Cristina Csimma, PharmD, MHP has more than 20 years of drug development experience in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and academia sectors. She joined Clarus from Wyeth Research where she was Senior Director of Translational Medicine, overseeing a broad range of exploratory clinical studies and led the integration of biomarkers and novel technologies into clinical development. Prior to Wyeth, Dr. Csimma was at Genetics Institute for 10 years with leadership responsibilities in the global development and approval of recombinant bone morphogenetic protein-2 (INFUSE® Bone Graft) for fracture healing. Her experience encompasses multiple therapeutic areas and interaction with US and European Regulatory agencies. Her academic experience was as a clinical pharmacist at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

Dr. Csimma received her Pharmacy and Doctor of Pharmacy degrees from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and a Master of Health Professions from Northeastern University.

Dr. Cunningham joined Clarus Ventures with more than 20 years experience in the biomedical and biopharmaceutical sectors.  Prior to Clarus, Dr. Cunningham was the Senior Vice President, Medical Strategy at Eyetech Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:EYET), where he helped build and lead the team that developed and commercialized Macugen, a first-in-class product for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration. Prior to Eyetech, Dr. Cunningham was at Pfizer, Inc, where he was responsible for the clinical development of early phase central nervous system compounds and the in-licensing of early and late-stage therapeutic candidates in ophthalmology.

Dr. Cunningham is an internationally recognized specialist in infectious and inflammatory eye disease with over 170 publications and 6 textbooks to his credit.  He is an Adjunct Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at Stanford University, was Clinical Professor and Director of the Uveitis service at NYU from 2002 to 2005, and was Director of both the Uveitis Service and the Kimura Ocular Immunology Laboratory at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) from 1995 to 2001.   Dr. Cunningham received an MD and MPH in epidemiology and statistics from Johns Hopkins University, a PhD in neuroscience from the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) for work done at The Salk Institute, and completed both a residency in ophthalmology and fellowship training in Corneal Disease and Uveitis at UCSF.

Dr. Cunningham is a member of the Board of Directors for SARcode, a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of ESBAtech, and a Board observer for Taligen Therapeutics Inc., and Zogenix, Inc.

Finny Kuruvilla, MD, PhD joined Clarus Ventures from the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT where he led a collaborative effort with Affymetrix (NASDAQ: AFFX) in medical and population genetics.  This work resulted in the development of  novel analytical tools and software that allow the massively parallel interrogation of clinical DNA samples, which has been used to study billions of genotypes in academic and industrial settings globally.  Prior to joining the Broad, Dr. Kuruvilla’s research focused on the elucidation of the mechanism of action of rapamycin.

Dr. Kuruvilla received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Caltech, his master’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, his PhD in chemistry and chemical biology from Harvard University, and his MD from Harvard Medical School.   He did his residency at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital  and his fellowship in transfusion medicine at Harvard Medical School.  He has cared for adult and pediatric patients suffering from a variety of hematologic, oncologic, and autoimmune disorders at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital Boston, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Michele Park, PhD, serves as a Principal of Clarus Ventures. Dr. Park joined Clarus with five years of sell-side equity research experience covering the biotechnology sector. From 2002-2005, Dr. Park was a research analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston, where she covered biotechnology stocks as a member of the firm’s US biotechnology team. Before joining CSFB, Dr. Park was a biotechnology research analyst at US Bancorp Piper Jaffray.

Dr. Park received a PhD in Molecular Biology from Cornell University’s Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, completing her PhD dissertation at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and a BA in Molecular Biology from Princeton University.

Dr. Park is a Board observer for CoMentis.

Prior to joining Clarus, Scott was Director, Business Development of TransForm Pharmaceuticals, Inc until it was acquired in 2005 by Johnson & Johnson.  At TransForm, Scott had broad responsibility for business development, corporate development and legal activities, including managing the company’s intellectual property group.  Prior to TransForm, Scott was an attorney specializing in mergers & acquisitions at the NYC-based law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell where, among other things, he completed numerous public and private deals worth in excess of $1 billion, negotiated credit facilities of more than $10 billion and represented two companies during their initial public offerings.  Before that, Scott was a law clerk for a senior judge at the Supreme Court of Canada.  Scott holds a B.Com (Economics & Finance) from McGill University (First Class Honors), a J.D. from University of Toronto and most recently an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar.  

Mr. Requadt is a member of the Board of Directors for TyRx Pharma, Inc. and a Board observer for Oxford Immunotec and Variation Biotechnologies.