ABOUT US
ourtalentedteam
We're building a new kind of biopharma, together. At Endpoint Health, our rapidly growing team is united by our mission to bring new precision therapies to patients with immune-mediated diseases.
Akbar Khan
Akbar brings 25+ years of experience in the Clinical Development and Operations space. He started his career in early stage high throughput sequencing and microarray analysis focussed on new target identification. He then transitioned into Clinical Development and Operations where he held senior executive positions at companies including Quark Pharmaceuticals, Unity Biotechnology and Radius Health. During this time, he successfully led numerous teams and transitioned multiple programs from the preclinical stage through Phase 1, 2 and large, global Phase 3 clinical trials.
Foodie Father
Akbar likes to cook up new recipes (mostly made up of what he finds that day at the market!) and enjoys dining out at places that range from holes in the wall to the latest Michelin star restaurant. He enjoys traveling and running (including running 3-4 half marathons a year), but gets the most enjoyment by far from watching his 13 year old daughter grow up and get ready to conquer the world!
Ajay Duggal
Ajay is a seasoned drug developer with over 20 years experience at large and emerging pharma and biotech companies. He previously held roles at BMS, Pfizer, Genzyme, and Takeda, where as VP and Global Therapeutic Area Head for General Medicine he led their mid and late stage pipeline across a wide range of therapeutic areas and inflammatory and immunological based indications. As an experienced CMO at several early-stage biotech companies, Ajay has overseen the clinical strategy for multiple early and mid-stage assets spanning all phases of drug development, multiple therapeutic platforms and therapy areas. Ajay completed his medical undergraduate training at Sheffield University in England and spent 8 years as a practicing physician trained in internal medicine and nephrology.
Canine Lover
Ajay is a huge fan of dogs. And when he's not playing fetch, he is a regular practicer of yoga, cycling, and keeping fit to counter his love of food.
Kristen Taylor Meadows
Kristen is an Immunologist with extensive experience supporting early discovery efforts, identification and evaluation of lead clinical candidates, first-in-human studies and late-stage clinical trials. She was a member of the Receptos team (and later Celgene) that developed Zeposia® for the treatment of Relapsing MS, UC, and CD. She has also worked on clinical and discovery stage programs in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension, Asthma, Psoriasis, RA, and several oncology programs. Kristen completed her postdoctoral work in Immunology at The Scripps Research Institute, earned her PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the University of California, San Diego, and her BS in Biochemistry from the University of Arizona.
Outdoor Adventurer
Kristen lives in San Diego with her husband Mark and her two kids, Jack and Emma. When not shuttling kids all around town to their activities, she likes outdoor activities such as swimming or going on a hike. When things finally start to quiet down, her favorite activity is to find a relaxing spot to read a book!
Julie Friedman
Julie has joined Endpoint Health from Iconic Therapeutics, where she was VP of Operations, Alliance & PM. She brings 30+ years of experience at both small and large pharma/biotech companies, managing programs from lead Candidate Identification through commercial launch while at Medivation, Genentech, Takeda, and Bristol-Myers-Squibb. Julie co-led the successful filing for Medivation’s Extandi® sNDA. She also managed major alliances at Quark, Medivation and Genentech with Roche, Biocon, Astellas and Merk Serono.
Avid Traveler and Gastranome
Julie splits her time between home in the SF Bay Area and visiting friends and family all over the US and Israel. She is happiest when she is cooking for people, hiking with friends and either next to, (swimming), on (sailing) or under the water (snorkeling & scuba)!
Pamela Ha
Pam brings an extensive track record scaling Finance and Accounting infrastructure across growing enterprises, collaborative business partnering, technical expertise, and passion for mentoring others throughout her career within the healthcare industry. Her experience spans private companies, initial public offerings, and high-growth public companies. She has successfully implemented processes, controls, and systems to help guide scaling businesses. Most recently, Pam was VP of Finance at Dascena where she led finance, accounting and procurement, and helped guide the company through its acquisition. Previously, she served as Sr. Director of FP&A at Eidos Therapeutics and Corporate Controller at BridgeBio where she played a critical role in taking the company public.
Aspiring Hawaiian Local
Pam lives in the Bay Area with her husband, children, and their Shih Tzu Poodle. She loves to travel, especially to Hawaii, enjoys experiencing new cultures and food, hot yoga, and volunteering in her community. In her spare time, you will catch her binge-watching movies, documentaries, and most importantly, crime shows.
Yu Qiu
Yu is a bioinformatics scientist with extensive experience in analyzing omics data to facilitate scientific research and drug discovery. He has broad knowledge in multiple research areas and is passionate about integrating cutting-edge technologies, wet bench experiments and data analysis. Yu received his Ph.D. from University of Wisconsin-Madison and has co-authored publications in journals such as Cell and Nature Biotechnology.
Tech Enthusiast
Yu lives in central New jersey with his wife and daughter. In his free time, he enjoys running, cooking and gaming. He is also interested in the newest technologies and a big sci-fi fan.
Penny Toren
Penny joins us most recently from Vallon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. where she was the SVP of Regulatory Affairs & Program Management for Vallon’s ADAIR (abuse deterrent immediate release dextroamphetamine sulfate) and ADMIR (abuse deterrent immediate release methamphetamine sulfate) programs as well as in-licensing opportunities of other assets for their portfolio. Penny has worked on providing regulatory leadership for the development, approval, and maintenance of several products in various therapeutic areas including Amlexanox, Avandia, Copaxone, Fentora, Fragmin, Gabitrol, Genotropin, Symlin injection, and Tolteradine.
Dog Loving Kickboxing Songwriter
Penny lives in Malvern, PA, with her husband and dog Cedar. They have three children, two in college and one a professional journalist in NYC. In her free time, Penny enjoys playing various sports, plays the piano and writes music, enjoys cooking and entertaining with friends and family, and traveling.
Tiago Chedraoui Silva
Tiago is a scientist focused on algorithms development to understand (epi)genomics changes in diseases. His principal software TCGAbiolinks has more than 250k downloads and 1.5k citations. For several years, he helped analyze cancer data as part of the Genomic Data Analysis Network. He has a B.S in Computer Engineering (University of Campinas), an MEng (Telecom Paristech), and a Ph.D. (University of São Paulo) with a one-year exchange program in Cedars Sinai Hospital Center.
Ice Cream Lover
Tiago grew up in Ribeirão Preto, Brazil. He loves to explore the world and get to know new cultures. His most recent culinary adventure was making his own ice cream. His literary passion is Agatha Christie. Swimming is what makes him feel free. A theater night is always a good night.
Stephanie Nguyenthi
Stephanie is a Senior Quality Engineer at Endpoint Health. She is responsible for leading the supplier quality program and driving various quality activities to support IVD Development and Clinical Development. She is a versatile Quality professional with over 12 years experience in both Biotech/Pharmaceutical industries and has successfully implemented an electronic Quality Management Systems and external/internal audit programs in her previous roles. She is passionate about continuous improvement and is a proponent of data-driven solutions.
Yellow-Thumb Gardener
When Stephanie is not spending time with her two kids, she is reading webtoons, taking care of her tomato plants, and learning to paint by watching Bob Ross videos. She loves to experience new cultures and travels to one international location every year with her husband. Stephanie lives in Lake Forest, CA.
Diego Rey
Diego is a skilled start-up executive, engineer, and scientist with extensive experience leading research efforts to develop products that help patients and physicians overcome healthcare obstacles. Prior to co-founding Endpoint Health, Diego invented the core technology and led investigational efforts related to Roche’s antibiotic therapy guidance research and development. Prior to Roche, Diego co-founded GeneWEAVE, a diagnostics company that developed rapid tests to detect and guide therapy choice for serious infections, which was acquired by Roche in 2015.
Skateboarding Scientist
Diego lives in San Francisco, CA with his wife and German Shepherd Dog. Diego loves to skateboard, backcountry snowboard, and ski. If a meeting is within a 5-mile radius, he'll arrive on his electric skateboard.
Raymond Mei
Raymond is an experienced R&D manager with innovative product development professional experience at developing Class III in vitro diagnostic products for oncology and infectious diseases under FDA, CLIA, and CE regulations. Raymond had held development roles at Roche Molecular Diagnostics, Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics, Guardant Health, and most recently at Mammoth Bioscience. He oversees assay development and system engineering teams in developing, testing, and remedying technical engineering problems.
World Traveler
Raymond enjoys traveling. Food is the biggest part of the traveling for him. He loves going to the street market, supermarket, little boutiques and markets. He can literally spend hours just looking at strange new and interesting food items which he has never seen before. The most interesting food he ever tried is deep fried scorpion on a stick when he visited Beijing. He also enjoys meeting and learning new cultures. They are interesting, strange, provoking and always have something for him to learn.
Lijing Yao
Lijing is a computational biologist with passion to leverage her extensive bioinformatics expertise for interdisciplinary biomedical innovations, bridging novel diagnostics and therapeutics to clinical use. As research team leader at Endpoint health, Lijing leads efforts to identify biologically distinct patient subgroups, helping match targeted therapeutics to patients. Lijing received her Ph.D from University of Southern California. She has co-authored 17 publications in prestigious journals such as Nature Biotechnology, Nature neuroscience and Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Science Nerd
Lijing lives in San Jose, CA with her husband and one daughter. In her free time, she enjoys running, hiking, gardening, and raising animals such as dogs and chickens. She is also a foodie and loves a spicy challenge.
Mona Khalid
Mona Khalid is Endpoint Health’s Vice President of Portfolio Strategy and Scientific Affairs, based in London, UK. Prior to joining Endpoint Health, Mona was Vice President, Real World Evidence, Outcomes Research & Epidemiology at Galapagos, a commercial stage biotechnology company. Prior to this, she was Global Head of Evidence and Value Generation (GI) at Takeda Pharmaceuticals. She brings broad experience from across the healthcare ecosystem to Endpoint Health and was previously Vice President, Outcomes Research and Development at the International Consortium of Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM).
Culinary Explorer
Mona lives in London, UK and grew up in Toronto, Canada. In her free time, she enjoys cooking (and eating) both new and old recipies. Mona has a passion for travelling to notable culinary destinations such as the Basque Country, Japan, Italy, and France to discover world-class chefs!
Leonardo Teixeira
Leo is a master operator, scholar, and scientist with extensive experience in building and leading product development and operational efforts for companies, including Roche, ITP, and GeneWEAVE Biosciences. Leo is a co-founder, board member, and Chief Operating Officer of Endpoint Health. He leverages his dynamic interests and skill set to oversee Endpoint Health’s clinical studies, product development, and logistics efforts and guide the company towards its next groundbreaking achievement.
Endorphin Addicted, Curious Eater
Leo lives in Los Altos, CA with his wife, two children, and Luna, their Yorkshire. In his spare time, he loves to bike, run, and do any other endurance sport. Most of Leo’s travels are focused on races, food, or visiting family and friends in Brazil, and around the world.
Trang Phung
Trang Phung serves as Senior Quality Manager for Endpoint Health. In her role, Trang is responsible for implementing the company’s Quality System, creating and communicating an overall vision for quality within the company, and supporting IVD and Pharmaceutical product development. She has served in startup, emerging, and public companies, effectively developing quality and compliance infrastructure to provide novel products for Class II medical devices and CDx tests. Trang earned a Bachelor of Science from UCLA.
Novice Baker
Trang lives in San Jose, CA, with her husband and two sons. Trang enjoys baking, gardening, reading, watching K-dramas, and trying new foods in her free time. In addition, she loves to travel to new places to experience different cultures and foods.
Wellington Lucena
Wellington is a Brazilian scientist with a diverse background. Throughout his career, he studied different fields of knowledge and experienced various responsibilities in different types of business. He is driven by his passion for technology, healthcare data and research, along with his mission to make a positive impact on society.
TV Series Buff
Wellington currently lives in São Paulo, Brazil with his wife. In his free time, Wellington enjoys watching movies and TV series, mostly from sci-fi and thriller genres. He also likes to listen to classical music and to practice Kung Fu.
Tim Foley
Tim is an accomplished business development executive armed with over 20 years of deal experience. Having led transaction teams at both Takeda and Astellas for the vast majority of his career, he has recently shifted his focus to helping novel healthtech startups navigate the partnering paradigm and secure funding to drive new innovative solutions to market. Tim has an MBA from DePaul’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business with a concentration in Economics.
Suburban BBQ
Husband, father, ok golfer, and purveyor of smoked meat. Tim and family live outside Chicago with their two rescue mutts. Most of his time outside work is spent coaching his son’s baseball team, watching his daughter on the soccer pitch, or trying to squeeze in a round of golf.
Norris Abella
Norris brings 30+ years of product development experience in healthcare diagnostics. He was VP of Development for a startup in the Laboratory Information System space. He joined another startup that brought whole slide imaging to the nascent Digital Pathology market. Most recently, Norris was technical project leader at a startup that developed an IVD for detecting drug resistant bacteria. All three startups had successful exits by acquisition. Norris received his BSCS from Santa Clara University.
Bay Area Sports Fan
When not on Zoom calls, you can find Norris on the golf course continuing his quest to break 80…or hit his first hole-in-one. An avid sports fan, Norris enjoys rooting for the 49ers, Warriors and SF Giants. Norris lives in Brentwood, CA with is wife; they have two adult sons.
Cindy Adduci
Cindy is responsible for leading the Sepsis Program. She has a diverse background with expertise in Program Management, Alliance Management, Marketing, and New Product Planning. She ensures successful transitions from Preclinical Research to Phase 1-3 Clinical Development by ensuring strong cross-functional communication and buy-in to plans. Her regulatory experience spans multiple therapeutic areas with several INDs and NDAs under her belt. She is a self starter, reliable, adaptable with excellent interpersonal skills, and has a high degree of integrity.
Avid Hiker
Cindy lives in Belmont, CA with her husband and two teenagers: Peter (16) and Christine (15). In her free time Cindy enjoys hiking with friends and family. Her most notable hikes include: Half Dome, the Grand Canyon, Waimea Canyon, Hanakapi'ai Falls, Seven Sacred Pools Trail and Pinnacles National Park.
David Leonard
David brings extensive experience in growth stage healthcare companies leading external business development and internal organizational effectiveness efforts. David specializes in establishing and managing strategic partnerships, building internal operations and management systems, and designing business strategies to maximize organizational performance. He has a track record of success in leadership positions at venture-backed healthcare technology companies and as an operations and analytics consultant at Gallup and The Advisory Board Company.
Adrenaline Junkie
David lives with his wife and two young children in Chicago, IL. Often found looking for his next thrill, David's past escapades include bungee jumping over Victoria Falls, running with the bulls in Pamplona, diving with great white sharks, and countless skydiving adventures.
Mike Hoang
Mike is an accomplished business professional with a proven track record of commercializing novel, disruptive technologies across healthcare and life-science industries. His expertise ranges across hardware, software, consumables, IVD, CDx and SaMD products. He enjoys developing high-performing teams, efficient organizations and successful products that change patient lives.
Husband, Father, Gourmand, Climber
Mike enjoys hiking, rock-climbing, and sailing. He loves experiencing different cultures and exploring new foodways with friends and family. In his spare time, he relishes hanging-out with his soul-mate and daughter.
Kathleen Harding
Kathleen has over 35+ years of experience and proven success in the business world. Extensive experience in the start-up environment in all business processes and management. She takes much pride in her experience working with the former Deputy Director of the NSA and current National Cyber Director of the USA! She has been a force in business from a C-Level Senior Executive Assistant, Office Manager, Marketing, Sales, HR, Operations, General Manager to Chief of Staff.
Avid Camper and Traveler!
Kathleen is in Pacifica, CA and loves being in the outdoors! Her family's favorite past time is to camp and enjoy nature to the full. The beach is a second home and world travel is her passion. Her most cherished role has been Mother and as a "Nani" (G-ma).
Jason Springs
Jason is an accomplished start-up founder and executive with experience developing and commercializing disruptive products that tackle healthcare’s most urgent challenges. Jason co-founded and served as a board member of GeneWEAVE, a diagnostics company that developed rapid tests to detect and guide therapy choice for serious infections. Started in 2010, GeneWEAVE raised $25M in venture financing and was acquired by Roche in 2015. Prior to GeneWEAVE Jason worked at Lockheed Martin’s Aerospace and Logistics Services division.
Long Road Fan
Jason lives in San Jose, CA with his wife, two daughters, and cattle-dog Max. An amateur runner, musician and cyclist…in his pre-biotech days he once started a bike ride with his rear tire in the Pacific Ocean and finished with his front tire in the Atlantic.
