Expert Panel: Indication Selection for Platform Companies
Join us for a panel discussion covering a challenge that almost every biotech startup will face: choosing a primary indication. AbbVie Ventures’ Danjuma Quarless will be joined by Jennifer Leeds, former head of Search & Evaluation at Novartis, and Uri Lopatin, Operating Partner at Khosla Ventures.
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About the Speakers
Jenn Leeds, PhD
Jennifer A. Leeds, Ph.D., owner of JAL Consulting, recently retired from Novartis, where she spent most of her pharmaceutical career. At Novartis, she and her team discovered a potentially novel treatment for infections caused by Clostridioides difficile and a novel monobactam antibiotic. Leeds also worked in corporate and business development, where she headed search and evaluation for Novartis on the West Coast of the U.S. and across Canada, leading in- and out-licensing deals and equity investments in biotech and serving on start-up boards.
Leeds currently serves on the ASM Finance Committee and co-chairs the AAR/Drug Discovery Task Force, working with ASM to re-engage applied microbiologists and the antimicrobial resistance community. She has served on NIH study sections, on several editorial boards and as an ASM Journals reviewer. Leeds is known for her service as a lecturer and mentor to dozens of students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty and industrial scientists.
Leeds served on the Scientific Selection Board of the Novo Ventures REPAIR Fund, an all-antibiotic investment vehicle, and has advised several antibacterial start-up ventures. Leeds is a member of the Cornell College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Alumni Board of Directors, as well as a member of the President’s Council of Cornell Women.
Uri Lopatin, MD
Uri is an Operating Partner at Khosla Ventures, where he focuses on biotech and life sciences.
Prior to KV, Uri was the founding CEO of Pardes Biosciences (NASDAQ:PRDS), a biotech focused on utilizing reversible-covalent chemistry to develop small molecule oral antivirals for the treatment and prevention of SARS-CoV2 infections. Uri led Pardes from conception through phase 1 and its public listing via SPAC.
Before Pardes Biosciences, Uri was a visiting group partner at Y Combinator where he focused on their biotech portfolio companies. This followed his role as founder and Chief Medical Officer at Assembly Biosciences (NASDQ:ASMB) an antiviral company developing novel therapies for chronic HBV. Prior to his entrepreneurial endeavors, Uri ran clinical and translational programs at Schering-Plough, Roche, and Gilead Sciences.
Uri holds a bachelor’s degree cum laude in biology from Cornell University. He obtained his MD from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of NJ – NJ Medical School; completed his internal medicine training at the University of Washington and New York University Medical Center; and his board certification in Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health where his research focus was on viral mucosal immunology.
Danjuma Quarless, PhD
Danjuma Quarless, Ph.D., MBA, serves as an Associate Director at AbbVie Ventures, where he specializes in early-stage biotech investing and ecosystem engagement. Relocating to San Francisco in 2023, he has played a key role in reinvigorating AbbVie’s West Coast venture presence, including his involvement as a board observer for Ambagon and Light Horse. Danjuma’s career at AbbVie began in the Genomics Research Center as a computational biologist, where he spearheaded analytics for major population genomics projects including the UK Biobank and Genomics Finland. His experience expanded through strategic leadership training with rotations in search and evaluation, alliance management, and financial decision modeling. Danjuma holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from UC San Diego and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
