Management
Brian E. Jahns, PharmD
Dr. Brian Jahns is an accomplished senior executive whose extensive experience spans healthcare, pharma and biotech, mature organizations and start-ups. During his career, Brian fulfilled progressive clinical and business roles at Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. He then went on to become Senior Vice President, Commercial and Business Development of Trillium Therapeutics (NASDAQ/TSX:TRIL), consulted or worked for a several pre-clinical and clinical stage companies, and ultimately joined Vasomune as President and Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining pharma, Dr. Jahns completed a Doctorate in Pharmacy, a Fellowship in Clinical Toxicology at University of Illinois & Cook County Hospital, and was Boarded as a Diplomate of the American Board of Applied Toxicology.
Harold Kim, PhD
Dr. Harold Kim, scientific co-founder of Vasomune, has helped shepherd the development of Vasomune’s lead candidate AV-001 from bench to bedside. With 20 years experience in academia and industry, Dr. Kim has dedicated much of his scientific career to bringing AV-001 to the clinic. Dr. Kim completed his undergraduate degree at Western University and received his PhD from McMaster University in Molecular Biology, Genetics, and Cancer. He has published on vascular biology, host response, and cancer cell signaling, and has patented work describing novel methods of drug delivery into the cerebrovascular circulation. Dr. Kim was a Research Fellow with the late Dr. Daniel Dumont, discoverer of the Tie2 receptor, at the Sunnybrook Research Institute.
Gosia Hodgson, CPA, CA
Gosia Hodgson brings a strong background in finance, administration, and intellectual property management. A dynamic finance leader with over 13 years of experience across a variety of industries including biotechnology, IP management and public accounting. Gosia is an astute technical accountant (USGAAP, IFRS, ASPE, PSAS) who thrives in fast paced environments that require innovative thinking and adaptability. Having worked most recently with the Triphase Accelerator Corp., and Klondike BioPharma. Vasomune is confident that her determination, technical capability, and leadership will help propel that organization toward success.
Shahid Ahmad, PMP
Shahid Ahmad is a
certified PMP with over 20 years of experience in Operations and Supply Chain
Management and multiple successful project and process implementations across
operations, quality, and regulatory systems at several life science companies.
Shahid joined Vasomune in 2019 and led the filing of the company’s pivotal IND,
managed NRC-IRAP grant and SRED funding, and was instrumental in obtaining US
DOD CDMRP funding worth ~$10M including post-grant commitments and scale up
manufacturing, enabling transition of Vasomune to a clinical stage company.
Board of Directors
Parimal Nathwani, MSc, MBA
Mr. Nathwani has over 15 years of experience in various aspects of the biotechnology industry including corporate finance, business development, transactions, intellectual property management, technology development and operations. He has been actively involved in forming and managing start-ups, preparing and executing on business plans, raising early-stage capital and in- and out-licensing activities.
Before joining MaRS Innovation, Parimal was a healthcare analyst with a boutique investment bank, where he conducted equity research on publicly-traded biotechnology companies in Canada and the U.S. He has also led commercialization activities out of BC Women’s and Children’s Hospital as part of his role at the University of British Columbia’s Industry Liaison Office, and was a research scientist at a start-up biotechnology company involved in drug discovery targeting ABC Transporters.
Parimal received his MBA from Simon Fraser University and his M.Sc. from the University of British Columbia. He currently sits on the boards of TRIUMF Innovations, Zucara Therapeutics, Cohesys Inc. and Vasomune Therapeutics and is an observer on the board of Encycle Therapeutics.
Niclas Stiernholm, PhD
Dr. Niclas Stiernholm has decades of executive experience in the biotechnology industry, most recently as President and Chief Executive Officer of Trillium Therapeutics. Under his direction and leadership Trillium grew from one to 65 employees, raised over $200 million in the capital markets, and transitioned from a discovery-based academic spin-out venture to a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company, listed on both Nasdaq and the Toronto Stock Exchange. Dr. Stiernholm joined Trillium from YM BioSciences where he was Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer when the company successfully completed its Initial Public Offering in 2002. In the past Dr. Stiernholm has served on numerous corporate, scientific and non-profit boards. He received his Ph.D. in immunology from the University of Toronto, where he also completed his postdoctoral training.
Raphael Ronen, MSc, CFA
Mr. Ronen has over 17 years in the medical device industry, with wide-ranging experience in business development and commercialization including product development, financing, technology assessment, licensing, and IP management. For the past 10 years, he has had increasing managerial positions in technology transfer and business development with various worldrenowned academic institutions including MaRS Innovation, University of Toronto, and Robarts Research Institute. Most recently, he serves as Director, Business Development at Sunnybrook Research Institute. Raphael has also held senior management and advisory positions within several emerging Canadian image guided therapy companies, including FUS Instruments and Harmonic Medical. Throughout his career, Raphael has raised more than $55M in grants for commercialization activities for several industry and academic partners across Canada including the previous FedDev TDP and ICP awards to SRI, bringing together 28 industry and academic partners to advance IGT technologies. Raphael holds a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, an M.Sc. in Medical Biophysics from the University of Western Ontario, and a B.Sc. in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo.
Clinical Advisory Board
Carolyn S. Calfee, MD, MAS
Carolyn S. Calfee, MD MAS is Professor of Medicine and Anesthesia at the University of California, San Francisco, where she attends in the intensive care units. She completed her undergraduate studies at Yale University and medical school at University of Pennsylvania before coming to UCSF for her residency, chief residency, and fellowship training, as well as her Master’s in Clinical Research. Her primary academic focus is the pathogenesis and treatment of the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Her areas of research interest include molecular subphenotypes of ARDS and precision medicine in critical care; the role of environmental exposures including smoking, air pollution, and novel tobacco products in susceptibility to lung injury; and novel treatments for ARDS.
Eddie Fan, PhD, MD, FRCPC
Dr. Eddy Fan is an Associate Professor in the Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care Medicine and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto and a Staff Intensivist at the University Health Network/Mount Sinai Hospital. Dr. Fan received his undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto, his medical degree from the University of Western Ontario and a PhD in Clinical Investigation from Johns Hopkins University. He is currently the Medical Director of the Extracorporeal Life Support Program at the Toronto General Hospital. Dr. Fan’s research has focused on advanced life support for acute respiratory failure and patient outcomes from critical illness.
Dana McClintock, MD
Dana McClintock, MD – Dr. McClintock is the Chief Medical Officer of Alladapt Immunotherapeutics, Inc., a role she has held since 2018. Prior to joining Alladapt, Dr. McClintock was Global Head of Innovation for Immunology, Infectious Disease and Ophthalmology, at Genentech/Roche. Prior to this position, Dr. McClintock held roles of increasing responsibility at Genentech/Roche, including Global Head of Pipeline and Portfolio Planning for Immunology, Infectious Disease and Ophthalmology, as well as Interim Global Co-Head of Ophthalmology. Earlier in Dr. McClintock’s pharmaceutical career, she was deeply involved in respiratory, immunology and ophthalmology clinical development activities across a range of phases, from IND-enabling work and early clinical trials through post-marketing commitments and medical affairs activities. Dr. McClintock was involved in key clinical development activities for omalizumab (Xolair) and ranibizumab (Lucentis) as along with other pipeline molecules. Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. McClintock’s academic research focus was in ARDS, with publications evaluating ventilator parameters as well plasma biomarkers of epithelial and endothelial cell injury. Dr. McClintock received a BA in Chemistry from Duke University and an MD from the University of Virginia. Dr. McClintock completed her training in Internal Medicine and Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, both at the UCSF.