Joe Budman is the Vice President of Biology at Vicinitas Therapeutics. Prior to joining Vicinitas, Joe was previously Senior Director, Biology and Pharmacology at Theravance Biopharma, where he led the in vitro pharmacology group as well as the company’s Ophthalmology research program. His team defined, developed, executed, and optimized key experiments in the research critical path and performed detailed pharmacologic characterization of molecules for IND submission. These efforts led to the discovery of numerous development candidates and clinical compounds across various therapeutic areas and target classes. he strives to develop a strong quantitative understanding of drug and pathway pharmacology for all of his projects. He is an experienced drug hunter with a technical background in biochemistry, molecular pharmacology, and cell/molecular biology. He is a biology and project team leader with over 20 years of diverse experiences from small molecule drug discovery to early clinical development.
Joe received his PhD from Stanford, where he investigated DNA repair by non-homologous end-joining with Professor Gilbert Chu in the departments of Biochemistry and Oncology. Prior to his graduate studies, he worked on understanding the substrate specificity of signaling molecules in Lewis Cantley’s lab at Harvard. Joe received his Bachelor of Science degree from MIT.
Tyzoon Nomanbhoy is the Vice President for Chemical Biology at Vicinitas Therapeutics. Prior to joining Vicinitas, he was the Senior Director for Drug Discovery and Proteomics at ActivX Biosciences. In this capacity, he was responsible for establishing and subsequently overseeing the KiNativ platform, a chemoproteomics-mass spec platform designed to profile inhibitors against native protein and lipid kinases. This platform was used to support the development of kinase inhibitors both internally at ActivX, and globally by the Biopharma industry and academia.
Tyzoon holds his Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology at Cornell University under the guidance of Professor Richard Cerione, after which he worked as a Postdoctoral Associate at Scripps Research with Professor Paul Schimmel.
Adam Hughes is the Chief Scientific Officer at Vicinitas Therapeutics and previously served as the company's Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry. Prior to joining Vicinitas, Adam was Head of Chemistry at Terray Therapeutics and Executive Director of Medicinal Chemistry at Theravance Biopharma. With over 23 years of experience in small molecule drug discovery, he has been directly responsible for leading multiple preclinical research programs from inception to clinical candidate nomination, as well as supporting IND-enabling studies and filings.
At Terray, Adam led the Chemistry team, prioritizing and enabling new reactions for the company’s bead-based DNA-encoded-library platform, optimizing library hit syntheses and building Medicinal Chemistry capabilities. In addition, he was part of the management team, implementing drug discovery initiatives and guiding the platform’s application towards lead optimization.
At Theravance Biopharma, Adam directed new discoveries and nominations of 11 clinical candidates across a wide range of biological targets and therapeutic areas with high unmet medical needs, including the discovery of a first-in-class dual pharmacology bronchodilator, Batefenterol, for the treatment of COPD, which completed Phase 2b studies. He was also responsible for leading an Exploratory Science R&D effort to identify and nominate new projects for Theravance’s portfolio.
Adam holds his BSc in Chemistry (Henry Forth Prize) from the University of Nottingham and continued there to complete his PhD in Organic Chemistry under the guidance of Professor Nigel Simpkins. He completed his academic training after winning one of four Glaxo Wellcome Fellowships, conducting Post-Doctoral Research under the guidance of Professor Barry Trost at Stanford University. He is an author on over 50 publications and patents.
Christian Hofmann is the CEO of Vicinitas Therapeutics. He brings more than two decades of biopharma strategy and business development experience across all stages of development to Vicinitas. Prior to joining, he was the Chief Business Officer of Lycia Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on extracellular protein degradation. There, he was responsible for company strategy, business development, and operations. He negotiated the company’s multitarget partnership with Eli Lilly and Company. Prior to Lycia, Christian was a member of the partnering group at Roche/Genentech, where he negotiated several licensing and collaboration agreements. Prior to Genentech, he held business development and portfolio management positions of increasing responsibility at several startups and Roche Diagnostics. He started his business career as a consultant at McKinsey & Company in the pharmaceuticals and medical device practice, both in Europe and the U.S.
Christian holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley and a B.S. degree in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry and Applied Physics from Yale University.
Janet Awaya is the Vice President, Finance. She brings over 16 years of experience in accounting and finance operations. Prior to joining Vicinitas, she was the Senior Director, Finance at Pionyr Immunotherapeutics (acquired by Ikena Oncology), a clinical stage biotechnology company, where she established and led the accounting and finance function during a period of transformational growth.
Janet began her career in public accounting and is a certified public accountant. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Accounting from San Francisco State University.
