Leadership Team

Meet the VST Bio Team

VST-Bio has a first-class managerial and advisory team consisting of experienced professionals in healthcare and business.

Kris Zsebo, PhD

Krisztina Zsebo, PhD
Co-Founder, CEO, Chairman of the Board

Dr. Zsebo is a biopharmaceutical veteran with 42 years of experience in the Biotechnology industry and has been involved in numerous successful ventures.   She is CEO and co-founder of VST Bio. She has led both private and public companies, was also an Entrepreneur in Residence at Enterprise Partners Venture Capital. 

Dr. Zsebo also headed the Biopharmaceutical and Implant Division of ALZA Corporation, where she was responsible for the division which developed and filed the NDA for Viadur®, an implantable drug/device for prostate cancer patients. At Cell Genesys, where she was Executive Vice President of Research and Product Development, she managed the Xenotech division where Xenomouse was developed. It was spun off to become Abgenix, one of the most successful biotech companies.  Earlier in her career, Kris spent eight years at Amgen in research and product development where she worked on the discovery of NEUPOGEN®, as well as Stem Cell Factor, and various aspects of EPOGEN® development. Dr. Zsebo received a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Maryland, a M.S. in Biochemistry and Biophysics from Oregon State University and a PhD in Comparative Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Anthony Ware

Anthony Ware
Board of Directors

Late stage pharmaceutical product development and successful registration (FDA, EMEA). Early phase cardiovascular drug discovery Academic cardiology, with department leadership
Board of Directors, biotechnology companies, and multiple non-profits.

Specialties: Cardiovascular medicine and internal medicine (board certified in both). Member, Association of American Physicians, American Society of Clinical Investigation, Association of University Cardiologists, Fellow, American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association, and International Society of Thrombosis and Hemostasis

David Cheresh, PhD
Director
Board of Directors

Prof. Cheresh has contributed numerous papers in the field of angiogenesis and cancer metastasis. His early research focused on the function of integrins, cellular receptors for the extracellular matrix, in cell migration and survival. His current work is on signaling aspects of cell invasion by vascular cells and tumor cells, with a focus on preventing tumor metastasis.

Dr.David Cheresh received a PhD in Immunology from the University of Miami in 1982. In 1983, he moved to California to train with Ralph Reisfeld at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, where he was later appointed assistant professor. In April 2005, Dr.Cheresh joined the Department of Pathology in the school of medicine at the University of California, San Diego, and moved his laboratory to the Moores Cancer Center. Cheresh is a recipient of an NIH MERIT award. As of 2019, Cheresh is a distinguished professor and vice chair of research in the Department of Pathology in the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego.

Chris Somerville

Chris Somerville, PhD
Board of Directors

Chris has been a professor at UC Berkeley, Stanford University, and Michigan State University. He has published more than 230 research papers in biochemistry, and in cell and molecular biology. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society of London and has received numerous awards for his scientific contributions. He has a Ph.D in genetics and a B.Sc. in mathematics from the University of Alberta.

Heather Youngs, PhD

Heather Youngs, PhD
Board Observer

Heather identifies philanthropic opportunities in transformative basic and applied research that have important societal impact. She was director of the Bakar Fellows Program for faculty entrepreneurs at UC Berkeley, a senior strategic advisor at the Energy Biosciences Institute at UC Berkeley, and an assistant professor at Michigan Technological University. She received a B.S. in biology from Michigan Technological University and a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from Oregon Health and Science University, and was an NIH post-doctoral fellow at Stanford University.

Federico Corti, PhD
Scientific Advisory Board

Federico Corti, PhD is an Associate Research Scientist in the laboratory of Professor Michael Simons at the Yale Cardiovascular Research Center. Dr. Corti’s research aims to improve our fundamental knowledge of protein glycosylation and how this translates to physiological and pathological states.

Recently, he has shown for the first time that certain protein motifs are able to regulate heparan sulfate biosynthesis in order to achieve specific biological functions.  Dr. Corti has also made significant contributions demonstrating the critical role of syndecans (a class of proteoglycans) in various biological processes such as inflammation, atherosclerosis and angiogenesis with publications in JBC, PNAS and Nature Communications. Federico received his M.Sc. in Medicinal Chemistry and Ph.D. in Biotechnology from University of Siena (Italy).

Michael Simons, MD

Michael Simons, MD
Co-Founder
Scientific Advisory Board

In 2008, prof Simons accepted the position of the Robert W. Berliner Professor of Medicine, professor of cell biology, and chief of the Section of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Yale CardioVascular Research Center. Prof.Simons has published over 270 research papers and reviews and has been elected to a number of honorary societies.

Prof.Dr. Simons is a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale School of Medicine. He completed his clinical training in internal medicine at the New England Medical Center in Boston and cardiology training at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. He completed a postdoctoral fellowships in molecular cardiology at National Heart Lung and Blood Institute in Bethesda and in vascular biology at MIT. In 1993, he joined faculty at Harvard Medical School as an Assistant Professor of Medicine and rose through the ranks to become an Associate Professor of Medicine, Director of the Morse Coronary Care Unit and Director of Angiogenesis Research Center. In 2001, he was recruited to Dartmouth as AG Huber Professor of Medicine and Chief of Cardiology, subsequently becoming Director of Dartmouth Cardiovascular Center. 

Rebecque Laba
Chief Operating Officer

Ms. Laba joined VST Bio as our Vice President Finance and Administration in February 2022. She has over 25 years of experience in biotechnology serving in executive roles with direct oversight of finance and accounting, business operations, and corporate governance, among others.

Ms. Laba was Vice President Finance and Corporate Operations at Celladon Corporation where she led the company through an IPO. Prior to Celladon she held senior roles at Idun Pharmaceuticals having a lead role in its acquisition by Pfizer. Ms. Laba has raised over $350MM in private and public equity, and debt financings and has participated in multiple M&A transactions.

Development Team

Barbara Thorne, PhD
CMC Development
Dr. Thorne has over 30 years of experience in drug and biologics development and served as Executive Director, Process and Product Development at Celladon, Senior Director, Process Development at Targeted Genetics Corp. and as Senior Research Investigator at Bristol Meyers Squib.
Jeff Handler, PhD
Jeff Handler, PhD
Product Development
Jeff Handler has more than 35 years of experience in the development of small and large molecules and medical devices in a variety of therapeutic areas and has contributed to multiple IND and NDAs.  He holds a Ph.D in Pharmacology from UNC Chapel Hill, an MBA from Villanova University, and is a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology where he is a member of the Board of Directors.
Jeff Rudy
Jeff Rudy
Clinical Operations
Mr. Rudy has 34 years of clinical research and development experience across multiple therapeutic areas at several large and small pharmaceutical companies and 5 start-up biopharmaceutical companies. For the past 14 years, he has worked on advanced therapies (cell and gene therapy) for cardiovascular indications and rare diseases at a number of startup biotech companies.

Mr. Rudy has served on the senior executive teams as Vice President of Clinical Operations and Research & Development Operations for XyloCor Therapeutics, Capricor and Celladon . Prior to Celladon, he was Senior Director at Pfizer and held positions at Gilead Sciences, Cell Genesys and Amgen. Mr. Rudy received a B.S. in Microbiology from The Ohio State University.

Janet Guerrero
Product Development
Ms. Guerrero is an accomplished pharmaceutical product development expert with over 30 years of experience in the development of pharmaceutical drugs, biologics, and medical devices from research to commercialization. She has expertise in chemistry, manufacturing and quality control (CMC), product development, program management, and quality systems for the FDA-regulated industry. Ms. Guerrero has contributed to successful approval of NDAs and BLAs, and commercial launch and is knowledgeable in cGMPs, cGLPs, cGCPs, FDA and ICH guidelines.
Marianne Nielsen
Mariana Nielsen
 Head of CMC Quality
Ms. Nielsen leads the VST Bio Quality organization. She has supported biotech start-up Quality organizations since the 1980s when she joined the Genentech team as they prepared for their first product approval. When Amgen acquired start-up Synergen, she was part of the team that integrated the Quality Systems. Over the years, she has led many small firms through successful development efforts that ensured safe drug was delivered on time to clinical programs. Her lead role at Viralytics assisted a successful acquisition of the product by Merck, where she followed the product to ensure its successful integration.

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