Accelerate Breakthroughs in BioPharma Innovation

Akash Bakshi, is CEO of YourChoice Therapeutics, where he is developing a first-in-class, non-hormonal male contraceptive. Since 2018, he has advanced YourChoice’s platform from concept to clinic. In 2020, he co-founded ANA Therapeutics securing FDA clearance for Phase 1-3 clinical trials. ANA was acquired by NeuroBo late 2020 (now MetaVia), he served as COO and board member, helping raise $10s of millions in public markets. Akash began his career commercializing academic research at UniQuest, UC Davis, and UC Berkeley.

Nicholas T. Hertz, Ph.D., is the Founder and CEO of Montara Therapeutics, a seed-stage biotechnology company developing therapies for brain diseases by leveraging its proprietary BrainOnly™ platform. This CNS-targeting technology, developed in the Shokat Lab at UCSF, enhances drug safety and efficacy and enables modulation of previously undruggable targets. Dr. Hertz earned a B.S. in Biochemistry from UCLA (magna cum laude) and completed his Ph.D. in Chemistry and Chemical Biology at UCSF, where he discovered the first class of PINK1-activating molecules and co-founded Mitokinin Inc. After postdoctoral work in neuroscience at Stanford, he served as CSO at Mitokinin, leading both scientific and capital strategy efforts. Under his leadership, the company advanced novel PINK1 activators toward clinical development and was acquired by AbbVie in 2023 in a deal valued at up to $655 million. At Montara, Dr. Hertz continues to prioritize rigorous, mechanism-driven science alongside a disciplined and capital-efficient approach to company building. His work has resulted in over 20 publications in journals such as Cell, Neuron, and Nature, and more than 20 issued or pending patents. A father of three and avid surfer, Dr. Hertz finds perspective and creativity in both nature and science.

Dr. Shailesh Date is Chief Executive Officer of the Laboratory for Research in Complex Systems (LRC), an independent research institute that uses rigorous quantitative approaches to solve scientific and social problems. He is also Associate Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at UCSF and Chief Executive Officer of Silicogenix Inc. Dr. Date’s research primarily focuses on developing computational tools (biology, chemistry) to analyze complex biological systems, pathways and multi-input processes with the goal of identifying points of intervention. His group also studies fundamental biophysical properties of living systems, including biological associations, at various scales.

Since early in his career, Dr. Date’s goal has been to develop projects that uniquely bridge academia and industry. As a postdoctoral researcher, he published the first comprehensive interactome model of the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum, providing a tool to the community to initiate functional investigation of the 50%+ uncharacterized genes, as well as provide a list of potential cell-surface targets. Later at Genentech, appalled at the lack of knowledge of S. aureus behavior in human hosts (even after decades of research), he published, together with his colleagues, the first transcriptomic and proteomic map of the pathogen under true infection conditions in humans. Dr. Date has won a DARPA competition for his work on developing a statistical physics model that envisions evolution (and development of complexity) at a systems level, rather than at the level of individual genes, allowing expansion into novel biochemical, morphological and physiological dimensions. Most recently, as lead senior author, he and his group described the largest bacterium known to science – Ca. Thiomargarita magnifica. This paper highlighted the many dogmatic but incorrect assumptions in the scientific community about microbial cell sizes, cell structure and the eukaryotic-prokaryotic divide. This work was shortlisted for “breakthrough of the year” by Science magazine in 2022.

Dr. Date obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin under the supervision of Dr. Edward Marcotte, with a focus on computational molecular biology. He completed his postdoctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine, where he was jointly supervised by Drs. David Roos and Chris Stoeckert. His group has been supported by the Templeton Foundation, The Moore Foundation, DARPA and other agencies/foundations.

Dr. Armand Cognetta began his biotech career at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals as their first intern, contributing to an in vivo RNAi quantification technology that supported the company’s first FDA-approved RNAi therapeutic. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Biology at the Scripps Research Institute under Dr. Benjamin Cravatt, co-authoring 19 publications in journals such as Cell, Nature, and Science, and developing multiple patents foundational to Abide Therapeutics and Vividion Therapeutics. His work includes pioneering proteome-wide lipid binding maps, discovering anti-tubercular drugs, developing first-in-class covalent molecules, and creating platforms for protein-protein interaction modulators. Armand then helped build Inzen Therapeutics’ proteomics drug discovery engine and founded General Proximity to advance induced-proximity medicines, where he serves as CEO. He also advises other biotech start-ups and enjoys endurance sports such as triathlons and ultra-marathons.

Sophia Lugo is CEO, Chairman, and Co-Founder at Radar Therapeutics, a company enabling exquisitely precise in vivo genetic medicines, building specificity directly into the payload to target cells by their true source code (their RNA profile).  For her work at Radar, Sophia has received the 2024 Biocom Catalyst Award celebrating top professionals under 40 disrupting the life sciences industry, San Francisco Business Times 40 under 40 award, the 2024 Mendoza Impact Founder of the Year Award, and the National Hispanic Institute 2024 Person of the Year award.  Sophia is additionally a board member at the Alliance for mRNA Medicines and the National Hispanic Health Research Institute. Before Radar, Sophia held strategy and product roles at BGI Genomics’ Health Division and Ventures Incubator, the Boston Consulting Group, the US Surgeon General's Office, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She received her Bachelor’s from Harvard University, Masters from Tsinghua University, and MBA from Stanford University. 

Dr. Subas Sakya serves as Chief Scientific Officer with nearly 30 years of experience in R&D, driving projects from lead identification to clinic. Throughout his career, Subas has published over 80 articles, patent applications and book chapters with an emphasis on medicinal and organic chemistries. Prior to BioDuro, Subas worked in medicinal chemistry at Pfizer and Wyeth, where he led research across multiple therapeutic areas. While at Pfizer, he also established partnerships with several leading CROs in Europe and gained a comprehensive understanding of CRO industry operations. Subas holds a PhD in organic chemistry from Purdue University.