Laura Towart

Founder & CEO

Laura founded Vivan Therapeutics to advance a ground breaking personalised approach to cancer developed at Mt Sinai Medical Center. Laura became passionate about personalised medicine during her PhD studies at Weill Cornell Graduate School for Medical Sciences/Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Since then she has been actively involved in translational advances in medicine.  In 2008 she co-founded Celmatix, and was the founding CEO, and helped build a next-generation women’s health company leveraging big-data and genomics. Laura is an avid startup and technology strategist and angel investor, with a focus on personalised medicine. Laura is driven to help develop and foster biotechnology communities globally, and is an active advisor, speaker and mentor.

Dr. Nahuel Villegas

Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Villegas obtained his PhD in Biological Sciences from the University of La Plata (Argentina). He then trained in stem cells and developmental biology at the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine (University of Edinburgh, UK), and later in cancer research at the Institute for Neuroscience (CSIC-University Miguel Hernandez, Spain). His research focused in modelling human tumourigenic processes in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster to study druggable conserved oncogenic targets. His work intent is to bridge basic and translational science, combining tumour genome analysis, state-of-the-art genetic techniques and in vivo high-throughput drug discovery strategies aimed to find novel pharmacological anti-cancer cocktails.

Dr. Jay Kamdar

Chief Medical Officer

Dr Kamdar has a diverse medical background spread over two decades in Asia and Europe spanning multiple government and private healthcare facilities including teaching, research and academic institutions including NHS, UK. His current areas of interest and specialism focus around cardio-oncology and immuno-oncology working across different tumour groups and complex clinical cases in cancer and cardiac medicine collaborating with a team of international experts around the world. He is actively involved in early adoption of machine learning technologies and smart integration of artificially intelligent tools in digital healthcare; interconnecting various internal medical specialities and patients with complex debilitating co-morbidities to improve clinical outcomes and enhancing quality of life. Through early adoption and integration of pre-clinical translational genomic research to evidence-based disease targeted research, he is passionate in creating ‘real world’ operational products, services and treatment pathways in cancer genomics and personalised care for the  wider benefit of overcoming difficult to treat clinical diseases.

Pamela Frank

VP Business Development – Clinical

Dr. Andrea Chai

VP Compliance & Lab Automation

Dr. Chai is a career neuroscientist who begun investigating neurodegeneration before transitioning into neural tumour pathophysiology. She obtained her PhD in Neuroscience from the Centre for Integrative Physiology (University of Edinburgh, UK), using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster to investigate the pathogenesis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. She then trained at the Department for Molecular and Human Genetics (Baylor College of Medicine, USA), integrating genetic, transcriptomic and metabolomic data from both fruit fly and mammalian models to identify networks implicated in Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type I. Recently, Dr. Chai employed fruit fly models to understand the early stages of brain cancer formation at the Centre for Developmental Neurobiology (King’s College London, UK). Dr. Chai’s work has involved high-throughput behavioural testing, microscopy and genetic screening. She is also an aspiring data scientist with experience in lab automation, network analysis and genomic sequencing.

Dr. Cristina de Miguel Vijandi

Head of Scientific Operations

A multidisciplinary scientist with research experience across the fields of oncology, neurobiology, evolution and development, and plant physiology. Extensive experience in designing and performing complex fly genetics, developing SOPs for tumour variant selection and Drosophila cancer model design. Dr. de Miguel Vijandi has broad knowledge of diverse manipulation and microinjection techniques for the generation of insect transgenic strains and performance of complex micro dissections.

Dr. Deisy Guiretti

Senior Scientist

Dr. Guiretti has a BSc degree in Genetics and a PhD in Neurosciences. Dr. Guiretti has more than 15 years of research experience in genetics, virology, cancer and epigenetics, working in top institutions across Argentina, Brazil, UK and Spain. She has expertise in a broad range of molecular biology techniques and a true passion for translational research, which she is now applying to the development of personalised cancer therapies.

Dr. Annick Sawala

Head of Translational Research

Dr. Sawala obtained a B.Sc. in Cell Biology at Durham University and a PhD in Developmental Biology at the U. of Manchester. She then undertook postdoctoral research on the regulation of growth and metabolism in Drosophila at the Francis Crick Institute, London. She has extensive experience in Drosophila physiology and genetics, as well as state-of-the art molecular biology, biochemistry and bioinformatics tools. During her time at Vivan Therapeutics, she has focused on the management of compound libraries, the design and analysis of drug screens and the development of Vivan’s R&D portfolio.

Dr. Monsurat Gbadamosi

Senior Scientist

Following her interest in Neurodegenerative diseases, Dr Gbadamosi switched to using the Fruit fly for research during her PhD at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, (ICGEB), Trieste, Italy. She studied the role of the microtubule associated protein, Futsch in TPD-43-related ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) using Drosophila genetics and techniques. She also has experience using Drosophila for drug testing and discovery. She is excited to continue in this translational research direction and happy to use her diverse skills to contribute significantly to the improvement of patients’ lives. Monsurat is actively involved in science communication. She is a co-founder of droso4nigeria, a platform that encourages and teaches the use of Drosophila for research in Nigeria.

Alya Al-Johani

Project Manager

Alya has over 10 years project management, marketing, varied business admin and operations experience in both corporate and start-up settings. With a BSc in Business Management from King’s College she has led a diverse range of projects covering market strategy and execution.

Dr. Edoardo Abeni

Senior Cancer Bioinformatician

Dr. Abeni has experience in the field of cancer molecular genetics at genomic level. Throughout his career he has studied liver and breast cancer using innovative bioinformatics techniques. His knowledge in tumour molecular biology combined with his bioinformatics skills allow him to provide a full characterisation of the patient’s tumour mutations which are used to build our personalised treatments.

Dr. Hans Binder

Director of Data Science

Lixuan Sim

Biological Scientist

A multi-disciplinary scientist passionate about shaping the precision medicine landscape, with specific interests in cancer immunology and translational research. Trained in molecular biology, cell culture, Drosophila melanogaster research and chemistry. She is excited to be able to contribute to translational cancer research at Vivan and deliver solutions that will have a direct impact on patients’ lives.

Patricia Rojas Plaza

Biological Scientist

Patricia has experience in the development of cell-based assays, molecular biology and genetics. She is involved in drug management, molecular validations and planning and organisation of drug screenings. She also provides technical support related to Drosophila melanogaster genetics and husbandry.

Dr. James Withers

Chief Technology Officer

Dr. Withers received his PhD in computational neuroscience from the University of Edinburgh in 2010. Since then, he has risen through the ranks of engineering, data science, and machine learning leadership roles while building diverse teams at IBM, Microsoft, SwiftKey, and Spotify. He has a record of intellectual property generation and a passion for strong data governance.

Daniel Igumnov

Data Scientist

Daniel is a student at the Faculty of bioengineering and bioinformatics, Lomonosov MSU. He has research experience in both molecular biology and bioinformatics labs, and has created RNA-Seq and WGBS data processing pipelines from scratch. He is also a lecturer in Hock Training International and an assistant lecturer in Lomonosov MSU.

Susie Avagyan

Data Scientist

Susie recently got her Bachelor of Science degree in Data Science in Bioinformatics from the American University of Armenia and is currently pursuing her master’s degree in Computational Biology. She is a recipient of the 2021 Award for Best Bachelor Student in IT in Armenia. As a young researcher at the Armenian Bioinformatics Institute, she is involved with projects around cancer, psychiatric disorders, and single-cell genomics. As personalized medicine is one of her top interests, she is excited to use her skills to contribute to the company’s goal of revolutionizing cancer treatment.

Emma van Domselaar

Lab Assistant

Emma has completed her A-levels in Maths, Chemistry and Biology and is currently a Biochemistry student at Imperial College London while gaining work experience as a lab technician specialising in Drosophila at Vivan.

Alex Goncalves

Lab Scientist

Alex has garnered significant experience in science research and working with and handling Drosophila melanogaster – both as a student and in full-time employment – having used the model organism to first study lifespan extension as part of his MSci Human Genetics research project, and to later help look at the impact of mutations in fly embryonic development. Now he is both proud and excited to be given the opportunity to contribute to identifying effective personalised cancer treatments for patients.

Olere Igbanoi

Lab Technician

A Masters student with strong knowledge of molecular biology and its application in therapeutics designs, passionate about the creation and development of biologics.

Riti Chandra

Biological Scientist

Riti has over 3 years experience with wet lab work in the field of biomedical sciences. She has worked in areas such as Microbiology, Nanotechnology, Cell and molecular biology. She has a MSc in Biomedical Science and Research from University of Bristol, and BSc in Biotechnology with an Advanced diploma in Bioinformatics. Riti has experience maintaining and nurturing a colony of Drosophila melanogaster including completing full life cycle experiments with specimens covering day-to-day tasks of fruit fly care.