Leading Expertise. Limitless Ambition.
Leading Expertise. Limitless Ambition.
- Management
- Founders
- Scientific Advisory Board
- All
- Founders
- Management
- Scientific Advisory Board
Shankar Ramaswamy, MD
Co-Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer
Shankar Ramaswamy, MD
Co-Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer
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, PhD
Co-Founder and
Vice Chairman
Roger Jeffs, PhD
Co-Founder and Vice Chairman
Roger Jeffs is Co-Founder and Vice Chairman at Kriya Therapeutics. Dr. Jeffs 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.
Dr. Jeffs received his PhD in pharmacology from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and his undergraduate degree in chemistry from Duke University.
Fraser Wright, PhD
Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Advisor
Fraser Wright, PhD
Scientific Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Advisor
Fraser Wright is the Scientific Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Advisor at Kriya Therapeutics. Dr. Wright 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, Dr. Wright 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.
Dr. Wright received his PhD in biochemistry and molecular immunology and his undergraduate degree in biochemistry and physiology from the University of Toronto.
Shankar Ramaswamy, MD
Co-Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer
Shankar Ramaswamy, MD
Co-Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer
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.
Ilise Lombardo, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Ilise Lombardo, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Ilise Lombardo is the Chief Medical Officer at Kriya Therapeutics. Prior to joining Kriya, Dr. Lombardo was co-founder of Arvelle Therapeutics B.V. a European pharmaceutical company focused on epilepsy which was subsequently sold to Angelini Pharma. Through her work at Arvelle, Dr. Lombardo was named one of the top 10 female company founders globally. Prior to founding Arvelle, Dr. Lombardo has held senior roles in Clinical Development and Medical Affairs working with small molecules, biologics and gene therapies at Axovant Sciences, Forum Pharmaceuticals, and Pfizer. She has built and led successful teams across multiple therapeutic areas including CNS, Ophthalmology, Pulmonary Vascular Disease, Rare Diseases, and Endocrine Care.
Prior to her work in the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Lombardo was on the Faculty of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and the New York State Psychiatric Institute, where she previously had completed her residency in Psychiatry. She completed two fellowships, one in neuroreceptor imaging at Columbia University and one in molecular genetics jointly at Yale University and the University of Cambridge in the lab of Nobel Laureate Sydney Brenner. She received her MD from Yale University, an M.Phil from the University of Cambridge and undergraduate degree in philosophy from Brown University.
Melissa Rhodes, PhD, DABT
Chief Development
Officer
Melissa Rhodes, PhD, DABT
Chief Development Officer
Melissa Rhodes is the Chief Development Officer at Kriya Therapeutics. Dr. Rhodes joins us from Aerami Therapeutics, a company focused on inhaled biologic therapies where she was the Chief Development Officer. Prior to Aerami, Dr. Rhodes was the Chief Development Officer at Altavant Sciences, a respiratory rare disease company. Dr. Rhodes also served as Senior Vice President at Roivant Sciences, where she built and led a team of scientists conducting nonclinical research for multiple Roivant subsidiary companies. She spent almost ten years in R&D at GlaxoSmithKline. Dr. Rhodes started her career in drug development at an oncology-focused biotech university spin-out.
Dr. Rhodes received her PhD in pharmacology and toxicology from Duke University Medical Center. Dr. Rhodes completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Toxicology Program at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and is a diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology.
Britt Petty
Chief Manufacturing
Officer
Britt Petty
Chief Manufacturing Officer
Britt Petty is the Chief Manufacturing Officer at Kriya Therapeutics. Mr. Petty joins 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, he 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. Mr. Petty oversaw all of supply chain, engineering, program management, and manufacturing science and technology functions. Prior to AveXis, Mr. Petty 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.
Mr. Petty 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.
Nachi Gupta, MD, PhD
Chief Technology Innovation
Officer
Nachi Gupta, MD, PhD
Chief Technology Innovation Officer
Nachi Gupta is the Chief Technology Innovation Officer at Kriya Therapeutics. Dr. Gupta is board-certified in emergency medicine. Prior to his career as a clinician, Dr. Gupta was a quantitative analyst at Brevan Howard Asset Management. He also previously held an associate staff position at MIT Lincoln Laboratories on the ballistic missile defense team.
Dr. Gupta received his MD from Brown University and completed his residency in emergency medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. He also received his PhD in mathematics from Oxford University. Dr. Gupta holds advanced degrees in computer science and mathematics as well as undergraduate degrees in economics and engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
Daniel Chen
Chief Financial
Officer
Daniel Chen
Chief Financial Officer
Daniel Chen is the Chief Financial Officer at Kriya Therapeutics. Mr. Chen joins Kriya from Portola Pharmaceuticals, where most recently he worked as Vice President of Business Planning and Corporate Strategy. In that role, he was responsible for leading the financial planning and analysis (FP&A), treasury, purchasing and strategic planning functions for the company. Prior to Portola, Mr. Chen held various roles in finance and commercial operations at Johnson & Johnson and Gilead Sciences.
Mr. Chen received his MBA from the University of Southern California and his undergraduate degree in molecular cell biology from the University of California, Berkeley.
Dana Johnson
General
Counsel
Dana Johnson
General Counsel
Dana Johnson is the General Counsel at Kriya Therapeutics. Ms. Johnson joins us from Rakuten Medical where she was General Counsel and Vice President, Head of Legal Affairs and Corporate Compliance at Gritstone Oncology. Ms. Johnson has also held roles at a leading global law firm and BioMarin Pharmaceutical. Ms. Johnson brings over 15 years of international business and legal life sciences industry experience, in both private and public companies, in areas as varied as IPO, complex transactions, corporate governance, litigation, compliance and ethics, among others.
Ms. Johnson received her JD from the University of San Francisco School of Law and her undergraduate degree in English literature from Vanderbilt University.
Lily Nguyen
Chief of Staff
Lily Nguyen
Chief of Staff
Lily Nguyen is the Chief of Staff at Kriya Therapeutics. Ms. Nguyen joins 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, Ms. Nguyen 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.
Ms. Nguyen received her MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her undergraduate degree in chemical engineering at North Carolina State University.
Theresa Heah, MD
Chief Medical Officer and President of Kriya Ophthalmology
Theresa Heah, MD
Chief Medical Officer and President of Kriya Ophthalmology
Theresa Heah is the Chief Medical Officer and President for Kriya Ophthalmology. She was most recently the Chief Medical Officer, EVP Operations for AsclepiX Therapeutics where she was responsible for the business strategy, Series A financing, R&D, clinical development, and regulatory strategy to advance the robust pipeline and leading the company in bringing innovative ophthalmology and oncology products to market. Prior to joining AsclepiX Therapeutics, Dr. Heah served as Chief Medical Officer at Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation (AGTC), where she worked on developing gene therapies in ophthalmology and rare diseases. In addition to her clinical experience as an ophthalmologist, Theresa brings over two decades of Global Pharmaceutical Leadership experience, including in the core business area of ophthalmology drug development and commercialization in early-stage private-staged companies (Fovea Pharmaceuticals, AsclepiX Therapeutics), public-staged (Aerie Pharmaceuticals, Allergan) and big pharmaceuticals (Bayer Healthcare, Sanofi). She has a diverse leadership perspective across Clinical, R&D, Medical Affairs, Marketing and Business Development. Under Theresa’s leadership, she led global ophthalmic innovation with multiple successful regulatory submissions in U.S. (7 INDs, 4 NDAs: Ozurdex®, EYLEA®, Rhopressa® & Rocklatan®), Europe and Japan. While at Bayer, she launched EYLEA® successfully into a blockbuster drug.
Dr. Heah received her Doctorate of Medicine from Guy’s Kings and St. Thomas’ School of Medicine, King’s College, University of London, and her Executive Master’s in Business Administration from the European School of Management & Technology (ESMT), Berlin.
Mitch Lower
Senior Vice President, Technical Operations
Mitch Lower
Senior Vice President, Technical Operations
Mitch Lower is the Senior Vice President of Technical Operations at Kriya Therapeutics. Mr. Lower joins 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, Mr. Lower 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.
Mr. Lower received his MBA from Duke University his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at North Carolina State University.
Michele Stone, PhD
Senior Vice President, Research & Development
Michele Stone, PhD
Senior Vice President, Research & Development
Michele Stone is the Senior Vice President of Research & Development at Kriya Therapeutics. Dr. Stone joins Kriya from Axovant Gene Therapies, where she was Vice President of Early Development and Head of Nonclinical and Bioanalytical. Prior to Axovant Gene Therapies, Dr. Stone was Executive Director of Vaccine Development and Bioanalytical at Liquidia Technologies. Dr. Stone 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, Dr. Stone was a Senior Scientist at Canon US Life Sciences where she contributed to the development of diagnostics targeted towards personalized medicine.
Dr. Stone received her PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology and completed her postdoctoral fellowship in physiology and neuroscience at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Dr. Stone received her undergraduate degree in chemistry at Lynchburg College.
Erik Hughes, PhD
Senior Vice President, Technical Development
Erik Hughes, PhD
Senior Vice President, Technical Development
Erik Hughes is the Senior Vice President, Technical Development at Kriya Therapeutics. Dr. Hughes joins Kriya from Biogen where he held various roles included 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, Dr. Hughes started his career at Wyeth Research where he worked in upstream process development on Prevnar13® and a meningococcal group B vaccine.
Dr. Hughes received his PhD in chemical engineering and his undergraduate degrees in economics and chemical engineering from Rice University.
Fraser Wright, PhD
Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Advisor
Fraser Wright, PhD
Scientific Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Advisor
Fraser Wright is the Scientific Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Advisor at Kriya Therapeutics. Dr. Wright 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, Dr. Wright 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.
Dr. Wright received his PhD in biochemistry and molecular immunology and his undergraduate degree in biochemistry and physiology from the University of Toronto.
Guangping Gao, PhD
Scientific Advisory Board Member
Guangping Gao, PhD
Scientific Advisor
Dr. 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. Dr. Gao 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, Dr. Gao 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.
Dr. Gao has published nearly 300 research papers, 6 book chapters, and 5 edited books. Dr. Gao 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. Dr. Gao was ranked as one of the World Top 20 Translational Researchers in 2017 and 2019 by Nature Biotechnology.
Dr. Gao received his PhD in biological sciences from Florida International University, and completed his postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
Mark A. Kay, MD, PhD
Scientific Advisory Board Member
Mark A. Kay, MD, PhD
Scientific Advisor
Dr. Kay is the Dennis Farrey Family Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Genetics, and Head of the Division of Human Gene Therapy in Pediatrics at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Before joining Stanford, Dr. Kay 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.
Dr. Kay 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.
Dr. Kay 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, and his postdoctoral research at Baylor College of Medicine.
Fatima Bosch, PhD
Scientific Advisory Board Member
Fatima Bosch, PhD
Scientific Advisor
Dr. 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. Dr. Bosch is also a member of the Gene Doping Expert Group of the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Dr. Bosch’s research focuses on developing AAV-mediated gene therapy approaches for highly prevalent metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Bosch has also been involved in the development of gene therapies for severe inherited metabolic and neurodegenerative disorders, such as Mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS).
Dr. Bosch received her PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology and her undergraduate degree in pharmacy from the University of Barcelona. Dr. Bosch conducted post-doctoral studies at Vanderbilt University, Case Western Reserve University, and the NCI-Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center.
Fulvio Mavilio, PhD
Scientific Advisory Board Member
Fulvio Mavilio, PhD
Scientific Advisor
Dr. Mavilio is Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Modena, Italy. Previously, Dr. Mavilio 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®. Dr. Mavilio 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.
Dr. Mavilio 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, Dr. Mavilio has published over 180 articles in major international journals.