Leadership

Meet the Team

Spyro Mousses, PhD

Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board

Spyro Mousses, PhD

Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board

Dr. Mousses is widely recognized as a leading scientist in the application of genomics, RNAi, systems biology, and machine learning to improve and accelerate cancer drug discovery and development. He has published more than 60 patents, scientific articles, and book chapters. He served as Director of the Pharmaceutical Genomics Division at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), where he led 8 laboratories to develop more than 30 programs and collaborated with pharmaceutical partners to accelerate cancer drug development. Prior to that, he served as Staff Scientist at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), NIH, leading a program in cancer genome scanning and high throughput technology.

As a successful entrepreneur, Dr. Mousses has previously founded several biotech and IT companies, including Systems Medicine (acquired by Cell Therapeutics), MedTrust Online (acquired by Annai Systems), and Systems Imagination, which offers advanced cognitive computing technology to translate big data into biomedical insights.

Dr. Mousses received his PhD in Molecular Pathogenesis and Genetics of Cancer from the University of Toronto. He can be reached by contacting his EA, Courtney Villani, at

Email:cvillani@systemsoncology.com.

James Silver, LLM

Chief Operating Officer

James Silver, LLM

Chief Operating Officer

At SO, James advises the CEO and CLO on developing and executing business strategy. This includes structuring and negotiating financings, licenses, acquisitions, partnerships, evaluation of growth opportunities, and other commercial transactions. James is further responsible for operationalizing SO’s corporate development activities, including leading teams in legal, operations, investor relations, public relations, human resources, and facilities. James also serves as the Chair of the Corporate Affairs Committee.

Earlier in his career, James was a biotech attorney in private practice, most recently with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. James was educated at University of Toronto, University of London, and Osgoode Hall Law School, and is admitted to practice law in Massachusetts, New York, and Ontario, and as registered in-house counsel in Arizona.

Andrew Matricaria, MBA

Chief Financial Officer

Andrew Matricaria, MBA

Chief Financial Officer

Andrew has 20 years of private equity and healthcare industry experience. As Managing Partner of Lakeshore Capital Partners, Andrew is responsible for evaluating potential investment opportunities, structuring and executing transactions and portfolio company oversight. In his role at Lakeshore, Andrew also provides financial consulting and executive-level management services.

Prior to founding Lakeshore Capital Partners, Andrew worked in brand management at Amgen. While at Amgen, he took on increasing levels of responsibility in the sales and marketing organization. In his most recent role, he directed the strategic planning and operations function for a groundbreaking oncology product launch.

Previously, Andrew worked as an investment banking analyst for Credit Suisse First Boston, where he focused on mergers and acquisitions advisory and debt and equity financings.

Andrew holds a BA from the University of Michigan and an MBA from The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, with a concentration in Health Sector Management.

Daniel D. Von Hoff, MD, FACP

Chief Clinical Strategist

Daniel D. Von Hoff, MD, FACP

Chief Clinical Strategist

Dr. Von Hoff has been instrumental in the development and approval of many life-saving cancer therapies including gemcitabine, fludarabine, paclitaxel, docetaxel, topotecan, irinotecan, mitoxantrone,vismodegib, nab-paclitaxel and others. He is currently Physician-in-Chief and Distinguished Professor at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic, and the Virginia G. Piper Distinguished Chair for Innovative Cancer Research at Honor Health Research Institute

Dr. Von Hoff is a former member of the FDA’s Oncology Drug Advisory Committee (ODAC) and served on President Bush’s National Cancer Advisory Board. He was previously the Director of the Arizona Cancer Center and former president of the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR). He is a past member of the Board of Scientific Advisors of the National Cancer Institute, as well as a former board member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). Dr. Von Hoff co-founded ILEX Oncology, Inc. in 1993, which was later acquired by Genzyme Corp. in 2004 for $1 billion.

Dr. Von Hoff has published more than 730 papers, 141 book chapters and over 1165 abstracts. Dr. Von Hoff received the 2010 David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award from ASCO for his outstanding contributions to cancer research leading to significant improvement in patient care. He has also edited the Cancer Chemotherapy Handbook and has had seats on the editorial board of 12 scientific journals, including the founding Editor-in-Chief of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics. Dr. Von Hoff is also currently the Team Leader for the Stand Up to Cancer (SU2C Sponsored) Dream Team focused on developing new agents targeting pancreatic cancer.

David Mauro, MD, PhD

Medical Advisor

David Mauro, MD, PhD

Medical Advisor

David Mauro MD, Ph.D has over 20 years of oncology drug development experience. As a Medical Director at BMS, he was involved in both the early and late stage development and approvals of Erbitux and Sprycel. In a subsequent role as Executive Director at Merck, he participated in the development of multiple programs including Keytruda and also served as the clinical lead for the approval of Sylatron.

After leaving Merck, David has served as Chief Medical Officer at Advaxis, Checkmate Pharmaceuticals and Prelude Therapeutics where he led the development of numerous oncology programs. Currently, David is the Chief Medical Officer at Codiak Biosciences. He completed his residency training in Anatomic Pathology at the NCI/NIH. He received his Ph.D in Pharmacology and MD at Temple University School of Medicine.

David Azorsa, PhD

Senior Vice-President, Bioengineering

David Azorsa, PhD

Senior Vice-President, Bioengineering

Dr. Azorsa is an accomplished scientist with over 20 years of experience in cancer research. He was previously a Senior Scientist in the Institute of Molecular Medicine at Phoenix Children’s Hospital and a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Child Health at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix. He also headed the Biological Therapeutics Laboratory at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGEN). Dr. Azorsa has authored over 45 papers and has expertise in cellular and molecular biology, antibody development, functional genomics screening, drug screening, and assay development.

Dr. Azorsa received his PhD in Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the INSERM U.311 in Strasbourg, France and the National Human Genome Research Institute at the NIH.

Jeff Kiefer, PhD

Senior Vice-President, Discovery Research

Jeff Kiefer, PhD

Senior Vice-President, Discovery Research

Dr. Kiefer is an accomplished scientist spanning the intersection of cancer biology and genomic technologies. Prior to joining Systems Oncology, he spent 14 years at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) beginning as a postdoctoral researcher and progressing to the level of Research Associate Investigator. During his time at TGen, he was deeply embedded in numerous major research initiatives involving internal programs and collaborations with industry partners. His multidisciplinary research talents in the areas of cancer biology, systems biology, informatics, and knowledge mining were leveraged to support investigators across the institute and across therapeutic areas. Dr. Kiefer was instrumental in developing interpretation systems, rules and methods for the development of devices to enable multiple precision medicine initiatives involving interactions with the FDA.

Dr. Kiefer received his PhD from the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.

Kerry M. Barnhart, PhD

Vice-President, Drug Development

Kerry M. Barnhart, PhD

Vice-President, Drug Development

Dr. Barnhart is an accomplished biotechnology development entrepreneur, specializing in designing and directing programs for developing novel scientific discoveries into groundbreaking therapeutic products, particularly in oncology.

Prior to joining Systems Oncology Dr. Barnhart was most recently Vice-President of Clinical Development at Lantern Pharma, and previously was Senior Vice-President of Development at CerRx, Inc., both Texas-based clinical oncology drug development companies. From 2002 to 2014 Dr. Barnhart founded or was on the original management teams of a variety of both private and public biotechnology companies including Rigid Solutions LLC (as Chief Executive Officer), Transmed Oncology, Inc. (as CEO and President), Bradmer Pharmaceuticals, Inc., (as President and Chief Scientific Officer), and Aptamera, Inc. (as Chief Scientific Officer). Prior to joining Aptamera and since 1994, Dr. Barnhart held various research and business management positions in San Diego at both start-up and public biotech companies, including Vical, Inc. and Imgenex Corporation. Dr. Barnhart has published over 25 research papers in peer-reviewed journals, has been the recipient of multiple small business grants from the National Institutes of Health, and has served as chairperson for review committees of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Dr. Barnhart received a BS degree in chemistry and a MS degree in toxicology from the University of Arizona and completed doctoral studies in molecular biology at the Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City while enrolled in the Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences. Dr. Barnhart conducted post-doctoral studies at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and at the University of California, San Diego.

Email:kerry.barnhart@systemsoncology.com

Gavin Bogle, JD, MBA, MS

General Counsel & Chief Legal Officer

Gavin Bogle, JD, MBA, MS

General Counsel & Chief Legal Officer

Gavin has more than 20 years of global licensing and legal experience across sectors with an emphasis on cross-border business and intellectual property strategy issues. His experience includes corporate transactions, such as acquisitions, financings, licensing and divestitures, managing intellectual property holdings and devising intellectual property strategies. Gavin is a US patent attorney and a Canadian trademark agent. He has significant experience in life sciences law and licensing, including pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and nutritional supplement matters. Gavin has a JD, an MBA and an MS.

Gavin was General Counsel at Iovate, a mid-sized private Canadian company; Patent Counsel at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge MA; Senior Patent Attorney at Genetics Institute in Cambridge MA; and a patent attorney at a major New York IP firm. Gavin also held a clerkship at the Tax Court of Canada.

Board

Spyro Mousses, PhD

Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board

Spyro Mousses, PhD

Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board

Email:cvillani@systemsoncology.com.

Andrew Matricaria, MBA

Chief Financial Officer

Andrew Matricaria, MBA

Chief Financial Officer

Gavin Bogle, JD, MBA, MS

General Counsel & Chief Legal Officer

Gavin Bogle, JD, MBA, MS

General Counsel & Chief Legal Officer

Daniel D. Von Hoff, MD, FACP

Chief Clinical Strategist

Daniel D. Von Hoff, MD, FACP

Chief Clinical Strategist

Scientific Advisory Board

Scott C. Brun, MD

President, Gold Mast Consulting, LLC

Scott C. Brun, MD

President, Gold Mast Consulting, LLC

Dr. Brun is the President of Gold Mast Consulting, LLC, and is currently serving in several board and advisory positions within the academic, VC, and biopharmaceutical industry communities. In 1997, Dr. Brun joined Abbott Laboratories, where he held positions of increasing leadership responsibility in drug development within the R&D organization. When AbbVie launched as an independent biopharmaceutical company in 2013, he was named Corporate Vice President and Head of Pharmaceutical Development. Dr. Brun oversaw a global organization with responsibilities for AbbVie’s entire portfolio of early and late stage clinical preregistration pipeline compounds as well as marketed compounds within oncology, neurology, immunology, renal, infectious disease, and women’s and men’s health therapeutic areas. A variety of phase 2 and 3 programs initiated and executed during his tenure resulted in multiple therapies being introduced to the clinic, including Mavyret (leading global curative therapy for HCV infection), Venclexta (first in class BCL-2 inhibitor for hematologic malignancies), Orilissa (first in class GnRH antagonist for endometriosis), and Rinvoq (selective JAK-1 inhibitor for rheumatoid arthritis).

More recently, Dr. Brun served as Vice President of Scientific Affairs and Head of AbbVie Ventures, a corporate venture fund responsible for investment opportunities within the company’s current R&D therapeutic areas as well as technology platforms of interest. Under his leadership, the group expanded its investment portfolio to include over 20 active companies, leading to Abbvie Ventures being identified as one of the top most active corporate and institutional new venture investors.

Dr. Brun received his BS degree in Biochemistry from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and an MD degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He completed his residency in ophthalmology at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary/Harvard Medical School.

Joyce A. O’Shaughnessy, MD

Celebrating Women endowed chair in breast cancer research Baylor University Medical Center

Joyce A. O’Shaughnessy, MD

Celebrating Women endowed chair in breast cancer research Baylor University Medical Center

Dr. O’Shaughnessy specializes in medical oncology with board certification in both internal medicine and medical oncology. She is a Diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine with subspecialty certification in medical oncology. She is also Director of Breast Cancer Research at Baylor-Sammons Cancer Center and Chair of Breast Cancer Research for The US Oncology Network. Dr. O’Shaughnessy focuses her clinical research on breast cancer treatment, especially in Genotype-Phenotype correlations for high risk breast cancers and immunotherapy for triple negative breast cancer.

Dr. O’Shaughnessy has received numerous awards and honors, including Giants of Cancer Care: Community Outreach/Education Award; Baylor University Medical Center: Staff Chief’s award; Holy Cross College: Santae Crucis Award (Distinguished Alumni Award): Public Health Service Special Service: Development of the Consensus Statement on Cancer Drug Approval Endpoints Award; Yale Medical School: Francis Parker Award (Faculty Choice for Most Promising Clinician). She is also Associate Editor for Clinical Breast Cancer Journal, and Founder of The School of Breast Oncology.

Dr. O’Shaughnessy received her M.D. from Yale University Medical School. Her internship and residency in internal medicine were completed at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1985. She concluded a fellowship in medical oncology at the National Cancer Institute in 1987 and was a Senior Investigator there until 1995.

Laszlo Radvanyi, PhD

President, the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research

Laszlo Radvanyi, PhD

President, the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research

Dr. Laszlo Radvanyi is currently the President & Scientific Director of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR; https://oicr.on.ca/), bringing over 30 years of strong oncology research background in academia as well as leadership experience in international pharma and biotech. Dr. Radvanyi joined OICR from EMD Serono (Merck KGaA), where he was Senior Vice President Global Head of the Immuno-Oncology (IO) Translational Innovation Platform (TIP) and Senior Scientific Advisor for Immunology and IO. While at EMD Serono, he rebuilt and re-organized the IO research platform and rejuvenated its target pipeline. Prior to joining EMD Serono, he was a Professor in the Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology at the University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston for 10 years. While at MD Anderson, he ran an integrated clinical and basic research program in adoptive T-cell therapy for solid tumours and is an expert in the field of tumour-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy.

Dr. Radvanyi was also the founding CSO for Iovance Therapeutics, commercializing TIL therapies for melanoma and other cancers and led research and development activities leading to two active Phase 2 INDs leading to regulatory approval. He also has 7 patents in the cancer immunotherapy and cell therapy field. He has been the recipient of numerous scientific awards and is a member of a number of scientific advisory boards, such as Keystone Conferences, and editorial boards, such as the Journal of Immunotherapy for Cancer (JITC). He also sits on a number of biotech advisory boards, such as Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners (formerly MaRS Innovation) and other biotech companies and organizations.

Dr. Radvanyi was educated at the University of Toronto, earning a PhD in Clinical Biochemistry in 1996.

Sarah Shigdar, PhD

Senior lecturer in Medical Science at Deakin University & President of the International Society of Aptamers

Sarah Shigdar, PhD

Senior lecturer in Medical Science at Deakin University & President of the International Society of Aptamers

Dr Sarah Shigdar is currently the Senior Lecturer in Medical Science at Deakin University and the current President of the International Society of Aptamers. She is also the executive editor of the Aptamers Journal. She has over 20 years’ experience as a biomedical scientist, completing her Bachelor of Biomedical Science in 1995, Masters in Medical Laboratory Science in 2004 at RMIT and her PhD in Haematology in 2009 at Deakin University. Her career has so far contributed over 60 papers to the science community.

Dr Shigdar leads the Laboratory of Aptamer Theranostics at Deakin University, leading a large research team that focuses on the development of synthetic antibodies called aptamers. Aptamers are made of sequences of RNA/DNA that fold into 3D structures that can find and target cells/proteins and bind to them to block their function or create easier access for other drugs to those cells. She has an interest in aptamers because their properties and nano size could be utilised to treat cancers more effectively as current drug methods struggle to cross through the blood brain barrier. While her major focus is on developing therapeutics that can cross the blood brain barrier to specifically target and treat brain cancers and brain metastases, she champions the use of aptamers and is collaborating on a number of projects worldwide to aid researchers to switch to aptamers for their applications and assays.

David Bearss, PhD

Senior Managing director, Utah therapeutics accelerator at the University of Utah

David Bearss, PhD

Senior Managing director, Utah therapeutics accelerator at the University of Utah

Dr. David J. Bearss is an experienced entrepreneur and drug developer who currently serves as the Senior Managing Director, UTAH Therapeutics Accelerator at the University of Utah.

Dr. Bearss has a consistent and successful track record of drug discovery and development that spans the last 20 years in both academic and industrial settings. He is an expert in small molecule drug development and in the use of genetic model systems in drug discovery. He has deep experience in translational research focused on drug development and the use of genetic markers to predict drug sensitivity. Dr. Bearss has discovered 15 compounds that have INDs filed and moved forward in clinical development and has been a founder of 5 biotech companies. Dr. Bearss served as Chief Scientific Officer at Montigen Pharmaceuticals and SuperGen Inc. overseeing early drug discovery and development. He was the founding Co-Director of the Center for Investigational Therapeutics at the Huntsman Cancer Institute as well as an Associate Professor in the Department of Oncological Sciences at the University of Utah and Associate Professor of Physiology & Developmental Biology at Brigham Young University. Dr. Bearss was the founder and CEO of Tolero Pharmaceuticals which he led through its acquisition by Sumitomo DaiNippon Pharma in 2017. He stayed on after the acquisition as CEO of Tolero and as Global head of Research and CSO of SDP Oncology.

Dr. Bearss has published more than 80 manuscripts and book chapters, has over 50 patents issued or pending and has won several awards for his scientific achievements.

Lukas Bubendorf, MD

Surgical pathologist & Head of Cytopathology, Institute for Pathology at University Hospital Basel

Lukas Bubendorf, MD

Surgical pathologist & Head of Cytopathology, Institute for Pathology at University Hospital Basel

Prof. Lukas Bubendorf is a surgical pathologist and head of cytopathology at the Institute for Pathology of the University Hospital Basel. He completed a post-doctoral research fellowship at the National Human Genome Research Institutes at the NIH, Bethesda, from 1998-2000.

He is a member of numerous national and international scientific societies, the Steering Committee of the ETOP Lungscape project, the IASLC Pathology Committee and the editorial boards of several journals including Journal of Thoracic Oncology, Lung Cancer, Pathobiology, Cancer Cytopathology, Diagnostic Cytopathology, and Acta Cytologica.

Professor Bubendorf is the author of more than 250 papers in peer-reviewed journals and several book chapters. His major interests and diagnostic expertise lie within lung pathology and uropathology, and in the general field of cytopathology. His research group currently investigates the role of genomic evolution and heterogeneity in solid tumors, including lung cancer and prostate cancer. In cytology, he aims at translating molecular techniques and assays to clinical routine application.

Leadership

Meet the Team

Spyro Mousses, PhD

James Silver, LLM

Andrew Matricaria, MBA

Daniel D. Von Hoff, MD, FACP

David Mauro, MD, PhD

David Azorsa, PhD

Jeff Kiefer, PhD

Kerry M. Barnhart, PhD

Gavin Bogle, JD, MBA, MS

Board

Spyro Mousses, PhD

Andrew Matricaria, MBA

Gavin Bogle, JD, MBA, MS

Daniel D. Von Hoff, MD, FACP

Scientific Advisory Board

Scott C. Brun, MD

Joyce A. O’Shaughnessy, MD

Laszlo Radvanyi, PhD

Sarah Shigdar, PhD

David Bearss, PhD

Lukas Bubendorf, MD

Contact Us

Connect with us at
partner@oligon.com

Leadership

Meet the Team

Board

Scientific Advisory Board

Contact Us

Connect with us at partner@oligon.com

Connect with us at
partner@oligon.com