Sirenas

THE TEAM

leadership
board
scientific advisers

Eduardo Esquenazi, PhD _{Founder, Chief Executive Officer}

Eduardo Esquenazi, PhD

Founder, Chief Executive Officer

Eduardo Esquenazi, PhD, is the Founder and CEO of Sirenas LLC. He served as its founding CEO from 2012-2017 before resuming the role in late 2019. Whether he’s off the shores of Hawaii or in the boardroom of Sirenas’ San Diego headquarters, Dr. Esquenazi exudes passion for innovation in healthcare, with a focus on the development of disruptive technologies in the early drug discovery process. He oversees the company’s strategic growth and directs the discovery and informatics arms of the company, including library creation, acquisition of biodiversity and cutting edge data analytics. Dr. Esquenazi earned his doctorate in biology from the Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine at The Scripps Institution of Oceanography and The Skaggs School of Pharmacy at University of California, San Diego, and received his bachelor of science in biology and neuroscience from Vanderbilt University. He has published extensively on novel approaches in metabolomics and on computational models of neurobiological systems. He is the 2010 recipient of The San Diego Fellowship and the 2008 recipient of the National Institutes of Health Training Grant in Marine Biotechnology. Dr. Esquenazi has been featured on Biotech Nation, is a speaker at leading conferences, including a keynote address at The Gordon Research Conference on Marine Natural Products in 2016, a dual panel alongside Fabien Cousteau, at the South by Southwest Conference, Health Track in 2017, presented the “The Secret Language of Life” at TEDxUCSD in 2017, the keynote address at Datawest 2017 and at the Xconomy event Big Data Meets Big Biology in 2018.

Jake Beverage, PharmD _Co-founder

Jake Beverage, PharmD

Co-founder

Jake Beverage, PharmD is a Co-founder at Sirenas, overseeing business development and strategic alliance activities. Dr. Beverage has over 16 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry in roles spanning discovery, development and commercialization. He has served as Chief Operating Officer and interim Chief Executive Officer at Sirenas since its founding in 2012. Prior to Sirenas, he held roles of increasing responsibility at Genentech, serving as a director in the medical affairs group for products including Herceptin™, Avastin™, Tarceva™ and Xeloda™, and in sales and marketing roles within the commercial division. Before Genentech, Dr. Beverage served on clinical development teams spanning Phases I-IV at Chugai Pharma USA and Corixa Corporation, with a focus on oncology therapeutics. Dr. Beverage received his doctor of pharmacy from the University of California, San Francisco and earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Vanderbilt University.

Phil Baran, PhD _Co-founder

Phil Baran, PhD

Co-founder

Phil Baran, PhD, is co-founder of Sirenas, overseeing the chemical synthesis of complex marine molecules into viable therapeutic candidates. Dr. Baran is a Chemistry Professor and holds the Darlene Shiley Chair at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), where he runs an industrious lab focused on natural product synthesis. The organic chemist is recognized globally for the strides he has made in creating scalable, economical synthetic routes for the most complex compounds. Among many honors, in 2013 he was selected as a MacArthur Fellow for his work on the total synthesis of complex molecules for cancer treatment. Dr. Baran earned his doctorate from TSRI under K.C. Nicolaou and his bachelor of science from New York University. He was a postdoctoral associate under E.J. Corey at Harvard University before joining the faculty at TSRI. His scientific papers have appeared in Nature, Science, Angewandte Chemie, and the Journal of the American Chemical Society, among others.

Eduardo Esquenazi, PhD _{Founder, Chief Executive Officer}

Eduardo Esquenazi, PhD

Founder, Chief Executive Officer

Mary Haak – Frendscho, PhD _{Board Member}

Mary Haak – Frendscho, PhD

Board Member

Mary Haak-Frendscho, PhD joined Sirenas in October 2015 as executive chair, working with the leadership team to realize the company vision as an innovative and sustainable platform to continually discover and develop compelling small molecule therapeutics and ADC payloads.

Dr. Haak-Frendscho also serves as Chairman of the Board of Compugen, Inc., a subsidiary of Compugen, Ltd., devoted to translating in silico predicted targets into immuno-oncology therapeutics. Previously, she was CEO and member of the Board at Igenica Biotherapeutics, Inc. Prior to that, Dr. Haak-Frendscho was founding President, CSO and Board member of Takeda San Francisco, establishing and overseeing Takeda’s Center of Excellence for Biologics. Earlier in her career Dr. Haak-Frendscho held positions of increasing responsibility at XOMA, Abgenix (now Amgen), and Genentech, where she secured collaborative relationships with external corporate partners and led therapeutic antibody programs. At Genentech, she played a key role in the development of omalizumab (Xolair®).

Dr. Haak-Frendscho has authored over 70 scientific articles and has over 30 issued plus pending patents. An immunologist by training, Dr. Haak-Frendscho obtained her BS from the University of Michigan, MLA from Washington University in St. Louis, MS from SUNY-Stony Brook, CSEP from Columbia University Graduate School of Business and PhD from the University of Wisconsin, where she has an adjunct appointment in the Department of Pathobiological Sciences.

Bob More _{Board Member}

Bob More

Board Member

Bob More has held partner-level roles at leading life-science venture capital firms Frazier Healthcare Partners, Domain Associates, and is currently a partner at Alta Partners. He has managed successful investments by serving on the boards of Sienna Biopharmaceuticals, ESP Pharma (acquired by Protein Design Labs, Inc.), Proxima Therapeutics (acquired by Cytyc Corporation), NovaCardia (acquired by Merck), Esprit Pharma (acquired by Allergan), IntraLase (acquired by Advanced Medical Optics, Inc.), Oceana Therapeutics (acquired by Salix Pharmaceuticals), Achaogen (NASDAQ: AKAO), Neothetics, (NASDAQ: NEOT), Glaukos Corporation (NYSE: GLKS), and a founding board member of the Kauffman Fellows Program. In addition, Bob was an investor in Clovis Pharmaceuticals, Affinivax, and Sienna Labs. Currently, he is a Senior Advisor of Venture Investing at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and serves on the boards of One Revolution and The Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND). He received his B.A. from Middlebury College and an M.B.A. from the Darden School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia.

Jake Beverage, PharmD _Co-founder

Jake Beverage, PharmD

Co-founder

Phil Baran, PhD _Co-founder

Phil Baran, PhD

Co-founder

Benjamin Cravatt, PhD _{Scientific Adviser}

Benjamin Cravatt, PhD

Scientific Adviser

Benjamin F. Cravatt is a Professor and Co-Chair of the Department of Molecular Medicine at The Scripps Research Institute. His research group is interested in understanding the roles that enzymes play in physiological and pathological processes, especially as pertains to the nervous system and cancer. Dr. Cravatt obtained his undergraduate education at Stanford University, receiving a B.S. in the Biological Sciences and a B.A. in History. He then received a Ph.D. from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in 1996. Professor Cravatt joined the faculty at TSRI in 1997. Dr. Cravatt is a co-founder and scientific advisor of Activx Biosciences, Abide Therapeutics, and Vividion Therapeutics. His honors include a Searle Scholar Award, the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry, a Cope Scholar Award, the Protein Society Irving Sigal Young Investigator Award, the Tetrahedron Young Investigator Award in Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry, the ASBMB Merck Award, and memberships in the National Academy of Sciences and American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Terry Rosen, PhD _{Scientific Adviser}

Terry Rosen, PhD

Scientific Adviser

Terry Rosen, PhD has been leading successful drug discovery and development organizations in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries for over 30 years. In 2015, he co-founded Arcus Biosciences, a drug discovery company focused on the treatment of cancer by blocking tumor-induced immunosuppression. Previously, he was co-founder and CEO of Flexus Biosciences, a company created to develop small-molecule drugs to reverse tumor immunosuppression, which was acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb early in 2015 for $1.25 billion. Prior to Flexus, Terry served as Vice President, Therapeutic Discovery (TD) at Amgen and as the site head for Amgen South San Francisco, having joined Amgen with the acquisition of Tularik in 2004. He was named Amgen Washington site head in 2006, transitioned to a leadership role heading Chemistry Research and Discovery in 2007 and became the head of Protein Sciences in 2011. He and his leadership team were responsible for the creation of the TD organization, a group of 550+ staff responsible for all of Amgen’s large and small molecule drug discovery efforts.

Prior to joining Amgen, Terry held several executive positions at Tularik, including Executive Vice President, Operations, Vice President, Research Operations, and Vice President, Medicinal Chemistry. He has also held scientific and management positions at Pfizer and Abbott Laboratories. Terry serves on the Salk Institute Board of Trustees, the leadership committees of the University of Michigan Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program and Life Sciences Institute, the Berkeley Chemistry Advisory Board, the Caltech Biology & Bioengineering Chair’s Council and the Board of the California Life Sciences Association.

Pieter Dorrestein, PhD _{Scientific Adviser}

Pieter Dorrestein, PhD

Scientific Adviser

Pieter Dorrestein, PhD is a professor at the University of California, San Diego. He is the Director of the Collaborative Mass Spectrometry Innovation Center and a Co-Director of the Institute for Metabolomics Medicine in the Skaggs School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences and Department of Pharmacology and Pediatrics. Since his arrival to UCSD in 2006, Dr. Dorrestein has been pioneering the development of mass spectrometry methods to study the chemical ecological crosstalk between populations of microorganisms, including host interactions for agricultural, diagnostic and therapeutic applications. He participated in panels for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy on the launch of a national microbiome initiative and has been on panels for the National Academy of Sciences on the chemistry of the microbiome. In total, he has co-authored 220 scientific publications and his work has been featured by The Wall Street Journal, CNN, The New York Times, Fox, BBC and hundreds other news outlets. He has been recognized with many awards, among them are from the Beckman Foundation, V-foundation in cancer research, EUREKA award for unconventional and enabling research, Hearst Foundation, as well as the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturing Association Research award and the Abel award in pharmacology. For a more detailed biography visit the following link, Nature.com, The man who can map the chemicals all over your body.

Christopher Walsh, PhD _{Scientific Adviser}

Christopher Walsh, PhD

Scientific Adviser

Christopher Walsh is a consulting professor to the Stanford University Department of Chemistry and an advisor to the Stanford ChEM-H institute. He was the Hamilton Kuhn Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School from 1987 to 2013, when he took emeritus status. He has had extensive academic leadership experience, including Chairmanship of the MIT Chemistry Department and of the HMS Biological Chemistry & Molecular Pharmacology Department, as well as serving as President and CEO of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

Dr. Walsh is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and a co-recipient of the 2010 Welch Prize in Chemistry.

He has been involved in a variety of venture-based biotechnology companies since 1981, including Genzyme, Immunogen, Leukosite, Millenium, Kosan, Vicuron, Epizyme. Currently he is on the board of directors of Ironwood, and Proteostasis, and the non profits: California Institute for Biomedical Research and Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. He is a member of the scientific advisory groups at Hua, Abide, Cidara, and Flex Pharma, an advisor to Health Care Ventures and a limited investor in Health Care Ventures, MPM bioventures, Clarus, and the Longwood Venture Funds. Dr. Walsh received his bachelor degree in biology from Harvard in 1965, and his doctorate degree from Rockefeller University in 1970.

Jin-Quan Yu, PhD _{Scientific Adviser}

Jin-Quan Yu, PhD

Scientific Adviser

Jin-Quan Yu, PhD is the Frank and Bertha Hupp Professor in the Department of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute. Among many honors, in 2016 he was selected as a MacArthur Fellow for his pioneering new techniques for the functionalization of carbon-hydrogen bonds. Dr. Yu’s unconventional approach to C–H functionalization is creating a paradigm shift in the logic of organic synthetic chemistry and breaking down barriers to the development of versatile compounds with enormous benefits to academic, industrial, and pharmaceutical research. Additionally, Dr. Yu was awarded the ACS Elias J. Corey Award for Outstanding Original Contribution in Organic Synthesis by a Young Investigator in 2014.

He received a B.Sc. (1987) from East China Normal University, an M.Sc. (1990) from Guangzhou Institute of Chemistry, and a Ph.D. (1999) from the University of Cambridge. He was a research fellow (1998–2002) and junior faculty member (2003–2004) at the University of Cambridge, postdoctoral fellow (2001–2002) at Harvard University, and assistant professor of chemistry (2004–2007) at Brandeis University prior to his current affiliation with The Scripps Research Institute. His scientific articles have been published in Nature, Science, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, and Nature Chemistry.

Bill Gerwick, PhD _{Scientific Adviser}

Bill Gerwick, PhD

Scientific Adviser

Bill Gerwick, PhD is a Distinguished Professor of Oceanography and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at University of California, San Diego. His research is focused on exploring the unique naturally occurring molecules of marine algae and cyanobacteria for biomedical properties that are useful in treating cancer, inflammation and infectious diseases, as well as agricultural use.

Dr. Gerwick received his bachelor of science in biochemistry from the University of California Davis in 1976 and his doctorate in oceanography from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UCSD in 1981. He held a postdoctoral position in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Connecticut, and then advanced through the ranks to become full professor in 1992 at the College of Pharmacy, Oregon State University. In 2005 he returned to La Jolla to hold a joint professorship at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Dr. Gerwick has presented more than 200 invited lectures and published in excess of 250 scholarly scientific works and book chapters on marine natural products drug discovery and biosynthesis. He has served on the National Institutes of Health Review Committee for natural products research (2003-2007), was the elected Chair of the Gordon Research Conference on Marine Natural Products Chemistry (1996), the elected president of the American Society of Pharmacognosy (2002-3), and received the UCSD Chancellor’s Associates Award for Excellence in Science and Engineering in 2011.

Eduardo Esquenazi, PhD _{Founder, Chief Executive Officer}

Eduardo Esquenazi, PhD

Founder, Chief Executive Officer

Jake Beverage, PharmD _Co-founder

Jake Beverage, PharmD

Co-founder

Phil Baran, PhD _Co-founder

Phil Baran, PhD

Co-founder

OUR VISION

THE TEAM

PIPELINE

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