William (Bill) Amsbaugh is a Partner and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Cure Ventures where he heads the firm’s bioinformatics efforts. His career spans 25 years across a variety of technical domains combining his training as an analytical chemist with his expertise in computer science. Bill has been focused on accelerating drug discovery and commercialization utilizing advanced algorithms and architecture across a wide variety of organizations within the biotechnology venture ecosystem.

From 2013 to 2021, Bill has been CTO and co-founder of Precision Health Software. Bill was working with biotech startups leveraging machine learning and AI on the AWS platform to find novel insights within scientific and genetic data. During this period Bill also served as an architect developing a solution for analyzing, annotating somatic variants with The Jackson Laboratory’s Center for Genomic Medicine.

In 2008 to 2013, Bill was working with Third Rock Ventures’ (TRV) portfolio company, Constellation Pharmaceuticals building fully automated HTS platforms for a collaboration with Roche/Genentech. He also advised other portfolio companies on IT/Informatics strategies consulting for other TRV companies such as Intellia Therapeutics, Editas Medicine, Sage Therapeutics, in areas of informatics, IT design, and software vendor selection. He previously managed informatics at Gene Logic annotating transcriptional databases and aggregating data to facilitate the mission of drug repositioning and selection.

Bill received a BS in Chemistry from Western New England University and his MS in Computer Science from Boston University. Mr. Amsbaugh received additional certifications in Software Architecture from Carnegie Mellon’s Software Engineering Institute as well as certification in Digital Forensics from Boston University.

Dr. Cicmil (Milenko) has over 20 years of experience in drug discovery and development, leading multi-disciplinary scientific/project teams, portfolio strategy, and business development. His deep understanding of biology, especially in inflammation/autoimmunity and oncology matched with his drug development experience across small molecules, biologics and peptides enables him to find creative solutions for challenges faced by early-stage biotechnology startups. He spent much of his career in R&D positions of increasing responsibility within companies such as Ipsen, Fog Pharma, Merck & Co., AstraZeneca, and GE Healthcare contributing to development of multiple drugs such as: Brilinta, Symbicort, and Keytruda.

Milenko is Co-founder of Tasca Therapeutics Corp., one of the Cure Ventures portfolio companies where he currently serves as the CEO and Board member. Most recently Milenko was Vice President and Head of Global External Innovation at Ipsen, responsible for developing and leading effort generating a high-value pipeline. Prior to joining Ipsen, Milenko was Vice President, Biology at Fog Pharma, where he was responsible for scientific, strategic, and operational leadership of the Biology Department as well as contributing efforts towards the company’s financing. During his career at Merck & Co., in addition to his R&D role Milenko also served as a Director at Merck’s Innovation Hub where he led search & evaluation efforts for in-licensing/partnership opportunities in Immuno-Oncology, Immunology and Ophthalmology. Milenko’s early R&D career at AstraZeneca spanned a variety of roles including managing teams of scientists and projects within immunology and inflammation therapy areas delivering over 20 clinical development candidate drugs.

Milenko is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at University of Reading, UK where he completed a Ph.D. in Molecular Pharmacology. Milenko received BSc in Molecular Biology from Kings College, London, UK. Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, Milenko was a postdoctoral fellow at the Cancer Research UK.

Mr. Fallace (Dave) is a Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Cure Ventures. He has made investments in venture capital and alternative asset funds for over 20 years. He served as a member of the investment committee of several large multibillion-dollar firms overseeing alternative investment portfolios. Across these portfolios he made investments as a limited partner and as a founding investor in start-ups.

Most recently, Dave served as an advisor for the biotech venture capital fund Polaris Partners where he evaluated Biotechnology and Health Care Information Technologies investments. During this period, he also served as an Expert-in-Resident program at Harvard University’s Office of Technology Development. Prior to Polaris, he served as a Managing Director and member of the investment committee heading the $2.5 billion diversifying strategies at TIFF Investment Management.

From 2013 to 2016, Dave served as the Director of Investments leading the $10 billion Special Opportunities program at the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation. He spearheaded their direct venture investing serving as a board observer at Juno Therapeutics (Acquired by Celgene), and Denali Therapeutics (NASDAQ: DNLI).

Starting in 2000, Dave worked at GF Private Equity Group managing private equity and hedge fund portfolios in addition to investing in direct venture capital transactions. He served on the board or board observer of Ahura (Acquired Thermo Fisher), Alfalight (Acquired Gooch & Housego), Kotura (Acquired Mellanox), Pathscale (Acquired QLogic), Teros (Acquired Citrix), and Impinj (NASDAQ:PI).

Dave received his B.A. from Stony Brook University and his M.B.A. and J.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo focusing on tax and financial structuring and is a member of the New York Bar.

Jeno is a seasoned biotech professional with over three decades of experience in the industry. Throughout his career, his primary focus has been translating promising scientific discoveries into impactful therapies and fostering the growth of early-stage start-up companies.

Jeno has gained extensive scientific leadership and company-building experience, having assembled, led, and mentored high-performing R&D organizations. His teams have discovered six drug candidates currently in the clinic and supported the development of an approved drug.

Most recently, Jeno co-founded Sporos Bioventures LLC, where he took on the role of Chief Scientific Officer. In this capacity, he provided scientific leadership to several of Sporos’s portfolio companies. He was the chief Scientific Officer of Tvardi, Asylia, and Stellanova Therapeutics and a member of the Asylia and Stellanova boards. Prior to his tenure at Sporos, he spent 12 years at AVEO Oncology, where he held multiple scientific leadership roles, including serving as Chief Scientific Officer.

Jeno’s biotech journey began at Mitotix Inc., where he worked on discovering novel drugs targeting the cell cycle and protein degradation machinery. He earned his doctorate from the University of Szeged in Hungary and completed postdoctoral studies at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. He also trained at the Max Planck Institute in Cologne, Germany.

Jeno’s extensive experience and scientific expertise have made him a respected figure in the biotech industry. He continues to be passionate about developing therapies that can make a difference in people’s lives and nurturing the growth of start-up companies that can drive innovation in the field.

Dr. Han (May) has over 20 years of experience in drug discovery and development. May’s experience includes being both a drug program manager and a scientific team lead, encompassing more than 20 programs across a variety of drug modalities, including small molecule, complex biologics, cell therapies. She worked at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, AVEO and Novartis in positions of increasing responsibility targeting different diseases areas; she has an especially deep scientific understanding across oncology and metabolic diseases. May is known for driving scientific rigor on all the teams she involved, tirelessly seeking the fundamental biological mechanism and her pragmatic and integrated approach to solve varied problems encountered in drug discovery.

From 2013 until 2021 May served as a Team Leader, Global Project Manager, and Director roles while at the Novartis Institute of Biomedical Research. At Novartis she led ~20 drug discovery programs and hematologic cancer portfolio as program manager. Additionally, she supervised a large group of experienced drug developers with over 100 years of drug development experience, who manage a large portfolio of over 30 complex clinical stage programs. From 2003 to 2013 May served as a Program Leader, Director at AVEO, she led an antibody program from inception to completion of randomized Phase 2 study with hands-on experience of nearly all aspects of drug development. She led multiple biotech-pharma collaborations from both biotech and pharma sides, with transactions in excess of $1 billion dollars.

May holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University, B.S. in Biochemistry from Beijing University, PR China. Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, May was a CH Revson Fellow at Rockefeller University in the lab of Dr. Thomas Sakmar and HH Whitney fellow at Yale in the lab of Dr. Paul Sigler.

Dr. Jonas (Jeff) is a Partner at Cure Ventures and brings over two decades of experience in R&D leadership and cutting-edge CNS drug discovery and development across medicines and brands that have successfully helped millions of patients, such as Lexapro, Vyvanse, Zulresso, Zurzuvae and Namenda. Dr. Jonas’ significant company-building and advisory experience has generated considerable shareholder and stakeholder value, particularly when developing novel scientific approaches to CNS.

Prior to joining Cure, Dr. Jonas was the Chief Executive Officer, President, and Director at ABIO-X, a life science incubator for companies that are poised to bring transformative medicines and solutions to the global market. Before ABIO-X, Dr. Jonas was the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Innovation Officer at Sage Therapeutics, where he led the development of industry-leading CNS treatments and development pipelines. Before Sage, he was President of the Regenerative Medicine Division at Shire Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for establishing the strategic direction of its marketed products and new product pipeline, including driving the achievement of R&D milestones. Early on in his career, Dr. Jonas served as Executive Vice President of ISIS Pharmaceuticals and held senior positions at Forest Laboratories, Inc. and Upjohn Laboratories.

Dr. Jonas has published more than 300 peer-reviewed scientific papers, chapters, abstracts, and books, and holds multiple patents. He received his B.A. from Amherst College and M.D. from Harvard Medical School, completed a residency in psychiatry at Harvard and served as Chief Resident of Psychopharmacology at McLean Hospital, Harvard Medicine School. Dr. Jonas is a member of the board for Karuna Pharmaceuticals and Generation Bio, and he is Chairman of the Board for Noema Therapeutics.

Kayarash is a Senior Associate at Cure Ventures, where he focuses on company creation efforts. His work at Cure is driven by a mission to develop transformative medicines through a culture rooted in scientific rigor, creativity, and patient-centric innovation.

Kayarash earned his PhD at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine as a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow. He worked under the mentorship of Nobel Laureate Dr. Carol Greider to investigate the molecular mechanisms of telomere biology and developed Nanopore telomere profiling for diagnosing telomere diseases in patients. He discovered that specific chromosomes have the shortest telomeres across humans. Prior to Cure, Kayarash was an associate at Third Rock Ventures where he was involved in creating new biotech companies by working with leading academics. He was part of the founding team of a NewCo and helped lead a drug discovery campaign and clinical development planning for two lead programs.

Mr. King (Drew) is a Partner and the Chief Financial Officer of Cure Ventures. He oversees the financial and operational functions at the Firm and our early-stage portfolio companies. Drew has over 15 years of experience in finance and operations supporting both private and capital market funds.

He most recently was the Vice President of Finance at Bain Capital, helping launch the Life Sciences and Double Impact business units in 2016. Prior to that he was a Finance Manager at Absolute Return Capital, a global macro hedge fund, assisting in the day-to-day oversight for all post-trade activities. He spent 7 years in public accounting at Ernst & Young within the Financial Services Office focusing on venture capital, private equity, and hedge fund clients.

Drew received a M.S.A. from the University of Virginia, McIntire School of Commerce and a B.S. in Corporate Finance and Accounting from Bentley University and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Dr. King (Virginia Lyle) is a Senior Associate of Cure Ventures with over 10 years of research experience. As a member of the Cure Ventures team, Lyle is involved in sourcing new deals, conducting due diligence, and assisting with company creation endeavors.

Most recently, she worked at the University of Connecticut as a graduate researcher where she gained extensive experience utilizing a broad range of genetic and molecular biology tools to study the spatiotemporal regulation of cellular stress responses in relation to human diseases, with a specific interest in cell death and cancer biology research. Her work established the actin cytoskeleton and actin-binding proteins as essential regulators of cell death and identified the importance of actin in coordinating the progression of apoptosis pathways. These discoveries bridged a longstanding gap between the cytoskeleton and apoptosis fields and provided new avenues for studying tumorigenesis. In addition to her academic research, Lyle cultivated effective leadership experience by mentoring junior scientists, teaching multiple courses in both laboratory and classroom settings, and volunteering for nonprofit educational programs that work to address the communication gap that exists between the general public and scientific communities.

Lyle received her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Connecticut in the laboratory of Dr. Ken Campellone, and her B.S. in Biology at the University of Mary Washington.

Rich’s career in the life science sector spans three decades demonstrating strategic and corporate development leadership within the biotech industry as well as investment leadership at top-performing venture capital firms. He is considered a trusted partner to visionary scientists and entrepreneurs, by being directly involved in the early capital raises of leading prominent biotech start-ups.

From 2020 to 2021, Rich served as Chief Business Officer and SVP of Corporate Development for an oncology focused biopharmaceutical company, where he led all deal-making activities including acquisitions, licensing, and partnerships. As a member of the senior executive team, Richard contributed to the company becoming one of the top 5 biopharma IPOs of 2020.

From 2008 to 2020, Rich served as a Managing Member and President of top quartile performing Omega Funds, where he sourced, conducted diligence, raised capital and served for many of Omega’s most successful portfolio companies. He served on the Board of Directors for Nuvation Bio (NASDAQ: NUVB), Gossamer Bio (NASDAQ: GOSS), and Replimune (NASDAQ: REPL) and Paratek Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: PRTK).

Previously, Rich was a Managing Director of MVM Life Science Partners LLP, where he founded MVM’s US operations and sourced all US deals during his tenure. Before MVM, Rich was Vice President at Saunders Karp & Megrue, a private equity firm, where he focused on healthcare equity deals. Rich was also Engagement Manager at LEK Consulting, a strategy and mergers & acquisitions consulting firm where he advised leading biotech and pharma companies.

Mr. Lim received his A.B. from Harvard College and M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Dr. Weihan Liu is an Associate at Cure Ventures, with over ten years of experience in biomedical research. Most recently, Weihan was a consultant at ClearView Healthcare Partners, where he worked with pharma and biotech companies to address critical challenges in drug development and commercialization. Prior to that, he earned his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago, where he discovered a fundamental mechanism of early hematopoietic stem cell fate commitment via epigenetic remodelling. His research experience also includes time at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, identifying breast cancer drug resistance mechanisms, and at Genentech, where he investigated novel therapeutic targets for aggressive cancers with no effective therapies. These experiences deepened his passion to find cures for diseases with high unmet needs.

Beyond research, Weihan gained life science translational experience as an intern with ARCH Venture Partners and the University of Chicago’s George Schulz Innovation Fund. There, he sourced promising technologies, evaluated scientific and clinical data, and broadened his understanding of diseases like obesity, autoimmune disorders, and mental health etc.

Weihan holds a Ph.D. in Cancer Biology from the University of Chicago, where he trained under Dr. Megan McNerney, and a B.A. in Molecular Biology from the University of California, Berkeley. Joining Cure Ventures represents an exciting transition for Weihan to apply his knowledge to help derisk promising science and translate groundbreaking cures from the bench to the bedside.

Dr. MacIsaac is a Partner at Cure Ventures. Kenzie’s career spans over 13 years in drug discovery working at the cutting edge of genetics, genomics, and bioinformatics to solve pressing problems in human health.

Prior to joining Cure Ventures, Dr. MacIsaac served as a Senior Director at Bristol Myers Squibb where he built out the oncology precision medicine and bioinformatics capability at their Kendall Square discovery site, played a central role in genetically driven new target identification efforts, and made key contributions to the understanding of drug resistance, including Opdivo and Yervoy combinations. Prior to BMS, Kenzie led Translational Bioinformatics at Fog Pharma with responsibility for their computational biology platform.

From 2014-2018 Dr. MacIsaac was a group leader at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research. While at NIBR Oncology he helped develop their strategy for using genomic data to immunophenotype cancer and drive patient selection and translational research efforts for oncology assets.

From 2009-2014 Dr. MacIsaac was a scientist at Merck Research Laboratories in their Genetics and Pharmacogenomics department, focused on the identification of genetically validated targets in immunology and respiratory disease.

Dr. MacIsaac’s academic background includes a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he studied under Dr. Ernest Fraenkel, a M.A.Sc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto, and a B.Eng in Electrical Engineering from Carleton University where he graduated with highest honors.

Annie is an experienced investment professional with over ten years of academic licensing and venture investing experience. Prior to joining Cure, Annie was an independent consultant to several VC-backed biotech companies, within oncology, gene therapy and RNA therapeutics. Annie spent over six years on the investment team at Omega Funds, where she sourced, diligenced and led investments in companies within oncology, immunology and rare diseases. Her broad investment experience ranges from company creation and academic spinouts to public company investments. Annie served as a Board Director of Trevi Therapeutics (NASDAQ:TRVI) and as a Board Observer of Anjarium Biosciences, Checkmate Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:CMPI, acq. by Regeneron), Ikena Oncology (NASDAQ:IKNA), Photys Therapeutics, Rectify Pharmaceuticals, and Scorpion Therapeutics.

Prior to Omega Funds, Annie was an Associate Licensing Officer at MIT’s Technology Licensing Office where she worked closely with academic researchers within the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research to manage patent portfolios and negotiate license agreements. Annie also served as an independent management consultant working with Nelsen Biomedical on a variety of projects for clients within the biotechnology sector. Annie is passionate about increasing and maintaining representation of women and underrepresented minorities in venture capital. She is an active member of the B7 Women in Venture group and served as a mentor for the Venture Forward Scholarship program of VC University.

Annie earned a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Michigan and a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Virginia, where she graduated with high honors and was a member of the Tau Beta Pi Honor Society.

Dr. Robichaud (Al) is a Partner of Cure Ventures with over three decades of industry experience focused primarily on neuroscience. Prior to joining Cure, he was the founding scientist and Chief Scientific Officer at Sage Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel medicines to treat life-threatening, rare CNS disorders. While there, Al helped launch the company into the public market in 2014 and built the entire research and development organization, culminating in the discovery and development of two commercially approved drugs, Zulresso and Zurzuvae, as well as 9 additional development candidates.

Prior to Sage, Al was the Vice President of Chemical and Pharmacokinetic Sciences at Lundbeck Research, USA, where he was responsible for the strategy and development of novel therapeutics for mood disorders, neurodegenerative disease, and psychiatric illness. Before Lundbeck Research, Al was the Director of Medicinal Chemistry at Wyeth Discovery Research where he focused on the direction of multiple key Neuroscience projects and succeeded in advancing more than 15 compounds into clinical development. Al has also held roles of varying responsibility at several big pharmaceutical companies, including Merck, DuPont Pharmaceuticals Company, and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Al is an inventor of more than 100 granted US patents and US patent applications and has authored or co-authored more than 200 external publications and poster abstracts. He has given multiple invited lectures at universities and national symposia and has served as Section Editor for Annual Reports in Medicinal Chemistry, Editorial Advisor for Burger’s Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Discovery as well as ACS journal Chemical Neuroscience. Al is a Scientific Advisory Board member to Morphic Rock Pharmaceuticals, Sage Therapeutics, as well as several venture capital initiatives.

Dr. Robinson (Sophie) is an Associate at Cure Ventures with over a decade of experience in academic research and industry, both in the United States and abroad.

Prior to joining Cure Ventures, Sophie was a doctoral candidate at the German Center of Neurodegenerative Diseases and the Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research in Munich, Germany. Her focus was centered on unraveling the complex role of microglia in frontotemporal dementia (FTD), employing cutting-edge technologies like CRISPR gene editing and induced pluripotent stem cells, along with an array of biochemistry and molecular biology techniques. She collaborated with biotechnology companies in Germany and in the US on a potential antibody treatment and investigated the link between the genetic risk and the pathology of GRN-associated FTD. Before her Ph.D., she worked in various labs at Stanford University and Yale University, making contributions to Alzheimer’s disease and cancer immunotherapy research. In addition to her academic experience, she was in clinical operations at Genentech, where she worked on streamlining study initiation in early phase clinical trials for cancer immunotherapy.

Joining Cure Ventures marks Sophie’s transition from academic research to a focus on biotech venture capital. In her current role, she aspires to integrate her extensive scientific knowledge with strategic investment insights, aiming to advance early-stage biotech innovations that have the potential to revolutionize healthcare.

Sophie received her Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in the laboratories of Dr. Christian Haass and Dr. Dominik Paquet and holds a B.S. in Psychology and Biological Sciences from Carnegie Mellon University. Her academic and research background positions her as an asset to Cure Ventures, poised to make significant contributions to the firm’s ongoing and future initiatives.

Ms. Szottfried (Kim) is an Executive Assistant at Cure Ventures with over 30 years of experience in accounting, operations, and administrative roles. Supporting the entire team, Kim is responsible for calendar and meeting management, event planning, and project coordination at the firm.

Prior to joining Cure Ventures, Kim was a Finance Associate at Easterly Partners Group, supporting the finance and accounting needs across the firm. She has worked in a similar capacity at other organizations in a broad range of industries including construction management, travel, professional fundraising, and the print and packaging industries. Adaptable and able to work efficiently in diverse environments, Kim has built strong relationships with colleagues, clients, and vendors over the course of her career.

Kim received a B.S. in Finance from Boston College.

Dr. Tartaglia (Lou) is a Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Cure Ventures. Lou’s career spans more than 30 years demonstrating scientific and therapeutic product project leadership within the biotech industry as well as investment leadership within multiple venture capital firms. His experience and skills as a rigorous scientist have manifested itself across a wide array of functional areas, allowing him to serve with distinction within the C-Suite in numerous biotech start-ups.

In 2016 Lou served as Head of 4:59, 5AM Venture’s internal de novo new company formation initiative. In that first year he led the formation of Entrada Therapeutics (NASDAQ: TRDA) and then served as interim CEO for its first year. Lou subsequently transitioned into a 5AM Venture Partner role where he has taken CEO roles at start-ups.

From 2007 to 2014 Lou served as a Partner at Third Rock Ventures where he played an integral role in the overall scientific diligence, formation, and development of its portfolio companies. While a Partner at Third Rock he played crucial roles in starting many of Third Rock’s most successful portfolio companies including as Chief Scientific Officer of Editas (NASDAQ: EDIT), Rhythm (NASDAQ: RYTM) and Agios (NASDAQ: AGIO) for the first year of operations. Beyond Third Rock he also served as Chief Executive Officer of Solstice Biologics and General Manager at GeneLogic.

Lou was formerly the first employee of and Vice President at the start-up Millennium Pharmaceuticals where he was responsible for the discovery and development of multiple therapeutic programs, which was later acquired for $8.7 Billion by Takeda Pharmaceuticals.

Lou completed his postdoctoral work at Genentech in the laboratory of Dr. David Goeddel. He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the University of California, Berkeley in the laboratory of Dr. Bruce Ames and his B.S. in Chemistry at the State University of New York at Albany.