Advisors

Scientific Advisors
Business Advisors

Farhad Parhami

PhD, MBA

Founder, President & CEO,
MAX BioPharma, Inc.
Professor Emeritus,
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

3

Edward C. Jones-López

MD, MSc

Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine,
Division of Infectious Diseases,
Keck School of Medicine at USC

3

Kyu Y. Rhee

MD, PhD

Professor of Medicine,
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology,
Weill Cornell Medicine College

3

Jason Rifkin

JD, MS

President & CEO
PhageNova Bio, Inc.

3

Richard Balagtas

MBA

3

Jason Rifkin, J.D., M.S.

President & CEO- PhageNova Bio, Inc.

Jason is a seasoned executive with extensive expertise in developmental stage life sciences companies. He has successfully overseen various aspects of company operations, including clinical operations, business development, technology licensing, and capital raising. Before his current role as CEO at PhageNova Bio, Jason served as the President of PreScience Labs, an early-stage oncology company, where he played a key role in establishing a Phase 1clinical trial program. Prior to that, he held executive positions at Delcath Systems, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical and medical device company focused on oncology. In this capacity, he led the transition from a developmental stage company to a publicly traded commercial operation. Jason served as the Senior Vice President of Clinical Operations at Delcath, where he managed the clinical development program and successfully completed Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials in the United States and abroad. Before his tenure at Delcath, Jason practiced law as an associate in the Corporate Department-Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology Group at Fox Rothschild. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Pennsylvania, a Law Degree from Northeastern University School of Law, and a Masters of Biotechnology from The University of Pennsylvania, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. At his role as Business Advisor to Metaba, Jason will provide guidance on company’s business and operational efforts as it evolves into a multifaceted biopharmaceutical company during preclinical and future clinical stages.

Richard Balagtas, M.B.A.

Commercial Strategy

Richard worked in biopharma consulting with VOZ Advisors, a firm specialized in developing patient advocacy and engagement strategies for companies including Novartis, CSL Behring, Incyte, and Sanofi-Regeneron. He has supported commercial launch strategies for 10 new drugs/indication expansions across multiple therapeutic areas including cardiovascular disease, CNS, rare disease, and oncology. Richard has also worked in partnership with advocacy groups and professional societies including the American Heart Association, CancerCare, the National Kidney Foundation, and WomenHeart to develop innovative support programs designed by and with patients. Before his time in biopharma, Richard was a US Fulbright Scholar in the Philippines. His research examined the impact public health policies had in mitigating transplant tourism and illicit organ trafficking across Asia-Pacific on in-country kidney donation and transplant rates. Richard is receiving his MBA from the Anderson School of Management at UCLA. Richard will be involved in developing and executing the business and marketing strategy for Metaba.

Kyu Y. Rhee, M.D., Ph.D.

Professor of Medicine, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology,
Weill Cornell Medicine College

Kyu is a tenured Professor of Medicine and of Microbiology & Immunology at Weill Cornell Medicine and has dedicated his career to pre-clinical tuberculosis (TB) drug development. In addition to pioneering the development of metabolomics technologies that have enabled systems level biochemical studies of Mycobacterium tuberculosis physiology, he has applied such technologies to guide rational TB drug development through their ability to enable studies of intrabacterial pharmacology of preclinical drug compounds. Kyu is a founding signatory of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation TB Drug Accelerator consortium as well as principal investigator of the NIH funded Tuberculosis Research Unit. Kyu brings significant expertise and knowledge of the field of TB microbiology and drug development from both the academic and pharmaceutical perspectives. Kyu will continue to provide his expertise and guidance to Metaba’s scientists as they continue their efforts to identify new targets in infectious diseases using metabolomics.

Edward C. Jones-López, M.D., M.Sc

Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Keck School of Medicine at USC

Edward is physician-scientist and inventor trained in infectious disease and epidemiology, with over 25 years of experience conducting translational research across the entire spectrum of the tuberculosis (TB) disease cycle (i.e. transmission, infection, and disease). He has a long-held passion for combating TB through innovative translational and public health solutions that include bridging basic and clinical sciences. Edward obtained his M.D. from La Salle University School of Medicine, is board certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, and has held faculty positions at Rutgers University, Boston University, and currently at Keck Medicine of USC. He has led several multidisciplinary teams of clinicians and scientists conducting clinical trials in the U.S., Uganda, and Brazil. Over his professional career, he has diagnosed and treated hundreds of patients with TB, including individuals with multidrug resistant TB, and HIV-associated TB in Mexico, Angola, Thailand, U.S, Uganda, and Brazil. His pursuits in industry include experience in startups and large companies. As Lead Scientific Director and co-patent holder, Edward was a founding partner of Thisis Diagnostics, Inc. in 2013, a start-up company dedicated to developing a promising ultrasensitive molecular diagnostic for TB and led all phases of assay development including bench, pre-clinical, and several clinical studies in the U.S., Uganda, Brazil, and The Gambia. He also served as Medical Director of Infectious Diseases R&D for Quest Diagnostics where he guided and oversaw the R&D agenda and supervised launch of two new molecular assays and led development of new assays for various infectious diseases. Edward will continue to provide his expertise and guidance to Metaba’s scientists as they continue their R&D efforts in infectious diseases.

Farhad Parhami, Ph.D., M.B.A.

Founder, President & CEO, MAX BioPharma, Inc. Professor Emeritus,
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Farhad Parhami was trained as an Experimental Pathologist in the Department of Pathology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), under the mentorship of the late Professor Judith Berliner. His training and experience include molecular and cellular biology, lipid metabolism, bone and stem cell biology, and inflammatory, , vascular and fibrotic diseases.. In 1996 he obtained a faculty position and held the title of Professor-in-Residence in the Department of Medicine at UCLA until his departure from the University in July 2016, presently holding the title of Professor Emeritus. Dr. Parhami received his M.B.A. degree from the UCLA Anderson School of Management in July 2012. In addition to discovering the cross talk between Liver X Receptors and Hedgehog signaling pathway, Dr. Parhami is credited with seminal discoveries including the identification of osteogenic and anti-adipogenic effects of specific oxysterols, the recognition that dyslipidemia causes adverse effects on bone cells and bone formation, and that cholesterol biosynthesis by osteoprogenitor cells is necessary for their proper differentiation and maturation into bone forming osteoblasts. Dr. Parhami has published and continues to publish in many peer-reviewed scientific journals and is regularly invited to present his research nationally and internationally. Dr. Parhami is the original inventor of the Oxysterol Therapeutics® platform technology based on which he founded MAX BioPharma Inc. in December 2010 and negotiated an Exclusive License Agreement from UCLA for an oxysterol compound undergoing therapeutic development for spine fusion. Dr. Parhami has been successful in developing MAX BioPharma into a fully functioning biotechnology company that currently has 6 employees, performs R&D in 3 major preclinical programs that utilize novel oxysterols as therapeutic candidates, and has raised more than $16M in non-dilutive NIH grants and sublicensing income from an industry partner. In his capacity as President and CEO of MAX BioPharma and Scientific Advisor to Metaba, Dr. Parhami continues to provide guidance to Metaba’s business development and scientific R&D efforts, and has initiated collaborations with Metaba’s scientists in the areas of drug discovery for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) that have resulted in three submitted joint NIH SBIR applications.