Leadership
Simon Kerry, PhD MBA
Chief Executive Officer
A co-founder of Curve, Simon is a life-science entrepreneur with over 30 years’ experience in leadership roles within European biotechnology companies. He has been an Operating Partner at Advent Life Sciences, a leading trans-Atlantic venture investor, since 2017.
Prior to joining Advent, Simon was CEO of cancer drug discovery company Karus Therapeutics (Oxford, UK), leading the company from spin-out to clinic. He previously led Business Development at Ablynx (Ghent, Belgium), Active Biotech (Lund, Sweden) and Isogenica (Cambridge, UK).
Following a first degree in Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry (1984), Simon began his career as a chemist at GD Searle (High Wycombe, UK). He completed a life-science PhD in 1989 and obtained an Executive MBA from Loughborough University Business School in 1995.
Professor Ali Tavassoli
Chief Scientific Officer
Ali developed the technology behind Curve’s platform and is the company’s co-founder. He is Professor of Chemical Biology at the University of Southampton. His research is focused on the development of high throughput screening platforms that enable the discovery of protein-protein interaction inhibitors, and the conversion of cyclic peptide hits into novel therapeutics.
He was President of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Chemistry and Biology Interface Division (2020-2023) and previously served as the Chair of the RSC’s Chemical Biology and Bioorganic Group (2012-2015).
Ali has won a number of awards, including the European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences’ medal for European Young Chemist (2008), the RSC’s Protein and Peptide Science Award (2017) and the European Peptide Society’s Leonidas Zervas Award (2020).
Simon Jones
Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer
Simon is an accomplished CFO with a skill set gained over 20 years of senior operational and commercial leadership roles in the life-science sector that has included significant venture fundraising and deal-making.
Before joining Curve, he was VP Finance and Operations at SpyBiotech, following a decade as Chief Financial Officer at Karus Therapeutics. During his time at Karus, Simon managed the financial operations and secured a sizeable funding round from US and EU investors, as well as investment through the UK Government’s Future Fund Scheme.
Prior to this, Simon was CFO at various early-stage life sciences companies, including Eykona Technologies and Glide Pharmaceutical Technologies.
Dr Rab Prinjha
Chief R&D Officer
Rab has spent the last 25 years building and executing R&D portfolio delivery performance. He brings deep experience in successful small molecule, nucleic acid and biopharma R&D, spanning oncology, neuroscience, immunology and epigenetics.
Prior to joining Curve, Rab was Head of the Immunology Research Unit and Immunology Network sponsor at GSK, leading the development of several clinical candidates and new targets. He previously led the Epigenetics group and was responsible for target selection and validation along with coordinating academic collaborations with leaders in the oncology, neuroscience, immunology and epigenetics therapy areas.
Rab currently holds positions on the Scientific Advisory Boards of MRC Human Genetics Unit Edinburgh and Enhance3D Genomics and is an Elected Fellow of Academy of Medical Sciences and Elected Senior Fellow Royal Society of Biology.
Dr Sally Price
Vice President of Biology
Sally brings more 20 years discovery and development experience, gained within pharma and biotech. Sally started her career at AstraZeneca, rising to Associate Director in 2011. Her career continued at the Medicines Discovery Catapult where she served as Head of Cell and Translational science, including a secondment to establish the Lighthouse Laboratory (COVID-19 testing). In 2021, Sally joined Evox Therapeutics as Senior Director of Translational Science.
Dr Richard Rathmell
Vice President of Chemistry
Rich is a seasoned medicinal chemist with 20 years’ experience gained at Eli Lilly working on early- and late-stage programmes in a range of disease areas. He has led multiple chemistry teams and has significant experience of developing drugs to the clinic. Prior to Curve, Rich spent three years within the contract services sector, including as Senior Vice President of Synthetic Chemistry at Dalriada.
Dr Rob Jepras
Vice President of Screening
Rob brings over 30 years of screening experience gained at GSK, where he worked on phenotypic drug discovery, high throughput flowcytometry and imaging. He has led several research teams, supporting drug discovery and development. Rob’s career has focused on cutting edge technologies and finding ways to apply them to aid drug discovery research. Rob is an Honorary Fellow at the University of Liverpool.
Dr Cora Griffin
Head of Business Development
Cora has over 15 years’ experience in BD & licensing, M&A, alliance management, and strategy. Before joining Curve, she was Senior Director, Anti-infectives Strategy Lead at Pfizer, prior to which she was a co-founder and Head of BD & Alliance Management at ReViral where she led the acquisition by Pfizer in 2022. Cora has held senior BD positions at DelSiTech, Orbit Discovery and Q Chip. She began her BD career at Arrow Therapeutics, a subsidiary of AstraZeneca. She is a Non-Executive Director at Collaborative Community Against Coronavirus CIC and a Board Observer at Oppilotech.
Scientific Advisory Board
Prof. Stephen Benkovic
Prof. Stephen Benkovic, Penn State University (Technology Adviser) is a highly regarded pioneer in bio-organic chemistry whose recent work has focused on the assembly and kinetic characteristics of the enzymatic machinery responsible for DNA replication and repair. He has been recognized with awards including the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science, the National Medal of Science, and the National Academy of Science Award in Chemical Sciences. He is also a member of the National Academy of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Philosophical Society, and the National Academy of Inventors.
Prof. Paul Brennan
Prof. Paul Brennan, University of Oxford (Medicinal Chemistry Adviser) is a medicinal chemist who has worked at Amgen and Pfizer, where he was Medicinal Chemistry Design Lead.
Prof. Jason Carroll
Prof. Jason Carroll, University of Cambridge (FOXA1 Adviser), based at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, is a specialist in the role of hormones and their role in gene regulation in breast cancer.
Prof. Julian Downward
Prof. Julian Downward is Principal Group Leader and Associate Research Director at the Francis Crick Institute. Julian is a world-renowned expert in the field of RAS biology. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Academy of Medical Sciences, the European Academy of Cancer Sciences, and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. He is also Executive Chairman of the British Association for Cancer.
Prof. Adrian Gill
Prof. Adrian Gill is currently Senior Vice President Discovery Chemistry at Revolution Medicines and is co-inventor of a number of Revolution’s drug candidates. Adrian has over 25 years’ drug discovery and development experience in senior roles at both large pharma and biotech, having worked previously for Roche, Astex and AstraZeneca. During his career, Adrian has been heavily involved in the identification of multiple clinical candidates across a variety of disease areas.
Prof. Adrian Harris
Prof. Adrian Harris, University of Oxford (HIF Adviser) has been the Cancer Research UK Professor of Medical Oncology in the Department of Oncology at University of Oxford since 1988 and is a Consultant Medical Oncologist at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust. Prof. Harris is a specialist in tumor angiogenesis and the role of hypoxia biology and its regulation.
Board of Directors
Dr Andre Hoekema, Chair of the Board
Dr Andre Hoekema PhD is a highly experienced biotech executive with 40 years’ industry experience. Until his retirement in 2023, Andre held senior positions including as Chief Business Officer and member of the Galapagos Executive Committee, responsible for M&A, BD and IP, where he negotiated 15 pharma drug discovery partnerships, with GSK, Janssen, Lilly, Roche, Merck, Servier, MorphoSys, Biogen, Novartis and AbbVie. He was the lead negotiator in two landmark deals with Gilead: the 2015 outlicensing of JAK-1 inhibitor filgotinib, and the $5B landmark deal in 2019. As part of the Galapagos growth strategy, Andre was a member of the team that completed the successful IPOs on Euronext (2005) and Nasdaq (2015).
He currently serves as a member of the supervisory board for Artax Biopharma (Boston, MA), Fibrocor Therapeutics (Montreal, Canada) and Mimetas BV (Leiden, Holland). He studied biochemistry and has a PhD from Leiden University, The Netherlands, has authored >30 peer reviewed articles, and is an inventor on over 20 series of issued patents.
Dr Shahzad Malik, Non-Executive Director
Dr Shahzad Malik is a General Partner at Advent Life Sciences, a leading trans-Atlantic venture investor focused on building innovative Life Sciences businesses in the UK, Europe and the USA. He joined Advent in 1999 with a strong background in science, clinical medicine, and international finance.
After gaining an MA in Physiological Sciences from Oxford University and an MD from Cambridge University, he specialized in interventional cardiology while also pursuing clinical and fundamental scientific research in heart muscle disorders.
Since joining Advent, Shahzad has been actively involved in over 25 portfolio companies in Europe and the USA in all sectors of Life Sciences, including Algeta, Respivert, Biocartis and Axonics Modulation Technologies. Shahzad currently serves on the Board of several portfolio Companies, including Acutus Medical, GMP-Orphan, Nalu Medical and Curve Therapeutics.
Dr Marie-Claire Peakman, Non-Executive Director
Dr Marie-Claire Peakman is a Partner on the Pfizer Ventures Team and an Executive Director in Worldwide Business Development at Pfizer. She is responsible for investing in early-stage biotech companies and supporting them in advancing emerging science to deliver new medicines to patients. Marie-Claire is on the Board of Directors for Curve Therapeutics, DEM Biopharma, Grey Wolf Therapeutics and Mediar Therapeutics and hold additional observer positions on the boards of Mediar Therapeutics, Capstan Therapeutics, Crossbow Therapeutics and TRex Bio.
She has 25 years of experience at Pfizer holding various leadership positions supporting small molecule discovery. As part of her former responsibilities, Marie-Claire founded and led the Primary Pharmacology Group for 13 years during which time they were responsible for the identification of nirmatrelvir (Paxlovid), abrocitinib (Cibinqo), ritlecitinib (Litfulo), and additional small molecule therapeutics that are currently in the clinic. She also has experience leading hit identification, high throughput ADME, compound management, data support and management, genetically modified models, preclinical imaging and biobanking.
Dr Robert Armstrong, Non-Executive Director
Dr Robert Armstrong is a Partner at Columbus Venture Partners, and the Chief Executive Officer, Board Member, and Co-Founder of Boston Pharmaceuticals. With over 20 years of experience working in research and development in the biopharmaceutical industry, Rob has been involved in the discovery and clinical development of programs across multiple disease areas. Rob created and led the small molecule R&D organization at Amgen in Thousand Oaks, CA. He subsequently co-led research at Lilly as Vice President of Global Medicinal Chemistry, was Head of the translational medicine group Chorus, and was Vice President of Global External R&D. He served on the finance and scientific advisory boards of Lilly BioVentures. Prior to working in industry, Rob was a tenured Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California at Los Angeles, he received his BS in chemistry at UCSD, his PhD in chemistry at CSU, and was an NIH postdoctoral fellow at Harvard.
Dr Carmine Circelli, Non-Executive Director
Dr Carmine Circelli is the Director of British Business Bank’s direct life sciences investment team, focusing on growth investments into UK companies with proprietary breakthrough technologies. He has been a life sciences venture capital investor since 2016, with prior experience in intellectual property commercialization, sales, and drug development. Carmine holds a PhD in Cardiovascular Medicine and an undergraduate degree in Pharmacology from the University of Manchester.
Dr Peter Finan, Non-Executive Director
Dr Peter Finan is a Partner at Epidarex Capital, an investor in early-stage, high-growth healthcare companies. He has more than 20 years of experience in drug discovery within the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to Epidarex, he was Global Head of the Respiratory Disease Area and Site Head for the Novartis Institute of BioMedical Research (UK); and, Executive Director of the Novartis Developmental and Molecular Pathways Platform (Cambridge, MA). Peter holds a BSc and PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Leeds.
Earlier in his career, Peter worked at Cancer Research UK and the Yamanouchi Research Institute (now Astellas) and served as the Head of Biology at Karus Therapeutics. He currently serves on the Boards of Clyde Biosciences, Enterprise Therapeutics, Leucid Bio, Epidarex Exeed, Epsilogen and Lunac Therapeutics.
Investors
Curve is backed by knowledgeable and highly respected transatlantic life-science venture firms, including Advent Life Sciences, Pfizer Ventures, Columbus Venture Partners, British Business Bank and Epidarex Capital.
