Unlocking Powerful Biology with Multifunctional Biologics

Paul Grayson is a founder of Tentarix and brings over 25 years of experience from his successful career in the biotech sector. Paul specializes in start-up through IND enablement, CMC and clinical proof of concept stage products. Prior to co-founding Tentarix and becoming President and CEO, he was a Partner at Versant Ventures. During and prior to his time at Versant Ventures, Paul was President and CEO of Bird Rock Bio, a company focused on fibrotic, metabolic and inflammatory diseases. Prior to joining Bird Rock Bio, he was the founding CEO of Fate Therapeutics (NASDAQ:FATE) a clinical-stage, next-generation cellular immunotherapy company.  Prior to Fate, he was managing director of Sanderling Ventures. Prior to Sanderling, he served as the founding Chairman and CEO of Senomyx (NASDAQ: SNMX).

Paul holds an MBA from the University of California, Irvine, and a B.A. in Computer Science and Biochemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Stephen Demarest has over 20 years of antibody and multi-specific protein development experience in both biotech and pharma. He contributed to more than 10 molecules that reached IND-enabling studies and managed departments that moved many more. Stephen’s career began as a scientist at Syngenta and Diversa before moving into the role of Associate Director of Protein Sciences at Biogen Idec. Before coming to Tentarix, Stephen was the head of Lilly’s Protein Engineering and Computational Biotherapeutics Departments and a liaison to Immunology and Oncology. Stephen is a co-developer of Lilly’s OrthoMab bispecific technology with partners at UNC Chapel Hill and used the technology to bring many bispecific monoclonal antibodies into development, including with external partners. The technology has also been licensed by AbCellera. Stephen has >45 publications and is an inventor on >20 granted patents and applications.

Stephen holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Texas A&M University and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from SUNY Stony Brook. His postdoctoral studies were at The Scripps Research Institute.

Margaret Karow is a founder of Tentarix and brings over 25 years of experience in the generation and engineering of protein therapeutics. Prior to joining Tentarix, Margaret was the CSO for Gensun Biopharma, and before that she was the Senior Vice President of Pre-Clinical Development for Xilio Therapeutics (formerly Akrevia Therapeutics) where her contributions helped secure $30M Series A funding. Before joining Xilio Therapeutics, she was an Executive Director at Amgen for 10 years, and held multiple positions including leadership roles for Biosimilars Process Development, Amgen Thousand Oaks Protein Sciences, Biologics Optimization, and Site Head for Amgen Burnaby, Canada. Margaret started her career in biotech at Regeneron, over the course of a decade, had a variety of roles including Vice President and co-lead for the development of the VelocImmune mouse platform.

Margaret holds a B.A. in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology from the University of Colorado, Boulder and a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Utah.

Brady joins Tentarix from Cidara Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CDTX), a publicly listed biotechnology company, where he was Vice President of Finance and Principal Accounting Officer from January 2015 to April 2022. At Cidara, he led the accounting and finance functions and contributed to several critical corporate initiatives, including the company’s initial public offering and important pre-clinical and clinical collaborations with Janssen Pharmaceuticals (part of Johnson & Johnson) and Mundipharma with a combined value of over $1.3 billion. Brady began his career with Grant Thornton, LLP and is a certified public accountant in California. He holds an M.A. and B.A. in Accounting from the University of San Diego.

Paul Kang is a founder of Tentarix and has been involved in the development and application of antibody generation technologies for over 20 years, with time at ImmGenics Pharmaceuticals, Abgenix Inc., and Amgen Inc. Paul has played an instrumental role in the development and deployment of novel first-in-class antibody discovery technologies, including ImmGenics’ SLAM technology (Selected Lymphocyte Antibody Method) and Abgenix’s XenoMouse Technology, which was subsequently acquired by Amgen. At Amgen, Paul oversaw Amgen British Columbia’s Preclinical In Vitro Cellular Assay and In Vivo Pharmacology research teams, whose primary responsibilities were the screening and characterization of XenoMouse-derived antibodies. After leaving Amgen, Paul was a co-founder of Innovative Targeting Solutions (ITS).  As CSO of ITS, Paul oversaw the advancement of the company’s HuTARG protein engineering platform and the company’s six pharma collaborations. Paul is also a co-founder of A2 Biotherapeutics and an inventor on over 15 pending or granted patents. 

Paul holds a B.S. from Simon Fraser University.

Michael Gallo is a founder of Tentarix and the current President of Innovative Targeting Solutions and, before that, was part of the original scientific team at Cell Genesys. that created XenoMouse, the premier transgenic mouse technology for generating fully human antibodies. When Abgenix spun off from Cell Genesys in 1996, Michael served on the Strategic Planning Group and Intellectual Property Group and was the Vice President of Research. Abgenix became Amgen British Columbia, and there Michael oversaw over 100 target collaborations including AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Abbot, Curagen, Millennium, and Dendreon. As the site-head for both Abgenix’s subsidiary (Abgenix Biopharma) and Amgen’s subsidiary (Amgen British Columbia) from 2001 to 2007, he led a research unit of 65 people focused on antibody generation and the development of new antibody discovery technologies. Michael is the inventor of numerous patents including the commercial antibody Vectibix.

Michael holds a Ph.D. in Medical Microbiology and Immunology from Ohio State University and completed his postdoctoral studies at Stanford University.

Following a 35-year career at Lilly, Dr. Bumol joined the Allen Institute as Executive Vice President and Director of the Allen Institute for Immunology, which was created by the late philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen. At Lilly, Dr. Bumol was the Senior Vice President of Biotechnology and Immunology Research and the Site Head of Lilly’s Biotechnology Center in San Diego. Dr. Bumol’s teams and collaborators advanced over 100 molecules into clinical development, including Trulicity® (dulaglutide), Taltz® (ixekizumab), Emgality® (galcanezumab), Mounjaro® (terzepatide) and mirikizumab. Through strategic alliances, he and his teams also helped develop and support Reopro® (abciximab) with Centocor as well as Olumiant® (baricitinib) with Incyte. Dr. Bumol has over 50 publications and reviews and eight issued U.S. patents. He earned a Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota and received the Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Cancer Research Fellowship for his postdoctoral research in the Department of Molecular Immunology at Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in La Jolla, California.

Dr. Kuhlman is an Oliver Smithies Investigator, Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics and Co-Director of the Molecular and Cellular Biophysics Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Kuhlman is an expert in protein biophysics and computational protein design. As a postdoctoral fellow in David Baker’s laboratory at the University of Washington, Dr. Kuhlman developed new computational protocols for protein design in the modeling program Rosetta that led to the first de novo designed protein of novel architecture with atomic level precision. Dr. Kuhlman’s laboratory at UNC continues to develop and apply new algorithms in Rosetta for protein design and has focused on the creation of new protein-protein interfaces, photoactivatable protein switches, and tertiary structures. Over the last several years, his laboratory collaborated with Eli Lilly to redesign the key interfaces within IgG antibodies to enable the direct expression of fully assembled IgG Bispecific antibodies. He is a recipient of the AAAS Newcomb Cleveland prize and the Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology. He earned his Ph.D. at Stony Brook University and obtained the Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Washington.

Dr. Teijaro is an Associate Professor in the Department of Immunology and Microbology at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego. During Dr. Teijaro’s graduate and post-graduate training, his research specialized in molecular and temporal immunologic features linked to viral infection and autoimmunity publishing many papers on costimulation and cytokine activation in the laboratories of Donna Farber and Michael Oldstone, respectively. As an independent investigator, Dr. Teijaro is recognized as a world leader in viral immunology and cytokine biology with breakthrough research that is leading to new concepts for the immunotherapy of cancer as well a deeper understanding of the immunology of viral infections including COVID-19. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Maryland, School of Medicine and completed his postdoctoral research at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California.