Trana discovery, inc

Trana Discovery, Inc.
Management Team Biographies
Steve Peterson, Chief Executive Officer
Steve brings 30 years of experience in drug development and commercialization to Trana
Discovery. His career spans several major pharmaceutical companies including Eli Lilly, Glaxo
and GlaxoWellcome where he held positions in sales, marketing, product development and as
liaison with key opinion leaders. He launched or assisted in the development of 16 separate
brands including Ceftin, Epivir, Relenza, Epivir-HBV, Zinacef and Fortaz. As an independent
consultant, Steve has worked with key opinion leaders to assist companies in assimilating
complex medical issues and distilling development plans for maximizing product potential.
Winnell Newman, Co-Founder
Former Director of the Nucleic Acid Synthesis Facility at North Carolina State University (NCSU),
Winnell co-developed the drug-discovery technology with her expertise in oligonucleotide
synthesis. She has 20 years of laboratory management experience, nine years specializing in
DNA and RNA oligonucleotide synthesis, and has published eight scientific articles. Prior to her
work at NCSU, Winnell held biochemistry laboratory and instrumentation management positions
at Ciba-Geigy and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Dick Guenther, Co-Founder; Chief Technical Officer; Vice President, Research
Co-inventor of the Trana Discovery technology, Dick is a leader in the design and performance
of critical experiments establishing the anti-infective technology targeting tRNA functions. He is a
biochemist and expert on tRNA structure and function with more than 20 years of scientific
project and laboratory management experience. Prior to working at NCSU, Dick worked in
research at the University of Missouri Columbia and as a scientist for a contract research
organization. He has published over thirty publications on RNA.
Dan Mitchell, Vice President , Strategic Services
Dan has over 25 years of pharmacy practice, teaching, and pharmaceutical industry experience
that included patient care, clinical research, and drug information. Prior to joining Trana
Discovery, he directed the competitive intelligence department for Glaxo, Glaxo Wellcome, and
GlaxoSmithKline, a position he held for more than 15 years. Dan earned a bachelor’s degree in
pharmacy from Drake University and a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Creighton University
and completed a pharmacy residency in infectious diseases at Mercer University/Georgia Baptist
Medical Center.
Trana Discovery, Inc. • 2054-260 Kildare Farm Road • Cary, NC 27518 • 866-390-3452 (toll free) • www.tranadiscovery.com Michael Ossi, Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Michael Ossi earned his MD degree from the University of Maryland and is board certified in
pediatric and adolescent medicine and a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. After
residency training, he completed a fellowship in infectious diseases at St. Jude Children’s
Research Hospital. Beginning in 1977, Dr. Ossi built and maintained a large pediatric practice
while concurrently serving as a faculty advisor for the University of Massachusetts Medical
School residency program. In 1988, he accepted a position at Glaxo Inc. and spent the next 18
years in clinical drug development at the director and VP levels, managing programs in various
viral and bacterial diseases and several oncology programs. During that time, Dr. Ossi held a
faculty appointment at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC and
served as an attending physician in the pediatric acute care clinic. Dr. Ossi was Vice President,
Infectious Diseases, Medicine Development at GlaxoSmithKline before retiring in 2007. Michael Gallucci, Chief Financial Officer
Michael began his career as a staff auditor with Arthur Andersen prior to joining Meyer
Laboratories (the precursor to Glaxo Inc.) as Controller. During his 27-year tenure with Glaxo,
Glaxo Wellcome, and GlaxoSmithKline, Michael’s financial responsibilities included all
accounting aspects of the rapidly growing organization, including all internal and external
financial reporting, internal audit and US corporate taxation. By the time he retired as Vice
President and Treasurer, Michael had direct responsibility for banking relationships, debt and
equity management, corporate investing, defined benefit and defined contribution plans, risk
management and insurance, corporate travel, capital projects, fleet services, corporate aviation,
and the Glaxo Wellcome Credit Union. He served as a corporate officer of Glaxo Wellcome Inc.
and as an officer and director of many of its subsidiaries.
Ed Gallagher, Vice President of Intellectual Property
Ed brings more than 20 years in the healthcare industry with positions at Glaxo, GlaxoWellcome,
GlaxoSmithKline, and Ethicon, a J&J company. He has extensive experience combining
quantitative tools with information to frame marketing problems and develop strategic responses
in Pricing and Managed Care contracting, Sales Operations, New Product Marketing and Market
Research and Forecasting all major therapeutic areas. This included brands with sales from less
than $100 million to those exceeding $2 Billion.
Sam Yenne, Chief Development Officer
Sam has over 20 years of experience in the discovery and development of biologically active
compounds. He started his career at Rhone-Poulenc Ag Company (now Bayer Crop Science) in
metabolism chemistry where he was responsible for screening compounds for toxic side effects
and conducting preclinical experiments. Sam was quickly promoted to Technical Development
Manager of Insecticides responsible for expanding market share by launching new products and
expanding the label of existing products. At Paradigm Genetics, Sam was responsible for target
discovery and the development of high-throughput screening assays for these targets in addition
to several preclinical projects for anti-infective compounds. More recently, He has been
responsible for identifying active anti-infective compounds and their subsequent preclinical
development along with the development of a new virus detection system.
Trana Discovery, Inc. • 2054-260 Kildare Farm Road • Cary, NC 27518 • 866-390-3452 (toll free) • www.tranadiscovery.com Daniel Sternbach, Director of Medicinal Chemistry
Dan worked at GlaxoSmithKline for 21 years in cancer and metabolic diseases. He was one of
the founding members of Glaxo’s US chemical research division and played a major role in the
growth of this division. During his time at GSK Dan led projects that resulted in four clinical
candidates (one in cancer, three in metabolic diseases). Before joining Glaxo he was a
chemistry professor at Duke University for six years. Dan received his B.S. in chemistry from the
University of Rochester (1971) and his Ph.D. (Organic Chemistry), from Brandeis University. He
is the coauthor of more than 60 papers and patents.
Leigh Ann Gallucci, Vice President of Financial Reporting and Accounting
Leigh Ann began her career as a staff accountant with Ernst and Young before joining Glaxo in
1986. During her 15 years with Glaxo, GlaxoWellcome, and GlaxoSmithKline, she held positions
in Treasury and Commercial Operations including District Sales Manager and Product Manager
for Valtrex. Prior to leaving GlaxoSmithKline in 2001, Leigh Ann held the position of Director,
Corporate Business Strategy. Leigh Ann earned a Bachelor’s Degree from the College of William
and Mary in Virginia and is a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Cash Manager. In
addition to her responsibilities with Trana, Leigh Ann also provides consulting services in
financial reporting and market analysis to other pharmaceutical companies.
Karl von Gunten, Vice President of Communications
With more than 25 years of experience in marketing and public relations, Karl brings a deep
knowledge of products and trends to the marketing communications. Karl began his career at
IBM where developed and managed worldwide marketing and communications programs for
several key IBM software and hardware products. While at Brodeur Worldwide, Karl oversaw the
Triangle regional office and managed PR efforts for industry leaders such as IBM, Nortel,
Acterna, and Internet Security Systems, and start-up companies including Opensite
Technologies, Netsation and Cronos. Later he served as director of business development for
Gibbs & Soell Public Relations where he managed marketing programs for RTI International and
Nextreme Thermal Solutions. Karl is active in many local and state business organizations, and
serves on the Board of Advisors for North Carolina State University College of Management and
as an advisor for Duke University Pratt School of Engineering. Chris Ellis, Director of Bioinformatics, tRNA Database
Chris earned his B.S. in Microbiology and shortly thereafter joined Eli Lilly where he worked for 4
years. Chris left Eli Lilly to pursue his Ph.D. in Microbiology at North Carolina State University
where he was an NIH-Biotechnology fellow. As a graduate student Chris’s primary research
focus was RNA biochemistry with research interests in non-coding RNAs such as: snoRNAs,
RNase P, small ribosomal subunits, and 6S RNA. Following graduate school Chris was an IRTA postdoctoral fellowship at the NIEHS in Research Triangle Park, NC. Chris has a strong computational biology background that complements his training in microbiology. He has used this unique skill set to develop novel scripts for tRNA modification prediction, microRNA binding sites, snoRNA database, microbial community research, metagenomic analysis, and other molecular biology tools. Trana Discovery, Inc. • 2054-260 Kildare Farm Road • Cary, NC 27518 • 866-390-3452 (toll free) • www.tranadiscovery.com

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