Meet The Team
Adiso was founded in 2022 in Concord, MA, and is funded by Morningside Ventures.
Isaac Cheng, M.D.
Dr. Cheng joined Morningside ventures in 2006 and focuses on biopharmaceutical and healthcare investments. He has served on numerous public and private company boards, including NuCana (NASDAQ: NCNA), Advanced Cell Diagnostics (sold to Bio-Techne), Liquidia Technologies, Meissa Vaccines, Amylyx Pharmaceuticals, Cognoa, Cognito Therapeutics, Atea Pharmaceuticals, Big Health, and Tallac Therapeutics.
Prior to joining Morningside, Dr. Cheng was Director of Research and Development at Serica Technologies, a Morningside portfolio company which was sold to Allergan. In addition, Dr. Cheng was previously an Associate Director at Novartis Pharmaceuticals in Clinical Development and Medical Affairs. Dr. Cheng received his M.D. from Tufts University School of Medicine.
Jason Dinges, JD, PhD
Since February 2011, Dr. Dinges has served as an investment advisor at Morningside Technology Advisory LLC. Prior to that, Dr. Dinges was an associate attorney at Foley & Lardner LLP, practicing intellectual property law in the firm’s Chemical, Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical practice group. Dr. Dinges also serves on the board of directors of various privately held biotechnology companies. Dr. Dinges received his Ph.D. degree in genetics from Iowa State University and a J.D. degree from the University of Iowa College of Law.
Robert Lisicki
Robert Lisicki brings nearly 30 years of experience in the pharma/biotech sector, most recently Robert was CEO and Board Member at InCarda Therapeutics. Prior to that he was the Chief Commercial Officer of Arena Pharmaceuticals, where he provided global visionary leadership for the $6.7 billion growth-stage biopharmaceutical company through their acquisition by Pfizer in March, 2022. During his time as Chief Commercial Officer at Arena Pharmaceuticals, Lisicki had a leadership role in more than $8 billion in M&A activities. He regularly interacted with FDA, EMA, and PDMA on study and protocol designs. Robert has also held leadership positions with major biopharmaceutical companies including Regeneron, Daichii-Sanyko, Amgen, and JNJ, Janssen Pharmaceutics. Robert is a Board of Directors Member of Cadrenal Therapeutics and serves as a consultant and advisor for private and public life sciences companies. Mr. Lisicki earned his BS in Finance and Economics from State University of New York at Albany.
Scott Megaffin
Scott joined Adiso Therapeutics as Chief Executive Officer in January 2022, bringing more than 35 years of successful industry leadership, having held multiple senior executive, CEO and board director roles during his career at both Fortune 500 pharmaceutical and emerging biotechnology companies. Among Mr. Megaffin’s many career leadership roles, he previously served as the CEO of Adastra Pharmaceuticals Inc., a pioneer in the pursuit of better treatment options for high unmet need cancers, where he led the company from early informative to clinical-stage advancement of first-in-class clinical programs, and ultimately to its acquisition by Cothera Bioscience. Earlier, he served as a President of Churchill Pharmaceuticals, Inc., leading the organizational growth and development of a fully differentiated oral oncology asset for metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer through FDA approval and ultimately a transaction to Sun Pharma. Mr. Megaffin has held numerous global strategic and operational positions of increasing responsibility within Onconova, Schering-Plough, Yamanouchi, Pharmacia, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. During his career Scott has led six global drug development programs resulting in regulatory approvals. He possesses far reaching knowledge in a broad number of therapeutic categories including oncology, anti-infectives, inflammation, pain, critical care, and virology. Mr. Megaffin currently serves as a board member of Adastra and on the Board of Directors for BioNJ, the biotechnology and life science organization of New Jersey. Mr. Megaffin holds a B.S. in Biology from Pittsburg State University.
Srikar Guntaka, M.D.
Dr. Srikar Guntaka, M.D., joins Adiso Therapeutics as Medical Director. He has over a decade of experience as a physician-scientist in pharma/biotech. He has led clinical development programs and medical affairs within liver diseases and IBD with researched products as well as those currently marketed at companies such as Mirum and AbbVie. He has supported their external clinical research efforts and product launch planning activities. While at Baxter Healthcare he designed clinical trial programs for parenteral nutritional products, renal devices, and wound care products. He completed his postdoctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Tennessee on the pathogenesis of PSC and IBD.
Scott Megaffin
Scott joined Adiso Therapeutics as Chief Executive Officer in January 2022, bringing more than 35 years of successful industry leadership, having held multiple senior executive, CEO and board director roles during his career at both Fortune 500 pharmaceutical and emerging biotechnology companies. Among Mr. Megaffin’s many career leadership roles, he previously served as the CEO of Adastra Pharmaceuticals Inc., a pioneer in the pursuit of better treatment options for high unmet need cancers, where he led the company from early informative to clinical-stage advancement of first-in-class clinical programs, and ultimately to its acquisition by Cothera Bioscience. Earlier, he served as a President of Churchill Pharmaceuticals, Inc., leading the organizational growth and development of a fully differentiated oral oncology asset for metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer through FDA approval and ultimately a transaction to Sun Pharma. Mr. Megaffin has held numerous global strategic and operational positions of increasing responsibility within Onconova, Schering-Plough, Yamanouchi, Pharmacia, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. During his career Scott has led six global drug development programs resulting in regulatory approvals. He possesses far reaching knowledge in a broad number of therapeutic categories including oncology, anti-infectives, inflammation, pain, critical care, and virology. Mr. Megaffin currently serves as a board member of Adastra and on the Board of Directors for BioNJ, the biotechnology and life science organization of New Jersey. Mr. Megaffin holds a B.S. in Biology from Pittsburg State University.
Ashely Mansell, PhD
Ashley joined Adiso Therapeutics in 2020 to lead the Translational Science group, bringing nearly 20 years of research and discovery experience in the field of immune inflammation. Working from the premise that inflammation is the basis of nearly all human disease, his studies have provided evidence of cross-talk between innate signaling pathways that orchestrate inflammation and immunometabolism, viral immunomodulation of these pathways, and the structural/functional elements of Toll-like receptor (TLR)-induced inflammation. Prior to joining Adiso, Dr. Mansell established an independent research group at the Monash Institute of Medical Research examining the role of Pattern Recognition Receptors in immune inflammation. Here, he and his team discovered a new class of viral aggregating proteins that activate the NLRP3 inflammasome. Most recently, he has identified new therapeutic opportunities to target inflammasome-mediated inflammation to potentially address a host of inflammatory diseases.
Dr. Mansell completed his PhD in Biochemistry and Immunology at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland investigating bacterial activation of the prototypic inflammatory NF-kappaB. He returned to Australia in 2002 to undertake post-doctoral studies at the Monash Institute of Medical Research in Clayton, Victoria, (renamed Hudson Institute of Medical Research in 2014) recognized internationally for discovery science and translational research. There he established his own independent research group in 2007. Dr. Mansell has published over 80 original research articles and been awarded multiple competitive research grants related to innate immune inflammation. He maintains an adjunct appointment at Monash University and Hudson Institute of Medical Research in Victoria, Australia.
Chris Murphy, PhD
Christopher Murphy received his B.S. in Microbiology and Immunology from McGill University, and Ph.D. in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics from the University of Notre Dame. He went on to pursue postdoctoral research in bacterial genetics in Jon Beckwith’s lab at Harvard Medical School. Over the past 25 years Chris has held industry positions focused on infectious disease, pain and cancer supportive care. While at ActivBiotics, Inc. he was instrumental in driving the preclinical work to support Galera Therapeutics GC4419 advancement into the clinic for the treatment of severe oral mucositis. Chris later spent 7 years at Cubist Pharmaceuticals as director of the in vivo pharmacology group, playing key roles in advancing antibacterial and pain clinical candidates, and serving on the diligence team for preclinical assets and collaborations. Chris has also held senior positions at Millennium Pharmaceuticals and Kaleido Biosciences and is a consultant for ClearB Therapeutics.
Chris joined Adiso Therapeutics as Head of Research and Development, leading the company’s advancement of inflammation-targeted molecules into the clinic.
Laurent Chesnel, PhD
Laurent Chesnel received his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from the University of Paris (Paris 6, Sorbonne University), going on to earn his Ph.D. in Structural Microbiology from the Structural Biology Institute, University of Grenoble (2003). Subsequently he conducted his post-doctoral research in cellular microbiology in the Department of Microbial Pathogenesis at the Yale University Medical School (2003-2008). Laurent joined the clinical microbiology group at Cubist Pharmaceuticals in the spring of 2008 where he supported late-stage discovery programs, their transitions into the IND-enabling stage, and clinical trials from Phase 1 to Phase 4 (daptomycin, ceftolozane-tazobactam, surotomycin, fidaxomicin). Laurent joined the Merck Research Laboratories Scientific Affairs group in 2015 where he supported external clinical research and scientific engagement with the academic research community.
Prof. Paul Ross
Paul Ross was appointed as Director of APC Microbiome Ireland in June 2019 and is also Professor of Microbiology at University College Cork. For the previous 5 years, he was Head of the College of Science, Engineering and Food Science at the University. Prior to that he was Head of the Teagasc (National) Food Research Programme (Moorepark & Ashtown Food Research Centres) which included the role of Managing Director of Moorepark Technology Ltd. – an ultramodern Dairy Pilot Plant facility. APC Microbiome Ireland is an SFI-funded Institute devoted to the study of the human microbiota and its relationship to food and human health. Pauls main research interests are in gut microbiota, antimicrobial peptides, bacteriocins, bacteriophage, and anti-infectives. He was conferred in March 2009 with a D.Sc. from the National University of Ireland (N.U.I.) based on published works. He has won many awards including the Distinguished Service Award from The American Dairy Science Association in June 2017. He was elected a member of The Royal Irish Academy (RIA) in May 2010 and a Fellow of the American Academy for Microbiology (AAM) in 2014.
Paul was one of the founding shareholders in Artugen Therapeutics, serves on the Board of Directors and acts as a scientific consultant.
Prof. Colin Hill
Colin Hill has a Ph.D. in molecular microbiology and is a Professor of Microbiology at University College Cork, Ireland. His main interests are in infectious disease, bacteriocins and the gut virome. He is particularly interested in the role of the gut microbiome (bacteria , bacteriocins and bacteriophage) in protecting against microbial infections. He is also a Principal Investigator in APC Microbiome Ireland in Cork, a large Science Foundation Ireland supported research centre working with industry devoted to the study of the role of the gut microbiota in health and disease. In 2005 Prof. Hill was awarded a D.Sc. by the National University of Ireland in recognition of his contributions to research. In 2009 he was elected to the Royal Irish Academy and in 2010 he received the Metchnikoff Prize in Microbiology and was elected to the American Academy of Microbiology. He has published more than 550 papers and holds over 20 patents.
Prof. Hill was one of the founding shareholders in Artugen Therapeutics, he has served on the Board of Directors and acts as a scientific consultant.
Mary Rea
Mary Rea was awarded a B.Sc., M.Sc. and more recently a Ph.D. in Microbiology from University College Cork, Ireland. Mary started her career as a contract researcher with An Foras Taluntais Moorepark and was subsequently appointed a Principal Research Officer in the Food Biosciences Department in Teagasc Food Research Centre Moorepark.
Mary’s early research career was predominantly associated with dairy microbiology, encompassing work on the microbiota of cheese, the role of lactic acid bacteria in flavour development in dairy fermentations and food pathogens associated with dairy products. On the foundation of Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre (now known as the APC Microbiome Institute) Mary joined the Teagasc Team to mine the mammalian gut microbiota for antimicrobial producing bacteria targeting gut pathogens and their identification and purification with a specific focus on anti-Clostridium difficile antimicrobials. She was a funded investigator with APC with specific responsibility for the culture collections attached to Teagasc Food Research Centre and the APC which comprise of over 10,000 strains.
Mary joined Artugen Therapeutics Ltd at its foundation in 2016 as the senior microbiologist on the Teagasc based Artugen team. Since her retirement from Teagasc in 2018, Mary works as a consultant microbiologist with the Cork-based Artugen team.
Jennifer Locke
As the Chief Operating and Business Officer at Adiso Therapeutics, Jennifer serves as the key strategic leader overseeing both our business development and business operations divisions. She brings more than 15 years of experience in the biotech industry-leading high-performing teams, directing innovative development strategies, and executing operational excellence from early-stage drug discovery through NDA/BLA filing and into commercial launch. Prior to joining Adiso, Jennifer was the Senior Director Program Management at Seres Therapeutics where she ran the successful development of SER-109 for recurrent C. difficile into Phase 3, and SER-287 for ulcerative colitis into Phase 2 as well as the early-stage development of several other assets in the Seres’ portfolio. She has also held several leadership roles of increasing responsibilities at Merck and Cubist. Jennifer holds a Master of Science (M.S.) Project Management & Global Business from Boston University and a B.A. English, Spanish, and Women’s Studies from Fairfield University.
Bharat Dixit, PhD
Bharat has more than 15 years of experience in the biotechnology industry, with a focus in the areas of bioprocess & analytical development, as well as drug formulation including fill-finish, cGMP manufacturing, and project leadership. Bharat’s CMC expertise ranges from small molecules to complex biologics, vaccines and live biotherapeutics (microbiome). Prior to joining Adiso, Dr. Dixit led process and product development teams at Finch Therapeutics he successfully oversaw development and manufacturing for the company’s lead candidate, CP101, currently in late-stage clinical development for recurrent C. difficile infection (CDI). Prior to Finch, Bharat led teams at Gencoea Biosciences and Sanofi focused on development of several vaccine products.
Dr. Dixit earned his master’s degree in Life Science/Biotechnology from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, and Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH), Chandigarh, India.
Renu Gupta, M.D.
Dr. Renu Gupta, M.D., has over 30 years of experience, as a senior executive physician-scientist in the pharma/biotech industry. She is specialized in Immunology, Infectious Diseases, and Pediatrics. For the past 20 years she has been a Chief Medical Officer in the biotech industry, and served as a Director of private and public Boards. She has contributed to multiple new drug registrations globally. Her passion is to bring innovative treatments to patients and families who are in need of life-changing therapies. Renu has deep industry experience with Bristol Myers Squibb, Covance, Novartis, Antigenics, and Insmed.
Shannon Foley
Shannon Foley has over 15 years of financial experience in various industries including the life science space. She has lead finance teams through significant change, streamlining processes and developing partnering relationships to support corporate objectives for rapidly changing companies. Most recently she served as the Senior Director of Accounting for Ameresco. Shannon started her career at PwC where her focus was on life science and public companies. She is a certified public accountant and earned her bachelor’s in accounting from the University of Rhode Island.
Shannon is the Head of Finance, of Adiso Therapeutics where she is responsible for financial planning and operations.
Jillian Chapas-Reed
As the Head of Clinical Operations at Adiso Therapeutics, Jillian brings more than 23 years of experience in the industry on both the Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology, and CRO side. She has a proven track record of leading high-performing global teams, developing and managing strategic partnerships, and executing quality studies across multiple therapeutic areas from Phase I through NDA/BLA filing. Prior to joining Adiso, Jillian has worked at leading companies such as AstraZeneca, ICON, and PAREXEL. Jillian holds a Master of Science (M.S.) in Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs from Temple University School of Pharmacy and a B.S. in Biopsychology from Junita College.
Brandan Hillerich
Andrew Peranick, CFA
Andrew brings nearly 20 years of experience in investment banking, capital raising and corporate consulting experience ranging from reorganizations to start ups. He is experienced in financing, structuring and negotiating transactions in both private and public markets, including Venture Rounds, IPOs, PIPEs and SPACs. He has led underwriting efforts and preparation of financial diligence underpinning over $1b of cumulative debt and equity investments. Mr. Peranick has advised early-stage companies on capital raising and deployment strategies ranging from $50mm – $400mm. Throughout his career, he has cultivated relationships across a wide breadth of investors and has originated, implemented and communicated corporate messaging to the investment community. Prior experience includes banking and portfolio management roles at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Lonestar Capital Management, Contrarian Capital Management and Batuta Advisors acting as the Financial Advisor to Humanigen Inc., where he had successfully guided the company through a reorganization, portfolio prioritization and exit financing.
Andrew holds a B.S. in Finance with a minor in Economics from Fairfield University and is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).