A Driven and Passionate Team
We are a team dedicated to defeating degeneration. Our passion lies in addressing challenges through rigorous science and translational medicine. Together, we strive to uncover and advance therapies that will positively impact the lives of individuals affected by neurodegenerative diseases.
Senior Leadership
Ryan Watts
Chief Executive Officer
Ryan Watts
Chief Executive Officer
Ryan Watts is the Chief Executive Officer of Denali Therapeutics. He is a co-founder, President and a member of the Board of Directors.
Under Ryan's leadership, Denali has advanced multiple therapeutic candidates into clinical testing for Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and ALS. Denali has invented a proprietary blood-brain barrier platform for delivery of therapeutic proteins to the brain. Ryan has also led efforts to raise significant capital to advance Denali’s therapeutic pipeline and has been instrumental in forging partnerships to accelerate the discovery and development of medicines for neurodegeneration.
Ryan previously served as Director of the Department of Neuroscience at Genentech. During his tenure there, he led the company’s re-entry into neuroscience. The Watts laboratory focused on drug discovery for cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, with an emphasis on understanding mechanisms of neurodegeneration guided by human genetics. His lab also studied various aspects of blood-brain barrier biology and delivery.
Ryan obtained his Ph.D. from Stanford University’s Department of Biological Sciences and his B.S. in Biology from the University of Utah.
Alex Schuth
Chief Operating and Financial Officer
Alex Schuth
Chief Operating and Financial Officer
Alexander Schuth is the Chief Operating and Financial Officer of Denali Therapeutics, responsible for portfolio management, corporate development, and finance. He is a co-founder of the company and has served as the COO and Secretary since 2015 and assumed responsibility for the Finance group in 2022.
Alex and his team are working to build, advance and manage a broad portfolio of therapeutic drug candidates and have established over 30 collaborations with partners in industry and academia to accelerate the discovery, development, and eventual commercialization of medicines for neurodegenerative diseases. In addition, Alex has been working with the finance team on all financing and investor relations activities.
Alex previously held operating and leadership positions in the business development and finance groups at Genentech and the investment banking group at Merrill Lynch in London. He holds an M.D. degree from the Charite Medical School at the Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Carole Ho
Chief Medical Officer
Carole Ho
Chief Medical Officer
Carole Ho is our Chief Medical Officer and Head of Development. At Denali, Carole has built an integrated Development organization that is responsible for advancing therapeutic candidates from pre-IND enabling studies through Phase 1 to Phase 3 clinical trials. Under Carole’s leadership, her team has delivered on Denali’s biomarker driven development strategy to enable early target and pathway engagement in the clinic for therapeutics in development for Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer's disease, and ALS.
Carole previously served as Vice President of Genentech Early Clinical Development and was responsible for delivery of pivotal trial-ready drug candidates in Neurology, Ophthalmology, Immunology, and Infectious Disease. During her 8-year tenure at Genentech, Carole held roles with leadership responsibility across multiple early- and late-stage clinical programs including Rituxan® for Wegener’s granulomatosis and microscopic polyangiitis, ocrelizumab for Multiple Sclerosis, lampalizumab for dry AMD, and crenezumab for Alzheimer’s Disease. At Genentech, in collaboration with Banner Health, Carole's team led the initiation of the world's first prevention trial in Alzheimer's disease in participants at risk for dementia due to a genetic mutation.
Carole completed her residency in Neurology at Harvard Medical School at the Massachusetts General Hospital / Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she also served as Chief Resident. She obtained her M.D. from Cornell University and S.B. in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard College. Prior to her Industry career, Carole was on Faculty in the Department of Neurology at Stanford University. Carole currently serves on the Board of Directors of Beam Therapeutics.
Dana Andersen
Chief Technical and Manufacturing Officer
Dana Andersen
Chief Technical and Manufacturing Officer
Dana Andersen is our Chief Technical and Manufacturing Officer and is responsible for overseeing the development of manufacturing processes, production, quality control & assurance and clinical supply to support the Denali therapeutic portfolio.
Previously, he worked at Genentech for nearly 23 years, most recently as Vice President and Global Head of Technical Development Project & Portfolio Management for the Roche large and small molecule development portfolio. Earlier he held several leadership roles spanning biologics manufacturing process development eventually becoming Vice President of Pharmaceutical Development.
Dana is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and received a B.S. from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a M.S. and Ph.D. from Stanford University, all in chemical engineering with a focus on biological systems.
Cindy Dunkle
Chief People Officer
Cindy Dunkle
Chief People Officer
Cindy Dunkle serves as Chief People Officer at Denali. In this position, she oversees all aspects of human resources, facilities, and environmental health and safety.
Cindy has been instrumental in the successful growth of the company, positioning science and leadership as a focus in attracting top talent. She drives HR strategy and value creation, fosters a culture of learning and innovation to enable each individual achieve their unique potential. Cindy has 25 years of experience with an emphasis in compensation, organizational development and talent acquisition.
Prior to Denali, Cindy held roles of increasing responsibility across corporate staffing and development functions at Avalanche Biotechnologies and Genentech. Cindy obtained a B.S. from Metropolitan State University.
Joe Lewcock
Chief Scientific Officer
Joe Lewcock
Chief Scientific Officer
Joe serves as CSO and Head of Discovery at Denali. In this role, he coordinates the discovery stage portfolio and activities ranging from new target discovery and validation to the identification of biomarkers to enable clinical trials. His group specializes in development of novel therapeutic strategies to address key aspects neurodegeneration biology including Lysosomal Function, Glial Biology, Axon/Synapse maintenance. As delivery to the brain represents a major challenge, Joe’s discovery team continues work on the Denali Transport Vehicle (TV) platform to shuttle candidate therapeutics across the Blood-Brain Barrier.
Prior to joining Denali in early 2016, Joe spent 9 years at Genentech, where he helped to build the neuroscience research team and portfolio. In his role as Director of the Department of Neuroscience, he was responsible for generating the disease area strategy and management of the neuroscience portfolio, which included both large and small molecule programs. During his time at Genentech, Joe also served as a project team leader where he led a small molecule program for neurodegenerative disease from target discovery to IND filing and led a discovery lab focused on identification of new therapeutic drug targets for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer’s Disease. He received his BS from University of California, San Diego, a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and did a Postdoctoral fellowship at the Salk Institute.
Chris Walsh
General Counsel
Chris Walsh
General Counsel
Chris Walsh serves as Senior Vice President, General Counsel. In this position, he built an integrated legal team focusing on accelerating Denali invention and protecting its value, maintaining a safe and inclusive work environment, and keeping Denali compliant as a global company.
Prior to joining Denali, Chris practiced intellectual property law in Genentech's Legal Department as Assistant General Counsel, Practice Group Leader, and he was in private practice as an associate attorney at the law firm Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox in Washington, D.C. Chris received a J.D. from the George Washington University Law School, completed postdoctoral training at Northwestern University and received a Ph.D. in chemistry from the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Katie Peng
Chief Commercial Officer
Katie Peng
Chief Commercial Officer
Katie Peng is our Chief Commercial Officer responsible for building and leading the commercial team that will bring Denali’s innovative medicines to patients.
Katie previously served as the Senior Vice President, Head of the OMNI Business Unit at Genentech. She was responsible for the neurology, ophthalmology, immunology, respiratory, and rare diseases portfolio. She spent almost two decades at Genentech and Roche, holding a number of senior leadership positions. During her tenure, Katie successfully launched multiple products in neurology, oncology, and rare disease. Between 2012-2017, she was a General Manager for Roche in Asia Pacific leading commercial and medical teams in two countries. Katie has broad U.S. and global experience that spans marketing, sales, market access, medical affairs and business planning.
Katie began her career as a research scientist at Allergan. After earning her MBA, she joined Amgen where she held several commercial roles. Katie holds a BA from the University of California, Berkeley and an MBA from the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University.
Peter Chin
Senior Vice President, Late Clinical Development & Medical Affairs
Peter Chin
Senior Vice President, Late Clinical Development & Medical Affairs
Peter leads the Late Clinical function at Denali. In this role, he coordinates late stage clinical science and medical affairs activities as the portfolio advances through the lifecycle. His group facilitates the design and oversight of late stage clinical trials to support regulatory approval, augments the medical community’s understanding of neurological disease mechanisms, and characterizes the evidence base to support appropriate use of new therapeutics upon approval.
Peter most recently served as Group Medical Director for Neuroscience in U.S. Medical Affairs at Genentech and previously held leadership roles in neuroscience development at Genentech/Roche and Novartis, contributing to the global development and clinical application of therapies approved for relapsing and progressive forms of multiple sclerosis, including fingolimod, siponimod and ocrelizumab. For over a decade he has also engaged in advancing clinical research platforms through initiatives sponsored by NIH-NINDS, C-PATH, patient advocacy groups, and various academic-industry consortia.
Peter completed his B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California at Berkeley, M.D. at Dartmouth, neurology residency at the University of Washington, and fellowship as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at UCLA, where he also obtained an M.S. in Health Services through the School of Public Health.
Kirk Henne
Senior Vice President, Development Sciences
Kirk Henne
Senior Vice President, Development Sciences
Kirk Henne serves as Head of Development Sciences at Denali. In this role, he supports Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics, Quantitative Pharmacology, Metabolomics and Proteomics, and Bioanalytical teams to advance Denali's biotherapeutic and small molecule portfolio.
Prior to joining Denali in 2016, Kirk was Director of Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics and Project Team Lead at Assembly Biosciences. This role was preceded by a ten-year term at Amgen as Principal Scientist and Group Leader in Pharmacokinetics and Drug Metabolism. Before that, he began his industrial career at Pfizer. Kirk has contributed to successful candidate identification, IND-enabling, and early clinical development activities for more than 20 molecules representing multiple modalities across therapeutic areas including oncology, inflammation, immunology, metabolic disorders, virology, and neurodegenerative diseases.
Kirk has authored/co-authored more than 30 peer-reviewed publications. He obtained hi Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry from the University of Washington, and his B.A. in Biochemistry from Occidental College in Los Angeles.
Erica Kratz
Senior Vice President, Regulatory
Erica Kratz
Senior Vice President, Regulatory
Erica leads Regulatory Affairs and Clinical Quality Assurance at Denali. Erica’s team is responsible for leveraging Denali data to drive regulatory strategies for our novel therapies and ensuring Denali’s commitment to the highest Quality standards.
Prior to joining Denali, Erica held positions of increasing responsibility in Regulatory Affairs during 10 years at Genentech. Erica led the global regulatory strategy and execution for multiple small molecule and biologic oncology drug candidate programs ranging from IND to postmarketing, including leading the US and Canada marketing application filings for approval of Herceptin for gastric cancer and leading global Health Authority interactions in breast cancer and mesothelioma.
Erica earned her BS at the University of Arizona, and her Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, in Molecular and Cell Biology.
Tyler Nielsen
Senior Vice President, Corporate Finance
Tyler Nielsen
Senior Vice President, Corporate Finance
Tyler Nielsen leads Corporate Finance at Denali and is responsible for investor relations, accounting, procurement and treasury.
Before joining Denali, Tyler was the Head of Corporate Finance at Sangamo Therapeutics where he was responsible for leading all financing activities as well as accounting, FP&A, facilities, procurement and IT functions. Tyler is a CPA (inactive) and was as an auditor at Ernst & Young in the firm’s Biotech and Technology practices.
Tyler graduated from Brigham Young University with a B.S. in accounting.
Michelle Polowski
Senior Vice President, Development Operations
Michelle Polowski
Senior Vice President, Development Operations
Michelle leads Development Operations at Denali. In this role, Michelle manages Biomarker Operations, Clinical Operations, Clinical Outsourcing and Business Operations, and Data Management for Denali’s early- and late-stage clinical programs.
Prior to joining Denali, Michelle was Sr. Vice President of Global Development Operations at Ultragenyx. Michelle led a cross-functional group at Ultragenyx to deliver on clinical trial programs across multiple rare and ultra-rare disease programs resulting in marketing approval for three products in four indications. Before joining Ultragenyx, Michelle held various roles of increasing responsibility in Clinical Operations, Business Operations, and Quality and Compliance at Genentech, La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company, PAREXEL and Automedics.
Michelle has an MBA from Pepperdine Graziadio Business School, MS in Regulatory Affairs from San Diego State University, and a BS in Microbiology from University of California, San Diego
Matt Troyer
Senior Vice President, Translational Medicine and Early Clinical Development
Matt Troyer
Senior Vice President, Translational Medicine and Early Clinical Development
Matt Troyer leads the Early Clinical function and is responsible for overseeing a team of physician-scientists who execute Denali’s early clinical programs. The Early Clinical group partners with pre-clinical teams, including Translational and Development Sciences, to design and conduct first-in-human, biomarker, experimental medicine and other early studies in healthy subjects and patients. Matt and the Early Clinical team execute the first clinical investigations that drive Denali’s biomarker-driven development strategy.
Matt is a neurologist with subspecialty training in Parkinson’s disease and Movement Disorders and 14 years of early clinical leadership. Matt previously led early development programs at Medivation and at Merck & Co., Inc. where he was Executive Director and Neuroscience Therapeutic Area lead for Early Clinical Development, with responsibility for pre-clinical to proof-of-concept programs in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, sleep disorders, pain, migraine, schizophrenia and other CNS indications.
Matt completed neurology residency training at Harvard Medical School in the Longwood Area Program and completed a fellowship in Parkinson’s disease and Movement disorders at the Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London. Following his clinical fellowship, Matt did a postdoctoral research fellowship in the laboratory of Robert Edwards at UCSF, focusing on basic mechanisms of presynaptic function and Parkinson’s disease. Matt subsequently joined the Neurology faculty at UCSF with both clinical and research responsibilities. Matt received his M.D. from Stanford University and a B.A. in biology from Illinois Wesleyan University.
Cynthia Wong
Senior Vice President, Portfolio and Program Management
Cynthia Wong
Senior Vice President, Portfolio and Program Management
Cynthia leads Portfolio Planning and Program Management at Denali and is responsible for Denali’s growing portfolio of 10+ programs in various stages of research and clinical development. Cynthia is the Program Director of Denali’s LRRK2 program. In addition, she is involved in developing and evolving Denali’s project team system and decision making processes to support a project-centric organization, whereby project teams are enabled to make high quality decisions with speed.
Prior to Denali, Cynthia was an Associate Director at Genentech’s Research and Early Development Portfolio Planning and Operations group, culminating a career of 12 years at Genentech. Cynthia managed programs from pre-IND through approval in the inflammation, ophthalmology, infectious disease, and oncology disease areas, including products on the market such as Ocrevus (ocrelizumab), Tecentriq (atezolizumab), and Lucentis (ranibizumab).
Cynthia has a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley in Mass Communications and East Asian Studies.
Firoz Antia
Vice President, Oligonucleotide & Small Molecule CMC
Firoz Antia
Vice President, Oligonucleotide & Small Molecule CMC
Firoz is Vice President of Oligonucleotide and Small Molecule Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls and brings over 30 years of CMC experience to his leadership of process and product development and manufacturing in support of Denali’s small molecule portfolio and Oligonucleotide Transport Vehicle (OTV) platform.
Prior to joining Denali, Firoz spent 12 years at Biogen, where as Head of Oligonucleotide Development he led the establishment of internal oligonucleotide process development and manufacturing capabilities and was instrumental in filing SPINRAZA ® and QALSODY ® . Before Biogen, he led CMC activities at Palatin Technologies, developing all aspects of their peptide therapeutics, particularly Vyleesi ® , from drug substance through autoinjector drug product. Earlier, he was at Merck for 10 years in BioProcess and Chemical Engineering R&D functions, contributing to the success of the semisynthetic CANCIDAS ® and several other small molecules. Firoz started his career developing peptides, initially at Sandoz Pharma AG, and then at J&J’s RW Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute.
Firoz holds a Ph.D. from Yale University, an M.S. from the University of Akron, and a B.Tech. from IIT Delhi, all in chemical engineering.
Anthony Delucchi
Vice President, CMC
Anthony Delucchi
Vice President, CMC
Tony leads Denali’s CMC program strategy, external manufacturing and supply chain efforts for all therapeutic modalities.
Prior to joining Denali in 2018 Tony held roles of increasing responsibility at Genentech leading CMC teams from pre-IND through post launch, most recently leading the commercial CMC teams for Avastin and the Lytics franchise. Tony was responsible for numerous site selection evaluations and development of CMC strategies for programs throughout the product life-cycle. Earlier in his career Tony worked in recovery process development at Bayer and manufacturing support at Chiron.
Tony holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Biology from University of the Pacific.
Wei Dong
Vice President, Drug Safety
Wei Dong
Vice President, Drug Safety
Wei builds and leads our safety and pharmacovigilance organization. In this role, she oversees the scientific, operational and product strategy aspects of global safety during clinical development and will enable our teams, and the organization as a whole, to address future marketing authorization applications and multinational postmarketing safety requirements.
Wei brings extensive R&D experience in global drug development to improve patient care. She held executive leadership roles in Genentech and Roche in the areas of drug safety, epidemiology and Asia Pacific product development contributing to the approval of several breakthrough medicines. Most recently she served as the Vice President and Head of Safety at Corcept Therapeutics building up its safety team and ensuring successful regulatory inspections.
Wei obtained her MD from Shanghai Medical University and PhD in Occupational Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, University of London. She lectured at UCL Medical School, U.K., and was an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Community Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine before joining the industry.
Leah Frautschy
Vice President, Clinical Manufacturing
Leah Frautschy
Vice President, Clinical Manufacturing
Leah Frautschy is the Vice President, Clinical Manufacturing for Denali. She is responsible for building and leading Denali’s clinical manufacturing capability.
Leah has over 25 years of experience in process development, manufacturing, facility engineering and senior leadership roles at Genentech. Her broad background includes initiatives in quality improvement and extensive health authority interactions. Her most recent role before joining Denali was the Senior Director of Engineering for the Clinical Supply Center facility currently under construction in South San Francisco.
Leah holds a Master of Engineering in Professional Practice degree from University of Wisconsin, Madison and a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
Laura Hansen
Vice President, Investor Relations
Laura Hansen
Vice President, Investor Relations
Laura leads Investor Relations at Denali, bringing more than two decades of experience in corporate and scientific communications for biotech companies.
Prior to Denali, she was Vice President of Corporate Affairs at BlackThorn Therapeutics, a privately held company focused on developing precision medicines for neuropsychiatric disorders. Before joining BlackThorn, she was Vice President of Investor Relations at Aimmune Therapeutics, Inc., a leading food allergy therapeutics company. Prior to that, she held positions in corporate communications at Threshold Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and FibroGen, Inc. At both companies, she was also responsible for scientific communications related to novel therapeutic platforms in oncology, fibrosis, and anemia.
Laura has a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences and a B.S. in Zoology from The University of Texas at Austin.
Mark Kafka
Vice President, IP & Transactions, Legal
Mark Kafka
Vice President, IP & Transactions, Legal
Mark leads Denali's Intellectual Property Team, and is the Legal Team lead on strategic transactions and other corporate development matters, bringing more than sixteen years of legal experience representing biotech and pharma companies.
Prior to Denali, Mark was Senior Director, Associate General Counsel, at Genentech Inc., where he was responsible for intellectual property matters across multiple therapeutic areas. Prior to that, he held positions at Allergan Inc., and the international law firm Jones Day where he represented a variety of biotech and pharma clients. Mark has a J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law and B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemistry from the University of California, San Diego.
Chris Koth
Vice President, Discovery Sciences
Chris Koth
Vice President, Discovery Sciences
Chris leads Biotherapeutics at Denali, bringing more than 20 years of protein biochemistry experience in research and drug discovery, having led multiple internal and external teams and their efforts to rapidly engineer, express, produce, screen and structurally enable challenging protein targets, including for therapeutic development, with a particular focus on engineered antibody therapeutics and unprecedented soluble and membrane proteins of therapeutic interest.
Prior to joining Denali, Chris held multiple positions at Genentech, including as Director of Structural Biology. At Genentech, he initiated and oversaw various drug discovery research efforts, as well as the production, engineering and optimization of membrane, soluble and secreted proteins for assays and small molecule, macrocycle and antibody discovery. His work at Genentech spanned many therapeutic areas, including neurobiology, metabolism, infectious diseases, and immunology. Before joining Genentech, Chris was a Research Scientist II at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, where he supported membrane protein drug discovery efforts, including on ion channels and G protein-coupled receptors. Prior to that, Chris led the Membrane Protein Structural Genomics Group at the Ontario/University of Toronto's Center for Structural Genomics where his group solved the first structure of a magnesium channel.
Chris has a Ph.D. in Molecular and Medical Genetics from the University of Toronto and a B.Sc. in Molecular Biology, Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering from McMaster University.
Sarah Martin
Vice President, U.S. ETV Franchise & Global Product Strategy
Sarah Martin
Vice President, U.S. ETV Franchise & Global Product Strategy
Sarah leads our ETV Global Product Strategy and is also leading Denali's US ETV Franchise where she will be building out our sales and marketing organizations.
Sarah joined Denali from Amgen where she spent nine years in various commercial roles in both the global and US oncology organizations. At Amgen, Sarah was a Global Project Lead and Head of Global Marketing for in-line Oncology Brands, led the US Leukemia Franchise, and was a member of several launch teams, including the launch of BLINCYTO(R) in rare pediatric oncology. Prior to Amgen, Sarah was at both Genentech and Roche in Global Product Strategy. Prior to this, Sarah was at Bionest Partners, a boutique strategy consulting firm, where she advised a range of both start up biotech organizations as well as large cap pharma.
Sarah holds a BA in Biology with a concentration in Neuroscience from Dartmouth College.
Fabian Model
Vice President, Biometrics
Fabian Model
Vice President, Biometrics
Fabian leads the Biometrics function at Denali and is responsible for overseeing a team of statisticians, programmers and data scientists. His group works closely with the Clinical and Science teams and is responsible for the design and analysis of Denali’s clinical trials and biomarker studies.
Fabian has 20 years of leadership in Biostatistics and Data Science and has a background in both Statistics and Computer Science. He most recently served as Director of Biostatistics for Neuroscience at Roche, leading a group of statisticians supporting late stage drug development in Alzheimer's Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, and rare neurological diseases. Prior to this role, Fabian held various leadership positions in the diagnostics industry working on in-vitro and companion diagnostic products for Oncological, Neurological, Cardiovascular and Pulmonary disorders.
Fabian received his MSc in technical computer science and his PhD in applied statistics from the Technical University of Berlin.
Naim Nazef
Vice President, Oligonucleotide Therapeutics
Naim Nazef
Vice President, Oligonucleotide Therapeutics
Naim Nazef brings over 20 years of experience in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries, including 14 years focused on oligonucleotide-based drug discovery and development. Passionate about unlocking their therapeutic potential, he has a track record of translating innovative oligonucleotide-based platforms into clinical applications and leading multidisciplinary teams. Naim now heads oligonucleotide therapeutics at Denali, where he leads the discovery and optimization of novel Oligonucleotide Transport Vehicle (OTV) therapeutics.
Prior to joining Denali, Naim led oligonucleotide discovery research at Takeda as Head of Oligonucleotide Chemistry and Delivery Platforms, where he developed multiple oligonucleotide-based delivery platforms and advanced programs across Gastroenterology, Oncology, and Neuroscience. Before Takeda, Naim served as Director of Oligonucleotide Delivery Platform Development and Bio-/Analytical Sciences at Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, advancing RNAi-based therapeutics for liver, cancer, cardiovascular, and neurological diseases. He industrialized siRNA chemical designs that underpinned delivery platforms such as Dicerna’s EnCore™ lipid nanoparticle (LNP) for tumor targeting, the GalXC™ GalNAc-siRNA liver-targeted platform, and the GalXC-Plus™ extrahepatic platform, enabling delivery to a wide range of tissues, including the CNS. His contributions supported several clinical-stage programs and the NDA approval of Rivfloza® (nedosiran) a treatment for primary hyperoxaluria type 1, a rare genetic disorder. Ultimately, his work contributed to Dicerna's $3.3B acquisition by Novo Nordisk, the largest acquisition in the oligonucleotide field to date.
Naim holds a Ph.D. in Natural Product Synthetic Organic Chemistry from The University of Edinburgh, a MS in Chemistry from Northeastern University and a B.Sc. in Biochemistry from The University of Manchester.
Michael Ostland
Vice President, Development Europe
Michael Ostland
Vice President, Development Europe
Michael serves as Head of Development Europe and leads the Denali office in Zurich Switzerland. In this role, he is responsible for building strategic capabilities in Europe and integrating these into global Denali teams.
Michael brings over 20 years of leadership experience in drug development and commercialization. He was Lifecycle Leader for Roche's rare neuromuscular disease treatment Evrysdi, where he led the project from early phase clinical trials through commercial launch. Prior to that, he was Global Head of Biostatistics and Patient-Centered Outcomes Research at Roche, leading a team of technical experts across 5 global sites and contributing to the overall Biometrics strategy. Prior to this, Michael was the Head of Neuroscience Biostatistics at Roche.
Michael has a BA in Mathematics from UC San Diego and a PhD in Statistics from UC Berkeley.
Mark Rowen
Vice President, Corporate Development
Mark Rowen
Vice President, Corporate Development
Mark leads Alliance Management at Denali and is responsible for the industry and academic collaborations that are central to Denali's corporate strategy. Working closely with Business Development and project teams, Alliance Management establishes and fosters these strategic relationships to build value for Denali and our partners. Together with our partners, we deepen our scientific expertise, extend our capabilities and accelerate our ability to discover, develop and commercialize medicines for neurodegenerative diseases. Mark brings over 20 years of experience leading the sourcing, assessing, negotiating and managing of biopharma partnerships.
Prior to joining Denali in 2019, Mark spent 13 years at Genentech and Roche, most recently as Genentech's Head of Business Development for Technology Platforms focused on in-licensing drug discovery technologies across therapeutic modalities and disease areas. Mark has a B.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Guelph in Canada.
Dheeraj Talreja
Vice President, Global Product Strategy and U.S. Market Access
Dheeraj Talreja
Vice President, Global Product Strategy and U.S. Market Access
Dheeraj Talreja leads the U.S. Market Access function and serves as the Global Project Lead for tividenofusp alfa at Denali, bringing 20 years of experience and a successful track record of launching new medicines.
Prior to Denali, Dheeraj was the Senior Vice President of Marketing and Commercial Strategy at Freenome, where he led the go-to-market efforts for early cancer detection products. Before Freenome, Dheeraj spent nearly 18 years at Genentech working across diverse therapeutic areas and functions. In his last role at Genentech, he served as Vice President for New Product Commercialization. Additionally, he was the Executive Director on the Alzheimer's disease marketing team. He led the virtual launch of Evrysdi® during the pandemic and helped lead Genentech’s first rare disease launch for HEMLIBRA®. Dheeraj began his career with Boehringer Ingelheim in Sales Force Optimization and contributed to the launch of Spiriva.
Dheeraj holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Mumbai in India and a MS in Industrial Engineering from the University of Buffalo in New York.
Benjamin Zuffi
Vice President, Information Technology
Benjamin Zuffi
Vice President, Information Technology
Benjamin Zuffi is the Vice President of Information Technology at Denali Therapeutics. In this role he oversees the company’s IT investments, aligning technology and cybersecurity strategies with Denali’s mission to develop therapies for neurodegenerative diseases. His 25+ years of IT leadership is characterized by a focus on innovation, trust, and commitment to advance the company's goals.
Prior to joining Denali, Ben served at Genentech for 12 years and made significant contributions to the company. He led business systems strategies in its Early Clinical Development function in support of clinical research operations as well as within the Corporate IT division contributing to enterprise-wide IT initiatives, and ensured alignment with the company's broader strategic objectives.
Ben holds a Masters of Business Administration in Finance and Entrepreneurship from Santa Clara University, and a Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems from San Jose State University. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional and Certified Information Security Manager. Benjamin served honorably as a veteran of the United States Marine Corps specializing in communications technology.
Board of Directors
Jennifer Cook
Former CEO, Grail
Jennifer Cook
Former CEO, Grail
Jennifer Cook was previously the Chief Executive Officer of GRAIL. Jennifer also spent time at Roche Pharmaceuticals/Genentech where she held a number of senior management positions, covering the full lifecycle of product development and commercialization. From 2013 to 2016 she was Head of Region Europe for Roche Pharmaceuticals, where she was responsible for the commercial success of Europe and leading more than 5,500 employees across the 28 countries of the region. Other key positions during her 25-year tenure at Roche/Genentech included leading Global Clinical Operations, US and Global Product Portfolio Management, a US Commercial Business Unit, and Market Development.
Jennifer started her career in research and early development at Genentech and a venture-backed startup company. In 2016, Jennifer was recognized for her contributions to the healthcare industry and inspirational leadership when she was named Woman of the Year by the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association. Jennifer holds a BA in human biology and an MS in biology from Stanford University, as well as an MBA from the Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley.
Jay Flatley
Former CEO, Chairman of Illumina, Inc.
Jay Flatley
Former CEO, Chairman of Illumina, Inc.
Jay led Illumina as CEO from 1999 until 2016, served as Executive Chairman from July 2016 to December 2019, and now serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors. During his tenure as CEO, he took the company from $1.3 million in sales in 2000 to $2.2 billion in 2015, representing a compound annual growth rate of 64 percent. He oversaw the company’s expansion from microarrays into next-generation sequencing with the acquisition of Solexa in 2006, and from research into clinical and applied markets. Under his leadership, Illumina was named multiple times to the Deloitte & Touche Fast 50 and Fast 500 lists, as well as to the Forbes 25 Fastest-Growing Tech Companies (2007, 2009 and 2010), the Fortune 100 Fastest-Growing Companies (2010 and 2011) lists, and recognition by MIT Technology Review as the World’s Smartest Company in 2014.
In addition to his work at Illumina, he serves on the Boards of Directors at Coherent, Denali, Iridia, on the Board of Trustees for The Salk Institute, and is an Advisory Board member for UC San Diego’s Moores Cancer Center.
Previously, Jay served on the Board of Juno Therapeutics until their acquisition by Celgene in 2018, and served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Molecular Dynamics, later acquired by Amersham Pharmacia Biotech and now a part of GE Healthcare. As a co-founder and member of the board of directors for Molecular Dynamics he led the company to its initial public offering in 1993. While there, he also helped Molecular Dynamics develop and launch over 15 major instrumentation systems, including the first capillary-based DNA sequencer. Prior to joining Molecular Dynamics, Jay was Vice President of Engineering and Strategic Planning for Plexus Computers, Executive Vice President for Manning Technologies and held various positions at Spectra Physics.
Jay received a B.A. in economics from Claremont McKenna College and a B.S. and M.S. (summa cum laude) in industrial engineering from Stanford University.
Erik Harris
CCO and EVP, Ultragenyx
Erik Harris
CCO and EVP, Ultragenyx
Erik Harris currently serves as the Chief Commercial Officer and Executive Vice President of Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of a diverse portfolio of therapies for patients with rare and ultra-rare genetic diseases. Prior to his appointment as Chief Commercial Officer, Mr. Harris served as the Senior Vice President and Head of North American Commercial Operations at Ultragenyx from July 2017 to June 2019. Mr. Harris’s prior business experience includes six years at Crescendo Bioscience, a molecular diagnostic company, most recently as Vice President of Commercial. Earlier in his career, Mr. Harris served as Vice President of Marketing at Intermune, Inc. and also held positions in the commercial organizations at Elan Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Genentech, Inc., and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company. At the start of his professional career, Mr. Harris served as a Lieutenant Commander in Naval Aviation and Congressional Fellow for the United States Navy. Mr. Harris received his Masters of Business Administration at the Wharton School of Business, and Bachelor of Science at the United States Naval Academy.
Peter Klein
Former CFO, Microsoft
Peter Klein
Former CFO, Microsoft
Peter Klein joined the Board of Directors as an independent director. Mr. Klein has 25 years of experience as a senior finance executive. He served as Chief Financial Officer of Microsoft Corporation from November 2009 until May 2013 and spent over 11 years at Microsoft. Most recently, he served as Chief Financial Officer of WME, a global leader in sports and entertainment marketing, from January 2014 until June 2014.
Peter holds a B.A. from Yale University and an M.B.A from University of Washington. He also serves on the board of directors of Apptio Inc. and F5 Networks, Inc., both publicly traded companies.
Steve Krognes
Former CFO, Denali Therapeutics
Steve Krognes
Former CFO, Denali Therapeutics
Steve Krognes is a member of the Board of Directors and Denali's former Chief Financial Officer.
Steve previously worked at Genentech and Roche for twelve years. At Genentech, he served as CFO and as a member of the Executive Committee for six years, where he was responsible for finance, site services and IT. Steve also represented Genentech on the Board and Executive Committee of the California Life Science Association and served as Chairman of the Genentech Access to Care Foundation.
At Roche in Switzerland, Steve led the global Mergers & Acquisition team for more than five years. Under Steve’s leadership, the M&A team executed more than 30 transactions worldwide, including the acquisitions of Ventana Medical Systems and Genentech. Steve worked as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs in London, a management consultant at McKinsey in London, and as a venture capitalist in Stockholm.
Steve holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, a B.S. in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and is a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Norwegian Air Force.
Vicki Sato
Chair of Denali Board
Vicki Sato
Chair of Denali Board
Vicki L. Sato, Ph.D., serves as Chairman of the board of directors at Denali. Vicki served as the Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School, where she taught from 2006-2017. During this time, she also had an appointment as Professor of the Practice in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, Harvard University. In addition to her academic work, she is a business advisor to enterprises in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Before returning to academia, Vicki spent nearly 14 years at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, joining in 1992 as Chief Scientific Officer with responsibility for research and development. In 2000, she was named President of Vertex with general management responsibility for business and corporate development, commercial operations, legal, and finance, in addition to research and development. Before joining Vertex, Vicki was vice president of research at Biogen, Inc., where she led research programs in the areas of inflammation, thrombosis, and HIV disease, and was a member of the executive management team of the company. She also served as a member of the Biogen Scientific Board.
In addition to Vicki’s role at Denali, she is a member of the board of directors of publicly held companies Bristol Myers Squibb Company and Borg Warner Corporation. She is also Chair of the board of directors for Vir Biotechnology. Vicki continues to be a member of the board of Advisors of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, having been Chair of the Advisors for a number of years. She received her A.B. from Radcliffe College, and her A.M. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University. Following postdoctoral work at both the University of California Berkeley and Stanford Medical Center, Vicki was appointed to the faculty of Harvard University, where she was an assistant and associate professor of biology.
David Schenkein
General Partner, GV
David Schenkein
General Partner, GV
Dr. Schenkein is a general partner for life sciences at Google Ventures (GV). Prior to GV, he was Chief Executive Officer at Agios Pharmaceuticals, Inc., from 2009 to 2019. Dr. Schenkein has been a hematologist and medical oncologist for more than 20 years. He currently serves as an adjunct attending physician in hematology at Tufts Medical Center. Prior to joining Agios, from March 2006 to July 2009, Dr. Schenkein was the Senior Vice President, clinical hematology/oncology, at Genentech, Inc., a pharmaceutical company, where he was responsible for numerous successful oncology drug approvals and leading the medical and scientific strategies for their BioOncology portfolio.
While at Genentech, he served as an adjunct clinical professor of medical oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine. Prior to joining Genentech, he served as the Senior Vice President of clinical research at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceuticals Company Limited), overseeing the clinical development and worldwide approval of Velcade®, a first-in-class cancer therapy now approved to treat multiple myeloma and Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. He currently serves on the board of directors of Prime Medicine, Regeneron, and Agios Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Dr. Schenkein holds a B.A. in chemistry from Wesleyan University and an M.D. from the State University of New York Upstate Medical School.
Marc Tessier-Lavigne
Professor, Stanford University
Marc Tessier-Lavigne
Professor, Stanford University
Marc received undergraduate degrees from McGill University and from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and a Ph.D. from University College London (UCL). After postdoctoral work at UCL and at Columbia University, he established his laboratory at the University of California, San Francisco, where he was named an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He later moved to Stanford, where he was the Susan B. Ford Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences, and then to Genentech Inc., where he served as Chief Scientific Officer and Executive Vice President of Research, as well as running his laboratory. He joined The Rockefeller University in 2011 as President and Carson Family Professor, and as Head of the Laboratory of Brain Development and Repair.
Marc served as Stanford University's 11th president from 2016 to 2023. Today, Marc maintains research activities as Head of Laboratory and Bing Presidential Professor in the Department of Biology.
Nancy A. Thornberry
Chair R&D, Former CEO, Kallyope
Nancy A. Thornberry
Chair R&D, Former CEO, Kallyope
Nancy A. Thornberry is the Chair, R&D of the Board at Kallyope, a biotechnology company headquartered in NYC focused on the gut-brain axis that she was previously CEO of. She was formerly Senior Vice President and Franchise Head, Diabetes and Endocrinology, for Merck & Co. Inc. In this role, she led discovery and clinical research in diabetes, osteoporosis, fertility and contraception. Prior to her role as Franchise Head, Nancy initiated and led Merck’s dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) project, which resulted in the discovery of JANUVIA® for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes.
Nancy began her career with Merck Research Laboratories in 1979 as a biochemist and served in many roles of increasing responsibility, culminating in her role as Franchise Head. Beyond her contributions in the metabolic disease area, she has achieved several notable scientific accomplishments, including the identification of the first caspase, interleukin-1β converting enzyme (ICE/caspase-1). For her scientific contributions she has received numerous awards, including the Merck Presidential Fellowship, Merck Directors Award, Heroes of Chemistry Award by the American Chemical Society, and in 2011 received the Pharmaceuticals Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) Discoverers Award, which honors research scientists whose work has been of special benefit to humankind.
In addition to her role at Kallyope, Nancy is currently on the Board of Directors of Schrodinger. She is also a member of NYC’s Mayor’s Life Sciences (LifeSciNYC) Advisory Council.
Ryan Watts
Chief Executive Officer
Ryan Watts
Chief Executive Officer
Ryan Watts is the Chief Executive Officer of Denali Therapeutics. He is a co-founder, President and a member of the Board of Directors.
Under Ryan's leadership, Denali has advanced multiple therapeutic candidates into clinical testing for Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and ALS. Denali has invented a proprietary blood-brain barrier platform for delivery of therapeutic proteins to the brain. Ryan has also led efforts to raise significant capital to advance Denali’s therapeutic pipeline and has been instrumental in forging partnerships to accelerate the discovery and development of medicines for neurodegeneration.
Ryan previously served as Director of the Department of Neuroscience at Genentech. During his tenure there, he led the company’s re-entry into neuroscience. The Watts laboratory focused on drug discovery for cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, with an emphasis on understanding mechanisms of neurodegeneration guided by human genetics. His lab also studied various aspects of blood-brain barrier biology and delivery.
Ryan obtained his Ph.D. from Stanford University’s Department of Biological Sciences and his B.S. in Biology from the University of Utah.
Scientific Advisory Board
Denali's Scientific Advisory Board brings experience from both industry and academia to provide insight around biological pathways, therapeutic strategies, and biomarker development.
David M. Holtzman, MD
Professor and Chairman, Dept. of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine
David M. Holtzman, MD
Professor and Chairman, Dept. of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine
David M. Holtzman, MD
Professor and Chairman, Dept. of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine
Eric Reiman, MD
Chief Executive Officer, Banner Research, Banner Alzheimer's Institute
Eric Reiman, MD
Chief Executive Officer, Banner Research, Banner Alzheimer's Institute
Eric Reiman, MD
Chief Executive Officer, Banner Research, Banner Alzheimer's Institute
Melissa Starovasnik, PHD
Former VP of Research Operations at Genentech, Independent Scientific Advisor
Melissa Starovasnik, PHD
Former VP of Research Operations at Genentech, Independent Scientific Advisor
Melissa Starovasnik, PHD
Former VP of Research Operations at Genentech, Independent Scientific Advisor
Stacie Weninger, PHD
President, F-Prime Biomedical Research Initiative (FBRI)
Stacie Weninger, PHD
President, F-Prime Biomedical Research Initiative (FBRI)
Stacie Weninger, PHD
President, F-Prime Biomedical Research Initiative (FBRI)
Henrik Zetterberg, MD, PhD
Professor and Chief Physician, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Henrik Zetterberg, MD, PhD
Professor and Chief Physician, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Henrik Zetterberg, MD, PhD
Professor and Chief Physician, University of Gothenburg, Sweden