Founder’s Corner
Meet Our Tevm
Bringing together scientists, physicians, drug developers, and business leaders with over 500 years of combined experience to back the next generation of therapeutic breakthroughs.
Investment
Team
Srini Akkaraju, MD, PhD
Founder & Managing Partner
Srini Akkaraju, MD, PhD
Founder & Managing Partner
Dr. Srinivas Akkaraju is the Founder and Managing General Partner at Samsara BioCapital. Previously, from April 2013 to February 2016, he served as a General Partner of Sofinnova Ventures. From January 2009 until April 2013, he served as Managing Director of New Leaf Venture Partners. Previously, he served as a Managing Director at Panorama Capital, LLC, a private equity firm. Prior to co-founding Panorama Capital, Dr. Akkaraju was with J.P. Morgan Partners, which he joined in 2001 and of which he became a Partner in 2005. From October 1998 to April 2001, he was in Business and Corporate Development at Genentech, Inc. (now a wholly owned member of The Roche Group).
Prior to joining Genentech, Dr. Akkaraju was a graduate student at Stanford University, where he received his MD and a PhD in Immunology. He received his undergraduate degrees in Biochemistry and Computer Science from Rice University. Dr. Akkaraju serves as a director of Scholar Rock, Mineralys Therapeutics, vTv Therapeutics, Alumis, Inventiva, Kalaris, and several private biotechs. Previously, he served as a director on the boards of Seattle Genetics, Principia Biopharma, Chinook Therapeutics, Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Eyetech Pharmaceuticals, ZS Pharma, Synageva Biopharma Corp., Amarin Corporation, and Barrier Therapeutics.
Mike Dybbs, PhD
Partner
Mike Dybbs, PhD
Partner
Mike Dybbs has been a Partner at Samsara since the fund was launched in 2017. He currently serves on the board of a number of Samsara portfolio companies, including: Kalaris (KLRS), Nkarta Therapeutics (NKTX), Sutro (STRO), and several private companies.
Prior to Samsara, Mike was a Partner at New Leaf Venture Partners, where he served on the boards of Versartis (VSAR), Dimension Therapeutics (DMTX), Advanced Cell Diagnostics (acquired by Bio-Techne) and Principia (PRNB, acquired by Sanofi). Before joining New Leaf, Mike was a Principal at the Boston Consulting Group, where he was a core member of their health care practice.
Mike received an A.B. in biochemical sciences from Harvard and a PhD in molecular biology from UC Berkeley, where he was awarded a Howard Hughes Medical Institute fellowship. His research was published in peer-reviewed journals, including Nature, Science, and Neuron.
Abe Bassan
Partner
Abe Bassan
Partner
Abe Bassan is a Partner at Samsara and joined the firm in 2017 when the fund was launched. He was previously Director of Program Biology at Revolution Medicines, where he co-led the initial stages of the company’s 4EBP1/mTORC1 cancer program. Prior to that, Abe was at bluebird bio, where he was the project manager for the company’s β-Thalassemia, Sickle Cell Anemia, and ALD gene therapy programs. Before bluebird, Abe was an Associate at Third Rock Ventures, where he was involved in the firm’s investment in bluebird bio and concept creation for Blueprint Medicines, a precision medicine oncology company. Abe was also the founder of Aurora Medical, a molecular diagnostics testing services company.
Abe received an AB in Molecular Biology from Princeton University, and an MS in Developmental Biology from Stanford University.
Mitchell Mutz, PhD
Senior Principal
Mitchell Mutz, PhD
Senior Principal
Mitchell Mutz, PhD, is a Senior Principal at Samsara BioCapital and joined in 2025. He is a successful biotech entrepreneur, venture investor, and inventor with over 25 years experience in starting and investing in biotechnology companies. Mitchell was previously Entrepreneur Partner at Vivo Capital where he led investments in EpiBiologics and Bonum Therapeutics. Prior to that, Mitchell was a Senior Investment Director at the Roche Venture Fund. Deals led included Pandion Therapeutics (acquired by Merck), Good Therapeutics (acquired by Roche), Enliven Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ELVN), and Nimble Therapeutics (acquired by Abbvie).
Previously, Mitchell was a co-founder, president, and chief scientific officer of Amplyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biotherapeutics company, acquired by Pfizer. Mitchell was also on the founding team and the Principal Scientist of Labcyte, a tools company he helped grow from inception and was later acquired by Beckman-Coulter, Inc. He is also an inventor on 38 issued patents.
Mitchell earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Rochester, a Diploma in Orchestral Studies from the University of London, UK, and a B.A. in Chemistry with high honors from Oberlin College.
Matt Eckler, PhD
Principal, Public Investing
Matt Eckler, PhD
Principal, Public Investing
Matt is a Principal at Samsara, where he leads the firm’s public equity strategy. He joined in 2025, bringing over two decades of combined experience in healthcare investing and scientific research. Before joining Samsara, Matt held investment roles at ArrowMark Partners, GMT Capital, and RBC Capital Markets, and earlier in his career, conducted research on the genetics of early brain development and circuit-level plasticity.
Matt received a BS in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a PhD in Molecular Biology from UC Santa Cruz, and completed his postdoctoral work in neuroscience at UC San Diego.
Aditya Asokan, PhD
Senior Associate
Aditya Asokan, PhD
Senior Associate
Aditya joined Samsara as a Senior Analyst in 2020 and he currently serves on the Board of Palvella Therapeutics and is a Board Observer for Abata Therapeutics, Alpha 9 Oncology, Fluent Biosciences and ImmunOs Therapeutics.
Prior to joining Samsara, Aditya completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University where he studied the role of microglia in synapse pruning and cognition in the adult brain, and the role of aberrant neuro-immune signaling in the progression of neurodegenerative disorders. As a graduate student, Aditya studied the role of neuroinflammation in age-related cognitive decline. Outside the lab, Aditya also consulted for various life science investment firms such as Aquilo Capital Management and Sofinnova Investments and was a founding member of the Mythos Biotechnology Fund, a student and postdoc-led life science investment club at Stanford.
Aditya received his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Florida and is an alumnus of the Stanford Graduate School of Business Ignite Program in Entrepreneurship and innovation.
Jake Bieber-Dishart, PhD
Senior Associate
Jake Bieber-Dishart, PhD
Senior Associate
Jake Bieber-Dishart, PhD is a Senior Associate at Samsara and joined the firm in 2025. He currently serves as a Board Observer for Agni Bio and Maro Bio. Prior to Samsara, Jake was an Associate at Apple Tree Partners where he helped create multiple companies to advance novel medicines. Jake was first introduced to biotechnology investing at RTW investments, where he evaluated promising drug targets apt for therapeutic development.
Jake received his B.S. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University and earned his Ph.D. in Bioengineering jointly from the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, San Francisco, where he was also awarded the ARCS scholarship. For his PhD, Jake developed a high-throughput gut organoid system to screen drugs for gastrointestinal toxicity.
Clara Dong, PhD
Senior Associate
Clara Dong, PhD
Senior Associate
Clara Dong, PhD, is a Senior Associate at Samsara and joined the firm in 2026. She focuses on public biotech investments. Prior to Samsara, Clara was a Vice President at Jefferies, where she covered SMID-cap biotechnology as an equity research analyst. Clara was first introduced to biotech public equity at Eagle Health Investments.
Clara received her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University and earned her Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania, where her research focused on engineering hydrogels for X-ray imaging and therapeutic delivery for cancer treatment.
Ehi Akhirome, MD, PhD
Senior Associate
Ehi Akhirome, MD, PhD
Senior Associate
Ehi Akhirome is an investor at Samsara BioCapital, focusing on opportunities in biotech and diagnostics. He joined the Samsara team in 2026, bringing over a decade of experience across financial services, medicine, and biomedical research. Prior to Samsara, Ehi spent four years as an investor at Norwest, where he helped build the healthcare venture team and advise portfolio companies as a board observer. His work supported over $200M in new investments, including deals with Ray Therapeutics, Zenas Biopharma, and Ouro Medicines (acq. by Gilead for $2.2B). He began his business career as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, where he advised healthcare and life sciences clients on M&A, corporate strategy, R&D and commercialization. This work included two of the largest life sciences M&A transactions in 2021.Ehi holds an MD and a PhD in Developmental Biology from the Washington University School of Medicine MSTP. He served as the Principal Investigator on an NIH grant award that supported his thesis studying quantitative genetic risk and inheritance of congenital heart disease. He earned undergraduate degrees in Biology and Chemistry from Emory University, graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.
Venture
Partners
Jim P. Edwards, PhD
Venture Partner
Jim P. Edwards, PhD
Venture Partner
Jim joined Samsara BioCapital as a Venture Partner in Fall, 2022 and has over 28 years of experience in drug discovery across multiple therapeutic disciplines.
Prior to joining Samsara, Jim spent 22 years at Janssen Research & Development in roles of increasing responsibility. Most recently, he was Vice President and Global Head, In Silico Discovery & External Innovation, leading a multi-disciplinary group of computational & data scientists providing predictive and design tools across all modalities within the Therapeutics Discovery organization at Janssen. Prior to this he was Vice President & US Regional Head, Discovery Chemistry, leading drug discovery teams at multiple sites. These teams were responsible for the design and synthesis of small molecule drug candidates working with partners across all six Therapeutic Areas within JRD and delivered clinical-stage small molecule drug candidates against targets ranging from GPCRs & kinases to cytokines & cytokine receptors. From 1999-2014, Jim led various Immunology medicinal chemistry groups at J&J/Janssen which progressed clinical-stage molecules against novel first-in-class targets such as cathepsin S, histamine H4, and LTA4H. Jim began his career in the pharmaceutical industry at Ligand Pharmaceuticals, working on non-steroidal AR & PR modulators.
Jim received his PhD from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, working with Professor Scott Denmark, and his BS from Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, CA. He also performed post-doctoral studies with Professor Lanny Liebeskind at Emory University.
David Parry, PhD
Venture Partner
David Parry, PhD
Venture Partner
Dave joined Samsara in the fall of 2021. Prior to Samsara, he worked within the Global BD organization at GSK focusing on search, evaluation and due diligence of immunology-focused opportunities for two years. Prior to his work within Global BD, Dave joined the Discovery Partnerships with Academia (DPAc) Research Unit at GSK, where he worked extensively with multiple US/EU academic institutions to identify and progress early-stage innovation utilizing the capabilities of pharma within a collaborative, milestone-based framework. Prior to GSK, he was at Portola Pharmaceuticals, working on inflammatory disease and oncology drug discovery/development. From 1999-2010 he worked at DNAX Research in Palo Alto where led research, drug discovery and early clinical development of small molecule efforts focused on the cell cycle, DNA damage/repair and biopharm targets in the immuno-oncology space. Dave received his BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry from The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) and a PhD in Molecular Oncology from The Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF).
Ravi Rao, PhD
Venture Partner
Ravi Rao, PhD
Venture Partner
Ravi joined Samsara BioCapital as a Venture Partner in 2022. Ravi has been a strategic leader in the research, development, manufacturing, or commercialization activities of 5 approved drugs (FASENRA®, LUMOXITI®, ONIVYDE®, KEYTRUDA®, and CYTOGAM®) and two biology discovery platforms (ATLAS™ Platform and TRex Discovery Platform). He is a company builder and has served as CEO of early-stage bio companies. Ravi served as the CEO of TRex Bio, where he conceptualized and built a company aimed at discovering new therapies to restore tissue homeostasis. Before that, he served as the interim CEO of Complexa, leading the turnaround of the organization. Before Complexa, as the Chief Business Officer of Vtesse, he played a critical cross-functional role in corporate strategy, product development, and financial operations, leading the company from Phase I to a fully enrolled global Phase III within 18 months. He was instrumental in the sale of the company after the enrollment of Phase III. Before Vtesse, he held increasing levels of responsibilities within corporate development and strategy consulting at Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Genocea Biosciences, MedImmune/AstraZeneca, and Booz&Co. While at MedImmune, Ravi built the immunology product portfolio de novo as well as the crafting the journeys of several drugs, including FASENRA®, LUMOXITI®, DAXDILIMAB, and CYTOGAM®. Ravi holds a BS in Biology and Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin and a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from the University of Pennsylvania.
Betsy Santos
Venture Partner, Chief People Officer
Betsy Santos
Venture Partner, Chief People Officer
Betsy joined Samsara BioCapital in 2022 as the firm’s Chief People Officer. In her current role as Venture Partner and Chief People Officer, Betsy brings over 25 years’ experience building successful, mission-driven teams. Prior to joining Samsara she served as Principia Biopharma’s Senior Vice President, People from 2014 through the company’s acquisition by Sanofi in 2020 for $3.7B. She is passionate about building team culture through innovation, inclusion, and diversity. At Samsara, Betsy leads all internal HR functions and partners with portfolio companies on all HR matters, including leadership coaching. Betsy’s previous experience includes various Human Resources roles at CV Therapeutics, Cepheid and Genentech.
Betsy received a BA in Sociology from the University of California, Davis.
Robert Stein, MD, PhD
Venture Partner
Robert Stein, MD, PhD
Venture Partner
Dr. Robert Stein joined Samsara BioCapital as a Venture Partner in 2018. Dr. Robert Stein has over 35 years of experience and accomplishments in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. Over the course of his career, Bob has played a significant role in the discovery and development of eight marketed drugs, including Sustiva®, Fablyn®, Viviant®, PanRetin®, TargRetin®, Promacta®, & Eliquis®. He currently is an advisor to Agenus, Inc’s global research and development efforts. Prior to serving as Agenus’ resident of R&D, he held a number of progressively responsible senior management positions including Head of Pharmacology for Merck & Co., CSO & SVP of Research for Ligand Pharmaceuticals, EVP of Research & Preclinical Development for Dupont Merck, President and CSO for Incyte Pharmaceuticals, President of Roche Palo Alto, and CEO of KineMed.
Bob spent the early part of his career at Merck, Sharp and Dohme Research Laboratories. He holds an MD and a PhD in Physiology & Pharmacology from Duke University.
Robert Baffi, PhD
Venture Partner
Robert Baffi, PhD
Venture Partner
Robert is a Venture Partner at Samsara BioCapital and has proven leadership skills in biotechnology with a product development emphasis. He had a 20-year tenure at BioMarin and as President of Global Manufacturing & Technical Operations was responsible for overseeing manufacturing, process development, quality, logistics, engineering and analytical chemistry. Dr. Baffi served 14 years in a number of increasingly responsible positions at Genentech, Inc., primarily in the functional area of quality control. Prior to Genentech, Dr. Baffi worked for Cooper BioMedical as a Research Scientist and at the Becton Dickinson Research Center as a Post-Doctoral Fellow. Dr. Baffi has contributed to the approval and commercial success of 28 products. He serves on the board for Neurogene Inc. and Neuvivo Inc. Dr. Baffi received a PhD, M Phil and a BS in biochemistry from the City University of New York and an MBA from Regis University. He has authored a book on the role of Technical Operations in Drug Development called Making a Habit of Quality.
Thomas F. Bumol, PhD
Venture Partner
Thomas F. Bumol, PhD
Venture Partner
Tom joined Samsara BioCapital in January of 2026 with over forty years of biopharmaceutical research and development experience across multiple therapeutic areas. He was the former Senior Vice President of Biotechnology Discovery Research and the Immunology Therapeutic Area while also President and Site Head of the Lilly Biotechnology Center in San Diego at Eli Lilly prior to his retirement in 2017 after a thirty-five-year career. At Lilly, his teams discovered and engineered biologic drug candidates (peptides, proteins, and antibodies) across multiple therapeutic areas while also establishing Immunology as a core therapeutic area at Lilly. These collective career efforts resulted in over ninety clinical candidates and ten launched therapies including in diabetes (dulaglutide-Trulicity™), two immunology therapies.
Eric Dobmeier, JD
Venture Partner
Eric Dobmeier, JD
Venture Partner
Eric joined Samsara BioCapital as a Venture Partner in 2024. He brings 25 years of leadership, operating and business development experience in the biotechnology industry. Prior to Samsara, Eric was President and CEO of Chinook Therapeutics, a company focused on developing precision medicines for kidney disease that was acquired by Novartis for $3.5 billion. Previously, he was President and CEO of Silverback Therapeutics, and before that held positions of increasing responsibility over more than 15 years at Seagen, most recently as Chief Operating Officer. During his career, he has been directly involved in raising more than $2.5 billion in equity capital, and led negotiation of corporate alliances with many leading biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Eric has a law degree from University of California, Berkeley School of Law and an undergraduate degree from Princeton University. He serves on the boards of directors of several public and private biotechnology companies, including two Samsara portfolio companies, IntegerBio and Bionic Sight.
Alan Eisenberg
Venture Partner
Alan Eisenberg
Venture Partner
Alan Eisenberg joined Samsara Biocapital as a Venture Partner in 2024. An executive with over 20 years’ experience in biotech, Eisenberg works with our portfolio companies on program and commercialization strategies, with a focus on market access, reimbursement, and regulatory matters.
Previously, Eisenberg was Vice President, Global Public Policy & Government Relations at Alnylam. His responsibilities included Alnylam’s innovative strategies for access and value-based agreements with public payers, public policy and government relations, price reporting, as well as patient foundations. Prior to Alnylam, Eisenberg led government relations for Celgene and spent nearly a decade as Executive Vice President at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO).
Eisenberg served in a variety of senior policy making roles on Capitol Hill. He was an author of the Average Sales Price (ASP) methodology used in Medicare Part B reimbursement and a member of teams responsible for key health laws including Medicare Part D, as well as PDUFA III.
Earlier in his career, Eisenberg worked at Ford Motor Company as an economist and finance manager. He has a Masters in Public Policy (Harvard University), Masters in Finance (George Washington University), and a Bachelors in Science (Union College).
Keith Gottesdiener, MD
Venture Partner
Keith Gottesdiener, MD
Venture Partner
Keith M. Gottesdiener, MD, has held leadership roles spanning academia, pharmaceutical R&D, and public biotechnology companies. He most recently served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Prime Medicine, Inc., leading the gene-editing company through IPO.
Prior to that, Dr. Gottesdiener served as Chief Executive Officer of Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he oversaw the development and approval of setmelanotide for three indications in rare genetic forms of obesity. Before joining the biotechnology industry, Dr. Gottesdiener spent 16 years at Merck Research Laboratories, where he served as Worldwide Head of Late-Stage Development and Worldwide Head of Early Development, with major program responsibilities for the approval of more than 20 novel therapeutics and over 200 successful IND submissions. Earlier in his career, he was Associate Professor of Medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Dr. Gottesdiener received his MD from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School and his AB in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University.
Marcos Milla, PhD
Venture Partner
Marcos Milla, PhD
Venture Partner
Marcos is a Venture Partner at Samsara BioCapital. He has experience in drug discovery across the areas of autoimmunity and inflammation, neurosciences and pain, immuno-oncology, and orphan diseases impacting the airway. His training and expertise encompass the fields of biochemistry, biophysics, molecular pharmacology, cell & molecular biology, immunology, and structural biology. He has previously directed efforts focused on multiple intracellular and extracellular target classes, including cell surface and nuclear receptors, presented antigens, ion channels, cytokines, kinases and proteinases. That led to the discovery and development of break-through lead series of small and large molecule modulators of those target classes, as well as engineered T cells targeting presented antigens.
Marcos graduated with a BS degree from Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (Lima, Peru) in 1985, and a PhD degree in Cell & Molecular Biology from Saint Louis University in 1990. He did post-doctoral training at MIT as a Jane Coffin Childs Fellow (1990- 1993), and at Duke (1993-1995).
Marcos was the Chief Scientific Officer of Synthorx from 2017 until its acquisition by Sanofi in January of 2020, when he became its Head. Previous to that, he held industry and faculty appointments at GlaxoSmithKline (1995-1998), the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania (1998-2005), Roche Palo Alto (2005-2009), Janssen R&D (2009-2106), and Adaptive Biotechnologies (2016-2017). Since 2018, he also holds an Adjunct Faculty appointment at the Skaags School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences of UCSD.
John Orwin
Venture Partner
John Orwin
Venture Partner
John joined Samsara BioCapital as a Venture Partner is 2024. He brings over 25 years of diverse experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, having held senior positions at leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including Johnson & Johnson, Affymax, Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, Genentech, and Relypsa. Most recently, John was CEO of Atreca; he currently serves as Executive Chair and acting CEO at Agni Bio, and as board chair of Synthekine, our portfolio companies. He also serves as Board Member of Travere Therapeutics and Board Chair of Anaptys Bio. Previously, John was Senior Vice President of the BioOncology Business Unit at Genentech (now a member of the Roche Group), where he was responsible for all marketing, sales, business unit operations and pipeline brand management for Genentech’s oncology portfolio in the United States. He has also held senior marketing and sales positions at Johnson & Johnson, Alza Pharmaceuticals, Sangstat Medical Corporation, Rhône-Poulenc Rorer Pharmaceuticals and Schering-Plough Corporation.
Guna Rajagopal, PhD
Venture Partner
Guna Rajagopal, PhD
Venture Partner
Guna joined Samsara BioCapital as a Venture Partner in 2022. Guna has experience in applying Informatics & Analytics across the entire drug discovery & development pipeline to advance the search and development of safe and effective medicines. His training and expertise encompass the fields of Data Sciences, AI/Machine Learning, Bioinformatics, Computational, Systems Biology & Pharmacology, Genetics & Genomics, High Performance Computing and Theoretical & Computational Physics. He has previously directed and supported global initiatives focused on advancing cross-disciplinary basic research, translational & clinical programs across all therapeutic areas and in collaboration with academia and national/international pre-competitive consortiums.
Guna graduated with a BS and MS degree from the University of Malaya (Malaysia, 1986), and was appointed a Junior Fellow of the International Center of Theoretical Physics (Trieste, Italy) in 1985. He received his PhD in Computational & Theoretical Physics from Georgia Tech in 1991. He did post-doctoral training at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge (1991 -1996).
Guna was an Assistant Director of Research at the Cavendish (1996-2000) and elected a Fellow of Jesus College Cambridge (1996-2000). He moved to Singapore to be the founding Executive Director of the Bioinformatics Institute (2000-2007) that coordinated and supported biomedical computing & informatics supporting public & pharmaceutical R&D institutes at the BIOPOLIS. In 2008, he moved to Rutgers University to head the Bioinformatics & Systems Biology program at the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey (a NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center), with a joint appointment as Adjunct Professor at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and as a Member of the School of Natural Sciences, Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton (2007-2012). In 2012, he was recruited to Johnson & Johnson to lead efforts to develop and deploy Computational, Informatics and Data Science infrastructure & capabilities to support global programs in basic, clinical, translational research across all therapeutic and functional areas. After ten years at J&J, he retired as Scientific Fellow and Global Head of Computational Sciences and joined Samsara as a Venture Partner in September 2022.
Stephen Shuttleworth, PhD
Venture Partner
Stephen Shuttleworth, PhD
Venture Partner
Stephen joined Samsara BioCapital as a Venture Partner in 2019. He is a pharmaceutical scientist with over 30 years’ experience in the UK, US and Canada biotech industry, 17 years of which have been in C-level positions. He has directed multiple small molecule therapeutics research programs, primarily in cancer, and also in I&I, metabolic disorders and infectious diseases.
Prior to Samsara, Stephen was CSO and, latterly, joint COO/CSO of Karus Therapeutics, UK, and was the founding scientist of the company’s two small molecule oncology programs. At Karus, he designed and directed the research and preclinical development of the PI3K-beta/delta inhibitor, KA2237 (CVL-237, acquired by Convalife), and the HDAC6 inhibitor, KA2507, from concept to Phase I clinical trials. Prior to Karus, he was Head of New Projects Development at Cancer Research UK, London. Before CRUK, he was Director of Chemistry at Piramed Pharma, UK. He directed the company’s pan-PI3K and PI3K-delta research programs and, notably, he designed and led the research and preclinical development of the pan-PI3K anti-cancer agent Pictilisib (PI-728/GDC-0941), which was partnered with Genentech. Piramed was subsequently acquired by Roche for $160M, a 9-x ROI. Prior to Piramed, he was Associate Director, Chemistry at Tularik, South San Francisco, and, beforehand, Research Leader, Chemistry at BioChem Pharma, Quebec. He began his industrial career at Chiroscience, UK. He has published extensively in the literature, primarily in small molecule therapeutics R&D and in medicinal and synthetic organic chemistry, and has been an invited speaker at a number of international conferences. He is an inventor on 50 US patents, and on multiple patent applications. He received his BSc (Hons) and PhD in Chemistry from the University of Liverpool, and in 2007 was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Dan Spiegelman
Venture Partner
Dan Spiegelman
Venture Partner
Dan joined Samsara BioCapital as a Venture Partner in 2023. He works with our portfolio companies on financial strategy, planning, and execution as well as IPO readiness and finance team development. Mr. Spiegelman has over 30 years of executive finance experience at biotech companies, having served as CFO at BioMarin Pharmaceutical, CFO at CV Therapeutics and Treasurer at Genentech Inc. Mr. Spiegelman currently serves as Board Chairman for Tizona Therapeutics, and Audit Committee Chairman for vTv Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VTVT), Spruce Biosciences (NASDAQ: SPRB), Maze Therapeutics (NASDAQ: Maze), and has previously served as board director for several other companies. During his career as a financial executive and board director he has raised over $5B through financing transactions that have included IPO’s, follow-ons, reverse mergers, convertible debt, bank debt and equity lines of credit. Mr. Spiegelman has both buy side and sell side M&A experience, with several billion-dollar plus transactions. Mr. Spiegelman has also co-founded companies, including Rapidscan Pharma Solutions which was sold to GE Healthcare.
Mr. Spiegelman received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Dolca Thomas, MD
Senior Advisor
Dolca Thomas, MD
Senior Advisor
Dr. Thomas is a physician scientist, immunologist with more than 20 years of experience in academia, large pharmaceutical companies and biotech across multiple diverse therapeutic areas.
She has been a venture partner at Samsara BioCapital since 2023 and is currently an independent board director for Allakos Therapeutics and Ventus Therapeutics. She is also a scientific advisor for AnaptysBio.
Prior to Samsara, she was a board director for Chinook (acquired by Novartis in 2023) and held multiple roles in biotech companies including Executive Vice President, Head of Research and Development and Chief Medical Officer at Equillium and the Chief Medical Officer of Principia Biopharma which was acquired by Sanofi September 2020 for 3.7 billion.
Prior to biotech, Dr. Thomas held multiple roles in pharma including Vice President and Global Head of Translational Medicine for Immunology, Inflammation, and Infectious Disease at Roche where her team was instrumental for the approval of Xofluza; Vice President of Clinical Development and Clinical Immunophenotyping at Pfizer and Vice President and Chief Development Officer of the Biosimilars Research and Development Unit at Pfizer that resulted in the registrational approval of 4 biosimilar assets across oncology and immunology. Dr. Thomas began her industry career at Bristol-Myers Squibb as Director of Global Clinical Development in Immunology, where she was involved in the registrational approval of the immunomodulatory drug, belatacept and the life cycle management of abatacept.
Dr. Thomas began her career as a tenured track faculty member at Weill Cornell Medicine’s Department of Nephrology and Transplantation Medicine. She was the medical director of the Islet Cell Transplantation Program where she performed 5 islet cell transplants in 3 patients and was a principal investigator in several clinical trials. Dr. Thomas received a B.A. in sociology and a M.D. from Cornell University. She resides in the Bay Area in California.
Operations
Team
Reena Jashnani-Slusarz, JD
Interim COO
Reena Jashnani-Slusarz, JD
Interim COO
Reena is a highly accomplished operations and legal executive with over 20 years of experience in investment management including experience both as law firm counsel and in house counsel at several complex organizations.
Most recently Reena was the Chief Operating Officer, General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer at Juniper Hill Capital, a $6B multi-family office in Menlo Park where she was responsible for all functions other than investing (legal, compliance, finance, investment operations, human resources, etc.) and helped the firm navigate through the Managing Partner’s passing.
Prior to Juniper Hill, Reena was the General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer at Paradigm, a $12B crypto venture firm co-founded by Fred Erhsam (co-founder of Coinbase) and Matt Huang (former Sequioa partner) where she handled a variety of complex regulatory, compliance, governance, and strategic matters including launch of new products, building and scaling firm infrastructure, addressing regulatory uncertainty and handling legal and regulatory inquiries and actions. Reena worked closely with the founders in scaling the firm from 18 to 70 individuals, led the fundraise of a $2.5B venture fund, and worked alongside Sequoia to facilitate $1.15B investment in Citadel Securities. She also worked with portfolio companies’ operational teams in evaluating risk, advising on structure, recruiting, regulatory issues and inquiries including SEC enforcement inquiries and subpoenas.
Prior to Paradigm, Reena spent time at Elementum Advisers, a $4B U.S. registered investment adviser investing in insurance-linked securities and Mesirow Advanced Strategies, a $16B U.S. registered investment adviser with offices in London & Hong Kong which managed a portfolio of fund investments. Reena started her career at Sidley Austin LLP in Chicago where she advised registered and unregistered investment advisers with respect to privately offered US and non-US hedge funds, fund-of-hedge funds and commodity pools.
Most recently Reena was the Chief Operating Officer, General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer at Juniper Hill Capital, a $6B multi-family office in Menlo Park where she was responsible for all functions other than investing (legal, compliance, finance, investment operations, human resources, etc.) and helped the firm navigate through the Managing Partner’s passing.
Prior to Juniper Hill, Reena was the General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer at Paradigm, a $12B crypto venture firm co-founded by Fred Erhsam (co-founder of Coinbase) and Matt Huang (former Sequioa partner) where she handled a variety of complex regulatory, compliance, governance, and strategic matters including launch of new products, building and scaling firm infrastructure, addressing regulatory uncertainty and handling legal and regulatory inquiries and actions. Reena worked closely with the founders in scaling the firm from 18 to 70 individuals, led the fundraise of a $2.5B venture fund, and worked alongside Sequoia to facilitate $1.15B investment in Citadel Securities. She also worked with portfolio companies’ operational teams in evaluating risk, advising on structure, recruiting, regulatory issues and inquiries including SEC enforcement inquiries and subpoenas.
Prior to Paradigm, Reena spent time at Elementum Advisers, a $4B U.S. registered investment adviser investing in insurance-linked securities and Mesirow Advanced Strategies, a $16B U.S. registered investment adviser with offices in London & Hong Kong which managed a portfolio of fund investments. Reena started her career at Sidley Austin LLP in Chicago where she advised registered and unregistered investment advisers with respect to privately offered US and non-US hedge funds, fund-of-hedge funds and commodity pools.
Liz Grace
Head of Investor Relations & Marketing
Liz Grace
Head of Investor Relations & Marketing
Liz joined Samsara as a Partner and Head of Investor Relations and Marketing in 2025. Before joining Samsara, Liz was the Director of Investor Relations at Redmile Group, a $5bn healthcare focused investment firm. Previously, Liz had an Independent Consultant practice advising investment management firms in the alternatives space on marketing and investor relations. Liz started her career at Morgan Stanley in the West Coast Prime Brokerage group where she worked in Business Development and Capital Introductions before transitioning to the Head of West Coast Capital Introductions. She also has experience as an entrepreneur, founding an Art e-commerce company Grace Portraits and growing it to profitability. Liz graduated from Stanford University with a BA in Political Science & Economics and earned her MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Carolyn Nguyen
Deputy General Counsel
Carolyn Nguyen
Deputy General Counsel
Carolyn joined Samsara BioCapital in 2025 as the firm’s Deputy General Counsel. Carolyn provides legal support across the firm’s investments, fund compliance, and regulatory matters. Prior to joining Samsara, Carolyn practiced at leading international law firms where she counseled life sciences companies throughout their lifecycle and advised investors on minority stake investments and complex transactions. Carolyn has a BA from Yale University and a JD from Cornell Law School.
Kelly Tomera
Vice President of Investor Relations & Marketing
Kelly Tomera
Vice President of Investor Relations & Marketing
Kelly joined Samsara in 2026. Before joining Samsara, Kelly was the Head of North America Product & GTM for Small Business and Middle Market at Visa, leading sales strategy and product launches to accelerate regional growth. Previously, Kelly was a Product Manager at Stripe, where she scaled the Foreign Exchange product from 4 to 150 countries. Kelly started her career at the Federal Reserve Board in the Office of Financial Stability before joining Morgan Stanley, where she rose to Assistant Vice President of Alternative Investments, driving sales across private equity, venture capital, and hedge fund offerings. Notably, Kelly led the launch of Morgan Stanley’s first series of Bitcoin products, establishing the firm as an early crypto leader among Wall Street. Kelly graduated from St. Olaf College with a BA in Economics and earned her MS in Finance from George Washington University.
Indrani Rebbapragada
Sr. Dir Project & Portfolio Management
Indrani Rebbapragada
Sr. Dir Project & Portfolio Management
Indrani joined Samsara BioCapital as a Senior Director Project and Portfolio Management in the fall of 2022. Prior to Samsara, Indrani was the Head of PPM at an Arrive Bio, a start-up applying in-vivo target screening with machine learning to age-related diseases. Before Arrive, Indrani spent over nine years at Gilead Sciences. She was the lead PM on the Hepatitis B Cure and Hepatitis D Programs and managed multiple programs across early and late-stage development. She joined Gilead as an Associate Scientist in the viral immunology group working on innate immune targets and Treg biology. From 2000-2004, Indrani worked at Maxygen Inc. in Redwood City as a research assistant in early drug discovery in the Protein Pharmaceuticals Division.
Indrani graduated with an MA in Molecular Cellular & Developmental Biology from University of Colorado at Boulder in 2004, and an MS in Molecular Biology from University of Wyoming in 2000. She has a BSc in Microbiology from Nizam Collage, Hyderabad, India.
Riki Harada
Vice President of Finance
Riki Harada
Vice President of Finance
Riki joined Samsara BioCapital in 2023. Prior to joining Samsara, Riki was the Controller for Logos Capital, a biotech focused investment firm. Prior to that, he was the Operations & Compliance Manager at Banyan Alpha Investment and Director of Operations and Controller at Sensato Investors, both Asia focused systematic investment firms. Riki began his career at Citco Fund Services (San Francisco), where he held several back-office roles. Riki has a BA in International Political Economy from University of California, Berkeley.
Andrew Walker
Assistant Controller
Andrew Walker
Assistant Controller
Andrew joined Samsara BioCapital in 2023 as an Assistant Controller. Prior to joining Samsara, he was a Supervisor for Gen II Fund Services, a third-party fund administrator supporting Private-Equity funds and administering over $900 billion in capital. He was a member of the Client Service team working on the accounting, reporting and investor communications for over 40 funds. Prior to Gen II, he worked as a Staff Accountant for Tiret & Company, CPAs preparing tax returns and providing accounting services to small businesses and individuals.
Marie Chang
Associate Director, Finance
Marie Chang
Associate Director, Finance
Marie joined Samsara BioCapital in November 2022 as an Associate Director, Finance, where she is responsible for accounting and financial reporting for the management company. Before joining Samsara, she was a financial consultant for several startup SaaS companies in the Bay Area leading them through Series A financing and M&A closing. Prior to that, she worked as a Fiscal Administrator for the San Mateo County Labor Council where she administered workforce development grants and funding for their 501(c)(3) organization. Marie graduated from the University of Illinois with a BS degree in Accounting.
Meysis Lam
Accounting Supervisor – Portfolio
Meysis Lam
Accounting Supervisor - Portfolio
Meysis joined Samsara in September 2021 as an Accounting Supervisor – Portfolio where she is responsible for all aspects of portfolio company accounting and financial reporting. Prior to joining Samsara, she was a Senior Accountant for VantagePoint Capital Partners, a $4 billion global venture investor supporting companies from start-up to scale-up with a special focus on energy innovation and efficiency. At VantagePoint, she assisted with the operational back-office accounting and fund accounting. Prior to that, she worked at Deloitte Tax as a Senior Tax Consultant where she focused on venture capital and private equity clients.
Meysis graduated from San Francisco State University with a BS degree in Accounting.
Noushin Vaccani
Exec Assistant/Operations Manager
Noushin Vaccani
Exec Assistant/Operations Manager
Noushin joined Samsara BioCapital in 2017, and provides administrative and operational support for the team with 20 years of experience. Before her time in the healthcare sector, she worked for executive offices at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Utah Governor’s Office, and in the nonprofit sector.
Noushin has a BS in Political Science and an MBA from the University of Utah.
Ana Mariategue
Exec Assistant
Ana Mariategue
Exec Assistant
Ana joined Samsara BioCapital in 2018 as an Executive Assistant. She provides administrative and operational support for the team. Prior to joining the firm, Ana was the Executive Assistant to the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer of First Republic Bank.
Before entering the corporate environment, Ana was a preschool teacher for Head Start, an early childhood education program for low income families.
Ana earned her bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education from San Francisco State University.
Quinn Lavin
Administrative Office Assistant
Quinn Lavin
Administrative Office Assistant
Quinn joined Samsara in January 2024 as an Administrative and Office Assistant providing support for various members of Samsara’s Investment and Operational Leadership teams. Before joining Samsara, Quinn held positions in both recruiting and marketing.
Quinn has a bachelor’s degree in marketing and management from Washington State University.