Chief Executive Officer and
Chairman of the Board
President and Chief Medical Officer
Chief Financial Officer and
Chief Operating Officer
Head of Neuroinflammation Platform
Chief Business Development Officer
Vice President of Regulatory Affairs
We are a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing proprietary new therapies to enhance the function of regulatory T cells. We are currently developing our multi-modality Treg therapies for neurodegenerative, autoimmune, and metabolic diseases.
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Howard co-founded Nicoya Health in 2020 to realize the vision and research of Dr. Stanley Appel and merged the company with Coya Therapeutics in 2021 where he currently serves as Chairman and CEO.
He has over 18 years of entrepreneurial and industry experience working at the interplay of science and business. His experience offers him a unique combination of business acumen and scientific credibility with the ability to assess, quantify, and bridge both disciplines.
Howard gained corporate experience with increasing responsibilities and positions as a Medical Science Liaison at AbbVie where he spent 7.5 years launching Venetoclax in CLL and later, supporting numerous solid tumor assets. He also served in leadership roles at Novartis Pharmaceuticals and later Eli Lilly where he was the scientific point of contact between the company and key opinion leaders for development and initiation of collaborations, clinical trials and investigator initiated trials.
Howard began his career at MD Anderson Cancer Center in the technology transfer division where he was responsible for assessing the market, patent, and scientific merits of numerous oncology-based technology platforms in order to ascertain their commercial viability He received a Bachelor in Biology from the University of Michigan and a Masters and Ph.D. in Neuroscience and Pharmacology from Weill Cornell Medical School.
President and Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Hepner has over 30 years of global experience in clinical research and drug development, including the development and implementation of the clinical and regulatory strategy for several products from early stage through successful New Drug Application (NDA) and EU regulatory filings and approvals. Dr. Hepner’s pharmaceutical industry experience includes over 20 years of elevating leadership roles in drug development. He previously served as Chief Medical Officer and Head of R&D at Pharnext and Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Eagle Pharmaceuticals. He has also held the positions of Vice President of Clinical Research at Avanir Pharmaceuticals, where he had a critical role in the development and approval of Nuedexta, a first-in-class product for the treatment of pseudobulbar affect, Vice President of Clinical Research and Medical Affairs at BioDelivery Sciences International (BDSI), where he led the regulatory process for the first buccal film approved for the maintenance treatment of opioid dependence. In addition, he had a critical role in the commercial launch of the product. Prior to BDSI, Dr. Hepner was senior medical director at UCB BioSciences, Inc., where he was responsible for global development projects in the central nervous system therapeutic area and led global clinical research projects in Latin America for Teva Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Hepner has authored multiple publications, holds several patents and spent 17 years as a practicing physician specializing in neuropsychiatry. Dr. Hepner completed visiting research physician experiences in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, the Department of Neurology at the National Institute of Mental Health, and a post-doctoral fellowship in neuropharmacology at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Hepner received his M.D., and Ph.D., from Universidad de Buenos Aires.
Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer
David S. Snyder brings to Coya Therapeutics over 25 years’ experience as the CFO of public and high growth companies. Prior to joining Coya, Mr. Snyder served as the CFO of DisperSol Technologies, LLC and its wholly owned subsidiary Austhera BioSciences, Inc. DisperSol and Austhera are currently advancing two late-stage, small molecule drugs through the clinic and are using their proprietary KinetiSol platform to build a pipeline of NCEs. Prior to joining DisperSol/Austhera, from 2014-2020 Snyder was the CFO of Exicure, Inc. (Nasdaq: XCUR) a company developing nucleic acid therapeutics. From 2008 to 2014, he was the CFO of Cellular Dynamics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ICEL) a company developing ipsc-based stem cell tools and primary cell therapeutics. From 2007-2008, Mr. Snyder served as Senior Vice President of Finance, Site Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Roche NimbleGen. Prior to 2007, Snyder was CFO of companies in real estate, software, and manufacturing. Early in his career Mr. Snyder worked for financial and real estate investor Sam Zell. He received his BA summa cum laude from Ottawa University and his M.B.A. with high honors from the Harvard Business School, where he was designated a George Fisher Baker Scholar.
Head of Neuroinflammation Platform
Aaron joins Coya to lead its Neuroinflammation Program and is responsible for developing and testing novel therapeutics that target inflammatory mechanisms which lead to disease pathogenesis. Aaron retains his position as Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Neurology at the Houston Methodist Neurological Institute, Johnson Center for Cellular Therapeutics, working closely with Dr. Stanley Appel (Coya Scientific Advisory Board), who is renowned for his discovery of Tregs as a treatment for inflammation in neurodegenerative diseases. Aaron’s transformational work includes elucidating neuroinflammatory mechanisms of neurodegenerative disease (ALS, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, etc.) and developing therapeutic approaches to modulate or halt the progression of these devastating diseases. He completed his postdoctoral training with Dr. Appel at the Houston Methodist Neurological Institute, having received his Ph.D. from the University of Alabama at Birmingham at the Center for Neurodegeneration and Experimental Therapeutics. Aaron received his B.S. in Biomedical Science from Texas A&M University.
Arun Swaminathan, Ph.D., has over 20 years of hands-on healthcare business executive experience with an emphasis on corporate and business development, strategy, and finance. He possesses a
demonstrated history of prospecting, evaluating, structuring, and closing company validating
transactions that augment both organizational and shareholder value.
Prior to joining Coya, Arun served as Chief Business Officer (CBO) for Actinium Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: ATNM) where he was responsible for all business development. Within 1 year of joining Actinium, he successfully moved forward negotiations to closure and executed a $452M deal with $35M upfront. Prior to Actinium, he was the CBO at Alteogen (196170.KQ) where he spearheaded over $6B in deals, including deals with two of the top 10 global pharma companies and a $1B+ deal within the first year of assuming the role of CBO. Prior to this, he co-founded and served as CEO of Lynkogen Inc, a pre-clinical stage biotech.
Arun began his career in clinical development and commercial roles of increasing responsibility at
BristolMyers Squibb and Covance. He obtained his Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Pittsburgh.
Vice President, Regulatory Affairs
Mr. Centanni has over 25 years of regulatory and product development experience, with a focus on biologic products. Prior to Joining Coya, he headed the Advanced Therapy Product Development team at Cardinal Health Regulatory Sciences. In this role, he served as the lead regulatory consultant for several biotech companies developing a wide range of Advance Therapy Products (autologous & allogeneic therapies, regenerative medicine products, and other immunomodulatory biologics). Mr. Centanni also served as the Vice President of Regulatory Affairs at Neurona Therapeutics, where he led the regulatory efforts in the development of stem cell therapy products for neurologic disorders. Prior to joining Neurona, he headed the regulatory program for biologics in support of AxoGen’s peripheral nerve tissue regeneration platform.
Mr. Centanni served as a Faculty Associate and Director of the IND/IDE Consultation Team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he provided FDA regulatory affairs support across campus to facilitate the success of numerous investigational new drug (IND) applications and associated IND-enabling studies leading to active early phase clinical trials for new therapies. Key areas of activities include providing regulatory affairs support for the Waisman Biomanufacturing Facility and serving as a faculty member of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Master’s in Biotechnology Program.
Additionally, Mr. Centanni is an accomplished molecular and cellular biologist having led multi-million dollar federally funded clinical and translational research projects at the capacity of Principal Investigator. He has an established track record as it relates to scientific publications and generation of intellectual property as an inventor with an extensive patent portfolio.
Mr. Centanni received his M.S. in Biomedical Science from Hood College, Fredrick, Maryland and his B.S. in Biology from University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.
VP of Operations and Patient Advocacy
Daniel Barvin Joined Coya in 2021. Prior to joining Coya, Daniel spent his time as an advocate fighting for awareness and the rights of Presymptomatic Familial ALS patients. He started the first ever Familial ALS focused team through his work at I AM ALS. During this time, Daniel interacted with presymptomatic patients, researchers, pharma executives, and advocacy organizations. In addition, Daniel has held operations and design positions at Morgan Stanley, Dril-Quip and GE. Daniel received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Case Western and his M.B.A from Rice University.
Head of Biotherapeutics and Medicinal Sciences at Biogen
As head of Biotherapeutics and Medicinal Sciences at Biogen, Dr. Villalobos is responsible for the delivery of high-quality, differentiated drug candidates that advance through the clinic to become transformative medicines. Additionally, she has built a new gene therapy unit, setting the initial direction of effort including hiring the first team.
Prior to Biogen, Dr. Villalobos was at Pfizer for 28 years where she most recently served as Vice President of Medicinal Synthesis Technologies and Neuroscience Medicinal Chemistry. As the leader of several medicinal chemistry groups throughout her tenure at Pfizer, Dr. Villalobos’ teams delivered more than 30 candidates which showed increased survival to the clinic. Noteworthy were clinical candidates to combat Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, depression, insomnia, and stroke. Among other accomplishments, she contributed to the design and discovery of CP-118,954 (icopezil), an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, which was advanced to Phase II clinical trials for Alzheimer’s disease. This candidate became part of the agreement that led to the successful co-promotion of Aricept by Pfizer and Eisai. Dr. Villalobos has also championed new scientific directions that have improved design practices in medicinal chemistry including the Central Nervous System Multi-Parameter Optimization (CNS MPO) design tool and a novel PET ligand design and discovery approach.
Dr. Villalobos obtained her B.S. in Chemistry at the University of Panama and her Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Kansas where she was a Fulbright-Hayes fellow. She was a National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University in synthetic organic chemistry for two years.
Chief Technical Officer at Prime Medicine
Ann Lee is currently the Chief Technical Officer at Prime Medicine, Inc. She was previously SVP and Head of Cell Therapy Development and Operations (CTDO) at Bristol Myers Squibb from 2019 to July 2021 where she was responsible for developing new cell therapy processes and technologies, manufacturing cell therapy products, designing new facilities, and building the global supply chain to deliver these new medicines for patients. Previously, she served as Executive Vice President of Technical Operations at Juno Therapeutics, which was acquired by BMS via Celgene. Prior to Juno, Dr. Lee joined Genentech in 2005, and she became SVP, Genentech and Head of Global Technical Development at Roche in 2009. She was responsible for developing and delivering all clinical stage products in Roche’s global pipeline, as well as technology transfers and technical support for all commercial products. Earlier, she was at Merck & Co., where she led and developed new vaccines and technologies in R&D, and then was responsible as VP for process engineering and technical operations at 10 chemical sites around the world. Over the course of her career, she has contributed to the development of hundreds of new investigational drugs, and the licensure and commercialization of 25 new vaccines and medicines, with the most recent being two new CAR-T cell products for blood cancers.
Dr. Lee has authored over 40 scientific publications and holds several patents. She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, and member of the Washington State Academy of Sciences. She serves on the Board of Directors for American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Alliance of Regenerative Medicine, and JW Therapeutics. She earned her undergraduate degree from Cornell University and a masters and Ph.D. in Biochemical Engineering with a concentration in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale University.
Chief Medical Officer at Prothena
Dr. Garren has 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, spanning all aspects of novel drug development from discovery, to early-stage clinical trials, to late-stage clinical trials, to commercialization. He currently serves as the Chief Medical Officer for Prothena, a late-stage clinical company with expertise in protein dysregulation, focusing on rare peripheral amyloid and neurodegenerative diseases. From 2013 to 2020, he served as VP, Global Head of Neuroimmunology for F. Hoffmann-La Roche (Roche) & Genentech Inc., where he led the teams that conducted the Ocrevus® Phase III trials for multiple sclerosis and Enspryng™ Phase III trials for the rare disease neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder. Previously, Dr. Garren served as Executive Director, Translational Medicine Expert in neuroscience for Novartis Pharma.
In 2002, Dr. Garren co-founded Bayhill Therapeutics, centered on a novel therapeutic platform for treating autoimmune diseases that he co-discovered while at Stanford University, and served as Executive VP, Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Operating Officer. He served as adjunct clinical faculty in the Department of Neurology at Stanford University from 1997 to 2009. Dr. Garren earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the California Institute of Technology and his M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of California Los Angeles.
Chief Financial Officer at BioAge
Dr. Goldstein brings over 20 years of strategic financial and operational experience within the healthcare sector. He currently serves as the Chief Financial Officer at BioAge.Previously, he was the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer of Indapta Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on developing and commercializing a proprietary, off-the-shelf, allogeneic FcRy-deficient natural killer (G-NK) cell therapy to treat multiple types of cancer. Dr. Goldstein was previously Chief Executive Officer of RIGImmune. Prior to that he served as the Chief Financial Officer at Schrödinger, LLC from 2017 to 2018. Dr. Goldstein held various leadership roles at Aisling Capital, a private investment firm, from 2006 to 2017, serving as its Managing Partner from 2014 to 2017. Dr. Goldstein served as the Chief Financial Officer of Loxo Oncology, Inc. between 2014 and 2015. From 2000 to 2005, Dr. Goldstein served as Chief Financial Officer of Vicuron Pharmaceuticals, Inc., raising over $250 million in equity financings, facilitating company partnership transactions and participating in the M&A process when Vicuron was acquired by Pfizer, Inc. for $1.9 billion. Prior to joining Vicuron, he was Director of Venture Analysis at HealthCare Ventures.
Dr. Goldstein currently serves on the board of Directors of NeuBase Therapeutics (Nasdaq: NBSE) and Gain Therapeutics (Nasdaq: GANX). He previously served as a director for ADMA Biologics, Loxo Oncology, Esperion Therapeutics, Duranta Therapeutics, Cempra and a number of private companies. He received a Bachelor of Science in biological sciences from Stanford University, an MBA from Columbia Business School and an M.D. from Yale School of Medicine.
Member – National Academy of Sciences
Member – National Academy of Sciences
Dr. Steinman is a professor of neurology and neurological sciences, pediatrics, and genetics at Stanford University Medical School and a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine. He is a renowned expert on neuroinflammation and was senior author on the seminal 1992 Nature article that reported the key role of a particular integrin in brain inflammation, leading to the development of the drug Tysabri. He is the recipient of the John Dystel Prize from the American Academy of Neurology and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society for his research on MS, the Charcot Award from the Multiple Sclerosis International Federation, and the Anthony Cerami Award in Translational Medicine from Molecular Medicine.
Director of the Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Institute
Professor in Residence at UCLA
Consulting Professor at Stanford Univeristy
Director of the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy and Professor at Baylor College of Medicine
Peggy and Gary Edwards Distinguished Endowed Chair for the Treatment and Research of ALS, Co-Director of the Houston Methodist Neurological Institute
Dr. Stanley Appel is the Peggy and Gary Edwards Distinguished Endowed Chair for the Treatment and Research of ALS, Co-Director of the Houston Methodist Neurological Institute, Chair of the Stanley H. Appel Department of Neurology, Houston Methodist Hospital and Professor of Neurology at Weill Cornell Medical College. He is also Director of the MDA/ALSA ALS Research and Clinical Center at the Houston Methodist Neurological Institute. Dr Appel’s seminal research documented the intimate relationship of neurodegeneration and ALS progression with dysfunctional and decreased levels of Tregs. He is also renowned for his discovery of cryopreservation of Tregs, demonstrating the ability to expand, freeze and re-thaw Tregs, while maintaining viability and suppressive function. Dr. Appel is a member of numerous professional societies and committees and has authored 15 books and over 440 articles on topics such as ALS, neuromuscular disease, Alzheimer’s Disease, and Parkinson’s Disease.
