Carolyn Bertozzi is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Chemical & Systems Biology and Radiology (by courtesy) at Stanford University, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She completed her undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Harvard University in 1988 and her Ph.D. in Chemistry from UC Berkeley in 1993. After completing postdoctoral work at UCSF in the field of cellular immunology, she joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1996. In June 2015, she joined the faculty at Stanford University coincident with the launch of Stanford’s ChEM-H institute.

Dr. Bertozzi’s research interests span the disciplines of chemistry and biology with an emphasis on studies of cell surface glycosylation pertinent to disease states. Her lab focuses on profiling changes in cell surface glycosylation associated with cancer, inflammation and bacterial infection, and exploiting this information for development of diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, most recently in the area of immuno-oncology. She has been recognized with many honors and awards for her research accomplishments. She is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has been awarded the Lemelson-MIT Prize, the Heinrich Wieland Prize, and a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, among many others.

Brett Crawford is a glycobiologist with over 15 years of experience in biomarker and therapeutic discovery for rare genetic diseases.  As a co-founder of Zacharon Pharmaceuticals, he was the lead inventor and advocate for identifying the primary biochemical event in a disease as a critical tool to empower drug discovery and clinical development decision making.  Currently, Brett is a Staff Scientist at BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. leading a team of scientist in the Research Department.

Yuhua Ji has over 25 years of broad experience in drug discovery and development.  She has a track record of building and leading multi-disciplined teams and leading projects from inception to proof-of-concept. She led and made significant contributions to over ten development candidates and IND-filings across various therapeutic areas. She has deep expertise in small molecule drug discovery and is the inventor of YUPELRITM (revefenacin). She is named as the inventor on over 100 patents and the author of over 20 publications. She also has solid experience in leading collaborations, preclinical development and CMC.

Prior to Grace Science, Yuhua was the head of Medicinal Chemistry and cross-functional project leader at Zai Lab US.  Before that, she was IND director at Virogin Biotech. From 2011 to 2017, she worked in various capacities at Path, leading discovery chemistry and CMC, and supported several clinical development programs. She previously worked 10 years at Theravance, where she discovered YUPELRITM and served as the project leader. She spent the first 10 years of her career in Medicinal Chemistry at Hoffmann La-Roche in Switzerland and was a visiting scientist at Genentech. Yuhua obtained Ph.D in organic chemistry and Biological Chemistry from Université de Louis Pasteur de Strasbourg, France. She holds a B.Sc. degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from Pharmaceutical University of China.

Dan has over twenty five years experience in research and development in academia and industry.  He is currently a consultant to early-stage rare disease companies and foundations, focusing on research and clinical development, and pipeline strategy.  Prior to being a consultant, Dan was Chief Operating Officer at Reset Pharmaceuticals, a biotech company focused on therapeutics targeting clock proteins.  His previous position was Group Vice President, Product Development and Strategy at BioMarin Pharmaceutical, a company focused on rare genetic disease, overseeing research-stage and clinical-stage core teams.  Over his 15 years at BioMarin, Dan served in a variety of roles in Business Development, Product Development, and Strategy. Prior to joining BioMarin, Dan was a strategy consultant at McKinsey and Co.  Dan earned a Ph.D. in entomology from UC Berkeley and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.

Len Post has over thirty years experience in R&D at pharmaceutical and biotech companies.  He is currently Chief Scientific Officer at Vivace Therapeutics.  His previous position was Chief Scientific Officer of BioMarin Pharmaceutical, a company focused on rare genetic disease, where he was responsible for programs that included small molecules, proteins, and gene therapy.  Prior positions were Chief Scientific Officer of LEAD Therapeutics, Senior Vice President of R&D at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, and positions at Parke-Davis and Upjohn.   He is currently a member of the boards of directors of Vivace, Oxyrane, Orphagen, and Fedora Pharmaceuticals.

Becky Schweighardt is an innovative drug developer with broad development experience across multiple global drug approvals in rare disease. Dr. Schweighardt is a trained immunologist and virologist who specializes in disease pathology.  Her drug development experience reaches across all stages of development from discovery to post-marketing and across multiple drug modalities, including protein therapeutics, gene therapies, oligo nucleotides, and small molecules. She has 20+ years of academic and industry experience and spent the last 10 years developing therapeutics for rare disease at BioMarin Pharmaceutical. Dr. Schweighardt is proficient at building and leading high-performing drug development teams and guides with an inspirational leadership style focused on aspirational vision and shared purpose.

Mr. George L. Sing is Co-Founder, Chairman, CEO of GanD, Inc. He has been a venture capital investor in seed/early stage start-ups in healthcare and high technology with extensive operational and financial expertise and executive leadership experience. Mr. Sing was a co-founder of Merrill Lynch Venture Capital, Inc., Advanced Technology Ventures and Lancet Capital. He was co-founder, Executive Chairman of Stentor, Inc. (acquired by Philips) and co-founder, CEO of Stemnion, Inc. Mr. Sing has been a Director at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. since inception when he was the seed/start-up investor for Merrill Lynch Venture Capital.  He received a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School and Bachelor of Engineering degree from Stevens Institute of Technology.

Mr. Wilsey is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, angel investor, and start-up advisor. In addition to consumer products and services, Matt invests in and advocates for biomedical research, drug development, and genetic sequencing technologies.

Before moving to the investment side, he spent many years as a front-line operator. Most recently, Matt was Co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer of CardSpring, a payment infrastructure company that was acquired by Twitter. Previously, Matt ran West coast sales and business development for Howcast.com. Before Howcast, Matt worked for Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) on the Capital Markets team focused on new product development, capital raising, and investor relations. Prior to that, Matt spent five years as Co-founder and Vice President of Business Development at Zazzle.com. He started his career serving in various roles at the White House and the Department of Defense.

Matt became a “rare disease hunter” and advocate after his daughter, Grace, was born with NGLY1 Deficiency. He has since funded nearly 75 scientists at 20 medical centers in 5 countries with the sole purpose of treating the disease.

Matt holds a B.A. from Stanford University and a M.B.A. from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. In addition to the Grace Science Foundation, Matt is also a Board member at the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation, The Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health, Global Genes, and the EveryLife Foundation for Rare Diseases.