Zephyr AI Announces Formation of Scientific and Medical Advisory Board

TYSONS, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Zephyr AI, Inc. (“Zephyr AI”), a high-growth healthcare technology company committed to radically reshaping traditional approaches to drug discovery and precision medicine, has announced the formation of a Scientific and Medical Advisory Board.

Representing a collection of some of the world’s most pre-eminent and pioneering leaders in research and healthcare, Zephyr AI’s Scientific and Medical Advisory Board will provide strategic counsel to review and validate the teams progress across the science, technology, and data organizations and define its commercialization strategy. Zephyr AI is a portfolio company of Red Cell Partners, an incubation firm that invests in and builds technology-led companies within the healthcare and national security sectors.

“Zephyr is well on its way to amassing the world’s most comprehensive healthcare dataset. Combined with top engineers, data-scientists, and next-generation machine learning capabilities, the team is generating novel, translatable insights that will usher in an era of true precision medicine” said Grant Verstandig, Zephyr AI Co-Founder & Executive Chairman, and Red Cell Partners CEO. “Most of the data that physicians need already exists, but it is too cumbersome to be used efficiently or effectively. The challenge that the team at Zephyr is taking on is one of synthesizing huge amounts of disparate data to turn inefficiencies into opportunities for providers to predict adverse health events before they occur and to determine the right drug for the right person at the right time. Ultimately, these capabilities can help ease the burden on the healthcare system while dramatically improving patient outcomes. Zephyr is truly privileged to have assembled this board of visionary thought leaders to lend strategic counsel and decades of insight as we pursue such ambitious goals.”

“Developing tools and products that provide value across the healthcare value chain – from patients and physicians to health systems, insurers, and pharma – is a tall order, but one I am confident the Zephyr team is uniquely capable of delivering on and linking these together. This includes linking genotype to outcome,” said Justin Stebbing, M.D, Ph.D., Editor-in-Chief of Oncogene, Visiting Professor of Oncology Imperial College, London, Professor of Biomedical Sciences, ARU, Cambridge, and Chair of Zephyr AI Scientific and Medical Advisory Board. “I am honored to be part of Zephyr’s trailblazing work and can’t wait to collaborate with the team to drive cutting-edge advancements in precision medicine.”

To date, Zephyr AI’s lineup of innovations include its trademark Vulnerability Network™ Method, which identifies interacting genes in tumors, illuminating when and why certain drugs will work, while others won’t, and its Insights™ product, a predictive analytics decision support tool with broad applications for population health and patient management.

“By building technologies aimed at predicting negative health outcomes and identifying interventions that ensure precise treatments tailored for the patient, Zephyr AI’s efforts have the potential to make a meaningful impact on patient care,” Professor Stebbing noted. “This is especially important when one considers what is at stake, particularly for those who are facing devastating diseases like cancer or diabetes. At the end of the day, it’s about making sick people better. It’s not much more complicated than that. How we get there is a different matter, and that’s where Zephyr AI comes in.”

Zephyr AI’s CEO David Morgan added, “Our ability to engage this esteemed group of renowned thought leaders is a testament to the caliber of our team, the early promise of our technology, and our exceptional Board of Directors including Dr. Jack Rowe, M.D., whose nationally recognized scientific reputation and advocacy were pivotal in making this world-class Scientific and Medical Advisory Board come to fruition.”

Members of the Zephyr AI Scientific and Medical Advisory Board include:

Board Chair:
Justin Stebbing, M.D, Ph.D.
Editor-in-Chief of Oncogene, Visiting Professor of Cancer Medicine and Oncology, Imperial College, London, and Professor of Biomedical Sciences, ARU, Cambridge

Dr. Stebbing trained in medicine at Trinity College, Oxford prior to a residency in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins, then completion of training in London where he has been a Professor for many years. He has published more than 700 peer-reviewed papers, the majority regarding new therapeutic and translational approaches in journals such as the Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Clinical Oncology and Annals of Internal Medicine. He is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, he used AI to identify baricitinib as having anti-viral as well as anti-cytokine properties, data that spearheaded its computer-bench-bedside-regulatory approval within 9 months.

Alan Barge, M.D.
Chairman, Modra Pharmaceuticals, Founder, Carrick Therapeutics, Co-Founder ASLAN Pharmaceuticals, former VP of Clinical and Head of Oncology and Infection, AstraZeneca

Dr. Barge trained in medicine at Oxford and London and specialized in oncology and hematology. He joined Amgen in 1990, as European Medical Director, and was responsible for the European, and subsequently worldwide development of Neupogen^® (filgrastim), and other hematopoietic growth factors. In 1999, he joined AstraZeneca, where he established a team responsible for early phase oncology drug development. In 2005, he was appointed Vice President of Clinical and Head of Oncology and Infection, responsible for building and managing a large development group, and the execution of AstraZeneca’s oncology portfolio globally.

Tom Maniatis, Ph.D.
Scientific Director and Chief Executive Officer of the New York Genome Center (NYGC), Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at the Columbia University Medical Center, member of the Zuckerman Institute of Mind, Brain and Behavior, and founding Director of the Columbia University-wide Precision Medicine Initiative

Dr. Maniatis leads the development of computational and experimental genomic methods and disease-focused research at the NYGC to better understand the genetic basis of cancer, neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases. He is recognized as one of the pioneers of modern molecular biology, having led the development and application of genomic methods to basic science and biotechnology. Dr. Maniatis’ research contributions have been recognized by numerous awards, including the Lasker-Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science, and membership in the US. National Academy of Science, and the U.S. National Academy of Medicine. Maniatis is also a pioneer in biotechnology, cofounding companies that produced several FDA approved drugs: Genetics Institute one of the earliest biotech companies (Factor VII, Factor IX, GM-CSF, BMPs, EPO now owned by Pfizer), ProScript (Proteosome Inhibitors – (Velcade) clinically developed by Millennium (bortezomid), Acceleron, (TGF-b inhibitors, Luspatercept (REBLOZYL) (now owned by Merck), and most recently, Kallyope Inc. a gut-brain axis company.

Siddhartha Mukherjee, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center

Dr. Mukherjee is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer which earned the award in 2011 for general nonfiction and has been listed among Time magazine’s “All-Time 100 Nonfiction Books.” A Rhodes Scholar, Dr. Mukherjee holds a BS in biology from Stanford University; a DPhil in immunology from Oxford University; and an MD from Harvard Medical School. Dr. Mukherjee is a hematologist and oncologist who has published articles in the journals Nature, The New England Journal of Medicine, and Cell. Dr. Mukherjee is the scientific founder of several biotech companies, including Myeloid Therapeut, Immuneel Therapeutics, and Vor Biopharma which has been given breakthrough status by the FDA for its anti-AML treatment strategy.

Richard L. Schilsky, M.D., FACP, FSCT, FASCO
Former EVP and Chief Medical Officer, American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), Professor Emeritus, University of Chicago

Dr. Schilsky is an international expert in gastrointestinal malignancies and cancer pharmacology, having published more than 400 scientific articles, reviews, and commentaries. He has served on a number of peer review and advisory committees for the NCI including serving as a member and chair of the NCI Board of Scientific Advisors and as a member of the Clinical and Translational Research Advisory Committee. He joined the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in 2013 as Chief Medical Officer after a nearly 30-year career at the University of Chicago Medicine, where he served as chief of hematology/ oncology in the Department of Medicine and the deputy director of the University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Schilsky is the Principal Investigator of the ASCO Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization Registry (TAPUR) study and a former member and chair of the FDA Oncology Drugs Advisory Committee.

About Zephyr AI

Zephyr AI is a high-growth healthcare technology company committed to radically reshaping traditional approaches to precision medicine. Through partnerships and proprietary data, Zephyr AI is curating the world’s most comprehensive healthcare dataset and marrying it with cutting-edge artificial intelligence algorithms to generate novel, translatable insights to build tools and products that support patients and providers and fuel ongoing research. At Zephyr AI, our mission-focused team of world-class software engineers and biologists leverage big data and next-generation technology to derive transformational insights and build enduring partnerships that will revolutionize the treatment of cancer, diabetes, and other diseases. Visit us at www.zephyrai.bio and follow us on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

About Red Cell Partners

Red Cell Partners is an incubation firm building rapidly-scalable technology-led companies that bring revolutionary advancements to the healthcare and national security markets. United by a shared sense of duty and deep belief in the power of innovation, Red Cell is developing powerful tools and solutions to address our nation’s most pressing problems. Visit us at redcellpartners.com and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Katie Griff
Head of Marketing, Zephyr AI
katie@zephyrai.bio

Liz Boten
Evoke Canale for Zephyr AI
Liz.boten@canalecomm.com