Management team
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Rob Lin serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Avista Therapeutics. He was the Founding CEO of BlueSphere Bio and is currently on the board of directors of BlueSphere Bio, Code Biotherapeutics, Avista Therapeutics, and VegaVect, Inc. Before his tenure as CEO at Avista TX, Dr. Lin led the finance and strategy team for the Global Health Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. His previous experiences also include stints at Millennium Pharmaceuticals (now Takeda Oncology) and Dean and Company as a strategy consultant. Dr. Lin earned a PhD in Genetics and an MMSc at Harvard University, as well as an MS in Chemical Engineering and a BS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. He is a CFA Charterholder and previous Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
Rob Lin, PhD, CFA
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Dr. Leah Byrne is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh, with secondary appointments in the Departments of Neurobiology and Bioengineering. Leah's work has focused on developing gene-based approaches, including viral vector-mediated gene delivery and genome editing, to interrogate the biology underlying retinal disease and treat inherited blindness. Prior to working at Pitt, Dr. Byrne attended Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, where she received a BA in Neuroscience. She was then a J. William Fulbright Fellow at Karolinksa Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. After obtaining her PhD from UC Berkeley, she held the position of Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow and a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley, and the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. During this time, she engineered next-generation AAV viruses for gene therapy in the retina, developed high throughput methods for directed evolution of viral vectors, and created therapies for inherited retinal degenerations affecting photoreceptors and RPE.
Leah Byrne, PhD
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Jane Opgaard serves as VP Operations for Avista Therapeutics. She brings over 20 years of experience across a broad range of functional areas – areas essential for establishing and growing a new corporation. Prior to joining Avista, Jane held a similar position with with BlueSphere Bio, a Pittsburgh based biotech company working on personalized cancer therapies. During her tenure with BlueSphere she helped the company grow from a tiny startup of 4 to a 50+ person enterprise with a newly expanded state of the art office and lab space. She earned her MBA from University of Washington, Seattle.
Jane Opgaard, MBA
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Miguel Betegon is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh, and serves as Senior Vice President of Innovation at Avista. He earned a BSc in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science from the University of Edinburgh and a PhD in Biophysics from UCSF working in David Agard’s lab, where he studied the molecular mechanisms of the chaperone Hsp90 through a combination of structural, biochemical and biophysical approaches. At the University of Pittsburgh, his work focuses on developing novel AAV systems and studying the proteostasis of diseased photoreceptors.
Miguel Betegon, PhD
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Molly Johnson is the Director of Data Sciences at Avista Therapeutics. She helped develop our scAAVengr pipeline. Molly is currently building the bioinformatics team and developing Avista’s pipeline. She has 10 years of bioinformatics experience. Her previous role was with New York Genome Center, developing pipelines and collaborating on projects with Cold Spring Harbor and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Her focus is pipeline development, sequencing analysis, and data management.
Molly Johnson
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Dan McCoy is our Vice President of Preclinical Programs at Avista. He earned his PhD in Molecular Biology at the University of Southern California, specializing in somatosensation and pain. Since then, he has worked in a number of startup to large pharma environments spanning broad therapeutic areas. He has particular expertise in the AAV-based Gene Therapy space having worked in it for the past 8 years.
Dan McCoy, PhD
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Christopher J. Morrison serves as Senior Vice President of CMC. Chris brings to Avista over 10+ years of direct AAV CMC experience working at a number of startups, including Dimension Therapeutics (now part of Ultragenyx), Voyager Therapeutics, Adverum Biotechnologies, and most recently Myrtelle, Inc. as Head of Technical Operations. Having worked on over 20 different rAAV therapeutic candidates to date, Chris has led the development and implementation of both early and late-stage manufacturing processes, with corresponding analytics, for products of assorted serotype and genomic construct produced by Sf9-Baculovirus, HeLa-Adenovirus or HEK293 transient transfection-based production systems. Prior to AAV startups, he began his industrial career at Pfizer, working on the downstream purification processes for various CHO based therapeutics. He holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin – Madison and a Ph.D. in Chemical and Biological Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a focus on chromatographic bioseparations.
Chris Morrison, PhD
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Joseph Cabral is our Director of External Programs at Avista. He earned his PhD in Virology at Harvard University and brings 12 years of experience in molecular virology and viral vector engineering. Joseph has led teams focused on AAV capsid engineering at Voyager Therapeutics and Biogen, and he most recently led the team at Ring Therapeutics that pioneered the first viral vector system based on a human commensal virus.
Joseph Cabral, PhD
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Julian Hassinger is the Director of Strategy and Operations for Avista Therapeutics. He is also a Senior Associate on the Translational Sciences team at UPMC Enterprises, the life sciences venture capital arm of UPMC, where he sources and conducts due diligence on investment opportunities and provides portfolio companies with strategic and operational support. Prior to joining UPMC and Avista, Julian earned his PhD in Biophysics at the University of California, Berkeley. He subsequently joined the Life Sciences practice at L.E.K. Consulting where he worked on teams that advised clients on corporate strategy, conducted market research, and performed opportunity assessments.
Julian Hassinger, PhD
Fred Powell
Scientific team
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Brett is a Senior Research Associate on the Avista Therapeutics R&D team. Brett has been able to utilize his academic degrees in Biochemistry from Washington and Jefferson College and his Masters of Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Pittsburgh in the local biotech space helping to synthesize, purify, and analyze novel therapeutics for various indications. Brett has contributed to the pre-clinical successes of Avista and is excited to have the opportunity to develop new, next generation gene therapies that can translate directly to the clinic and make a positive impact on patients.
Brett Hogle, MS
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Chelsey is a Manufacturing Associate for the Avista Therapeutics R&D team. She previously worked for 6 years in regenerative medicine doing quality control at a GMP facility. Chelsey received her bachelor’s degree in general science from The Pennsylvania State University. She is excited to have the opportunity to continue work with a company that is focused on taking gene therapies to the clinic and making a positive impact on patients.
Chelsey Duricic
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Dr. Jane Hartung is Senior Scientist at Avista Therapeutics. Prior to working at Avista, she studied the physiological and pharmacological properties of voltage gated ion channels and opioid receptors in human sensory neurons. She earned her PhD in Neurobiology from the University of North Carolina and continued her training as a postdoctoral fellow in the Pittsburgh Center for Pain Research at the University of Pittsburgh.
Jane Hartung, PhD
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Haley Janowitz is a Scientist at Avista Therapeutics. She recently earned her PhD in Cellular and Molecular Medicine from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine where her thesis work focused on regeneration of serotonergic neurons following injury in the adult brain. She has additional experience in developing novel central nervous system gene therapies through her internship at REGENXBIO. Haley is excited to apply her neurobiology background to the exciting work happening at Avista!
Haley Janowitz, PhD
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Meenu Nathan is a Master’s graduate in Biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University with a strong foundation in neurodegenerative research. During her tenure as a Graduate Researcher at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Neuroscience Department, she aided in investigating the molecular mechanisms driving oligodendrocyte progenitor cell (OPC) lineage progression, focusing on extracellular matrix gene knockouts using Cre-lox genetic models. Her work integrated advanced immunohistochemistry, bioinformatics analysis, and cutting-edge imaging techniques to uncover potential therapeutic targets for neurodegeneration. Before this, she spearheaded a biotech startup initiative aimed at developing a non-invasive therapeutic patch for Alzheimer’s disease, which enriched her passion for translational science and innovation. She is eager to bring her expertise and enthusiasm to Avista’s pioneering efforts in engineering AAV-based gene therapies for vision restoration, leveraging their sophisticated transgenic models. Beyond the lab, she is deeply committed to Bharatanatyam dance, a passion she has pursued for over 20 years, earning the honorary title “Natya Kala Tapaswi.”
Meenu Nathan
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Dr. Maryl Lambros is our Senior Scientist Bioinformatics and a PhD graduate in Systems and Computational Biology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. Dr. Lambros' work focuses on developing and implementing computational methods to help advance science and improve patients' lives. She has conducted research on gene-therapy design, metastatic cancer emergence, Escherichia coli evolutionary trajectories, and saccharomyces cerevisiae metabolic functioning.
Maryl Lambros, PhD
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Ross Pedersen is a Scientist at Avista Therapeutics. He has a PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Baltimore, MD. His previous research was in the fields of cell biology and biophysics, with a focus on cellular architecture and molecular motors. He now leverages his interdisciplinary experience to advance Avista’s efforts to understand and engineer AAV vectors for gene therapy.
Ross Pedersen, PhD
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Hannah Schriever is a Machine Learning Scientist at Avista Therapeutics. Dr. Schriever is currently applying ML models to better understand Gene Therapy efficiency. She graduated from the CMU-Pitt Computational Biology PhD Program where she focused on applying and creating new machine learning tools for Single Cell Data. Hannah’s focus is the intersection of computer science and biology where she leverages her computational training to gain novel insights and to help inform future experiments.
Hannah Schriever, PhD
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Emre Sevgen is a Senior Machine Learning Scientist at Avista Therapeutics. He then earned a PhD in Molecular Engineering from the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, where he developed new machine learning-based enhanced sampling methods for molecular dynamics with Prof. Juan de Pablo and Prof. Jeffrey Hubbell. He’s since worked on developing machine learning techniques for applications in various engineering disciplines, from materials optimization at Citrine Informatics to protein engineering at Evozyne.
Emre Sevgen, PhD
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Morgan is the AAV Packaging Specialist at Avista Therapeutics. Morgan previously worked at the University of Pittsburgh as a viral vector production specialist in Dr. Leah Byrne’s lab. Morgan received her bachelor’s degree in biology from Shippensburg University where she fell in love with genetics and later went on to get a master’s degree in human genetics from the University of Pittsburgh. Morgan is excited for the future of Avista and what we can accomplish in the gene therapy space for retinal diseases.
Morgan Sedorovitz, MS
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Cathy Su is a Bioinformatics Scientist for the Avista Therapeutics data science team. She previously worked as Computational Biologist at a cancer immuno-oncology company, developing and implementing computational pipelines for drug discovery.
Cathy did her PhD in Computational Biology at Carnegie Mellon University with Dr. Andreas Pfenning, studying the role of DNA damage in neurodegeneration and agingusing single cell genomics. She also received a concurrent Master’s degree in Machine Learning where she trained to develop and apply ML models to complex datasets to gain functional insight.
Cathy Su, PhD
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Thomas Tugwell is a Senior Scientist at Avista Therapeutics, where he works on molecular dynamics, computational protein design and machine learning workflows for AAV capsid engineering. He earned his PhD at the University of Pittsburgh under Prof. Peng Liu, where his research focused on density functional theory, molecular dynamics, machine learning, and de-novo enzyme design. He then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh with Prof. Miguel Betegon, developing integrated MD and ML pipelines and protein design strategies for AAV capsid engineering, work that he continues at Avista.
Thomas Tugwell, PhD
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Tommy Tillman is the Director of Innovation at Avista Therapeutics. He earned his PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Duke University and brings more than 35 years of experience investigating the molecular machinery that governs cell function— from lipid biogenesis and gene regulation to receptor biology and cell signaling. His research has spanned biochemistry, genetics, protein engineering, and drug discovery, blending innovative lab techniques with creative scientific problem-solving.
At Avista Therapeutics, Tommy applies his scientific expertise and broad technical background to developing new technologies for AAV-based gene therapy. Whether exploring molecular mechanisms or engineering more effective therapeutic vectors, he is passionate about translating scientific insight into meaningful innovation.
Tommy Tillman, PhD
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Lora Waybright is a preclinical project manager at Avista. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience from Allegheny College and has several years of experience helping small biotech companies innovate and advance to treating patients in the clinic. Previously, she worked in the small molecule field conducting Alzheimer's disease research, but has since transitioned to working in the AAV-based gene therapy space. Her work focuses on establishing safety, efficacy, and biodistribution data to advance Avista's novel capsids to the clinic.
Lora Waybright
Board of Directors
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Rob Lin serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Avista Therapeutics. He was the Founding CEO of BlueSphere Bio and is currently on the board of directors of BlueSphere Bio, Code Biotherapeutics, Avista Therapeutics, and VegaVect, Inc. Before his tenure as CEO at Avista TX, Dr. Lin led the finance and strategy team for the Global Health Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. His previous experiences also include stints at Millennium Pharmaceuticals (now Takeda Oncology) and Dean and Company as a strategy consultant. Dr. Lin earned a PhD in Genetics and an MMSc at Harvard University, as well as an MS in Chemical Engineering and a BS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. He is a CFA Charterholder and previous Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
Rob Lin, PhD, CFA
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Dr. Leah Byrne is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh, with secondary appointments in the Departments of Neurobiology and Bioengineering. Leah's work has focused on developing gene-based approaches, including viral vector-mediated gene delivery and genome editing, to interrogate the biology underlying retinal disease and treat inherited blindness. Prior to working at Pitt, Dr. Byrne attended Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, where she received a BA in Neuroscience. She was then a J. William Fulbright Fellow at Karolinksa Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. After obtaining her PhD from UC Berkeley, she held the position of Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow and a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley, and the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. During this time, she engineered next-generation AAV viruses for gene therapy in the retina, developed high throughput methods for directed evolution of viral vectors, and created therapies for inherited retinal degenerations affecting photoreceptors and RPE.
Leah Byrne, PhD
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Jeanne Cunicelli, a veteran venture capitalist in the life sciences industry, became president of UPMC Enterprises in January 2021. Cunicelli was a managing director at Bay City Capital in San Francisco before joining UPMC in 2017 to lead UPMC Enterprises’ Translational Sciences focus area.
As president of UPMC Enterprises, Cunicelli is leading UPMC’s efforts to commercialize its managerial and health care expertise. With a focus on improving the quality, efficiency and patient experience at UPMC, the division and its partners will then take those solutions to the broader health care market through its two focus areas, Translational Sciences and Digital Solutions.
Under Cunicelli’s leadership, the Translational Sciences team has grown to more than 20 scientific and investment professionals working to accelerate the transfer of scientific discoveries into life-changing medicines, diagnostics and devices. Based on ground-breaking research from the University of Pittsburgh and other global innovators, the team will deploy $1 billion in life sciences investments by 2024. Through its Digital Solutions group, UPMC Enterprises has started and invested in a portfolio of companies that leverages UPMC’s scale and health care insights to provide clinicians, payers and consumers with engaging technology that improves the quality and cost effectiveness of health care.Cunicelli is a member of the Board of Trustees of Carnegie Mellon University. She received an M.B.A. from the University of San Francisco and a bachelor’s degree in cognitive psychology from Carnegie Mellon University.
Jeanne Cunicelli, MBA
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Dr. Steven Altschuler serves as Managing Director of Healthcare Ventures at Ziff Capital Partners, leading the firm’s efforts in facilitating the startup and development of companies with transformative technologies. He is also the founding CEO and Board Chair of Corner Therapeutics. He previously co-founded Spark Therapeutics and served as Chairman of the Board of Directors, where he played a key role in bringing the first and only FDA-approved retinal gene therapy, LUXTURNA, to market. He formerly held chief executive positions at the University of Miami Health System and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).
Dr. Altschuler is currently on the board of Lexeo Therapeutics (NASDAQ: LXEO), 89Bio (NASDAQ: ETNB), ViaNautis, Innovative Genomic Institute and POLG Foundation. He obtained his MD and BA in mathematics and statistics from Case Western Reserve University. He completed his residency in pediatric medicine at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital and his fellowship in gastroenterology and nutrition at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and CHOP.
Steven Altschuler, MD
Founders
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Dr. José-Alain Sahel is Distinguished Professor and Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Founder of the Institut de la Vision (Sorbonne Université/Inserm/CNRS). He is a clinician-scientist conducting research on vision restoration focusing on cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying retinal degeneration, and development of treatments for currently untreatable retinal diseases. His group (alongside Botond Roska, IOB, Basel and GenSight Biologics, a start-up company he co-founded) has been conducting pioneering research into optogenetic vision restoration and documented for the first time partial visual recovery after optogenetic therapy in a blind patient. He spearheaded a novel gene therapy for Leber Hereditary Optic Neuropathy, a blinding neurodegenerative disease. He lead - alongside Daniel Palanker and Pixium Vision, a start-up company he co-founded - the clinical development of a wireless retinal prosthesis for photovoltaic vision restoration, now in clinical trials for AMD. Sahel’s team deciphered pathways of cones maintenance mediated by the endogenous protein RdCVF and developed RdCVF into a broad gene-independent neuroprotective therapy, now entering into clinical trial (with Sparing Vision, a start-up he co-founded with Thierry Léveillard).
Holding a MD from the Paris University Medical School (1980), José Sahel was a research fellow at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary-Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA and Visiting Scholar at Harvard Biological Laboratories-Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
José-Alain Sahel, MD
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Dr. Leah Byrne is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh, with secondary appointments in the Departments of Neurobiology and Bioengineering. Leah's work has focused on developing gene-based approaches, including viral vector-mediated gene delivery and genome editing, to interrogate the biology underlying retinal disease and treat inherited blindness. Prior to working at Pitt, Dr. Byrne attended Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, where she received a BA in Neuroscience. She was then a J. William Fulbright Fellow at Karolinksa Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. After obtaining her PhD from UC Berkeley, she held the position of Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow and a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley, and the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. During this time, she engineered next-generation AAV viruses for gene therapy in the retina, developed high throughput methods for directed evolution of viral vectors, and created therapies for inherited retinal degenerations affecting photoreceptors and RPE.
Leah Byrne, PhD
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Paul Sieving, MD, PhD, is Professor of Ophthalmology at the UC Davis. He is recognized internationally for his expertise in clinical conditions of genetic retinal and macular degeneration.
Dr. Sieving’s research focuses on working with patients who have genetic retinal diseases and on developing laboratory approaches to repairing injured retinal cells and tissues. He works to understand eye diseases toward developing therapies for inherited retinal dystrophies. He established the Center for Ocular Regenerative Therapy (CORT) at UC Davis Health in 2020. CORT physicians and scientists are developing gene and stem cell therapies for these conditions. He currently is conducting a human gene therapy clinical trial for X-Linked Retinoschisis (XLRS) disease. Dr. Sieving holds elected membership in the National Academy of Medicine USA, in 2006, and in the German Academy of Science in 2013. He has published more than 250 scientific papers and book chapters. He previously was Director of the National Eye Institute at NIH.
Paul Sieving, MD, PhD