Irene Gonzalez, Ph.D.  

President and Chief Executive Officer

Dr.Gonzalez, Founder, President and CEO of Valens Therapeutics is a biotechnology professional with more than 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 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-DEA 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 regulatory affairs, quality assurance and control; GMP manufacturing of biologics; cleanroom facilities design, construction, 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. 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, and of novel target specific compounds for the treatment of a variety of diseases, and co-inventor of a nucleic acid-based assay for the detection of multiple blood-borne pathogens and the construction of transgenic fish.

Donald W. 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.