Forging a New Path With Proven Leadership
We’re led by pioneers in the field of artificial intelligence, antibody development and cancer immunotherapies. Now they’re creating change again – together.
Our leadership team has a proven track record in the discovery, development and commercialization of groundbreaking monoclonal antibody, oncology and immunology therapies that are improving patient care. They are accomplished and deeply knowledgeable, with extensive experience at some of the most highly recognized pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Most importantly, they are committed to developing immunotherapies that benefit patients suffering from solid tumor cancers.
Aron Knickerbocker
President and Chief Executive Officer
Aron Knickerbocker is president and chief executive officer of Aulos and is a member of the board of directors. Prior to Aulos, he co-founded and served as the chief executive officer and chairman of RayzeBio, a targeted radiopharmaceutical company acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb. Previously, Mr. Knickerbocker held a variety of executive positions during 10 years at Five Prime Therapeutics, most recently as president and chief executive officer. In this role, he was responsible for licensing bemarituzumab into Five Prime, prioritizing it in the portfolio and driving its advancement into late-stage development as a first-line treatment for advanced gastric cancer, leading to Five Prime’s acquisition by Amgen. Mr. Knickerbocker also significantly expanded the clinical pipeline, established multiple transformational strategic alliances and was instrumental in taking the company public. Before Five Prime, he worked at Genentech for more than eight years as head of oncology business development. While there, he orchestrated many key collaborations, including those that led to the marketed products Venclexta®, Cotellic® and Erivedge®. Prior to Genentech, Mr. Knickerbocker worked in commercial development at ALZA (acquired by Johnson & Johnson), corporate development at Amgen and research at Bristol Myers Squibb. He serves as chairman of the board of KAHR Medical Ltd. and is also a member of the board of Phenomic AI.
Mr. Knickerbocker received an A.B. with honors in Biology from Washington University in St. Louis and an MBA with distinction from the University of Michigan.
Yanay Ofran, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Yanay Ofran is co-founder and chief scientific officer of Aulos. A computational biophysicist and biotech entrepreneur, his scientific work focuses on the application of artificial intelligence and computational biology to the study of genomes, diseases and drugs. As founder of Biolojic Design, Dr. Ofran developed the company’s proprietary artificial intelligence discovery platform to predict and design the interactions between antibodies and proteins. He is also co-founder and chairman of Ukko, a venture capital-backed biotech company that designs healthy and safe proteins for the food and agricultural sectors.
Dr. Ofran received a Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics and Biomedical Informatics with distinction from Columbia University and was a professor of bioinformatics and molecular research at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. He is the author of over 100 papers and patents.
Micah Pearlman
Chief Operating Officer
Micah Pearlman is co-founder and chief operating officer of Aulos. He has been a senior business and finance executive driving growth and value for over a decade. Since 2018, Mr. Pearlman has served as chief operating officer at Biolojic Design, overseeing business development and financing activities with leading pharma, biotech and venture capital firms. Prior to joining Biolojic, Mr. Pearlman was director of strategy and transformation at Teva Pharmaceuticals. In this capacity, he played a key role in forming Teva’s overall specialty medicine strategy, prioritizing its pipeline and shaping the company’s research and development initiatives. Mr. Pearlman began his career as an economist in the ministry of finance in Israel, where he served as head of the higher education and innovative industry sectors. In this capacity, he co-founded the Israel Innovation Authority, spearheaded tax incentive legislation for angel investors, and led negotiations with public and private entities. He regularly represented the minister of finance in Israel’s parliamentary and government meetings and served on investment committees and boards of several binational funds.
Mr. Pearlman earned a B.A. with honors in Economics, Philosophy and Political Science and an M.A. in Public Policy from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Leo Redmond
Chief Financial Officer
Leo Redmond is chief financial officer of Aulos and brings to the company nearly three decades of financial experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining Aulos, he was chief financial officer for Allakos, a publicly-held antibody therapeutics company. Previously, he served for 11 years as president, chief financial officer and secretary of Presidio Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Redmond also spent nearly 16 years at Genentech, where he held senior leadership positions, including senior director of finance, and served as chief financial officer and secretary for the Foundation of Biomedical Sciences. Earlier in his career, he held various financial roles at the GTE Corporation. Mr. Redmond has served as a member of Presidio Pharmaceuticals’ board of directors since 2011.
Mr. Redmond earned a B.S. in Accounting and Business Administration from the University of Kansas and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
Jim Vasselli, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Jim Vasselli is chief medical officer of Aulos and brings extensive knowledge and proficiency gained through more than 25 years leading oncology research and development projects across a broad array of tumor types and therapeutic modalities. Most recently, Dr. Vasselli served as senior vice president of clinical development at Maverick Therapeutics (now Takeda), where he progressed a conditionally active CD3 x EGFR bispecific molecule from preclinical studies to a first-in-human clinical trial. Prior to Maverick, Dr. Vasselli served as vice president of clinical research at MacroGenics, developing clinical strategy and overseeing execution of Phase I and 2 studies for multiple immuno-oncology assets, including CD3-engaging bispecifics, monoclonal antibodies and antibody drug conjugate compounds. He also spent nine years at AstraZeneca/MedImmune leading early clinical development of the anti-PD-L1 drug durvalumab and pivotal trials of the kinase inhibitor vandetanib. Dr. Vasselli began his career in academic research with 10 years at the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, in a surgical oncology fellowship evaluating IL-2 in patients with kidney cancer and melanoma and as a Basic Science Research Fellow in the NCI Urology Branch.
Dr. Vasselli received a B.A. in Engineering from Lafayette College and an M.D. from New York Medical College. He completed a general surgical residency at Morristown Memorial Hospital.
Tim Wyant, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President and Head of Early Development
Dr. Tim Wyant is co-founder of Aulos and senior vice president and head of early development. He has over 20 years of biotech and pharmaceutical experience focusing on translational research bringing drugs from preclinical studies into the clinic. Previously, Dr. Wyant served as vice president of immunology at Abpro and senior director of immunology at Curis, where he led the advancement of lead drug candidates into the clinic. He also spent 14 years at Millennium Pharmaceuticals/Takeda, where he led the translational strategy for multiple antibody and small molecule drugs, overseeing pre-Investigational New Drug activities and first-in-human studies through regulatory filings and approval. Dr. Wyant was the translational lead for Entyvio® (vedolizumab) for its worldwide approvals and the European Medicines Evaluation Agency approval lead for Adcetris® (brentuximab vedotin), an antibody drug conjugate oncology therapeutic jointly developed by Millennium/Takeda and Seattle Genetics (now Seagen).
Dr. Wyant received a B.S. in Biology from Arizona State University and a Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Arizona. He trained as a postdoctoral fellow in vaccines at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health.
Jenny Tang
Head of Clinical Operations
Jenny Tang is head of clinical operations at Aulos. She has over 10 years of clinical research and operations experience focusing on early phase development of immuno-oncology trials from the sponsor and investigational site perspective. Ms. Tang joined Aulos from Maverick Therapeutics (now Takeda) where she served as head of clinical operations and led efforts to advance a conditionally active bispecific molecule to a first-in-human clinical trial. Prior to that, she held various operational positions at Macrogenics and Genentech, where she supported early and late phase programs for monoclonal antibodies, small molecule inhibitors and CD-3 engaging bispecifics. She also has investigational site experience running clinical trials at University of California, San Francisco, in the Early Phase Unit and holding research positions at University of California, Los Angeles, investigating antibody drug conjugates.
Ms. Tang received a B.S. and M.S. in Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics from the University of California, Los Angeles.
