Driven to be different.
Engineered to make a difference.
about
Translating immune biology into precision therapeutics.
By mapping these intricate interactions, we move beyond broad-spectrum approaches to develop precision therapeutics designed to intervene with meticulous accuracy. This pathway-centric philosophy allows us to mute overactive immune responses or reawaken dormant ones, creating a new standard of biological control.
The rising prevalence of autoimmune and inflammatory disorders represents a growing public health challenge, compounded by complex comorbidities.
people affected by autoimmune diseases worldwide
%
Incidence rate annual growth globally of autoimmune diseases
More that 100 diseases, spanning nearly every organ system
science
Disrupting disease by targeting the cells that drive it.
These deep insights enable us to design and advance a robust pipeline of first-in-class and best-in-class engineered antibodies, ensuring that each therapy is tailored to address the most critical unmet clinical needs.
pipeline
Bringing a pipeline of next-generation, differentiated biologics to patients with high unmet need.
IBD = Irritable Bowel Disease; SSc-ILD = Scleroderma-associated Interstitial Lung Disease
team
Led by a veteran team integrating expertise in immunology, protein engineering, and drug development.
Peter Emtage, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer
Peter serves as the CEO of Santa Ana Bio and is concurrently a Venture Partner with Versant Ventures. He brings over 25 years of drug development experience across the fields of autoimmunity, inflammation, oncology, and infectious diseases. Before joining Santa Ana Bio, Peter was the Global Head of Cell Therapy Research at Kite Pharma (a Gilead company) and the Chief Scientific Officer at Cell Design Labs. He also held early-career roles at the National Cancer Institute, Aventis Pasteur, and Harvard Medical School. Peter earned his PhD in Molecular Virology, Immunology, and Inflammation from McMaster University, following a B.S. and M.S. in Molecular Biology and Genetics from the University of Guelph.
Newman Yeilding, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
As Chief Medical Officer, Newman brings 30 years of experience in the clinical translation and development of therapeutics for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Most recently, he served as Chief Scientific Advisor at Protagonist Therapeutics. His extensive industry tenure includes 19 years at Janssen (Johnson & Johnson), where he led a 250-member global organization and oversaw the development of STELARA® from early stages to market leadership. Earlier in his career, he served as Chief of Hematology-Oncology at the Philadelphia Veterans Administration Medical Center. Newman completed his M.D. at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and his internal medicine residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
Neil Abdollahian, M.S., M.B.A.
Chief Business Officer
Neil is the Chief Business Officer, contributing 25 years of expertise in corporate strategy and business development, including M&A, licensing, and capital raising. He previously served as CBO at Boundless Bio, where he supported the company through a Series C financing and IPO. His prior leadership includes serving as CBO at Cidara Therapeutics where he drove forward partnerships with J&J and MundiPharma, Managing Director of Clarity Point Partners, and Vice President of Corporate Development at Trius Therapeutics. He also held early-career business development roles at Ionis Pharmaceuticals and Avanir Pharmaceuticals. Neil holds an MBA from Pepperdine University, an M.S. in Biomedical Sciences from the University of New Mexico, and a B.S. in Biology from George Washington University.
Yun Bai, Ph.D.
Executive Vice President, CMC
Yun is the Executive Vice President of CMC, leading CMC, including the development, manufacture, and CDMO oversight. With over 23 years of experience, Yun has managed biological drug development from early R&D through late-clinical stages. Prior to Santa Ana Bio, Yun was the Vice President and Head of CMC and Global Supply Chain at 89bio. Yun also held positions of increasing responsibility at Eli Lilly, Ambrx, and Mapp Biopharmaceutical. Yun earned a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Iowa State University and holds both a B.S. and M.S. in Chemical/Biochemical Engineering from East China University of Science and Technology.
Zack McNealy, M.B.A.
Chief Financial Officer
Zack serves as the Chief Financial Officer and possesses over 15 years of financial leadership experience within the biotech sector. His previous roles include CFO at Ventus Therapeutics, Chinook Therapeutics, and Inception Sciences Canada. Zack also held financial leadership positions at Versant Ventures, Biotie Therapies, and Johnson & Johnson, where he gained significant experience in international structures and mergers and acquisitions. He holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in Finance and Accounting from Miami University (Ohio).
Michael W. Bonney
Board Chair
Mike Bonney is a business executive with over 30 years of biotech and pharmaceutical expertise. Bonney was CEO and Director of Cubist Pharmaceuticals from 2003 until 2014. Under his leadership, Cubist grew from a struggling micro-cap to the world’s leading antibiotic company and was acquired by Merck early in 2015 for $9.5 billion. Prior to Cubist, Bonney was Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Biogen where he built the company’s commercial infrastructure for the launch of its first product. Before joining Biogen, he spent 11 years at Zeneca Pharmaceuticals in a range of commercial, operating, and strategic roles, ending his career there as National Business Director.
Bonney was a regional winner and national finalist (2013) in the life science segment of Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year. He was one of six executives nationwide named as Marketwatch’s CEO of the Year (2011) and was named Top Performing MA CEO by Boston Business Journal in 2008.
Bonney is currently a Director of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Gulf of Maine Research Institute, and Chair of Dunad Therapeutics and Autolus Therapeutics. Bonney has served as a director with many companies previously including Kaleido Biosciences, Magenta Therapeutics, Bristol Myers Squibb, Sarepta Therapeutics and Syros Pharmaceuticals. Bonney spends much of his time identifying and mentoring the next generation of life science leaders. He received his undergraduate degree in economics from Bates College.
Jerel Davis, Ph.D.
Board Director
Jerel Davis, Ph.D., is a Managing Director of Versant Ventures based in Vancouver, Canada. Since joining Versant in 2011, he has been central to launching and backing a number of Versant’s portfolio companies including BlueRock (sale), Crispr (public 2016), Inception 4 (sale), Inception 5 (sale), Quanticel (sale), Akero (2019 IPO), Northern (sale), Repare (2020 IPO), Chinook (2020 RM, sale), Graphite Bio (2021 IPO), Turnstone (2023 IPO), Ventus, Rayze (2023 IPO), Tentarix, Kolm, Firefly, Fable and Nested. His investment strategy has spanned company creation, syndicated deals, and early pharma transactions. He was also instrumental in establishing Versant’s presence in Canada. Jerel was promoted to Managing Director at Versant in December 2015.
Prior to joining Versant, Jerel was an Associate Principal at McKinsey and Company where he advised healthcare corporations in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical device and molecular diagnostics. He has worked in a number of healthcare markets globally including the U.S., Canada, Europe, China, Russia and India. Jerel was a post-doctoral fellow at Stanford University, where he also completed his Ph.D., and trained at Amgen as a researcher.
Brendan Bulik-Sullivan, Ph.D.
Board Director
Brendan Bulik-Sullivan is a general partner at GV, where he focuses on life sciences investments.
Before GV, Brendan’s career focused on applied statistics and machine learning research in genetics and biotechnology. He designed machine learning models for personalized immuno-oncology therapeutics at Gritstone Oncology and developed methods for statistical genetics research at the Broad Institute. Brendan’s work has been published in journals including Nature, Science, Nature Biotechnology, and Nature Genetics. In his free time, Brendan enjoys reviewing data and reading scientific journals. Brendan is interested in innovative therapeutic biotechnology and diagnostics across all stages and therapeutic areas.
Brendan has a B.A. in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in statistical genetics from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Shinichiro Fuse, Ph.D.
Board Director
Dr. Shinichiro (Shin) Fuse, is Partner and Managing Director at TPG Life Sciences Innovation. He co-leads life sciences venture investments at TPG and serves on the Board of Directors at Santa Ana Bio and Sudo Biosciences. Previously, he was Managing Director at MPM Capital, where he served on the investment committee of the Oncology Impact Fund (OIF) and BioVentures Funds. Shin served on the Board of Directors of Orna Therapeutics, iOmx Therapeutics, Triplet Therapeutics and ReNAgade Therapeutics, and as a board observer for ElevateBio and Repare Therapeutics. Shin also played operational roles at MPM portfolio companies as the interim CEO of Orna Therapeutics and interim/founding SVP of Business Development at ElevateBio.
Prior to joining MPM, he was Director of Business Development at bluebird bio, where he was instrumental in executing and managing key industry and academic partnerships in the fields of cell and gene therapy, and genome editing. Previously, he was at Campbell Alliance (Syneos Health) as a life science strategy consultant. He currently serves on the Board of Advisors of the Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies at Dartmouth College.
Shin received his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from Dartmouth College, an M.S. in Biomedical Science from the University of Tokyo, and a B.Eng. in Applied Chemistry from Keio University in Japan.
Christine Borowski, Ph.D.
Board Director
Christine is a Principal at Access Biotechnology, where she works on private and public investments. Prior to joining Access in 2019, Christine worked on therapeutics company creation at Apple Tree Partners. Before becoming an investor, Christine worked as an editor at several high-impact scientific journals, most recently as Chief Editor of Nature Medicine.
She earned a PhD in Immunology at Harvard University and did her postdoctoral work in immunology at the University of Chicago.
Joshua Kennedy-Smith, Ph.D.
Board Observer
Josh is a partner and research analyst at RTW Investments. He specializes in the chemistry of small and large molecules with a focus on immunology and inflammation. Prior to joining RTW, he served as Principal Scientist and Head of Externalization at Schrodinger. Josh began his career at Roche as a medicinal chemist. He received a PhD in Chemistry from University of California, Berkeley and a BS in Chemistry from University of California, Santa Cruz. He has worked globally at sites in the US, Switzerland, and India.
Mittie Doyle, M.D., FACR
Board Director
Dr. Doyle is a proven research physician who brings over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical/biotech industry and academia. She previously served on the Board of Directors of DICE Therapeutics (Nasdaq:DICE) which was acquired by Eli Lilly and Company. She has held numerous leadership roles in Clinical Development throughout her career. She currently serves as Chief Medical Officer of Aro Biotherapeutics, a biotechnology company pioneering the development of tissue-targeted genetic medicines. Prior to joining Aro, Dr. Doyle was Vice President, Global Therapeutic Area Head, Immunology at CSL Behring. Dr. Doyle has held senior level roles at Shire Pharmaceuticals, Flexion Therapeutics and Alexion Pharmaceuticals. During her career, she has advanced assets across a broad range of immune-mediated and orphan diseases and led teams with responsibilities for design and execution of first-in-human through Phase 2 and 3 trials, resulting in several global regulatory approvals.
Dr. Doyle earned her M.D. from Yale Medical School cum laude and completed her postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School including internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and a postdoctoral fellowship in Rheumatology and Immunology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She received her B.A. magna cum laude in Romance Languages and Literatures from Princeton University.
Vineeta Agarwala, M.D., Ph.D.
Board Observer
Vineeta Agarwala, MD, PhD is a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz where she leads investments for the a16z bio + health fund across biotech, life sciences tools/diagnostics, and digital health. She was previously a consultant at McKinsey, scientist at the Broad Institute, director of product management at Flatiron Health, and venture partner at GV (Google Ventures).
Vineeta holds a B.S. in biophysics from Stanford, and MD/PhD degrees from Harvard Medical School/MIT. She is board certified in internal medicine and sees patients at Stanford as an adjunct clinical professor in the Division of Primary Care and Population Health.
Marcelo Bigal, M.D., Ph.D.
Board Director
Marcelo is the President and CEO of Ventus Therapeutics and has extensive experience in neurology. He has published over 330 peer-reviewed papers in the field of neurology, as well as five books. He has been recognized by the American Academy of Neurology with the Harold G. Wolff Award for excellence in research in neurology.
Marcelo has over 15 years of pharmaceutical experience spanning R&D, medical affairs, and scientific affairs. Prior to Ventus, he was CMO and CSO at Teva Pharmaceuticals, leading the team that developed fremanezumab (Ajovy) for several forms of migraine, as well as deutetrabenazine (Austedo) for the treatment of Huntington's disease and Tardive Dyskinesia, as well as other medicines in neurology, psychiatry, pain, and respiratory diseases approved in the US, Canada, and EU.
Prior to his work in the pharmaceutical industry, Marcelo was a faculty member at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Department of Neurology, as well as the Director of Research at New England Center for Headache and Director of Research at Montefiore Headache Center
Peter Emtage, Ph.D.
Board Director, Santa Ana Founder & CEO
Peter serves as the CEO of Santa Ana Bio and is concurrently a Venture Partner with Versant Ventures. He brings over 25 years of drug development experience across the fields of autoimmunity, inflammation, oncology, and infectious diseases. Before joining Santa Ana Bio, Peter was the Global Head of Cell Therapy Research at Kite Pharma (a Gilead company) and the Chief Scientific Officer at Cell Design Labs. He also held early-career roles at the National Cancer Institute, Aventis Pasteur, and Harvard Medical School. Peter earned his PhD in Molecular Virology, Immunology, and Inflammation from McMaster University, following a B.S. and M.S. in Molecular Biology and Genetics from the University of Guelph.
Alexander Rudensky, Ph.D.
Scientific Founder
Alexander Rudensky is Chairman and Member of the Immunology Program of the Sloan Kettering Institute and Lloyd Old Chair in Clinical Investigation, an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and a Tri‐Institutional Professor at MSKCC, the Rockefeller University and Cornell University. Prior to his joining MSKCC, he was Professor of Immunology at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle. Dr. Rudensky received his Ph.D. degree from the Gabrichevsky Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Moscow, and postdoctoral training at Yale University. Dr. Rudensky is an elected Member of the National Academy of Sciences, and National Academy of Medicine, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Academy of the American Association for Cancer Research. He is a 2023 Distinguished Fellow of the American Association of Immunologists. He has been named a Thomson-Reuters Citation Laureate and awarded the Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science, Crafoord Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Coley Award for Basic Immunology by the Cancer Research Institute, American Association of Immunologists Pharmingen Investigator Award, American Association of Immunologists Meritorious Career Award, and Searle Scholar Award. He has been a member of numerous advisory and editorial boards including Cancer Research Institute, Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. He serves also as an Editor of the Journal of Experimental Medicine.
Richard Flavell, Ph.D.
Scientific Founder
Professor Richard Flavell started his career in molecular biology. He was the first to perform reverse genetics in the early 1970s and was a co-discoverer of introns in eukaryotic genes in the late 1970s. Since 1980, his laboratory has used reverse genetics to study innate and adaptive immunity, T cell tolerance, apoptosis and autoimmunity, and the regulation of T cell differentiation. Professor Flavell’s focus has been on genetic approaches in mice, beginning with some of the very first Immunology transgenesis experiments. A major focus of the laboratory for the last 25 years are the inflammasomes, NLR family of innate sensors and their role in mucosal immunity and tissue biology, anti-infective responses, and inflammatory disease. A prevailing theme of his work has been the mechanisms of autoimmune disease. To study human autoimmune diseases in mice, since 2015 his lab has been developing an entirely novel humanized mouse model capable of supporting a human immune system. This mouse strain has been re-engineered via a human/mouse homolog gene replacement strategy to provide 6 human factors that are expressed physiologically, enabling generation of a humanized adaptive and innate immune system. Compared to other existing humanized mouse models, these mice, named MISTRG, have a functional adaptive immune system and a more comprehensive innate immune system. These mice have been successfully used to model several aspects of human diseases (infections, cancer, fibrosis, and hematopoiesis to name a few). Another focus has been the advancement of single cell genomics to identify high values targets for future study with the goal of advancing translational therapies. Richard has published more than 1800 papers in peer reviewed journals and according to Google scholar his H-index is 277 and he is the top cited immunologist in the USA and second most cited immunologist in the world.
Graham Lord, M.D., Ph.D.
Scientific Founder
Professor Graham Lord is the Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health at the University of Manchester. He is also an attending Transplant Nephrologist at Manchester NHS Foundation Trust and Executive Director of the Manchester Academic Health Science Centre. He was previously the Professor of Medicine and Head of the Department of Experimental Immunobiology at King’s College London and the Director of the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London from 2012-2019, where he retains an Honorary Professorship and Honorary attending status.
Professor Lord qualified in medicine from Cambridge and trained at the Hammersmith Hospital, Oxford and Imperial College as a physician-scientist. Following postdoctoral training at Harvard University, he moved back to the UK in 2006 and established a research group based on the regulation of lymphocyte gene expression in the context of mucosal homeostasis and auto-inflammatory disease. He has clinical interests in multi-organ transplantation, the diagnosis and treatment of long-term allograft failure and adoptive cellular therapy for the treatment of autoimmunity. He also has a long-term interest in academic healthcare ecosystems and how they can drive improvements to human health in a sustainable manner and co-founded Gritstone Oncology (now Gritstone Bio) in 2015, which went public in 2018.
Ansuman Satpathy, M.D., Ph.D.
Scientific Founder
Ansu Satpathy, M.D., Ph.D., is a physician-scientist and Associate Professor of Pathology and Immunology at Stanford University. He is the founding director of the Stanford Center for Immunotherapy Design, co-director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, and an investigator in the Stanford Cancer Institute and Gladstone Institute of Genomic Immunology. Ansu's research combines expertise in immunology, high-throughput genomics, and computation to discover principles of the immune system in health and disease and to translate these discoveries into novel clinical therapeutics. Ansu holds a BS in molecular biology and BA in philosophy from the University of Illinois, an MD and PhD in immunology from Washington University in St. Louis, and completed his clinical residency and postdoctoral training in genetics at Stanford University.
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