Skip to content

Shoreline Biosciences Is Positioned to Be a Category Leader

Our Vision

To advance transformative therapies for autoimmune disease and cancer

Our Mission

To develop the right cell, with the right edits, for the right indications

We Are Committed to Scientific and Clinical Excellence and Are Passionate About Bringing Transformative Therapies to Patients in Critical Need

Join our Team

Leadership Team

Mauro P. Avanzi, MD, Ph.D.,

Chief Medical Officer

Scott Forrest, Ph.D.

Chief Business Officer

Lyuda Hillman, CPA

Vice President, Controller

Vanessa Jacoby, CPA

Chief Financial Officer

Leah Mitchell, Ph.D.

Vice President, Translational Pharmacology

Paschalis Sideras, PH.D.

Senior Vice President, Research

Kleanthis G. Xanthopoulos, Ph.D.

Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

Board of Directors

Kleanthis G. Xanthopoulos, Ph.D.

Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

STEVEN HOLTZMAN

Co-Founder & Director

Marios Fotiadis

Director

Christopher Fuglesang, Ph.D., J.D.

Director

Frank YU

Director

Scientific Advisory Board

William Sandborn, M.D.

Co-Founder & Advisory Board Member

Travis S. Young, Ph.d.

Advisory Board Member

Scott Antonia, M.D., Ph.D.

Advisory Board Member

SILKE PAUST, Ph.D.

Advisory Board Member

Judith Shizuru, M.D., Ph.D.

Advisory Board Member

Éric Vivier, DVM, Ph.D.

Advisory Board Member

Partners

Kite-Capital-400
Dendreon-logo-400x200
Cedars-Sinai-logo-400x200

Investors

Together Let’s Push the Boundaries of Scientific Innovation

Join our team

Éric Vivier, DVM, PhD
Scientific Advisory Board

Éric Vivier, DVM, PhD, is Professor of Immunology at Aix-Marseille University and at the Public Hospital of Marseille (AP-HM). In addition, he was appointed in 2018, Scientific Director of Innate Pharma, a biotechnology company dedicated to improving cancer treatment withinnovative therapeutic antibodies that exploit the immune system (https://www.innatepharma.com/).

He completed his post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School, then joined Aix-Marseille University as professor at the Centre d’Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy (CIML) in 1993 before becoming its director from 2008 to 2017. He is also one of the founders of Marseille-Immunopôle, an immunology cluster created in 2014 linking fundamental and therapeutic research, innovation and industrial development on the Aix-Marseille metropole (https://marseille-immunopole.org/.).

Eric Vivier’s work focuses on innate immunity and in particular Natural killer and other innate lymphoid cells, at Ciml, at AP-HM and at Innate-Pharma. Professor Vivier has published over 400 scientific articles and is on the list of the most cited researchers: https://recognition.webofscience.com/awards/highly-cited/2021/

A laureate of the European Research Council (ERC advanced grants), a member of the EMBO, the Académie Nationale de Médecine and the Institut Universitaire de France, Prof. Vivier has received several awards including those from the Ligue Nationale contre le Cancer (and the European Federation of Immunological Societies (EFIS). He is Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur and Officier de l’Ordre National du Mérite.

He is also President of Paris Saclay Cancer Cluster Association (https://parissaclaycancercluster.com).

Publications: total 412, h-Index: 122, > 60,000 citations scholar.google.fr/citations?user=NlmFOgMAAAAJ&hl=fr&oi=ao

Lyuda Hillman, CPA
VIce President, Controller

Lyuda Hillman has over 20 years of accounting and financial management experience at public and private companies in the biotechnology and accounting industries.  Prior to joining Shoreline, Ms. Hillman served as a Sr. Director, Finance and Controller at Viking Therapeutics, where she was responsible for accounting oversight and financial reporting.  Prior to that , she held accounting leadership roles at Celladon Corporation, Ambrx and Cytori Therapeutics, Inc.  Before joining industry, Ms. Hillman was an auditor for Ernst & Young. Ms. Hillman received her M.S. in Business Administration from San Diego State University and B.S. in Business Administration from Cal State San Marcos. She is a Certified Public Accountant with the State of California (inactive).

Lyuda Hillman
Vice President, Controller

Lyuda Hillman has over 20 years of accounting and financial management experience at public and private companies in the biotechnology and accounting industries.  Prior to joining Shoreline, Ms. Hillman served as a Sr. Director, Finance and Controller at Viking Therapeutics, where she was responsible for accounting oversight and financial reporting.  Prior to that , she held accounting leadership roles at Celladon Corporation, Ambrx and Cytori Therapeutics, Inc.  Before joining industry, Ms. Hillman was an auditor for Ernst & Young. Ms. Hillman received her M.S. in Business Administration from San Diego State University and B.S. in Business Administration from Cal State San Marcos. She is a Certified Public Accountant with the State of California (inactive).

STEVE Potter
Vice president, people and culture

Mr. Potter has over 25 years of experience leading people and culture, human capital management and talent management for companies in biotech, biopharma and high technology.

Prior to joining Shoreline, Mr. Potter served as the Vice President of People and Culture at Artiva Biotherapeutics, where he played a key role in establishing its culture and led the Company’s growth.  Prior to that, Mr. Potter held people and culture leadership roles at Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Element Biosciences and Amylin Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Potter received his MS in Organization Development and Human Resources from the University of San Francisco and received a BS in Business from University of Sacramento. He is a founding board member of the San Diego Human Resources Forum and currently serves on its board. 

Mauro P. Avanzi, MD, Ph.D.,
Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Avanzi is a physician-scientist and expert in immuno-oncology and adoptive T cell therapy. Prior to joining Shoreline, Dr. Avanzi was Vice President, Clinical Development at Neogene Therapeutics (acquired by AstraZeneca) and conducted studies with TCR T cells targeting neoantigens. Prior to Neogene, Dr. Avanzi held a number of positions of increasing responsibility at Kite Pharma (acquired by Gilead) and supported multiple clinical programs through all stages of development.

Dr. Avanzi earned his M.D. at Campinas Medical School (Puc) in Brazil and completed an internal medicine residency and hematology/oncology fellowship at Sao Paulo University (USP). He completed his Ph.D. research at the New York Blood Center/Santa Casa Medical School and a post-doctoral fellowship focusing on CAR-T cells at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Frank Yu
Board Member

Mr. Yu is the founder, CEO and CIO of Ally Bridge Group, a leading global life science-dedicated investment group. Mr. Yucarries a strong track record as an investment manager across multiple funds and strategies with investments in  the U.S., China and Europe.

Mr. Yu started his career in New York, then worked in Hong Kong for over two decades. Previously, Mr. Yu was Managing Director and Head of China Investments at Och-Ziff Capital Management (OZ), a leading global hedge fund, where he made some of OZ’s largest and highly successful investments.

Prior to OZ, Mr. Yu was a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong, where he headed several business units and played instrumental roles in some of the most important restructuring, IPO and M&A transactions of leading Chinese companies. Mr. Yu also advised leading global institutions on their China and Asia strategies and transactions. Before Goldman Sachs, Mr. Yu worked at Moody’s in New York, and then Credit Suisse in London and Hong Kong.

Since 2010, Mr. Yu has founded, launched and managed multiple funds covering venture, growth, buyout and hedge fund investing from China to U.S. to Europe.

Mr. Yu excels in originating and executing major investment themes such as global life science investing, which has become the primary focus of Mr. Yu and Ally Bridge, creating high-impact deals such as the landmark US$3.3 billion WuXi Pharmatech. He has expertise in cementing strategic transactions between emerging players and industry leaders across the U.S., China and Europe.

Huang Zhu, Ph.D.

Huang Zhu, Ph.D.
Vice President, Research

Dr. Zhu has over a decade of experience in developing stem cell derived therapeutics and joined Shoreline Biosciences since January 2021, where he built a talented and nimble research team, oversees iPSC derived NK (iNK) cell platform development, initiation of therapy programs, and external partnerships. Prior to joining Shoreline, Dr. Zhu was focused on developing cord blood derived, allogenic NK cell product at Takeda, Cell Therapy. Previously, he had held multiple research positions of increasing responsibilities at Eli Lilly and Company China R&D center.

His studies as a post-doctoral fellow were the first to uncover the crucial function of cytokine-inducible SH2 containing protein (encoded by gene CISH), a critical negative regulator of NK function in human iNK cells. CISH knock out iNK cell is now the core cell engineer of Shoreline’s iNK cell products with enhanced durability and activity for optimal performance in fighting against cancers. In addition, he also led the development of high-affinity, non-cleavable CD16 iNK cell product (hnCD16-iNK) to augment antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) which is now in clinical development, showing very promising clinical efficacies in patients with B cell lymphoma.

Dr. Zhu has published over 20 papers in prestigious scientific journals. He received a B.A. in Biochemistry from Tianjin University, a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Developmental Biology from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at University of California, San Diego, California. 

ChARLES Calderaro III
Chief Technical Officer

Prior to joining Shoreline, Mr. Calderaro served as Global Head of Technical Operations for Kite Pharma, a pioneer in cell therapy development, where he was responsible for leading all aspects of Kite’s technical operations, including process development, CMC regulatory, manufacturing, quality, supply chain, engineering, end-to-end optimization of commercial and pipeline products.
 
While at Kite, Mr. Calderaro oversaw manufacturing of CAR-T cell therapy products at an unparalleled commercial scale. Prior to Kite, Mr. Calderaro was Senior Vice President, Global Manufacturing at BioMarin Pharmaceutical, where he was responsible for the strategic oversight and leadership of a diverse international manufacturing network, which utilizes small molecule, oligonucleotide, biotechnology, and gene therapy technologies to deliver an innovative portfolio of clinical and commercial products to patients. Before that, he spent fourteen years at Genentech in roles of increasing responsibility in product management, engineering, and manufacturing. 

Early in his career, Mr. Calderaro spent time at Alcon, a division of Novartis, and operations. Mr. Calderaro received a Bachelor’s degree, Electrical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame, a Master’s Degree, Nuclear Engineering from the US Naval Nuclear Power School and a Masters of Business Administration from Texan Christian University.

Phyllis Balan
Vice President, People and Culture

Phyllis Balan, MBA has over 20 years’ experience in all aspects of human resources, including talent management, talent acquisition, total rewards, and organizational development. She has been a leader and consultant with several Fortune 500 companies in technology and life sciences, including Biogen. Ms. Balan previously led the HR function at Sotera Wireless, AnaptysBio and Plexium.

Ms. Balan holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Business Administration from Michigan State University as well as an MA from San Diego State University in Educational Technology.

PASCHALIS SIDERAS, PH.D.
Senior Vice President, Research

Paschalis Sideras brings more than three decades of global experience in immunology research within both academia and the pharmaceutical industry to Shoreline. Prior to joining Shoreline, Dr. Sideras served as Director of the Centre for Clinical, Experimental Surgery and Translational Research, Biomedical Research Foundation at the Academy of Athens. Before that, he served in roles of increasing responsibility at AstraZeneca in the R&D team in Lund, Sweden. Prior to AstraZeneca, Dr. Sideras served in several academic roles including Assistant Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology and Visiting Scientist where he oversaw teams of graduate students and post-doctoral fellows across many scientific disciplines. He holds a Dr. Med. Sci. in Immunology, from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden and a Docent in Molecular Immunology, from Umeå University in Umeå, Sweden.

Lisa Ann Melia
Vice President, Clinical Operations

Lisa Ann Melia brings a wealth of expertise as a clinical research professional with significant experience in the planning and execution of clinical studies from Phase 1 through Phase 3, in the US, Europe, Asia and Latin America to Shoreline. Prior to joining Shoreline, Ms. Melia served as Vice President, Clinical Operations at Indaptus Therapeutics, where she was responsible for all clinical activities related to a Phase 1 first-in-human study in patients with advanced solid tumors. Prior to that, she was Vice President, Clinical Operations for MEI Pharma, Regulus Therapeutics, and the California Institute for Biomedical Research (Calibr). Previously, she held clinical positions at Pfizer Worldwide R&D, Icon Clinical Research, Ceregene and Acadia Pharmaceuticals. Ms. Melia began her industry career with Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals. Ms. Melia holds an MA in Psychology from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and a BA in Psychology from Trinity University.

Pinky Doshi
Vice President, Regulatory Affairs

Pinky Doshi brings more than two decades of global regulatory experience within the pharmaceutical industry to Shoreline. Prior to joining Shoreline, Ms. Doshi served as Senior Director, Regulatory at Bristol Myers Squibb, BMS, (formerly Celgene prior to 2019), Cell Therapy Franchise where she was the global regulatory lead on the AbecmaTMb program and was the regional US lead providing strategic guidance for the first BCMA CAR T for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. In addition, she served as the global regulatory lead for early and late-stage solid tumor oncology programs. Prior to BMS, Ms. Doshi served in several regulatory positions across multiple therapeutic areas in early and late-stage therapeutics at Hoffmann-La Roche, Schering Plough Research Institute, and Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development. Prior to that, Ms. Doshi held regulatory positions at Halsey Drug Company, Quest International, and TAP Pharmaceuticals. Ms. Doshi holds a Bachelor of Science, Cell and Structural Biology from the University of Illinois and a Master of Science, Biotechnology from Northwestern University.

ROBERT HOLLINGSWORTH, Ph.D.
Chief SCIENTIFIC Officer

Dr. Hollingsworth joins Shoreline from Pfizer, Inc., where he served as Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President of Cancer Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics.  While at Pfizer, Dr. Hollingsworth led a large oncology research team who successfully advanced five programs into clinical development and implemented several innovative new therapeutic approaches.  Prior to Pfizer, he was Senior Director, Oncology Research at MedImmune where he led and advanced a large portfolio of more than twenty programs, including CAR-T programs partnered with Juno Therapeutics and the National Cancer Institute, and contributed to the approval of durvalumab (IMFINZI®).  Before that, he held several R&D positions of increasing responsibility at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Pharmacia and Upjohn.  

Dr. Hollingsworth is a decorated scientist with several prestigious awards and honors including the GSK Great Science Award, given to the top R&D scientist each year, and a Research Excellence Team Award at Pfizer for developing an innovative new therapy.  Dr. Hollingsworth has published over 50 papers, co-authored over 200 abstracts presented at scientific meetings, and is a co-inventor on over 15 awarded patents.  He received a B.A. in Biology and Physics from the University of California, Berkeley, a Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Genetics from the University of Colorado, and was an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Texas Institute of Biotechnology in San Antonio, Texas.   

Simos Simeonidis, PhD
BOARD MEMBER

Simos Simeonidis, PhD is Co-Chief Executive Officer, Co-Chief Investment Officer and Managing Partner of Ally Bridge Group (ABG), a global healthcare-dedicated investment group focused on innovations across all life sciences segments through investments in both private and public companies. He is also President and Portfolio Manager for Ally Bridge Group’s public equity strategy.

Dr. Simeonidis’s experience spans over 25 years across academia, biopharma, equity research and investment management. Most recently, he was Partner, Senior Managing Director, Co-Head of Research and Portfolio Manager at Sarissa Capital Management, an investment manager focused on shareholder activism within the healthcare sector. Before that, he was Managing Director and Senior Biotechnology Analyst at the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and has spent over a decade covering the biopharmaceutical space in several investment banks, including Cowen & Company and Morgan Stanley. Dr. Simeonidis began his biopharmaceutical industry career in Business Development & Licensing and Strategic Planning at Novartis. Before moving to industry, he was a faculty member in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where his work focused on the transcriptional regulation of gene expression.

Dr. Simeonidis holds a BS in Biology from Loyola University of Chicago and MA, MPhil and PhD degrees in Cellular, Molecular and Biophysical Studies from Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the laboratory of Professor Tucker Collins at Harvard Medical School and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Simeonidis also holds an MBA in Healthcare Management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Scott Forrest, Ph.D.
Chief Business Officer

Prior to joining Shoreline, Dr. Forrest was Chief Financial Officer of Autobahn Therapeutics where he was responsible for corporate development, portfolio planning and financial strategy. Prior to Autobahn, Dr. Forrest served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer at Inception Therapeutics, a Versant Ventures discovery engine focused on building and operating transformative biotech companies. In this role, he played an integral leadership role in multiple companies including Lycia Therapeutics, Pipeline Therapeutics, Chinook Therapeutics and Ventus Therapeutics. Prior to Inception, Dr. Forrest was a Co-Founder and Vice President of Operations and Corporate Development at BlackThorn Therapeutics. Earlier, he was Vice President of Business Development at The Scripps Research Institute, where he oversaw the creation and launch of more than 15 new biotech companies and led the negotiation and management of over $200 million in corporate alliances. He also held director or board observer positions with several companies including Zyngenia, Abide, Padlock and Epic Sciences. Dr. Forrest started his career at the University of North Carolina where he led the restructuring, expansion and management of the life sciences licensing team. He also served as an entrepreneur in residence at UNC and was a central part of the successful launch of multiple startup companies such as Epizyme. Dr. Forrest holds a B.S. in biochemistry from the University of Calgary and a Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Virginia.

Judith Shizuru, M.D., PH.D.
ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER

Judith Shizuru is a Professor of Medicine (Blood and Marrow Transplantation [BMT]) and Pediatrics (Stem Cell Transplantation) at Stanford University. Dr. Shizuru is a member of the Stanford BMT faculty, the Stanford Immunology Program, and the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. Dr. Shizuru received a Bachelor’s degree from Bennington College and an M.D. and Ph.D. from the Stanford University School of Medicine. She trained as a resident in adult internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and in the sub-specialty of hematology at Stanford. Dr. Shizuru has been attending on the Stanford Blood and Marrow Transplantation clinical service since 1997, and she oversees a research laboratory. Her laboratory is focused on understanding the cellular and molecular basis of resistance to engraftment of transplanted allogeneic hematopoietic cells, and the way in which bone marrow grafts modify immune responses including the induction of immune tolerance. Dr. Shizuru has over 150 publications in the fields of immunology and hematopoietic cell transplantation. She is the scientific co-founder of Jasper Therapeutics, Inc, a member of the Board member and Chair of Jasper’s Scientific Advisory Board.

Travis S. Young, PH.D.
Advisory Board member

Dr. Travis Young is the Vice President of Biologics at Calibr, a division of Scripps Research and holds an appointment as Professor of Chemical Biology in the Department of Chemistry at Scripps Research. He received a BS in biochemistry from Boston College and a PhD in chemical biology from The Scripps Research Institute as an ARCS scholar. At Scripps, his work focused on the development of unnatural amino acid incorporation methodologies to improve the properties of therapeutic proteins. This work was foundational for the development of programs in the Calibr pipeline today, including a bispecific antibody for prostate cancer which will enter clinical trials next year. After receiving his PhD, he completed a postdoc at Harvard Medical School with an NIH fellowship, in the department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology with Dr. Christopher T Walsh.

Dr. Young was a member of the founding group of principal investigators at Calibr and serves as the lead investigator on multiple bench-to-bedside antibody and cellular therapy-based programs. Dr. Young maintains a research group focused in the development of novel therapeutics at the interface between protein engineering and synthetic biology. This research spans multiple disease indications including cancer, autoimmune, metabolic disorders, and infectious disease. His work has been highly awarded and received support from the Wellcome Trust, NIH (National Cancer Institute), Department of Defense, Mesothelioma Research foundation, American Cancer Society, among others. His work has resulted in numerous publications and patents with >2250 citations in the past 5 years. Dr. Young has led two programs from concept into first-in-human clinical trials while at Calibr: a bispecific antibody for prostate cancer and a unique switchable CAR-T cell therapy platform for blood cancer.

Scott Antonia, M.D., Ph.D.
Advisory Board Member

Scott Antonia, MD, PhD, joined the Duke Cancer Institute in 2019, where he directs the DCI Center for Cancer Immunotherapy, and is a member of the Thoracic Oncology disease group as Professor of Medical Oncology. 

After completing his medical oncology training and post-doctoral fellowship in the Flavell Lab at the Yale University School of Medicine, he joined H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in 1994. There, he served as chairman of the Department of Thoracic Oncology.

Antonia is recognized as a global leader in the development of immunotherapy for lung cancer. He served as the global principal investigator for the practice-changing Pacific study, which established, as the new global standard of care, anti-PDL1 as consolidative therapy after combined chemo-radiation therapy for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer. He was also the lead investigator of trials that established the clinical activity of immunotherapy for small cell lung cancer.

For the past 27 years, Antonia has directed a translational research program that’s overall goal is to develop immunotherapeutic strategies for the treatment of cancer patients; using tumor vaccines or adoptive T cell therapies in combination with immunomodulatory strategies designed to thwart the immunosuppressive mechanisms used by tumors to evade T cell mediated rejection. He has extensive experience in conducting early-phase clinical trials testing therapeutic tumor vaccines, adoptive T cell therapies and immunomodulatory antibodies.

Silke Paust, PH.D.
Advisory Board Member

Research in Dr. Paust’s laboratory at the Scripps Research Institute seeks to elucidate the molecular mechanisms causal to murine and human NK cell-mediated adaptive immunity. Our long-term goal is to use this knowledge to develop novel anti-viral and anti-tumor vaccines or NK cell-based infusion products. Approaches include cell biology, molecular biology, and immunology experiments in mice, humanized mice, and using human specimens.

Trisha Fitzmaurice
Head of People & Culture

Mrs. Fitzmaurice is an HR professional with over 8 years’ experience mostly in life science/pharmaceutical companies. Before joining Shoreline, she has held HR roles at Adamis Pharmaceuticals and US Compounding. Mrs. Fitzmaurice holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Indiana University – Bloomington and a Juris Doctorate from Thomas Jefferson School of Law.

Leah Mitchell, Ph.D.
Vice President, Translational Pharmacology

Leah Mitchell, Ph.D. has more than two decades of experience in the fields of Immunology and Pharmacology and over a decade of experience as a drug hunter in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors.  Prior to joining Shoreline in 2022, Dr. Mitchell served as Director of Immunopharmacology at Pfizer where she was responsible for oversight of preclinical and translational pharmacology for Pfizer’s Cancer vaccines and Immunotherapeutics division.  Prior to Pfizer, Dr. Mitchell oversaw development of a First-in-Class Virotherapy through Phase 2/3 at Tocagen Inc., and generated discovery data for the clinical asset, ProTmmune, at Fate Therapeutics.  Dr. Mitchell conducted her Ph.D. work at Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute and completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Colorado State University as well as a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation.

Boyan Litchev, M.D.
Senior VP & Head of GCD

Boyan Litchev, MD brings to the company more than two decades of global experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, with significant experience in the development of CAR-T, nucleotides (RNA), peptides, small molecules and gene therapies for various diseases.

Dr. Litchev joins Shoreline from Poseida Therapeutics, where he was Head of Clinical Development Oncology and was responsible for leading the company’s CAR-T programs in solid tumors.  Before that, he was Executive Medical Director, Head of Clinical Development Oncology for Halozyme Therapeutics, and Executive Medical Director, RNA-targeted therapies Clinical Development for Akcea Therapeutics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ionis.  Prior to Akcea, Dr. Litchev worked at Takeda (formerly Shire) where he led clinical development programs in gene therapy and hematology. Dr. Litchev previously held roles of increasing responsibility at Ferring Pharmaceuticals, Syneos Health (INC research), IQVIA (Quintiles) and University of California San Diego. Dr. Litchev is a board-certified physician in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Dr. Litchev received his MD degree from Medical University Plovdiv. Prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, he has treated patients and conducted clinical research.

Bjorn Dahle
Vice President, Smart Manufacturing

Bjorn Dahle, MBA has extensive experience in various industries in advancing products through manufacturing to sales and marketing. Prior to joining Shoreline, Mr. Dahle was Co-founder and CEO of Inspire Solutions LLC, CEO of VersaCall Technologies and President of KIC, a technology company. Prior to that, he held key executive, global roles at St. Bernardo Softward and MPM. Mr. Dahle holds an MBA in marketing from San Diego State University and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Mohammad El-Kalay, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President, CMC Drug Delivery

Dr. El-Kalay  joined Shoreline in June 2021 as Senior VP and Head of CMC (Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Control).  Dr. El-Kalay has over three decades of experience in global biopharmaceutical operations, including key leadership roles in cell therapy companies where he led the successful translation of several cell therapy candidates into late-stage clinical development, as well as developing a T-cell purging device that was later marketed.

Dr. El-Kalay holds a B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. from Strathclyde University in Glasgow, UK.

Dr. El-Kalay joins Shoreline from Poseida Therapeutics, where he was VP, Technical Operations and was responsible for developing processes to manufacture their autologous and allogeneic CAR-T cell products. Prior to Poseida, he was SVP, Technical Operations for San Bio, Inc., directing development of manufacturing processes of their gene modified allogeneic mesenchymal stem cells to treat CNS diseases.

Before that, he held senior technical and leadership roles at Sangamo Therapeutics, Stem Cells, Inc., and was Founder, President, and CEO of EyeCyte, an autologous cell therapy company.  He also held senior leadership R&D and Technical Operation roles at MicroIslet, Telos Pharmaceuticals, MorphoGen Pharmaceuticals, Osiris Therapeutics, SyStemix, and Applied ImmuneSciences.

Kimberly J. Manhard
Board Member

Kimberly J Manhard is a biopharmaceutical executive with more than 25 years of drug development, regulatory affairs, quality assurance, pharmacovigilance and pharmaceutical operations experience. 

Ms Manhard served as the Executive Vice President of Drug Development for Heron Therapeutics, Inc. (Heron) from 2016 to 2023. In this role, she was instrumental in the development, registration and commercial support of SUSTOL®, CINVANTI®, ZYNRELEF® and APONVIE®. From 2008 to 2016, Ms Manhard served as Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Development Operations at Ardea Biosciences, Inc. (Ardea), a wholly-owned subsidiary of AstraZeneca PLC, and led the US, EU and rest of world registration activities for Zurampic®. At the time of joining Ardea in 2006, Ms Manhard also oversaw general corporate operations and anti-viral and oncology drug development. Prior to joining Ardea, Ms. Manhard was President of her own consultancy firm, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs for Exelixis, Inc. and held multiple regulatory positions at Agouron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a division of the Warner-Lambert Company, supporting development of anticancer and antiviral products, including Viracept®. Ms Manhard was also previously with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company in regulatory affairs, responsible for oncology compounds, including Taxol®, and infectious disease compounds, including Videx® and Zerit®. Ms. Manhard began her industry career in clinical research with Eli Lilly and Company and G.H. Besselaar Associates (Covance Inc.).

Ms Manhard has served as a board director of InhibRx, Inc. (public) and Toragen, Inc. (non-public) since 2020 and of Shoreline Biosciences since 2021 and previously served as a board director for Heron Therapeutics, Inc. from 2014-2016 and 2019-2023. Ms. Manhard is a member of the Fleet Science Center board of trustees and the University of Florida College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Dean’s Leadership Council. She received a B.S. degree in zoology and a B.A. degree in French from the University of Florida.

Christopher Fuglesang, Ph.D., J.D.
Board Member

Christopher Fuglesang, Ph.D., J.D., is a Senior Managing Director of Boxer Capital Management, LLC.  Dr. Fuglesang assists in managing the firm’s research team, deal structuring, and securities compliance.

 Dr. Fuglesang has served as a member of the Board of Directors of two publicly traded companies: BCTG Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ: BCTG) and Pandion Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: PAND).  Dr. Fuglesang is also Chairman of the Board of Civi Biopharma Inc. and has been a Board Observer of several private companies, including Springworks Therapeutics, Ambrx Biopharma, Seismic Therapeutics, Zag Bio, and Passage Bio, Inc.

 Earlier in his career, Dr. Fuglesang supervised a variety of transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and other strategic collaborations in the healthcare sector.  Dr. Fuglesang brings with him years of experience in building and developing life science companies, previously founding and holding board and executive management positions at multiple biotechnology companies.

Dr. Fuglesang holds a Doctorate degree in Chemical Physics from the University of California, Los Angeles, a Juris Doctorate degree from the Boston University School of Law, and Bachelor of Sciences degrees in Chemistry and Physics from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Marios Fotiadis
Board Member

Marios is an investor specializing in private equity globally with investments representing over $1 billion USD in committed capital.

Marios started his career in investment banking with SG Cowen in New York followed by a move to SG Capital Partners in 1998, where he began his career in private equity. There he focused on investments in growth and venture capital with an emphasis in healthcare and technology companies.

Following that he became the CEO of Achillion Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ “ACHN”) where he completed a successful turnaround that culminated with an IPO on NASDAQ. Marios moved to Advent International in Boston where he was a partner with a focus on global investments in health care and life sciences.

Subsequently, he became Managing Partner of TVM Capital MENA, where he raised the first private equity fund in the MENA region dedicated to investments in health care and pharmaceuticals.

Since 2012, Marios has been responsible for managing investments of his family office, under Cerus Advisors. He is currently member of the Board of Directors of Stork Capital, an investment management company with offices in Geneva, Switzerland and Dubai.

His responsibilities involve sourcing, closing and managing direct investments in private equity as well as asset allocation and overseeing the selection of managers for the public side of the portfolio. Marios holds a BSc degree cum laude from University of Denver and an MBA from Columbia University in New York.

Vanessa Jacoby, CPA
Chief Financial Officer

Ms. Jacoby has extensive experience in the biotechnology and life science sectors, having served as a senior financial executive of several private and public companies.  Prior to joining Shoreline, Ms. Jacoby served as Chief Accounting Officer of Avidity Biosciences, Inc., where she led all corporate finance and planning activities and played a key role in the company’s $300M Initial Public Offering in June 2020 and $100M Series C in October 2019. Prior to Avidity, Ms. Jacoby was Vice President, Finance at PharmAkea, which was acquired by Galecto in 2019.  Prior to that, she served as a Director of Accounting and Controller at BCI, Inc. and held senior financial roles at Artes Medical and Verenium.  Before joining industry, Ms. Jacoby was an auditor for Ernst & Young. Ms. Jacoby received her M.B.A. from National University and  B.S. degree in Business Administration from Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado, Sao Paulo, Brazil. She is a Certified Public Accountant with the State of California (inactive).

William Sandborn, M.D.
Co-Founder and Advisory Board Member

Dr. William Sandborn is a biopharmaceutical executive, board member, physician-scientist, serial entrepreneur, professor, key opinion leader, and academic leader with 30 years of experience in immunology clinical research and drug development.

Currently Dr. Sandborn is the Chief Strategy Officer at Mirador Therapeutics. Previously he served as President and Chief Medical Officer at Ventyx Biosciences from 2022-2023, and he was co-founder and Chief Medical Officer at Shoreline Biosciences from 2020-2022. Dr. Sandborn is a member of the board of directors for Prometheus Laboratories from 2023-present and was a member of the board of directors for Prometheus Biosciences from 2017-2021 (IPO in 2021, acquired by Merck for $10.8 billon in 2023), and a co-founder of Santarus (founded 1998, IPO in 2004, acquired by Salix Pharmaceuticals for $2.6 billion in 2013).

He completed medical school in 1987 and an internal medicine residency in 1990 at Loma Linda University in Loma Linda California, and gastroenterology fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota in 1993. From 1993-2010, he was on the faculty of the Mayo Clinic, rising to Professor of Medicine and Vice Chairman of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. From 2011-2021 he was a Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Gastroenterology at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). Dr. Sandborn has published over 959 peer reviewed articles including articles in the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Lancet, JAMA, Annals of Internal Medicine, and Gastroenterology. His index is 147.

In 2019, Dr. Sandborn was awarded the Sherman Prize for his work in inflammatory bowel disease.

Steven Holtzman
Co-Founder and Board Member

Steven is the Chair of the boards of Qihan Biotech and Camp4 Biotherapeutics, both private biotechnology companies.

Since January 2020, he has served as a Strategic Advisor to Decibel Therapeutics, where he served as the company’s first president and chief executive officer and a board member from 2016—2020.

Prior to Decibel, from 2011 to 2016 he served as executive vice president, corporate development at Biogen, Inc., where he led eight new drug approvals.

Previously, from 2001 to 2011, Steve was the founder, chief executive officer and board chair of Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a cancer drug discovery and development company.

He was also, from 1994 to 2001, an early leader and the chief business officer of Millennium Pharmaceuticals, a pioneer in large-scale genetics and genomics.

From 1986 to 1994 he was a co-founder, board member and executive vice president of DNX Corporation, the first transgenic animal company.

He is a member of the board of directors of Molecular Partners, a member of the board of trustees of the Berklee College of Music, and a senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School.

He was appointed by President Clinton to the National Bioethics Advisory Commission and he also served as a member and vice chair of the board of the Hastings Center for the Life Sciences.

He obtained his undergraduate degree in philosophy from Michigan State University and his graduate degree in philosophy from Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar.

Dan S. Kaufman, M.D., Ph.D.
Co-Founder, Board Member, and Chair of SAB

Dr. Kaufman is a Professor in Department of Medicine, Division of Regenerative Medicine and Director of the Cell Therapy program at the University of California-San Diego (UCSD).

Following undergraduate studies at Stanford University, he completed a combined MD/PhD program at Mayo Clinic and a clinical residency and fellowship in internal medicine and hematology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Dr. Kaufman is practicing clinical work in hematology and blood and marrow transplantation (BMT).

His research focuses on use of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) to study development of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells, lymphocytes and other immune cells.

His studies as a post-doctoral fellow were the first to derive blood cells from human pluripotent stem cells.

In addition, His laboratory was the first to produce functional lymphocytes from human pluripotent stem cells.

Dr Kaufman’s laboratory has pioneered strategies including novel NK-specific chimeric antigen receptors and other gene editing approaches that increase NK cell-mediated activity.

Dr. Kaufman also leads the Advanced Cell Therapy Laboratory (ACTL), a GMP facility at UCSD to translate novel cell-based therapies into clinical trials and continues to practice clinical work.

Kleanthis G. Xanthopoulos, Ph.D.
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

Kleanthis G. Xanthopoulos, Ph.D., is a serial entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in biotechnology as an executive, company founder, chief executive officer, investor, and board member. He has founded five companies, introduced three life science companies to Nasdaq as CEO, and financed and brokered numerous creative multibillion strategic alliance and partnership deals with large pharmaceutical partners.

Dr. Xanthopoulos is a co-founder and Chairman & CEO of Shoreline Biosciences, a cell-therapy company focused on immunotherapies using intelligently engineered iPSC-derived allogeneic Natural Killer (NK) cells and Macrophages. He also serves as the Chairman of Stork Capital Life Sciences, a firm focused on building and investing in innovative biotechnology companies. He served as the President & CEO of IRRAS AB, a public (Nasdaq: IRRAS) MedTech company and as Managing General Partner at Cerus DMCC, an investment firm, from August 2015-2020. Dr. Xanthopoulos served as President and CEO of Regulus Therapeutics Inc. from its inception in 2007 until June 2015. Prior to that, he was a managing director of Enterprise Partners Venture Capital. Dr. Xanthopoulos co-founded and served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Anadys Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from its inception in 2000 to 2006 and remained a Director until its acquisition by Roche in 2011. He was Vice President at Aurora Biosciences (acquired by Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc.) from 1997 to 2000.  Prior to joining the biotechnology industry, Dr. Xanthopoulos participated in The Human Genome Project as a Section Head of the National Human Genome Research Institute from 1995 to 1997 at the NIH. Prior to this, Dr. Xanthopoulos was an Associate Professor at the Karolinska Institute, in Stockholm, Sweden, after completing a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at The Rockefeller University, New York. Dr. Xanthopoulos, an Onassis Foundation Scholar, received his B.Sc. in Biology with honors from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and received both his M.Sc. in Microbiology and Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Stockholm, Sweden.