Meet our Team

David J. Earp, J.D., Ph.D. - President & CEO

David J. Earp, J.D., Ph.D., has served as the President & CEO of Circle since October 2013. Previously, David held various roles at Geron Corporation (GERN), including chief patent counsel, chief legal officer and senior vice president of corporate transactions, building a broad IP portfolio and playing an integral role in numerous partnering, licensing and collaboration deals. He led the spin-out of Geron’s nuclear transfer technology into StART Licensing, Inc., and its subsequent acquisition by Viagen Corp. (Austin, Texas). He served on the boards of StART and Viagen, including as executive chairman of Viagen and led the sale of the company to TransOva Genetics (subsequently acquired by Intrexon). David was also a member of the board of directors of TA Therapeutics Ltd. (Hong Kong, PRC). He was previously a partner in the intellectual property law firm of Klarquist Sparkman, LLP (Portland, Oregon). He currently also serves as a board member of Sienna Cancer Diagnostics (Melbourne, Australia).
David received his B.Sc. (with first class honours) in microbiology from the University of Leeds, his Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of Cambridge, and his J.D. (magna cum laude) from the Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College. He was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of California, Berkeley / USDA PGEC.

Rajinder Singh, Ph.D.

Chief Scientific Officer

Rajinder Singh, Ph.D. - Chief Scientific Officer

Rajinder Singh, Ph.D., has served as our Chief Scientific Officer since July 2020. From 2016 to 2020, Dr. Singh held the position of Senior Vice President of Research & Pharmaceutics at ChemoCentryx – where he worked on the complement system (C5aR inhibition with avacopan), diverse chemokine receptors (such as CCR1, CCR2, CCR6, CXCR2, CXCR7) and immune-oncology with small molecules targeting PD-1/PD-L1. From 1998 to 2016, Dr. Singh held various management positions including Vice President, Chemistry at Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he oversaw the advancement of numerous drug candidates from discovery to clinical development, which included the filing of numerous Investigational New Drug applications leading to the approval of Tavalisse (fostamatinib) a Syk kinase inhibitor in the areas of immunology and oncology. Prior to joining Rigel, Dr. Singh was a lead chemist at Chiron Corporation from 1994 to 1998. From 1992 to 1994, Dr. Singh was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Eli Lilly & Company. Dr. Singh received his Ph.D. degree in Organic Chemistry from the University of Oxford and B.Sc in Chemistry from University of Cardiff.

Andrew Dorr, MD

Consulting CMO

Andrew Dorr, MD - Consulting CMO

Dr. F. Andrew Dorr is a medical oncologist with a long history of successful cancer drug development experience, with leadership roles in the successful development of drugs for prevention and treatment of breast cancer including Taxol® (paclitaxel), Nolvadex® (tamoxifen) and Evista® (raloxifene), and Talzenna® (talazoparib for treatment of germline BRCA-mutation related metastatic breast cancer). He has also played central roles in the development of Eulexin® (flutamide) for prostate cancer, Gemzar® (gemcitabine) in pancreatic and non-small cell lung cancers, Treanda® (bendamustine) in chronic lymphocytic leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma as well as Avastin® (bevacizumab) in glioblastoma.

Dr. Dorr has had a successful consulting business in cancer drug development since 2005. Previously, he served as Chief Operating Officer at Salmedix Inc. from April 2003 until August 2004. From June 1996 to March 2003, he served as Vice President of oncology drug development at Isis (now Ionis) Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and served as its Chief Medical Officer. He also served as Clinical Research Physician and then Medical Advisor at Eli Lilly & Company where he was responsible for the strategy for Lilly’s cancer pipeline from pre-clinical through Phase III development. While at the National Cancer Institute, he was responsible for national clinical trial programs in breast, prostate, kidney, bladder and testicular cancers, as well as melanoma.

Dr. Dorr received his B.S. degree from Davidson College and holds his M.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has over 60 publications on drug development in books and journals.

Evelyn Wang, Ph.D.

VP, Translational Medicine

Evelyn Wang, Ph.D. - VP, Translational Medicine

Evelyn Wang, Ph.D. joined Circle in July 2021 as our VP of Translational Medicine. Prior to Circle, Dr. Wang led Translational Medicine at Exelixis, Inc. where she built a translational team to handle diverse large data analysis from global clinical programs. She oversaw establishment of pharmacodynamic and biomarker strategies for clinical trials, evaluated and coordinated the correlative research for investigator sponsored studies, and established nonclinical/preclinical studies in support of development strategies and research. Programs included Cabozantinib and immune-oncology combination studies, and other small and large molecule programs. At Biomarin Pharmaceutical Inc., she led translational research for Talazoparib and rare genetic disease programs. Prior to Biomarin, she was at Exelixis where she was the translational medicine lead for several oncology pipeline drugs. Earlier experience includes academic and startup environments. She completed her M.S. and Ph.D. at New York University Medical Center and her postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School.

Constantine Kreatsoulas, Ph.D.

VP, Research Informatics and Computational Chemistry

Constantine Kreatsoulas, Ph.D. - VP, Research Informatics and Computational Chemistry

Constantine Kreatsoulas, Ph.D., has served as our VP of Research Informatics and Computational Chemistry since February, 2021. Dr. Kreatsoulas joined Circle from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) where he was the Head of US Molecular Design and Interim Head of Computational Toxicology. His responsibilities at GSK included leading structure-based drug design (SBDD) teams as well as the development of informatics tools for quantitative experimental data analytics and drug hazard identification. Previous to his time at GSK, Dr. Kreatsoulas was a Research Fellow at Merck & Co., Inc., where he focused on SBDD, molecular modeling, machine learning, and small molecule safety assessment. While a Postdoctoral Fellow at Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Dr. Kreatsoulas focused on machine learning in predictive toxicology. Dr. Kreatsoulas was awarded a doctorate in Chemistry from Princeton University, holds a Master’s degree in Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance from Temple University, and earned his Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Chemistry from New York University.

Jim Aggen, Ph.D.

VP, Medicinal Chemistry

Jim Aggen, Ph.D. - VP, Medicinal Chemistry

Dr. Aggen has over 20 years of experience in medicinal chemistry. He most recently served as the Senior Director of Medicinal Chemistry at Revolution Medicines and earlier in his career held various positions at Oligiasis, Achaogen, Chemocentryx, Gilead Sciences and Theravance, as well as Associate Professor of Medicinal and Natural Products Chemistry at Northeastern University. Dr. Aggen has successfully led teams engaged in targeted drug discovery against multiple oncology targets including mTORC1 and KRAS, and has experience in the medicinal chemistry of larger molecules, including as an inventor of the aminoglycoside antibiotic plazomicin, now marketed as Zemdri. He also served in the US Marine Corps Reserves. Dr. Aggen was awarded a doctorate in synthetic organic chemistry from the University of California, Irvine, where he studied under Prof. Richard Chamberlin.

Pablo D. Garcia, Ph.D.

Sr. Director, Biology Research

Pablo D. Garcia, Ph.D. - Sr. Director, Biology Research

Pablo D. Garcia, Ph.D., is a cellular and molecular biologist with extensive experience in oncology drug discovery and preclinical development. With over 17 years of experience at Chiron Corporation and the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research in Emeryville, he made significant contributions to the areas of target identification and validation, the implementation of diverse discovery platforms and the management of a cancer biology discovery group. Pablo has led several drug discovery projects, including the PIM kinase inhibitor project at Chiron/Novartis. As the project leader, he oversaw all stages of preclinical development, from the initial validation of relevance to human disease to delivery of a drug candidate to clinical development. Pablo has a B.A. in Biology, a Masters in Genetics from Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (Chile) and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

Ramesh Bambal, Ph.D.

Sr. Director, DMPK

Ramesh Bambal, Ph.D. - Sr. Director, DMPK

Dr. Ramesh Bambal has over 25 years of global work and leadership experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He joined Circle Pharma in May, 2021 as our Senior Director of DMPK. Before joining Circle, he worked as a consultant for pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. Previously, Dr. Bambal has also served as Associate VP at Sun Pharma Advanced Research Company and Senior Director of DMPK and Analytical Chemistry at Daiichi Sankyo in India. There, his responsibilities included supporting early drug discovery, preclinical, and early phase clinical development for a portfolio of oncology, inflammation, infection and CNS drugs. From 2008 to 2011 Dr. Bambal served as Sr. Director, DMPK at Absorption Systems in Exton, PA. At Absorption Systems he was responsible for building DMPK assay portfolio and supporting pharma and biotech customers in their drug discovery endeavor. Earlier in his career, he worked at SmithKline Beecham and GSK in the DMPK department with increasing responsibilities in managing teams for in-vitro, in vivo ADME, metabolite ID, transporter assays and program management. Dr. Bambal earned his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the National Chemical Laboratory in Pune, India and University of Bombay, India. He completed his post-doctoral research in the Department of Chemistry at the University College London, and Department of Medicinal Chemistry at University of Kansas.

Jie Zheng, Ph.D.

Director, Analytical Chemistry

Jie Zheng, Ph.D. - Director, Analytical Chemistry

Dr. Jie Zheng is an analytical chemist with 12 years of experience in pharmaceutical research and development. He led the API analytical function for Venetoclax and several early/late-stage programs at Abbott Laboratories/AbbVie, in North Chicago, IL. His previous roles have included leading chemical profiling and stability for electronic nicotine delivery systems at JUUL Labs (San Francisco, CA), and characterizing plant-based ingredients for specification setting and supplier development at Impossible Foods (Redwood City, CA). Jie received his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from Georgia State University.

Amy Cowgill

Director, Business Operations and Administration

Amy Cowgill - Director, Business Operations and Administration

Amy Cowgill brings a wealth of business and technology leadership experience to Circle, having successfully built solutions and organizational capacity in multiple industries for a range of organizations. Prior to joining Circle, Amy worked at Genentech in leadership roles within the Personalized Healthcare business unit and the Bioinformatics department. Prior to Genentech, Amy spent time at Tech and Financial Services organizations where she led initiatives as well as groups that delivered impactful solutions using both data and technology to enable company objectives. Amy holds a Master’s degree in International Development and a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics.

Bernard Levin

Associate Director, Pharmacology

Bernard Levin - Associate Director, Pharmacology

Bernard Levin is a pharmacologist and cell biologist with over 15 years of experience in research and drug development. He most recently led pharmacology efforts for multiple CAR-T cell therapy programs targeting both solid tumors and hematological malignancies at Kite Pharma, a Gilead company, in Emeryville, CA. His previous roles have included developing TCR-based cell therapies for HIV treatment while managing the CFAR Humanized Mouse Core at the UCLA AIDS Institute under the mentorship of Prof. Scott Kitchen, and developing Myeloid Progenitor Cell therapies to treat neutropenia at Cellerant Therapeutics in San Carlos, CA. Bernard received his B.S. in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Sanjay Srivastava, Ph.D.

Principal Scientist, Computational Chemistry

Sanjay Srivastava, Ph.D. - Principal Scientist, Computational Chemistry

Dr. Sanjay Srivastava has over 20 years of experience in generating and applying Computational Chemistry and Cheminformatics-led solutions to problems in Drug Discovery. He has led or participated in the introduction of several novel computational paradigms for improving drug design strategies. Prior to joining Circle, he set up and led a new CADD section in a Canadian CRO (Paraza Pharma), where he supported several structurally enabled projects for industry and academic clients. Sanjay has also served as a Computational Chemistry and Cheminformatics consultant to the biotech start-up sector. In previous roles in large pharma, he helped to establish and manage a Cheminformatics platform which impacted multiple Antiviral projects (Boehringer-Ingelheim) and was part of the global team that was successful in implementing, applying, and instilling the culture of utilizing machine learning derived in-silico ADME models to drive preclinical research decisions (AstraZeneca). In addition to Antivirals, Sanjay has also supported multiple therapeutic areas, including several CNS/Pain projects that advanced candidate compounds to the clinical phase. Prior to his industry forays, Sanjay completed postdoctoral fellowships at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and National Research Council, Montreal (Canada). Dr. Srivastava obtained his Ph.D. in Computational Chemistry from Case Western Reserve University. He also holds a Master’s (Chemistry) from IIT, Kanpur (India) and an undergraduate degree from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University (India).

Siegfried S.F. Leung, Ph.D.

Sr. Scientist, Computational Chemistry

Siegfried S.F. Leung, Ph.D. - Sr. Scientist, Computational Chemistry

Siegfried Leung, Ph.D., specializes in computational drug design and has over a decade of experience in macrocycle design and modeling. He joined Circle after undertaking postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Circle founder Matt Jacobson at UC San Francisco. His work there focused on the development of physics-based predictive models for passive membrane permeability and the application of these methods in designing cell permeable cyclic peptides. He was a key member of the Pfizer / Jacobson laboratory collaboration investigating the engineering of permeability into macrocyclic peptides, developing computational protocols for target-based design of permeable macrocycles. Siegfried received a B.S. (cum laude) from University of San Francisco and his Ph.D. in chemistry from Yale University under the mentorship of Prof. William Jorgensen.

Andrew T. Bockus, Ph.D.

Sr. Scientist, Chemistry

Andrew T. Bockus, Ph.D. - Sr. Scientist, Chemistry

Andrew T. Bockus, Ph.D., leads Circle’s chemistry team. Andrew is a chemist with over a decade of experience in the field of passively-permeable peptidic macrocycles. Prior to joining Circle Pharma, Andrew worked in the lab of Prof. Scott Lokey, a co-founder of Circle, where he synthesized natural product-like cyclic peptides and identified drivers of structure-permeability relationships in diverse peptidic scaffolds. He then developed applications for synthetic receptors and taught undergraduate courses in organic chemistry as a postdoc for Prof. Adam Urbach at Trinity University. Andrew holds a B.A. in Chemistry and Biochemistry from Skidmore College and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Catherine Gleason, Ph.D.

Sr. Scientist, Biology Research

Catherine Gleason, Ph.D. - Sr. Scientist, Biology Research

Catherine Gleason, Ph.D., received her B.S. in biochemistry from the University of Washington and earned her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania under the mentorship of Prof. Morris Birnbaum. She trained as a postdoctoral research fellow with Prof. Philip Cohen at the Medical Research Council’s Protein Phosphorylation Unit at the University of Dundee, UK, where she studied the interplay of protein phosphorylation and ubiquitylation in Toll-like receptor signaling and the innate immune response. Before joining Circle Pharma, she was an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of California San Francisco, investigating the mTOR signaling pathway in regulation of renal metabolism and ion transport.

Li-Fen Liu, Ph.D.

Sr. Scientist, Bioinformatics

Li-Fen Liu, Ph.D. - Sr. Scientist, Bioinformatics

Li-Fen received her B.S. in Clinical Nutrition from Chun-Shan Medical School in Taiwan and earned her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Human Nutrition from the Ohio State University. As a postdoctoral research fellow at the endocrinology division of the school of medicine at Stanford University, Li-Fen investigated the role of adapt immunity in insulin resistance and inflammation in humans. Li-Fen previously worked as a senior scientific researcher at OBD/Genentech, where she supported biomarker discovery and evaluation for anti-PDL1 programs, focusing on Reverse Translation projects and academic collaborations to further the understanding of resistance mechanisms to anti-PD-L1 in Renal Cell Carcinoma. Prior to joining Circle, Li-Fen held a position as a Senior Data Analytics Manager on the Translational Medicine team supervised by Evelyn Wang at Exelixis. She is incredibly excited to leverage her understanding of tumor metabolism and programming skills to develop potential drug targets that address unmet needs in the oncology space. In her free time, Li-Fen also enjoys hiking, gardening, bird watching, and Zumba dance.

Eran Hozias

Sr. Accounting Manager

Eran Hozias - Sr. Accounting Manager

Eran started his career in public accounting with KPMG LLP in New York. During the several years he spent at the Big 4, Eran obtained his Certified Public Accountant (CPA) certification. He then spent over 10 years with a number of private industry and public companies. He recently worked as an Accounting Manager at CytomX Therapeutics. Growing up in Israel, Eran spent three years serving in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). Achieving the rank of Staff Sergeant, he managed a team of 15 personnel. After his military service, Eran moved to New York and obtained his Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Finance, as well as his MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business.

Luis Hernandez

Manager, Chemistry

Luis Hernandez - Manager, Chemistry

Luis Hernandez is a member of Circle’s chemistry team. Luis has applied his continuous improvement and management experience from his previous role in a manufacturing facility to streamline macrocycle production and information workflows for Circle. Luis previously held positions at Ingredion, Inc. and Formulation Technology, Inc. He holds a B.S. in Chemical Biology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Breena Fraga

Scientist, Chemistry

Breena Fraga - Scientist, Chemistry

Breena Walton earned a B.S. in Molecular Synthesis at the University of California, San Diego. After studying total synthesis at the University of Pennsylvania under Prof. Madeleine Joullie and earning an M.S., she went on to work at E.I Dupont de Nemours in the Crop Protection division where she was a co-inventor on several patent applications for bicyclic azoles and helped move a product towards market. She subsequently worked in medicinal chemistry at Theravance Biopharma, and now at Circle Pharma in the chemistry team where her work focuses on advanced chemical synthesis and design.

Meisam Nosrati, Ph.D.

Scientist, Biochemistry

Meisam Nosrati, Ph.D. - Scientist, Biochemistry

Meisam Nosrati, Ph.D., is an interdisciplinary scientist with track record accomplishments in the fields of biochemistry, structural biology and organic synthesis. Meisam is passionate about contributing to public health via translational research. His postdoc at Emory University was on bacterial aminoglycoside resistance through ribosome methylation under the supervision of Prof. Graeme L. Conn. His Ph.D work at Michigan State University was focused on protein engineering to make novel proteins and protein probes under the supervision of Prof. James H. Geiger. He holds a B.S. and M.S. from University of Tehran in Chemistry and Organic Chemistry, respectively.

Nathan Dupper, Ph.D.

Scientist, Organic Chemistry

Nathan Dupper, Ph.D. - Scientist, Organic Chemistry

Nathan Dupper, Ph.D., earned his doctorate at UCLA studying Synthetic Organic Chemistry under Professor Ohyun Kwon. After completing his graduate studies, he worked as a postdoc in the laboratory of Professor Charles McKenna at USC. Here, he helped develop antifungal agents targeting the bromodomain containing protein Bdf1. Before joining the Circle Pharma team, he worked as a Synthetic Chemist at AIM Biosciences (WuXi). His work is currently directed toward chemical synthesis and design.

Justin A. Shapiro, Ph.D.

Scientist, Organic Chemistry

Justin A. Shapiro, Ph.D. - Scientist, Organic Chemistry

Justin A. Shapiro, Ph.D., is an organic chemist at Circle Pharma. Justin began his research career synthesizing cannabinoid derivatives under Prof. Mark L. Trudell, after which he worked under Prof. Loretta Jackson Hayes engineering Protein Kinase C mutants of the fungus Aspergillus nidulans. He went on to study iron acquisition systems of human-pathogenic bacteria using organic and biological chemistry under Prof Timothy A. Wencewicz. Prior to joining Circle, Justin worked on the diverted total synthesis of highly functionalized peptide natural products under Prof. William M. Wuest. Justin graduated with a B.S. in Chemistry from Rhodes College and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis.

Gabriel Fung, Ph.D.

Scientist, Chemistry

Gabriel Fung, Ph.D. - Scientist, Chemistry

Gabriel is a Scientist with experience in solid-phase synthesis of peptides as well as solution-phase synthesis of small molecules. He received his B.S. in Chemistry from UC Berkeley, and Ph.D in Organic Chemistry under Dr. Lam from UC Davis, where he worked on the combinatorial library syntheses of Actinomycin D analogs bearing triazoles. Prior to graduate school, he lectured sophomore Organic Chemistry at San Francisco State University.

Miguel P. Baldomero

Sr. Research Associate, Chemistry

Miguel P. Baldomero - Sr. Research Associate, Chemistry

Miguel Baldomero is a member of Circle’s chemistry team where he focuses on macrocycle synthesis. Miguel previously held positions at CS Bio and Bachem Americas. He holds a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh.