David Donabedian, PhD

Dr. David Donabedian is the Founding CEO of Newleos and an Executive Partner at Longwood Fund, where he has led several portfolio companies as founding CEO. Dr. Donabedian has over 25 years of professional experience and expertise leading business development and venture teams and has a demonstrated track record of company creation. He has served as co-founder, start-up CEO and/or Founding CEO of several Longwood-founded companies, including Solu Therapeutics, DEM BioPharma, ImmuneID, and Axial Therapeutics, and was a founding executive of Alcyone Therapeutics.

Prior to joining Longwood, Dr. Donabedian held various leadership roles at biopharmaceutical companies including AbbVie and GlaxoSmithKline. At AbbVie, he served as Vice President and Global Head of Ventures and Early-Stage Collaborations where he led a global team that completed significant transactions across multiple therapeutic areas and stages of development. Prior to AbbVie, Dr. Donabedian served as Vice President of Global New Deal Strategy and Development at GlaxoSmithKline, Vice President of Business Development at Surface Logix (sold to Kadmon, acquired by Sanofi, for $1.9B), and Senior Manager at Accenture’s Strategic Services Consulting Group.

Dr. Donabedian holds a B.A. in Chemistry from St. Anselm College, a Ph.D. in Polymer Chemistry from the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and an MBA from the University of North Carolina. He currently serves on the Board of Anuncia Medical and Alcyone Therapeutics.

Federico Bolognani, MD, PhD

Dr. Federico Bolognani is CMO at Newleos. Federico is a physician-scientist with over 25 years of experience in translational neuroscience and rare disease research in academia, pharmaceutical and the biotechnology industries. Most recently, Federico served as the Vice President and Head of Clinical Science at VectivBio, which was acquired by Ironwood Pharmaceuticals in 2023. Prior to VectivBio, Federico was VP and Head of Clinical Science at Therachon, which was acquired by Pfizer in 2019. Prior to Therachon, Federico held various senior-level positions at Roche.  As Translation Medicine Leader, Federico led several of Roche’s programs in neuroscience, including the successful Phase 2 balovaptan program in autism spectrum disorder.

Federico received his Ph.D. and M.D. from Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina and has an extensive scientific publication record in translational neuroscience research. He is also involved with patient advocacy groups and Foundations in the area of neurodevelopmental disorders.

William Martin, PhD

Dr. William Martin is the President of Lotus Clinical Research and has worked as a Senior Advisor to the Longwood Fund since 2019.  Dr. Martin has worked in a variety of roles across the biopharmaceutical industry over the last 25 years, including time as a Clinical Research Coordinator, Study Monitor and Sub-Investigator. Most recently, Dr. Martin served as Senior Medical Director and Product Leader for Vivitrol® and was a Clinical Development Team Leader across several programs, including Lybalvi® while at Alkermes. Prior to Alkermes, Dr. Martin worked in the Clinical Research and Precision Medicine group at Pfizer. Dr. Martin has experience across a broad range of CNS, metabolic and other therapeutic areas and has authored several publications related to his drug development work. In addition to his industry experience, Dr. Martin spent five years working as a clinical researcher at the University of Connecticut Metabolism Unit as well as at a private Urology and Men’s Health clinical trial center.

John McCabe

John McCabe is CFO at Newleos. John brings more than 20 years’ experience to the role and serves as Chief Financial Officer of various Longwood-founded companies, including Solu Therapeutics, DEM BioPharma and Weaver Therapeutics. Prior to these roles, John served as Chief Financial Officer of Oncorus. Prior to joining Oncorus, John served as CFO of Flex Pharma, Inc., (now Salarius Pharmaceuticals, Inc.). Before joining Flex Pharma in 2014, John served as Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer at ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from 2013 to 2014, (acquired by Takeda Pharmaceuticals). Previously, John served as Vice President and Corporate Controller at Charles River Associates from 2009 to 2013 where he was responsible for all aspects of global financial accounting, planning and reporting. John also previously served as Director and Strategic Business Unit Controller at Biogen, managing all accounting and government pricing functions for the U.S. commercial business. John began his career at Arthur Andersen & Co. and later held financial positions at Performance Technologies, Inc. and IP.com

John holds B.S. degrees in accounting and management information systems from Babson College and an M.B.A from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Rob Hadfield

Rob Hadfield is General Counsel and Operating Partner of Longwood Fund, where he oversees all legal matters of the Fund and assists with due diligence, new company formation and operations, and portfolio company management. Rob has extensive executive experience, having served as the general counsel for two public life science companies, with oversight responsibilities of legal matters, intellectual property, business development, and administrative functions. Rob was previously General Counsel of Ziopharm Oncology, Inc. and Flex Pharma, Inc., and Corporate Counsel at Kiva Systems, Inc., prior to its acquisition by Amazon. Rob spent seven years as an attorney in the business department of Cooley LLP and began his career as a financial analyst in the health care investment banking group of Cowen Inc.

Rob holds a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center and a B.S. degree in Finance from Providence College.

Miguel Sobral, PhD

Dr. Miguel Sobral is Head of Strategy & Operations at Newleos and an Associate at Longwood Fund, where he is involved in creating and supporting portfolio companies. Prior to Newleos, he was also a co-founder of Weaver Biosciences.

Before Longwood, Miguel was a Fellow at Vida Ventures, where he performed scientific and clinical diligence on early-to-mid-stage investment opportunities across numerous therapeutic areas. Miguel completed his graduate studies in bioengineering at Harvard University, where he was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow. Prior to his doctorate, Miguel received his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University, where he graduated with honors and received a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship.

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.

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.

Maurizio Fava, MD

Dr. Maurizio Fava is Chair of the Mass General Brigham AMC Psychiatry Department, executive director of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Clinical Trials Network and Institute (CTNI), and the Slater Family Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Fava is a world leader in the field of depression and clinical psychopharmacology. He has edited eight books and authored or co-authored more than 900 original articles published in medical journals with international circulation, articles which have been cited more than 115,000 times in the literature and with an h index greater than 165 on Google Scholar. Dr. Fava obtained his medical degree from the University of Padova School of Medicine and completed residency training in endocrinology at the same university. He then moved to the United States and completed residency training in psychiatry at MGH. He founded and was director of the hospital’s Depression Clinical and Research Program from 1990 until 2014. Under Dr. Fava’s direction, the Depression Clinical and Research Program became one of the most highly regarded depression programs in the country, a model for academic programs that link, in a bi-directional fashion, clinical and research work. In 2007, he also founded and is now the executive director of the MGH Clinical Trials Network and Institute, the first academic CRO specialized in the coordination of multi-center clinical trials in psychiatry.

Gerard Sanacora, MD

Dr. Gerard Sanacora is the Gross Professor of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine, Director of the Yale Depression Research Program, and Co-Director of the Interventional Psychiatry Program at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Dr. Sanacora completed an NIH sponsored Medical Scientist Training Program at the SUNY Stony Brook, earning his Ph.D. in Physiology and Biophysics in 1992 and his M.D. degree in 1994. He later completed the Clinical Neuroscientist Training Program Residency in the Department of Psychiatry, and an NIH funded Neuroimaging Scientist Training Program Fellowship at Yale University. His research has employed both preclinical and clinical studies in attempts to expand our understanding of the pathophysiology of mood disorders and to use this information in developing new approaches for treating and preventing mood disorders. He has served as PI on a broad range of NIH, foundation, and industry sponsored studies. At multiple levels these studies have helped highlight novel pathophysiological mechanisms of the amino acid neurotransmitter systems in relation to mood and neurodegenerative disorders and contributed significantly to the development, testing, and actual clinical application of novel treatment approaches. Most recently he has expanded his focus to more efficiently and cost effectively bring nascent, neuroscience informed treatment approaches to clinical practice. Dr. Sanacora received the Anna-Monkia Stiftung international award for the investigation of the biological substrate and functional disturbances of depression in 2009 and the Joel Elkes Research Award for Outstanding contributions to Psychopharmacology from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology in 2011, and most recently the 2022 Association for Clinical and Translational Sciences award for Team Science for these efforts.