Team Category: Management Team

Prior to joining Lassen, Cadmus served as Chief Medical Officer and Head of R&D for Aura Biosciences, an oncology company developing first in class oncology treatments for primary tumors to reduce the incidence of metastatic cancer, starting with the lead indication in choroidal melanoma and a secondary indication in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer. Prior to Aura, Cadmus has held progressive positions in Ophthalmology R&D including Medical Director/Senior Director at Quintiles, Head of Clinical Trial Management at Alcon, Therapeutic Unit Head for Intraocular Lens R&D at Alcon and VP, Clinical Development and Medical Affairs for Inotek Pharmaceuticals. In these roles he actively participated in the product development of over 40 Drugs/Devices (including the approval of 5 drugs and 5 devices in the US and other global regions) and has led or participated in over 125 clinical trials.

Cadmus received his MD and Ophthalmology training at UNC Medical School/UNC Hospitals, his BA in Psychology from Case Western Reserve University, and his MBA in Health Care Administration from Regis University. Prior to joining the Research and Development industry, Cadmus practiced cataract/refractive surgery and comprehensive ophthalmology and served as a Principal Investigator in multiple clinical trials. His passion is to combine his experience in ophthalmology, leadership, business and research and development to meet unmet medical needs for patients and coaching and mentoring professionals.

Elaine Stracker, PhD, JD is our General Counsel and a member of the executive leadership team and is responsible for global legal, data privacy, and compliance.  Dr. Stracker has more than 20 years of legal experience handling corporate, business, intellectual property, transactional, compliance, employment, and litigation matters.  Dr. Stracker also has extensive experience working with Boards and investors, assessing and evaluating technologies, and building teams.

Dr. Stracker has worked for both big pharma and medical device companies, biotech start-ups and law firms in a number of legal roles.  She has held General Counsel positions at both public and private companies.  Dr. Stracker was most recently General Counsel and Head of Compliance at Summit Therapeutics, Inc. a publicly traded biotech company, where she drafted and negotiated the $5B collaboration and license deal between Summit Therapeutics, Inc. and Akeso, Inc., led the development of the compliance program and IP strategy, managed CMC and built a legal team.   Prior to Summit, she has been General Counsel at Pharmacyclics, Inc.; Indigo Ag., Inc.; and Maky Zanganeh & Associates, Inc., where she participated in a number of significant financing and transactions deals, including the sale of Pharmacyclics to AbbVie, Inc. for $21B. She has also held senior leadership positions of increasing responsibility within companies, such as AbbVie, Inc.; Medtronic, Inc.; Gilead Sciences, Inc.; Merck &Co, Inc.; Alexza MDC; Molecular Probes, Inc., and Affymax Research Institute (a GSK company).

Dr. Stracker received her PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of California, Davis and her JD from the University of California, Berkeley.  She is a registered patent attorney with the USPTO.  Dr. Stracker is the recipient of several honors and distinctions including a Tribute to Women in Industry Award and a Jurisprudence Award for Patent Law.  She is published in the area of advanced licensing agreements and is an inventor on several patents.

Maria Fardis, PhD, is a Venture Partner at Frazier Life Sciences and is the Chair of Board of Directors at Obsidian Therapeutics. She is a member of the Board of Directors at CRISPR Therapeutics as well as Quanta Therapeutics. She has over 20 years of scientific and management experience in public and private companies. Dr. Fardis previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer at Iovance Biotherapeutics, a publicly traded Biotechnology company. As CEO at Iovance, she led the transformation from an early-stage development company to a company with late-stage cell therapy programs for the treatment of solid tumors. Prior to Iovance, Dr. Fardis served as the Chief Operating Officer of Acerta Pharma B.V., where she worked on the development of Calquence^® until the company’s acquisition by AstraZeneca. Prior to that, she worked at Pharmacyclics, Inc. She was a key contributor in the creation of a broad clinical program leading to global approvals for Imbruvica^® in multiple hematologic malignancies. She served as Chief of Oncology Operations and Alliances at Pharmacyclics. Before Pharmacyclics, Dr. Fardis held increasing senior positions in medicinal chemistry and the project and portfolio management at Gilead Sciences, Inc., during which time she was involved with different therapeutic areas including antivirals, oncology, and cardiovascular therapeutics and worked on the development and life cycle management of Letairis^®.

Maria received her PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley and her B.S. summa cum laude, in chemistry from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She also holds an M.B.A., received with the highest honors, from Golden Gate University.

Andrew Maleki leads corporate development at Lassen Therapeutics. Mr. Maleki has over a decade of experience in the biotech industry across strategy, business development, and operational roles and has played a key role in raising >$500M in capital as well as licensing and M&A deals with an aggregate value over $5 billion.

Prior to Lassen, Mr. Maleki was in positions of increasing responsibility at Jazz Pharmaceuticals,  where he was responsible for leading collaborations, licensing transactions, and mergers and acquisitions across a variety of therapeutic areas. Earlier in his career, he worked at PureTech Health and ClearView Healthcare Partners across operational, business development, and strategy roles.

Mr. Maleki holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.A. in Biology and Economics with distinction from Yale University.