Tallac team

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Hong I. Wan

President, CEO and
Co-founder
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Kevin Heller

Chief Medical
Officer
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Curtis Hecht

Chief Business Officer
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Janet Sim

Vice President,
Biologics Development
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Pavel Strop

Vice President,
Research
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Bora Han

Vice President,
Preclinical Development
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Mark Karbarz

Executive Director,
Biologics Development
thumb_Emma-Abellana

Emma Abellana

Senior Director,
Finance
thumb_Maria-Costa

Maria Costa

Senior Director,
Head of Biology and Translational Research
thumb_ David-Schmidt

David Schmidt

Senior Director,
Quality
thumb_ Sangeetha-Bollini

Sangeetha Bollini

Director,
Preclinical Operations
thumb_Min-Li

Min Li

Director,
Protein Science
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Ryan Quick

Director, CMC

Michael Chang

Associate Director,
CMC

Stacy Fide

Associate Director,
Study Management

Ons Harrabi

Associate Director,
Clinical Biomarkers

Josh Lee

Associate Director,
Clinical Operations

Mingrui An

Principal Scientist

Maja Bonacorsi

Principal Scientist

Amy Chen

Principal Scientist

Emma Sangalang

Principal Scientist

Tiffany Chou

Scientist

Danielle Fontaine

Scientific Associate II

Erica Belkin

Associate Lab Manager

Verwina Roble

Sr. Accountant / Office Manager

board of directors

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Mike Carusi

 
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Isaac Cheng

 
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Peter Dudek

 
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Corey Goodman

Chairman and Co-founder
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Jaume Pons

Co-founder
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Hong I. Wan

President, CEO and Co-founder

Investors

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Lightstone Logo
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investor_logo_matrix
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Hong I. Wan, Ph.D.

President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder

Hong I. Wan, Ph.D. is president, chief executive officer and director of Tallac Therapeutics. She co-founded Tallac with Drs. Corey Goodman, Jaume Pons and Curt Bradshaw in 2018. Dr. Wan is a life science leader with over 20 years of drug development experience and expertise in multiple therapeutics areas in biotech and pharmaceutical industry. Previously as chief scientific officer and a member of the founding management at ALX Oncology, she led the team to advance ALX148, a best-in-class myeloid checkpoint inhibitor, for multiple tumor indications. Prior to ALX Oncology, Dr. Wan held various leadership positions at Pfizer and Wyeth Research, where she was responsible for the early development and translational medicine strategy and execution across various therapeutic areas. Dr. Wan started her career at Renovis where she led discovery programs in neuroinflammation. Dr. Wan received her Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology from University of California, Berkeley and A.B. degree in biochemical sciences from Harvard University.
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Kevin Heller

Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Heller is a physician-scientist and drug developer with over 20 years of experience in oncology research in academia and industry. Experience spans across all stages of oncology drug development from discovery (academia) and pre-IND through commercialization and business development. He received his Bachelor’s degree in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale University and his medical degree from George Washington University before training first in pediatrics and then pediatric hematology/oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Following fellowship, Dr. Heller joined the faculty of the Rockefeller University as Instructor and subsequently Chief Clinical Scholar of Clinical Investigation in the laboratory of Ralph Steinman. During this time, he served as principal investigator on clinical trials, including conducting research into T-cell mediated immune responses among patients with EBV-mediated lymphomas.

Dr. Heller began his industry experience at BMS where he led early development programs and was responsible for authoring and managing first-in-human clinical trials. Later as US medical lead for ipilimumab, he led the writing of the FDA approved label and the REMS-Side Effect Guidelines for ipilimumab. In this role he also represented BMS in the negotiation of payer policies. He later served as Global Lead for Oncology Search and Evaluation in the strategic transactions group at BMS where he was responsible for leading due diligence activities and prepared recommendations for possible acquisitions. At AstraZeneca, Dr. Heller was the medical lead for programs in which he presented end of Phase 2 development plans to EMA and led the filing processes in China and Japan. At Incyte, he served as head of antibody clinical development where he led the IND submissions of four novel immunotherapies and coordinated immunotherapy clinical development strategies for multiple programs. Dr. Heller also served as the Chief Medical Officer at NextCure, and he was recently an adjunct professor in medicine at the Yale Medical School.

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Curtis C. Hecht

Chief Business Officer

Curtis Hecht is Chief Business Officer of Tallac Therapeutics. He brings 25 years of broad pharmaceutical experience including business development, strategic planning and commercialization. Previously, as CBO of Calithera Biosciences, he led the Business Development and Product Strategy Group and was responsible for closing a number of licensing and clinical collaboration agreements, built the portfolio management and lifecycle functions and led commercial planning. Prior to Calithera, Mr. Hecht was Vice President of Business Development for inVentiv Heath, was as a Partner of the consulting firm, DNA Ink and spent 9 years at Roche/ Genentech in commercialization and business development roles where he was involved in a number of transactions, including the $47 billion acquisition of Genentech. Mr. Hecht has a B.S. in Chemistry from California State University, Sacramento, and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University.
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Janet Sim, Ph.D.

Vice President, Biologics Development

Dr. Janet Sim is the Vice President of Biologics Development. She has over 20 years of drug discovery research and development experience, which includes target validation, drug screening and identification, and drug manufacture for Phase I/II clinical development. At Tallac, she leads the effort for drug discovery and design as well as development of manufacturing processes for clinical drug supply. Prior to joining Tallac, Janet served as the Vice President of Protein Science at ALX Oncology and was a co-inventor of ALX148, a next generation CD47 blocker in development for multiple tumor indications. She was also involved in the development of manufacturing processes for ALX148 to support clinical studies. Prior to ALX Oncology, Janet held positions with increasing responsibilities at Chiron Corporation and Novartis. Janet received a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the National University of Singapore.
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Pavel Strop, Ph.D.

Vice President, Research

Dr. Strop has over 20 years of experience in multiple therapeutic areas focusing on improving disease understanding at the molecular level and translating this knowledge into novel therapies. He authored more than 70 publications and is an inventor on 19 patents.  Dr. Strop joined Tallac in 2021 and works with the Research team toadvance a pipeline of novel Toll-like receptor agonist antibody conjugates towards clinical development. Previously, as Executive Director, BMS, Dr. Strop lead Redwood city Discovery Biotherapeutics group. His team formed close cross-functional partnerships to design, execute and advance projects focusing on next generation immuno-oncology and tumor microenvironment therapies. Prior to BMS, Dr. Strop was a Director of Biochemistry at Rinat/Pfizer where he developed and applied novel technologies for oncology including site-specific antibody drug conjugates and bispecifics. Dr. Strop received his Ph.D. from Caltech where he elucidated structural mechanism of mechanosensitive ion channels and completed his postdoc training at Stanford where he studied proteins involved in synaptic neurotransmission.

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Bora Han, PhD, DABT

Vice President, Preclinical Development

Dr. Han is a leader in biopharmaceutical development with over 20 years of experience in multiple therapeutic areas in biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Han is responsible for nonclinical safety, pharmacokinetics, and bioanalysis at Tallac Therapeutics. Prior to Tallac Therapeutics, she recently held various leadership positions at ProLynx, ALX Oncology, and Pfizer in drug safety, translational medicine, and operations. Dr. Han received her Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Toxicology from University of California, Irvine and is a Board Certified Toxicologist.
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Mark Karbarz

Executive Director, Biologics Development

Dr. Mark J. Karbarz is the Executive Director of Biologics Development, Head of CMC. He has over 16 years of industry experience, with an extensive breadth of early and late-stage process development, scale-up and technology transfer, and CMC product development. Most recently, he served as the Director of Process Development at Alexion Pharmaceuticals, a co-Site Lead for Alexion-South San Francisco and a member of the Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Advisory Board. Prior to Alexion, Mark was at Portola Pharmaceuticals and the CMC strategy lead for Andexanet Alfa. While at Portola, he developed and advanced the commercial Andexxa/Ondexxya manufacturing process from pre-IND through three global regulatory approvals. Prior to Portola, he held positions with increasing responsibilities in the Pain and Related Disorders group at Johnson and Johnson, and the Endocrinology and Metabolic Disorders group at Neurocrine Biosciences. Mark received a B.S. from the University of Illinois, Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Biological Chemistry from Duke University and completed his post-doctoral research at the University of California, San Diego.
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Emma Abellana

Senior Director, Finance

Emma Abellana is our Senior Director of Finance. She most recently served as Senior Director of Finance and Controller of ALX Oncology Holdings Inc, a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company until June 2020. Prior to joining ALX in 2015, Ms Abellana worked for Labrys Biologics (acquired by Teva Pharmaceuticals), KAI Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Amgen) and Exelixis Inc. Prior to working for the biotech companies, she worked for the Superior Court of San Mateo County as a Management Analyst. Ms. Abellana holds a B.S. Accounting from Far Eastern University.
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Maria Costa

Senior Director, Head of Biology and Translational Research

Dr. Costa joined Tallac in 2022 as Senior Director, Head of Biology. Dr. Costa is a cancer biologist with over 16years of research and drug discovery/development experience in both academia and industry, encompassing the areas of cancer and stem cell biology, tumor microenvironment and cancer immunology. She has over 30 publications and patent applications. Previously, Dr. Costa was Head of Research at Immune-Onc Therapeutics, where she directed multiple immuno-oncology programs, from inception to IND clearance, and collaborated with in early clinical development teams. Prior to Immune-Onc Therapeutics, Dr. Costa was a Principal Scientist at Pfizer, where she was biology lead of various cancer cell-targeted and immuno-oncology programs for heme and solid tumor indications. Additionally, Dr. Costa collaborated with Pfizer’s business development team in the evaluation of external science and lead due diligence team for asset in-licensing/collaboration with small biotech. Dr. Costa completed postdoctoral training in stem cell biology at Stanford University and in cancer biology at University of California San Francisco. Dr. Costa received her PhD in human biology from a joint program of University of Porto, Portugal, and Free University of Brussels, Belgium, and her BS in biochemistry from the University of Coimbra, Portugal.

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David Schmidt

Head of Quality

David Schmidt is Senior Director of Quality.  He has over 30 years of experience in pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, and medical device development including 10 years as a Quality Consultant.  David has previously held Scientist and Quality management positions at Labrys Biologics, InterMune, Alexza Pharmaceuticals, AeroGen, Orquest, and Celtix Pharmaceuticals.  At Tallac, David will lead the development of Quality Systems and provide Quality oversight for all aspects of clinical drug substance/drug product manufacturing and testing.  David holds a B.A in biology from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

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Sangeetha Bollini

Director, Preclinical Operations

Sangeetha Bollini is Director of Preclinical Operations. She has over 20 years of experience in various aspects of drug development, including protein engineering, assay development, regulatory operations, portfolio management, quality and CMC. Prior to joining Tallac, she was Director of Program Management at ALX Oncology, where she led Bioanalytical PK, ADA, and biomarker assays for preclinical and clinical studies, supported CMC analytical and cell-based assays, quality, and Regulatory Operations for multidisciplinary teams. Before ALX, Sangeetha was Assay Development Head at Pfizer overseeing preclinical and clinical assays across multiple platforms, in oncology, cardiovascular, CNS, ocular, and other therapeutic areas, spanning discovery research to late phase trials. Her role also included overseeing quality and regulatory submissions for preclinical studies.

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Min Li, Ph.D.

Director, Protein Science

Dr. Min Li joined Tallac as our Director of Protein Science in Aug 2020. Previously, Dr. Li served as a group leader and senior principal scientist in Protein Science Group, Novartis Institutes of Biomedical Sciences at Emeryville, CA since 2008. During her 12 year tenure, Dr. Li has worked extensively in drug discovery projects across the oncology and infectious diseases field. She holds a B.S. in applied chemistry and a M.S. in chemistry and earned her Ph.D in Biochemistry with focus on enzymology from Emory University in 2005. She completed her postdoctoral training at UCSF from 2005 to 2008 with extensive work on membrane protein expression as part of NIH protein structure initiative.  
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Ryan Quick

Director, CMC

Ryan worked as an independent consultant in the field of oligonucleotide CMC prior to joining Tallac. Prior to consulting, he was the Head of Research Chemistry at Vitrisa Therapeutics responsible for synthesis of compounds to support discovery, biology, and DMPK. In addition to synthesis, the research chemistry group was responsible for analysis of internal compounds, oligo conjugation, and worked closely with the CMC group at Vitrisa to provide research support. Ryan has over 20 years’ experience in the pharma industry, spanning both large pharma to biotech startups and GMP to research. Prior to joining Vitrisa, Ryan led the analytical development and validation group at Novan Therapeutics, was an integral part of the team that moved the main candidate from Ph2 to Ph3 at Regado Biosciences, and top Quality Control trainer while leading QC validation efforts at Biogen Idec. Ryan received his B.Sc. Chemical Engineering, Polymer Science Concentration, from North Carolina State University.
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Mike Carusi

Mike is a General Partner and Team Leader of Lightstone Ventures (LSV) and focuses on investments in the biopharmaceutical and medical device sectors. He is based in the firm’s Menlo Park, CA office, where he also serves as a General Partner at Advanced Technology Ventures (ATV). His representative investments include Altura Medical (acquired by Lombard), Ardian (acquired by Medtronic), Cala Health, EndoGastric Solutions, Gynesonics, MediSix Therapeutics, MicroVention (acquired by Terumo), Nuvaira, Plexxikon (acquired by Daiichi Sankyo), PowerVision (acquired by Alcon), Second Genome, Tallac Therapeutics, and Willow.

Featured on the Forbes Midas List of top technology and life science investors, Mike is a recognized thought leader in the industry and a frequent speaker at healthcare conferences. He serves as an Adjunct Professor at the Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College. In addition, Mike has been heavily involved with several programs at Stanford University including the Stanford Biodesign Program and, more recently, the Stanford Center for Clinical and Translational Research and Education (Spectrum). Lastly, Mike served as a Director on the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) Board of Directors and remains active in helping to shape policy affecting both innovation and healthcare.
Earlier in his career, Mike served as a Director of Business Development for Inhale Therapeutic Systems (now Nektar Therapeutics, NASDAQ: NKTR), a venture-backed pulmonary drug delivery company that went public in 1994. At Inhale, Mike led partnering activities with a number of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. Mike also was a Principal at The Wilkerson Group, a leading management consulting firm focused exclusively on healthcare. At The Wilkerson Group, Mike helped establish the firm’s offices in London and San Francisco.

Isaac Cheng, M.D.

Dr. Cheng joined Morningside in 2006 and focuses on biopharmaceutical and healthcare investments. He has served on numerous public and private company boards, including NuCana (NASDAQ: NCNA), Atea Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AVIR), Advanced Cell Diagnostics (sold to Bio-Techne), Liquidia Technologies, Incarda Therapeutics, Meissa Vaccines, Amylyx Pharmaceuticals, Cognoa, Artugen Therapeutics, Cognito Therapeutics, Big Health, and Tallac Therapeutics. Prior to joining Morningside, Dr. Cheng was Director of Research and Development at Serica Technologies, a Morningside portfolio company which was sold to Allergan. In addition, Dr. Cheng was previously an Associate Director at Novartis Pharmaceuticals in Clinical Development and Medical Affairs. Dr. Cheng received his M.D. from Tufts University School of Medicine.

Peter Dudek

Peter Dudek, PhD, serves as President and Managing Partner of Merck’s MRL Ventures Fund, a $500M fund devoted to supporting early-stage private biotech companies developing transformational new medicines. He has 15 years’ experience in the life sciences industry spanning R&D, company creation, corporate and traditional venture capital, across a broad range of therapeutic areas and modalities. Currently Dr. Dudek is responsible for MRLV’s investments in Caraway, Carisma, Hotspot, LifeMine, Mozart, Photys and Tallac. He also managed MRLV’s investments in Kymera (NASDAQ: KYMR), Imago (NASDAQ:IMGO) and Xilio (NASDAQ:XLO). Prior to MRLV, he was a Principal with Wellington Partners, a Munich and London based European venture fund with more than $1B under management, and before that, held roles at Entrepreneurs Fund and the corporate venture arm of Novartis. In those roles he was involved in investments and operational support across a broad range of life science companies including Atopix (sold to Chiesi), Bicycle (NASDAQ: BCYC), Imevax, iOmx, F-star (NASDAQ:FSTX), Middle Peak (sold to Symetis/Boston Scientific), Optinose (NASDAQ:OPTN), Oxagen, Prosonix (sold to Circassia) and Vasopharm. Dr. Dudek holds a Bachelor of Science with Honors from the University of British Columbia, obtained his PhD from the University of Geneva, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oxford.

Corey Goodman, Ph.D.

Chairman and Co-founder

Corey Goodman, Ph.D. is co-founder of Tallac Therapeutics™. He also serves as chair of the board of directors. Dr. Goodman is a Managing Partner of venBio Partners.

Dr. Goodman is a scientist, educator, and entrepreneur. He spent 25 years as Professor of Biology at Stanford University and Evan Rauch Chair of Neurobiology at U.C. Berkeley (Dept. of Molecular and Cell Biology), where he was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, Head of the Neurobiology Division, and co-founder and Director of the Wills Neuroscience Institute. He is currently Adjunct Professor of Neuroscience in the Wills Neuroscience Institute at U.C. Berkeley. Dr. Goodman is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and American Philosophical Society, and recipient of many honors including the Alan T. Waterman Award, Canada Gairdner Biomedical Award, March-of-Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology, Reeve-Irvine Research Medal, Dawson Prize in Genetics from Trinity College Dublin, and the Gruber Neuroscience Prize.

Dr. Goodman co-founded seven biotechnology companies (the first being Exelixis), and led one of them (Renovis) as President and CEO from a private to public company until its acquisition. He was recruited to be President and founder of Pfizer’s Biotherapeutics and Bioinnovation Center and a member of Pfizer’s executive leadership team.

Dr. Goodman is Chair of the Board of ALX Oncology, Tallac, and Second Genome. He is a member of the Board of NFlection and Attralus. He chaired Labrys Biologics until its acquisition by Teva. Amongst his many public policy roles, Dr. Goodman is a member of the University of California Innovation Council, a member of the board of the Pacific Institute, and former Chair of both the California Council on Science and Technology (advising the California governor and state legislature) and the National Research Council’s (NAS) Board on Life Sciences (advising the federal government).

Jaume Pons, Ph.D.

Co-founder

Jaume Pons, Ph.D., is co-founder of Tallac Therapeutics™. Dr. Pons has served as President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of board of directors at ALX Oncology since April 2015. He has also served as a Scientific Advisor at Lightstone Ventures, a venture capital fund, since January 2019 and as a Venture Partner at venBio Partners, a venture capital firm, since January 2017. Prior to joining us, Dr. Pons was with Pfizer, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, where he served as Senior Vice President and a member of the Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development Leadership Team and Chief Technology Officer for Pfizer Biotherapeutics from September 2009 to February 2015. From October 2007 to February 2015, he served as Chief Scientific Officer at Rinat Neuroscience Corporation, a subsidiary of Pfizer. Dr. Pons holds a B.S. in Biochemistry from Autonomous University of Barcelona and an M.S. in Biotechnology and a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the Institute on Fundamental Biology, Barcelona (Autonomous University of Barcelona).

Hong I. Wan, Ph.D.

President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder

Hong I. Wan, Ph.D. is president, chief executive officer and director of Tallac Therapeutics. She co-founded Tallac with Drs. Corey Goodman, Jaume Pons and Curt Bradshaw in 2018. Dr. Wan is a life science leader with over 20 years of drug development experience and expertise in multiple therapeutics areas in biotech and pharmaceutical industry. Previously as chief scientific officer and a member of the founding management at ALX Oncology, she led the team to advance ALX148, a best-in-class myeloid checkpoint inhibitor, for multiple tumor indications. Prior to ALX Oncology, Dr. Wan held various leadership positions at Pfizer and Wyeth Research, where she was responsible for the early development and translational medicine strategy and execution across various therapeutic areas. Dr. Wan started her career at Renovis where she led discovery programs in neuroinflammation. Dr. Wan received her Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology from University of California, Berkeley and A.B. degree in biochemical sciences from Harvard University.