We are a team of drug hunters with decades of extensive experience in drug discovery and development.
The Cydan management team has extensive drug development and commercialization experience across the biopharmaceutical industry, venture capital and consulting industries, and strong relationships with non-profit organizations and research foundations.
Chris Adams, PhD, MBA
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Chris has more than 25 years’ experience in ensuring patient impact drives all aspects of the business side of orphan drug development, including business strategy, commercial planning, licensing and mergers and acquisitions.
Before co-founding Cydan in 2013, Chris was president of CMA Biotech Consulting, which primarily served development stage orphan drug companies. He also was chief business officer of FoldRx Pharmaceuticals Inc., where he played an instrumental role in the company being acquired by Pfizer in 2010. He also served as senior vice president of business development for ViaCell Inc., vice president of business development for Transkaryotic Therapies Inc., and director of business development for the pharmaceutical division of Ciba-Geigy Limited, in Basel, Switzerland. Chris also serves on the board of directors of Cydan II and Tiburio Therapeutics.
He holds a PhD in organic chemistry and a diploma in organic chemistry and biochemistry from the University of Zurich, and an MBA from INSEAD of Fontainebleau, France.
Laura Alessio
Operations Manager
Laura ensures that operations, administrative and marketing functions at Cydan are seamless, enabling the company to focus on accelerating the development of rare genetic disease therapies. Often, she is the one who provides the connection point between patients, scientists and business development.
Prior to joining Cydan, Laura was administrative director at Home Market Foods, a specialty provider in the retail and foodservice industry. Previously, she worked with the managing general partner of Highland Capital Partners, a global venture capital firm, where she focused on administrative coordination, fundraising and portfolio management, and she was investor relations manager at Ezenia! Inc., a secure collaboration solutions company, where she served as the company spokesperson for individual and institutional shareholders, brokers and analysts.
Laura received a BSBA from Middlesex College and an executive administration degree from the Burdett School of Business. She also holds degrees from The Financial Executives Institute and The National Investor Relations Institute.
Imran Babar, PhD
Chief Business Officer
Imran has over 10 years of experience in the healthcare industry, including public and private investing experience and rare disease nonprofit management. He comes to Cydan from the private equity team at OrbiMed Advisors, which is a leading healthcare investment firm. While at OrbiMed Imran was involved with a range of companies including Audentes Therapeutics (public), True North Therapeutics (acquired), Neurogastrx, NeRRe Therapeutics, Arvinas, Synlogic Therapeutics (public), and others. Prior to joining OrbiMed, Imran was a Biotechnology Associate at Cowen & Company where he covered over 20 therapeutics companies.
Imran is also co-founder and chief scientific officer for Rare Genomics Institute (RG), a nonprofit dedicated to helping rare disease patients since 2011. Under his leadership, RG has implemented numerous initiatives to accelerate research for rare diseases and shorten patients’ diagnostic odyssey.
Imran completed his PhD in Molecular Biology at Yale University, where he researched microRNAs as both causes and treatments for cancers.
Edward Calamai, PhD
Director of Clinical Manufacturing
Ed has over 40 years of experience in the biotech and drug development industry, working at both large pharma and small start-ups. Ed was VP of Operations at Seragen, and subsequently Sr. VP of Operations at Sensus Drug Development, where he managed the transition of the clinical manufacturing operations into a BLA for Somavert. He has also worked on several late-stage small molecule and recombinant protein drugs, including ongoing regulatory support and application for licensure in the US and EU.
Ed has worked with Cydan as a consultant in Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls since Cydan’s inception, supporting several early stage and later clinical development programs, including Imara.
Ed earned a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, where he studied neutrophil inflammatory molecules and protein chemistry. Following graduate school, Ed was a research fellow in cellular immunology at The Harvard Medical School, studying macrophage-T lymphocyte interaction and antigen presentation.
ShiYin Foo, MD, PhD, MMSC
Chief Medical Officer
Shi Yin brings 20 years of experience both as a practicing physician and as a catalyst in advancing innovative new programs through the various stages of drug development. She has expertise in a breadth of disease areas, including cardiorenal, immunology/inflammation and rare diseases, as well as an interest in novel and adaptive clinical trial designs.
Prior to joining Cydan, Shi Yin was the chief medical officer of Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals and a translational medicine expert at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, where she was responsible for the establishment and development of multiple novel programs in heart failure and the cardiorenal space, including rare disease indications. Shi Yin is the founder of Orchard Biomedical Consulting, which serves a variety of biotech and pharma partners in broad disease indications.
She is acting chief medical officer for Cydan NewCos, Imara and Tiburio Therapeutics, which launched in 2016 and 2019, respectively.
Shi Yin received her MD and PhD in immunology from Stanford University, and a MMSc in clinical science from the Clinical Investigator Training Program at Harvard Medical School. She was clinical faculty at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and a dual Diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine and in Cardiology.
Crystal Snapp
Administrative Assistant
Crystal, with nearly 20 years of administrative experience, is responsible for providing administrative support across multiple functions including daily logistics, calendar management, travel and team support.
Prior to this role, Crystal worked for various companies in the administrative role including Loomis, Sayles & Company, L.P., Boston Medical Center and Cadence Capital.
Ryan Tyler, PhD
Vice President, Preclinical Research
Ryan brings more than 9 years of pharmaceutical and biotechnology discovery and translational biology experience to Cydan in the areas of rare and degenerative diseases. His expertise spans early- to late-stage discovery research, leading teams leveraging innovative cell pharmacology and molecular biology approaches to drive therapeutic development, including as part of collaborations with patient advocacy groups. Prior to joining Cydan, Ryan was Director of Biology and Drug Discovery at Amathus Therapeutics and Director of Biology at Proteostasis Therapeutics, where he led research teams in the establishment of new discovery programs and preclinical activities that enabled the initiation of clinical programs focused on cystic fibrosis therapies. He began his career at Pfizer in the Rare Disease Unit, where he was responsible for the development of assays for biomarkers and compound screening for cystic fibrosis drug discovery.
Ryan received his doctorate from the University of Michigan and completed his postdoctoral studies at Stanford University.