Sandra E. Dunn, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Sandi Dunn founded Phoenix Molecular Designs in 2012, following the identification of a novel approach to treating TNBC, the deadliest form of breast cancer. The discovery of RSK as a prime target for TNBC came from functional genomic screens in her laboratory. Sandi has spent more than 27 years as a breast cancer researcher and as such has served on multiple oversight committees, including: Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program (USA) and the Susan Komen Foundation. She was the youngest member of the DOD Breast Cancer Research Program in the early 1990s and was recognized for her commitment to the field during her early days as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health.
Sandi is passionate about making a difference in the lives of people suffering from cancer and is firmly dedicated to breast cancer. This was inspired by personal experiences with the disease in her family, as it impacted several generations of women. Her broad range of experience in private industry, government and academia has prepared her to lead PhoenixMD, where they are working to change the outcomes for women with breast cancer by developing a selective new drug to uniquely attack the cancer cells in a way that has not been done before.
She has led multinational oncology research projects to advance the development of novel cancer therapeutics and has built amazing teams to achieve these goals. Over the past three decades, she has raised millions of dollars to fund cancer research and has built one of the few female-led biotechnology companies specifically aimed at eradicating breast cancer.
Brian Barnett, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
Brian has achieved over 20 years of extensive experience in oncology, encompassing diverse roles across clinical practice and the pharmaceutical industry. His journey in oncology began with clinical practice and has since evolved to include significant contributions to various aspects of clinical development and medical affairs within the industry including pre-IND through initiation of FIH, successful appeal of initial CHMP negative decision, to commercial launch in industry.
Notable highlights of Brian’s career include serving as Executive Medical Director at Allucent, where he is responsible for clinical development strategy, including clinical trial designs in oncology. Brian also served as CMO of Deverra Therapeutics; VP of Clinical Development and Project Team Lead at Nkarta Therapeutics overseeing lead products’ successful IND submission and manufacturing schedule; CEO of OncBioMune Pharmaceuticals initiating a reverse merger; VP and Head of Medical Affairs at Puma Biotechnology, participating in ODAC prep and overseeing KOL engagement and IST strategy; Medical Director in Product (Late Stage) Development; and Medical Affairs at Genentech, leading the KATE2 study team, closing out the KATHERINE trial and supporting the successful launch of the first solid tumor ADC, T-DM1 (Kadcyla).
Brian holds an M.D. from the University of Mississippi School of Medicine and Oncology fellowship at Tulane Health Sciences Center.
Gerrit Los, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Gerrit Los is a highly accomplished scientist and leading expert in multiple disciplines including oncology, translational medicine, and pharmacology. He has led numerous successful scientific and commercial collaborations and has supported and contributed to the clinical development of multiple oncology compounds, delivering lead candidates to patients. Gerrit served as Director of Cancer Biology and Senior Director of the Oncology Research Unit at Pfizer between 2002 – 2012. In these roles, his achievements included directing teams in the development of ground-breaking targeted cancer therapeutics such as the novel first-in-class kinase inhibitors crizotinib and palbociclib and other highly successful treatments such as axitinib. Most recently, he served as Vice President of Pharmacology at AnaptysBio, San Diego, where he directed the preclinical development of 2 lead compounds in preparation for Phase 1 clinical trials and contributed to AnaptysBio’s immuno-oncology program.
Gerrit provided leadership and strategic direction for Five Prime Therapeutics in South San Francisco from 2012 – 2015 and drove the development of several oncology assets including innovative proteins and immuno-oncology therapies. Prior to Pfizer, he was an Adjunct Professor at the University of California San Diego where he built and directed one of their pharmacogenomics/molecular pharmacology programs which focused on developing and understanding the role of prognostic markers in tumour responses. Before leading this innovative research work in San Diego, Gerrit directed a research team in preclinical drug development and optimization of local drug delivery at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam. He received his PhD in Oncology/Pharmacology from the Free University in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and was a Dutch Cancer Society post-doctoral fellow at the Netherlands Cancer Institute. To date, he has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers, is a contributor of 8 book chapters and has more than 250 published abstracts. He is also a reviewer for multiple high impact cancer journals.
Michael Liggett, CPA CA
Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Mike Liggett brings 30 years of experience in the health care and finance industries. Mike was a practicing pharmacist for 7 years before obtaining his training and certification as a Chartered Accountant. After spending 7 years at Price Waterhouse Coopers (then Price Waterhouse), he joined Inflazyme Pharmaceuticals Ltd. in the capacity of Chief Financial Officer. He provided leadership through multiple financings and other strategic initiatives before successfully transitioning the company to establish its footprint in the forestry sector as Eacom Timber. His background includes over 20 years as a public and private company CFO with strategic and operational expertise and proven success in finance, M&A, strategic partnerships, restructurings, and risk management. Mike holds a BSc in Pharmaceutical sciences from the University of British Columbia and holds Chartered Accountant designation.
Aarthi Jayanthan, PhD
Chief Operating Officer
Dr. Aarthi Jayanthan is a founding member of the Phoenix Molecular Designs team, launching the company’s discovery research and diagnostics program in 2015. By developing a sophisticated cancer modeling platform, she led our team in the advancement of the first in human RSK inhibitor by bridging computational biology, medicinal chemistry and functional cancer biology. She is a contributing inventor of several issued patents as a result of this pioneering work. On the companion diagnostics front, she led the biomarker co-development of RSK2 CDxV from pre-clinical method development and screening to a CAP/CLIA certified clinical stage assay with Roche Ventana. Aarthi has advanced several surrogate biomarker programs using gene expression profiling of model cancer systems and primary tumors on the Nanostring platform. More recently, she led the development of the first blood biomarker assay for RSK inhibitors. With a deep understanding of cancer cell biology, she has developed models of drug resistance to several breast cancer therapeutics, including paclitaxel and CDK4/6 inhibitors. Beyond this, Dr. Jayanthan identified novel drug combinations for PMD-026 which expand the potential to maximize life-cycle development following initial regulatory approval for the agent.
Aarthi earned her Ph.D. at the University of Calgary in the area of molecular cancer biology and cell signaling, with a focus on developing novel therapies for children with cancer. For over 10 years, she contributed to numerous preclinical studies of experimental therapies in childhood cancer, including leukemia, AT/RT, neuroblastoma and lymphoma. She also provided support in Phase I clinical trials sponsored by the Pediatric Oncology Experimental Therapeutics Investigators Consortium (POETIC).
Andrew de Guttadauro
Chief Business Officer
Andrew is a biopharma business development and commercialization executive with over three decades of successful drug launches and partnership experience. Andrew's oncology experience includes the commercial management of Biogen Idec's radiopharmaceutical, Zevalin, as well as its eventual out-licensing to Cell Therapeutics. Andrew’s most recent tenure was as Oncolytics’ Biotech’s U.S. President and Global Head of BD. Under the latter role, Andrew led the out-licensing of Oncolytics' pelareorep to China's Adlai Nortye for the Chinese and other select Asian markets in a deal valued at eighty-seven million dollars. While at Oncolytics, Andrew also helped secure financial support from Pfizer for a phase two breast cancer study and support from Roche for studies in breast cancer and GI cancers.
Andrew was also previously the Vice President of Business Development at Vical, where he oversaw partnerships with Novartis, Merck, and other large pharma companies and secured financial support from the U.S. Naval Medical Research Center to fund an H1N1 vaccine. Andrew's commercial experience includes the successful launches of Takeda's Prevacid, Amgen's Aranesp, and the relaunch of Amgen's Enbrel.
Erik Flahive, PhD
CMC-API Consultant
Dr. Erik Flahive is an independent CMC-API consultant, and brings over 18 years of API manufacturing, CMC and process R&D experience from his prior roles at Pfizer-La Jolla, Ardea Biosciences and Trius Therapeutics. In his roles at the latter two companies, he successfully delivered the commercial API manufacturing route used for new, FDA-approved medicines for treatment of gout (Zurampic®) and MRSA skin infections (Sivextro®). At Pfizer, he led research teams that delivered projects in oncology (Inlyta® (axitinib), pelitrexol), anti-viral and ophthalmology disease areas. Before Pfizer, Erik was a faculty research associate at the Cancer Research Institute (Arizona State University), where he obtained his PhD in Organic Chemistry, and worked on the synthesis of several anti-cancer, marine natural products.
He received a BS in Chemistry (Biology minor) from Georgetown University. Since 2014, Erik has successfully operated a San Diego-based consultant business, and has worked with more than eight clients on projects ranging from pre-IND programs to NDA-stage programs, including support of route registration/validation/launch activities, on-site manufacturing technical oversight, and regulatory filing support.