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Katrine Bosley
Chief Executive Officer
Ms. Bosley is a biotechnology executive with two decades of industry
leadership experience across a spectrum of key corporate and strategic
functions. Prior to joining Avila, Ms. Bosley served as Vice President,
Business Development and later as VP, Strategic Operations at Adnexus,
establishing an alliance with and subsequent acquisition by Bristol-Myers
Squibb. During her career she has worked with products from discovery
through commercialization, including Avonex®, Tysabri® and the emerging
Adnectin™ class of targeted biologics. Ms. Bosley was with Biogen Idec for
many years where she held leadership roles in business development,
commercial operations and portfolio strategy in both the U.S. and Europe.
She also held positions at Highland Capital Partners, a venture capital
firm, and Alkermes, a leading biotechnology company. Ms. Bosley is a
graduate of Cornell University.
Juswinder Singh, PhD
Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Singh is a world-renowned computational chemist and structure-based small molecule drug designer, developing methods that have been successfully applied in the discovery of multiple NCEs, several of which are now in clinical development. Prior to founding Avila, Dr. Singh led computational chemistry efforts at Biogen Idec where he was most recently Director of Structural Informatics, and he also pioneered the development of novel approaches in computational chemistry and cheminformatics at Parke-Davis. Dr. Singh received his PhD in rational drug design at the University of London followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at University College London. He has published more than fifty papers in peer-reviewed journals and one book, holds eleven patents, and is a Senior Editor of the journal, Chemical Biology and Drug Design.
Nagesh Mahanthappa, PhD, MBA
VP, Corporate Development & Operations
Prior to joining Avila, Dr. Mahanthappa was a founding employee and subsequently Vice President of Scientific and Strategic Development at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. Serving as a management team member, he initially served as interim head of research during the company’s first year and led business development efforts that resulted in partnerships with Merck, Medtronic, and Novartis. Prior to joining Alnylam, Dr. Mahanthappa was Manager of Business Development at Vertex Pharmaceuticals and held a series of positions with increasing scientific and commercial responsibility at Ontogeny (now Curis). Dr. Mahanthappa earned his PhD in neurobiology from the California Institute of Technology, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Mahanthappa is also an MBA graduate of the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Management at Babson College.
Russell C. Petter, PhD
VP, Drug Discovery
Dr. Petter brings to Avila significant research and development experience in both academia and the private sector, joining Avila most recently from Mersana Therapeutics, Inc. where he oversaw all aspects of research and early drug development as Vice President of Research. Previously, Dr. Petter served as Director of Small Molecule Drug Discovery at Biogen and Biogen Idec, having led and expanded the small molecule drug discovery efforts at the company. Prior, Dr. Petter served as Fellow and Head of Chemistry in the Oncology/Adhesion Biology Department of Sandoz Research Institute (now Novartis). Dr. Petter earned his PhD in organic chemistry at Duke University and completed his post-doctoral training at Columbia University.
William Westlin, PhD
VP, Preclinical Research
Dr. Westlin has fifteen years of experience in global pharmaceutical and Boston-based biotechnology firms. Prior to joining Avila, Dr. Westlin was Senior Vice President of Preclinical Research at Praecis Pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining Praecis, Dr. Westlin held positions of increasing responsibility over a ten-year period in the Departments of Immunology, Molecular Pharmacology, and Oncology with Monsanto/Searle/Pharmacia. That period culminated in the position of Director of Oncology for Pharmacia in St. Louis, and the advancement of several angiogenesis-related programs into development. Dr. Westlin earned his MS and PhD degrees in pharmacology from New York Medical College and completed a Research Fellowship in Vascular Biology at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
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