Our Team
Management Team
Dee Datta, PhD
Co-Founder & CEO
Charles Allerson, PhD
CTO
Charles joins Switch Therapeutics after dedicating more than 20 years of his career building nucleic acid chemical tools and applying them to the development of RNA-based therapeutics. Most recently, he served as Senior Vice President of Chemistry at DTx Pharma from 2019 until its acquisition by Novartis in 2023. Charles led efforts to develop the FALCON platform for the extrahepatic delivery of RNA therapeutics and to translate this platform into a portfolio of preclinical assets. Charles began his career as a chemist at Variagenics, and subsequently joined the Medicinal Chemistry team at Isis (now Ionis) Pharmaceuticals. Following his role at Ionis, he led early-stage and development stage chemistry at Regulus Therapeutics, and subsequently joined Stoke Therapeutics as Vice President of Chemistry where he helped prepare the company’s TANGO platform for the clinic. Charles earned his B.S. in Chemistry from Lafayette College, his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard University, and spent several years as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health prior to his move into industry.
Michael Wolfe
Senior Vice President,
Finance & Operations
Craig Blanchette, PhD
Senior Vice President,
Research
Brandi Simpson, MBA
Senior Vice President,
Business Development
Mike brings twenty years of corporate finance and life science expertise to Switch. Most recently, he was the Senior Vice President of Finance & Operations at Kezar Life Sciences, where he played at integral role in building the company from its inception to a multiple clinical program, development-stage company. Prior to Kezar’s launch in 2015, Mike served as the Head of R&D Finance at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. until its’ acquisition by Amgen, Inc. in 2013. Previously, he served in commercial finance at Mentor Corporation, a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, pre-and post-acquisition. Mike’s career in the life sciences sector began at Amgen, Inc. where he held a number of positions of increasing responsibility within the finance organization. He began his finance career at 3Com Corporation, Inc., a leader in the manufacturing and sale of computer networking products, acquired by Hewlett Packard in 2010. Mike earned a Bachelor of Science, in Business Administration from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Mike loves the outdoors and is an avid fisherman, regularly visiting Alaska to fish for halibut.
Craig is an experienced scientist and leader in the field of drug discovery, with expertise across multiple drug modalities including RNA and protein therapies. Craig led a drug discovery department at Genentech and played a leading role developing the RNA
therapeutic and delivery strategy. In addition to his experience in onboarding new modalities, he also has expertise in drug development of protein-based therapeutics across a broad range of therapeutic areas. Prior to joining Genentech, Craig was a staff
scientist in the Biological Sciences Department at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories and led a team to build multiple vaccine programs using novel nanoparticle technology. He holds a Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of California, Davis and a B.S. in Biology and Physics from Vassar College. Craig enjoys all types of adventures with his two kids and wife and is an enthusiastic football fan.
Brandi is a business executive with over 20 years of experience in the biotechnology industry and a history of transaction negotiation experience. She brings extensive leadership, operations, finance, business development and board member experience.
Most recently, Brandi was Vice President of Corporate and Business Development at Voyager Therapeutics, an AAV gene therapy company focused on neurologic diseases. While at Voyager, Brandi was involved in closing transactions totaling over $350 million in upfront payments with total combined value of greater than $6 billion. Prior to joining Voyager, she was Chief Business Officer and then CEO of Navigen, Inc., which developed D-peptide therapeutics and small molecules for infectious and inflammatory diseases. She previously was at NPS Pharmaceuticals where she held roles in business development and investor relations. Brandi started her career in investment banking and was a management consultant in Booz Allen’s life sciences practice. She earned an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. Brandi is an avid traveler and former weekend athlete who completed several half and one full Ironman triathlons as well as multiple half and full marathons.
Robert Duff, PhD
Vice President,
Medicinal Chemistry
Don Button, PhD
Vice President,
Biology
Anindya Bhattacharya, PhD
Vice President,
Head of Neuroscience
Bob joined Switch Therapeutics in 2020 and is currently the Vice President, Medicinal Chemistry. Bob completed postdoctoral research on mechanistic studies of Drug-DNA interactions at Johns Hopkins University. He received a Bachelor & Master of Science degrees in Chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh and a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Virginia. He is a seasoned leader in the biopharmaceutical industry, with global experience in various chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC) functions across R&D and technical operations. He brings a strong scientific and industry background, breadth and depth in many different aspects of research, experience in leading technical operation groups in the strategic development, production, and distribution of diverse and complex biological products on a worldwide basis with a strong quality and regulatory background. Bob is a big fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the LA Dodgers.
Anindya is a neuropharmacologist, an experienced drug hunter and has multiple years of R&D experience in Neuroscience. He joined Switch Therapeutics as Head of Neuroscience in 2023; prior to Switch, Anindya was the Global Head of Neuroimmunology at Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) where he championed the science of neuroinflammation and microglial biology. Anindya spent his entire career prosecuting druggable targets, moving projects from discovery to early development; he enjoys collaborative teamwork, project mentorship and leadership responsibilities. Anindya has led multiple project teams in chronic pain, neurodegeneration and neuropsychiatry, spanning different target classes and modalities. Anindya earned his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from SUNY, Buffalo and spent his postdoctoral training at Eli Lilly & Company. Anindya is an elected Fellow to the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) and has authored multiple primary manuscripts, book chapters and conference presentations.
Our Team
Abhinav Kumar, PhD
Senior Director, Bioinformatics
Alex Embusch
Senior Research Associate, Bioanalytics
Clara Tourino, PhD
Director, In-vivo Biology
Guillermo Flores-Campuzano
Research Associate II, Chemistry
Jane Li
Associate Director, Project Management
Lakshika Madushani
Senior Research Associate, Biology
Li Li, PhD
Senior Scientist, Biology
Lisa Scherer, PhD
Co-Founder & Director, Discovery Biology
Marina Kovaliov, PhD
Director, Chemistry
Maxine Nelson, PhD
Senior Scientist, Neuroscience Discovery
Nitin Sonawane, PhD
Principal Scientist, Chemistry
Raymond Kwan, PhD
Principal Scientist, Biology
Roya Ayati
Senior Research Associate, Chemistry
Shilpi Mahajan, PhD
Director, Head of Bioanalytics
Tony Ortega
Manager, Facilities & Operations
Lisa Scherer
Co-founder & Director Discovery Research
Raymond Kwan
Scientist
Raquel Hernandez
Research Associate
Kelly Strickland
Lab Technician
Joaquin Taylor
Lab Technician
Marina Kovaliov
Principal Scientist
Tony Ortega
Manager of Facilities Operations
Abhinav Kumar
Director, Bioinformatics
Guillermo Flores-Campuzano
Research Associate, Chemistry
Jane Li
Associate Director, Project Management
Joel Burrill
Senior Director, Business Development
Natalya Kotova
Senior Research Associate, Biology
Shilpi Mahajan
Associate Director, Bioanalytics
Alexandra Moniz
Research Associate II, Biology
Board of Directors
Kevin Zhang
Partner at Upfront Ventures
Dylan Morris
Managing Director
at Insight Partners
Dee Datta, PhD
Co-Founder & CEO
at Switch Therapeutics
Dylan is a managing director at Insight Partners, and board member for several therapeutic companies, including Switch therapeutics. He received an A.B. in computer science from Harvard University and has experience in biochemistry and molecular biophysics with graduate research at Caltech.
Alicia Irurzun-Lafitte
Partner at UCB Ventures
Douglas Fambrough, PhD
Founder, Former President & CEO at Dicerna Pharmaceuticals
Alicia joined UCB Ventures in 2019 as Partner. Alicia joined from M Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Merck KGaA where she was instrumental in the closing of multiple investments in Oncology, Immunology and Women’s Health in the US and Europe. She was also closely involved with the built-up of spin-offs. Prior to ventures, Alicia held roles in global business development at Merck Serono in Geneva and EMD Serono in Boston. During her time in business development, she closed several transactions and was involved in strategic corporate development initiatives. Alicia holds a MSc from Leiden University in Biopharmaceutical Sciences and a MBA from Babson College.
Doug is the managing partner of the KCap Biotechnology Fund. Prior to the fund’s launch in 2023, Doug was Founder, President & CEO of Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, a pioneer in RNA Interference-based medicines that was acquired by Novo Nordisk for $3.3 billion in late 2021. Under more than a decade of Doug’s leadership the company optimized and perfected its GalXC RNAi technology, which was the foundation of nearly 20 drug development programs and six major corporate collaborations. Along the way the company completed a highly successful IPO in 2014, trading on Nasdaq as DRNA. Prior to Dicerna, Doug was a General Partner with the venture capital firm Oxford Bioscience Partners where he specialized in financing innovative life science companies with transformative technologies, twice appearing on Forbes Midas list as the second highest ranked life science investor. Doug originally trained as a scientist, obtaining his Ph.D. in Genetics at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1996 before working as a genomic scientist at the Whitehead/MIT Center for Genome Research (now known as the Broad Institute).
Academic Co-Founders
John Rossi, PhD
City of Hope
William Goddard, PhD
Caltech, NAS member
Saumya Das, MD, PhD
Harvard Medical School
William Andrew Goddard III is the Charles and Mary Ferkel Professor of Chemistry, Materials Science and Applied Physics and Director of the Materials and Process Simulation Center at the California Institute of Technology. He obtained his BS from the University of California, Los Angeles and his PhD from the California Institute of Technology. William continued with the California Institute of Technology as an Arthur Amos Noyes Research Fellow for two years. After that, he continued to grow his career as a Professor of Theoretical Chemistry and is currently a Professor of Chemistry & Applied Physics. The long-term objective of Professor Goddard’s research has been to predict new chemical, biological and materials systems with dramatically improved properties. To accomplish this, the group has been developing new theories, new methods and new software and applying them to new chemical, biological and materials systems.
Saumya Das is an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, senior scientific consultant, and medical advisor. He received a MD and PhD. in Neurobiology and Neuroscience from Harvard Medical School. The Das lab focuses on discovering biomarkers for disease phenotypes and characterizing processes associated with heart failure and left ventricular remodeling. As part of the NIH Extracellular RNA Communication Consortium, they have developed new bioinformatics tools and techniques to measure extracellular RNAs and work to understand their functional role in animal and cell culture model.
David Bredt, MD, PhD
Society of Scholars at
Johns Hopkins University
James Treanor, PhD
Board Member at ADRx, Inc.
David Bredt is an experienced molecular neuroscientist. After earning an MD and PhD. at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, he worked there as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Neuroscience until 1994. He later became a Searle scholar and received a Beckman Young Investigators Award while at the University of California, San Francisco Medical School as a professor. In 2004 he joined Eli Lilly and Company as the Vice President of Integrative Biology and was elected to the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars in 2005. He also worked with Johnson & Johnson as the Global Head Discovery Neuroscience from 2011 to 2021.
James Treanor started his career as a postdoctoral researcher at Genentech. Since then, he has over 18 years of experience as a research scientist and director of neuroscience with Amgen and has served as CEO and board member for ADRx, Inc since 2014. He received a B.S. in applied biology (pharmacology, biochemistry, & toxicology) in 1988 and his PhD. in molecular Neurobiology from the University of Bristol in 1992. With his experience, he can provide a ‘big picture’ understanding of drug development from discovery to regulatory filing and has given him many connections in his field.
Investors
With additional funding provided by Eli Lilly and Company.