Occam Places Allison August as CMO at Comanche Bio

Comanche Biopharma is a preclinical biopharmaceutical company developing a novel siRNA therapy for the treatment of preeclampsia. Investors include GV, F-Prime and Population Health Partners. The company has appointed Allison August, M.D. as Chief Medical Officer. Dr. August, an obstetrician-gynecologist, brings more than 25 years of clinical experience to her position at Comanche Biopharma.

August joins Comanche Biopharma from Moderna, where she was Vice President of Clinical Development, Infectious Diseases and spent over five years in various roles with increasing responsibility for the development of mRNA-based vaccines and the first mRNA-encoded monoclonal antibody.

Before moving to the biopharma industry, August was an academic and private practice obstetrician-gynecologist. Her academic career included faculty positions at the Brown University Medical School and adjunct faculty at Harvard Medical School affiliated hospitals. Dr. August holds a B.A. in the History of Religion from Bryn Mawr College and an M.D. from the University of Chicago.

Occam Places Steve Colletti as CSO of Korro Bio

Korro Bio is an RNA editing company focused on the discovery and development of a new class of precision genetic medicines for both rare and common diseases. The company has raised over $200M across two rounds of financing. Top tier investors include Atlas, Qiming, Fidelity, Point72, NEA, Eventide, Cormorant Asset Management, and Citadel.

In Colletti, Korro captures an RNA domain expert and a broadly gauged scientific leader who speaks the languages of both chemistry and biology, a bifocal perspective which he has leveraged to great effect across discovery and translation through early clinical development. After a highly successful R&D career at Merck, Colletti effectively transitioned to Biotech with Lodo which was subsequently acquired by Zymergen.

Occam Places Edith Hessel as CSO and Lindsay Edwards as CTO at Relation Therapeutics

Relation Therapeutics, a London-based breakthrough AI-enabled drug discovery platform company leveraging active-graph machine learning (ML) in combination with single-cell and deep clinical analysis to query biology at scale, has completed the senior leadership trifecta with the placement of Lindsay Edwards as CTO and Edith Hessel as CSO, powerful technical and scientific complements to CEO David Roblin. Investment partners include blue chip life science and technology investors in DCVC, Magnetic Ventures and Khosla Ventures. See Press Release

Lindsay Edwards was previously Vice President and Head of Artificial Intelligence for Respiratory and Immunology at AstraZeneca. Prior to AZ, Edwards founded and led one of GSK’s first data science groups and served as Vice President and Head of Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning for the UK and Europe.

Edith Hessel was previously Chief Scientific Officer of Paris-based microbiome engineering company Eligo Bioscience where she was responsible for the strategic expansion of new therapeutic applications of Eligo’s platform technology and for the progression of Eligo’s pipeline to the clinic. Previously she served as CSO of Mestag Therapeutics.

Occam Places Carolyn Haley as COO at F-Prime Capital

F-Prime Capital, the independent global venture vehicle of Fidelity Investments focused on the technology and life sciences sectors, has brought on Carolyn Haley as Chief Operating Officer.

Carolyn comes to F-Prime with a richly variegated history of accomplishment in the asset management industry. Most recently she served over a decade at global investor GMO as Partner and Chief Accounting Officer. Haley previously held roles of increasing responsibility at H&Q. Her career began with PwC in the global asset management practice.

Occam Places Jeff Goater as Board Chair of AviadoBio

AviadoBio, a pre-clinical stage platform company with operations in the UK and the US and backed by NEA, F-Prime and J&J Innovation and focused on developing and delivering transformative gene therapies for people with neurodegenerative disorders, has appointed Jeff Goater as Chair of its Board of Directors.

Jeff brings more than 20 years of biotech and Wall Street experience to this appointment. Currently, Jeff is a Venture Partner at The Column Group and interim CEO of Atavistik Bio. Previous roles include CEO of Surface Oncology and Managing Director at Evercore Partners.

Jeff holds graduate degrees in immunology, pathology and business administration from the University of Rochester. He currently serves on the boards of Atavistik, Judo Bio, Kallyope, Ribon Therapeutics and Surface Oncology.

With Occam having also placed Lisa Deschamps as CEO at AviadoBio in 2021, we are pleased to extend our relationship at the Board level.