Pearl Huang, Ph.D., has more than 30 years of leadership experience in pharma and biotech and is now the President and CEO of Dunad Therapeutics.

Pearl earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from MIT and went on to complete her PhD in molecular biology from Princeton University.  She began her professional career as a senior research biochemist at Merck Research Labs in 1990 before moving to DuPont Pharmaceuticals as the director of cancer biology. Huang then joined GlaxoSmithKline as VP of BIology for the MMPD CEDD before returning to Merck to serve as VP and oncology franchise integrator, a strategic role heading up translational medicine to create the then-nascent oncology pipeline. In 2010, Huang co-founded Beigene in China, where she served as Chief Scientific Officer until 2012. She then returned to big pharma, holding leadership roles at GlaxoSmithKline and Roche before joining Cygnal Therapeutics, where she served as President and CEO. She was also a venture partner at Flagship Pioneering, the venture creation firm that founded Cygnal Therapeutics. In addition to her role with Dunad, she is an active member of several boards.

Patrick is the co-Founder and Consulting CIO for Dunad Therapeutics, Full Professor of Chemistry at the University of Toronto, Canada Research Chair in Medicinal Chemistry, and founder and Chief Scientific Director of the Centre for Medicinal Chemistry (UofT). Patrick obtained his PhD at the University of Glasgow in 2005 under the supervision of Profs. Robert Peacock and Andrew C. Benniston, and conducted post-doctoral studies at Yale University with Prof Andrew Hamilton.

Patrick has published ~120 research papers, won 19 research awards including Canada’s Top 40 under 40, the 2010 Boehringer Ingelheim Young Investigator Award, the 2012 RSC MedChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship by the Royal Society for Chemistry, and the 2016 Canadian Society for Chemistry’s Bernard Belleau award.

Patrick has founded four biotech companies with over $26M in funding, including Janpix Inc, which became a Centessa Pharmaceuticals’ company in 2021. He has developed a dynamic and diverse medicinal chemistry program focused on covalent therapeutics, protein degradation, and targeting protein-protein interactions.

Dr. Tommasi joins Dunad Therapeutics with nearly 30 years of industry and biotech experience. He comes to Dunad from Entasis Therapeutics, a biotech company developing precision antibacterial therapies. Dr. Tommasi helped lead the formation of Entasis Therapeutics in 2015, spinning it out of AstraZeneca where he served as Head of Infectious Disease Chemistry. Prior to AstraZeneca, he spent nearly 17 years at Novartis, where he most recently led medicinal chemistry efforts for the infectious disease therapy unit. Dr. Tommasi received a B.S. in chemistry and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the State University at Albany, SUNY.

Holly Whittemore, CPA has spent more than 30 years in public accounting and various finance and operational roles.

Holly earned a bachelor’s degree in commerce from the University of Virginia and went on to get her CPA while at Coopers & Lybrand. After almost a decade in public accounting, she worked in a variety of industries spending the last 10 plus years working with early-stage biotech companies. Most recently, Holly worked at Nimbus Therapeutics where she helped build the finance and operations functions from the ground up. She also worked in a consulting capacity with number of other start-up companies including Arteaus Therapeutics, Annovation Biopharma and Quartet Medicine.

Jon Garen has over 20 years of experience in Business Development, M&A, Pipeline and Corporate Strategy, Alliance Management, and Commercial Planning in organizations ranging from large pharmaceutical to startup biotechnology companies.  He has completed over 25 licensing and acquisition deals leading to multiple approved products and $ billions in revenue.  

Jon joins Dunad from Nocion Therapeutics where he served as Chief Business Officer.  Prior to Nocion, Jon was the Chief Business Officer at the AAV gene therapy company uniQure.  There his accomplishments included leading the commercialization planning for the first approved hemophilia gene therapy, and developing the pipeline strategy for the company.  He completed several important transactions including the acquisition of Corlieve Therapeutics, and the partnership of uniQure’s hemophilia b program with CSL Bering, which brought more than $1 billion into the company and led to the first ever approved hemophilia gene therapy product.  Jon was also a member of the Board of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine, an industry organization focused genetic medicines.  Earlier in his career, Jon was the Assistant Vice President of Business Development at Forest Laboratories, Inc. where he worked from 2003 to 2015.  Before Forest Laboratories, Jon was Director of Global Licensing with Pharmacia Corporation and a Founder and Vice President at Technology Exchange, Inc.  Jon holds a Masters of Environmental Studies degree from Yale University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Kathryn McNaughton, Ph.D. is an accomplished leader in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry with more than 25 years of experience across R & D, program & portfolio management, regulatory affairs, and assessment of business development opportunities. She brings to Dunad deep expertise in global program management and drug development, extending from the discovery stage through commercialization. Previous industry roles held by Kathryn include Senior Vice President, Portfolio & Program Management at AVROBIO, Vice President, R & D Pipeline Program Management at Synageva, and other roles of increasing responsibility at Shire and Praecis Pharmaceuticals. Kathryn earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Princeton University and a B.S. in Chemistry from Monmouth University.

Mike Bonney is a business executive with over 30 years of biotech and pharmaceutical
expertise. Bonney was CEO and Director of Cubist Pharmaceuticals from 2003 until 2014.
Under his leadership, Cubist grew from a struggling micro-cap to the world’s leading antibiotic
company and was acquired by Merck early in 2015 for $9.5 billion. Prior to Cubist, Bonney was
Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Biogen where he built the company’s commercial
infrastructure for the launch of its first product. Before joining Biogen, he spent 11 years at
Zeneca Pharmaceuticals in a range of commercial, operating, and strategic roles, ending his
career there as National Business Director.

Bonney is currently a director of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and has served as a director with
many companies previously including Kaleido Biosciences, Magenta Therapeutics, Bristol
Myers Squibb, Sarepta Therapeutics and Syros Pharmaceuticals. Bonney spends much of his
time identifying and mentoring the next generation of life science leaders

Liz joined Epidarex Capital as a Partner in 2013. She has more than 20 years of experience in the Life Science and Healthcare industry, either as a venture investor or an operating executive. She has led a number of venture capital investments in early stage biotech, and has held senior operational roles, from Chair of Board to senior management positions. She focuses on shaping and building early stage life science opportunities into successful companies and investments.

Prior to joining Epidarex, Liz was Head of Business Development and part of the management team at Chroma Therapeutics Ltd., an Oxford-based venture-backed drug discovery and development company focused on inflammatory disorders and oncology. Liz led the establishment of several major company-building alliances including a multi‐target deal with GlaxoSmithKline around Chroma’s novel platform. She is a former executive with the life science venture capital team at the Investments Division of The Wellcome Trust. She is also a former member of the Life Science team at Atlas Ventures, London.

Liz currently serves on the Board of Directors of AdoRx Ltd. (Chair), Nodthera Ltd., Mironid Ltd., Caldan Therapeutics Ltd., Exeed Ltd. (Chair), EM Imaging Ltd., Macomics Ltd. and Dunad Ltd. She holds a B.Sc. (Hons) in Biochemistry (1st class) from the University College Cork, and a Ph.D. from the Imperial Cancer Research Fund.

Oskar joined BioGeneration as a partner in 2016 strengthening the team with his commercial, business development and consulting experience. Oskar started his career in McKinsey & Company as a management consultant. After that he held positions in Crucell first as business development director and later he became responsible for the Pediatric Franchise. After the acquisition of Crucell by Johnson & Johnson, Oskar led the Vaccines & Infectious Diseases business unit in Johnson & Johnson’s pharma joint venture Xian Janssen in Beijing, China. Prior to joining BioGeneration he was Chief Commercial Officer of Avantium, a leading chemical technology company and a forerunner in renewable chemistry.

Oskar has a degree in chemical engineering from the Twente University (NL) and holds a MBA from INSEAD.

Regina is a Managing Partner at Wellington Partners Life Sciences (WPLS) and represents the WPLS funds on the Boards of Carisma (NASDAQ: CARM), Dunad, MMI, Sidekick Health, SNIPR Biome, STipe, and TRiCares. She was a founding investor in Rigontec (acquired by MSD), Sapiens (acquired by Medtronic), Middle Peak Medical (acquired by Symetis / Boston Scientific), invested in Themis Medical (acquired by MSD). In addition, she serves on the Board of the BII BioInnovation Institute, is the Chairperson in of the Vienna university founders organization inits and is a member of the advisory group for KfW Capital and the SME council of the German Ministry of Economics BMWK.

Before joining WPLS, Regina led the European life sciences efforts of Boston-based Atlas Venture. She was the founding investor in Bicycle Therapeutics (NASDAQ: BCYC), F-star, and Jenavalve, and served on several Boards, including U3 Pharma (acquired by Daiichi Sankyo), Nitec Pharma (became part of Horizon Pharma NASDAQ: HRZN), Shanghai-based Novamed, and has been an external director at GlaxoSmithKline’s Respiratory TA Board. Before, Regina worked for Apax Partners, and started to build her extensive network in the global healthcare industry during her tenure at McKinsey. In the 90s, Regina gained initial insights into the fast-growing biotech sector as post-doctoral researcher at the MRC Cambridge UK. Regina studied chemical engineering in Vienna and holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry.

Chris is Managing Director, Biotechnology Investments (Public & Private) at Alpha Wave Global. He currently serves as a board director for Apnimed, Dunad Therapeutics and Cour Pharmaceuticals. Previously, Chris worked in prominent buy-side portfolio management roles, including at Citadel Investment Group, Millennium Partners and J. Goldman, and prior to that in equity research, including with JP Morgan. Most recently, Chris served as founder and CEO of a biotechnology company focused on the development of oligonucleotides for CNS disorders.

Chris graduated from John Hopkins University with a M.S. in Biotechnology and from the University of Illinois with a B.S. in Finance.