Steven R. Gullans, Ph.D. Chairman and Co-Founder

Dr. Gullans is a co-founder of RxGen. Before serving as chief executive at RxGen for four years, Dr. Gullans served for two years as the Chief Scientific Officer at U.S. Genomics in Boston following a distinguished 18 year career as an academic research scientist at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. As a faculty member in the Departments of Neurology and Medicine, Dr. Gullans published more than 100 original scientific papers, and built a record of achievement in the field of functional genomics and advanced technologies. As Director of the BWH Biotechnology Center, and with funding from the Merck Genome Research Institute, he established the first large-scale public database of gene expression in human tissues using gene chips and subsequently used high throughput technologies to identify biomarkers and potential therapeutics for ALS, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease. He has been awarded a number of patents, held many leadership positions. Dr. Gullans received his doctorate in physiology from Duke University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University in 1985. He has served as an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association, an Associate Editor of the American Journal of Physiology and Physiological Genomics and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Gullans has been very active in early stage biotechnology companies and has served on the Scientific Advisory Boards of U.S. Genomics, GenPat77, GeneOhm, and Biomodels LLC. He has also been an advisor to the venture capital community for many years, and has recently become a partner in Excel Medical Ventures.

D. Eugene Redmond, M.D. Co-Founder

Dr. Redmond is Professor of Psychiatry and Neurosurgery and Director of the Neural Transplantation and Repair Program at the Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Redmond is a pioneer in the areas of neural transplantation, neural stem cells, and gene therapy as possible treatments for neurological disorders. Dr. Redmond received his B.A. from Southern Methodist University in 1961, his M.D. from Baylor College of Medicine in 1968, and residency training in research psychiatry at the Illinois State Psychiatric Institute and National Institute of Mental Health and has been at Yale since 1974. He held Career Research Scientist Awards from the NIH from 1980 to 2000, and has held numerous public and private grants as principal investigator. He received the Foundation’s Fund Prize from the American Psychiatric Association in 1981 for discovery of the anti-opiate withdrawal properties of clonidine. Dr. Redmond is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, and is a member of the Society for Neuroscience, Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the Movement Disorders Society, the American Gene Therapy Society, and is past President of the American Society for Neural Transplantation and Repair. Dr. Redmond has been a consultant and scientific advisor to Neurogen, Merck, Amgen, Upjohn-Pharmacia, Bristol Myers Squibb, and others.

Robert H. Roth, Ph.D. Co-Founder

Dr. Roth is Professor of Pharmacology and Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine. His research has focused on the neurochemistry and neuropharmacology of midbrain dopamine systems. Dr. Roth graduated from the University of Connecticut, School of Pharmacology, in 1961. He received his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Yale University in 1965. Prior to returning to Yale Dr. Roth completed his postdoctoral training at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, in the laboratory of Professor Ulf von Euler, who shared the 1970 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. Dr. Roth has published over 500 scientific articles as well as coauthored the textbook “The Biochemical Basis of Neuropharmacology.” He holds membership in a number of professional societies, including the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, the British Pharmacological Society, the International and American Societies for Neurochemistry, the Society for Neuroscience, and the American and the International College of Neuropsychopharmacology. Dr. Roth is one of the founders and a former member of the Board of Directors and Scientific Advisory Board of Neurogen, and has served on the Scientific Advisory Board of Cephalon.

Harry H. Penner, Jr. Co-Founder

Mr. Penner has many years of management experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors. Mr. Penner is the former CEO of Marinus Pharmaceuticals. He is also former President, CEO, and Vice Chairman of Neurogen Corporation. While at Neurogen, he led the company into multiple clinical trials, dramatic portfolio growth, the development of the critical new drug discovery technologies, important corporate alliances, and to large secondary private and public offerings. Prior to joining Neurogen, Mr. Penner was an Executive Vice President of Novo Nordisk A/S, serving three years as its EVP & General Counsel in Denmark and five years as EVP for North America and President, Novo Nordisk of North America. Mr. Penner was previously Vice President for Legal and Regulatory Affairs of Novo Industries A/S in the US, and prior to that an attorney with Boehringer Ingelheim. Mr. Penner has served as Chair of the Connecticut Technology Council, as Co-Chair of CURE, Connecticut’s Bioscience Cluster, and Vice Chair of the Board of Governors of Higher Education in Connecticut. He also serves on the Board of Directors of four bioscience companies, Avant Immunotherapeutics, Genaissance Pharmaceuticals, Packard BioScience, and BioStratum. He holds academic degrees from University of Virginia (BA), Fordham University (JD), and New York University (LLM).

Matthew S Lawrence, Co-Founder and CEO of RxGen

Dr. Lawrence is a co-founder of RxGen and is responsible for directing the company’s research activities and guiding and prioritizing scientific initiatives. In this capacity he coordinates scientific interactions with collaborating investigators and sponsoring institutions and oversees strategic planning to meet study objectives. He was recruited to this position for his unique research and clinical background, and over twenty years experience working at the primate research facility. Prior to joining RxGen, Dr. Lawrence completed an ophthalmology residency at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, an internal medicine residency at the University of Hawaii, and a medical degree at Yale. After completing a BA in biology and geology at Harvard, Dr. Lawrence received a Ph.D. in Neuroscience at Stanford University, conducting research related to in vitro and in vivo gene delivery and neuronal injury. Following his doctoral work and through his subsequent career Dr. Lawrence has continued to work in the fields of gene therapy, neurodegenerative disease, ophthalmology and metabolism. He has been awarded multiple small business innovation research (SBIR) grants and holds an adjunct position in the Section of Comparative Medicine at Yale School of Medicine