Leadership Team
Gilbert A. Block, MD, Ph.D., has over 30 years of pharmaceutical and biotechnology experience encompassing clinical development and translational medicine with a specific focus on neurodegenerative and neuroinflammatory diseases. Gil is a member of the external review boards of the Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Disease (TRND) and the Bridging Interventional Development Gaps (BRIDGS) groups at NIH. He has been responsible for the filings of multiple INDs and has overseen successful filings and approvals of nine NDAs and MAAs.
Gil received his BA, Ph.D. and MD at Case Western Reserve University. He was previously on the faculty of the Departments of Neurology at Cornell University Medical College/New York Hospital and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine/Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Gil is a member of the American Academy of Neurology and a founding member of the American Society of Experimental NeuroTherapeutics, Inc.
Dr. Johnson is a biotechnology industry consultant with extensive experience in biologics manufacturing, development, and QA/QC. Projects have included synthetic peptides, recombinant proteins, antibody-drug conjugates, plasmid DNA vaccines, and viral vector vaccines to be supplied to US and overseas clinical trials and approved drugs for commercial distribution in US and overseas. He held senior leadership roles in pharmaceutical development and quality control at Amylin Pharmaceuticals and Nabi Biopharmaceuticals. Those roles included primary responsibility for analytical and drug substance development of early-stage through late-stage biopharmaceutical products, and primary responsibility for all aspects of cGMP Quality Assurance in commercial and clinical manufacturing. He received his MS and Ph.D. degrees in Biochemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology.
Dr. Lodie has 25 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry focused on the discovery and development of small molecules, novel biologics, proteins, and cellular therapies in the areas of autoimmunity, neuroinflammation, and immuno-oncology. Her experience ranges from early drug discovery through development and commercialization. Dr. Lodie’s experience includes Chief Development Officer at GRO Biosciences working on recoded protein therapeutics with non-standard amino acids for immune-mediated disease applications. Prior to GRO Biosciences, she worked as Chief Scientific Officer at Quell Therapeutics where she led the company’s scientific strategy and worked to build their immune-driven pipeline of CAR-T regulatory cells. Prior to joining Quell, she was Chief Scientific Officer at Gamida Cell, Ltd. and held senior leadership roles at Blue Rock Therapeutics, Syros Pharma, and Sanofi/Genzyme where she led immunology efforts from early discovery through early clinical development to FDA approvals. Dr. Lodie has been pivotal in several BLA and NDA approvals and has participated in financing deals in excess of 400 M dollars at Quell Therapeutics and GRO Biosciences. Dr. Lodie completed her postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School and holds a Ph.D. in Immunology and Pathology from Boston University School of Medicine and a B.S. in Biology from Fairfield University.
Dr. Reddy is an experienced Drug Development professional with over thirty years of experience in global pharmaceutical drug discovery and development. He led nonclinical safety and regulatory assessment on several cross-functional oncology and endocrine/neuro programs at different stages of development (early and late phase) and provided scientific consultation and expertise, including design of clinical development plans, and interpretation of regulatory guidance. Dr. Reddy is a critical contributor in delivering nonclinical toxicology packages to support first in human studies (INDs) for many drug candidates and successfully submitted two NDAs (Evista, Alimta) and two BLAs (Cyramza and Lartruvo). During his tenure at Lilly, he developed a strong regulatory and drug development expertise, interacted with worldwide regulatory agencies, and addressed number of safety issues for drugs during pre-IND, end of Phase II, pre-NDA, pre BLA, NDA, BLA, FDA, EU and PMDA (Japan) meetings.
Dr. Reddy has worked as an ICH S9 Expert Working Group (EWG) member and played an active role as a US Pharma representative in drafting ICH S9 guidance document for developing anticancer pharmaceuticals.
Vijay received his PhD., from Utah State University, MS from University of Mississippi Medical Center, DVM (BVSc) from A.P. Agricultural University, India and completed post-doctoral fellowship at University of Nebraska Medical Center
Dr. Reddy has worked as an ICH S9 Expert Working Group (EWG) member and played an active role as a US Pharma representative in drafting ICH S9 guidance document for developing anticancer pharmaceuticals.
Vijay received his PhD., from Utah State University, MS from University of Mississippi Medical Center, DVM (BVSc) from A.P. Agricultural University, India and completed post-doctoral fellowship at University of Nebraska Medical Center
Scott Shandler, Ph.D., MBA, is the co-founder of Longevity Biotech. Prior to founding Longevity, Scott was a venture capitalist at BioAdvance, an early stage fund, where he was responsible for therapeutics, diagnostic and biomarker opportunities. At PolyMedix, Scott assisted with their successful Series A fundraising activities. His work history includes Accenture’s (ACN) Pharmaceutical and Medical Products group, Merck Research Labs (MRK), and Inventa.
Scott received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from the University of Pennsylvania, an MBA in Health Care Management from The Wharton School, a Certificate of Bioinformatics from Stanford University, along with a B.A. in Computer Science from Brandeis University. He has published in leading peer-reviewed journals, is an inventor on multiple patents and has served as Principal Investigator on federal and private grants.