Multiplying the possibilities for patients

Laura Shawver is Capstan’s President and CEO. Laura most recently served as CEO of Silverback Therapeutics and President and CEO of Synthorx (acquired by Sanofi) and has more than two decades of experience in executive leadership positions, as well as serves on the Board of Directors of public and private companies. She is also founder and director of The Clearity Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving treatment options for women with ovarian cancer.

Gregor Adams, Ph.D., is Capstan’s Vice President of Pharmacology & Toxicology. Gregor has more than 20 years of combined industry and academic experience in cell and gene therapy, pharmacology and toxicology. Prior to Capstan, he led in vivo pharmacology teams at ImmPACT-Bio USA, Inc. and Kite, a Gilead Company and oversaw preclinical development of ex vivo CAR T cell therapies through IND submission. Gregor was previously an Assistant Professor, Cell and Neurobiology at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at University of Southern California.

Haig Aghajanian, Ph.D., is Co-Founder and Vice President of Research at Capstan, as well as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. His research has focused on the etiology of cardiac disease and cell therapy for the treatment of fibrosis culminating in his recent work published in Nature and Science that served as the inception of Capstan.

Steven M. Albelda, M.D., is the William Maul Measey Professor of Medicine, Director of the Thoracic Oncology Research Laboratory, and co-Director of the Translational Center of Excellence for Lung Cancer.  Dr. Albelda has led an NCI-funded Program Project aimed at developing immune-gene therapy for thoracic cancers for the past 22 years, resulting in a series of Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials for patients with mesothelioma and lung cancer. The major areas of recent interest in the lab have been augmentation of anti-tumor immune effects, adoptive T cell transfer, and characterization and modulation of the tumor microenvironment.

Miguel Arcinas is Capstan’s Senior Vice President of Corporate Development. Miguel has over 14 years of multi-disciplinary experience in biotech corporate strategy, business development, investor relations, and clinical operations. Prior to Capstan, Miguel served as Vice President of Corporate Development and Investor Relations at Silverback Therapeutics, contributing to the company’s Series C raise, IPO, and merger activities. He has held corporate development and operational roles of increasing responsibility at various biopharma companies including Synthorx, where he contributed to the company’s acquisition by Sanofi, Acadia Pharma, and Ignyta.

Adrian Bot, M.D., Ph.D., is Capstan’s Chief Scientific Officer, leading the research and development activities. Adrian has 25 years of experience in biopharmaceutical industry, was formerly the first Chief Scientific Officer of Kite Pharma and more recently, Global Head and Vice President of Translational Medicine and Santa Monica Research Site Head at Kite, a Gilead Company.

David Diamond, Ph.D., is Capstan’s Vice President of Intellectual Property. David has more than 20 years of intellectual property (IP) experience in the life sciences industry. Prior to Capstan, he served as a patent agent at K&L Gates, where he wrote and prosecuted patents and conducted patent landscape, portfolio and patentability analyses for his clients. David previously spent 16 years in increasing roles of responsibility heading the IP sector at MannKind Corporation.

Jonathan A. Epstein, M.D., is the William Wikoff Smith Professor, Interim Executive Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System & Dean of the Perelman School of Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at the University of Pennsylvania Health System.  Dr. Epstein’s research has focused on elucidating the molecular mechanisms of cardiovascular development and its implications for understanding and treating human disease. His group has been at the forefront of utilizing animal models of congenital heart disease to determine genetic and molecular pathways required for cardiac morphogenesis, with implications for pediatric and adult cardiovascular disease.

Ramin Farzaneh-Far, M.D., is Capstan’s Chief Medical Officer. Prior to Capstan, he was at RA Capital where he was a Venture Partner. Previously, he was Chief Medical Officer at Ra Pharmaceuticals from 2016 until its acquisition by UCB in 2020 and led the clinical development of zilucoplan (Zilbrysq^®), a complement C5 inhibitor recently approved in the United States, Europe, and Japan for the treatment of generalized myasthenia gravis.  He previously led global clinical development programs at Akebia Therapeutics and Gilead Sciences. Dr. Farzaneh-Far completed his internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and a fellowship in cardiovascular medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in immunology from the University of Cambridge, an M.D. from University College London, and an MAS in clinical research from UCSF.

Carl H. June, M.D., is the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy, Director of the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies and Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.  He is a pioneer in the field of CAR T cell therapy and leads a research laboratory that studies various mechanisms of lymphocyte activation that relate to immune tolerance and adoptive immunotherapy for cancer and chronic infections.

Priya Karmali, Ph.D., is Capstan’s Chief Technology Officer. With over 20 years of experience in the field of lipid nanoparticle mediated nucleic acid delivery from discovery to development, Priya has led drug product development efforts for multiple RNA therapeutics. Priya previously served as Vice President of Technology Innovation and Development at Arcturus Therapeutics and held positions of increasing seniority at Regulus Therapeutics and Nitto.

Bruce Levine, Ph.D., is the Barbara and Edward Netter Professor in Cancer Gene Therapy and the Founding Director of the Clinical Cell and Vaccine Production Facility (CVPF) in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and the Abramson Cancer Center in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Levine is a pioneer in the field of CAR T cell therapies, including first use of a lentiviral vector, the first infusions of gene edited cells, and the first use of lentivirally-modified cells to treat cancer. Dr. Levine is the also the Chairman of Capstan’s Science and Technology Advisory Committee.

Michelle Mazzoni, Ph.D., is Capstan’s Senior Vice President of Regulatory and Quality. Michelle has more than two decades of biotech experience with global development of drugs, biologics, and devices in a wide variety of therapeutic areas, including oncology, immunology, gastroenterology, and metabolism/endocrinology. Prior to Capstan, she was the Vice President of Regulatory and Quality for Prometheus Biosciences leading up to the company’s acquisition by Merck & Co. and prior to that for Synthorx leading up to the company’s acquisition by Sanofi.

Michael J. Mitchell, Ph.D. is the Skirkanich Assistant Professor of Innovation in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania. A key focus of Mike’s lab is engineering new lipid and polymeric nanoparticle platforms for the delivery of different nucleic acid modalities to target cells and tissues across the body aiming at targeting cancer immunotherapy, mRNA vaccines, genome editing, cardiovascular disease, and in utero therapeutics to treat disease before birth.

Hamideh Parhiz, PharmD, Ph.D. is a faculty member in the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania where she leads the targeted LNP delivery program. Her expertise is developing novel nucleic acid delivery systems including a new generation of targeted mRNA-LNP therapeutics for a variety of non-vaccine applications such as acute inflammatory conditions, fibrosis, blood gene disorders and cancer. Hamideh’s work and patents in designing an efficient targeted LNP-mRNA platform served as the basis for Capstan technology development.

Jeffrey Pepe, Ph.D., J.D., is Capstan’s General Counsel. Jeffrey is responsible for the company’s global legal strategy, planning and management. Prior to Capstan, he served as Interim Chief Executive Officer, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Silverback Therapeutics. Prior to Silverback, Jeffrey was a partner at Seed IP Law Group, where he advised private and public companies, board members and venture capitalists. Jeffrey has also served as Associate General Counsel and Head of Intellectual Property at Trubion Pharmaceuticals and as Chief Patent Attorney at Nastech Pharmaceutical Company (now Adhera Therapeutics). He was part of leadership teams that negotiated and completed deals for initial public offerings, clinical assets, licensing and sale of intellectual property, and mergers and acquisitions. Jeffrey has extensive experience in performing due diligence, as well as global intellectual property strategic planning, procurement and portfolio management.

Ellen Puré, Ph.D. is the Grace Lansing Lambert Professor and Chair of Biomedical Sciences and Professor of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics in the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Puré is also the Associate Director of the Cancer Research Institute, serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Clinical Investigation and Matrix Biology, and is a Founding Senior Editor of Cancer Immunology Research.  Dr. Puré’s research focuses on the cellular and molecular basis of inflammation and fibrosis and her laboratory has made seminal contributions to our understanding of the roles of stromal cells and extracellular matrix remodeling in tissue fibrosis and in cancer risk, initiation, progression, and metastasis.

Michael Rosenzweig is Capstan’s EVP of Portfolio Strategy and Product Development. He most recently served as an Entrepreneur in Residence at RA Ventures. He has more than two decades of experience in pharma and biotech including leading Oncology and Immunology Discovery at Merck Research Labs as well as in leadership roles at Immunext and ToleRx. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Bright Peak and the Scientific Advisory Board of Avilar.

John Rossi, M.S., is Capstan’s Vice President and Head of Translational Medicine. John has over 22 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry building robust clinical pharmacology, predictive biomarker, and correlative science processes to support oncology drug development. Prior to joining Capstan, John was Vice President of Translational Medicine at CARGO Therapeutics. At Kite John led the clinical pharmacology and biomarker discovery team, supporting global approvals of Yescarta® and Tecartus®, and at Amgen, where he led biomarker development for early- and late-stage clinical trials.

Justin Thacker is Capstan’s Chief Financial Officer. Justin brings over 25 years of financial experience, including nearly 15 years in the life sciences industry, to his role. Justin most recently served as Chief Financial Officer at Aristea Therapeutics. Prior to that, he served as Vice President, Finance at Design Therapeutics, Inc., where he played a key role in the company’s $276 million initial public offering. Before that, he was Vice President, Finance, at Synthorx, Inc., where he supported the company’s $150 million initial public offering and finance infrastructure build-out prior to the company’s acquisition by Sanofi. Justin has also held roles at ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc., Auspex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Cadence Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and supported commercial launches at both ACADIA and Cadence. He began his career with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

Drew Weissman, M.D., Ph.D., is the Roberts Family Professor in Vaccine Research, Director Penn Institute for RNA Innovation, and Director of Vaccine Research, Infectious Diseases Division in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Weissman, in collaboration with Dr. Katalin Karikó, discovered that modified nucleosides in RNA could suppress activation of innate immune sensors thereby resulting in an increased mRNA translation, and received the 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine for this research. The nucleoside-modified mRNA-lipid nanoparticle vaccine platform created in Dr. Weissman’s lab is now being used in the first two FDA-approved mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines that were developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, and his lab is actively working to develop new mRNA–based vaccines that induce potent antibody and T cell responses.

Holly Winter serves as Capstan’s Senior Vice President, People and Culture. Holly brings over 20 years of experience in human resources, building positive, dynamic, and diverse cultures to support company growth and success. Holly has previously held various human resources leadership roles at Locanabio, aTyr Pharma, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, and Aurora Biosciences. Holly holds a master’s in human resource management from Cornell University and a bachelor’s in political science from California State University Long Beach. She also studied German and English language at the University of Salzburg, Austria. Holly has served as a member of the Board of Directors of Susan G. Komen, San Diego and is currently a member of the Life Science Cares Board of Advisors.

Thomas A. Wynn, Ph.D. is Vice President of Discovery in the Inflammation and Immunology Research Unit at Pfizer where he leads a team of scientists focusing on autoimmune, inflammatory, and fibrotic diseases in the areas Rheumatology, Dermatology, and Gastroenterology. Prior to joining Pfizer, he was Senior Investigator and Chief of the Immunopathogenesis Section at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH, where he and his team focused on type 2 cytokine-driven inflammatory diseases and mechanisms of fibrosis in various organ systems, including liver, intestine, and lung.