About Us
Locus Biosciences is a precision medicine company that is developing bacteriophage products that remove disease-causing pathogenic bacteria from the human body
A new approach is desperately needed to fight antibiotic resistance.
Antibiotics were the wonder drugs of the 20th century, dramatically reducing the burden of bacterial infections on human health. This, however, created a reliance on broad-spectrum drugs that indiscriminately remove bacteria from the body despite only one species of bacteria being the culprit in a typical infection. In recent decades, bacteria have evolved resistance to nearly all commonly used antibiotics, threatening the progress that we have made and increasing the risks involved with common medical procedures from knee replacements to childbirth.
Along the way, we have learned that many bacteria contribute positively to human health and should be maintained in the body. Broad-spectrum antibiotics disrupt the normal balance of the microbiome, often leading to serious side effects or secondary problems such as C. difficile infections.
At Locus Biosciences we are on a mission to change the future of medicine by developing precision medicines that target only the pathogenic bacteria causing an infection, leaving the other bacteria in the microbiome unaffected. In parallel, we are developing biotherapeutics that leverage the microbiome to treat common diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease and cancer.
Meet the Team
We have assembled an experienced team of leaders in precision antibacterial drug development to drive our products into clinical development.
Paul is the CEO & Co-founder of Locus Biosciences. With a career that spans manufacturing, research & development, information technology and corporate transformations, Paul brings a broad range of experience and capability to deliver on the Locus vision. Prior to Locus, Paul was Chief Technology Officer at Patheon Pharmaceuticals and also held the role of Global Head of Operations for Patheon’s Pharmaceuticals Development Services business unit. Paul previously served as Global Head of Manufacturing and Chief Information Officer at Valeant Pharmaceuticals, amount other roles. Paul was a Visiting Professor at North Carolina State University’s Poole College of Management and volunteered as an executive-in-residence for the HiTEC Graduate Program, NCSU’s Entrepreneurship Collaborative, where he identified the technology that would form the basis for Locus. Paul earned a BSBA in Management Information Systems from the University of Arizona and completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.
Dr. Paul Kim is the Chief Development Officer or Locus Biosciences. Paul is an experienced leader in the pharma/biotech industry spending over 17 years in drug development and commercialization. He has expertise in project and portfolio management, and has worked extensively leading cross-functional asset development teams at all phases of drug development including several global regulatory submission efforts. Paul has also worked with both large and small sized companies as well as helped organizations manage periods of significant growth and change.
Paul received a bachelors degree in biology and genetics at the University of British Columbia and his graduate degree in Cellular and Molecular Pathology from Vanderbilt University specializing in neuropathology. He formerly held the position of Vice President of Program Management at Puma Biotechnology where he recently provided project management oversight to the recent NDA and MAA regulatory submissions and currently provides portfolio level oversight to development stage projects and is the executive sponsor in charge of leading the build-out of Puma’s commercialization business systems infrastructure to support their first successful product launch.
Joseph Nixon is Chief Financial Officer for Locus. Before joining the company in 2017, Joseph led the investment team at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center where he led or supervised investments in more than 60 early-stage life science companies. Joseph previously held business development and licensing positions with Novartis and Alkermes, was Product Manager for a venture-backed bioinformatics start-up company, and helped launch five start-up companies at the Cleveland Clinic. Joseph earned a BS in Biology from Case Western Reserve University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Nick Conley, PhD is the Vice President of Technology at Locus Biosciences. As co-founder of EpiBiome, a San Francisco-based, venture-backed biotech company acquired by Locus, Nick brings a wealth of experience in next-generation sequencing, high-throughput automation, and advanced manufacturing technologies. Nick developed Locus’s platform phage manufacturing process used to generate drug product for the world’s first clinical trial testing a recombinant bacteriophage therapy. Nick earned his PhD in Chemistry at Stanford University, where he also completed a postdoc in developmental biology.
Ana Sanchez, PhD is Vice President, R&D at Locus Biosciences. In this role, Ana is responsible for leading early research and development to build clinically-relevant phage cocktails. Ana brings a wide breadth of experience to this role, focusing on operations across the drug development pipeline. Prior to joining Locus Ana worked at Duke University in the Human Vaccine Institute where she had nine years of experience as a program manager for government grants and contracts. Throughout her career, she has been a program manager for translational discovery science, clinical trials, and GMP manufacturing. Prior to becoming a program manager, she earned her PhD in Immunology at Duke University.
Jamie Kime is the Vice President of Clinical Operations for Locus Biosciences. Jamie is an experienced leader focused on the operational delivery of patient-centric Phase 1 – 4 clinical studies through clinical service partnerships and providers. Prior to joining Locus, he spent 18+ years at UCB in multiple leadership positions including the Global Head of Clinical Project Management and the Global Head of Outsourcing, Contracts, and Strategic Partnerships, where he led teams based in the US, Europe, and Asia. Over the course of his career, Jamie has held clinical development positions at a sponsor, a contract research organization, and research positions in academia which has provided for a well-rounded approach to operational implementation and execution of clinical studies. Jamie received a BS and MA from the University of Alabama and a MPA from Louisiana State University.
Wendy Summers, an experienced leader in Research and Development QA as well as Commercial Quality serves as our Vice President of Pharmaceutical Operations and Technology.
Prior to Locus, Ms. Summers was Head of Research and Development QA for Novartis Gene Therapies and has held multiple roles including Head of Quality for Chiesi, USA and also headed regional QA roles for UCB and Biogen. Through her career she built and lead teams in the US, EU and Asia and has supported many regulatory licenses for biologic and gene therapy products.
Ms. Summers holds an B.S in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Campbell University
Ashley Trama, PhD, MBA is Vice President, Program Management at Locus Biosciences. Ashley leads Locus’ Program Management Office and Human Resources. She is responsible for delivery of drug development programs and internal projects including the build of our award- winning viral vector manufacturing facility along with talent acquisition and retention. Prior to Locus, Ashley worked as a Program Manager at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute where she managed cross-functional teams to deliver government and institute funded research programs. Ashley earned her PhD in Immunology at Duke University and her MBA from Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.
Paul has been a member of multiple Executive Management teams of both publicly traded multi-national corporations and successful startup opportunities. He currently serves as the CEO of Locus Biosciences, an emerging biotech focused on the discovery and development of a novel class of CRISPR/Cas Antimicrobials.
Paul also serves as Vice President of the Friends Board at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, and as a Visiting Professor at North Carolina State University’s Poole College of Management. He serves as an executive-in-residence for the HiTEC Graduate Program, the University’s Entrepreneurship Collaborative.
Mr. Bailey is an Operating Partner with Cressey & Company, a private investment firm focused exclusively on investing in and building leading healthcare businesses. Prior to joining the C&C team, Bary served as the Chief Financial Officer of AMN Healthcare Services Inc. and prior to that as Chief Financial Officer of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, a global specialty pharmaceutical company. He has also served in executive roles with a variety of other healthcare companies, including PacifiCare Health Systems Inc. where he oversaw Pharmacy Benefit Management and Information Technology, Premier Inc., Tenet Healthcare and Arthur Andersen & Co. and has served on several boards as a director of both public and private companies.
Austin Walne is a Partner with ARTIS Ventures where he invests in biotech, software, and frontier technology, often with a focus on the enterprise and health. He is a board observer at Locus Biosciences. Previously, he was a board director at Stringify and a board observer at Looksharp.
Before ARTIS, he advised institutional investors in the secondary market for private company shares. He also held positions in product management and growth marketing in a variety of technology sectors and was the digital director for a major presidential campaign. He’s been quoted in the following publications on a wide range of topics: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and Inc.
Austin received a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Communication Studies from the University of Tennessee and holds FINRA Series 62, 63, 65 licenses.
Nancy serves as Principal, New Company Creation and is responsible for supporting the creation and launch of newly defined companies aligned with the strategic needs of Johnson & Johnson’s business sectors.
Most recently, Nancy served as Senior Director, Transactions in support of the Cardiovascular, Metabolism & Retina Therapeutic Area and was responsible for leading the evaluation, negotiation, and execution of numerous business development transactions including the license agreement with MeiraGTx for its inherited retinal disease portfolio and the collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb on milvexian. In addition to these deals essential to CVM’s current pipeline, Nancy has led the negotiation of several research collaborations, royalty monetization deals, internal asset spinouts, option agreements, and regional co-promotion deals.
Nancy has also been responsible for the successful management of several key strategic global alliances.
Prior to her transaction role in CVM, Nancy was Director, Corporate Development and was responsible for acquisition deals supporting the pharmaceutical group. Nancy worked closely with the oncology team to identify and assess multiple company acquisition opportunities and in 2009, led the team responsible for the acquisition of Cougar Biotechnology.
Henry is a Partner with ARTIS Ventures where he invests in biotech and healthcare technologies. He is a Board Observer at Locus Biosciences. He is also a Board Director at Excision, Ozlo Sleep, and FIG, and a Board Observer at Eko Health and Glyphic Bio.
Prior to ARTIS, Henry incubated Spur Labs, a computational medicine startup using machine learning algorithms for diagnostics, as a researcher in Sendhil Mullainathan’s lab at the University of Chicago. He also previously worked at Quid and was a Fellow at Longitude Capital. Henry holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and an AB from Harvard College.
Careers
We are on a mission to revolutionize the treatment of disease. We need intelligent, open, hard-working people who thrive in a fast-paced environment to join us on our quest.
