Dr. Gonzalez, is a senior biotechnology executive with 23 years experience in the business, management, development and manufacturing of biotech based products including peptides, protein-based therapeutics and nucleic acid-based diagnostics. Prior to establishing Valens Therapeutics, Dr. Gonzalez held several senior executive and management positions. She was Senior Vice President of Process Development of Alseres Pharmaceuticals, Inc. While at Alseres, Dr. Gonzalez directed for seven years its laboratory and cleanroom facilities and was responsible for all operations including the development and manufacturing of protein-based therapeutics for several indications. Prior to joining Alseres, Dr. Gonzalez held several senior positions. At the NIH-NIAID as Scientific Officer, Dr. Gonzalez managed a portfolio of research grants and contracts in infectious diseases and clinical trials, and directed their scientific review. Dr. Gonzalez was the Director of the Molecular Biology Division at Boston Biomedica, Inc. where she managed the Molecular Biology services and the R & D programs on nucleic acid diagnostics of infectious pathogens, gene discovery for neurological disorders, and HIV diagnostics and vaccines. Dr. Gonzalez was the Director of Genetic Engineering at Biotrax, Inc. where she managed the R & D projects in recombinant proteins and transgenic animals. Dr. Gonzalez's experience also include quality assurance and control; GMP manufacturing of biologics; cleanroom facilities design, validation and certification; technology transfer, and patent preparation. She has been the recipient and principal investigator of NIH-funded research grants and contracts, serves on the editorial boards of several scientific journals and as a NIH peer-review panel member. She has been a consultant to the Department of Defense, the NIH, and private corporations. Dr. Gonzalez held the positions of Assistant Professor and tenured Associate Professor at the University of Mexico. Prior to working in the private and government sectors, Dr. Gonzalez was a Research Scientist in the Department of Biology of Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Gonzalez holds BS, and MS degrees from the University of Mexico and a joint PhD degree with Johns Hopkins University. She carried out her doctoral research in Biochemistry, and post-doctoral training in Molecular Biology in the Department of Biology of Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Gonzalez has published numerous peer-reviewed scientific articles, book chapters, and abstracts. She is the inventor of a method to produce biologically active polypeptides, of novel target specific compounds for the treatment of a variety of human diseases, and of a novel multi-targeted therapeutic vaccine for HIV. Dr. Gonzalez holds issued and pending patents.

   
        Donal Fallon
Chief Financial Officer

 Mr. Fallon brings more than 25 years of broad senior financial and accounting management experience having served as chief financial officer of both public and private biotech and pharmaceutical companies. Since October 2006, Mr. Fallon has provided financial and accounting consulting services to entrepreneurial and established organizations, primarily within the biotech sector.  Mr. Fallon was co-founder, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Ceptor Corporation, a publicly-held development-stage biotech company, from December 2003 until October 2006, where he was instrumental in taking the company public and raising the capital necessary to advance its technology. From May 2002 until December 2003, he was Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer for Osiris Therapeutics, Inc., a venture capital-backed biotech company, and was involved in strategic partnering, fund raising and strategic planning activities. From January 2000 to May 2002, Mr. Fallon was Senior Director of Finance and Accounting with Guilford Pharmaceuticals Inc., a publicly-held biopharmaceutical company, where he was responsible for financial and strategic planning systems in addition to accounting operations and internal and external financial reporting.  Prior to January 2000, Mr. Fallon held senior level financial and accounting positions with various start-up and established biotechnology companies.  Mr. Fallon is a Certified Public Accountant, received a BS degree in Accounting from the University of Baltimore and holds an MBA degree in Finance from Loyola College.


   
 Richard Thorn, PhD
Chief Product Development

Dr. Thorn brings 26 years experience in the biopharmaceutical industry and 9 years of academic research. He is a cofounder of Talaris Advisors and was previously Senior Vice President of Program Operations at Alseres Pharmaceuticals, Inc. where he directed CMC and Product Development activities. Before joining Alseres, Richard held various executive & management positions in R&D and tech transfer at Boston Biomedica, Inc., Verigen, Inc., Baxter Diagnostics, Inc, and Cambridge BioTech Corporation. Before moving to industry, Dr. Thorn did research on the immune response to naturally occurring Bovine Leukemia Virus and post-doctoral work on T-cell mediated cytolysis at Johns Hopkins University. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania and his B.A. from the University of California at San Diego. Dr. Thorn has published more than 20 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals and holds six patents. Dr. Thorn has directed or assisted in the development of 15 development projects, including 4 that were FDA licensed 2 in Phase III, and 1 in Phase I /II.