Who we are

Alicia Secor, MBA,
President and Chief Executive Officer

Alicia most recently served as president and chief executive officer at Juniper Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a diversified public healthcare company where she led the successful turnaround strategy for the company resulting in a sale to Catalent, Inc. in August 2018. Prior to her role at Juniper, Alicia held a number of leadership positions in the life sciences industry, including chief commercial officer at Zafgen Inc., chief operating officer at Synageva BioPharma Corp, and roles of increasing responsibility at Genzyme over her 15-year tenure, including serving as vice president and general manager of metabolic diseases, a global business with multiple commercial products, including two orphan drugs. Prior to Genzyme, Alicia held positions at Alkermes, Inc. in business development, at Centocor, Inc. (a Johnson & Johnson Company) in clinical and commercial operations, and began her career at Pfizer Inc. as a hospital-based sales representative. Alicia is also a member of the board of directors at GW Pharmaceuticals, plc., Orchard Therapeutics, and a board member of the Foundation for Prader-Willi Research (FPWR). She received her B.S. in health administration from the University of New Hampshire and an MBA from Northeastern University.

Alicia spends her free time at the helm of her sailboat, traversing the ocean with her husband and twin boys. Between ports, she’s either spinning on a bike, skiing the slopes or walking the dogs – and she’s often seen scootering around Boston on her daily commute.

Aimee L. Jackson, Ph.D.,
Chief Scientific Officer

Aimee has worked in the field of RNA interference and oligonucleotide therapeutics for 18 years. She most recently served as vice president of research for miRagen Therapeutics, where she advanced three microRNA programs from initial concept to first-in-human clinical trials in less than five years. These programs encompassed diverse therapeutic areas and comprised both microRNA mimics and inhibitors. Two of these programs have advanced to Phase 2 clinical trials, including a fibrosis program for which Aimee served as the product development team lead. Prior to joining miRagen, Aimee led preclinical research at Regulus Therapeutics and Merck/Rosetta, where she served as molecular profiling lead for the development of siRNA-based therapeutics and played a lead role in the identification of siRNA design aspects for enhanced activity and specificity. Aimee received her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado Health Science Center.

She is known for her great love of reading, yoga, hiking, good food and good wine. Her affection for good food and wine ultimately led to her earning her Sommelier certification to more fully enjoy this passion.

Morgan Molloy,
Chief Corporate Development Officer

Morgan brings to Atalanta more than 25 years of operational and commercial leadership experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, with specific expertise in business strategy and organizational growth. He most recently served as Chief Corporate Development Officer at Akouos. Prior to Akouos, Morgan was Chief Commercial Officer at Enzyvant where he led all aspects of the commercial strategy for the company’s rare disease portfolio. Earlier in his career he held leadership roles at Spark Therapeutics, Genzyme and Biogen.  Morgan holds a B.S. in business management with concentrations in finance and marketing from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.

When not spending time with his wife and 4 children Morgan can be found in the mountains hiking or skiing depending on the season.  Upon returning from his various activities he will likely be found in the kitchen cooking.

Michele Keough, MBA,
Senior Vice President, Program & Alliance Management

Michele brings to Atalanta more than 20 years of product development experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. She specializes in advancing novel therapeutic product candidates through all stages of development to commercial launch. Most recently, Michele was senior vice president of R&D operations at Aura Biosciences, where she was responsible for advancing the company’s lead asset to FIH clinical trials.  Prior to Aura, she was head of operations at Moderna Therapeutics. Michele also spent more than 15 years in positions of increasing responsibility with Genzyme, providing leadership for program and alliance management in multiple therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular, pulmonology and rare and orphan diseases. Michele holds an MBA from Duke University, an M.S. in immunology from Drexel University and a B.S. from the University of Delaware.

Michele spends her (limited!) free time with her husband and three teenagers.  She also enjoys playing the piano and escapes to yoga class whenever possible.

Bart G. Newland, JD,
General Counsel

Bart brings to Atalanta extensive experience in biotech senior leadership along with legal and intellectual property expertise. Bart served as Biogen’s senior vice president and chief I.P. counsel for over ten years immediately prior to joining the Company. Prior to Biogen, Bart was vice president – intellectual property at Genzyme Corporation as well as a partner and shareholder at Rothwell, Figg, Ernst & Manbeck in Washington, D.C. Bart’s legal career has included taking depositions of Nobel Prize winners, arguing in Federal Court, negotiating billion-dollar settlements, and meeting with US senators and representatives on Capitol Hill to promote patent law reforms. Bart earned his B.S. (honors) in microbiology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a J.D. degree from the nation’s first law school – William & Mary Law School at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. He serves on the Board of Directors of his law school alumni association where he mentors students.

Bart’s life has been engulfed in music, from banging pots and pans (earning him –and relieving his parents– drum lessons as a 5-year-old), to playing the cello, then playing the tuba in marching band throughout high school and college. He has attended over 70 Grateful Dead concerts on both coasts and venues in between!

Stephen Burke,
Senior Vice President, Human Resources

Stephen has over twenty years of experience leading people strategies for successful life science companies. Most recently, Steve was Vice President, Human Resources for Akouos. Prior to that, he was Head of Human Resources for Scholar Rock where he played a key role in building the company from start-up phase through IPO and clinical development. Earlier in his career, Steve led the human resources function for multiple research and business areas within Genzyme. Stephen earned his B.A. in psychology at Stonehill College.

Stephen enjoys writing, oil painting and making a mean spaghetti sauce using tomatoes he grows in his garden.

Stefan McDonough, Ph.D.,
Senior Vice President, Head of Neuroscience

Stefan was most recently at Pfizer World R&D & Medical for 5 years as Executive Director, Genetics. Stefan also held positions at Amgen Inc. from Senior Scientist to Scientific Director in the Department of Neuroscience, and as Executive Director and head of Amgen’s Genome Analysis Unit. Previously Stefan was Assistant Scientist (tenure-track) at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole MA. He currently is an Adjunct Professor at Brown University, where he also serves on the advisory board of the Carney Institute for Brain Science.
Stefan completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Maryland Medical School (Department of Biochemistry / calcium imaging) and at Harvard Medical School (Department of Neurobiology / neuropharmacology) and received an MS and a PhD in Biology (Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience) from Caltech. He holds an ScB in Engineering Physics from Brown.

Stefan is always looking for squash partners and swimming partners!

Garth Kinberger, Ph.D.,
Vice President, Chemistry

Garth brings to Atalanta nearly 20 years of oligonucleotide therapeutics research and development experience.  His most recent experience was as Executive Director of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Development, at Regulus Therapeutics, where he assumed roles of increasing responsibility during his over 5-year tenure.  Prior to Regulus, Garth was at Ionis Pharmaceuticals for 13 years where he conducted research in PNA, microRNA, siRNA, ss-siRNA, splicing and gapmer based therapeutics. Garth received his B.S. in Chemistry from Sonoma State University as well as his M.S. and Ph.D. in Chemistry and Biochemistry from University of California, San Diego.

Garth enjoys snorkeling, hiking, skiing, and photography.

Qingmin Chen, Ph.D.,
Vice President, in vivo Pharmacology

For the past 13 years, Qingmin has worked in biotechnology research and drug development, focusing on neurodegenerative and rare diseases. Most recently, Qingmin worked at Renascent Biosciences and Voyager Therapeutics, where she was program and biology lead for multiple gene therapy programs, including Alzheimer’s Disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and neuropathic pain. Earlier in her career, Qingmin worked at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, where she led the pharmacology efforts for the transthyretin-mediated amyloidosis program, resulting in the first FDA-approved RNAi drug, Onpattro, and several neuroscience RNAi therapeutic programs. Qingmin received a Ph.D. in medical pharmacology and an M.S. in pharmacology and toxicology from the University of Arizona. She received her medical degree from Shandong Medical University, China.

Qingmin is an avid cook and baker, which she enjoys doing from scratch. She’s particularly proud of her Chinese patties.

Guillermo Yudowski, Ph.D.,
Vice President Biochemistry & Pharmacology, In vitro Biology

Guillermo has more than 25 years of research experience in academia and in the biomedical industry. Before joining Atalanta, he was Senior Director of Neuroscience and Drug Discovery at Flagship Pioneering, Principal Investigator at Biogen and visiting scientist at Pfizer. His work has focused on identifying and validating therapeutic opportunities across the neurodegenerative and neuromuscular space. He received his PhD in Biochemistry from the Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, Argentina, with postdoctoral studies at the University of California San Francisco, research experience at the Karolinska Institute and the Weizmann Institute. He was also a tenured Associate professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology at the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Science Campus and member of several study sections at NIH. 

Guillermo enjoys scuba diving, sailing and all water sports. 

Neil Aronin, M.D.,
Co-founder and scientific advisor

Neil has been a practicing endocrinologist for more than 20 years and is currently affiliated with UMass Memorial Medical Center. In 2015, Neil was awarded the Huntington’s Disease Society of America’s prestigious Research Award in recognition of his transformative contributions to what is now known about Huntington’s disease, a rare, inherited neurodegenerative condition. Neil’s exemplary research into Huntington’s disease has spanned three decades, with his most recent work focusing on exploring the disease’s mechanisms of pathogenesis, such as mutant Huntington mRNA kinetics, vesicle recycling and roles of proteins that interact with the expanded Huntington protein. Presently, Neil is exploring gene silencing for Huntington’s disease, along with a way to use viral delivery of next-generation treatments that could be studied and modified further to address a wider range of autosomal dominant conditions. He received his medical degree from Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Anastasia Khvorova, Ph.D.,
Co-founder and scientific advisor

Anastasia has more than 20 years of experience developing oligonucleotide technology and therapeutics. She is a professor in the RNA Therapeutics Institute and Program of Molecular Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS), where her lab brings together hardcore organic and oligonucleotide chemists with RNA biologists and pharmacologists to develop novel approaches and solutions to understanding natural and therapeutic RNA trafficking and delivery. Anastasia founded the UMass Nucleic Acid Chemistry Core, the only nonprofit facility in North America capable of gram-scale synthesis of modified oligonucleotides. Anastasia joined UMMS after several years in industry, during which she served as chief scientific officer at lead biotech companies (Dharmacon, ThermoFisher; RXi Pharmaceuticals) and co-founded several startups. She recently was reelected director of the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society. Anastasia is named as inventor on more than 150 patents and 200 patent applications, and she has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications – including seminal articles in Cell, Nature and Nature Biotechnology – defining the field of RNAi drug design and development. Anastasia is principal investigator on four major National Institutes of Health grants.

Craig Mello, Ph.D.,
Co-founder and scientific advisor

Craig is the Blais University Chair in Molecular Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS). He was also designated an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 2000, the third HHMI researcher selected at UMMS. HHMI is a $13 billion medical research organization that employs more than 350 eminent researchers at 72 medical schools, universities and research institutes worldwide. Craig and his colleague Andrew Fire, Ph.D., formerly of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, received the 2006 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their discovery of RNA interference (RNAi). They demonstrated that a certain form of RNA had the unanticipated property of silencing — or interfering with — the expression of a gene, ultimately halting the progression of the invading viral infection. Atalanta’s science is founded on this award-winning RNAi mechanism. Craig holds his B.S. in biochemistry from Brown University and his Ph.D. in cellular and developmental biology from Harvard University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center before coming to UMMS in 1995. He is also a 1995 Pew Scholar in the biomedical sciences.

Jim Glasheen, Ph.D.,
Co-founder

Jim oversaw the founding of Atalanta in his former role as executive vice chancellor for innovation and business development at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Prior to UMass, Jim was a venture capitalist for 20 years at Technology Partners and was an investor and/or board member in many companies including Cadence Pharmaceuticals (CADX: acquired by Mallinckrodt), Revance Therapeutics (RVNC), Iomai (IOMI: acquired by Intercell), Incline Therapeutics (acquired by the Medicines Company), Transcend Medical (acquired by Novartis), Vision 5 (acquired by Allergan), Corcept (CORT) and Elcelyx.

Jim is also the co-founder and co-chairman of ConsumerMed, a nonprofit organization focused on patient-centered health. Prior to his venture career, he was a consultant with McKinsey and Company and was a leader within their pharmaceuticals and medical products practice. He is a graduate of Duke University and Harvard University, where he received a Ph.D. in biology, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California Berkeley.