Seraxis is a private biotechnology company launched in 2013 and located in Germantown, Maryland. The Seraxis mission is to develop a practical and potent cell replacement therapy for insulin-dependent diabetes. Our team of scientists have developed a novel cell and immune-evasion technologies that, together, reverse diabetes in animal models. We are currently working to advance this therapy to the clinic.
William L. Rust, Ph.D. Chief Executive Officer, Founder,
Director of Board
William Rust devoted his career to developing stem cells as therapies and research tools at ES Cell International, Lonza and the ATCC. Will launched Seraxis based on his concept for a more potent cell therapy for diabetes. For this work he was granted multiple families of patents in the US and worldwide for the technologies behind the Seraxis stem cell, the Seraxis pancreas organoid, and the technology to improve allo-compatibility. By providing successful strategic direction to the company, he was able to grow Seraxis from start-up through several rounds of financing to position Seraxis as an industry leader in organoid replacement therapy for type 1 diabetes. Will earned his Ph.D. from UNLV and completed a research fellowship in the transplant department of Novartis.
Carole A. Welsch, Ph.D., MBA, Chief Operating Officer, Co-Founder
Carole Welsch is an experienced pharmaceutical and biotech executive with positions of increasing responsibilities at Novartis, Vanda Pharmaceuticals, and QIAGEN. She brings extensive expertise from her prior roles leading marketing, medical and business development teams in Oncology, CNS disorders and Metabolic Diseases. Carole oversees the Company’s operations. She holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from University Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg and an M.B.A. from Nanyang Business School (NBS), Singapore. She completed a fellowship at the National Cancer Center of Singapore (NCCS).
Paul S. Strumph, M.D., Chief Medical Officer
With over 25 years of experience in Endocrinology and Diabetes care and research, Paul Strumph was previously Chief Medical Officer at Metavant Sciences, VP of Clinical Development at Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, North American Regional Chief Medical Officer at Quintiles, where he was also founder and Chair of the Diabetes Center of Excellence and served as Therapeutic Strategy Head for the Cardiovascular and Metabolic Therapy Area; and Chief Medical Officer at the JDRF. Earlier in his career, Paul held roles of increasing responsibility at GSK, Merck, and BMS. Paul received his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University, and his M.D. with distinction in research from the University of Rochester and completed residency training in Combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Emory University.
Ted Hibben, M.B.A., Chief Corporate Development Officer
Ted Hibben comes to Seraxis with three decades of business development and strategic leadership experiences in discovery and early development-stage therapeutic platform companies including Totus Medicines, Vaxess Technologies, Cerevance, Catabasis, Ensemble Therapeutics, Cequent and Coley Pharmaceutical Group. He has formed and led over two dozen biopharma collaborative alliances, among them BMS, Novartis, Boehringer Ingelheim, Alexion, Genentech and Takeda; played a role in IPOs and in closing private financings with over two dozen different top-tier venture firms; and lead M&A of his companies. Ted earned his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and his A.B. from Dartmouth College.
Board of Directors
Arup Roy, PhD
Arup Roy, PhD currently serves as Vice President of Bioproduct Research and Development, leading an organization of 300+ scientists and support personnel who are responsible for the process and product development of the diverse Lilly large molecule portfolio. He has over 25 years of experience in the pharma/biotech industry and includes experience in both the small molecule and large molecule areas. He has been involved in the development and commercialization of over 20 branded products during this time.
Prior to joining Lilly, Arup spent 10 years with Glaxo Wellcome Inc/GlaxoSmithKline in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
Arup holds a B.S. in Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics from the University of Iowa.
William Rust, Ph.D.
Dr. Rust is both an active member of the Board of Directors and a shareholder in the company. He has successfully raised several rounds of private equity funding to support Seraxis growing operations. Dr. Rust works with other members of the Board to design a long-term corporate strategy that delivers maximum value to shareholders while keeping on target the SERAXIS mission of curing type 1 diabetes.
Bernie Treidl, M.B.A.
Bernie Treidl has spent more than 30 years in the biotechnology industry starting, operating and guiding biotech companies. Prior to being a Seraxis director, Bernie was co-founder, President and CEO of ChemGen Corp. a biotech company that developed a fermentation process to make a key AIDS drug intermediate and later focused on the development and manufacture of enzymes used to improve the efficiency of meat-animal production. Bernie holds a B.A.Sc. and M.Eng. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
James N. Topper, M.D., Ph.D.
Jamie is a Managing Partner of Frazier Healthcare Partners’ Life Sciences team. Throughout his 16 years as a Managing Partner, he has invested across over 35 companies encompassing a broad spectrum of Life Science and Biopharmaceutical companies. He has led many of Frazier’s successful life sciences investments, including Acerta Pharma BV (sold to AstraZeneca), Calistoga Pharmaceuticals (co-founder, sold to Gilead Sciences), Mavupharma (sold to AbbVie), Rempex (sold to The Medicines Company), Incline (co-founder, sold to The Medicines Company), Alnara (sold to Lilly), Portola (co-founder, NASDAQ: PTLA), CoTherix (sold to Actelion), and Threshold (NASDAQ: THLD). In addition to Seraxis, Jamie currently represents Frazier on the boards of Allena Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ALNA), Alpine Immune Sciences (NASDAQ: ALPN), Amunix Pharmaceuticals, AnaptysBio (NASDAQ: ANAB), Lassen Therapeutics, and PhathomPharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: PHAT). He is also a board observer for Alcresta Therapeutics and Sojournix. Jamie received his M.D. and Ph.D. in Biophysics from Stanford and holds a B.S. from the University of Michigan.
Eun-Myung Byun
Eun-Myung Byun is the Vice President and Head of Gwanggyo R&D center at Medytox, Inc. She is a Korean patent attorney with over 25 years of experience in Intellectual Property law in fields such as biotechnology, pharmaceutical, life science and chemistry. Before joining Medytox, Eun-Myung Byun worked for Samyang Holdings and several intellectual property law firms.
Shelley Hartman
Shelley Hartman joined the Board of Seraxis in June of 2021. She currently serves as the CEO of Aegle Therapeutics Corp., a biotechnology company developing extracellular vesicle (EV) therapy through the isolation of EVs from mesenchymal stem cells for the treatment of rare dermatological conditions. Prior to Aegle, Ms. Hartman served as CEO of both LifeSync Holdings, a development company focused on biopharmaceuticals and medical devices, and LifeSync Corporation, a start-up medical device company spun-off from LifeSync Holdings. Prior to LifeSync, Ms. Hartman was a Managing Director focused on healthcare and life sciences in the Investment Banking Division at Goldman, Sachs & Co. Ms. Hartman holds a B.A. from Wellesley College.
Jerry Baty, JD, CPA
Jerry is a Partner with Newport LLC providing CEO advisory services to middle market companies to help them prepare financially and organizationally for the changes associated with either buy-side or sell-side M&A, product expansion, market expansion or other transformational events. Before entering the advisory industry, Jerry was the CEO of SafeTech USA, Inc., a company in the aviation safety equipment service industry, which he sold in a PE backed strategic deal. Prior to SafeTech, Jerry held the position of CFO for several development stage biotech, pharma and medical device companies, leading their efforts in fundraising, business development, planning and reporting and execution of exit strategies. In addition to Seraxis, Jerry currently serves as a board member for Lighthouse for Students and is a member of the Audit Committee for the Houston Symphony. Jerry holds a J.D. from South Texas College of Law, an M.B.A. from the University of Houston, C.T. Bauer College of Business, and a B.B.A. in accounting from Stephen F. Austin State University. He is a licensed CPA in Texas and is licensed to practice law in New York.
Scientific Advisors
Marie Csete, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Anesthesiology, USC Keck School of Medicine. Visiting Associate, Caltech Medical Engineering. Director Transplant Anesthesiology (former): UCSF, UCLA, Emory. Founding Director (former), Emory-Georgia Tech Human Embryonic Stem Cell Core. Former CSO, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. CSO, Huntington Medical Research Institutes (former).
Christian P. Larsen, MD, DPhil
Dr. Larsen serves as the Carlos and Marguerite Mason Professor Transplantation and as Deputy Director of the Immune Tolerance Network. He previously served as Chairman of the Department of Surgery, Surgeon-in-Chief for Emory Healthcare and Dean of Emory University School of Medicine. Throughout he has continued his practice as a transplant surgeon focused on kidney transplantation in adults and children. Together with his colleague Dr, Thomas Pearson, Dr. Larsen played a leading role in development of belatacept, a new anti-rejection medication that protects kidney transplant function and improves long-survival. His basic, translational and clinical research efforts focus on the development of the next generation of safer and more effective anti-rejection methods and immune tolerance. In recent years his group has focused on integrating clinical data science with systems immunology approaches to understand, track and control alloimmune and protective immune responses in transplant patients. His research program has received funding from the NIH continuously since 1993.
Giuseppe Orlando, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Wake Forest School of Medicine. Transplant surgeon scientist, specializing in kidney and pancreas transplantation, and organ bioengineering, regeneration and repair.
Carani Sanjeevi, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor, Karolinska Institute Division of Rheumatology, Karolinska University Hospital. Head of Molecular Immunogenetics Group, Center of Molecular Medicine, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm.
Business Development
Seraxis is interested in pursuing strategic partnerships with organizations interested in bringing novel therapies to patients. Seraxis invites proposals of scientific collaborations and licensing opportunities around either of its technologies, across geographies and indications.
Interested parties may contact our Business Development Team.
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