Management
Christopher J. Barden
Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Barden, a serial entrepreneur, registered patent agent and computational scientist, has fifteen years of experience in drug discovery management. He is a veteran of academia and biotech drug projects, with R&D expertise in the oncology, neurodegenerative and anti-infective spaces and business expertise in technology transfer and building investible companies. A co-founder of Treventis, he is a key architect of our proprietary “CCM” model of protein misfolding. Dr. Barden received his Ph.D. in Physical (Computational) Chemistry from the Schaefer group at University of Georgia.
Donald F. Weaver
Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Weaver is Director of the Krembil Research Institute and Professor in the Departments of Medicine, Chemistry and Pharmacy at the University of Toronto. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed articles and is an inventor on over 70 patents. In addition to being a practicing neurologist Dr. Weaver is a recognized expert in computer-aided drug design. Dr. Weaver’s work in the fields of quantum and molecular mechanics to design drugs through the use of high throughput in-silico screens has been instrumental in his founding of several biotech companies. Most notably at Neurochem Inc. Dr. Weaver discovered and developed tramiprosate (Alzhemed), the first “disease modifying” small molecule anti-amyloid aggregation drug in the world to reach phase 3 clinical trials for the treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease. Following an IPO, Neurochem was publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. Dr. Weaver is the recipient of numerous grants, awards and honors a selection of which include the 2011 Jonas Salk Award, 2010 Bantrel Award, 2009 Prix Galien (for research into the cause of Alzheimer’s Disease) and the 2003 Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Medal. Dr. Weaver is the past President of Epilepsy Canada. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
Mark Reed
Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Reed is a founder of Treventis and co-inventor of our lead and backup series of small molecule inhibitors of tau and abeta oligomerization. Dr. Reed was instrumental in leading the company’s pharmacology and chemistry efforts to obtain in vivo dose response reduction and target engagement of tau and abeta oligomers in models of neurodegeneration. He has over 16 years of experience in drug discovery, working in startups biotech (ICOS corporation, Seattle) and large pharma (Schering Plough Research Institute, Cambridge, MA). Dr. Reed has implemented modern medicinal chemistry practices to identify and advance de-risked lead compounds towards the clinic in the areas of CNS, anti-infectives, immunology and oncology. Dr. Reed has published multiple papers and patents in areas of synthetic organic chemistry, neurodegeneration, neuropathic pain and inflammation. He received a B.Sc in chemistry from the University of Reading and D.Phil in organic chemistry from the University of Sussex and currently holds the positions of Staff Scientist at the Krembil Research Institute and Assistant Professor within the department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Toronto.
Marcia Taylor
VP Research
Dr. Taylor manages a team of researchers working in medicinal and synthetic chemistry, and developing screening tools for amyloid drug discovery, including proof of concept and mechanism of action studies. A variety of novel biophysical, biochemical, cell-based, and preclinical tests are being developed in house and in collaboration with leading scientists worldwide. Dr. Taylor has led the biology program at DeNovaMed, a Halifax, Nova Scotia based company developing novel anti-infectives and has experience in drug development and regulatory submissions at Apobiologix in Toronto, Ontario. Dr. Taylor was awarded her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Dalhousie University, Canada, followed by a postdoctoral position at the University of Geneva, Switzerland.
Seung-Pil Yang
Biology Group Leader
Dr. Yang is a Principal Scientist at Treventis Corporation, leading the Biological Sciences Group of the company. Dr. Yang has over fifteen years of experience in the research of protein misfolding in the neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and ALS. He joined Treventis Corporation in 2013 and played a key role in developing bioassays for Abeta and tau program of the company. He received his Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology with study of the interaction between Alzheimer’s beta-amyloid peptide and VEGF from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH); and did his postdoctoral training in Dr. Peter St. George-Hyslop’s lab in the University of Toronto.
Carlos Zepeda
Chemistry Group Leader
Dr. Zepeda began his career by co-discovering a small molecule therapeutic for leukemia centered on the protein WDR5 as a research scientist at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. In this role he also led multiple projects to develop chemical probes for target validation. This drug candidate is currently being co-developed with Celgene after obtaining $40M USD in funding. He joined Treventis in 2021. Carlos has authored 5 patents and several scientific publications. Prior to his work in drug discovery and development, Carlos completed his PhD at McMaster University (Canada), and also worked as project leader in a process team at one of the Apotex subsidiary companies.