Donna Ambrosino joined Visterra in 2012 as CMO. She comes to Visterra with over 25 years of experience in Infectious Diseases, vaccines and monoclonal antibody development. During the past 13 years she served as Executive Director/CEO of MassBiologics, a non-profit FDA licensed manufacturer of vaccines and biologics. While at MassBiologics, she discovered and led the development of monoclonal antibodies for treatment or prevention of SARS, Rabies, C.Difficile disease, and Hepatitis C. Prior to MassBiologics, she was an Associate Professor at Dana Farber Cancer Center and Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School for 19 years. She is internationally recognized expert in Infectious Diseases, antibody therapeutics, and clinical trial design. Dr. Ambrosino received her AB in Biology from Harvard University and her MD from Dartmouth Medical School.
Mark Boshar has over 25 years of experience in the biotechnology industry. He joined Visterra in 2008 and is responsible for business development and legal affairs. Prior to Visterra, Mr. Boshar was the Vice President of Legal Affairs for Dynogen Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage company focused on gastrointestinal disorders. In 1995, Mr. Boshar founded the legal department at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, and served as its Associate General Counsel/Chief Patent Counsel. During his tenure at Millennium, Mr. Boshar was responsible for the design and implementation of the company's patent strategies, technology licensing, and the legal diligence for corporate partnering transactions totaling more than $1 billion in funding. Mr. Boshar also served as Vice President of Legal Affairs for Vitivity, a Millennium subsidiary. Prior to Millennium, Mr. Boshar was the Chief Patent Counsel for Repligen Corporation. Mr. Boshar was formerly an attorney with the law firm of Hale and Dorr (now WilmerHale). He received his JD from Northeastern University School of Law and his BS in Biology from Tufts University. Prior to receiving his law degree, he was a research scientist with both Genetics Institute and the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology.
Steve Brugger joined Visterra in 2010 as CEO. He comes to Visterra with over 30 years of experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry, most recently serving as the Chief Operating Officer at Momenta Pharmaceuticals. During his 8 years at Momenta, Mr. Brugger held several leadership roles as the company grew from a private start-up to a successful public biotechnology company. Prior to this, Mr. Brugger spent 22 years in the industry holding various leadership and management positions at Millennium, Novartis, Ayerst (Wyeth) and Hoechst (Aventis) Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Brugger's responsibilities have included nonclinical and clinical development, strategic portfolio and program management, corporate development, alliance management, and product marketing. Mr. Brugger received his BA in Biology from Susquehanna University and his MBA from the Rutgers Graduate School of Management.
Peter Courossi joined Visterra in 2010 as Chief Financial Officer. He is a financial executive with over 20 years of experience managing many aspects of early-stage technology companies including finance, accounting, human resources, and operations. He has successfully closed two initial public offerings and has been involved with several high-growth biotechnology start-ups backed by venture capital. Mr. Courossi's experience includes positions at Aveo Pharmaceuticals, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Acceleron Pharma, and TransForm Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Courossi is a CPA and holds an MBA from Babson College.
Zach Shriver is Visterra's Vice President of Research. Dr. Shriver has over 10 years of experience in the biotechnology industry and joined Visterra in 2009. He was one of the founding scientists at Momenta Pharmaceuticals and served as its Senior Director of Research Analytics. While at Momenta, Dr. Shriver was responsible for leading a variety of activities, including integrating information from state-of-the-art analytical techniques into the design, control, and enablement of increased process understanding for a number of complex mixture (polysaccharide and polypeptide) products, in support of multiple NDAs. Dr. Shriver received his PhD in applied biotechnology from MIT, in the area of sequencing complex polysaccharides through the integration of analytical and bioinformatics-based techniques. Dr. Shriver has authored over 50 publications, including original research on both the structure and biology of complex polysaccharides.
Kamran Tavangar has over 20 years of experience in pharmaceuticals and vaccines. He joined Visterra in 2010 and is responsible for strategic product development. Prior to joining Visterra, Dr. Tavangar was the Global Head of Strategic Planning at Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, subsequent to being Head of Strategic Global Marketing at Novartis Vaccines. Previously, Dr. Tavangar was the Business Unit Head for Novartis Oncology in Australia and New Zealand. He has also served as Vice President, Investor Relations for Novartis Corporation, heading IR activities for North America. Dr. Tavangar received his AB in Molecular Biology from UC Berkeley, PhD in Physiology from Stanford University, and MBA from MIT's Sloan School of Management.