Meet Our Team
World-leading Expertise in Mechanobiology
Founder & CEO
David Lagares, Ph.D.
David Lagares, PhD is a serial scientist-entrepreneur and visionary leader with +15 years of experience in leading diverse teams in biotech and academic medicine. He is currently the Founder & CEO of Zenon Biotech and the co-founder of Mediar Therapeutics, two biotech start-ups in the Boston area developing novel drugs for the treatment of metastatic cancer and fibrotic diseases. The molecular targets that led to the foundation of these NewCos were identified at his academic research laboratory at Harvard University and the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. His innovative research and strategic vision about the future treatment of fibrotic diseases and cancer have been supported with multi-million dollar investment from VCs, federal funding, industry-sponsored research, and non-profit Foundation grants. His discoveries have been patented and published in top-tier journals such as Nature and Science. He has patented and published +45 high impact peer-reviewed papers, review articles, books and editorials in the areas of mechanobiology and aging in the context of fibrotic diseases and cancer, which have been cited >3,500 times. Seminal work from his laboratory includes the identification of novel therapeutic approaches to treat, and potentially regenerate, chronically damaged fibrotic organs, leading to the development of first-in-class drugs known as “mechano-therapeutics” and “senolytics”. These novel treatments have the potential to outperform the gold of standard of care for patients with aged-related lung diseases, autoimmune rheumatic diseases, and metastatic cancers.
A native of Madrid, Spain, Dr. Lagares holds a Ph.D. in Medical Research from the Autonomous University of Madrid and completed his postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School. Before becoming Zenon’s CEO, he was a Professor of Medicine at Harvard University and and the founding Director of the Matrix and Mechanobiology Program at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He is an MBA candidate at the Sloan School of Management at MIT, class of 25'.
Management
SVP, Discovery and Translational Science
Karl Kossen, Ph.D.
Karl Kossen, PhD has twenty years of experience in drug discovery and development. Karl was previously Vice President of Disease Biology at InterMune, which successfully developed pirfenidone for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Following the purchase of InterMune by Roche, Karl co-founded Blade Therapeutics, a company focused on the discovery of antifibrotic drugs. Most recently, he led Translational Science at Indalo Therapeutics to enable clinical characterization of a small molecule integrin antagonist in IPF. Consistent with the scientific focus of Zenon, Karl’s work at Indalo included mechanistic studies to demonstrate how integrin antagonism affects the way in which fibroblasts sense and respond to a fibrotic extracellular matrix environment.
Karl received his BS in Chemistry and Cell & Molecular Biology from the University of Michigan and his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Colorado.
Brad Buckman, Ph.D.
Brad Buckman, PhD has over thirty years of experience in small molecule drug discovery and development. Brad was previously Sr. Vice President of Drug Discovery and a co-founder at Blade Therapeutics, and Vice President Discovery at InterMune. His experience in cardiovascular, immunology, oncology, virology and fibrosis targets includes the discovery of over 10 compounds nominated for IND development and 6 tested in the clinic, including one approved for hepatitis C (coblopasvir).
Brad received his BS in Chemistry at Cornell University and his PhD in Chemistry at Brandeis University.
Head of Medicinal Chemistry
Scientific Advisory Board
Daniel Tschumperlin, Ph.D.
Dan Tschumperlin, PhD is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Physiology at the Mayo Clinic. His laboratory studies diseases of the respiratory system with a focus on mechanisms of fibrosis and repair. Lung injury, aging and chronic disease disturb the tissue architecture, mechanical forces, and cellular states that are normally present in the healthy lung. By understanding how cells of the lung sense, respond to and shape the microstructure and mechanical environment of the lung, his lab seeks to develop new approaches to promote tissue repair and reverse fibrosis.
Boris Hinz, PhD is Keenan Research Chair in Fibrosis Research at St. Michael’s Hospital and University of Toronto Distinguished Professor in Tissue Repair and Regeneration. He has >20 years experience in studying and publishing on the role of contractile myofibroblasts in physiological tissue repair and in causing pathological tissue fibrosis. Seminal findings and novel concepts from his laboratory helped shape the myofibroblast focus of anti-fibrosis strategies, for instance the development of specific inhibitors to target myofibroblast integrins.
Boris Hinz, Ph.D.
Adam J. Engler, PhD is a Professor and Chair of the Shu Chien-Gene Lay Department of Bioengineering at UC San Diego. Dr. Engler has published more than 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts and his seminal work has shown how physical and chemical properties of the extracellular matrix influence or misregulate cell function and modify genetic mechanisms of disease. His lab currently studies this phenomenon in the context of cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Dr. Engler has received numerous awards from the International Society for Matrix Biology and the American Societies of Matrix Biology and Mechanical Engineering.
Adam Engler, Ph.D.
Our Programs
Zenon’s Drug Discovery Programs target Cellular Mechano-Sensors in Cancer and Fibrosis. These Novel Disease Intervention Points were Identified by Zenon’s Founder and CEO, David Lagares, at Harvard Medical School