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The Team

Management

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Catriona Jamieson

Founder
Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Catriona Jamieson is a co-founder and CEO of Aspera Biomedicines. She was a co-founder of Impact Biomedicines. Dr. Jamieson is a specialist in leukemia and myeloproliferative neoplasms. She is Deputy Director of the MooresCancer Center at UCSD, Director of the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center, and Professor of Medicine. She has a PhD in Microbiology/Immunology and an MD from the University of British Columbia. She trained in hematology, bone marrow transplantation and stem cell biology followed by being an attending hematologist at Stanford University prior to being recruited to UCSD.
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John Hood

Co-Founder
Chairman of the Board
John Hood is the founder or co-founder of Aspera Biomedicines, Impact Biomedicines, Endeavor Biomedicines and Samumed. Currently John is Executive Chairman of Endeavor Biomedicines. Most recently he was the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Impact Biomedicines, a company that was acquired for up to $7 billion by Celgene in 2018. Prior to founding Impact, Dr. Hood was the Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Samumed. Prior to that, Dr. Hood was Director of Research and co-inventor of fedratinib at TargeGen, Inc. He is an inventor on 100+ patents and author on 50+ scientific articles. Dr. Hood obtained a Ph.D. in medical physiology and B.S. in biochemistry from Texas A&M University.
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Sheldon Morris

Co-Founder
Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Sheldon Morris is a co-founder and the CMO of Aspera Biomedicines. He is currently a Professor of Infectious Diseases and Public Health at the UCSD School of Medicine. He has an MD from the University of British Columbia and an MPH for Harvard School of Public Health. He has board certifications in Preventive Medicine and Family Medicine. His expertise is in clinical trial design, management and conduct.
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Raghu Saripalli

Co-Founder
Chief Financial Officer
Raghu Saripalli is a co-founder and the CFO of Aspera Biomedicines. He is currently the CFO of Endeavor Biomedicines. Prior to this he was co-founder of Impact Biomedicines. Before that he was the CFO of Rocket Gaming Systems and HemoLifeMedical. Previously he was an investment banker specializing in mergers & acquisitions at Wasserstein Perella& Co., Deutsche Bank and Barclays Capital. He has an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and dual MS degrees in Engineering and Computer Science from Virginia Tech.
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Michael Burkart

Co-Founder
Director of R&D
Mike Burkart is a co-founder of Aspera Biomedicines. He is currently a Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry University of California, San Diego, with research expertise in natural products, medicinal chemistry, and drug discovery. Mike grew up in Texas and received a B.A. in Chemistry from Rice University. After a PhD from the Scripps Research Institute and postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School, he initiated his own research group at UCSD in 2002. 

Consultants

Peggy Wentworth

CMC
Dr Wentworth has more than 20+ years’ experience in drug development and global clinical research. She has comprehensive expertise in strategic and tactical development of biologics and small molecule drugs through all stages of development, an extensive background in development of Oncology therapeutics, a capability of overseeing and coordinating all aspects of drug development within different functional areas and extensive experience in management of complex, global programs. Dr. Wentworth is highly experienced in program management and brings substantial experience in leading cross-functional development teams as well as functioning as a drug development advisor for grants (CIRM, STTR, SBIR grants).  She also has experience managing CMC and Nonclinical activities for academic projects (above mentioned CIRM grants) and pharmaceutical companies. She has contributed to numerous INDs (small molecule, biologic, antisense drugs) and participated in a number of FDA meetings. Dr. Wentworth has a PhD from Emory University in Immunology and Microbiology.
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Consultant

Curtis L. Scribner

Regulatory Affairs
Curtis Scribner, MD, is a board certified internal medicine specialist with very wide experience in drug development as a clinical investigator, regulatory reviewer, and strategic product life cycle consultant. Dr. Scribner spent 10 years at the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), FDA, reviewing all phases of clinical development in a wide breadth of areas (blood, plasma, recombinant proteins, cells, tissues, vaccines, etc.). He worked for 6 years in a small venture-based drug, biologic and combination development company (BioMedicines/Intarcia) as the Chief Regulatory Officer. He has more than 25 years of experience as a consultant to drugs and biologics companies working on everything from discovery and preclinical models through clinical trials, especially early stage clinical trials, Data Safety Monitoring Committees, and strategic and operational regulatory interactions in the US (FDA) and Europe (EMA and Member States). He has helped to develop or write orphan drug, rare pediatric disease, breakthrough, fast track, and RMAT designation requests. He has extensive experience in virology and viral diseases, oncology, hepatology, infectious disease, rheumatology, immunology, very rare and Orphan diseases and cell and gene therapy.
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Board of Directors

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Catriona Jamieson

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Raghu Saripalli

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John

Hood

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