Company Management:
Ron Lahav, PhD. Chief Executive Officer. Held the position of Project Director in the siRNA-based company Quark Pharmaceuticals where he was involved in several projects involving novel non-invasive delivery of siRNA to various target organs and also functioned in several managerial positions until leaving Quark in 2010 to lead Quiet Therapeutics. Prior to his employment at Quark, Ron functioned as a Senior Scientist in the Canadian company Anormed. Ron has a PhD in Molecular Biology from the Ben Gurion University, Israel and Post Doctoral experience at the Dept of Molecular Biology at Princeton University.
Evgenia Alpert, MD, PhD: Head of Research. Held the position of Project Director and Director of siRNA Pharmacology at Quark Pharmaceuticals where she was involved in the development of several projects including novel non-invasive siRNA delivery systems. Evgenia received her MD degree and is trained as a pediatric surgeon. She received her PhD from the Dept of Pharmacology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and was a Post Doctoral Fellow at the Department of Physiology, University of California San Francisco.
Board Of Directors:
Silvia Noiman, PhD, MBA: Executive Chairperson of the Board. Dr. Noiman is a seasoned entrepreneur and executive manager with over 19 years of experience in the biotech industry. Dr. Noiman founded Predix Pharmaceuticals Inc that merged with Epix Pharmaceuticals Inc. and served as its Senior Vice President, Global Pipeline Management taking direct responsibility for the entire drug discovery and development programs of the company taking 4 small molecule oral drugs to clinical development and securing collaborations with leading Pharma and biotech companies.
Prof Dan Peer, PhD: Founder and Inventor- Prof Peer is a principal investigator and Associate Professor that leads an NIH-funded laboratory at Tel Aviv University, Israel. Dan completed his education in biochemistry and biophysics from Tel Aviv University, Israel. From January 2005 to August 2008, he worked at Harvard Medical School. He joined the Department of Cell Research and Immunology, in the Faculty of life sciences at Tel Aviv University in September 2008 to establish the laboratory of nanomedicine. Dan’s research was between the first to demonstrate systemic delivery of RNAi using targeted nano-carriers to the immune system and the first to utilize RNAi for in vivo validation of new drug targets within the immune system. His work was published in premier scientific journals and he is the editor and author of several books in the field of nanomedicine. In addition, he is an associate editor of Journal of Biomedical Nanotechnology, and on the editorial board of the journals Nanotechnology, Nano letters and Reviews, the Journal of Controlled Release and BioMEMs and Biomedical Nanotechnology. Dan has received more than 20 awards and honors and he holds 38 pending and granted patents. He co-founded 2 companies based on his work and aims to bring the area of Nanomedicine into clinical practice.
Joe Vallner, PhD: Founder. Dr. Vallner had served as Interim CEO of Lumera Corporation since August 2007 and as a director since June 2006. From November 2006 until July 2007, Dr. Vallner was President and CEO of Capnia, Inc. a private company developing novel therapeutic products using its proprietary medical gas delivery system. From 1999 until 2006, he was President and CEO of Cell Genesys, Inc., a biotechnology company, where he was responsible for the research, development, manufacturing, clinical, regulatory and operations departments. Prior to this Joe was COO of Sequus from 1982-1995 where he was instrumental in the development of Doxil.
Ran Nussbaum: Mr. Nussbaum is a managing partner and the co-founder of The Pontifax Group, who has established two funds with $120M under management and over 30 portfolio companies. Over the past 7 years, Ran has been managing the group’s activity alongside Mr. Kariv. He also served as CEO of Biomedix and Spearhead as well as Nasvax’s Chairman of the Board. Prior to joining Pontifax, he was a partner at Israel’s largest business intelligence and strategic consulting firm. Ran’s real life experience in the life sciences arena coupled with a 10-year experience in the business intelligence field create a unique blend of skills, enabling him to support companies from inception to commercialization. His work revolves around constant and active involvement in companies, providing them with strategic and business development oversight. Ran serves as a board member of many of the group’s portfolio companies including Collplant, Protab, AIT, cCam Biotherapeutics Ltd, Fusimab Ltd ,Omer Therapeutics Ltd
Sarit Soccary Ben-Yochanan: During her career, Sarit gained vast experience in investment management in the Healthcare and other sectors; leading market and technology due diligence and working with entrepreneurs to establish companies.
Prior to managing GEFEN Biomed Investments, Sarit served as ATI CEO. Previously, Sarit was one of the founding members of L Capital, a NY based VC, heading its Israeli office. She was responsible for Israeli related investments, establishing a US base for these companies. Prior to L Capital, in 1999, she was Senior Associate for Shalom Equity Fund, an early stage VC fund. In 1997 she was a Senior Consultant for Trigger Consulting LTD, a leading business consulting firm in Israel, where she led the strategy and implementation process for a few large corporations in various fields. In 1996 she was Program Manager for Herriot Watt MBA Program in Israel. Sarit holds an MA and BA in Economics from Tel Aviv University
