Leadership

Marcelo is the President and CEO of Ventus Therapeutics, and has extensive experience in neurology. He has published over 330 peer-reviewed papers in the field of neurology, as well as five books. He has been recognized by the American Academy of Neurology with the Harold G. Wolff Award for excellence in research in neurology.

Marcelo has over 15 years of pharmaceutical experience spanning R&D, medical affairs, and scientific affairs. Prior to Ventus, he was CMO and CSO at Teva Pharmaceuticals, leading the team that developed fremanezumab (Ajovy) for several forms of migraine, as well as deutetrabenazine (Austedo) for the treatment of Huntington's disease and Tardive Dyskinesia, as well as other medicines in neurology, psychiatry, pain, and respiratory diseases approved in the US, Canada, and EU.

Prior to his work in the pharmaceutical industry, Marcelo was a faculty member at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Department of Neurology, as well as the Director of Research at New England Center for Headache and Director of Research at Montefiore Headache Center.

Michele is the Chief Development Officer of Ventus Therapeutics. Michele holds a Ph.D. in immunology and has 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical development with 8 drug approvals and over a dozen initial INDs.

Prior to Ventus, Michele was VP of Regulatory, Quality, and Project Management at Medivation, where she led the NDA of enzalutamide in prostate cancer. She then joined Labrys Biologicals as the VP of Regulatory and Quality and was critical to the development of Fremanezumab (Ajovy). After Labrys, Michele worked at Portola Pharmaceuticals as VP of Program Management and Clinical Development Operations. In this capacity, she built the Development Operations organization (program management, medical writing, clinical operations, and biometrics), leading to the US approval of the Factor Xa inhibitor, betrixaban, and the Factor Xa reversals agent, andexanet alfa, for which she was Project Team Lead. She also supported the development of cerdulatinib, a dual syk-jak kinase inhibitor. More recently, she was the Chief Development Officer at Nuvation Bio.

Michele earned her Ph.D. in Molecular Immunology from UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Michael is the Chief Scientific Officer of Ventus Therapeutics. He brings to Ventus more than 18 years of drug discovery leadership experience, which includes deep expertise in the fields of respiratory, immunology, and fibrotic disease drug discovery.

Prior to Ventus, Michael was an entrepreneur-in-residence at Versant Ventures where he played an instrumental role in the formation of Ventus. Prior to joining Versant, he held the position of Executive Director and head of late immunology drug discovery and fibrosis research at Celgene where he led preclinical drug discovery in Immunology and Inflammation. Prior to Celgene, Michael was Director of research for tissue injury and fibrosis at Biogen. He spent much of his early career working at Merck & Co as a Director in the respiratory and immunology department.

Michael has a B.Sc. in biochemistry from the University of Western Ontario and a Ph.D. in molecular and medical genetics from the University of Toronto, working in the lab of Dr. Lap-Chee Tsui and the Hospital for Sick Children. Michael conducted his postdoctoral studies at the Amgen Institute (PMH), where he made seminal discoveries in cardiovascular and reproductive biology.