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.
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.)
Samar 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.
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.
Michael Havert joined Nanoscope Therapeutics in January 2023 as Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs. He brings nearly 20 years of experience across regulatory, quality and CMC aspects of cell and gene therapies both as a team member of several startups, and as a leader within the FDA. Previously, Michael has held senior executive positions in Regulatory Affairs at CBMG, StrideBio, and Bluebird Bio. Prior to that, Mike held positions of increasing responsibility within the FDA (CBER) including having served as BLA Review Chair, championing the release of guidance documents, and working toward global harmonization efforts. Michael holds a PhD from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and conducted postdoctoral fellowships in virology at JHU and NIH.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Dr. Ciulla is Chief Medical Officer and Chief Development Officer at Clearside Biomedical, where he supported approval of the first suprachoroidal therapy (Xipere), led an IND submission for development of a new clinical program (CLS-AX, a Suprachoroidal TKI), strategically guides preclinical development, and supports numerous external partnerships, including gene therapy. He previously served in a VP role at Spark Therapeutics, where he led medical strategy to support approval and commercialization of Luxturna, the first FDA-approved gene therapy for a hereditary disease, which involved novel functional vision endpoints, complex genetic testing paradigms, new administration procedures at ocular gene therapy treatment centers, and unique reimbursement pathways associated with one-time orphan gene therapies.
Prior to Spark Therapeutics, he served in a VP role, in Clinical Strategy at Ophthotech (now Iveric Bio), where he contributed to clinical protocol and analysis plan development for the successful Phase 3 trial of Zimura in Geographic Atrophy (OPH2003, now GATHER1). Previously, he was Co-Director of the retina service and tenured Associate Professor at Indiana University, the largest US medical school; he remains a volunteer Clinical Professor, as well as board member at Midwest Eye Institute. Dr. Ciulla graduated from Harvard College and UCSF Medical School, followed by an internship and residency at Harvard Medical School, fellowship at Tufts Medical School, and an MBA from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, specializing in the business of medicine.
Vicente Anido Jr., PhD brings over three decades of ophthalmic experience building profitable organizations and will advise Nanoscope as it moves forward toward commercialization. Vince 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.
