Management

J. Eric Davis, J.D., President, CEO, and Director

Mr. Davis is Founder and Managing Partner of In-vivo Ventures. He is a serial entrepreneur and proven executive with a strong track record of developing venture-backed businesses based upon technology licensed from universities. Since beginning his career as a start-up executive, Mr. Davis co-founded and managed Copient Technologies, Inc., Arxan Technologies, Inc., Quadraspec, Inc., and Kylin Therapeutics, Inc. He served a variety of executive roles with these companies including President, CEO, Director, CFO, and COO. Combined these companies have raised over $50 Million in capital and employ over 150 employees. Copient Technologies was acquired by NCR corporation in 2002 and still represents a profitable division of NCR today.

Mr. Davis received his B.S. from the University of Dayton and his J.D. from Indiana

Henry Li, Ph.D., Director of Research and Development

Dr. Li brings more than 13 years experience of biopharmaceutical R&D, as well as additional years of academic research.  Dr. Li began his career working at Immusol/iTherx Pharmaceuticals, a San Diego based biotechnology company, for over 11 years, holding various R/D positions, including management positions of Director of Oncology and Senior Director of Drug development.  Dr. Li also has extensive experience in gene silencing related technologies, including RNAi and ribozyme based platforms.  He created the first randomized ribozyme library for gene inactivation.  After Immusol, Dr. Li was the Director of Research and Pharmacology at NexBio, a biopharmaceutical company focusing on novel biologic drug against pandemic influenza.  At NexBio, Dr. Li was responsible for non-clinical development of Fludase, a clinical stage candidate, and other preclinical development.

Dr. Li was trained in molecular virology and cancer research, receiving Ph.D. from University of California, Irvine, and postdoctoral training at UCLA School of Medicine.  He has been a productive researcher with expertise in cancer and infectious diseases.  He has authored more than 50 publications that include both peer reviewed research and book chapters.  He has also been awarded two SBIR grants as principal investigator.  He has edited two drug development books and is currently on the editorial board of Journal Current Signal Transduction Therapy.

Homer L. Pearce, Ph.D.

Dr. Pearce recently retired from Lilly Research Laboratories, where he served as a member of the executive leadership in discovery research. Of particular note was his tenure as vice president of cancer research and clinical investigation. At the time of his retirement, Dr. Pearce held the title of distinguished research fellow.

While he was VP of cancer research at Eli Lilly, Dr. Pearce led Lilly’s collaboration with Isis Pharmaceuticals. The relationship with Isis was to discover antisense drugs to inhibit specific gene targets associated with cancer, especially antisense compounds directed at cellular regulators of apoptosis. The Isis-Lilly relationship also looked to discover new antisense drugs in the fields of inflammatory and metabolic diseases.

In his more than 27 years devoted to cancer drug discovery at Lilly, Dr. Pearce was involved in the development of more than 25 investigational drugs which entered clinical trials for cancer, of which three have resulted in regulatory approvals and others are still in development. These drugs, which include Gemzar® and Alimta®, achieved 2005 combined worldwide sales of nearly 2 billion dollars. Another drug which advanced during this period, the molecular targeted therapeutic, enzastaurin, is now in Phase III clinical trials.

Dr. Pearce’s graduate work at Harvard – the total synthesis of picrotoxinin, which was considered to be an impossible problem by none other than the scientist who originally decoded the structure of the picrotoxinin family – remains one of the landmark achievements in the area of natural products total synthesis. What makes it even more remarkable is that it was a feat he accomplished single-handedly.

Dr. Pearce currently serves as a Board Member, Scientific Advisor, or Business Director to a number of leading research institutions, foundations and biotechnology companies. The recipient of numerous awards throughout his career, Dr. Pearce was most recently named “A Hero of Chemistry” by the American Chemical Society, for his discovery and development of Alimta®, the first drug ever approved for the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma.

Dr. Pearce received his Ph.D. in chemistry from Harvard University and his undergraduate degree from Texas A&M University