Georgia McGaughey, Ph.D.
Chair of ReSOLVE® Scientific Advisory Board
Dr. Georgia McGaughey brings more than three decades of experience in computational sciences, research strategy, and digital transformation for drug discovery. She currently advises companies on accelerating innovation through Trilligant, a consultancy she founded in 2024. Prior to this, Dr. McGaughey spent nearly 12 years at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, most recently as Vice President of the Global Data and Computational Science group and as a member of the Research Leadership Team responsible for scientific strategy and direction across the company’s portfolio. Before Vertex, she spent 13 years at Merck in roles spanning multiple therapeutic areas, including infectious diseases and neurosciences. Her work has contributed to the invention and advancement of several drug candidates and has resulted in more than 100 publications and presentations. Dr. McGaughey earned a B.S. in chemistry from Kennesaw State University and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of Georgia, followed by postdoctoral research in electronic structure theory at Colorado State University, and is also a graduate of multiple executive leadership programs at Harvard Business School.
Laurent Audoly, Ph.D.
Dr. Audoly is a serial biotech entrepreneur and senior executive in the biotech/pharma industry. He has contributed to the identification and development of multiple novel drug approvals addressing unmet medical need across multiple disease areas, generating more than $2B in annual sales (Xeljanz®, Hemangiol®, Braftovi®, Renflexis®, Brenzys®, Ontruzant®, Hadlima®). He is co-founder of Cytovia Therapeutics, a cell therapy development stage biotech focused on targeting NK cells against tumors; and founder/CEO of Parthenon Therapeutics, a precision oncology biotech focused on breaking down the tumor’s barriers that prevent immune cells from infiltrating and eliminating tumors. He also serves as a board member and advisor to a number of biotech/pharma organizations. Prior to Parthenon, Dr. Audoly was at the helm of Kymera as its founding CEO (Nasdaq: KYMR). Earlier in his career, he held positions of increasing leadership responsibilities at Pfizer, Merck, and biotech companies as CSO and head of R&D, contributing to the advancement of 21 drug candidates into and through clinical development. Dr. Audoly has completed pharma/biotech transactions worth over $3B in biobucks and raised more than $250 million. He is an inventor and authored over 70 papers and patents. He studied chemistry and pharmacology (Ph.D.) at Vanderbilt University and completed postdoctoral training at UNC/Chapel Hill and Duke University where he was the recipient of an American Heart Association Fellowship.
Christopher Bayly, Ph.D.
Dr. Bayly brings more than 30 years of experience in the use of computational chemistry methods to solve practical pharmaceutical discovery problems, encompassing a unique combination of expertise in methods development and the application to drug discovery. While at OpenEye Cadence Molecular Sciences, Dr. Bayly led the introduction and development of Binding Free Energy methods, and he is also a co-founder and advisor to the Open Force Field Initiative, a broad-based collaboration to develop next-generation small molecule and biomolecular force fields. Prior to his time at OpenEye, Dr. Bayly founded and led the computational chemistry group at Merck Frosst for 18 years. Dr. Bayly earned a B.Sc. in biochemistry from Bishop’s University, an M.Sc. in synthetic bioorganic chemistry from L’Universite de Sherbrooke, and a Ph.D. in theoretical chemistry from the University of New Brunswick, followed by a postdoctoral term with Peter Kollman at the University of California, San Francisco.
Tom Kurtzman, Ph.D.
Dr. Kurtzman is a pioneer in the exploration and determination of the structure of water in biological systems, having developed one of the earliest tools for modeling water in a binding pocket. He is a professor at Lehman College, City University of New York, where his research focuses on the development of computational methods that aid in the discovery and rational design of new drugs. Dr. Kurtzman’s honors and awards include the OpenEye Outstanding Junior Faculty Award from the Computational Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society. Dr. Kurtzman earned a B.A. in chemistry from the University of California, Santa Cruz, a Ph.D. in chemistry from Stanford University, and pursued postdoctoral research at Columbia University.
