served as president and chief executive officer of Seragon Pharmaceuticals Inc., or Seragon, a privately-held biotechnology company, which was acquired by Genentech in 2014. Prior to Seragon, he
co-founded
and served as president and chief executive officer of Aragon Pharmaceuticals, Inc., or Aragon, until it was purchased by Johnson & Johnson in 2013. He has been involved in the discovery and
development of multiple therapeutic agents approved by the FDA, including the recently approved prostate cancer drug, Erleada. Dr. Heyman is a venture partner for Arch Ventures and serves on the Board of Directors for Ymanity Therapeutics and
Vividion Therapeutics. He is Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees at the Salk Institute, on the Board Foundation for the American Association for Cancer Research, or AACR, and on the executive committee at the University of California at San Diego
Moores Cancer Center. He has won numerous awards including Ernst and Young San Diego Regional Entrepreneur of the Year and the Endocrine Society Outstanding Innovation Award. Dr. Heyman received a B.S. in chemistry from the University of
Connecticut and a Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Minnesota. He was an NIH post-doctoral fellow and staff scientist at the Salk Institute. We believe that Dr. Heyman is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to his
educational background and his experience as a board member and senior executive of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.
Nicholas Simon
has served as a member of our board of directors since September 2015. Mr. Simon is a Senior Managing
Director in the Blackstone Life Sciences group, having joined Blackstone as part of its acquisition of Clarus Ventures, LLC, or Clarus, in December of 2018. Prior to joining Blackstone, Mr. Simon was
co-founder
and Managing Director of Clarus, a venture capital firm focused on life sciences companies, since the firms inception in 2005. Prior to Clarus, Mr. Simon was a general partner at MPM
Capital, Inc., a healthcare venture capital firm. He has more than 20 years of operating and investment experience in the biopharmaceutical industry including serving as vice president of business and corporate development at Genentech from 1989 to
2000. In addition to Gritstone, Mr. Simon is currently a member of the board of directors of Nuvelution Pharma, Inc., a public pharmaceutical company, and of Lycera Corp., a private pharmaceutical company, as well as chairman of the board of
Sientra, Inc., a public medical aesthetics company. He has also been a member of the board of directors of numerous private and public life sciences companies including Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Barrier
Therapeutics, Inc., Biovitrum AB, CoTherix, Inc., InterMune, Inc., Pearl Therapeutics Inc., QuatRx Pharmaceuticals Co., Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Sangstat Medical Corporation. Mr. Simon is also a trustee at the Gladstone Institute, a
private
not-for-profit
research institute affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco. Mr. Simon received a B.S. in microbiology from the University
of Maryland and an M.B.A. from Loyola University. We believe that Mr. Simon is qualified to serve on our board of directors due to his experience as a board member of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and his experience as an investor
in new life sciences companies.
Thomas Woiwode, Ph.D.
has served as a member of our board of directors since September
2015. Dr. Woiwode has been with Versant Venture Management, LLC, or Versant Ventures, a healthcare investment firm, since 2002 in various capacities, serving as a managing director since July 2014 and previously as a venture partner from June
2011 to July 2014. He has also served in a number of operating roles over this time, most recently as the chief operating officer of Okairos AG, or Okairos, a biopharmaceutical company developing genetic vaccines for major infectious diseases, from
April 2011 until May 2013. Prior to Okairos, Dr. Woiwode
co-founded
EuroVentures, a wholly owned biotechnology incubator within Versant Ventures, and in this role, served as the founding chief business
officer for three biotechnology companies created within Versant Ventures. Before joining Versant Ventures, Dr. Woiwode also served as a research scientist at XenoPort, Inc. Dr. Woiwode currently serves on the board of directors of CRISPR
Therapeutics AG and Adverum Biotechnologies, Inc., and served on the board of directors of Audentes Therapeutics, Inc. from July 2013 to July 2017. Dr. Woiwode also serves on the board of directors of several private companies. Dr. Woiwode
holds a B.A. in English and a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry as an NSF Fellow from Stanford University. We believe that Dr. Woiwode is qualified to serve on our board of directors
due to his educational background, his experience as a board member and senior executive of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and his experience as an investor in new life sciences companies.
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