Mission

Peter Francis is a highly experienced biotechnology executive and an ophthalmologist clinician-scientist with expertise in ophthalmic genetics and retinal disease. He graduated from medical school in the U.K. and undertook residency in London. He obtained his PhD in ophthalmic genetics from University College, London and is fellowship trained in Retina. Peter has almost two decades of experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries where he has led a number of gene therapy products from discovery to early-stage clinical development. Most recently he served as Chief Scientific Officer at 4D Molecular Therapeutics, a leader in AAV-based gene therapy and was prior, their first Chief Medical Officer and Head of Translational Research. Previously, Peter was Chief Medical Officer at RetroSense Therapeutics, the first visual optogenetics company which was successfully sold to a large pharmaceutical company.   Peter is a member of the Macula Society, the American Ophthalmological Society and the American Academy of Ophthalmology. He has held academic faculty positions at St. Thomas’ Hospital, London and Casey Eye Institute, OHSU, Portland, OR. He has published about 100 peer-reviewed articles.

Terry O’Neal has more than thirty years of executive start-up and restructure experience in several industries. He started his career at The Walt Disney Company and was later recruited by McDonnell Douglas to restructure their transportation subsidiary, which he transformed into a multi-million dollar division. Terry was then recruited by Carl Icahn as founding director and COO of Lowestfare.com, the first discount online travel site. In three years, he leveraged an initial seed investment of $100,000 to more than $300 million in annual revenues and an $800 million market enterprise value. Prior to joining Ray Therapeutics, Terry formed jCyte with Drs. Henry Klassen and Jing Yang and Paul Bresge, a cell therapy company treating blinding diseases, where he played a critical role in the Company from its inception through three clinical studies.

Jenny Holt, PMP is an experienced biotech and pharmaceutical executive with more than 25 years of experience primarily in gene therapies, ophthalmology, and oncolytic viral research. She is a graduate of UC Santa Barbara. Her first roles included scientist positions at UCSF Gladstone Institutes, Onyx Pharmaceuticals, and Novartis Institute of Biomedical Research. Most recently Jenny was head of project management at 4D Molecular Therapeutics, a leading AAV-based gene therapy company, where she managed five gene therapy products from discovery to early-stage clinical development. Jenny also was a co-founder/advisor at Ignite Immunotherapy which was purchased by Pfizer in 2019.

Kathrin Schalper, PhD, is a Regulatory Affairs executive with 20+ years of experience spanning a multitude of settings (blue chip pharma, emerging biopharma, consulting) across all phases of drug development and global lifecycle management in a wide range of therapeutic areas. She has extensive experience in interacting/negotiating with the FDA, EMA, Health Canada and national European agencies. Her leadership expertise covers both line management and matrix project environments. She is recognized as an expert in the areas of Global Regulatory Strategy, Drug Development and Project Management. She has held teaching and author assignments with the University of Southern California (USC) and the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society (RAPS).

Crawford Brown, PhD is a global biologics CMC pioneer in the translation of new technologies from academic idea to clinical practice. Over an industrial career of 35 years, he has made a meaningful difference to patient outcomes leading development through to marketing approval of recombinant proteins, neurotoxins, monoclonal antibodies and vaccines. Most recently as SVP Biologics and Small Molecule API in Allergan Inc. he led CMC R&D focused on ophthalmology including optogenetics following the acquisition of Retrosense and CRISPR in vivo gene editing in collaboration with Editas Medicine.

Zhuo-Hua Pan, PhD is the Edward T. and Ellen K. Dryer Endowed Professor of Ophthalmology, Visual and Anatomical Sciences at Wayne State University, and Scientific Director of the Ligon Research Center of Vision at the Kresge Eye Institute. Dr. Pan pioneered the field of optogenetic vision restoration in 2006 when he demonstrated that ectopic expression of microbial-type channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) in the retina restores visual responses in mice with photoreceptor degeneration. His work over the years has contributed to improve optogenetic tools and treatment strategies for vision restoration, including the development of the most light-sensitive and effective channelrhodopsins for vision restoration to date and the basis for Ray-001.

Kristina Ulrich, PhD is a toxicology consultant with ToxStrategies practicing in the United Kingdom with more than 15 years of experience in drug discovery and development. Dr. Ulrich is a former nonclinical assessor with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), where she reviewed nonclinical data packages submitted with applications for clinical trials and marketing authorizations in the UK and Europe. Dr. Ulrich specializes in the design and implementation of nonclinical safety strategies, nonclinical data review, problem solving and recommendations for further scientific investigations, health authority interactions and regulatory document authoring.

Qi Lu, PhD has over ten years of research experience in optogenetic vision restoration with multiple publications to her credit. Her expertise is in imaging, immunohistochemistry, and electrical recordings. Her dissertation work is on voltage gated calcium channel on mouse retinal bipolar cells. She continues her research, in partnership with Dr. Zhuo-Hua Pan’s team, to develop the novel microbial opsin-based strategy for treating blindness caused by retinal degeneration. Dr. Lu will oversee the execution of all research biology supporting Ray’s development pipeline.

Kevin has more than 25 years of administrative business operations experience ranging from start-up life science companies to multi-national banks. Starting his career in banking and transitioning to Life Science companies and CROs. Kevin provides Accounting, Administrative and Operations service, successful in collaborating with all levels of management while delivering on administrative strategy, thought leadership and execution excellence. Extensive experience and excellent track record of establishing and providing support to clinical stage and commercial organizations while building infrastructure in the areas of accounting, human resources administration, chief executive support, regulatory & clinical operations, and infrastructure needs.