Back to Careers

JOSEPH MILETICH, MD, PHD

linkedin-icon-green

Joseph Miletich, MD, PhD, is a former SVP, Research Sciences, at Merck. He has more than 20 years of combined experience at Merck and Amgen leading programs through Discovery Research, Preclinical Development and Translational Medicine/Early Development. At both companies, Dr. Miletich focused on building teams and investing in technologies, partnerships and acquisitions to enable capitalizing on new insights into biology regardless of therapeutic area or modality. Dr. Miletech currently serves as advisor and board director to several companies and firms.

Most recently, Dr. Miletich was Merck Research Laboratories’ senior vice president of research sciences and is currently senior scientific advisor to Merck’s CEO, an advisor to Recursion, and a director to Flame Biosciences, among other roles. . Prior to his last 8+  years at Merck Research Laboratories, Dr. Miletich served as senior vice president of research and development at Amgen. 

Dr. Miletich received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Washington University in St. Louis and pursued clinical training in internal medicine at the University of California in San Francisco. Subsequently he joined the faculty at Washington University, pursued subspecialty training in clinical hematology and in laboratory medicine, and developed a leading research effort in hemostasis and thrombosis. Over a 17 year career, he rose through the ranks to become Professor of Medicine and Pathology and Head of the Division of Laboratory Medicine at Washington University, in which capacity he was responsible for the combined laboratories of the Barnes-Jewish Hospital system, one of the nation’s largest clinical laboratories.

Learn more about Joseph

LinkedIn

Back to Careers

Nicholas E. Johnson, MD, MSCI, FAAN

linkedin-icon-green

Nicholas E. Johnson, MD, MSCI, FAAN is an associate professor, division chief of neuromuscular, and vice chair of research in the department of neurology at Virginia Commonwealth University with a focus in inherited neuromuscular disorders. He received his undergraduate degree in molecular and cellular biology and psychology at the University of Arizona. He then obtained his medical degree at the University of Arizona. He completed his neurology residency and combined fellowship in neuromuscular medicine and experimental therapeutics at the University of Rochester. His laboratory is focused on identifying the pathogenesis of myotonic dystrophy, the limb girdle muscular dystrophies, and facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy and identifying appropriate clinical endpoints for these conditions. Johnson conducts therapeutic trials in many other inherited nerve and muscle disorders.

Research Expertise

Translational laboratory focused on identifying genetic modifiers across muscular dystrophies, and developing clinical endpoints and patient reported outcomes for myotonic dystrophy, facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy, and the limb girdle muscular dystrophy. The laboratory uses cellular models to identify changes in RNA splicing in myotonic dystrophy.

Learn more about Dr. Johnson

LinkedIn
VCU

Back to Careers

Mike Nohaile, PhD

linkedin-icon-green

Mike Nohaile, PhD, is Chief Executive Officer at Prellis Biologics and former Senior Vice President of Strategy, Commercialization & Innovation at Amgen Inc. Dr. Nohaile joined Amgen as Vice President of Strategy in December 2012. Prior to Amgen, he served as the Head and General Manager of the Molecular Diagnostics Business Unit at Novartis. He served Novartis as the Head of Corporate Strategy and Head of Pharmaceutical Strategy.

Mike began his career at McKinsey & Company, as partner in the New Jersey office, where he worked extensively in the healthcare area with a particular focus on diagnostics, devices and pharmaceuticals. He has a doctorate in molecular and cell biology from University of California, Berkeley and he was a postdoctoral fellow at MIT in the Department of Biology.

Learn more about Mike

LinkedIn

Back to Careers

John W. Day, MD, PhD

linkedin-icon-green

Since 2011 John has been Professor of Neurology, Pediatrics (Genetics) and Pathology at Stanford University, where he is Director of the Division of Neuromuscular Medicine. He received his MD from the University of Minnesota, and PhD in Neuroscience from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he studied neuronal electrophysiology, synaptic physiology and plasticity.  After completing neurology and neuromuscular training at UCSF, he was Professor of Neurology, Pediatrics and Genetics at the University of Minnesota, where he founded and directed the Paul and Sheila Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Center. 

John has investigated the genetic causes and multisystemic effects of neuromuscular disorders and has more than 35 years of experience designing and directing clinical trials of novel therapeutics.  He spearheaded clinical research on spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) at Stanford, which resulted in the approval of antisense and AAV-gene replacement treatments, and led to nationwide newborn screening for SMA and institution of neonatal genetic treatment.

Learn more about John

LinkedIn

Back to Careers

Bernard (Barney) D. King, MD, MBA, RAC (US, EU)

linkedin-icon-green

Dr. King brings more than 25 years’ experience managing business and development operations in the pharmaceutical, medical device, biotechnology and CRO (Contract Research Organization) industries.  Leveraging his expertise in life science product development planning and execution and in due diligence consulting for venture capital, investment, and pharmaceutical firms, Dr. King provides strategic guidance on Juvena’s clinical development and medical affairs programs.

Prior to his role at Juvena, Dr. King directed, or has been directly involved in, development programs for more than 100 pharmaceutical, medical device and biologics products across diverse f therapeutic areas and overseen more than 250 clinical trials globally – experiences he captures in his book “Get It Right The First Time! Pharmaceutical Product Development: Intelligent Solutions for Challenging Issues.” 

Dr. King graduated cum laude from the University of Notre Dame, majoring in English and Preprofessional Studies, and received his MD from the Ohio State University College of Medicine. He is board certified in Cardiology and Internal Medicine. He received his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Learn more about Bernard

LinkedIn

Back to Careers

Tina Duong PT, PHD

linkedin-icon-green


Tina Duong is the Director of clinical outcomes research and development at Stanford University Neuromuscular division. Clinically, she is a physical therapist with 20 years of clinical experience in evaluating, treating and validating clinical outcomes for patients with neuromuscular disease. 

Her clinical and research interests are in developing, refining and understanding impacts of muscle imbalances and pathology on function and performance. Her work has contributed to improved understanding and characterization of disease phenotypes impacting clinical trial design and care management.

Currently, her research focuses on the effect of exercise and physical activity on human movement and disease physiology. She hopes to integrate technology and digital biomarkers as a complementary tool to performance based measures used in trials, in the clinic and remotely. She enjoys working on collaborative diverse inter-disciplinary teams, mentorship and creating patient focused solutions to improve the quality of life for individuals with neuromuscular disease.

Learn more about Tina

LinkedIn

Back to Careers

Peter Jackson, PhD

linkedin-icon-green

Peter Jackson is a Professor in the Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Jackson returned to Stanford in 2013 after eight years as a Staff Scientist and Director at Genentech Inc. in S. San Francisco, California. At Genentech, he helped define and implement the development of therapeutics for cancer pathways including cell cycle checkpoints, stress pathways, and tumor metabolism. Before joining Genentech in 2005, he spent 10 years on the faculty at Stanford University School of Medicine. His laboratory has been involved in studies of cell cycle biochemistry, regulation of the cancer by kinases and phosphatases, the ubiquitin-proteasome system, and the discovery of a new physiological class of competitive (“pseudosubstrate”) E3 ubiquitin ligase inhibitors, exemplified by the APC/C regulator Emi1.

Since 2005, his lab has focused on signaling through the primary cilium, using proteomic approaches to define regulatory networks and new disease genes. More broadly, the lab has connected many proteins defective in human diseases and cancer to new complexes and pathways, with a view to discovering molecular signatures for diagnostics and therapeutic development. His research has earned him numerous visiting lectureships and honors, including awards from the Baxter Foundation, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the American Cancer Society, the Pluto Society, and being a Stanford Hume Faculty Scholar and a Kirsch Scholar, and elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (in 2008).

Learn more about Peter

LinkedIn
Stanford School of Medicine

Back to Careers

Christopher Kirk, PhD

linkedin-icon-green

Christopher Kirk, PhD is an independent director, scientific and strategic advisor to Juvena Therapeutics. He is the  co-founder, President and Chief Scientific Officer of Kezar Life Sciences, a publicly traded company developing first-in-class, small molecule therapies designed to inhibit multiple disease-driving cellular pathways by targeting key intracellular proteins. Dr. Kirk is an immunologist and tumor biologist by training. Prior to founding Kezar, he was the Vice President of Research at Onyx Pharmaceuticals where he played a key leadership role in the discovery and development of 2 proteasome inhibitors, including carfilzomib (KYPROLIS™), currently approved for the treatment of multiple myeloma. Dr. Kirk has authored multiple publications in several select journals including Cell, Nature Medicine, and Nature Reviews and is listed as an inventor on over 40 patents. He sits on the scientific advisory board at C4 Therapeutics, Avidity Biosciences, Rain Therapeutics, the Institute of Applied Clinical Science at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center as well as the leadership council of the Life Sciences Institute of the University of Michigan.

Dr. Kirk received his B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of California, Davis, and his Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Michigan.

Learn more about Christopher

LinkedIn
Christopher Kirk, PhD

Back to Careers

Jeff Welch

linkedin-icon-green

Jeff Welch has over 30 years of CMC experience in the process development, GMP manufacturing and facilities, and regulatory documentation.

In Jeff’s most recent role as a consultant he has had responsibility for authoring and reviewing regulatory filing sections related to process development and product characterization.

Over the past decade Jeff has focused on his role as a senior director for drug substance (DS) process development and director over process engineering and operations for a specialty pharmaceutical company working in biologics and vaccines and as a CDMO organization.

Jeff has also served as a project manager for large scale manufacturing and technology transfer projects and filled the DS team leader role. After a lead role in engineering and construction, he served as a senior manager over the start up effort for a stainless steel cell culture facility (1600 L scale), where he hired and managed personnel and led a 7-day-a-week cGMP manufacturing operation for the upstream portion.

In his early career he participated in design of a multi-product manufacturing facility and after start-up performed process fit and technology transfer activities for several microbial, yeast and cell culture products.

Learn more about Jeff Welch

LinkedIn

Back to Careers

Shari-Anne Burgess, RN

linkedin-icon-green

Shari Burgess brings over 25 years of clinical experience to the life science and healthcare industry working in a variety of indications such as but not limited to oncology, neuromuscular disorders, rare disease, regenerative medicine, burn and wound care and orthopedics. She is the Chief Clinical Operations Lead in her clinical consulting company, Clinsytes Inc., a  niche clinical consulting company that provides global  clinical operation insights and solutions for small to midsize life science companies for the improvement of clinical operational performance and delivery of measurables in drug/device development, trial management and business development strategies. Previous to Clinsytes, Shari held senior management roles at CROs and medical/biotech companies.

Learn more about Shari-Anne

LinkedIn