Christoph Westphal, MD, PhD

Dr. Westphal is co-founder and General Partner of Longwood Fund and has spent over 20 years as a biotech CEO, entrepreneur, and investor. Dr. Westphal has been the co-founder, CEO, and lead investor of seven biotechnology companies that have completed initial public offerings (IPOs) and created sustained market value of over $50 billion and have developed and received FDA approval for over 10 important drugs, including the first RNA medicines. These include: Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: MNTA, acquired by J&J in 2020), Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALNY), Acceleron Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: XLRN, acquired by Merck in 2021), Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRT, acquired by GSK in 2008), Verastem (NASDAQ: VSTM), and TScan Therapeutics (NASDAQ: TCRX). Dr. Westphal was also co-founder of Alnara Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Eli Lilly in 2010); co-founder/CEO of DEM Bio Pharma; co-founder/CEO of Immunitas Therapeutics; co-founder/Chair of Solu Therapeutics; co-founder of Pyxis Oncology (NASDAQ: PYXS); and co-founder of Concert Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: CNCE, acquired by Sun Pharma in 2023). Dr. Westphal and Longwood partners have founded over 20 biotech companies, receiving FDA approval for over 20 important drugs, and created sustained market caps of over $150 billion in aggregate.

Dr. Westphal earned his M.D. from Harvard Medical School, his Ph.D. in genetics from Harvard University, and graduated with a B.A. summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University.

Ming Cheah, PhD

Ming Cheah, PhD, is a Vice President in Life Sciences Investing at Goldman Sachs Alternatives with 20 years’ experience in venture investing, biopharma, and academic research within the life sciences. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Dr. Cheah was a Principal at Pivotal bioVenture Partners, where he led investments in and was on the boards of private biotechnology companies. Previously, he worked in business development, search and evaluation, and competitive intelligence at Roche and Genentech and served as a consultant at McKinsey & Company advising life sciences companies on M&A.  Dr. Cheah currently serves as a member of the board of directors for Ajax Therapeutics, and board observer for TORL BioTherapeutics and Attovia Therapeutics. He earned his PhD in Immunology from Stanford University and his MS and BS in Biology from Yale University.

Raymond Camahort, PhD

Raymond Camahort, Ph.D., is Partner at Novo Holdings Venture Investments. He has over 15 years of combined investment, business, and research experience, with expertise in biochemistry, genetics, and gene therapy/editing.

Prior to joining Novo Ventures, Ray worked in business development at the Harvard University Office of Technology Development where his role was to help facilitate commercialization of technologies developed in the chemistry and stem cell/regenerative biology departments.

Ray has served on the Board of Directors of numerous companies, including Ray Therapeutics, Arcellx, Inspirna, iECURE, Riva Therapeutics, and OnCusp Therapeutics. He completed a National Institute of Health post-doctoral training fellowship at Harvard University and was a pre-doctoral fellow at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, Missouri. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas in biochemistry and molecular biology and a B.S. in biological sciences from the University of California Santa Barbara.

Steve Brannan, MD

Dr. Brannan is the former CMO at Karuna Therapeutics and a neuroscience drug development expert who has held senior positions overseeing both clinical development and medical affairs with more than 20 years of industry experience.  Previously, Dr. Brannan was the Therapeutic Head of Neuroscience at Takeda and Vice President for Clinical Research and Medical Affairs at Forum Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Brannan has been active in the development of multiple important central nervous system treatments including Cymbalta, Exelon Patch, Trintellix, and VNS for Treatment Resistant Depression while holding various senior roles at Forum, Takeda, Novartis, Cyberonics, and Eli Lilly. Dr. Brannan worked on the faculty at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA) and trained in psychiatry at UTHSCSA.  He holds a M.D. degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Dallas (Southwestern Medical School) and has over 60 publications and routinely gives invited talks and presentations at industry conferences.

John Hamer, PhD

John Hamer, PhD is Managing Director at DCVC Bio. Prior to co-founding DCVC Bio, Dr. John Hamer was a VP at Monsanto and Managing Director of Monsanto Growth Ventures (MGV). Before joining MGV, Dr. Hamer was a Managing Director at Burrill & Company. Prior to his career in venture capital, Dr. Hamer was an entrepreneur, initially at Paradigm Genetics, where he joined as a visiting scientist before becoming Chief Science Officer and eventually President and CEO following the company’s IPO. After Paradigm, he founded and served as CEO of Arête Therapeutics, which earned backing from leading life science venture firms.

Dr. Hamer started his career in academia, rising to the rank of Full Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Purdue University, where he was a David and Lucille Packard Fellow and an NSF Presidential Faculty Fellow. Dr. Hamer received a B.Sc. and an M.Sc. from the University of Windsor and a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of California, Davis.

Pini Orbach, PhD

Dr. Pini Orbach joined Arkin in 2010 and is a Managing Partner overseeing Arkin Bio Ventures and Arkin Bio Capital Funds. Pini has more than 20 years of industry experience as a drug developer and investor and has incubated, invested in and supported numerous biopharmaceuticals companies, including cCAM Biotherapeutics, Redpin Therapeutics, Keros Therapeutics (KROS), Biosight, Cense Pharmaceuticals, UroGen Pharma (URGN) and Human Immunology Biosciences (HiBio).

In his previous roles, Dr. Orbach was the CEO of Israeli-based companies such as Optimata Ltd. and CytoD and worked for U.S.-based companies such as Arisaph Pharmaceuticals and Epix Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: EPIX), among others.

Pini holds a Ph.D. in Physiology and Functional Genomics from the University of Florida and completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the Cardiovascular Research Center (CVRC), Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital.