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We began as a team of scientists building upon an established, yet not fully explored, way to approach disease: cellular stress and calcium imbalance in the cell.
Cellular stress and calcium imbalance have been shown to be at the root of a wide range of diseases. For years, we have been researching how activating a calcium pump called SERCA in the cell can restore calcium balance and reverse cellular stress.
Our breakthrough therapeutics are now under preclinical development for diseases such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and other rare diseases. We have formed impressive partnerships to help achieve our vision of changing the lives of patients suffering from debilitating diseases.
Trained as a synthetic organic chemist, Dr. Russell Dahl founded and advised multiple startup companies developing therapeutics in diverse areas such as cancer, hearing loss, CNS disorders, and heart failure.
Dr. Dahl has held tenure-track professor positions in medicinal chemistry and neuroscience and has co-authored over 100 publications. He is inventor on over 60 patents or applications in therapeutics and chemistry. He received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of California, San Diego as a DuPont Pharmaceuticals Fellow and received additional training in Molecular Pharmacology from Stanford.
Colleen has worked for over 13 years as a Registered Nurse in the Intensive Care Unit. She has extensive experience working with critically ill patients with a wide range of degenerative diseases, including diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s, with a specific focus on cardiac and stroke patients. Colleen has additional training as a Legal Nurse Consultant working alongside attorneys on a diverse array of medically-related legal cases. Colleen received her nursing degree from Purdue University.
Brunde is a partner in a family-controlled venture firm. The firm maintains a long-term investment horizon and has funded several start-ups from its inception to upwards of $150 million-dollar valuation. Brunde is the author of the book “The Calcium Connection,” which covers the importance of Calcium ATPase, a key cellular enzyme that plays a pivotal role in health and disease. She earned her MBA at Yale University.
Dr. Carmella Evans-Molina is the Eli Lilly Professor of Pediatric Diabetes at the IU School of Medicine, where she serves as director of the IU Center for Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases and the Herman B Wells Center for Pediatric Diabetes Research. Her research focuses on the molecular and inflammatory etiologies of beta cell dysfunction in diabetes mellitus with an emphasis on the regulation of intracellular calcium homeostasis. She has ongoing translational projects focused on the discovery and validation of novel serum biomarkers to identify early beta cell stress in clinically silent Type 1 diabetes.
Dr. Evans-Molina received her M.D. degree from Marshall University in Huntington, WV and her Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Virginia.
D. James Surmeier Ph.D. is Nathan Smith Davis Professor and Chair of the Department of Neuroscience at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. His research program focuses on physiological determinants of Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases. Dr. Surmeier received his Ph.D. in Physiology and Biophysics from the University of Washington.
Ilya Bezprozvanny Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department of Physiology in UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and is the Carl J. and Hortense M. Thomsen Chair in Alzheimer’s Disease Research. His main research interests are focused on understanding the role of dysfunctional calcium signaling in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders. He received an M.Sci in Physics from the St Petersburg Polytechnical University and a Ph.D. in Cell Biology from the Institute of Cytology, Russian Academy of Sciences.
John Amatruda, M.D. has over 25 years of experience as a senior pharmaceutical research executive and scientific consultant and over 40 years of experience in the practice and teaching of medicine. He currently sits on the board of directors and scientific advisory boards of several biotechnology companies. He has also been a consultant and scientific advisor to more than 20 additional biotechnology and leading pharmaceutical companies since 2009. Dr. Amatruda has co-authored over 160 publications in the areas of both clinical and basic research in diabetes, obesity and lipids, many of which have been published in leading peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Amatruda’s clinical practice at the University of Rochester and at Yale was in general endocrinology with an emphasis on Diabetes and Obesity. Dr. Amatruda received his formal education at Yale University and The Medical College of Wisconsin.
Seth L. Robia Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department of Cell and Molecular Physiology, Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University Chicago and serves as Co-Director of the Loyola Cardiovascular Research Institute. His research focuses primarily on membrane transport proteins involved in cell signaling. He obtained his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Physiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and pursued postdoctoral research training at the University of Minnesota.