MANAGEMENT TEAM
Elisabet de los Pinos, PhD, MBA
Founder and CEO
Elisabet de los Pinos has created Aura Biosciences from the ground up: from concept, through patents in her name, fundraising and incorporation, to today's pre-clinical research and strategic partnerships. She is passionate about eradicating cancer and is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
Prior to founding Aura, Dr. de los Pinos was Marketing Manager at Eli Lilly & Co where she led the launch of Alimta, a new drug for Non Small Cell Lung Cancer. Before that, she was a post-doctoral Fellow at the Institute for Cancer Research in London.
Dr. de los Pinos was recently named as one of Boston Business Journal's Top 40 talents in Boston under the age of 40, a Mass High Tech "Woman to Watch" and one of the ten entrepreneurs that will change your life by Time Magazine. Under her leadership, Aura Biosciences was recognized as a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum.
Dr. de los Pinos earned her BA and PhD in Molecular Biology summa cum laude from the University of Barcelona and her MBA from IE Business School. She speaks four different languages and earned an intermediate degree of Music from Liceu of Barcelona School of Music. She serves on the Board of Overseers of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Andrew Schiermeier, PhD, MBA
Chief Business Officer
Andrew Schiermeier is responsible for all finance and business operations. He is also CEO of Medicine in Need (MEND), a non-profit organization.
Previously, Dr. Schiermeier was CEO of Lantibio, Inc., a biotech company with three late-stage compounds in respiratory and ophthalmic therapeutic areas. While at Lantibio, he engineered the outlicensing of the company's lead compound to Alcon Research Labs (a division of Novartis), the world leader in eye care. Dr. Schiermeier also concurrently held the role of Vice President, Business Strategy & Valuation, and Head of M&A, for a New York-based venture capital firm and merchant bank where he was instrumental in forming nearly a dozen biotech companies. He spent more than a decade leading strategic initiatives, including dozens of product development strategies and some of the largest pharmaceutical industry mergers in history, at Ernst & Young and Strategic Decisions Group. Dr. Schiermeier also served as Senior Director and Global Head of Portfolio Management for Aventis Pharmaceuticals.
Dr. Schiermeier holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University, an MS in Biochemical Engineering from Stanford University, a BS in Mechanical Engineering (Valedictorian) from Washington University in St. Louis, and an International MBA from College des Ingenieurs in Paris, France. He is fluent in French.
Peter Elliott, PhD
Scientific and Clinical Advisor
Peter holds a BSc in Pharmacology from London University and a PhD in Psychopharmacology from Cambridge University under the direction of Dr’s Susan and Leslie Iversen. After post-doc’s with Charles Nemeroff at Duke, Mike Bannon at Yale and Claudio Cuello at McGill, Peter moved back to the UK to join Glaxo. During his 5 years (1988-1993), Peter led a number of CNS programs focusing on movement disorders, neurodegeneration and pain.
He then moved back to the USA to enter biotech where his first position was at Alkermes in Cambridge , MA . At Alkermes (1993–1996), Peter was Director of Pharmacology and was involved with their blood-brain barrier drug, RMP-7, and their stroke program. He then moved to ProScript which, after a few years, was acquired by LeukoSite and ultimately Millennium (1996-2001). Peter was Vice President of Pharmacology and Development during this time and was a co-developer of the multiple myeloma drug, Velcade©, and PS-519 for stroke. He then moved to join CombinatoRx (2001-2005) where he was Executive Vice President of Product Development and led the efforts resulting in 8 phase II programs in inflammation and oncology. Peter was then Senior Vice President of Research & Development at Sirtris Pharmaceuticals (2005-2009) where he led their programs dedicated to the discovery and development of novel small molecule modulators of sirtuins for the treatment of diseases of aging including, metabolic disorders, oncology, inflammation and neurodegenerative disorders. Work from his teams enabled multiple compounds to enter clincial development. He was also an integral part of the roadshow to take Sirtris public with a successful IPO in 2007. Sirtris was ultimately acquired by GSK for $720 MM in 2008.
Rhonda Kines, PhD
Director, Research
Rhonda Kines is responsible for all research activities.
Before Aura Biosciences, Dr. Kines was a Post-doctoral Fellow at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institutes of Health (NIH), under the leadership of Dr. John Schiller, Head of the Neoplastic Disease Section. . Before that she conducted post-doctoral research at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. She has authored numerous scientific publications and has multiple issued and pending patents.
Dr. Kines completed a Post-doctoral Fellowship at the Laboratory of Cellular Oncology, NCI, NIH; earned a PhD in Immunology from University of Buffalo, Roswell Park Cancer Institute; and earned a BA in Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology from University of California, Santa Cruz. She has been awarded The Federal Technology Transfer Award by the NCI in 2008 and 2010 and the Fellow Award for Research Excellence by the NIH in 2007 and 2009.