Jay Lichter Biography and Net Worth

Jay Lichter, Ph.D. has served on our board of directors since May 2008 and Chairman of our board of directors since August 2015. Dr. Lichter served as our Chief Executive Officer from inception until November 2010. Dr. Lichter is currently Chief Executive Officer of Avelas BioSciences and Fortis, both private biotechnology companies. He is an experienced biotechnology and pharmaceutical business executive with over 25 years of experience in management, scientific research and business development. Since 2007, Dr. Lichter has been a Managing Director at Avalon Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund focused on information technology and life sciences. In that role, he led Avalon’s investments and served on the board of directors for public companies SynthoRx and Aratana Therapeutics as well as for several privately-held biotechnology companies where he also served as the Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Lichter led Avalon’s investments in or currently serves on the board of Janux Therapeutics and several privately-held companies including Fortis Therapeutics, Avelas BioSciences, and COI Pharmaceuticals among other life science companies. Dr. Lichter received a Bachelor’s degree and Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Illinois. He also completed post-doctoral fellowships at Yale University and Du Pont Merck Pharmaceutical Company.