Dr. Ehrich is a Pharma/Biotech R&D leader with 8 FDA approved medicines who served as President of Skyhawk Therapeutics, a Venture Partner at 5AM Ventures, and Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Alkermes and LifeMine Therapeutics. As such, Elliot has had a pivotal role in shaping the development efforts across a variety of therapeutic focus areas and therapeutic modalities.

During his 18+ year tenure at Alkermes as CMO and Executive Vice President, R&D he was responsible for all research and development functions, yielding a series of late clinical stage and FDA approved products.  His work encompassed both small molecules and biologics for indications in neurology, psychiatry, and oncology.  Prior to Alkermes, Elliot spent 7 years at Merck Research Labs working in clinical pharmacology and clinical development.

Dr. Ehrich has also served on the advisory boards of numerous companies including Praxis Precision Medicines, Verge Genomics, Heptares Therapeutics, Aileron Therapeutics, and Trialnetworks.com.

Elliot received a B.A. at Princeton University and an M.D. from Columbia University. He completed a residency in internal medicine and immunology-rheumatology fellowship at Stanford University.  Elliot was a predoctoral fellow at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, and a Cancer Research Institute sponsored post-doc at Stanford.

Enoch co-founded Surface Logix, the company conceiving of Retension Pharmaceutical’s lead asset, RTN-001, where he served in multiple roles, including chemistry, drug discovery, and preclinical development. Enoch was part of the core team that discovered and developed three novel chemical entities in metabolic, cardiovascular, and immunological indications. One of these, Rezurock, is now approved for treating graft versus host disease. 
  
Enoch has demonstrated success in translational research, from animal models used to establishing mechanisms of action to contributing to participating in first-in-man trials. His research experience includes medicinal chemistry, assay development, preclinical pharmacology, ADME, and drug formulation and manufacturing. Enoch conceptualized and invented RTN-001, making his understanding of the molecule unparalleled.
 
He holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from Harvard University, where his research focused on the fabrication and functionalization of biological interfaces. This led to the development of soft lithography, a technique now widely used in biology and chemistry. 

Dhanapalan (“Naga”) is a highly accomplished medicinal chemist and drug discovery expert with over 35 years of experience. He has held senior functional and management positions at leading pharmaceutical companies, including Pharmasset (acquired by Gilead), Bayer HealthCare, and Synaptic Pharmaceutical Corporation (currently Lundbeck). In these roles, he has led and managed drug discovery programs in various therapeutic areas, including cancer, virology, diabetes, obesity, pain, and benign prostatic hyperplasia. 

Naga directed the Medicinal Chemistry efforts of several HCV drug discovery projects, one of which yielded the therapeutic Sovaldi (sofosbuvir). Naga also has experience in developing commercial-scale processes for many active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). He founded DNSK International, LLC, and Medivedan Therapeutics, LLC. Naga graduated from the University of Madras, India, with a Ph.D. in Organic/Medicinal Chemistry and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of California, Purdue University Cancer Center, and the University of Illinois. 

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Susan Alpert, Ph.D., M.D. was a Corporate Senior Vice President for Global Regulatory at Medtronic, Inc. and VP of Regulatory Science at C.R. Bard, Inc. She is the principal of SFADC LLC (SFA Regulatory, LLC), a one-person firm focused on strategies to place medical devices and other medical products into the global market.  

She previously worked at the US FDA. She was Director of the Office of Device Evaluation from 1993-1999 and held various management positions in the Centers dealing with drugs, devices and radiological health, and foods.  

Susan is a microbiologist and pediatrician with a specialty in infectious diseases. She completed her undergraduate degree at Barnard College, Columbia University in New York City, holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from New York University, and a medical degree from the University of Miami (Florida). She is a member of several non-profit and for-profit boards.