Management
Lisa McKerracher, Ph.D. , Chief Executive Officer
Dr. McKerracher is a serial entrepreneur and recognized leader in regenerative medicine and translational neuroscience. Dr. McKerracher has 15 years experience in academic research, holding faculty positions at McGill University and Université de Montréa, before leaving a tenured position to follow her passion as a full-time biotechnology executive. She currently serves on an advisory committee for the International Space Station and the Leaders Council for Open Science at the Montreal Neurological Institute, has contributed to past steering committees. She is a past Advisory Board Member to the Institute of Mental Health, Addiction and Neurological Disorders of CIHR. Widely recognized for her work on spinal cord injury and neurotrauma, Dr. McKerracher received the Christopher Reeve medal in 2000. She holds an adjunct position at McGill University.
Krista McKerracher, MBA. , Business Advisor
Krista McKerracher is a biopharmaceutical leader, Board member and strategic advisor with over 40 years’ experience in both large global pharmaceutical and small biotech companies. Ms. McKerracher is currently Founder of FIG Advisory LLC focused on advising early-stage companies on strategy and business development. Additionally, she serves on the Board of Nervgen (TSXV: NGEN, OTCQX: NEGF) and is Board Chair at Genialis, a private AI-driven precision oncology company, and is a business development advisor to Cureleads, an integrated pharmaceutical company serving Middle East and North Africa markets. Her last corporate role was VP, Head of Hemoglobinopathy Programs at CRISPR Therapeutics where she led the team that developed CASGEVY, the first CRISPR gene-edited approved product. Prior to CRISPR Therapeutics, she was VP & Global Program Franchise Head at Novartis where she led a global cross-functional drug development team. She also held a series of commercial roles for over 14 years at the Johnson & Johnson family of companies. Ms. McKerracher holds a BSc. in Applied Health Studies from the University of Waterloo and an MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University.
Pierre Caouette, Chief Operating Officer
Mr. Caouette is a serial entrepreneur who has expertise in leading company strategy in various industries that include biotechnology, clean technology and computer technology. Mr. Caouette’s background is in computer science, mechanical and electrical engineering and aviation. He was an airline captain for the 8th largest airline, where his computer and mechanical engineering skills were called upon at a management level. Mr. Caouette was an early entrant to computer technology and founded Hexadecimal Canada Inc. (Hexacan), a computer hardware company that he sold to a public company in 1990. Mr. Caouette co-Founded BioAxone as seedd investor. He oversees corporate strategy and finance.
Cathy Sohn, Pharm.D. , Business Advisor
Dr. Sohn has deep industry knowledge with thirty years of U.S. and global experience in the pharmaceutical industry, and a reputation as a strategic thinker with the ability to drive collaboration and a strong interface between research and development and marketing. She was named ‘Woman of the Year’ by the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association in 2003, ‘Distinguished Alumnus’ by University of California San Francisco (2000) and has received the Licensing Executive Society’s ‘Frank Barnes Mentoring Award’ (2009) and the HBA Euro-Excellence Award (2012). From 1998 to 2010, Dr. Sohn was Senior Vice President for Worldwide Business Development for GlaxoSmithKline’s $6 billion Consumer Healthcare division where she served on the Global Executive Committee and led numerous US, global, European and Japanese transactions and integrations. She is past independent Director at Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc (JAZZ) and Landec Corporation (LNDC), both publicly-traded life science companies, as well as Rubius Therapeutics and BioEclipse Therapeutics, both privately held biotech companies. She holds the position of Adjunct Professor at the University of California, San Francisco where she received the Doctor of Pharmacy Degree and completed a clinical residency.
Ronald Goldstein, MBA, Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Goldstein is an expert finance professional with more than 35 years of strategic and entrepreneurial experience in accounting, tax, IPOs, SEC reporting, and general financial and business management. His broad experience includes partner of a successful CPA practice, and CFO of a NYSE company. He has worked with many of the major investment banking houses. For the past 10 years he has worked and consulted with startup biopharmaceutical and tech companies. He has an MBA (Finance) from Boston University School of Management and a B.S. / B.A from Boston University (Accounting).
Nigel Brown, MBA., Ph.D. , Business Advisor
Dr. Brown has over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical, research sectors. Trained as an analytical chemist, Dr. Brown joined what is now Pfizer, Inc. (NYSE: PFE) to develop analytical methods in support of clinical drug metabolism and pharmacokinetic studies then moved to GlaxoSmithKline plc (LSE: GSK) where he introduced LC/MS/MS technology for quantitative drug bioanalysis. Dr. Brown later went on to manage the non-clinical research divisions of Phoenix International Life Sciences (NASDAQ: PHXI) and then MDS, Inc. (TSE: MDS). Dr. Brown then shifted his focus to deal-making in the pharmaceutical R&D sector, and has executed more than 20 deals spanning acquisition, divestiture, and strategic partnerships with combined transaction value in excess of $2.5 billion. He served as Corporate Vice President of Business Development and Strategy for Covance, Inc. (NYSE: CVD) based in Princeton where he executed 19 transactions, including the CRO industry’s largest strategic pharma partnership with Sanofi-Aventis valued at $2.2 Billion and the strategic sale of Covance to LabCorp for $6.2 Billion. Currently, Dr. Brown is a Partner at Trevi Health Capital. He is a past Chairman of the Board for BioAxone.
Scientific Advisory Board
Mark Bear, Ph.D.
Dr. Mark Bear is a Picower Professor of Neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, and a past Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Dr. Bear served as Director of The Picower Institute from 2007 to 2009. Prior to moving to MIT in 2003, Dr. Bear was on the faculty of Brown University School of Medicine for 17 years. After receiving his B.S. degree from Duke University, he earned his Ph.D. degree in neurobiology at Brown. He took postdoctoral training from Wolf Singer at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, Germany, and from Leon Cooper at Brown. Bear’s laboratory has substantially advanced knowledge of how cerebral cortex is modified by experience. Dr. Bear has made fundamental discoveries on bidirectional synaptic plasticity, metaplasticity, the molecular basis of amblyopia (a cause of visual disability in children), and the pathophysiology of fragile X syndrome (the most common inherited cause of intellectual disability and autism). Dr. Bear has won multiple awards that include the United States Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, The Society for Neuroscience Young Investigator Award, the Brown University Class of 2000 Barrett Hazeltine Citation for Teaching Excellence, the William and Enid Rosen Award for Outstanding Contributions to Understanding Fragile X Syndrome, National Fragile X Foundation Pioneer Award, and the Ray Fuller Award, American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. Dr. Bear been at the forefront of the efforts to translate knowledge of synaptic plasticity into new treatments for autism and amblyopia.
Dennis Choi, MD., Ph.D.
Dr. Dennis Choi is past Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurology and Director of the Neurosciences Institute at Stony Brook University. Prior positions have included Executive Vice President at the Simons Foundation, Vice President for Academic Health Affairs at Emory University, Executive Vice President for Neuroscience at Merck Research Labs, and Head of Neurology at Washington University Medical School. Dr. Choi received his M.D. from the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Program, as well as a Ph.D. in pharmacology and neurology training from Harvard. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and member of the National Academy of Medicine. He has served previously as President of the Society for Neuroscience, Vice-President of the American Neurological Association, and has served on many other prestigious committees. In his early work, Dr. Choi was co-discoverer of the mechanism of benzodiazepine drugs, a class of drugs used to treat conditions such as seizures, anxiety and muscle spasms. Dr. Choi is a pioneer in dissecting processes responsible for pathological neurodegeneration, and has been a pioneer in developing the field of neuroprotection and identifying mechanisms responsible for nervous system injury in disease states, especially ischemia and trauma, and developing therapeutic countermeasures. Dr Choi was a key scientist to unravel the importance of excitotoxicity and calcium overload in neuronal degeneration, and to later contributed to understanding programmed cell death and disturbances in the homeostasis of other ions, including potassium and zinc.
Guy Rouleau, MD, Ph.D.
Dr. Guy Rouleau is the Director of the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, and the Chair of the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill University. Dr. Rouleau received his MD (Magna Cum Laude) in 1980 from the University of Ottawa and a PhD in 1989 in Genetics at Harvard University; his clinical training in Neurology was conducted at McGill University from 1980-1985. Dr Rouleau was a faculty member at McGill University for 15 years before he moved to the University of Montreal, where he created the Center for Excellence in Neuroscience and became Director of the Ste-Justine Hospital Research Center. He returned to McGill in 2013 to take up his current positions. Dr. Rouleau has received numerous awards, including the Michael Smith Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Prix du Québec – Wilder Penfield from the Government of Québec. He was made an Officer of the National Order of Québec. He is or was a member of many Scientific Advisory Boards and also Director on the boards of Xenon Genetics Inc, Emerillon Therapeutics Inc, Biocapital Inc. Over the last 25 years, Dr. Rouleau’s work has focused on understanding the genetic basis for diseases of the brain. He contributed to the identification of disease-causing genes including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, restless legs syndrome, familial aneurysms, cavernous angiomas, epilepsy, spinocerebellar ataxia, spastic paraplegia, autism, Tourette syndrome, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. His laboratory endeavors to understand the pathogenesis disease using cell and animal models.