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.

Ms. Bertonis has held senior management and strategic business consulting roles at multiple public and private healthcare companies and venture capital firms in the United States and Canada. Prior to joining Azitra, she served as CEO at Visgo Therapeutics and BioSyntech and Chief Business Officer for Angiotech Pharmaceuticals, Inc.  Her earlier career included business and scientific positions at several companies including Angiotech Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Genzyme Corporate, Guidant Corporation, Eli Lilly & Company, Biogen, Inc., and Repligen Corporation. Ms. Bertonis has also served on the Board of Directors at several public and private life science companies and was on the board of BIOTECanada, Canada’s national trade organization. She holds a Master of Management degree from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, and a Master of Science degree from the University of Massachusetts.

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, Dr. Grossman was Senior Director of Biology and Pharmacology at Melinta Therapeutics. Previously, she held leadership positions at TetraPhase Pharmaceuticals and Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Grossman began her career at Procept, Inc., where she managed a fermentation laboratory and developed new recombinant protein production strategies in prokaryotic and eukaryotic systems. She earned her undergraduate degree in Biology from the State University of New York at Albany and her master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Biology and Molecular Genetics from Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

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.

Dr. Sampson most recently worked with Botanix Pharmaceuticals where he was responsible for development of the preclinical strategy and clinical development plans for new antimicrobial indications. Previously, he served as Vice President of Research and Development at Realm Therapeutics (formerly Puricore), a company developing therapeutics for dermatology and immune-mediated diseases. Dr. Sampson held prior research roles at Sterilox Technologies and Warwick International Ltd. He earned an undergraduate degree and Ph.D. degree in Microbiology/Biochemistry from University of Aberdeen, UK.

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).