Peter B. Cancelmo, J.D. has served as our vice president, general counsel and secretary since June 2019. He joined Omeros as deputy general counsel, corporate governance and securities in January 2019. Prior to joining Omeros, Mr. Cancelmo was a principal and shareholder at Garvey Schubert Barer, P.C., where he represented clients in the life sciences and other technology industries in mergers, acquisitions, strategic alliances, public and private securities offerings, and a range of other corporate, commercial and financial transactions. He served as chair of the firm’s business practice group from 2016 until his departure in December 2018. Mr. Cancelmo previously practiced corporate and transactional law at Davies, Ward, Philips and Vineberg LLP, in New York, and Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP, in Boston. Mr. Cancelmo received his J.D. from Boston University and his B.A. from Saint Michael’s College.
Christopher S. Bral, Ph.D. has served as our vice president, nonclinical development since October 2015. From April 2014 to October 2015, Dr. Bral was the executive director, toxicology at Arrowhead Research Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company. From June 2008 to April 2014, Dr. Bral served as director, drug safety evaluation at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company. Prior to Vertex, Dr. Bral held various pre-clinical drug safety positions of increasing responsibility at Schering-Plough Research Institute including associate director, drug safety evaluation. Dr. Bral received his Ph.D. in biochemistry and biophysics from Texas A&M University and his B.S. in chemistry from John Carroll University. He has been board-certified in toxicology through the American Board of Toxicology since 2000.
Timothy M. Duffy has served as our vice president, business development since March 2010. From November 2008 to March 2010, Mr. Duffy served as the managing director of Pacific Crest Ventures, a life science consulting firm that he founded. From June 2004 through September 2008, Mr. Duffy served at MDRNA, Inc. (formerly Nastech Pharmaceutical Company, Inc.), a biotechnology company. At MDRNA, he held roles of increasing responsibility in marketing and business development, most recently as the chief business officer. Prior to MDRNA, Mr. Duffy served as vice president, business development at Prometheus Laboratories, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company, and as a customer marketing manager at The Procter & Gamble Company. Mr. Duffy received his B.S. from Loras College.
George A. Gaitanaris, M.D., Ph.D. has served as our vice president, science since August 2006 and as our chief scientific officer since January 2012. From August 2003 until our acquisition of nura, inc., in August 2006, Dr. Gaitanaris served as the chief scientific officer of nura, a company that he co-founded, and that developed treatments for central nervous system disorders. From 2000 to 2003, Dr. Gaitanaris served as president and chief scientific officer of Primal, Inc., a biotechnology company that was acquired by nura in 2003. Prior to co-founding Primal, Dr. Gaitanaris served as staff scientist at the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Gaitanaris received his Ph.D. in cellular, molecular and biophysical studies and his M.Ph. and M.A. from Columbia University and his M.D. from the Aristotelian University of Greece.
Daniel G. Kirby has served as our chief commercial officer since August 2019 and as our vice president, head of commercial since November 2018. From March 2018 until September 2018 Mr. Kirby was the U.S. CAR T-cell commercial lead for Celgene Corporation, having joined Celgene following its acquisition of Juno Therapeutics, Inc. Mr. Kirby served as Juno’s Vice President of Market and Market Access from March 2016 until its acquisition by Celgene in March 2018. Prior to his work at Celgene and Juno, Mr. Kirby was the head of marketing at Medivation, Inc. from 2015 to 2016, and spent nearly 15 years in commercial leadership roles at Amgen Inc. In his final role at Amgen, Mr. Kirby oversaw the U.S. customer-facing marketing efforts for the G-CSF franchise, NEULASTA® and NEUPOGEN®. Mr. Kirby’s experience also includes commercial roles at GlaxoSmithKline. Mr. Kirby holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Maryland at College Park.
Bruce Meiklejohn, Ph.D. has served as our vice president, chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC) since October 2019. Prior to joining Omeros in this role, Dr. Meiklejohn was an expert CMC consultant for several biotechnology companies, including Omeros. His consulting work followed a career at Eli Lilly and Company, where he held a number of CMC leadership roles including head of Lilly’s biopharmaceutical product development division and senior research fellow in regulatory affairs CMC. While at Lilly, Dr. Meiklejohn led or played a key role in CMC activities for a number of multibillion-dollar drugs, including Trulicity®, Cialis®, Alimta®, Forteo®, and Cymbalta®. Dr. Meiklejohn earned his Ph.D. in analytical chemistry and his B.S. in biology and chemistry at Colorado State University.