About

Sandeep has nearly two decades of experience within the healthcare world, as an entrepreneur, life sciences investor, management consultant, and medical doctor. Prior to founding Tourmaline, Sandeep was a Managing Director at KVP Capital responsible for investments into public and private biotech companies as well as leading KVP’s company formation activities. Before joining KVP, Sandeep was Chief Operating Officer at Immunovant, where he was heavily involved in accelerating Immunovant from an internally incubated project into an integrated biotech company, culminating in a go-public transaction completed at the end of 2019 through a SPAC. Concurrent with his time at Immunovant, Sandeep was also Vice President, Special Projects, at Roivant Sciences and was involved in various internal and external initiatives. Before Immunovant, Sandeep was a biotech investor with most of his time on the buyside spent on the life sciences team at QVT Financial. He started his career at the Boston Consulting Group, where he advised leading biopharma companies on strategic and operational projects. He serves on the board of Zura Bio.

Sandeep received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco.

Ryan has nearly 15 years of finance and operations experience within the biotechnology industry. Before joining Tourmaline, Ryan served as Vice President of Finance and Treasurer at Korro Bio, a publicly-traded company focused on RNA editing. Prior to Korro Bio, Ryan served as the Corporate Controller for Jounce Therapeutics, a publicly-traded immunotherapy company. Ryan also worked at Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, a publicly-traded biopharmaceuticals company, where he oversaw the financial and operational aspects of the commercial launch of ONIVYDE® for the treatment of metastatic pancreatic cancer. Ryan began his career at Ernst & Young, where he served a variety of public and private life sciences companies at all stages of clinical development.

Ryan earned a B.S. in Management and an M.S. in Accounting from Boston College, and he is licensed as a Certified Public Accountant.

An accomplished life sciences executive with more than 25 years of experience across multiple legal and business aspects of the biotechnology industry, Brad previously served as the Chief Legal Officer of Castle Creek Biosciences. Before that, he was General Counsel of Immunovant, which he took public through a SPAC in 2019. Prior to joining Immunovant, Brad was Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of PDS Biotechnology Corporation (formerly known as Edge Therapeutics), a publicly traded life sciences company. Before Edge, Brad served as Executive-in-Residence at Princeton University. Previously, he was Chief Legal Officer, General Counsel and Secretary at Kolltan Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he also ran the business development function; Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Medarex, Inc.; and Vice President, Business Development and General Counsel at Algos Pharmaceuticals. Following law school and a clerkship in the Southern District of New York, Brad started his legal career at Cooley Godward, where he advised life science companies on a broad range of business and legal matters.

Brad received a bachelor’s degree from Brown University and a law degree from Yale Law School.

A biotechnology industry veteran and recognized leader in bioprocessing, Susan has over 30 years’ experience in managing complex biopharmaceutical development programs from discovery through late-stage clinical trials and commercialization. She has extensive experience managing Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls (CMC) for multiple products as they progress through clinical development, as well as several years of biopharmaceutical program management expertise. Susan is a co-founder of two successful biotechnology companies and she has participated in private and public financings. Prior to joining Tourmaline, Susan served as SVP Product Development for Harpoon Therapeutics where she and her team advanced four products into first-in-human clinical studies within 3 years. She previously served as VP and Principal Consultant with BioProcess Technology Consultants where she was the program manager and development lead for multiple biopharmaceutical discovery and development programs. Susan is well versed in integration of discovery and development, design of effective manufacturing strategies, preparing regulatory submissions, and managing complex supply chains.

Susan received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and received her Ph.D. from University of California, San Francisco. She performed post-doctoral research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA.

Kevin has 30 years of experience in the implementation of global regulatory and development strategies for a variety of drugs, biologics, combination products, and cell/gene therapies. He has directed the preparation of numerous INDs, CTAs, BLAs, NDAs, and MAAs and orchestrated a variety of meetings and communications with regulatory authorities on a global basis. Before joining Tourmaline, Kevin served as Chief Regulatory Officer for Ring Therapeutics developing novel gene therapy modalities. Prior to Ring, Kevin held several positions of increasing responsibility for regulatory, quality, pharmacovigilance and product development activities at Inozyme, Imara, Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, and Vtesse. He also served as Director, Global Regulatory Affairs for Rare Diseases and Gene Therapies at GSK, working on the regulatory team for the European approval of the gene therapy Strimvelis^®. Additional past accomplishments include successful negotiations for the US regulatory approval of TachoSil^® Fibrin Sealant Patch and Daliresp^® (roflumilast).

Kevin earned a Ph.D. in Neurobiology from the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine and an MBA from the Kenan-Flagler School of Business, also at UNC. He completed a BS in Chemistry from the University of South Florida, holds the Regulatory Affairs Certification (RAC) designation by the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society, and is a Registered Member of The Organization for Professionals in Regulatory Affairs (TOPRA) in Europe.

Emil has over two decades of experience in health care across clinical medicine, medical research, and drug development. Prior to Tourmaline Bio, Emil served as Senior Vice President of Clinical Development and Data Science at ChemoCentryx where he led medical aspects of the development program of avacopan (TAVNEOS®), a complement C5a receptor inhibitor approved for anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis, and advanced an early-stage pipeline including an oral immune checkpoint inhibitor for advanced solid tumors. Previously, Emil served in positions of increasing responsibility at Akebia Therapeutics, most recently as Vice President of Clinical Development. He led Phase 2 studies in Japan and global Phase 3 cardiovascular outcome trials of vadadustat for the treatment of anemia associated with chronic kidney disease. Vadadustat later received approval by the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency and is currently marketed as VAFSEO® in Japan. Earlier in his academic career, Emil served as medical director of a multidisciplinary preventive cardiology program at the University of Pennsylvania, where he led clinical studies to advance novel therapies and precision medicine for the treatment of patients with or at high risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

Emil received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and a medical degree from Harvard Medical School. He completed his internal medicine residency training, chief residency, and cardiology fellowship at Stanford University and his vascular medicine fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania.

Gerhard has over two decades of experience as a biopharma executive with commercial expertise in drug development, launches, access and business development. Previously, he was building Gilead’s Inflammation business unit, leading a $3 billion liver franchise and creating new competencies as Head of Global Commercial Strategy – Inflammation, Liver & Portfolio. Before joining Gilead Sciences, Gerhard was the Head of Pfizer’s Inflammation & Immunology business unit, responsible for reimbursement, pricing and evidence generation of launches and in-line business in Rheumatology, Dermatology, Gastroenterology, and numerous assets advancing into Phase 3 clinical trials. He has held leadership roles of increasing complexities across every stage of an asset’s lifecycle including 11 launches, in core markets such as the U.S. and Germany as well as regional and global roles. Gerhard started his career in sales at Pharmacia in Germany, worked in the U.S. for the last two decades of which he focused the recent 10 years on Inflammation & Immunology after approximately 10 years in Oncology at Pfizer. Gerhard received his degree as “Apotheker” (PharmD) from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, Germany.

Don has over 25 years of experience overseeing clinical trials across a wide range of therapeutic indications, advancing small molecules, oral peptides, biologics, and cellular therapies. He has led departments that include clinical operations, project management, data science, vendor management, and medical writing, among others.  Before joining Tourmaline, Don was VP of Operations, Strategy, and Innovation at Miltenyi Biomedicine, developing CAR-T therapies for blood cancers. Prior to Miltenyi, Don was VP of Clinical Development Operations, Program Management, and Vendor Management at Allovir. Previously, during a 15-year career at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Don was a key member of the global development leadership team that achieved the regulatory approval of linaclotide (Linzess®/Constella®) in the USA, Europe, Japan, and China, among other territories.  Earlier in his career, Don was a clinical operations professional at multiple small biotechnology companies and clinical contract research organizations (CROs). 

Don received his BS in Biology from Allegheny College and his MPH (epidemiology) from George Washington University, Milken School of Public Health.

Dora has championed quality initiatives in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device industries for over 25 years. She has experience leading organizations through product life cycle milestones in both development and commercial environments. Before joining Tourmaline, Dora designed and implemented fit-for-purpose quality systems most recently as Senior Vice President, Quality at Revolo Biotherapeutics and previously as VP, Quality at Imara, Inc. In her prior role as Vice President, Global Quality at Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, she directed quality assurance and quality control teams on continuous improvement activities for a variety of products across global operations. Dora was previously employed by Auspex Pharmaceuticals, Prometheus Laboratories, Forest Laboratories, and Schering-Plough in positions of increasing responsibility in corporate and site-level Quality roles, with emphasis on GxP quality system development, IT quality support, auditing and supply chain oversight. She has extensive experience leading teams to attain successful regulatory authority inspection outcomes and product approvals.

Dora received her bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill. She earned a regulatory affairs certificate for medical device and pharmaceutics from the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society (RAPS). 

Kristine has had a diverse career in the medical field, spanning various aspects of research, clinical practice, and drug development. She began her journey in basic laboratory research, where she conducted studies on the pathogenesis of glaucoma. Her work in this field earned her the Alcon Award for research excellence.

Transitioning to clinical practice and mentorship, Kristine provided guidance and oversaw the development of interns and residents. She also served as an investigator in clinical trials, contributing to advancements in the medical treatment of dry eye and ocular allergy. Her clinical research and drug development accomplishments continued as she had increasing responsibility at Unigene Laboratories, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, and Aerie Pharmaceuticals.

At Regeneron, Kristine played a role in successfully launching EYLEA, a groundbreaking treatment for age-related macular degeneration, diabetic macular edema, and retinal vein occlusion. She was the clinical lead for post-marketing studies, instrumental in further characterizing the drug’s efficacy and safety. Additionally, she led the clinical development of sarilumab, an innovative IL-6 receptor inhibitor under study for treating noninfectious uveitis.

Throughout her career, Kristine has actively contributed to the field through her published research papers and book chapters. She holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in psychology from the University of Wisconsin, a Ph.D. in pharmacology from the School of Pharmacy at the same university, and an OD from the New England College of Optometry.

Joining Tourmaline, Kristine brings her expertise and passion for advancing therapies in areas of unmet medical need.

Famina brings over two decades of healthcare experience including pharmacy practice and as a drug safety and pharmacovigilance professional in the pharmaceutical industry. Before joining Tourmaline, she served as the Head of Drug Safety and Pharmacovigilance leading clinical safety monitoring activities for musculoskeletal and oncology products across phases 1 through 3 of development. Famina has been recognized for her expertise in establishing robust safety surveillance and risk management functions within the Pharmacovigilance department, instituting a Center of Excellence for Aggregate Safety Reporting, implementing safety databases, and introducing advanced signal detection and management systems for global pharmaceutical companies with diverse portfolios of developmental and commercially available products. Famina’s leadership journey includes pivotal roles in both small and large pharma companies, where she led integration activities during mergers and acquisitions, managed data migrations, served as a subject matter expert during regulatory inspections, and selected, qualified and oversaw vendors for critical functions like case processing, safety surveillance, medical writing, publishing, and submissions.

Famina earned her Doctorate in Pharmacy degree from Midwestern University, Chicago College of Pharmacy.

Kim has spent her career working in the life sciences industry, having held both management consulting and in-house roles focused on driving ethics and integrity in corporate cultures, and building robust risk management and healthcare compliance programs and operations. Most recently, Kim held roles at Arena Pharmaceuticals and Incyte Corporation, where she was responsible for leading global compliance teams, programs, and operations. Prior to that, Kim spent twelve years at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) providing risk and compliance advisory services in the life sciences industry, where she advised her clients in navigating complex risk and compliance challenges across all areas of the business. Her experience includes working with Chief Compliance Officers, compliance teams and business leaders to set compliance program strategy, evaluate risk, and build the various elements of an effective compliance program. She has led projects and teams to assess both global and US compliance programs, design compliance policies and procedures, build compliance monitoring programs, and advise on leading practices in compliance across Commercial, Medical and Clinical functions.  

In her role at Tourmaline, Kim integrates her passions for people management, cultivating positive team and corporate cultures, and supporting the business to work with integrity and compliance.

Kim earned a bachelor’s degree from Pennsylvania State University and a master’s degree from New York University.

John brings over 25 years of medical and biopharmaceutical experience to Tourmaline Bio. After many years of full-time clinical practice in family medicine and prehospital emergency medicine, John joined Sepracor (now Sunovion) in 2008 as a Medical Director and has served multiple roles of increasing responsibility since that time. In addition to his tenure at Sepracor/Sunovion, John has worked at multiple other biopharmaceutical organizations of varying sizes including Biogen, EMD Serono, and Ardelyx. John most recently served as the Vice President of North America Medical Affairs for Egetis Therapeutics where he focused on the development of a rare thyroid disease treatment. He is proud to have worked on the launches of nine products including Brovana (arformoterol), Tecfidera (dimethyl fumarate), Mavenclad (cladribine) and Spinraza (neusinersen). His industry experience spans Medical Affairs, Clinical Development and Program Leadership. In addition to his current role at Tourmaline Bio, John also serves as a Physician / Medical Officer for the US Department of Health and Human Services’ National Disaster Medical System where he provides medical expertise and care to patients impacted by natural or man-made disaster or public health emergencies.

John earned a bachelor’s degree from St. Joseph’s College and a medical degree from St. George’s University School of Medicine.

Dr. Joshua Beckman, MD, MSc is a Professor of Medicine and Director of the Division of Vascular Medicine at University of Texas Southwestern, both in Dallas, Texas. After earning his medical degree from New York University School of Medicine in New York City, he completed an internship, residency, and chief residency in internal medicine at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and postgraduate fellowships in cardiovascular medicine and vascular medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Dr. Beckman cares for patients with a wide range of both heart and vascular disorders. He has a special interest in peripheral artery disease, venous thromboembolism, aortic disease, perioperative management, thermal (temperature-related) diseases, and vasculitis.

Dr. Beckman is active in professional societies and has served in leadership roles for the major cardiovascular organizations. He is a former President of the Society for Vascular Medicine currently serves as the Chair for the AHA/ACC Joint Committee on Guidelines, is the Immediate Past President of VIVA, and is an Associate Editor for the journal Circulation, the premier peer-reviewed cardiovascular journal.

Dr. Beckman’s current research focuses on the mechanisms that cause vascular dysfunction, susceptibility to atherosclerosis, and functional limitations in peripheral artery disease, translating discoveries made at the lab bench to human beings. He has mentored trainees at all levels from medical students to junior faculty.

Marc Bonaca, MD, MPH, is a cardiologist and vascular medicine specialist serving as executive director of CPC and Director of Vascular Research & Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz.

Dr. Bonaca was a faculty member at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School and an investigator at TIMI. He directed pharmacovigilance at TIMI and was an investigator on several large outcomes trials including TRA2P-TIMI 50, PEGASUS-TIMI 54, DECLARE-TIMI 58, and REAL TIMI 63B. At TIMI he led several analyses ascertaining and categorizing adverse limb outcomes in patients with PAD and showing they could be reduced with vorapaxar, ticagrelor, and evolocumab.

In 2018, he joined the faculty at the University of Colorado as Professor of Medicine and the William R. Hiatt Endowed Chair in Cardiovascular Research. He is the Executive Director of CPC, an affiliated non-profit Academic Research Organization. At CPC, he has led several clinical trials with CPC as the lead ARO, including VOYAGER PAD, the first drug trial for registration to include major adverse limb events of acute limb ischemia and major amputation of a vascular etiology as components of the primary endpoint. VOYAGER PAD led to the registration of rivaroxaban 2.5 mg twice daily as the first drug indicated for reducing the risk of these major adverse limb events.

Dr. Bonaca is currently leading several ongoing trials for CPC, including STRIDE which his investigating semaglutide in patients with PAD; EVOLVE MI, a 6000-patient pragmatic multinational acute coronary syndrome trial investigating evolocumab, TRANSFORM, a 7500-patient primary prevention trial using Cleerly coronary imaging, and the MOONRAKER program which includes three outcomes trials investigating Finerenone in patients with heart failure. He is the national lead investigator for CORAL REEF Outcomes which is studying an oral PCSK9 inhibitor for reduction of MACE and adverse limb outcomes in patients with vascular disease.

Dr. Bonaca’s research focus is on ischemic risk with atherosclerotic vascular disease, risk prediction, and risk modification using pharmacologic and biologic therapies. He has extensive experience designing and conducting large, multicenter randomized clinical trials, and analyzing registries and real-world datasets. His areas of interest include PAD, ASCVD, lipids and diabetes, with a focus on the breadth of risk including ischemic limb outcomes, microvascular complications, and major adverse cardiovascular events. He is also investigating the cardiac, vascular, and thrombotic complications associated with novel oncologic therapies. At CPC, he has focused on building a robust faculty and operational group dedicated to high quality, efficient trials leveraging health networks, informatics, and decentralized design.

Robin Choudhury, MA DM FRCP is a consultant interventional cardiologist (honorary) at the Oxford Heart Centre and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust (since 2005) and Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at Oxford University. He qualified in medicine at the University of Oxford with postgraduate training in London at Royal Brompton, Hammersmith and St Mary’s hospitals and in New York at Mount Sinai Medical Center. His NHS clinical practice is in interventional and general cardiology. He has particular expertise in optimizing cardiovascular risk factors.

Dr. Choudhury is a former President of the Royal Society of Medicine Section on Lipids, Metabolism and Vascular Risk. He has led numerous clinic trials and studies in this area including the use of canakinumab, a novel interleukin-1β neutralizing antibody in patients with diabetes and vascular disease. He is UK Chief Investigator for the ZEUS trial of the anti-interleukin-6 agent, ziltivekimab. Dr. Choudhury leads the MeRIAD program on metabolic influences in cardiovascular disease, an international collaboration between Oxford and Copenhagen Universities and the Karolinska Institute.

Dr. Choudhury has published over 200 articles on aspects of cardiovascular disease. He is a former Section Editor (Clinical Cardiology) for the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Douglas Mann, MD is the Aida L. Steininger Professor of Cardiology and Professor of Medicine, Cell Biology and Physiology at the Washington University School of Medicine. He received his medical degree from Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia and completed fellowships in clinical cardiology at the University of California San Diego, and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Dr. Mann’s primary research interest has been the molecular and cellular basis of heart failure, with particular emphasis on the role of innate immunity in disease progression and recovery of the failing heart. The author of numerous peer reviewed articles on the role on inflammatory mediators in cardiac remodeling and myocardial recovery, Dr. Mann is also the editor of Heart Failure, A Companion to Braunwald’s Heart Disease, and a co-editor of Braunwald’s Heart Disease, the leading textbook in cardiovascular medicine.  Dr. Mann is the founding editor for JACC: Basic to Translational Science.  He is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians the Association of University Cardiologists, the Heart Failure Society of America and the American Clinical and Climatological Association. He is the past president of the Heart Failure Society.

James K. Min, MD, FACC is the founder and CEO of Cleerly, a mission-driven healthcare company whose digital care pathway supports physicians and patients reduce risk of heart attacks.

Previously, Dr. Min served as a Full Professor of Radiology and Medicine (Cardiology) at the Weill Cornell Medical College and Director of the Dalio Institute of Cardiovascular Imaging at the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Min has worked closely with the American College of Cardiology, having served on the Task Force for Appropriate Use Criteria and Expert Consensus Documents; as well as the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography, where he served as its President and the Chair of the Scientific Sessions for many years.

Dr, Min previously served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography and Associate Editor for the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Cardiovascular Imaging. Dr. Min has led >10 prospective multicenter clinical trials–including CONFIRM, PARADIGM, CONSERVE, CREDENCE, ICONIC and others–and served as the Director of the CT Core Laboratory for the ISCHEMIA trial. Dr. Min is the Editor for the books: Artificial Intelligence in Medicine – Technical Basis and Clinical Applications, and Multimodality Imaging for Transcatheter Aortic Vave Replacement. Dr. Min has published >500 peer-reviewed publications, primarily focused on coronary artery disease.

Pradeep Natarajan, MD, MMSC is the Director of Preventive Cardiology and the Paul and Phyllis Fireman Endowed Chair in Vascular Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, Associate Director of Personalized Medicine at Mass General Brigham, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Associate Member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. Dr. Natarajan uses germline and somatic genetic variation to uncover new biology and enable enhanced clinical care for cardiovascular disease. He leads several consortia to use genetic epidemiology, large-scale sequencing studies, genotype-driven human investigation, and genetic testing implementation. He is an Elected Member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and Association of American Physicians. He has received several awards for his contributions, including most recently the 2022 Jeffrey M. Hoeg Award and the 2023 Joseph A. Vita Award from the American Heart Association.

Michael Shapiro is the inaugural Fred M. Parrish Professor of Cardiology and Molecular Medicine at Wake Forest University where he is on faculty in the Section of Cardiovascular Medicine. After completing a cardiology fellowship, Michael spent two additional years in a clinical and research fellowship focused on advanced cardiovascular imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital. Since that time, his clinical and research focus has been on lipids, atherosclerosis, and prevention of cardiovascular disease. He is currently the Director of the Center for Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. There, he also serves as the co-director of the NIH T32 Fellowship program in Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention.

Dr. Shapiro has received funding from the NIH, AHA, and several foundations. He has published extensively in the areas of atherosclerosis imaging, lipid disorders, and preventive cardiology. The scope of his research spans translational science, cardiovascular epidemiology, and clinical trials of novel lipid-modulating therapeutics. He is currently the president of the American Society for Preventive Cardiology.

Michael Szarek, PhD is a research professor in the Division of Cardiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, as well as a faculty member at CPC Clinical Research, an Academic Research Organization affiliated with the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. He is also Executive Director of the Center for Clinical and Outcomes Research and Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University School of Public Health. He earned a MS in biostatistics from Harvard School of Public Health and a PhD in biostatistics from New York University. While at Harvard, he was a Schering Plough Scholar and recipient of a National Cancer Institute (NCI) National Research Service Award training grant. Dr. Szarek has authored or co-authored over 100 publications and frequently gives presentations at scientific conferences. He was previously a statistical editor for the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) and JACC – Cardiovascular Interventions.