Virobay

Robert Booth PhD
Founder and Chairman, Virobay; Operating Partner, TPG

Robert Booth was the driving force behind the creation of Virobay in 2006. Previously, he was Senior Vice President of Research & Development at Celera Genomics, responsible for integrating and leading Celera's therapeutic discovery and development activities with an R&D staff of about 300 people.

Robert also served in a series of executive positions at Roche for over 13 years, including Senior Vice President responsible for research and early development of inflammatory, viral, respiratory, and bone disease products.

Robert obtained his PhD in biochemistry from the University of London.

Heather Preston MD
Chief Executive Officer, Virobay; Managing Director, TPG Growth Biotech

Heather Preston co-founded Virobay in 2006 in her role as a managing director with private investment firm TPG, one of the founding investors in Virobay.    

A hepatologist by training, Heather completed an undergraduate degree in biochemistry from the University of London, a medical degree from the University of Oxford and a post-doctoral fellowship in molecular biology at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard University.

She finished her training in Internal Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital before specializing in gastroenterology and hepatology at U.C.S.F.

Heather subsequently spent five years at McKinsey & Co. in New York, where she was a leader of their pharmaceutical and medical products consulting practice. She advised large pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology companies on critical strategic issues such as R&D portfolio prioritization, M&A opportunities, new technology acquisitions, new product launches and product growth strategies.

She also spent two years at JP Morgan Partners where she focused on medical device and biotechnology venture capital investing and served as entrepreneur-in-residence with New Enterprise Associates.

Michael Green PhD
Senior Vice President, Research & Development

Michael Green has over thirty years experience in drug discovery and development. He joined Virobay from Celera Genomics, where he served as Vice President, Chemistry, overseeing medicinal, structural, computational and process chemistry.

Previously, he led chemistry teams at Axys Pharmaceuticals and Trega BioSciences. However, most of his career was spent at Schering-Plough where for over 20 years, he led the chemistry effort, first in the field of anti-allergy and anti-inflammatory drugs and then in the cardiovascular and CNS therapy area. He is the inventor of the dermatology drug, Aclovate® and he participated in the discovery of the blockbuster allergy drug, Claritin®.

Michael received his PhD in organic chemistry from The University of Sheffield, UK.

Martin Emanuele PhD, MBA
Chief Business Officer

Dr. Emanuele joined Virobay in October, 2008.  He has over 20 years experience in public and private biotech and pharmaceutical companies and brings significant partnering and business development experience to Virobay.  He has competed over 40 partnerships with regional and global sized US, European, and Asian based companies including transactions ranking among the largest completed for preclinical stage technologies.  

Previously, Dr. Emanuele was Sr. VP. Business development at Kemia Inc.  He has also held executive and senior management positions at Avanir Pharmaceuticals, CytRx Corporation and DuPont.  

Dr. Emanuele received his PhD in Pharmacology & Experimental Therapeutics from Loyola University of Chicago and and MBA from the University of Colorado.

Stacie Dalrymple PhD
Vice President, Biology

Stacie Dalrymple joined Virobay in December 2007 as Vice President of Biology.  She has more than 15 years of experience in drug discovery and early development, from validating novel targets to providing comprehensive pharmacology packages in support of Investigational New Drug filings.

Prior to joining Virobay, Stacie served as Senior Director of Pharmacology at Celera Genomics, where she was responsible for pharmacology across a variety of therapeutic areas including autoimmunity and oncology.  Previously, Stacie was a senior scientist and group leader at Roche, where she was responsible for pharmacology in the arthritis and inflammation areas. While at Roche, she also served as Preclinical Leader on the Roche Life Cycle Team for rituximab during the DANCER and REFLEX trials for rheumatoid arthritis and during the EMEA approval for aggressive non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

She received her PhD degree from The Johns Hopkins University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in immunology at DNAX research institute.

Leslie Holsinger PhD
Director, Biology

Leslie Holsinger is responsible for biology and translational medicine at Virobay having joined the company from Celera Genomics where she served as Associate Director of Cell Biology.

At Virobay, Leslie is responsible for biology and virology-related studies associated with our programs, including compound screening, mechanism of action, viral resistance studies and assessment of anti-viral efficacy in preclinical and clinical studies.  

Previously, Leslie was a Group Leader in biology at Sugen, where she was involved in drug discovery programs focused on kinase and phosphatase biology in multiple therapeutic areas.

She completed her post-doctoral studies at the Stanford Medical School having earned her PhD in virology from Northwestern University.

Jeff Dener PhD
Director, Process Chemistry

Jeff Dener manages many of the strategic partnerships that Virobay has established with leading contract manufacturers around the world, including suppliers in Europe, Asia and North America.  He is an expert in the outsourcing of medicinal and process chemistry for therapeutic areas including cardiovascular, inflammation, oncology and virology.

Before joining Virobay, Jeff was Scientific Fellow at Celera Genomics where he held an active role in both the development of process chemistry for, and management of, contract manufacturing activities for two molecules, which subsequently entered clinical trials. Prior to Celera, he was a key contributor to drug discovery and development programs at Axys Pharmaceuticals, Shaman Pharmaceuticals and Rhône-Poulenc Rorer, now part of Sanofi-Aventis.

Jeff received a BS in Chemistry from Bucknell University and obtained his PhD in Organic Chemistry from The Ohio State University under the direction of Professor David J. Hart. Subsequently, he was a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in the research group of Professor Henry Rapoport at the University of California, Berkeley.