Board of Directors

Tom Smart
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Smart was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of AnaptysBio in 2007. Prior to Anaptys Bio, Mr. Smart served as Chief Business Officer at therapeutic antibody pioneer, XOMA Ltd.  Before XOMA, Mr. Smart was Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at GenVec, Inc., and held various positions at Genetics Institute, Inc. (now Wyeth), G.D. Searle (now Pfizer), and Cell Genesys, Inc.

Mr. Smart holds a BS in biological sciences from Cornell University and an MBA in finance and marketing from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. He has completed an ISS-accredited director education program at Stanford University Graduate School of Business and Stanford Law School, and serves on the board of directors of AnaptysBio, Inc., Acologix, Inc. and on the Amgen Bioprocessing Center Advisory Board of the Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences.

Kevin J. Kinsella
Avalon Ventures

Kevin Kinsella founded Avalon in 1983 and has been in the venture capital industry since 1981 when he founded Spectragraphics Corporation, which was followed closely by his founding Landmark Graphics Corporation in 1982. Mr. Kinsella has specialized in the formation, financing and/or development of more than 60 early-stage companies, including: Athena Neurosciences (acquired by Elan (NYSE: ELN)); Onyx Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ONXX); Sequana Therapeutics (merged with Arris to form AXYS Pharmaceuticals, acquired by Celera Genomics (NYSE: CRA)); Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: VRTX); Synaptics, Inc. (Nasdaq: SYNA); Vocera Communications; and Sytera Inc. (acquired by Sirion Therapeutics). Mr. Kinsella was the founding chairman of Athena Neurosciences, Aurora Biosciences, Landmark Graphics, NeoRx, Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Synaptics, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, X-Ceptor and Sequana Therapeutics.

Prior to founding Avalon, Mr. Kinsella worked for Solar Turbines International (Caterpillar Tractor) where he was in charge of all international joint ventures, barter and counter-trade. Previously he was an advisor to the Peruvian government in National Nutrition Planning, ran a technology exchange program between the U.S. and Latin America based in Mexico City, and taught algebra at the American High School in Beirut, Lebanon. He was also a guest op-ed columnist for the Boston Herald American.

Mr. Kinsella is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ("MIT") with a Bachelor of Science degree in management, with minors in electrical engineering and political science. He holds a Master of Arts degree in international relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies ("SAIS") and conducted post-graduate work in political economy on a Rotary International Fellowship at the University of Stockholm, Sweden. He is a member of the Dean's Advisory Council at SAIS. Mr. Kinsella is a member of the Circumnavigators Club, an elite group of explorers who have gone around the world in a continuous trip using multiple modes of transport.

Mr. Kinsella is the largest individual producer of the Tony Award winning hit Broadway musical, Jersey Boys and the partner of Rhino Records (Time Warner) in producing the Grammy Award winning, Platinum record Jersey Boys Original Cast Recording. In March 2009, Jersey Boys' London production won the British Olivier Award for Best New Musical.

Mr. Kinsella is a Director on the Boards of Amira, AnaptysBio, Inc., InCode and Sirion and is a Board observer at Ambit, BioVex and Acceleron, all Avalon companies. Mr. Kinsella is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a voting member of the Broadway League. He is the holder of two U.S. Patents on anti-diabetic compounds.


Heath Lukatch, Ph.D.
Novo A/S

Dr. Lukatch joined Novo A/S in 2006 as a Partner in Novo Ventures working out of the San Francisco, California office. Heath is a member of the board of directors of Amira Pharmaceuticals, Inogen Inc., NeuroTherapeutics Pharma and Synosia Therapeutics.

From 2001–2006, Dr. Lukatch was a Managing Director for SightLine Partners and Piper Jaffray Ventures. He was responsible for biotech investments and served on the boards of several biotech and medical device companies. Previously, he was at McKinsey & Company where his primary focus was on strategy consulting for biopharmaceutical companies.  Dr. Lukatch also brings entrepreneurial experience from his role as founder and CEO of AutoMate Scientific, Inc. a biotechnology instrumentation company.

Before entering the business world, Dr. Lukatch was a bench scientist at Chiron Corp, Cetus and Roche Bioscience, doing molecular biology, protein chemistry and electrophysiology, respectively. Dr. Lukatch holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Stanford University and a B.A. in biochemistry from the University of California at Berkley.


Nick Lydon, Ph.D.
Granite Biopharma, LLC

Dr. Lydon formerly worked at the Schering-Plough Corporation, where his research work involved studies on recombinant alpha, beta, and gamma  interferons. Dr. Lydon then moved to CIBA-GEIGY, in Basel, Switzerland, where he was responsible for the protein kinase inhibitor program. Dr. Lydon and his team identified a number of protein kinase inhibitors. The most advanced drug from this program is Gleevec®, a selective Bcr-Abl inhibitor for the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML).

Dr. Lydon then went on to found Kinetix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. located in Boston, Massachusetts. He served as the Chief Executive Officer and President of Kinetix, which was later acquired by Amgen. The R&D work at Kinetix was focused on the discovery and development of selective protein kinase inhibitors, a number of which are now advancing through clinical development. Dr. Lydon joined Amgen as Vice President, Small Molecule Drug Discovery. Dr. Lydon now works for Granite Biopharma LLC, a consulting company he formed in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Dr. Lydon has been awarded the Lasker Prize (Oct. 2009), the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize (May 2001), the AACR-Bruce F. Cain Memorial Award and the Charles F. Kettering Prize from the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation (2002) for his contributions to the discovery and development of Gleevec®. Dr. Lydon currently serves as a Board Director for Ambit Biosciences, Inc. and is a member of their Scientific Advisory Board, and is an advisor for Avalon Ventures.

Dr. Lydon earned a B.Sc. in Biochemistry from the University of Leeds, England, and received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Medical Sciences Institute, University of Dundee, Scotland. His thesis involved research work on adenylate cyclase and cAMP dependent protein kinase.


J. Leighton Read, M.D.
Alloy Ventures

Dr. Read joined Alloy Ventures as a General Partner in October, 2001, after 14 years as a biotechnology entrepreneur and investor. He co-founded Affymax NV under the direction of Dr. Alejandro Zaffaroni. He founded Aviron, a biopharmaceutical company focused on vaccines for infectious disease, where he served as Chairman and CEO until 1999 and Director until its acquisition by MedImmune in 2002. Dr. Read received a BS from Rice University in Psychology and Biology (1973), an MD from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (1976) and completed internal medicine training at Duke and the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston where he held appointments at the Harvard Medical School and School of Public Health. Dr. Read is a director of a number of companies including Alexza Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ALXA), Cambrios Technologies, OPAL Therapeutics, Inc., Seriosity, Inc. and was the founding director of Avidia (acquired by Amgen). Dr. Read has served on the executive committee of the Biotechnology Industry Association, as Chairman of the UC Berkeley School of Public Health Advisory Council, and is currently a director of BioVentures for Global Health and The BeneTech Initiative and a Trustee of UC Berkeley and the Santa Fe Institute. Dr. Read has won several awards as co-inventor of technology underlying the Affymetrix GeneChip™.

James N. Topper, M.D., PhD.
Frazier Health Ventures

Dr. Topper is responsible for investments within the biopharma sector. Dr Topper joined Frazier Healthcare in 2003 as a Venture Partner and became a General Partner in 2005. Since joining Frazier Healthcare, Dr. Topper has led several biopharma investments. In particular, he was responsible for the formation and financing of Arête Therapeutics, an innovative drug development company that is pursuing preclinical and clinical development of lead compounds directed at a novel proprietary target for cardiovascular and inflammatory disorders. In addition, Dr Topper led Frazier Healthcare's investment in Cotherix (CTRX). Dr. Topper currently serves on the boards of Amicus Therapeutics, Arête Therapeutics, Calistoga Pharmaceuticals, Intradigm Corporation, La Jolla Pharmaceuticals (LJPC), MacuSight Inc., Zelos Therapeutics, Inc., and is an observer on the boards of Point Biomedical and Portola Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Topper is also an advisory board member to the Harvard-Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics.

Prior to joining Frazier Healthcare, he served as head of the cardiovascular research and development franchise at Millennium Pharmaceuticals and ran Millennium San Francisco (formerly COR Therapeutics). Prior to the merger of COR and Millennium, Dr. Topper served as the Vice President of Biology at COR and was responsible for managing all of its research activities. He served on the faculties of Stanford Medical School and Harvard Medical School prior to joining COR, where he functioned as a clinician, instructor and basic investigator.

Dr. Topper received his M.D. and Ph.D. (in Biophysics) from Stanford University School of Medicine in 1991 under the auspices of the Medical Scientist Training Program. He completed his postgraduate training in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Disease at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and is board certified in both disciplines. After completing a research fellowship in the Vascular Research Division in the department of Pathology at the Brigham and Women's hospital, he joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School from 1997 to 1998, and subsequently Stanford University as an Assistant Professor of Medicine (Cardiovascular) in July 1998. He has authored over 50 publications and was the recipient of a Howard Hughes Scholars Award while on the faculty at Stanford University. He continues to hold an appointment as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at Stanford University and as a Cardiology Consultant to the Palo Alto Veterans Administration Hospital.