Michael John Tolentino is Chief Innovation Officer and Co-Founder of Aviceda Therapeutics, where he invented glycomimetic nanoparticles to modulate inflammation by agonizing or antagonizing SIGLEC receptors. He is an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Central Florida and Orlando College of Osteopathic Medicine. He received his honors bachelor’s degree in computer science and organizational behavior from Brown University and his medical degree from the University of Massachusetts. After medical school, he completed a post-doctoral angiogenesis research fellowship with Dr. Judah Folkman at Harvard Medical School. His research demonstrated that VEGF was sufficient and necessary for retinal neovascular diseases and developed Bevacizumab, Ranibizumab and Pegaptanib Sodium for intravitreal administration. As an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania, he worked on AAV/Adenoviral gene therapy and invented Bevasiranib, the first RNA interference siRNA therapeutic to enter human clinical trials. At Promedior, an anti-fibrosis company, he developed pentraxin as an anti-fibrotic. He has been a principal investigator in over 150 global clinical trials that led to multiple global approvals for retina therapeutics. He has published over 90 peer-reviewed papers and over 100 publications in the field of anti-angiogenic, immune-modulating, retinal and macular degeneration therapies.
Anitha Krishnan joined Aviceda Therapeutics in 2019 as Director of Research & Development and is currently Senior Director /Head of Biology at Aviceda. She leads the nonclinical and translational team for Aviceda's lead asset and upcoming assets. She has supported and successfully contributed to the Investigational New Drug (IND) application submission to the FDA. Previously, she was a Staff Scientist at Harvard Medical School, Department of Ophthalmology, for seven years, where she managed multiple projects in different ocular diseases. She has worked extensively on neuroprotection of retinal ganglion cells using gene therapy. She has significant experience in working with a range of modalities including gene therapy (viral), small molecules and antibody approaches to target diseases. She received a master’s and Ph. D. in Physiology and Molecular Biology (Plants) from G. B Pant University, India, and her bachelor’s (Hons) in Microbiology from Delhi University, India. She was a Post-Doctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota Medical Centre and Boston College before joining the Harvard Ophthalmology Department.
Mohamed A. Genead is Chief Executive Officer & President and Co-Founder of Aviceda Therapeutics. An ophthalmologist, serial life-sciences entrepreneur, and a global biopharma executive and senior leader with over 20 years of experience in research and development with a proven record of success in developing and launching global therapeutics in the US and Ex-US markets. He is a member of
numerous professional and honorary societies, including the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, the American Society of Cell & Gene Therapy, and the International Society for Clinical Electrophysiology of Vision.
