Tachyon Board of Directors

Jonathan MacQuitty, PhD

Chairman

Dr. MacQuitty has over three decades of experience in the life science and healthcare sectors. He currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Personalis, is on the board of directors and is Chief Executive Officer of D2G Oncology, Inc., and is a Venture Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. Prior to these roles, Dr. MacQuitty served as Chief Executive Officer of Forty Seven, Inc., an immuno-oncology company, was a Partner at Abingworth Management Inc., a trans-Atlantic bio-investment firm, and was founding Chief Executive Officer of GenPharm International, a biotech company developing a human sequence antibody platform. Dr. MacQuitty holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Sussex and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Mike Clarke, MD

Founder

Dr. Clarke is the Karel and Avice Beekhuis Endowed Professor in Cancer Biology and the Associate Director of the Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. Dr. Clarke is a board-certified Medical Oncologist. Dr. Clarke is an expert in the field of stem cell biology and has published more than 100 peer reviewed papers in journals including Nature, Science, Cell and the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Clarke identified the first molecular pathway that regulates the maintenance and production of adult stem cells and was the first to identify and characterize cancer stem cells in solid tumors. He has much experience in startups and has been an academic founder of three successful early stage companies: Oncomed Pharmaceuticals, Quanticel Pharmaceuticals and AASTROM biosciences. Oncomed was acquired by Mereo Biopharma and Quanticel was acquired by Celgene. Dr. Clarke received his medical training at Indiana University Medical Center as well as the University of Missouri Medical Center and has held academic appointments at the NIH.

Frank Perabo, MD, PhD

Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Perabo is a Life Science Executive and Entrepreneur with over 20 years R&D experience in Pharma and Biotech. He has founded and co-founded several Biotech companies (Barricade Therapeutics, MAIA Biotechnology).  He has also served as Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President of Development of ESSA Pharmaceuticals and Executive Director at Astellas Pharma where he was instrumental in the development and worldwide approval of XTANDI® (Enzalutamide).  Dr. Perabo has a proven track record in leading successful early and late-phase clinical development programs with extensive regulatory interactions globally. Dr. Perabo obtained his medical training at the Universities of Munich, Freiburg and Bonn after graduating magna cum laude from medical school at the University of Munich, with a Ph.D. in Cancer Biology.

JEFFREY STAFFORD, PHD

Dr. Stafford has held research and executive management roles in both large pharma and privately held biotech for over three decades. He is currently the CEO and cofounder of 858 Therapeutics. Prior to that, he was the founding CSO of Quanticel Pharmaceuticals (later acquired by Celgene) where he led the development of the program which became TACH101. He also held senior scientific and management positions at Takeda San Diego, Syrrx and GlaxoSmithKline, and was founding CEO of Jecure (acquired by Genentech). Dr. Stafford has led discovery teams responsible for the discovery of three FDA-approved drugs – Votrient™ (pazopanib); Nesina™ (alogliptin); and Byfavo™ (remimazolam) – and several others in clinical trials.

JENNIFER COCHRAN, PHD

Observer

Dr. Cochran is the Addie and Al Macovski Professor of Bioengineering and Senior Associate Vice Provost for Research at Stanford University. Her research and translational interests span protein-based drug discovery and development for applications in oncology and regenerative medicine. She is a serial innovator and a named inventor on over fifty pending and issued patents. Dr. Cochran also brings extensive company formation and entrepreneurial experience, having founded several companies based on research from her academic lab, including xCella Biosciences (acquired by Ligand, now OmniAb (NASDAQ LGND and OABI) in 2020) and Combangio (acquired by Kala Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: KALA) in 2021). In 2020, Dr. Jennifer Cochran co-founded Red Tree Venture Capital and serves as the firm’s chief scientific advisor. She also serves on the board of multiple life sciences companies. Dr. Cochran obtained her Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Biological Engineering.