Sean Ainsworth is Immusoft’s Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board. He has 20 years’ experience in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. Previously, he founded and led RetroSense Therapeutics, a gene therapy company he advanced into human clinical trials and sold to Allergan in 2016 in a deal valued at up to $555 million.
Earlier, he was deeply involved in the launch of Compendia Bioscience, Inc., and GeneVivo, LLC. At both he assisted in developing business models, licensing technologies, building management teams, and securing capital and first customers. Life Technologies acquired Compendia BioScience in 2012.
Sean founded Ainsworth BioConsulting in 2004 to provide licensing, as well as strategic and business planning services to the life science and entrepreneurial community. His clients included large pharma, small biotechs, universities, CROs, and venture investment funds. He has worked with clients at all stages of development.
His other professional experience includes research at Medical Biology Institute (now Avanir Pharmaceuticals, developers of Abreva, the leading cold sore medication) in San Diego, Calif., intellectual property at Koyama and Associates in Tokyo, and international corporate development consulting at The Mattson Jack Group in St. Louis, Mo.
Sean earned an M.B.A. in strategy and finance from Washington University in St. Louis. He holds a B.S. in Microbiology from University of California, San Diego.
Julia Moore is a Partner at Breakout Ventures, investing in early stage life sciences companies. Julia and her partners also run Breakout Labs, a seed fund within Peter Thiel’s foundation that focuses on breakthrough technologies across hard sciences. Julia has spent her career investing in, analyzing and operating life sciences companies. Earlier in her career, she was an investor with Kearny Venture Partners, a research analyst at Thomas Weisel Partners, the head of business development and strategy at TriVascular (NASDAQ: TRIV; Acquired by Endologix) and at an institute at Stanford. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia, with a degree in finance from the McIntire School of Business and Bioethics from the College of Arts and Sciences. Julia is also a Kauffman Fellow.
Matthew Scholz is Immusoft’s founder and served as the company’s Chief Executive Officer from 2009 through 2017.
Immusoft’s inflection point as a company came when Matthew conceived how a research system developed by Nobel Laureate and former President of Caltech, David Baltimore, could be modified for a practical application: programming resting B cells to secrete therapeutic proteins. He negotiated an exclusive license to the system, then developed and patented a way to improve its efficiency to the point it was clinically viable. This modified system remains the core of Immusoft’s technology platform today.
After Immusoft, Matthew co-founded Oisín Biotechnologies. He serves as Oisín’s Chief Executive Officer and its oncology-focused spin-out OncoSenX, two biotech firms commercializing a breakthrough platform technology for killing unwanted cells based on their genetics.
Matthew speaks and presents regularly to scientific, association and academic audiences, including those at his alma mater, the University of Washington. He served for several years as a mentor to recipients of the Thiel Fellowship, a program that awarded grants to some of the world’s brightest scientific minds under age 20.
Wendell King is the CEO of King Consulting, a consulting company working primarily in the genomics and medical device field.
Earlier, he held various positions with Medtronic, Inc. Medtronic is a Fortune “200”, Minneapolis-based, medical device company. Mr. King served as Vice President and General Manager of the BioInterface Division, Medtronic’s second largest division, which manufactured and marketed temporary and permanent pacing leads, diagnostic catheters, physiologic sensors and angioplasty catheters. Prior to becoming Vice President and General Manager, he was Director of Research and Development at Medtronic where he was responsible for developing numerous commercially successful new products.
After leaving Medtronic, Mr. King co-founded and served as CEO and Chairman of Angeion Corporation, a developer of medical device products. Mr. King raised more than $50 million in private financing to fund the development of Angeion and successfully took the company public. Angeion today is a NASDAQ traded company, traded under the MGCD symbol.
After Angeion, Mr. King co-founded Gateway Alliance, LLC. Gateway was an early-stage business incubator. Gateway Alliance founded several successful companies including: Vascular Solutions, Rave Sports, and WorldKnit.com.
Vascular Solutions, Inc., successfully completed an IPO and is a publicly traded medical device company and trades on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
Mr. King has numerous publications and has been granted more than 40 patents. He earned a B.S. in engineering physics from the University of Minnesota, Institute of Technology. Mr. King has completed the Executive Business Administration Program at Dartmouth, Amos Tuck School of Business, and course work toward a Ph.D. in polymer physics at the University of Akron, Polymer Institute.
In addition to Immusoft, Mr. King currently serves on the following Boards: Recombinetics and Cardiology Prevention.
Tony Sun, a biotechnology industry consultant, has been involved in numerous life science company activities from company formation to fundraising to capital market exits to acquisitions.
He has spent the last 13 years on the investment side of the business, first at Perseus-Soros BioPharmaceutical Fund and then at Aisling Capital where he served as Partner. Previously, Tony was an Adjunct Instructor of Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
Tony received his MD from Temple University School of Medicine with A.O.A. honors. He received his MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and his BS in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University. In addition, he has been Board Certified in Internal Medicine.
