Leadership
Meet the VasoRX Team
VasoRx has a first-class managerial and advisory team consisting of experienced professionals in healthcare and business.
LEADERSHIP
Kris Zsebo
CEO and Board Member
Dr. Zsebo is a biopharmaceutical veteran with 39 years of experience in the Biotechnology industry and has been involved in numerous successful ventures. She is CEO and co-founder of VasoRx. Prior to VasoRx, she was CEO & President of Celladon Corporation, for 11 years and took the company public. She was also an Entrepreneur in Residence at Enterprise Partners Venture Capital. Dr. Zsebo also headed the Biopharmaceutical and Implant Division of ALZA Corporation, where she was responsible for the division which developed and filed the NDA for Viadur®, an implantable drug/device for prostate cancer patients. At Cell Genesys, where she was Executive Vice President of Research and Product Development, she managed the Xenotech division where Xenomouse was developed. It was spun off to become Abgenix, one of the most successful biotech companies. Earlier in her career, Kris spent eight years at Amgen in research and product development where she worked on the discovery of NEUPOGEN®, as well as Stem Cell Factor, and various aspects of EPOGEN® development. Dr. Zsebo received a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Maryland, a M.S. in Biochemistry and Biophysics from Oregon State University and a PhD in Comparative Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of California, Berkeley.
Rebecque Laba
VP of Finance and Administration
Rebecque laba, VP Finance & Administration Ms. Laba has served as our Vice President Finance and Administration since November 2020. She has over 25 years of experience in biotechnology serving in executive roles with direct oversight of finance and accounting, business operations, and corporate governance, among others. Ms. Laba was Vice President Finance and Corporate Operations at Celladon Corporation where she led the company through an IPO. Prior to Celladon she held senior roles at Idun Pharmaceuticals having a lead role in its acquisition by Pfizer. Ms. Laba has raised over $350MM in private and public equity, and debt financings and has participated in multiple M&A transactions.
Mark Tracy, PhD
CMC Development Lead
Dr. Tracy is a specialty biopharmaceutical consultant specialized in product development plans (with a CMC-focus) for novel nucleic acid medicines including siRNA, mRNA, and DNA, peptides, small and large molecule sterile injectables, and other complex drug. Dr. Tracy is known internationally for developing innovative first-in class complex injectable and nucleic acid therapeutics. Dr. Tracy played a key role in developing Onpattro®, the first RNAi therapeutic approved by the FDA, EMA and other regulatory agencies worldwide. He also developed several complex injectable sustained release products that have been commercialized including Vivitrol®, Bydureon®, and Nutropin® Depot, which was the first long acting protein product approved by the FDA. Dr. Tracy has extensive experience in the development of nano and microparticle-based products and other sterile injectable formulations from research through IND filing and commercialization. Dr. Tracy is a Past-President and Fellow of the Controlled Release Society and a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
Dr. Michael Simons, MD
Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board, Founder of VasoRx
Dr. Simons is a key co-founder of VasoRx. He is a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale School of Medicine. He completed his clinical training in internal medicine at the New England Medical Center in Boston and cardiology training at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. He completed a postdoctoral fellowships in molecular cardiology at National Heart Lung and Blood Institute in Bethesda and in vascular biology at MIT. In 1993, he joined faculty at Harvard Medical School as an Assistant Professor of Medicine and rose through the ranks to become an Associate Professor of Medicine, Director of the Morse Coronary Care Unit and Director of Angiogenesis Research Center. In 2001, he was recruited to Dartmouth as AG Huber Professor of Medicine and Chief of Cardiology, subsequently becoming Director of Dartmouth Cardiovascular Center.
In 2008, prof Simons accepted the position of the Robert W. Berliner Professor of Medicine, professor of cell biology, and chief of the Section of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Yale CardioVascular Research Center. Prof Simons has published over 270 research papers and reviews and has been elected to a number of honorary societies.
Professor Robert Langer
Member of Scientific Advisory Board, Founder of VasoRx
Robert S. Langer is one of 11 Institute Professors at MIT. Dr. Langer has written more than 1,570 articles. He also has over 1,400 issued and pending patents worldwide. Dr. Langer’s patents have been licensed or sublicensed to over 400 pharmaceutical, chemical, biotechnology and medical device companies. He is the most cited engineer in history (h-index 304 with over 374,000 citations according to Google Scholar). He served as a member of the United States Food and Drug Administration’s SCIENCE Board, the FDA’s highest advisory board, from 1995 — 2002 and as its Chairman from 1999-2002.
Forbes Magazine (1999) and Bio World (1990) have named Dr. Langer as one of the 25 most important individuals in biotechnology in the world. Discover Magazine (2002) named him as one of the 20 most important people in this area. Forbes Magazine (2002) selected Dr. Langer as one of the 15 innovators worldwide who will reinvent our future. Time Magazine and CNN (2001) named Dr. Langer as one of the 100 most important people in America and one of the 18 top people in science or medicine in America (America’s Best). Parade Magazine (2004) selected Dr. Langer as one of 6 “Heroes whose research may save your life.” Dr. Langer has received 37 honorary doctorates.
Professor Dan Anderson
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board, Founder of VasoRx
Daniel G. Anderson is a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, and the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science and Technology at MIT. The research done in Prof. Anderson’s laboratory is focused on developing new materials for medicine. He has pioneered the development of smart biomaterials, and nanotherapeutics, and his work has led to advances in a range of areas, including medical devices, cell therapy, drug delivery, gene therapy and material science. Prof. Anderson received a B.A. in mathematics and biology from the University of California at Santa Cruz and a Ph.D. in molecular genetics from the University of California at Davis. Anderson’s work has led to advances in a range of areas, including medical devices, cell therapy, drug delivery, gene therapy and material science, and has resulted in the publication of more than 400 papers, patents, and patent applications. These advances have led products that have been commercialized or are in clinical development, as well as to the foundation of companies in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and consumer products space. Dr. Anderson is a founder of Living Proof, Olivo Labs, Crispr Therapeutics (CRSP), Sigilon Therapeutics, Verseau Therapeutics, Orna, and VasoRx