Engineering a new generation of ophthalmic medicines

Anthony Aiudi, PharmD

Anthony Aiudi, Pharm.D., MBA, has been part of the investment team at Morningside Technology Advisory since 2020. He has experience providing operational and managerial oversight to early-stage biotechnology companies. Dr. Aiudi serves on the boards of several biotechnology companies across a broad spectrum of therapeutic areas. He has also facilitated company creation, completed multiple financings for private companies, and provided operational support for portfolio companies. In 2014, Dr. Aiudi completed a Fellowship in Clinical Research at Cubist Pharmaceuticals and Northeastern University, where he was also adjunct faculty. He later was a senior clinical research scientist at Merck & Co. From late 2015-2020, he was a Director at Stealth BioTherapeutics, where he led the clinical development for numerous rare disease programs through their global Phase 3 program and supported the company through its IPO. Dr. Aiudi received his Pharm.D. and MBA from the University of Rhode Island and an MS in Finance from Northeastern University, all with highest distinctions.

Wesley Jackson, PhD

Wesley Jackson, Ph.D., has been actively involved in biotechnology entrepreneurship for over 20 years as a scientist, researcher, and innovator. Dr. Jackson was part of Valitor's founding team and helped to in-license the novel protein-biopolymer conjugation technology, which now forms the basis of Valitor’s MVP platform, from U.C. Berkeley. Since launching Valitor, he has been the principal investigator on nine NIH projects to optimize the manufacturing, characterization, and formulation of multivalent protein conjugate drugs and to evaluate their performance in relevant disease models. Prior to Valitor, Dr. Jackson was a consultant for biotech startups providing expertise in establishing and implementing preclinical and clinical development plans. Prior to his industry tenure, he was a scientist and researcher affiliated with several universities, including U.C. Berkeley, and governmental agencies, such as National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. Dr. Jackson has a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the U.C. San Francisco and U.C. Berkeley, an M.S. in Bioengineering from U.C. San Francisco, and a B.S. in Bioengineering from U.C. Berkeley.

Michael Ostrach, JD

Michael Ostrach is the interim Chief Executive Officer of Valitor. He brings over 40 years of experience managing public, private, commercial and research-based biotechnology companies, including the initiation and execution of numerous public and private financings, partnerships and acquisitions. Mr. Ostrach previously served as the Chief Financial Officer, Chief Business Officer and General Counsel at Dynavax Technologies Corporation, a commercial biopharmaceutical company with a marketed vaccine. Earlier in his career, Mr. Ostrach held leadership roles at several biotechnology companies including Threshold Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Kosan Biosciences, Inc., Neurobiological Technologies, Inc, Chiron Corporation and Cetus Corporation. Since his retirement from Dynavax, Mr. Ostrach has served as an interim senior officer at several private biotechnology companies.

Mr. Ostrach obtained a J.D. from Stanford Law School and a B.A. from Brown University.

Gail Maderis, MBA

Gail Maderis is Chairman and former CEO of Antiva Biosciences, Inc., a venture-backed biopharmaceutical company pioneering topical therapies to treat cervical pre-cancers. Previously, Ms. Maderis led BayBio, Northern California’s life science industry organization. From 2003-2009, she served as President and CEO of Five Prime Therapeutics, a protein discovery company focused on immuno-oncology. Ms. Maderis held senior executive positions at Genzyme Corporation, including founder and president of Genzyme Molecular Oncology (GZMO). Ms. Maderis also practiced management and strategy consulting with Bain & Co. She serves on the corporate boards of DURECT (DRRX), Allarity Therapeutics (ALLR) and Antiva Biosciences, as well as on the non-profit boards of BIO (Emerging Company and Health Sections), CLS, The Termeer Foundation, and the University of California Berkeley Foundation Board of Trustees. She received a B.S. in business from U.C. Berkeley, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Walter Moos, PhD

Walter Moos, Ph.D. is Managing Director of Pandect Bioventures, with more than three decades of experience in executive roles in pharmaceutical and biotechnology organizations. Dr. Moos has served as CEO of ShangPharma Innovation. He has also previously served as president of SRI Biosciences (Stanford Research Institute), where he worked closely with academic, industry and government partners to bring new medicines and devices closer to market. Previously, he was chairman and CEO of MitoKor (Migenix) and a vice president at Chiron (Novartis) and Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis (Pfizer). Dr. Moos has served on numerous boards and as an advisor to government, nonprofit and for-profit organizations, and he has held faculty positions at several major universities, including serving as an adjunct professor of pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of California, San Francisco since 1992. He has served as a consultant to industry in North America, Europe, and Asia, and has worked as an advisor or committee member for organizations including the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and Red Abbey Venture Partners. Dr. Moos has co-founded several scientific journals, co-authored and edited a number of books, and has published and patented widely. He holds an A.B. in chemistry from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in chemistry from U.C. Berkeley.

Haitao Zhu, PhD

Haitao Zhu, Ph.D., is a partner at First Spark Ventures. Prior to joining First Spark, Haitao was a Partner at SVE Capital, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm specializing in investments in early-stage biotech and med-tech companies. Before joining the venture capital world, Haitao was a group leader at Genentech, the US subsidiary of Roche, where she led drug discovery programs from inception to clinical development and evaluated many new technologies as acquisition targets. She is currently an advisor to the Spark Program in Translational Research at Stanford School of Medicine and serves on the boards of a number of startups. Throughout her career, Haitao authored numerous research papers in high profile journals, such as Nature, Cell, and Science Translational Medicine. Haitao trained as a postdoctoral fellow in Neuroscience at Stanford University and holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Stony Brook University.