Mr. Rongen is a serial entrepreneur and R&D / Commercial Development leader with extensive experience across many therapeutic areas and functions. He founded and progressed Matinas BioPharma (omega-3 and lipid-crystal nano-particle drug delivery) into a public company (NYSE:MTNB); and he was integral to the development and commercialization of multiple blockbuster products such as Humira^® and Lovaza^®.

Prior to founding Matinas BioPharma, Mr. Rongen was the architect behind Trygg Pharma which facilitated Norway’s Aker Group’s entry into the prescription omega-3 business. Before his work with Aker, he was VP for IP and Portfolio Management at Reliant Pharmaceuticals (acquired by GlaxoSmithKline) where he in-licensed Lovaza^® and led development and pre-launch activities. Earlier in his career, Mr. Rongen was Global Product Director for Humira^® and other Immunology Programs at BASF Pharma (acquired by Abbott/Abbvie). Mr. Rongen started his professional career as a management consultant at Arthur D. Little’s Technology Innovation Management practice in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, followed by his work in New York City as biotech/pharmaceutical consultant at The Wilkerson Group (acquired by IBM).

Mr. Rongen holds a Master of Science in Engineering (MSE) in Molecular Sciences graduate degree from Wageningen University in the Netherlands (with Biotechnology/Bio-Process Technology focus), and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Our Founder, Dr. Levitt, has more than 35 years of experience as a physician-scientist, in pharmaceuticals development, and he has held numerous leadership positions in development stage and global commercial biopharmaceutical companies. He is a prolific inventor with more than 25 issued patents and a serial entrepreneur having created and led multiple biopharmaceutical companies. Dr. Levitt is a founder of Onspira Therapeutics where he served as the CSO and a board member, which was sold to Sumitomo in 2019. Earlier in his career, he was Director Medical Affairs, Commercial Operations, CSL Behring. He also served as the Chief Executive Officer, President and a board member of Genaera Corporation (NASDAQ).

Currently, Dr. Levitt also serves as a senior leader in academia with a role as clinical professor actively caring for chronic pain patients, Chief of the Institute of Advanced Pain Management, and Vice-Chairperson for Research and Academic Affairs in the Department of Anesthesiology at University of Miami. As an established R&D leader, he has also served as Principal Investigator/Program Director on multiple competitive Awards from the NIH, DoD, Cystic Fibrosis, and Coulter Foundations. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed papers in prestigious journals achieving a H-Index = 62.

Dr. Levitt received a B.S. degree in Chemistry, his M.D. degree from the University of Maryland, and completed post-graduate training in Internal Medicine (board certified), Genetics, Anesthesiology (board certified), and Neuro-anesthesiology at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Medical Genetics at the NIH.

Mr. Barone has extensive experience in the biopharma industry spanning nearly four decades. He was a founding member of Reliant Pharmaceuticals and co-founded Essential Pharmaceuticals and Onspira Therapeutics, all of which were successfully transacted with strategic buyers at attractive multiples on invested capital. Mr. Barone led business development for EyePoint Pharmaceuticals, Heron Therapeutics, Celldex Therapeutics and EUSA Pharma. In that capacity, he managed all external growth initiatives culminating in numerous value-creating transactions while also providing in-house legal services.

Mr. Barone began his career at Merck where he spent sixteen years in business development, marketing, law and finance.

Mr. Barone received his B.S. in Accounting from Villanova, his M.B.A. from Fairleigh Dickinson University, his J.D. from Seton Hall University and he is a CPA.

Dr. Glorioso is Distinguished Professor and Emeritus Chair, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He was the Scientific Founder and Scientific Advisor of GenVec, Oncorus, and Coda Biotherapeutics, amongst numerous other gene therapy biotech startups. He is the founder and President Emeritus of the American Society for Gene and Cell Therapy and Founding Editor of the Nature Journal Gene Therapy. He was also former President of the Association of Microbiology and Immunology. In addition, he has received the prestigious Gene Therapy Pioneer Award and Paradigm Builder Lectureship.

Dr. Glorioso received his PhD in Microbiology from Louisiana State University.

Dr. Phillips’ experience and expertise is focused on CMC and technical operations issues for the development of biologics, and cell- and gene-therapy. She held the positions of Head, Technical Operations for WindMIL Therapeutics; VP, Product Development for the biosimilars group at Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Inc; VP, Product Development and Executive Director, Manufacturing Sciences & Technology at Auxilium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Executive Director, Manufacturing Technology at Tengion, Inc.; and served in various capacities for Centocor/J&J with responsibility for the development, technology transfer and technical support of upstream operations used to manufacture biopharmaceuticals.

Dr. Phillips received her B.Ch.E. in Chemical Engineering degree from Villanova University and her M.S. and PhD degrees in Chemical & Biochemical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

Ms. Hilgart has built her career around high-quality, goals-oriented project management in innovative biopharmaceutical and biotech companies. She held positions of Executive Director Project Management at Elucida Oncology, Director Business Operations & Quality Solutions at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Biopharma Cell Therapy Consultant at Celgene, Senior Director Portfolio Management at Sellas Life Sciences, Director Project Management at Dr. Reddy’s, Senior Director Project Planning and Management at Helsinn Therapeutics and other project management roles at Enzon, Parke Davis, Serono and was a deputy project management lead for Humira Development at BASF Pharma (acquired by Abbott/AbbVie).

Ms. Hilgart received her B.S. degree in Microbiology with a thesis in molecular biology from the University Indiana, Bloomington and her M.S. degree in Human Cancer Biology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She has been certified as a Project Management Professional for nearly 20 years and has achieved a Lean Six-Sigma Quality yellow belt.