company. From 1999 to 2000, Keith was an Associate at Vestar Capital Partners, a private equity firm. From 1997 to 1999, hd was an investment banker in the healthcare group at Goldman, Sachs & Co. Dr. Manchester received his AB degree from Harvard College and his MD degree from Harvard Medical School. Keith serves as a director for the following companies: Roivant Sciences Ltd., Roivant Sciences, Inc., and Arbutus Biopharma Corporation.
Scientific and Strategic Advisors
Fraser Wright is the Scientific Co-Founder and Chief Technology Advisor at Kriya. Fraser is a Professor of Pediatrics in the Center for Definitive and Curative Medicine at Stanford University. He was also the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Spark Therapeutics, where he helped oversee the product development and manufacturing of LUXTURNA® and other pipeline programs. Prior to co-founding Spark Therapeutics, he was the founding Scientific Director of the Clinical Vector Core Laboratory at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He was also previously the director of development and clinical manufacturing at Avigen. Fraser received his PhD in biochemistry and molecular immunology and his undergraduate degree in biochemistry and physiology from the University of Toronto.
Fátima Bosch is currently Full Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Director of the Center of Animal Biotechnology and Gene Therapy at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She was a founding member of the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy, President of the Spanish Society of Gene and Cell Therapy, and Vice President of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes. Fátima is also a member of the Gene Doping Expert Group of the World Anti-Doping Agency. Her research focuses on developing AAV-mediated gene therapy approaches for highly prevalent metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases. She has also been involved in the development of gene therapies for severe inherited metabolic and neurodegenerative disorders, such as Mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS). Fátima received her PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology and her undergraduate degree in pharmacy from the University of Barcelona. She conducted postdoctoral studies at Vanderbilt University, Case Western Reserve University, and the NCI-Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center.
Brenda Cooperstone, MD has over 25 years of pharmaceutical drug development experience. Previously, she was Senior Vice President and Chief Development Officer for Rare Disease at Pfizer Inc. As Chief Development Officer, she was responsible for the strategic growth and advancement of the Pfizer development portfolio for the Rare Disease Business, building advanced technology platforms like Gene Therapy. Prior to this role, Brenda held varied leadership positions in both Clinical Development and Global Medical Affairs with oversight of a wide range of therapeutic areas, including both small and large molecules in early through late phase development and in-line support. She currently serves as an Independent Director on the Boards of Senti Biosciences and Gandeeva Therapeutics. Brenda received her M.D. from McGill University, completed her residency in pediatrics at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, her clinical fellowship in pediatric nephrology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a research fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania, Renal Electrolyte Division. She is certified by the American Board of Pediatrics and Pediatric Nephrology and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, Pediatrics.
Guangping Gao is Co-Director of the Li Weibo Institute for Rare Diseases Research, Director of the Horae Gene Therapy Center and Viral Vector Core, Professor of Microbiology and Physiological Systems, and Penelope Booth Rockwell Professor in Biomedical Research at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Guangping is an elected fellow, both at the US National Academy of Inventors (NAI) and American Academy of Microbiology. Internationally recognized in the field of gene therapy, he has made significant contributions to the development of viral vector gene therapy for rare genetic diseases including to the discovery, development, and engineering of novel viral vectors for in vivo gene delivery, as well as preclinical and clinical gene therapy product development. He has also made significant contributions to the field of viral vector manufacturing for preclinical and clinical gene therapy applications. Guangping has published nearly 300 research papers, six book chapters, and five edited books. He holds 174 patents with 373 more patent applications pending. He serves as Executive Editor-In-Chief of Human Gene Therapy, Senior Editor of the Gene and Cell Therapy book series, Associate Editor of Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy, and serves on editorial boards of several other gene therapy and virology journals. Guangping was ranked as one of the World Top 20 Translational Researchers in 2017 and 2019 by Nature Biotechnology. He received his PhD in biological sciences from Florida International University and completed his postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
Mark Kay, MD is the Dennis Farrey Family Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Genetics, as well as Head of the Division of Human Gene Therapy in Pediatrics at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Before joining Stanford, Mark was an assistant/associate professor at the University of Washington in the Department of Medicine from 1993-1998. He has been a true bench-to-bedside physician-scientist, leading the first demonstration of therapeutic rAAV transduction of the liver in small and large animal models, working out the molecular process of AAV transduction in vivo, and playing a major role in developing a clinical trial representing the first systemic delivery of rAAV in humans. Mark is one of the founders of the American Society of Gene Therapy and served as the President in 2005-2006. He has organized many national and international conferences including the first Gordon Conference related to gene therapy. He was elected to the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2010. In 2020 he was elected to the National Academy of Inventors. Mark received his Medical Degree and PhD from Case Western Reserve University and completed a residency in pediatrics a fellowship in medical genetics and inborn errors of metabolism. He completed his postdoctoral research at Baylor College of Medicine.
Fulvio Mavilio joined Orchard Therapeutics where he is serving as Chief Scientific Officer. Previously, Fulvio was Senior Vice President, Translational Science at Audentes Therapeutics; Chief Scientific Officer of Genethon and Adjunct Professor of Genetics at the Paris Descartes University in Paris, France; Director of Discovery of Molmed SpA; and co-founder and co-director of the HSR-Telethon Institute of Gene Therapy in Milan, Italy, where he developed the vector technology that formed the basis for the first-in-man use of genetically modified hematopoietic stem cells to treat a genetic disease (ADA deficiency), now Strimvelis®. He has served as a Board member in the American and European Societies of Gene and Cell Therapy, and on the Editorial Board of major international journals. Fulvio received his PhD in Medical Genetics at the University of Rome, Italy, and trained as postdoctoral fellow at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia. An expert and a pioneer in gene therapy and stem cell research, he has published over 180 articles in major international journals.
C.R. Sincock II is the founder and managing partner of Transhuman Capital, a family office venture capital fund focused on early stage biotechnology companies. Transhuman Capital was formed in 2014 when he made the fund’s first investment into the seed round of Roivant Sciences, a position that he added to in several follow-on rounds. In 2019 C.R. was the founding investor in Kriya Therapeutics, leading the seed round; the fund has subsequently participated in each follow-on round as well. In 2021, he was a founding investor in Dvant Pharma, a small molecule oncology company with IP licensed from the University of Michigan. He sits on the board of directors at Dvant, in addition to sitting on the investment advisory board at the University of Michigan Biomedical Venture Fund. Outside of biotechnology, C.R. has been a longtime entrepreneur and investor in the aviation and energy sectors. He is the CEO of Avflight Corporation and the EVP of Avfuel Corporation. He started his investing career out of college at QVT Financial, a multi-strategy hedge fund based in New York. C.R. graduated magna cum laude and phi beta kappa from Harvard College with a degree in economics and was a Baker Scholar at Harvard Business School where he earned his MBA. He is currently a degree candidate in the Masters of Science in Biotechnology program at Johns’s Hopkins University.