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Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Martina is the CEO and Co-Founder of Sardona Therapeutics. Prior to joining Sardona, Martina was an Assistant Professor of Hematology/Oncology at the University of California, Los Angeles. In this role, Martina led a research program focused on the discovery of small molecule therapeutics targeting RNA-binding proteins for genetically defined, therapy resistant cancers and further contributed to the Divisions’ preclinical research programs of developing targeted therapies for hematopoietic stem cell regeneration and was a Co-Investigator on Phase I clinical trials for novel combination treatments in heme malignancies. Martina was previously a Swiss National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at UCLA, where she studied how RNA-binding proteins regulate lncRNAs. She received a Masters in Pharmaceutical Sciences and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from ETH Zurich and is a licensed pharmacist.
Group Lead, Protein Biochemistry
Stefan is head of the Protein Biochemistry department at Sardona. In this role, he leads early discovery efforts, including target identification and validation as well as establishing Sardona’s novel platform. Prior to joining Sardona, Stefan was a postdoctoral research fellow at Genentech in the Early Discovery Biochemistry Department, where he supported numerous research projects in the fields of immunology, oncology, and ophthalmology, including the discovery of the precise mechanism of action for a clinical antibody for age-related macular degeneration.
In his scientific career, he has contributed to high profile research at EMBL Heidelberg, Stanford University, University of Guelph, and ETH Zurich. He has published numerous papers in high impact journals, including Cell and the Nature publishing group. Stefan holds a Master and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from ETH Zurich.
Business and Corporate Development
Wayne is acting head of Business and Corporate Development at Sardona, leading key initiatives including corporate strategy, fundraising, and partnering. He was most recently at MyoKardia, where he joined in 2015 prior to MyoKardia’s IPO. At MyoKardia, Wayne held roles of increasing responsibility, culminating in his position as Head of Business Development and Head of Corporate Strategy until Bristol Myers Squibb’s acquisition in 2020 of MyoKardia for $13.1 billion. In this role, he led all licensing, partnering and M&A, corporate strategy, and competitive intelligence. Additionally, at various points during his time at MyoKardia, Wayne led and served as a key contributor to the portfolio strategy, investor relations, corporate communications, capital markets, and finance functions. Prior to MyoKardia, he held operating, investing, or finance roles at Silk Road Medical, American Infrastructure Funds, RBC Capital Markets, and Valero. Wayne is an active volunteer with the Foundation Fighting Blindness. Wayne holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.S. with honors in chemical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.
Head of Chemistry
Joe is Head of Chemistry at Sardona. In addition to this role, he is a medicinal chemistry consultant to the biopharma industry. Most recently, he served as Senior Vice President of Early Success Sharing Partnerships at WuXi AppTec. He had a distinguished career, spanning three decades, at Merck Research Labs, where he made major contributions to several approved drugs including the HIV protease inhibitor CRIXIVAN™ (indinavir sulfate), the HIV integrase inhibitor ISENTRESS™ (raltegravir); HCV protease inhibitor VANIHEP™ (vaniprevir), and the combination HCV inhibitor product ZEPATIER™ (grazoprevir, elbasvir, and doravirine). Joe has more than 100 publications and patents and is the holder of many awards including a Merck Directors Award (1998); PhRMA Discoverers Award (1999); Intellectual Property Owners "National Inventor of the year Award" (1997); European Inventor of the Year (non-EU nation) (2007); ACS "Award for Creative Invention" (1999); and was a named a Merck Research Laboratories Presidential Fellow in 2008. He was inducted into the American Chemical Society Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame (2012) and was also named a “Hero of Chemistry” (along with the research team) for his role in the discovery and development of the ISENTRESSI™.Joe earned his B.S. in chemistry from St. John Fisher College, Rochester, New York, and obtained his Ph.D. degree in organic chemistry under Professor Peter T. Lansbury Sr. at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Acting Chief Financial Officer
Greg is a consulting CFO specializing in providing financial and administrative consulting services primarily to venture-backed, start-up companies in the life sciences field. He has more than 30 years of experience in a variety of companies ranging from start-up to Fortune 500, public to private, and domestic to international. Current and former clients include Que Oncology, Sardona Therapeutics, Aqua Medical, Aqua Heart, CytomX Therapeutics (CTMX), Afferent Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Merck), Ablexis (acquired by Deerfield), Primaeva Medical (acquired by Syneron), Sapphire Medical (acquired by Tornier), BARRx Medical (acquired by Covidien), Protexis (acquired by Bertelsmann AG), and Xros (acquired by Nortel). Previously, Greg was CFO at Micronics Computers (acquired by Diamond Multimedia) and Dynamic Isolation Systems (acquired by Berwind). Greg started his finance career with Gates Corporation, the majority owner of LearJet. Greg holds an MBA in Accounting from the University of Colorado, a BS in Biological Science from Colorado State University and is a CPA (inactive).
Chairman of the Board
Martin Babler is Chairman of the Board of Sardona, a position he has held since 2021. Martin is Chief Executive Officer, President, and Chairman of the Board of Alumis, a precision immunology company that is reimagining the discovery, development and treatment of autoimmune disorders. Prior to joining Alumis, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Principia Biopharma, until its acquisition by Sanofi S.A. in October 2020. Prior to joining Principia Biopharma, Martin served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Talima Therapeutics from 2007 to 2011. From 1998 to 2007, he held several positions at Genentech, Inc., most notably as Vice President, Immunology Sales and Marketing. While at Genentech, he also helped to build and led the Commercial Development organization and led the Cardiovascular Marketing organization. Martin previously served at Eli Lilly and Company in positions focused on sales, sales management, global marketing, and business development.
He presently serves on the Board of Directors of Neoleukin Therapeutics, Inc., Prelude Therapeutics Inc. and Omega Alpha SPAC; and on the Emerging Companies Section Governing Board of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization. Martin received a Swiss Federal Diploma in Pharmacy from the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and completed the Executive Development Program at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.
Independent Member
Julie is an independent member of the Board of Directors at Sardona. She is a Venture Partner at Brandon Capital Partners and serves on the Boards of Syncona Ltd, KisoJi Biotechnology, MycRx, Mirati Therapeutics, and Actym Therapeutics (Chair).Julie has served as President and CEO at several biotechnology companies, including QUE Oncology, Arch Oncology, Revitope Oncology, Zenith Epigenetics, and Pathway Therapeutics. In addition, she served as President and Executive Vice President, R&D at Phenomix Corporation. Earlier in her career, Julie was Vice President of Preclinical and Clinical Research at SUGEN, a Pharmacia/Pfizer company. Dr. Cherrington began her career at Gilead Sciences, where she held a range of positions of increasing responsibility.Additionally, Julie is active in entrepreneurship initiatives through CLS, UC San Francisco, UC Davis, and Equalize. Julie holds a B.S. in biology and an M.S. in microbiology from UC Davis. She received her Ph.D. training in microbiology and immunology from the University of Minnesota and Stanford University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at UC San Francisco.
Member
Nina is a member of the Board of Directors at Sardona, representing Canaan Partners, where she is a General Partner. Nina invests in biopharma and digital health companies that serve unmet therapeutic and access needs. She is a director of Tyra Biosciences (Nasdaq: TYRA), Panacea Acquisition II (Nasdaq: PANA), and of private biopharmaceutical firms, including PACT, Rondo, Tizona (optioned by Gilead), and Trishula (optioned by AbbVie). Prior to Canaan, Nina was a General Partner at InterWest Partners, where she supported many companies including Aspreva (Nasdaq: ASPV; acquiredby Galenica), Cidara (Nasdaq: CDTX), CNS Therapeutics (acquired by Mallinckrodt), Eiger (Nasdaq: EIGR), Labrys (acquired by Teva), Novacardia (Nasdaq: NCAR, acquired by Merck), Paratek (Nasdaq: PRTK), Tesaro (Nasdaq: TSRO, acquired by GSK), and Trius (Nasdaq: TSRX, acquired by Cubist). Additionally, as a founder of Women Who Venture (WoVen), Nina is a vocal advocate for women entrepreneurs and investors. She is a Health Innovators Fellow of the Aspen Institute and serves as a director of Essential Access Health, Life Sciences Cares Bay Area, and Girl Effect, and is a member of the Leadership Council of the Oliver Wyman Health Innovation Center. She holds a B.A. in human biology from Stanford University.
Member
Jon is a member of the Board of Directors at Sardona, representing Red Tree Venture Capital, where he is a Managing Director and part of the founding investment team. Prior to joining Red Tree, he was a founding team member at Medicxi, a therapeutics focused venture fund, where he was most recently a partner in the London office. Jon began his venture capital career at Index Ventures in Switzerland. Before moving to Europe, Jon was a life sciences strategy consultant at ClearView Healthcare Partners based in Boston.
Jon’s investments at Red Tree include Rondo Therapeutics, Excellergy, and Sardona Therapeutics. He previously made investments in Synthorx (acquired by Sanofi), Phathom Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: PHAT), Checkmate Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Regeneron), Impact Biomedicines (acquired by Celgene), Sydnexis Inc., Xenikos B.V., and Breakpoint Therapeutics Gmbh. He has also held board seats on Z-Factor Ltd., UltraHuman Ltd., and Palladio Biosciences and was a board observer with ApcinteX Ltd. and Capella Bioscience.
Jon received a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Biophysics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and holds a B.S. from the University of Vermont. He was a bench scientist at Sepracor, Inc. and conducted his postdoctoral research at MIT.
Independent Member
Pam is an independent member of the Board of Directors at Sardona. Pam is a Venture Partner at Ysios Capital Venture and is additionally founder and principal of PMK BioResearch, an advisory and strategic consulting firm for the biotechnology industry and venture firms. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Argenx, Patrys, F-Star, and I-Mab Biopharma as well as a member of several Scientific Advisory Boards.
Dr. Klein was most recently the Founding Chief Medical Officer of Olema Oncology and previously served as CMO for multiple successful biotech companies including Intellikine which was acquired by Takeda. From 2001-2008, Dr. Klein held increasing positions of responsibility at Genentech lastly as Vice President, Development, where she led the development for a portfolio of drugs including Herceptin®, Rituxan®, Perjeta®, and Tarceva®. Prior to this, Dr. Klein was Research Director for the National Cancer Institute-Navy Breast Care Center that she co-founded and led until leaving the NCI.
Dr. Klein received her bachelor’s degree in biology from California State University and her Medical Degree from Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University Chicago. She trained in internal medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and medical oncology at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland where she served as Chief Fellow.
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Dr. Jordi Rodón is Associate Professor at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in the Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics with a joint appointment in the Department of Genomic Medicine. Dr. Rodon also serves as Associate Medical Director for the Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy and Clinical Co-director of the Precision Oncology Decision Support Group. Prior to MD Anderson, he was Director and Clinical Head of the Research Unit for Molecular Therapy of Cancer at the Vall d’Hebrón University Hospital in Barcelona, Spain. Dr. Rodón’s areas of expertise include first-in-human studies of targeted therapies, rational combinations of novel therapies, biomarker-driven trials, and trials in molecularly selected populations. Over the course of his career, he has developed an extensive experience in early drug development, being the principal or co-principal investigator on over 100 early phase clinical trials, focusing on a range of advanced solid malignancies and partnering with leaders in industry including Novartis, Merck, Eli Lilly, Genentech, Sanofi, and others. With this, he has contributed to more than 100 peer-reviewed publications detailing both trial results and basic research findings, including the development of PI3K, FGFR, and TGFbeta inhibitors.
Dr. Rodón earned his medical and doctoral degrees at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and completed a doctorate at the Universitat de Barcelona. He spent two years at the Advanced Drug Development program at the Institute for Drug Development in San Antonio, Texas. He completed his training in drug development as a senior clinical research fellow at MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he also completed an internship at the Kleberg Center for Molecular Markers under the direction of Dr. Gordon Mills.
ETH Zurich
Dr. Frédéric Allain is Professor of Biomolecular NMR in the Department of Biology at ETH Zurich in Switzerland. Dr. Allain’s research interests lie primarily in determining structures of protein-RNA complexes in solution to understand mechanisms of post-transcriptional gene regulation such as alternative-splicing, RNA editing. and translation regulation. This research is highly relevant for understanding the molecular basis of many genetic diseases originating from defects in RNA splicing, including spinal muscular atrophy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Dr. Allain was elected an EMBO member in 2009 and has been Co-director of the Swiss National Science Foundation National Center of Competence in Research (SNSF-NCCR) RNA & Disease since 2014.Dr. Allain was a postdoctoral fellow at UCLA under Drs. Juli Feigon and Doug Black. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, in the UK, where he worked at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology under the supervision of Dr. Gabriele Varani. He was born in France and educated at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris.
University of California, Los Angeles
Dr. Douglas L. Black is Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. Dr. Black is an RNA biologist who studies the mechanisms that regulate alternative pre-mRNA splicing in mammalian cells and the role of posttranscriptional gene regulation in neuronal development and other cellular processes. His studies have been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and a variety of private disease foundations.
Dr. Black was a recipient of fellowships from the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation and the Packard Foundation for Science and Engineering. He serves on the editorial boards for the scientific journals RNA, Genes and Development, and eLife, and has served on numerous advisory boards and grant review panels for the NIH and other funding agencies. He is a past President of the RNA Society and was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Black did postdoctoral work at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and MIT, working with Drs. David Baltimore, Don Rio, and Phillip Sharp. He received his Ph.D. in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale University working with Dr. Joan A. Steitz and earned his B.A. with highest honors in chemistry at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
University of California, San Francisco
Dr. Hani Goodarzi is Associate Professor and Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator at the University of California, San Francisco. With a dual background in computational and experimental genomics, he brings a multidisciplinary approach to studying complex human diseases. His research is focused on developing novel discovery platforms that help reveal previously unknown molecular mechanisms underlying cancer progression and neurodegeneration. By developing novel technologies for genome-wide measurement of hard-to-quantify RNA molecules, he has also made key discoveries about the role of non-coding RNAs in cancer progression. On the computational front, Dr. Goodarzi is focused on building biology-inspired and genome-scale machine learning models that help decode the biology of the human genome. For his contributions to cancer research, he was awarded the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise and AACR-MPM Oncology Charitable Foundation Transformative Cancer Research Grant. He also received the AAAS Martin and Rose Wachtel Cancer Research Award and a Research Scholar Grant from the American Cancer Society. He completed his training at The Rockefeller University in New York City, where he was a Ruth L. Kirschstein and Anderson Cancer Center postdoctoral fellow. He received his Ph.D. in quantitative and computational biology at Princeton University.
University of California, San Francisco
Dr. Hope Rugo is Clinical Professor of Medicine at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Breast Care Center. She is a medical oncologist and hematologist specializing in breast cancer research and treatment. Dr. Rugo is the Director of the Breast Oncology Clinical Trials Program and is the principal investigator of multiple clinical trials focusing on combining novel targeted therapeutics with standard treatment to improve the treatment of both early and late stage breast cancer. In addition, Dr. Rugo is working on studies to evaluate cognitive function in women receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer, as well as novel ways to reduce toxicity from therapy. Dr. Rugo has established collaborations with a number of other large academic medical centers for the purpose of expanding the novel therapies that are available for our patients, including herbal agents that appear to have an antitumor effect in the laboratory. She is an active member of the national cooperative group, Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB), and is a founding member of the Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium, as well as serving as an investigator in the UCSF Breast SPORE (Specialized Program of Research Excellence).
Dr. Rugo has been recognized for both her excellence in patient care and as an educator and mentor to medical students and training physicians. She has received several awards, including the A.P. Giannini Foundation Award and an intramural award from the UCSF Clinical Cancer Center Investigator Research Program. In 2006, she was honored for her work in Breast Cancer Research by the Friends of the Breast Care Center.Dr. Rugo was a post-doctoral fellow in immunology participating in laboratory research at Stanford University and completed a residency in internal medicine and primary care followed by a fellowship in hematology and oncology at UCSF. She earned her M.D. from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Sardona’s scientific founders have made seminal discoveries to uncover the role of RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) in driving cancer. The leadership team and advisors are experts in RBP biology and small molecule drug development and have successfully built companies to advance drug candidates into clinical trials.
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Sardona’s investors are major supporters and experienced partners in building new life science companies. Together, we believe we can attack cancer’s Achilles’ heel and breakthrough therapeutic resistance mechanisms, and develop novel therapies for millions of people with late-stage cancers.
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