Virna Schuck is VP of Clinical Pharmacology at Acrivon Therapeutics. Virna has nearly 20 years of experience in the Pharmaceutical Industry, working across Research and Development. Prior to joining Acrivon, Virna held positions of increasing responsibility at Ribon Therapeutics, Certara, Novartis, AstraZeneca, and Millennium Pharmaceuticals. More recently, Virna worked as an independent consultant, providing strategic and tactical guidance on Clinical Pharmacology and Translational Medicine. Throughout her career, Virna had the opportunity to work across different functions including DMPK, pharmacology, nonclinical modeling and simulations and clinical pharmacology. She has experience with integrating nonclinical and clinical data to drive clinical pharmacology strategies in early development and executing on these strategies to support selection of clinical dose and regimen. She contributed to the discovery of Zoliflodacin, a first-in-class antibiotic, and the successful submissions of Tembexa® and Leqvio®.
Virna has a bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy and Masters in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul – UFRGS- Brazil, and a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the College of Pharmacy, University of Florida.
Christina Scherer is VP and Head, Early Portfolio Management at Acrivon Therapeutics. She has over 20 years of experience leading drug discovery and development programs in biotech and nonprofit settings. Prior to Acrivon, she was the Senior Director of Product and Portfolio Development at Anokion US and Kanyos Bio, where she led preclinical and clinical product development teams for a novel tolerance-inducing platform. Prior to this, Christina was the Director of Anti-infectives Discovery at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, where she directed interdisciplinary project teams to discover and optimize novel small molecule therapeutics for multiple infectious diseases, including malaria, gram-negative bacteria, and Clostridium difficile. She obtained more than $10M in grants to support these efforts, and managed relationships with external pharmaceutical and nonprofit partners to advance drug development efforts. Prior to the Broad Institute, Christina held positions at Illumigen Biosciences and Kineta in Seattle, WA. Christina received her B.A. in Biology from Amherst College and her PhD. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from MIT.
Lingling Li, PhD is VP, Biostatistics at Acrivon Therapeutics, Inc. Lingling is a highly accomplished drug development expert and statistical leader with a unique combination of experience in clinical development strategy, clinical study design, statistical methodology, analysis, regulatory matters (FDA, EMA), Good Clinical Practice (GCP) compliance, SOPs, and inspection readiness. Most recently, Lingling served as the VP of Biometrics for ImmunoGen overseeing a lean internal team to support the lead compound, Elahere®, a biomarker-driven ADC along with 3 other clinical-stage assets. Prior to that, at Karyopharm, Lingling had increasing roles and responsibilities and led the Biostatistics and Statistical Programming team in advancing 3 compounds across a variety of hematologic and solid tumor indications. Earlier in her career, Lingling worked at Sanofi, focusing on Pompe disease, following nearly a decade in academia as Assistant and Associate Professors at Harvard Medical School. Lingling received her PhD in Biostatistics from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
David Proia, Ph.D., is VP, Biology and Drug Discovery at Acrivon Therapeutics. David has extensive experience in developing small molecule therapeutics for various solid and liquid tumor indications and has contributed to projects advancing both early and later stage clinical development. Most recently, David served as VP of Oncology at ROME Therapeutics, where he was the biology lead for the development of agents targeting an endogenous reverse transcriptase. He served as Senior Director of In Vivo Pharmacology at C4 Therapeutics and project leader on multiple oncology programs, including CFT7455 (IKZF1/3 degrader), currently in clinical trials for patients with multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Prior to C4, he was the Director of Cancer Biology and In Vivo Pharmacology at Synta Pharmaceuticals and a Scientist at AstraZeneca. David has a B.S. in biochemistry from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and a Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology from Baylor College of Medicine.
Praveen Marapaka, Ph.D., is SVP, Global Regulatory Affairs at Acrivon Therapeutics, Inc. Prior to joining Acrivon, he held senior leadership roles at Merck KGaA, AstraZeneca, BICARA Therapeutics and was accountable for driving regulatory strategies for company’s product portfolio, leading to approvals of many oncology and immuno-oncology products. He has effectively led global teams at Schering-Plough, and other pharmaceutical companies, managing all aspects of a product life cycle, from pre-clinical to post-approval. He holds a Ph.D. in chemistry, was the Principal Investigator for several NIH grants (Oncology, CV and Neurology therapeutic area), a research fellow at Washington University, St. Louis and a Royal Society Fellow in the UK.
John van Duzer, Ph.D., is SVP, CMC at Acrivon Therapeutics, Inc. John is a senior pharmaceutical industry executive with over 30 years of proven expertise in medicinal chemistry research, chemical development and GMP manufacturing of both active pharmaceutical ingredients and drug products. Prior to Acrivon, he was the SVP of Chemistry and Manufacturing at Acetylon. John is the inventor of Ricolinostat and Citarisnostat, selective HDAC6 inhibitors studied in the clinic for the treatment of multiple myeloma. When Celgene acquired Acetylon, he led the CMC tech transfer team that integrated Acetylon’s manufacturing processes into Celgene. Previously, while at Novartis, he invented Lumarcoxib, a marketed selective COX-2 inhibitor. At Eloxx Pharmaceuticals, he was the VP of Technical Operations responsible for all aspects of chemical development. He also served as the VP of Pharmaceutical Development and Manufacturing at Collegium Pharmaceuticals where he oversaw tech transfer of the commercial product Nucynta to a new manufacturing site. He is also the co-inventor of 36 patents and has co-authored 18 peer-reviewed scientific papers. John received his Ph.D. in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from Yale University, and B.A. in Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania.
Joon Jung, Ph.D., is SVP and Head, Data Science at Acrivon Therapeutics, Inc. Previously, he was the VP and Head of Data Science and Translational Discovery at Theonys where he led data science, bioinformatics, computational chemistry, biophysics and structural biology activities. From 2012-2021, Joon was the Head of Informatics & Translational Science Lead at Cyclerion Therapeutics/Ironwood Pharmaceutical. During his tenure, he developed a suite of web-based bioinformatic applications and a systems biology platform to identify novel indications by integrating -omics data, pathways and protein-protein interactome. Earlier in his career, Joon was a scientist at Merck Research Laboratories, Johnson & Johnson and Triad Therapeutics. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois, a Ph.D. in Computational Chemistry from U.C. Irvine and Hebrew University, and he completed his fellowship in Bioinformatics & Computational Biology at Columbia University.
Derek DiRocco is a Partner at RA Capital Management. Derek works on both public and private investments and serves as a Board Director for 89Bio, iTeos Therapeutics, Connect Bio, CANbridge, and Werewolf Therapeutics. Previously, Derek covered solid tumor oncology landscapes.
Derek holds a BA in Biology from Holy Cross College and a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Washington. He conducted his postdoctoral research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, where he researched the role of the Wnt signaling pathway in mouse models of kidney disease, and was part of a team that discovered a stem cell subtype responsible for solid organ fibrosis.
Dr. Abraham is Executive Vice President and Head of Cancer Biology at Odyssey Therapeutics. Before that, he was most recently Chief Scientific Officer at Vividion Therapeutics. Prior to Vividion, he was the Senior Vice President and World-wide Head of the Oncology R&D group at Pfizer. From 2005-2009, he was the Head of Oncology Discovery Research at Wyeth. During his tenure at Wyeth and Pfizer, Dr. Abraham contributed to the development of eight FDA-approved cancer drugs. Prior to joining industry, Dr. Abraham was a Professor at the Sanford-Burnham-Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBPMDI) in La Jolla, CA, where he served as the Director of the NCI-designated SBPMDI Cancer Research Center. Prior to SBPDMI, he was endowed Chair in the Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology at the Duke University Medical Center. Prior to Duke University, Dr. Abraham held dual professorships in the departments of Immunology and Pharmacology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. He maintains Adjunct Professor appointments at U.C. San Diego (Department of Pharmacology), and at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Institute.
Dr. Abraham began his career as an Academic Investigator, with enduring interests in cancer biology and immunology. His major research interests included characterization and functional analysis of the mammalian Target of Rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway, cancer metabolism, cellular signaling and DNA damage responses. Dr. Abraham has authored over 225 scientific publications, and his published work has been cited over 48,000 times.
Dr. Abraham received his B.S. in Biology from Bucknell University and his Ph.D. in Pharmacology at the University of Pittsburgh, and he completed his postdoctoral training in Pharmacology and Immunology at the Mayo Clinic.
Michail Shipitsin, Ph.D., is VP, Biomarker Development at Acrivon Therapeutics, Inc. Michail has over 15 years of experience in translational and biomarker research and development. Previously, he headed biomarker development at Xtuit Pharmaceuticals with a focus on NASH liver disease and cancer. After joining the biotech industry, Michail led development of a first in kind multiplex immunofluorescence prognostic test for prostate cancer at Metamark Genetics.
Michail earned his Diploma in Molecular Biology from Novosibirsk State University. He completed Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Tufts University and conducted postdoctoral studies at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute with a focus on biomarkers in breast cancer.
