We are Mantra Bio

Conor Callahan

Lead Site Reliability Engineer

Conor has extensive experience in cloud computing infrastructure, scalable systems design, containers, and security in complex environments. At Mantra he maintains and develops internal infrastructure, ensures technical compliance with data regulations, and provides company wide support with their computing needs. Prior to Mantra, Conor worked at Zoosk for 5 years where he led the migration to containers and cloud infrastructure. During this time, he earned the SANS Institute's 2019 Difference Maker Award for leading a cross-team effort fighting fraud on the platform. Prior to his career in tech, Conor's interest in the biotech field was solidified with two internships studying an assay for the prediction of autoimmune diabetes in Mike Lenardo's lab at NIAID. Outside of work Conor can be found cooking, baking, traveling, and doing photography.

Pranali Deshpande, Ph.D.

Scientist

As part of the Preclinical R&D team, Pranali leads the efforts behind payload packaging strategies and analytical characterization methods. Her wide range of experiences include working as a research scientist in R&D groups at large and small pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in the Bay Area. After completing a Bachelor’s of Pharmacy in India, Pranali earned a Master’s degree followed by a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Drug Delivery from Northeastern University in Boston.

Terry Gaige, M.S.

VP of Automation & Co-founder

Terry is in charge of building Mantra Bio’s internal technological capabilities to engineer and evaluate exosomes as a therapeutic modality. Through his career, he has consistently worked at the intersection of instrumentation and biology with the overarching goal of enabling and increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of biology research. In past experience, as design lead, Terry brought multiple products to market which went on to win innovation awards including R&D 100, The Scientist New Product Award, and the Lab Automation New Product Award. He holds a B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering (and a minor in Music) from Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he studied the field of magnetic resonance imaging to visualize complex tissue architecture. Outside of work Terry can be found sailing, hiking, or playing chamber music with his friends (an event his his two year old son calls “hoedowns”).

Daniel Goodman, M.S.

Research Associate

Daniel is part of Mantra’s process sciences team working on upstream bioprocess development. He brings experience in fermentation sciences from his time at Perfect Day Foods and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in the Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts Process Development Unit. Daniel holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering from UC Davis and UC Los Angeles respectively. Daniel is an active promoter for STEM education and plays in a softball league in San Francisco.

Mitch Gordon

Business Ops. Associate

At Mantra, Mitch handles all things operational. From ordering to recruiting, facilities management, and business strategy projects, Mitch ensures all the trains run on time. His past experiences include working as a researcher for the SF Veterans Affairs Hospital, and instructing microscopy classes at Merritt Community College. He earned his B.S. in Cell and Molecular Biology from UC Santa Cruz with a minor in Bioinformatics. Outside of work you’ll find Mitch biking, baking, and backpacking- or racing sailboats on the Bay.

Colin Gottlieb, Ph.D.

Sr. Scientist

As Mantra’s protein engineer, Colin leads the efforts behind cell line engineering, mass spectrometry, and other biochemistry projects. Through previous experiences, Colin has identified two zinc binding sites in the catalytic domain of DHHC palmitoyltransferases, as well as time-resolved changes in proteasome ubiquitylation in response to the unfolding of a single protein in live cells. Colin holds a B.A. in Environmental, Population and Organismic Biology from the University of Colorado, a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Cornell University, and completed a post doc at Stanford University. Outside of work Colin is passionate about public policy activism, getting outside, and spending time with animals of all kinds (particularly dogs).

Robert Halenbeck, M.S.

Principal Scientist, Protein Engineering

Robert is in charge of the Protein Engineering Team, responsible for developing novel targeting scaffolds for Mantra Bio’s exosome vehicles. Throughout his career, Robert has played a key role in the discovery, engineering, and development of many novel therapeutics, from secreted ligands such as Proleukin (IL-2) and Betaseron (IFN-B), to receptor-Fc fusions, and highly engineered antibodies. Robert received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the University of California, Santa Barbara in biochemistry before moving to the Bay Area where he worked for Cetus, Chiron (Novartis), FivePrime, and BioMarin. Robert is an author or co-author on 25 publications, and an inventor on 42 issued US patents. Outside of work he can be found truck camping at one of the lakes in Northern California with his family, where he loves to hike, fish, waterski, and sail.

Ginny Kang, Ph.D.

Sr. Scientist

At Mantra Bio, Ginny leads preclinical research study efforts. From in vitro potency assays to in vivo efficacy studies, Ginny leads study design, execution, and data analysis. An accomplished scientist in her field, Ginny holds multiple biomedical patents and awards. She has completed postdoctoral fellowships at UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences in Taiwan. Ginny earned her B.S. in Plant Pathology and Microbiology from National Taiwan University, and her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the National Tsing-Hua University in Taiwan. In her free time Ginny enjoys attending the opera, symphony, and other musical performances.

Alex Mok

CEO & Co-founder

Alex is an entrepreneur with over a decade’s experience in building life science businesses. He was head of commercialization at CellASIC (acquired by Merck KgAA), a UC Berkeley microfluidic organ-on-chip technology spin-out, and has also held senior product management and strategy positions within multiple life science companies including Millipore Sigma and Fluidigm. Alex is proud to have worked with strong technical teams and led the development of platforms that have been awarded R&D100's New Product Award, the Laboratory Automation New Product Award, and The Scientist's Top 10 Innovations Award. Alex holds a B.S. in Bioengineering from UC Berkeley. As part of his morning routine, you'll find Alex practicing mindfulness in the Soto Zen Buddhism tradition and passing coffee up for a cold shower and a sparring session.

Ed O'Sullivan, M.B.A.

CFO

Ed is the founder and Managing Partner of CFO Connect®. CFO Connect® is a business management and financial services firm providing part-time CFO services to early stage, venture backed, life sciences and technology companies.

Prior to CFO Connect®, Ed served as CFO for Nextec Applications, Inc., a thin film polymer company. Prior to that he was CFO at Newpoint, Inc., a power products company. And prior to that, served as Director of Finance at Fluid Systems, Inc., a division of Allied Signal, Inc., now Honeywell, Inc., a thin film polymer company.

Ed currently serves on the Board of Directors for DCS, Inc., Let’s Go Robotics, Inc. and serves on the Advisory Board of Endeavor Bank, Inc..

Ed has a BA degree from the University of California, San Diego, Revelle College and an MBA degree from the University of San Diego. He has also completed executive education courses in Corporate Governance at Harvard Business School.

Ishai Padawer, M.S.

Director of Process Sciences

As Mantra Bio’s Director of Process Science, Ishai leads upstream and downstream process development and scale up efforts. Ishai brings an expertise in manufacturing of GLP Tox and Phase 1 Clinical material gained from 8 years of experience working at both Merck & Co and Stemcentrx/Abbvie. Ishai holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering from Drexel University. Ishai enjoys spending time with his family, playing guitar, and traveling.

Katie Planey, M.B.A., Ph.D.

CTO & Co-founder

As Mantra Bio’s CTO, Katie Planey leads indications selection, patent portfolio development, data science and infrastructure strategy. Prior to the founding of Mantra, Katie published a dissertation in the journal of Genome Medicine on robust network-based omics unsupervised learning methods highlighted as Editor's choice by Science Translational Medicine. She also led a winning team in an informatics healthcare business case study challenge sponsored by J&J with a $20,000 prize and is an alumnus of the Springboard Entrepreneurship Biotech Program. Katie earned a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Yale (where she played 4 years of Division I women's rugby), and an M.B.A. and Ph.D. in Biomedical Informatics from Stanford. Outside of her leadership role at Mantra, Katie enjoys mentoring young graduates interested in data science or business careers, connecting people in her network to help them find fulfilling careers, high intensity exercise, and taking care of her cats.

Abhishek Ramini

Research Associate II

As a research associate on Mantra’s Preclinical Sciences team, Abhishek focuses on in vitro assay development, in vivo study design, and cell culture. Previously, he worked in the Murphy-Russell-Thomasy lab studying the effect of biophysical cues of the stromal matrix on corneal wound healing. Abhishek earned his Bachelor’s degree in microbiology at the University of California, Davis and loves adrenaline-filled activities like sky diving, or simply jogging with his dog, and listening to music.

Jacob Strelnikov

Research Associate II

Jacob is part of Mantra Bio’s Process Sciences team where he handles assay development, cell line development, and flow cytometry. Previously Jacob held a position as a researcher at C.H.O.R.I. (Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute) and taught peer-to-peer public health courses at UC Berkeley focused on healthcare systems. Jacob holds a B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology from UC Berkeley and enjoys spending time with family and friends, reading, and hiking.

Zachary Swinney

Research Associate II

Zachary is part of Mantra’s process sciences team working on downstream process development. He brings an intimate knowledge of process sciences from his time at Stemcentrx, and later AbbVie, where he developed antibody drug conjugate therapeutics that went on to clinical trials. Zachary earned B.S. degrees in both Microbiology and Molecular & Cellular biology from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. His passions outside of work include eating food, exploring the mountains, and the Green Bay Packers.

Linda Szabo, M.S., Ph.D.

Lead Data Scientist

Linda brings a deep expertise in developing statistical models and algorithms that enable discoveries of novel human biology from large, noisy clinical and omics datasets. She works closely with every scientist at Mantra Bio to test, validate, and apply these models to generate hypotheses enabling the discovery of new exosome biology with a focus on applications for human health and disease. While starting her career as an Information Architect and Software Engineer, Linda briefly considered pursuing a career as a bench lab scientist early in graduate school before finding her niche as a data scientist. Linda holds a B.S. in Symbolic Systems and Ph.D in Biomedical Informatics from Stanford where she received a predoctoral fellowship from Stanford’s Center for Computational, Evolutionary, and Human Genomics. She also holds an M.S. from SF State in Cell and Molecular Biology. Between making sure the dog gets enough exercise and the kids get enough sleep, Linda enjoys rock climbing, ice hockey, and running.

Raeline Valbuena

Research Associate II

Raeline is part of Mantra Bio’s preclinical development team where she handles in-vitro assay development, in vivo study design, cell culture, microscopy, and flow cytometry. Raeline holds B.A. degrees in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and English from UC Berkeley. After graduating, she went on to do research as part of the He Lab, where she won UC Berkeley’s 2018 MIC Image Competition for her microscopy work. Raeline is a passionate music playlist crafter, latte art expert, and would be excited to read your horoscope.

Liliana Maruri Avidal, Ph.D.

Senior Director of Preclinical Development

Dr. Maruri Avidal is Mantra Bio’s Senior Director of Preclinical Development, responsible for developing Mantra’s EV therapeutic candidates towards IND.

Dr. Maruri Avidal has more than 15 years of experience in virology, molecular, and cellular biology, with six years of experience developing oncolytic virotherapies and gene therapies. In her last position she was appointed Senior Director of R&D at Ignite Immunotherapy where she designed the lab, built, and lead the R&D team in development of preclinical candidates.

After graduating with honors in biology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Dr. Maruri Avidal went on to obtain a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Biotechnology Institute UNAM. Her doctoral studies, which were awarded a fellowship from the Mexican National Council on Science and Technology (CONACyT), focused on the discovery and characterization of novel mechanisms involved in the viral replicative cycle. Dr. Maruri Avidal completed her postdoctoral training at the prestigious laboratory of Dr. Bernard Moss at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) where She received an NIH postdoctoral fellowship and was awarded in the Salzman abstract competition. Dr. Maruri Avidal has produced over 20 publications, presentations and patent applications.

Dr. Maruri Avidal enjoys traveling the world to lean about different cultures and food. Outside of work she can be found hiking, biking, cooking and gardening.

Sidharth Menon

Data Engineer

Sidharth brings expertise in software development and data infrastructure, with previous experience working for health tech and clean energy startups. He earned his B.A. in Biology with minors in both Computer Science and Bioinformatics from the University of Southern California. Sidharth enjoys playing video and board games, along with basketball in his spare time.

Natalia Santos, Ph.D.

Sr. Scientist

Natalia leads analytical development as part of the Process Sciences team at Mantra Bio. Her efforts drive the development and qualification of Mantra’s in-house exosome therapeutic characterization assays. Natalia’s previous experiences include the development of a cell-free protein expression platform at an early stage startup, and establishing an analytical lab to support drug discovery efforts at the Oligonucleotide Center of Excellence, part of Alios Biopharma (acquired by Johnson and Johnson). Natalia holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology & Biophysical Chemistry from Uppsala University, Sweden as well as two Master’s degrees in Molecular & Microbiology Biology and Environmental Biology from Sofia University, Bulgaria. Natalia’s passions outside of work include dance, traveling, hiking and martial arts.