Silver Creek is focused on the selective targeting of naturally occurring growth factors to promote cell survival and growth. Our dedicated team is passionate about changing lives by rescuing cells from injury.
Karim brings to Silver Creek Pharmaceuticals over 2 decades of leadership in drug discovery and development. He most recently served as President, CEO, and Board Member at Second Genome, where he joined in 2014 as Chief Scientific Officer. Prior to Second Genome, Karim was Vice President of R&D at Pfizer where he oversaw external R&D and innovation for Pfizer Research Units in areas spanning immune, vaccines, anti-infective, cardiovascular, metabolic, endocrine,neurological, and rare disease areas. He was also a founder of Modus BioMedicine, a biotechstart-up dedicated to treatments for transplantation and autoimmune diseases and held several senior roles during his nine years at Roche Pharmaceuticals,including Head of Inflammation Discovery Research Pharmacology. He currently serves on the board of directors of MaaT Pharma (Euronext: MaaT) and Genevive Bio, a company he co-founded in2023.
Karim earned his doctorate in Biochemistry from University College London and completed postdoctoral fellowships at both the Cardiovascular Research Institute at UCSF and Stanford University He holds a bachelor’s degree in biotechnology from the Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine in London. He is an author on over 50 peer reviewed scientific publications and issued/published patents.
Mark brings over three decades of life sciences leadership and drug development experience to Silver Creek. Prior to Silver Creek, Mark served as CEO of Tremeau Pharmaceuticals, a non-opioid pain company that he co-founded. Mark previously served as CEO of Correvio Pharma Corp, leading their acquisition by Advanz Pharma in 2021. Prior to that, he served as Executive Vice President, Research and Development, at Sepracor. Prior to joining Sepracor, Mark spent 10 years with Pharmacia & Upjohn, culminating as Vice President of Global Clinical Research and Experimental Medicine.
Mark serves as Chairman of the Board of Elios Therapeutics and as a member of the Board of Wave Life Sciences and Trevena Pharmaceuticals. He previously served on the Board of Cubist prior to its acquisition by Merck and on the Board of Avanir prior to its acquisition by Otsuka. Dr. Corrigan holds a B.A. and M.D. from the University of Virginia and received specialty training in psychiatry at Maine Medical Center and Cornell University.
Kris Kuchenbecker is the creator of our lead molecule, scp776.
At UC Berkeley, Kris played on the men's volleyball team and studied biochemistry and molecular biology with an emphasis in physical chemistry. After his undergraduate studies, he worked in David Jablons' lab at the UCSF Cancer Center. Kris enrolled in the Biophysics PhD program at UCSF in 2005, joining Robert Fletterick's lab in the Macromolecular Structure Group.
In graduate school, Kris focused on the molecular recognition properties of transcriptional regulators. His thesis emphasized structural biology, computational modeling, and quantitative measurement of these interactions.
Kris has been with Silver Creek since June of 2014. In his time with the company, he developed a computational model of damage-specific pro-survival signaling and designed the lead molecule. Kris has overseen the scale-up of the production process and manufacturing, and also led the regulatory and operational efforts for the Ph1 studies.
Corey has over 15 years experience leading commercialization, strategic planning, and business development efforts within the biopharmaceutical field. Most recently, she has served as Head of New Products Planning and Business Development at Tremeau Pharmaceuticals, a development stage company focused on non-opioid pain relief. Prior to joining Tremeau, Corey worked at Sunovion Pharmaceuticals, where she held various roles leading pre-commercialization, launch, and in-line marketing efforts for products within the Neurology, Psychiatry, and Respiratory markets. Prior to Sunovion, Corey worked as a Senior Consultant at Frankel Group (now Oliver Wyman), providing strategic advisory services to life sciences clients. Corey’s early experience in the healthcare industry included roles in Clinical Research and Outcomes Research.
Corey holds an MBA and an MPH from Yale University, and a BS in Biology from Tufts University.
Terry O’Reilly is a family medicine trained physician who has spent the past 30 years of her medical career involved in various aspects of clinical research, including time as a late phase research principal investigator and as an IRB board member. Prior to joining Silver Creek as medical director, Dr. O’Reilly was a senior investigator at a large Phase I clinical research unit, and was the principal investigator for the Phase 1a and 1b trials for scp776.
Andrea has over 19 years of industry experience, with expertise in clinical trial operations, project/program management and planning, and business operations management. Most Recently, Andrea served as Executive Director, Global Project Management at a mid-sized CRO and overseeing a global team of 45. Prior to this, Andrea was the Site Director for a large Phase-I clinic. She holds a B.S. in Biochemistry from Arizona State University.
Walter Olsen is a bioprocess scientist. He has extensive expertise in the area of process development, biologics manufacturing, and MSAT. Over the past two decades, he has led the GMP production campaigns for several complex biologic therapeutics.
Sam Pfaff received a PhD in biophysics from the University of California, San Francisco, where he studied nuclear hormone receptor structure and biochemistry with Robert Fletterick. His post-doctoral work with Michelle Arkin at UCSF was focused on biophysical and fragment-based drug discovery. Sam spent 5 years at Prolynx LLC, where his primary research focus was the optimization of releasable microsphere technology for use in long-acting drug formulations. At Silver Creek, he is helping lead in vitro and in vivo research directed at advancing Smart Growth Factors into the clinic and beyond. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and two children.
Tim was formerly CEO of Barclays Bank Plc, President of Barclays International and Chief Executive Officer of its Corporate and Investment Bank. Based in London, he was also a member of its Group Executive Committee.
Prior to joining Barclays in January 2017, Tim worked for JP Morgan where he held a variety of senior management roles, most recently serving as Global Head of Equities. Tim has had an extensive career in banking and asset management, working initially for Credit Suisse and Macquarie, before joining Goldman Sachs in 1995 as a Managing Director and Co-Head of Equity Derivatives for Asia. In 2002, he joined Lehman Brothers to lead its Asia Equities Division, before relocating to New York in 2004 to run its global equity derivatives business as well as risk arbitrage. In 2005, he became President of Citadel Asia where he oversaw the investment firm’s Asia business.
Tim also serves as Deputy Chair of Human Dignity Trust, a charity focused on LGBT rights; and was a school governor at the Ark Oval Primary Academy. Tim holds a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Sydney.
Mark Agne is a managing partner at Softbank Investment Advisors, fund manager for the 100 billion dollar Vision Fund. Mark was with Goldman Sachs from 1997 until his retirement in 2016. He became a partner in 2006 and held various senior leadership roles in Asia, including head of Asia Equity Trading and Head of Securities (Equities and Fixed Income), Japan. He was a member of Asian Operating Committee, Asian Risk Committee. Mr. Agne services on the boards of The Nature Conservancy, Hawaii and The Hawaii Community Foundation. Mark has been instrumental in fundraising.
Mark brings over three decades of life sciences leadership and drug development experience to Silver Creek. Prior to Silver Creek, Mark served as CEO of Tremeau Pharmaceuticals, a non-opioid pain company that he co-founded. Mark previously served as CEO of Correvio Pharma Corp, leading their acquisition by Advanz Pharma in 2021. Prior to that, he served as Executive Vice President, Research and Development, at Sepracor. Prior to joining Sepracor, Mark spent 10 years with Pharmacia & Upjohn, culminating as Vice President of Global Clinical Research and Experimental Medicine.
Mark serves as Chairman of the Board of Elios Therapeutics and as a member of the Board of Wave Life Sciences and Trevena Pharmaceuticals. He previously served on the Board of Cubist prior to its acquisition by Merck and on the Board of Avanir prior to its acquisition by Otsuka. Dr. Corrigan holds a B.A. and M.D. from the University of Virginia and received specialty training in psychiatry at Maine Medical Center and Cornell University.
Mike, an original Series A investor who joined the board in mid-2023, brings a broad base of relevant experience to Silver Creek. Mike’s career has combined entrepreneurial, strategic, advisory, operational and board positions, largely centered around biopharmaceuticals and health care. After a year on the faculty of Columbia’s Graduate Business School, Mike became a strategy consultant at Bain and Company, and subsequently served as a founder/leader of strategy consulting firms with a strong emphasis on health care – Corporate Decisions, Inc. (acquired by Oliver Wyman) and Vertex Partners (merged and went public with Braun Consulting (now Fair Isaac)).
In non-advisory roles, Mike was the Founder and Chairman of ambulatory neurodiagnostic monitoring company Digitrace Care Services (became SleepMed) and U. S. prescription adherence leader Adheris, Inc. (acquired by inVentiv Health). Mike was the pro bono founder of the Partnership for Organ Donation, a multi-year research demonstration collaboration with the Harvard School of Public Health aimed at increasing organ donation. Mike also served as co-leader of the team that designed and implemented the Clozaril Patient Management System, and is currently the Chairman of PARx Solutions, providing prior authorization related services for the benefit of patients and provider. Mike served on the board of Quintiles (world’s largest clinical trials research organization) as a Director and Compensation Committee Chair from 2010 to 2016 and, after the merger with IMS, continued as a Director and Audit Committee member at IQVIA through 2020. Mike earned BA and MPA degrees from Penn State and MA and M. Phil degrees in Organizational Theory from Yale University.
James Marks is Chief of Anesthesia at San Francisco General Hospital, Professor of Anesthesia at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and Vice Chairman of the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care at UCSF. A world-recognized pioneer in the fields of antibody and protein engineering, Dr. Marks is a practicing anesthesiologist and intensivist with clinical interests in trauma anesthesia and critical care and research interests in the area of antibody and protein engineering. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine, Anesthesia, and Critical Care Medicine.
Prior to becoming Chief of Anesthesia, Dr. Marks was the Medical Director of the Trauma ICU at SFGH. He is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Marks received his MD from UCSF and a PhD in Molecular Biology from the Medical Research Council (MRC) in Cambridge, England. He completed residencies in Internal Medicine and Anesthesia as well as a fellowship in Critical Care Medicine, all at UCSF. Jim helps oversee Silver Creek’s discovery and preclinical studies.
Hugh obtained a 1st class BSc (cardiorespiratory Physiology/ Neuropharmacology) and his medical Degree (1987), completed specialist training in General Internal Medicine/Cardiology/Intensive Care Medicine (ICM), and is now a consultant Intensivist in London. During the 2020-21 Covid pandemic, he sat on the council of the UK Intensive Care Society, and co-authored national clinical guidelines.
Hugh obtained his research degree (MDRes) in 1997. He is now Professor of Intensive Care Medicine at University College London (UCL) where he also directs the Centre for Human Health and Performance. He has published over 500 scientific research articles and has won more than 8 national and international awards. He is perhaps best known for his discovery (reported in 1998) of ‘the first gene for human fitness’.
Hugh also works in the field of Artificial Intelligence as applied to Health, having consulted one day/week for DeepMind Health (part of alphabet/ Google).
As an Inventor, Hugh has patented a treatment for cancer wasting and prevention of injury in stroke; a new technology for patient hydration; a novel mask for the removal of pollutants; and a new asthma inhaler.
Hugh chaired the two Lancet Commissions on Human Health and Climate Change, and now co-chairs the 35-institition 27-country Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change. He has written and lectured extensively on the subject, has briefed policymakers nationally and internationally, and advises corporates including major pharmaceutical companies. He was appointed to the post of London Leader by Greater London Authority’s Sustainable Development Commission, attended many of the international ‘COP’ negotiations, and led the children’s climate education ‘Project Genie’.
Nick’s interest in Silver Creek began when he invested in the A round, and intensified with his instrumental role in the design and structure of the funding of the company from 2016. He has been deeply involved in the restructuring of the company’s IP portfolio and strategy, and has introduced a number of board members.
His extensive career in investing began at Goldman Sachs, he currently works as a portfolio manager in event-driven and special situation investing, which he has done since 1996, managing teams within large financial organisations. Nick co-founded and subsequently ran Modal Capital Partners, an international event-driven captive hedge fund between 1999 and 2008, was head of Asia-Pacific Proprietary trading for Credit-Suisse, founded and ran Senrigan Capital, an Asia based Event-Driven fund, and was a Senior Managing Director and head of International Principal investments for Citadel.
Nick has set up offices in Tokyo, Hong Kong, London, and Bermuda (a reinsurance company, Modal Re). He is on the Board of Reva Medical and Flowers art gallery. Nick has an M.A. in Philosophy from Cambridge University, and was a student for D.Phil in Philosophy at Balliol College, Oxford. Prior to moving into an investing career he was a college lecturer in Philosophy at St. Catherine’s college Oxford.
Karim brings to Silver Creek Pharmaceuticals over 2 decades of leadership in drug discovery and development. He most recently served as President, CEO, and Board Member at Second Genome, where he joined in 2014 as Chief Scientific Officer. Prior to Second Genome, Karim was Vice President of R&D at Pfizer where he oversaw external R&D and innovation for Pfizer Research Units in areas spanning immune, vaccines, anti-infective, cardiovascular, metabolic, endocrine,neurological, and rare disease areas. He was also a founder of Modus BioMedicine, a biotechstart-up dedicated to treatments for transplantation and autoimmune diseases and held several senior roles during his nine years at Roche Pharmaceuticals,including Head of Inflammation Discovery Research Pharmacology. He currently serves on the board of directors of MaaT Pharma (Euronext: MaaT) and Genevive Bio, a company he co-founded in2023.
Karim earned his doctorate in Biochemistry from University College London and completed postdoctoral fellowships at both the Cardiovascular Research Institute at UCSF and Stanford University He holds a bachelor’s degree in biotechnology from the Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine in London. He is an author on over 50 peer reviewed scientific publications and issued/published patents.
