These diseases include Retinitis Pigmentosa, Dry Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD), and Stargardt Disease. We are developing a proprietary platform technology, employing ambient light-sensitive Multi-Characteristic Opsins (MCO) that has potential to treat a broad range of genetic illnesses.
As Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Nanoscope Therapeutics, Sulagna Bhattacharya leads a talented and diverse team dedicated to the development of sight-restoring therapies for the millions of patients worldwide blinded by inherited retinal diseases for which no cure exists.
Ms. Bhattacharya is a serial entrepreneur having co-founded several biotech and biomedical device/diagnostic companies. Before entering the biotechnology world, Ms. Bhattacharya had decades of experience in management consulting at Deloitte and Hitachi Consulting. Her specialties included business intelligence and risk management. She played a key role in seven full life cycle project implementations including multi-billion-dollar mergers and acquisitions and later founded a Management Consulting Company.
Currently, Ms. Bhattacharya sits on the Board of Directors of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) where she serves on the Health Section Governing Board, and the Emerging Companies Section Governing Board. She also serves on multiple comittees includingthe Capital Formation Committee, and the Corporate Governance Committee. She is also serving as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School.
Ms. Bhattacharya has been recognized as an EY Entrepreneur of the Year regional winner (2022) and a Top 25 Women Leaders in Biotechnology for 2023.
She has B.Tech degrees in Electrical, Electronics and Communications, as well as an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.
Samarendra Mohanty (Co-Founder/President) is an inventor & serial entrepreneur with 20+ years experience in Biomedical Sciences. He is Co-Founder of several Biotechs and Biomedical device /diagnostic companies (developed & commercialized $100K+ biomedical instruments.)
Dr. Mohanty obtained M.Tech in Applied Optics from the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi and a PhD in (Bio)Physics from the Indian Institute of Sciences-Bangalore.
His extensive Biomedical Technologies experience includes serving as Professor/Senior Scientist at the University of Texas; University of California, Irvine; Center for Adv. Tech (India); Int. Mol. Biotech (Germany); Univ. Pavia (Italy); NUS (Singapore); and University of St. Andrews (UK). He has authored over 200 international patents and publications in leading journals including Nature and Nature Photonics.
He is the Principal Investigator for major grants from the National Eye Institute including Audacious Goal Initiative and Bioengineering Research grants. He serves on the editorial board of journals and chairs an international conference on optogenetics. He is the winner of a 2019 Healthcare Heroes award (Fort Worth Business Press), Retinal Organoid Challenge Award, Audacious Goal Initiative Award (NIH), Finalist of Tech Titan, and NIH-Director’s Innovator Award.
Dr. Samuel Barone is a board-certified ophthalmologist and vitreoretinal surgeon with clinical development and regulatory experience across a range of indications in ophthalmology, dermatology, rare diseases, and cell and gene therapy. Before joining Nanoscope, Dr. Barone served as chief medical officer at Gemini Therapeutics, where he oversaw the development of novel therapeutics targeting the complement system to treat genetically defined age-related macular degeneration and systemic renal disease. He has also served as chief medical officer of Veloce BioPharma and of Avalanche Biotechnologies, and senior vice president of clinical development for Adverum Biotechnologies.
Dr. Barone garnered regulatory experience as a senior medical officer at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the Office of Cellular, Tissue, and Gene Therapies (now Office of Therapeutic Products) and served as subject matter expert and developed guidance documents. He has global experience in overseeing clinical trials in the US as well as Australia and India.
Early in his career, he served on active duty as a flight surgeon for the United States Air Force. Dr. Barone received his M.D. from Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine and completed his residency in ophthalmology at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai. He completed a medical and surgical retina fellowship at the University of California, San Diego.
Michael Marquez brings over 17 years of finance experience, including deep experience leading finance and growth strategies for companies in the ophthalmic space. Before joining Nanoscope Therapeutics Mr. Marquez was CFO of TearLab, an ophthalmic diagnostics company with a point-of-care osmolarity test to aid in the diagnosis of dry eye disease. He served as CFO of Global Surgical at Alcon Laboratories, a global medical company specializing in eye care products. Prior to Alcon, Mr. Marquez worked for Price Waterhouse Coopers serving tax and audit clients in the insurance and manufacturing sectors. He has a Master of Science in accounting from The University of Texas at Arlington and a Bachelor of Business Administration in accounting from The University of Texas at Austin. He is also a licensed Certified Public Accountant in Texas.
Dr. Najam Sharif brings over three decades of experience in pharmaceutical drug/device discovery and development to Nanoscope, including specialized expertise in ophthalmology and neuroscience. Throughout his career, he contributed to the discovery and development of several FDA-approved commercial drugs, including anti-glaucoma agent Travatan® and anti-allergic/inflammatory drugs such as Patanol® /Pataday® and Emedine®. In addition, Dr. Sharif was instrumental in guiding three drugs through to FDA approvals: Simbrinza® for glaucoma, IZBA® for the treatment of ocular hypertension and glaucoma, and PAZEO™ for the treatment ocular allergies. Most recently, Dr. Sharif served as Vice President, Global Biomedical Sciences & Head of Glaucoma and Neuroprotection at Santen, where he managed the company’s Clinical Sciences, Data Sciences, and Biometrics departments, and where he also established and directed Global Alliances & External Research activities. Prior to this, he held positions related to R&D and regulatory affairs at Alcon Research-Novartis, Synaptic Pharmaceutical Corp, and Syntex Pharma / Roche Pharmaceutical Corp. He is widely published with an extensive number of peer-reviewed publications, edited books and holds multiple patents for mitigation of neurological and ophthalmic diseases. He has been an invited organizer, chairman and speaker at multiple national and international conferences.
In addition to his professional experience, Dr. Sharif has served on numerous boards and committees. Dr. Sharif is an elected Fellow of multiple learned societies such as Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, Association for Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics and British Pharmacological Society. Currently he serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Glaucoma Foundation and as an adjunct professor for the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore, and Institute of Ophthalmology at University College London. He is the recipient of several honors, including the Ernst H. Barany prize for “Outstanding Contributions to Ocular Pharmacology”, the first and inaugural “Dr. Roger Vogel Award” for Pharmaceutical Research, and the Sir James Black Award for “Contributions to Drug Discovery”.
Dr. Sharif received a PhD in neuroscience, DSc (by thesis) in ophthalmology, and dual bachelor’s degree in physiology and biochemistry from the University of Southampton (UK).
Jared Stephens leads global strategy and business development for Nanoscope Therapeutics. Prior to joining Nanoscope, Jared served as Director of Strategy, Search & Evaluation for GE Healthcare with responsibility for inorganic growth strategies across the Cell & Gene Therapy and Genomics business units. In that capacity, Jared led multiple deals to bring adjacent high growth technologies into the GE fold.
Jared has also served in corporate strategy and leadership roles at multiple startups including Absci and Bionano genomics, both of which went on to IPO and achieve $B plus market caps. A cell biologist by training, Jared holds a PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of California, Irvine.
Jean Chang joined Nanoscope Therapeutics in October 2022 as Vice President, Clinical Operations. She brings more than 20 years of experience in clinical operations and project management leading operational conduct of clinical trials through successful submissions in various therapeutic areas including CNS, cardiorenal, hematology, oncology, and ophthalmology. She was a former Executive Director of Clinical Operations at Catalyst Biosciences. She also served as Senior Director, Clinical Operations at Adverum Biotechnologies. Previously Jean held positions with increasing responsibility at Trigemina Inc., Sorbent Therapeutics, MAP Pharmaceuticals and Maxygen. She has vast experience in CRO Management, Global Clinical Trial Management and Clinical Data Management. Jean holds a Bachelor’s degree in Medical Technology from China Medical University in Taiwan and Master’s degree in Immunology from Wayne State University in Michigan.
Dr. Motamed was most recently a CMC reviewer for the Gene Therapy Branch at the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), the center within the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that regulates biological products for human use under applicable federal laws. Dr. Motamed has received many awards including the FDA’s Outstanding Service Award from the Office of Regulatory Affairs. Previously, he served as Head of Quality for the Viral Vector Core at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Prior to this, Dr. Motamed held appointments as Head of Auditing and Compliance at Cipla, a global pharmaceutical company, as well as an FDA inspector for pharmaceutical quality and compliance. He holds a PhD in Biochemistry from UT Southwestern Medical Center, an MS in Organic Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, and a BS in Biochemistry from Southern Methodist University.
Victor Adeniyi has a decade of experience in cGMP manufacturing of biologics, including cell and gene therapy, leading successful manufacturing of clinical trial materials. Previously, he served as Head of Manufacturing and Tech Transfer at UT Southwestern Medical Center and manufacturing expert at Novartis Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Adeniyi also brings extensive experience in cGMP manufacturing while leading teams at Lonza, and Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies. He earned his MS in Biotechnology and MBA from the University of Houston.
Dr. Subrata Batabyal is Director of Non-clinical Development, leading the pre-clinical research and assay development for Nanoscope’s gene therapy platforms. He earned a PhD in Chemistry investigating biomolecular interactions, followed by postdoctoral research in Biophotonics, focused on optogenetics, gene delivery, and optical detection of neuronal activation. He has authored several key papers on cell and gene therapy.
Ms. Carpenter is a senior management leader and regulatory advisor with more than 25 years of experience gaining global approvals for drugs and biologics for companies ranging from start-up to Fortune 500. She has a keen interest in developing treatments for orphan diseases and has extensive experience in ophthalmology (neovascular and dry macular degeneration, Stargardt Disease) and gene therapy (neovascular macular degeneration, sickle cell disease). Ms. Carpenter has held numerous Senior/Vice President roles in Regulatory Affairs, Quality Affairs and Project Management and has worked at True North and Afferent Pharmaceuticals, Sanofi, Santen, and Merck. She also teaches Regulatory Affairs certification courses for the UC Santa Cruz Bioscience Program and has managed a successful consulting firm. She earned her Juris Doctorate, with emphasis in Health Law and Ethics, from Golden Gate University and Bachelor’s degree from University of California at Santa Barbara.
Dr. Ananta Ayyagari is Director of IP and Project Manager at Nanoscope, supporting our Intellectual Property Development and managing vision restoration projects working closely with preclinical, clinical, CMC, and regulatory teams. After completing her doctoral degree in Chemistry, Dr. Ayyagari carried out a Postdoctoral fellowship at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her expertise includes development of methods for drug and gene delivery. She has authored several papers and patents.
Mr. Koester has over 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He has worked in ophthalmology clinical development for most of his career and has been a key team member of numerous successful NDAs in wet AMD, glaucoma, ocular allergy, ocular inflammation, and ocular pain. He has also worked on numerous projects in dry AMD, dry eye and Stargardt disease. Mr. Koester served as the Global Head of Biostatistics and Clinical Data Management at CIBA Vision/Novartis Ophthalmics and held senior-level positions at Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Acucela Inc., and Othera Pharmaceuticals.
Dr. Shams was most recently the Chief Science Officer at ProQR Therapeutics. He has previously served as President and CEO of Santen Inc, and Global Head of R&D at Santen Pharmaceuticals, a global ophthalmology company, for over a decade. Dr. Shams has over 25 years of global drug development experience across start-ups and large multinationals, including Novartis and Genentech/Roche. At Genentech, Dr. Shams helped to establish the Ophthalmic Clinical R&D Group and led the development of Lucentis® through approval. Previously, Dr. Shams was on the Faculty at the Department of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School. He holds an MD from Dow Medical College and a PhD in microbiology/immunology from the University of South Carolina and completed a fellowship in wound healing and corneal transplantation at Harvard University.
Vicente Anido Jr., PhD brings over three decades of ophthalmic experience building profitable organizations and will advise Nanoscope as it moves forward toward commercialization. Dr. Anido served as Chief Executive Officer at Aerie Pharmaceuticals for over 8 years, following a decade at ISTA Pharmaceuticals as Chief Executive Officer. ISTA Pharmaceuticals was sold to Bausch & Lomb for $500 million in 2012.
