Harnessing the microbiome to treat skin disease

Mr. Andrews has spent most of his career as a C level executive leading operations, finance, and commercial and clinical development for biotechnology firms focused on new products that address inflammatory disease. Mr. Andrews has been instrumental in translating research and academic discoveries into product development and advanced clinical programs, building alliances and partnerships and organizing operational teams. Financing processes led by Mr. Andrews have secured over $130M in equity funding for new ventures. His work has been primarily focused on skin disease, pneumonia, infant hypoxic ischemia and kidney failure. Early in his career, Mr. Andrews led the commercialization of several natural cell systems to prevent disease on fruits and vegetables and launched several DNA diagnostic tests for periodontal disease. Mr. Andrews received graduate degrees in physical biochemistry (MS), and technology management (SM) from Purdue University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, respectively. He also has an undergraduate degree in Chemistry (BS) from Hobart College.

Travis Whitfill is the Chief Science Officer of Azitra Inc. His background began in molecular biology and biochemistry after receiving scientific training at the MD Anderson Cancer Center and Duke University. He has co-founded several biotech and healthcare startups companies, including Azitra. Mr. Whitfill’s strong background in entrepreneurship and business was recently acknowledged when he was named one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in 2018. He serves as a partner at Bios Partners, a healthcare-focused venture capital fund based in Texas, and as the Senior Analyst at Bios Research, which provides research services to institutional investors. He also is an Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Pediatrics at Yale University. Mr. Whitfill received degrees from Yale University (MPH) and Dallas Baptist University (BS in biology).

Dr. Dubé draws on more than 15 years of experience supporting drug discovery and development efforts at biotech and pharmaceutical organizations. His broad scientific experience includes leading multiple drug discovery, preclinical and early clinical development programs in multiple therapeutic areas. Prior to joining Azitra, Dr. Dubé served as Head of Pharmacology and Non-Clinical Development at two biotech companies, where he was responsible for the identification of new drug candidates and transitioning them from the research laboratory to the clinic. He also spent five years at Abbott Laboratories in the United States where he focused on multiple drug discovery programs in the areas of Pain/Cognition/Neuroscience and rose through positions of increasing management responsibility. Dr. Dubé holds graduate degrees in Physiology (PhD, MSc) from the University of Ottawa and a Biochemistry undergraduate degree at the Laval University. He also spent multiple years as a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technologies.

Prior to joining Azitra Inc., Dr. Leger was Senior Director Chemistry and CMC at Thrasos Therapeutics where he oversaw discovery research operations as well as manufacturing and clinical supply. He also previously served as VP Research at Indel Therapeutics Inc. and as VP R&D Chemistry and Co-founder at Ulysses Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Leger was responsible for discovery and pre-clinical research at these two companies, which both focused on development of novel treatments for antibiotic resistant bacterial infections. He was Director of Medicinal Chemistry at ConjuChem Inc. where he led discovery chemistry in protein therapeutics to treat multiple ailments including diabetes, obesity, cancer and infectious diseases. Early in his career, he was a research fellow at Microcide Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Leger holds numerous patent applications including 14 granted US patents. He received a graduate degree from the University of Montreal (PhD) and served as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Geneva Switzerland and at Columbia University.

David Dodds has over 30 years’ experience leading interdisciplinary process development groups combining biological and chemical technologies to create new industrial processes. David’s last corporate position was Director of Fermentation and Biocatalysis Development at Bristol-Myers Squibb. Among other responsibilities, he reviewed all third-party technology for the production of paclitaxel that was presented to BMS and managed the scale-up of the fermentation for epothilone, the natural product used to produce the anticancer drug IXEMPRA® (Ixabepilone). Prior to BMS, David established and led the Biotransformations Group within Chemical Development at the Schering-Plough Research Institute (now Merck). His group successfully introduced biocatalysis in over a dozen projects, including the anti-cholesterol drug Zetia® and the anti-fungal Posaconazole®. David pursued post-doctoral work in molecular biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He obtained graduate and undergraduate degrees from the University of Toronto (PhD, MSc, BSc).

Mr. Andrews has spent most of his career as a C level executive leading operations, finance, and commercial and clinical development for biotechnology firms focused on new products that address inflammatory disease. Mr. Andrews has been instrumental in translating research and academic discoveries into product development and advanced clinical programs, building alliances and partnerships and organizing operational teams. Financing processes led by Mr. Andrews have secured over $130M in equity funding for new ventures. His work has been primarily focused on skin disease, pneumonia, infant hypoxic ischemia and kidney failure. Early in his career, Mr. Andrews led the commercialization of several natural cell systems to prevent disease on fruits and vegetables and launched several DNA diagnostic tests for periodontal disease. Mr. Andrews received graduate degrees in physical biochemistry (MS), and technology management (SM) from Purdue University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, respectively. He also has an undergraduate degree in Chemistry (BS) from Hobart College.

Travis Whitfill is the Chief Science Officer of Azitra Inc. His background began in molecular biology and biochemistry after receiving scientific training at the MD Anderson Cancer Center and Duke University. He has co-founded several biotech and healthcare startups companies, including Azitra. Mr. Whitfill’s strong background in entrepreneurship and business was recently acknowledged when he was named one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in 2018. He serves as a partner at Bios Partners, a healthcare-focused venture capital fund based in Texas, and as the Senior Analyst at Bios Research, which provides research services to institutional investors. He also is an Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Pediatrics at Yale University. Mr. Whitfill received degrees from Yale University (MPH) and Dallas Baptist University (BS in biology).

Dr. Azim Munivar previously served as Azitra’s Co-founder and first President and currently serves as a Director of the company. Prior to joining Azitra, Dr. Munivar was an Analyst at Bain Capital Ventures and worked at Bain & Co as well the Financial Restructuring Group at Houlihan Lokey for defense, forestry and entertainment clients. He also worked at Decision Resources performing market research for pharmaceuticals in the cardiovascular, psychiatric and obesity markets. Dr. Munivar received a BS in Economics, with concentrations in Finance and Health Care Management, from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, a BS in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from the School of Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania and a MD from Yale University.

Dr. Roberston has over 25 years of experience in pharmaceutical research and development, including R&D strategies, project management, clinical trials, regulatory filings for US and international registrations, product launch, market support, translational medicine, and medical communications. Dr. Robertson is a co-founder of Bios Partners, a member and investor with the Cowtown Angels, and the owner of Arrochar Consulting, LLC. She formerly was a VP in R&D at Alcon Laboratories, Inc., a Division of Novartis, where she grew and led organizations that were responsible for the ophthalmic pipeline, including pharmaceuticals and medical devices. She received a PhD in Biology-Immunology from Johns Hopkins University, is an adjunct member of the Ophthalmology Department of UTHSCD Southwestern Medical School, and is a community volunteer. She holds a number of patents and is the author or co-author of over 50 publications.

Dan is Managing Director, Investments at Connecticut Innovations (CI). He is responsible for evaluating investment opportunities, structuring new investments and monitoring portfolio companies at CI. Dan is involved with numerous boards, as both a member and an observer, and has assisted with CI’s investments in AxioMx, Affinimark Technologies, CyVek, Cara Therapeutics, HistoRx, Melinta Therapeutics (formerly Rib-X Pharmaceuticals), RemoteReality, and Biohaven Pharmaceuticals.

Dan contributes to CI’s expertise in biotech with more than 10 years in the industry. He was previously employed by successful former CI portfolio company CuraGen Corporation. While at CuraGen, Dan held a variety of scientific and operational management positions in research and development, technology assessment and implementation of next-generation scientific technologies that supported CuraGen’s growth from a genomic and proteomic platform company into a biopharmaceutical firm dedicated to advancing its protein, antibody and small-molecule therapeutics.