EPYGENIX - Key Persons
Alex Yang, J.D., L.L.M. is the original funder of Epygenix Therapeutics, Inc. and the CEO/owner of Mstone Partners, which serves as the major shareholder of Epygenix Therapeutics, Inc. Alex also serves as the CEO of Curyx Partners, a biotech incubation platform, which has set up a number of drug development companies in both pre-clinical and clinical stages.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- President
Darren most recently served as the U.S. Chief Commercial Officer of GW Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for all commercial and medical affairs activities associated with Epidiolex prior to GW's acquisition by Jazz Pharmaceuticals for $7.2 billion in 2021. Previously, he was Seagen's Executive Vice President, Commercial, participating in the management of all aspects of Seagen's operations and accountable for Seagen's commercialization of Adcetris . Prior to Seagen, Darren had key commercial leadership roles at Intermune, Alexion and Amgen. He is currently a member of the Pyxis Oncology Board of Directors and was formerly on the Stemline Therapeutics Board of Directors. Darren received his undergraduate degrees in marketing from San Diego State University and his Master of Business Administration from Pepperdine University.
Michael is a highly accomplished financial executive who brings an over 25-year track record of public company expertise, capital market transactions, investor relations, and financial reporting. Prior to joining Epygenix, Michael was most recently the Chief Financial Officer at Avisa Diagnostics Inc., a publicly traded medical device company. While there, he was responsible for strategic and tactical finance initiatives and was directly involved with investor relations and capital raising activities. Before that, he served as Principal Accounting Officer and Treasurer at Lannett Company Inc., a publicly traded pharmaceutical company, where he led acquisitions and related financing activities and was a member of the executive team that successfully completed a $1.2 billion acquisition. Michael was also actively involved in the initial Public Offering (IPO) process in previous financial leadership roles at companies including Akrion Inc. and AlliedBarton Security Services, LLC. Earlier, he worked at various other publicly traded companies after beginning his career within the Big Four public accounting firms. Michael received his Bachelors in Accounting from Franklin & Marshall College and is an active Certified Public Accountant.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director of the Board
Hahn-Jun Lee, M.Sc., Ph.D. is a serial entrepreneur who founded Epygenix Therapeutics, Inc. He also founded Polaryx Therapeutics, Inc., which develops patient-friendly medicines for lysosomal storage disorders and Focus Therapeutics, LLC, a business catalyst in the biotech-pharma industry. He also co-founded Curyx Partners, LLC, a drug development platform.
He has extensive experience in R&D, deal making, business development, and has consulted with several top-notch health care venture capital firms and global pharma and biotech companies, including Doman Associates, Shire Human Genetic Therapies, P&G Pharma, Melior Discovery, and CDI. He also consulted with several Korean biotechs, venture capital firms, and research institutes.
Dr. Lee was an Assistant Professor of Biotechnology in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University in the City of New York. He also worked as a Staff Scientist at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Japan.
He obtained a B.S. in Life Science from Sogang University, Seoul, Korea. He completed his M.S. and Ph.D. in applied biotechnology in the Department of Applied Biotechnology at the University of Tokyo, Japan.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics, UCSF, Director, UCSF Pediatric Epilepsy Center
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Coordinator, Medical Advisory Board Pediatric Neurologist and Epileptologist, UCLA Health
Job Titles:
- Medical Director, Comprehensive Epilepsy Center at Lurie Children 's Hospital of Chicago, Associate Professor of Pediatrics Neurology and Epilepsy, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Dr. Masuoka has more than 25 years of experience building and expanding high value pipelines in the biopharmaceutical industry that have resulted in drug approvals and strategic alliances. She is a board-certified neurologist who has successfully created and overseen high performing teams to lead the clinical development of new medicines, with a focus in multiple sclerosis, oncology, and epilepsy. Dr. Masuoka served as Chief Medical Officer of Marinus Pharmaceuticals, Cubist Pharmaceuticals (now Merck), and Nektar Therapeutics where, as a member of executive management, she managed teams in the areas of clinical research, pharmacovigilance, biostatistics and data management, regulatory affairs, and clinical operations. Previously, she held various roles of increasing responsibility at FivePrime Therapeutics (now Amgen) and Chiron (now Novartis). In addition to her executive roles, Dr. Masuoka most recently served as a Board member at Pfenex Inc. (now Ligand) and serves as a Board member at Opiant Pharmaceuticals.
Michael Chin is a seasoned investment bank and asset management professional with over 30 years of experience. Michael is currently an Independent Director at Vingroup, JSC, Pepper Savings Bank, and SEO-Vietnam. He also serves as a senior advisor of Lumen Capital Investors developing its private equity/venture capital business.
Michael spent 22 years in various locations and functions in UBS AG, including CEO of Asset Management Singapore and UBS Hana Asset Management in Korea. Before joining UBS, Michael held a number of positions at Lehman Brothers, Schroders and Credit Suisse First Boston, and Kakao Bank. Michael graduated with a BA degree in International Relations from University of Virginia.
Job Titles:
- Chairman, Department of Neurology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Professor of Neurology, Maryland School of Medicine
Job Titles:
- Director, Chair of Scientific Advisory Board
Dr. Baraban's pioneering research focuses on translational discoveries and includes work on models of pediatric epilepsy in zebrafish and interneuron-based cell therapies for epilepsy. The first zebrafish models for epilepsy were developed in his laboratory more than 20 years ago, and his group published the first high-throughput drug screenings using a zebrafish model for Dravet Syndrome. He has authored more than 120 publications, including papers in the Journal of Neuroscience, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, Neuron, Nature Communications, Science, Brain, and Nature Neuroscience. He has received several research honors, including the Basil O' Connor Scholar Research award, a Klingenstein Foundation Fellowship in Neuroscience, and an NIH EUREKA award. He received a Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award from the NIH in 2015 and the Basic Science Research award from the American Epilepsy Society in 2016.
Dr. Baraban received his Bachelor's degree from the Johns Hopkins University, his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, and completed his postdoctoral training at the University of Washington. He currently serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of the Dravet Syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome Foundations.