KUROME’S TEAM

A seasoned business and technical management team with more than 50 years of combined experience in Pharma and Biotech investment and program execution.

Management
Jan Rosenbaum, PhD
President & Chief Executive Officer
  • Engaged by Cincinnati Children's Innovation Ventures to spinout Kurome
  • Over 25 years Pharma, Biotech technical management experience
  • Former CSO, Airway Therapeutics; 5 years CincyTech; Advisory Panel, Harrington Discovery Institute
  • 12 patents and >35 publications

Paul Gaitan
Interim Chief Financial Officer
  • 10+ years CFO experience at small and mid-sized companies
  • Public and private equity portfolio firms
  • Active angel investor via Queen City Angels

Brandi Soldo, PhD
VP, Pharmacology & Toxicology
  • Board-certified toxicologist with 20+ years successful pharmaceutical research and drug development experience
  • Led multiple non-clinical ADME, drug-drug interaction, and toxicology development programs to support small molecule and biologic clinical advancements to NDA
  • Former VP, Toxicology at Aerpio Pharmaceuticals, Sr. Director, Toxicology at Akebia Therapeutics, and multiple roles at Pfizer Global R&D

Mehdi Shahidi, MD
Interim Chief Medical Officer
  • Clinical oncologist with 20+ years’ experience in patient care, academic research and Pharma
  • Broad experience in drug development from translational phase through clinical development, registration and filing.
  • Led multiple regulatory filings and approvals across different therapy areas and major jurisdictions.
  • Former SVP and Chief Medical officer and VP and Head of Oncology at Boehringer Ingelheim
  • Served as member of Innovation Committee of EFPIA, member of board of TransCelerate and member of the R&D Leaders Forum of PhRMA
  • Venture Partner at Medicxi

Gregory Hayes, PhD
Vice President, Translational Medicine
  • Over 20 years biotech and pharma clinical experience
  • Translational strategy lead on diverse programs including small molecules, biologics, and gene therapies
  • Responsible for development and approval of 2 companion diagnostics
  • 3 patents and over 30 publications

Mike Pistone
Vice President, Business Development
  • 15+ years biotech and venture business development experience
  • Led Business Development & Alliance Management at Enable Injections (combination product drug delivery); Led Accelerator and New Ventures at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital($3B+ academic medical center)

Scientific Advisory Board
Daniel Starczynowski, PhD
Scientific Founder & Chairman
  • Katherine Stewart Waters Endowed Chair and Professor, Experimental Hematology and Cancer Biology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH
  • Co-Leader of the Hematologic Malignancies Program at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH
  • Recipient of American Society of Hematology Scholar Award, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Scholar Award, NIH-NHLBI Emerging Investigator R35 Award, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center Research Achievement Award, and Forty under 40 (Cincinnati Business Courier).
  • Serves on advisory committees for MDS Research Fund of the Dresner Foundation, Department of Defense BMF Program, and the National MDS Study.
  • >10 patents and >65 publications on the intersection of inflammation, innate immune signaling, and hematologic malignancies with an emphasis on myelodysplastic syndromes and acute myeloid leukemia.

John C. Byrd, MD
  • Department Chair, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine; Gordon and Helen Hughes Taylor Endowed Chair & Professor
  • Chief Medical Officer, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Beat AML LLC
  • 20+ years of translational and clinical drug development experience that led to 7 drugs receiving FDA approval
  • Experience running multi-center umbrella studies in AML that bring together academic clinical investigators, diagnostic companies, pharmaceutical companies, clinical research organizations and the FDA to effectively move new therapies forward to the clinic

Guillermo Garcia-Manero, MD
  • Deputy Chair, Department of Leukemia; Chief, Section of Myelodysplastic Syndromes and Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia (MDS-CMML), University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
  • Director, Leukemia Clinical Fellowship Program, Department of Leukemia, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
  • Director, MDS/AML Moon Shot ®, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
  • Chair, Faculty Senate, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
  • 700+ publications in the areas of biology, therapy, and prognostication of leukemias and hematological neoplasms, and development and implementation of 85+ therapeutic clinical trials

Mikkael A. Sekeres, MD, MS
  • Chief, Division of Hematology, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine – Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center
  • Former Chair of the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee of the F.D.A
  • Chair, Medical Advisory Board of the Aplastic Anemia and Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) International Foundation, the MDS Research Fund of the Dresner Foundation, and the Cleveland Clinic Enterprise Pharmacy & Therapeutics Committee
  • He is the author or co-author of over 350 manuscripts and 550 abstracts published in leading journals such as NEJM, Blood, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Nature Genetics, Cancer Cell, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Journal of Clinical Investigation, PLoS One, and Leukemia.
  • Inaugural editor-in-chief of the ASH Clinical News magazine; he is on the editorial board of several journals; has written over 50 essays for The New York Times; and has authored 7 books, including the recently released When Blood Breaks Down: Lessons from Leukemia (MIT Press, March 17, 2020

Ross L. Levine, MD
  • Chief, Molecular Cancer Medicine Service, Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
  • Attending Physician on the Leukemia Service, Department of Medicine, the Laurence Joseph Dineen Chair in Leukemia Research and a Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College
  • A physician-scientist whose laboratory focuses on elucidating the genetic basis of myeloid malignancies and using this knowledge to improve outcomes for patients with these disorders. His primary research interests include the role of JAK-STAT signaling in malignant transformation and in the effects of mutations in epigenetic modifiers in clonal hematopoiesis, MPN, and AML
  • Recipient of the Dameshek Prize from the American Society of Hematology, a Scholar Award from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the Boyer Award for Clinical Investigation from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and an NCI Outstanding Investigator R35 Award
  • Serves on the Supervisory Board of Qiagen and on the Scientific Advisory Board of C4 Therapeutics, Isoplexis, Mana Therapeutics and was on the Scientific Advisory Board of Loxo Oncology.

Board of Directors
Jan Rosenbaum, PhD
President & Chief Executive Officer
  • Engaged by CCHMC’s Innovation Ventures to establish value proposition and business case
  • Over 25 years Pharma, Biotech technical management experience
  • Former CSO, Airway Therapeutics; 5 years CincyTech; Advisory Panel, Harrington Discovery Institute
  • 12 patents and >35 publications

John Rice, PhD
Executive Chairman
  • Managing Director, CincyTech
  • 30 years investing, 13 years R&D management experience
  • Currently Chairman, Airway Therapeutics, Eccrine Systems, Genetesis, Xact Medical
  • Member of the Board: Enable Injections, Meridian Biosciences
  • Founder & Former Chair, Akebia and Aerpio

Manish Bhandari, MD
Board Member
  • Oncologist, educated Harvard Medical School & Univ of Michigan; with 15 year oncology practice experience
  • Investigator in over 24 oncology therapeutic/targeted therapy trials in malignant hematology and Oncology
  • Awarded "Unsung Hero" award by Cancer Family care and "Lifetime achievement award" as Oncology Luminary for cancer susceptibility testing
  • Over dozen publications in Oncology and malignant hematology
  • Angel investor in over half dozen biotech and medtech startups (Blinkpad, Zenspace, Enable injections, Blue Water Vaccines, SayanMil Scientific)
  • Oncology patient motivational speaker

Daniel Heller, MS, MBA
Board Member
  • General Partner and Chief Investment Officer, Affinity Asset Advisors
  • Former Director of Research, Perceptive Advisors
  • Founding Board Member, Silagene Inc.
  • Over 15 years buy-side and sell-side Biotech investment experience

Giovanni Mariggi, PhD
Board Member
  • Partner, Medicxi
  • Board Member: Vaderis, Gadeta, Aura Biosciences, and others
  • Former Principal: Index Ventures
  • Cancer Research UK’s London Research Institute (now the Crick Institute)

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