November 13, 2024
Meet Our 2024 Catalyst Awards Winners
This year’s Life Science Catalyst Awards honorees are eager to spark changes in the industry that promote equity while transforming healthcare. With wide-ranging experiences, they are all igniting innovation across California before reaching their 40th birthdays. Now in its ninth year, the Life Science Catalyst Awards is Biocom California’s way of recognizing up-and-coming leaders who are making lasting marks on our industry. Our Catalyst awardees are building networks that foster equity both in the workforce and in healthcare, pushing the envelope on new therapeutic approaches in cancer, immunology and inflammation, genetic medicine and more. They will certainly be shaping the future of the life science ecosystem in California for years to come.
Transforming Challenges Into Opportunities in Health Innovation
Denise Bronner, Ph.D., founder and CEO, Empactful Ventures
Denise Bronner has turned health equity from a problem to solve into a catalyst for innovation. At Johnson & Johnson, she exceeded recruitment goals for clinical trials by 75% and secured 973 participants from underrepresented groups across nine disease areas. She also co-created the Dermatology Inclusive Clinical Research program, a pioneering mentorship initiative expanding the field’s investigator pool. Despite her professional success, Denise wanted to have a broader impact beyond just one company—and with the added challenge of caring for a loved one, she shifted her priorities. Today, as founder of Empactful Ventures, she helps healthtech and equity-focused startups secure pharma client contracts and assists larger companies in redefining their health equity and RWD strategies. This helps in positioning them for success in a competitive industry. Outside of her professional life, Denise enjoys reading, Lego building, anime, brewing beer and embroidery.
Fostering Welcoming Ecosystems Where People Can Thrive
Tyler Brown, Ph.D., founder, chair and president, OUTbio San Diego
Tyler Brown was not content to use his scientific education to simply co-found a biotech company focused on cardiovascular, renal and metabolic diseases. Realizing that true leadership in the life science industry requires the creation and fostering of an ecosystem where others can thrive, Tyler leaned on his experience with OUTbio in Boston and collaborated to establish a San Diego branch of the organization. OUTbio San Diego is focused on bringing members of the LGBTQ+ community and their allies together in an environment that empowers people to share stories, learn from each other and ultimately break down barriers for people who struggle to have their voices heard. Outside of his work with OUTbio San Diego and his company, Tyler seeks opportunities to give back to the community, speaking to new grad students or postdocs looking to engage in their own company creation. Ultimately, he looks to help others live their best lives, whether through scientific innovation or community building.
Expanding Access to Gene Therapy for More Patients
Nick Goeden, Ph.D., co-founder and chief technology officer, Capsida Biotherapeutics
When Nick Goeden co-founded Capsida Biotherapeutics in 2019, he could hardly have anticipated that the journey of launching a new biotechnology company would be further complicated by a global pandemic. Emerging from his postdoctoral work at Caltech, Nick, his co-founders and the dedicated team at Capsida skillfully navigated these uncharted waters, making significant strides in the development of a robust pipeline of gene therapies. Notably, two of these therapies are on track for Investigational New Drug (IND) submission by the first half of 2025.
Throughout this challenging period, Nick drew inspiration from the patients who stand to benefit from his work. He has also taken great pride in watching the Capsida team grow and flourish. His unwavering commitment to the founders’ vision has not only propelled the advancement of Capsida’s internal pipeline, but also fostered fruitful collaborations with biopharmaceutical partners. Balancing the demands of business, Nick also embraces the joys of parenthood as he raises his 18-month-old daughter and undertakes the renovation of a dilapidated home. According to his wife, this multifaceted ambition exemplifies Nick’s relentless pursuit of excellence in every facet of his life.
Speeding New Therapies to Patients
Michael Henderson, M.D., CEO Apogee Therapeutics
Michael Henderson has packed more leadership experience in less than 15 years than many leaders who have been in the industry for twice as long. As a medical student at Stanford, he co-founded a company focused on developing a cure for a rare dermatological disease. Later, he joined the team at BridgeBio, heading up business development, strategy and operations. Notably, during his time at BridgeBio, he was inspired by a preclinical paper that led him to pursue the in-licensing of a shelved drug from Novartis and advance it for the treatment of achondroplasia, a genetic form of short stature, which continues to be evaluated as a potential best-in-class treatment in late-stage clinical studies. He has applied his earlier career learnings to his position at Apogee, keeping the idea of getting medicines to patients both rapidly and safely as his guiding star, especially as the team gears up for its Phase 2 efficacy readout in atopic dermatitis next year. All the while, he takes inspiration from his two young daughters and proudly notes that close to 70% of Apogee’s employees are women.
A Deep Personal Drive to Improve Access to Innovative Healthcare
Sophia Lugo, co-founder, chairman and CEO, Radar Therapeutics
As a child growing up on the U.S.-Mexico border, Sophia Lugo witnessed firsthand the problem of inconsistent access to healthcare. If a family member broke their arm, swallowed a coin or experienced a bout of acute appendicitis, they had to travel back to Mexico to get treatment to avoid devastating medical costs. That experience has crystallized for Sophia the need to innovate in healthcare to enable scalable and accessible treatments. Today, she is working on the development of a platform that has the potential to make genetic medicines more precisely targeted, safe and scalable than ever before. In addition, she is constantly considering how Radar Therapeutics can implement practices that bring inclusivity into all areas of therapeutic development. Sophia’s passion for inclusivity is also evidenced by her hobbies outside of work, which centers on exploring new corners of the world and immersing herself in the local cultures, whether that is learning the language, experiencing the food or simply strolling through the streets of a brand-new place.
Tapping Her Entrepreneurial Roots to Solve the Chronic Pain of Neuraglia
Ana Moreno, Ph.D., founder and CEO, Navega Therapeutics
Born in Mexico, Ana Moreno arrived in the U.S. during high school but not before she witnessed her parents’ focus on entrepreneurship. Ana’s Ph.D. research showed a way to prevent and reverse chronic pain, and she was inspired to start a company to develop her technology to help patients that are living daily with agonizing pain. Always with patients’ needs guiding her journey, Ana has exercised her entrepreneurial muscles and learned the ins and outs of running a biotech business including business development, company financing, IP law and the day to day running of the company. While Ana’s time is dominated by Navega and her three-year old son, she looks forward to the opportunity to participate in a few of her greatest joys including dancing—especially salsa and flamenco— and live music.
Learning from Setbacks to Make Better Medicines for the Future
Nindhana Paranthaman, M.D., executive medical director of clinical development, Summit. Therapeutics
Nindhana Paranthaman witnessed many of the ups and downs that are a way of life in the life science industry. Earlier in her career, she worked on a novel cancer immunotherapy that was touted to be the next big thing in cancer drug development but—like many promising therapeutic candidates before—failed to live up to its potential in late-phase clinical trials. This experience taught her the importance of managing ambiguity as a leader, resilience and a drive to apply the lessons learned to design and develop best-in-class therapies in the future. Today, she strives to advance the development of a novel bi-specific antibody currently under investigation in solid tumors and to do her part to create an equitable environment where passionate individuals can thrive in the life sciences, irrespective of their demographics and backgrounds.
Developing the Next Generation of Targeted Oncology Therapies
Kevin Parker, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder, Cartography Biosciences
Kevin Parker co-founded Cartography Biosciences to help solve the challenge of creating cancer therapeutics that are highly effective at targeting cancer but spare other cells and tissues in the body. He worked on the seminal science while earning on his Ph.D. at Stanford University, developing tools to understand the toxicities caused by some CAR-T therapies. He has focused on using those tools to find new targets and build new drugs that have the potential to be more effective while avoiding unanticipated side effects. In addition to advancing the science, Kevin’s work enabled him to build a community of exceptionally smart people that have wide-ranging skill sets and levels of experience all focused on pushing to realize Cartography’s promise. When he’s away from work, he applies his problem-solving skills to rock climbing, noting the sport’s nice blend of brain stimulation and functional body movement.
Guiding Startup Biotechs to Achieving Optimal Outcomes
Hunter Reed, vice president, Alexandria Venture Investments at Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc.
Hunter Reed is steadfastly focused on helping startup life science companies intelligently meet the business risks inherent to biotechnology while simultaneously navigating the science risks. His approach balances company creation with operations, helping ensure that his portfolio companies are developing technologies that enable great outcomes for patients. He’s helped guide his companies through good times and bad, at one point collaborating with a portfolio company to execute a strategy shift that, while difficult, was necessary to weather the challenging business environment.
Developing the Next Generation of mRNA Medicines
David Weinberg, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO, Parcel Bio
David Weinberg thought that he would spend his career in academics, but after leading a lab at University of California, San Francisco for a few years, he realized he wanted to do more. Seven years later, his excitement to be entrenched in the biotech field has not abated. Notably, his work developing a blood test for the early detection of colorectal cancer enabled him to see how innovative science can meaningfully impact human lives and he’s eager to contribute further to bringing even more innovations to patients. He’s currently focused on combining the chemistry of oligonucleotides with mRNAs to develop the next generation of mRNA medicines. While living the life of a startup CEO occupies a great deal of time, he enjoys keeping physically active with hiking and running and playing games with his two young daughters.
