The ZoSaLa Pharma Team is Comprised of Biopharma Business Experts and Top Tier Aortic Disease Researchers and Surgeons
TOM SAYLOR
Co-Founder Chairman and CEO
Tom Saylor has served as CEO of several emerging biotech companies in Europe and Asia. Tom led their activities in fundraising, deal-making, and strategy development. Most recently, Tom served as interim CEO of Guide Therapeutics, Inc., an Atlanta based company developing lipid nanoparticles for delivery of genetic therapeutics to non-liver tissue. Guide was acquired by Beam Therapeutics in a transaction valued at $130MM upfront with downstream payments up to $300MM.
PRESS RELEASE
VINCENT La TERZA, JD
Co-Founder Board Member and COO
Vince has spent his career facilitating the commercialization of early stage, life science technologies. Vince launched and led Emory University’s tech transfer office for a decade. He was involved in license arrangements for several high impact, commercially successful technologies, including one for an antiviral drug that yielded a $545MM pay day for Emory by way of a lump sum royalty buy down from Gilead. After leaving Emory, Vince helped launch several new ventures that successfully advanced early-stage therapies, including Obizur for rare bleeding disorders. While leading another venture, called NeurOp, Vince negotiated a strategic alliance agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb to co-develop new anti-depressant medications.
Scientific Advisory Board
ZoSaLa is working with world renown clinician/surgeons and researchers who have spent their careers treating AAA and TAA patients, and leading preclinical and clinical development of new therapies for aortic aneurysmal disease. The SAB members include:
ELLIOT CHAIKOF, MD, Ph.D (Clinical Trial Design-AAA)
Elliot L. Chaikof MD Ph.D is the Chair of the Department of Surgery and Surgeon-in-Chief at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), as well the Johnson and Johnson Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. He currently serves as Chair of the Surgical Executive Committee at Harvard Medical School. Dr Chaikof’s clinical interest focuses on the treatment of patients with vascular disease of the aorta, carotid and peripheral arteries. In 1994, Dr Chaikof initiated one of the first programs for endovascular aortic aneurysm repair in the US and was among the core group of principal investigators who conducted the first FDS-approved clinical trials of stent grafts for repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms. He has been responsible for the formulation of reporting standards for clinical trials of endovascular aneurysm repair, as well as national, clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of patients with aortic aneurysms.
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JOHN CURCI, MD (Preclinical Evaluation/Clinical Trial Design-AAA)
Dr Curci is an Associate Professor of Vascular Surgery Vanderbilt School of Medicine. He has been on the forefront of the development of new approaches to treat AAA and preclinical and clinical studies. Dr. Curci’s primary research interest is the biology of the abdominal aortic aneurysm. Specifically, his laboratory work is focused on the changes that occur in the smooth muscle cells of the aortic wall that lead to pathology. His lab activities also include interest in enzymes that result in changes in the structural matrix of the abdominal aortic wall. The lab’s translational work includes reconstituting the aortic wall structural strength through pharmacologic and other means.
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JOHN ELEFTERAIDES, MD (Clinical Trial Design-TAA)
John Elefteriades is the William W.L. Glenn Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery and former Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Yale University and Yale New-Haven Hospital. He has been among the most clinically active academic surgeons in the country. He serves on the editorial board of the American Journal of Cardiology, the Journal of Cardiac Surgery, Cardiology, and the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery as well as being Editor-in-Chief of the journal AORTA. He has been a member of the Thoracic Surgery Director's Association and has been named consistently in The Best Doctors in America. He is a frequently requested international lecturer, visiting professor and guest surgeon. He is the author of over 400 scientific publications on a wide range of cardiac and thoracic topics. He was selected as one of the ten best doctors in America by Men’s Health magazine. He has been featured in many dozens of print, radio, and television presentations. He has received the Walter Bleifeld Memorial Award for Distinguished Contribution in Clinical Research in Cardiology and the John B. Chang Research Achievement Award.
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RAYMOND DINGLEDINE, Ph.D, Pharmacology Advisor
Dr Dingledine is a very competent pharmacologist and neurobiologist, focused on the roles of neuroinflammation in neurologic disorders. He is the former chairman of the Emory School of Medicine Department of Pharmacology and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Throughout his career, Ray has embraced new directions and adapted new technologies to address challenges in brain diseases and pathologies from trauma or stroke. About 15 years ago Ray co-founded the Emory School of Medicine Chemical Biology Discovery Center (ECBDC), which consists of high throughput screening platforms, a diversity library of 500,000 small molecules, and expertise in cheminformatics, data informatics, and medicinal chemistry. Over the past several years Ray’s research has become focused on the consequences of unabated inflammation in the brain. Ray is applying his formidable expertise in pharmacology to help ZoSaLa scientists better understand the molecular and genetic mechanisms that account for BHB efficacy.