Our Team

Samir Ounzain is a molecular biologist with over 15 years of experience exploring the dark matter of the genome and its roles in development and disease. Prior to founding HAYA Therapeutics, Samir was a Project Leader and Research Fellow at the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), where his research efforts directly led to the discovery of hundreds of novel heart-enriched lncRNAs, most notably the lncRNAs CARMEN, Meteor and Wisper.

Benjamin Kreitman broadly supports the Broadview investment team in its day-to-day operations, including identification and screening of new opportunities, due diligence, negotiation of deal structure, and portfolio company involvement.

Prior to joining Broadview, Benjamin was a Consultant at Monitor Deloitte, the strategy management consulting arm of Deloitte Consulting, LLP. At Monitor Deloitte, Benjamin worked alongside senior executives on a variety of engagements including commercial strategy development for biotechnology startups as well as global pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, and corporate development and investment due diligence across a number of industries.

Benjamin earned undergraduate degrees in Biological Sciences and Financial Economics Magna Cum Laude from Columbia University.

Daniel is a biotechnology scientist with 10 years’ experience working in the field of pharmaceutical biotech including various translational aspects of drug development and production. As a post-doctoral fellow at the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) Daniel worked on methods for therapeutic gene delivery and modulation using different modalities including antisense oligonucleotides. During his PhD at the University of Lausanne and Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), his work was focused on the development of novel strategies for manufacturing processes in compliance with GMP standards in support of different gene therapy applications and clinical trials.

Jens has more than 18 years of biopharma venture capital and company creation experience and 10 years of operational experience in drug discovery and development. Before joining Apollo Health Ventures as Managing Partner, Jens served as President of GlaxoSmithKline’s corporate venture fund SR One for eight years. Jens is also co-founder and was Managing Director of GSK’s Action Potential Venture Capital (APVC) fund which invests in pioneering bioelectronic technologies. Previously, Jens was a General Partner at TVM Capital leading early-stage investments in Boston.

Jens is a Kauffman Fellow, a member of the EU-sponsored Gold Track Expert Council, and a passionate mentor for entrepreneurs and start-up teams in the area of innovative life science and healthcare IT. Before his investment career, Jens was leading research teams and pharma collaborations at Enanta Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ENTA) and Mitotix, Inc.

Dr. Rinn obtained his PhD in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University. His thesis research in Michael Snyder’s lab was one of the first to discover thousands of lncRNAs encoded in the human genome. Dr. Rinn continued to work on lncRNA regulation as a Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellow with Howard Chang at Stanford. He started his independent research program at Harvard University in the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology and the Broad Institute. After receiving tenure, Dr. Rinn moved his research program to focus more on RNA biochemistry at the University of Colorado Boulder BioFrontier’s Institute. Collectively, the Rinn lab’s research has been recognized by several national and international awards, including NIH Directors Innovator Award and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Faculty scholars program.

Dr. Rinn was recently considered one of the top 1% influential scientists of the decade by the Web of Science in Genetics and Molecular biology.

Dr. Agrawal is founder and President of ARNAY Sciences LLC. He also serves as a member of the business advisory board of Harvard Medical School’s Initiative for RNA Medicine and serves on the SAB of several biotechnology companies. He is a co-founder of Idera Pharmaceuticals and has held various leadership roles within the company, including Chairman, CEO, and President of Research until 2017. Over the last three decades, his research has been focused on the discovery and development of antisense and RNA-based therapeutics.

He has published over 300 research papers and is listed as a co-inventor on more than 400 patents worldwide. He has edited four books on oligonucleotides and antisense technology, including a recent book on ‘Advances in Nucleic Acid Therapeutics’ published by The Royal Society of Chemistry.

Dr. Miller is a cardiologist and cardiovascular researcher in the UK. He leads a heart failure with preserved ejection fraction clinical service and is the director of a cardiovascular magnetic resonance research center. Dr Miller conducts experimental medicine trials evaluating the efficacy and mechanism of new and repurposed therapies designed to target key cardiovascular disease processes. He develops quantitative imaging biomarkers of cardiovascular injury and adaptation and applies these biomarkers to deeply phenotype cardiovascular health and disease. He also employs the imaging biomarkers in the experimental medicine trials for predictive enrichment, and to measure the effect of therapies, and as such, he uses imaging to connect human cardiovascular biology with drug mechanisms of action in order to increase the likelihood of Phase III success.

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Dr. Schelbert is Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology at the University of Pittsburgh and Director of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance. He has focused on measuring myocardial fibrosis for two decades ever since commencing training in cardiology. He has pioneered the deployment of routine, noninvasive myocardial fibrosis measurements in humans and its strong association with incident patient outcomes. Dr. Schelbert's work builds upon several investigations from other pioneers and demonstrates that myocardial fibrosis represents a distinct domain of vulnerability for patients, separate from conventional measures.

Dr. Schelbert has published his research in world-leading, peer-reviewed journals including The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and Circulation of the American Heart Association.

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