Team

As Chief Medical Officer and Head of Research and Development, Aaron Deykin, MD, leads the company’s development vision, providing clinical expertise, translational science direction, regulatory strategy, product development, and a strategic roadmap for driving Upstream Bio’s innovative programs to approval. In addition to his role at Upstream, Aaron serves as an independent Board Director at GentiBio. Prior to Upstream, Aaron held multiple roles of increasing responsibility at Biogen. Most recently, he was SVP of Clinical Sciences overseeing Biostatistics, Statistical Programming, Biomarkers, Clinical Pharmacology, Epidemiology, and Clinical Operations for Biogen’s pipeline globally. Earlier in his career, Aaron was Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a member of the Pulmonary and Critical Care faculty at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In that capacity, he treated patients with asthma and other advanced respiratory diseases while leading the medical activities of the Lung Transplantation Program, directing the Pulmonary Function Testing Laboratory and serving as the Associate Director of the Asthma Research Center. Aaron has been awarded board certification in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Disease, and Critical Care Medicine, and holds an MD from Harvard Medical School and an AB from Dartmouth College.

As SVP, People & Culture, at Upstream Bio, Lisa Fiering is focused on building the company’s team and maintaining a strong company culture. She brings to Upstream 30 years of experience, having spent the past 20 years in various people and culture roles at life sciences companies including Genzyme, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Keryx and Trillium, where she developed a pragmatic approach to drive team effectiveness through talent and organizational development. Since 2022, she has provided strategic consulting to early-stage biotech companies, developing strategy and building the foundation for the people and culture function for these growing companies. Lisa earned her BA in Sociology from Ithaca College.

As Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Upstream Bio, Mike Gray, MBA, leads all facets of Upstream’s financial strategy and daily operations. He has more than 25 years of public-private leadership experience and was most recently the CFO and COO of Carmot Therapeutics, where he helped to secure the company’s acquisition by Roche in 2024. Before this, he was CFO and COO of Imara and Arsanis, working with the leadership teams of each company in completing initial public offerings and building leading organizations. Mr. Gray previously held a number of leadership positions at Curis. Mike served on the Board of Directors of Therapeutics Acquisition Corporation, a special purpose acquisition corporation, through its merger with POINT Biopharma, which was subsequently acquired by Eli Lilly and Company in March 2024. He received his BS in business administration (accounting) from Bryant College and an MBA in corporate finance and entrepreneurial management from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College.

As Chief Business Officer at Upstream Bio, Adam Houghton oversees Business Development and Pipeline Strategy for the company. Prior to joining Upstream, Adam was Vice President, Corporate Strategy, and Head of AbbVie Ventures, AbbVie’s corporate venture investment group which is focused on investing in early-stage life-science biotech companies. Adam has also led several Search and Evaluation teams at AbbVie, Biogen and Eli Lilly and made significant contributions to a number of major licensing and acquisition deals in the therapeutic areas of Immunology and Neuroscience. Prior to his business development roles, he held research positions at Zeneca (now AstraZeneca) and Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals including Section Head, Bone and Inflammation Drug Discovery. Adam received a PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Sheffield, performed post-doctoral research at Yale School of Medicine and received an MBA from Xavier University.

Ashish Kalra leads the translational research function at Upstream Bio, where he overseas preclinical development and biomarker strategy across Upstream’s clinical programs. Ashish brings several years of drug development experience in early-stage biotech startups. He has led multidisciplinary functions including preclinical pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, toxicology, biomarker discovery and execution in clinical trials. Prior to joining Upstream, Ashish held leadership roles at multiple biotech startups including Merrimack Pharmaceuticals and Scholar Rock, successfully advancing and supporting early discovery-stage programs into investigational new drug filings (IND) and early proof-of-concept clinical trials. Ashish received his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Northeastern University and holds a diploma in business administration from in Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), Mumbai, India.

As Senior Vice President Regulatory affairs and Quality, Mersedeh Miraliakbari, PharmD, leads all aspects of the company’s Regulatory Affairs and Quality functions as we drive forward through clinical trials across multiple indications. Mersedeh Joins Upstream Bio from Nabriva Therapeutics, where she served as Vice President of Regulatory Affairs. Under her leadership, the company was able to gain first cycle approvals in several regions of the world. In her role, she created innovative regulatory strategies that expedited drug development, maximized the probability of regulatory success, and mitigated risks. Before Nabriva, Mersedeh worked at Johnson & Johnson, where she served as Global Regulatory Affairs Lead for the Pain Franchise. Mersedeh was involved in several external collaborations/commitments for assigned Pain interfaces in addition to overall OTC area such as the OTC monograph task force and CHPA (Consumer Healthcare Product Association) task force. Prior to Johnson & Johnson, Mersedeh worked at Teva Pharmaceuticals and AstraZeneca in roles of increasing responsibility. Mersedeh has been involved in all stages of drug development and commercialization for over 22 years and has in-depth regulatory experience in several Therapeutic Areas such as Infections Disease, Neuroscience (psychiatry), Movement Disorder (Huntington Disease), Gastroenterology and Diabetes products. Mersedeh holds a Bachelor of Sciences and a Doctorate in Pharmacy degree from Temple University in Philadelphia.

Parika “Pinky” Petaipimol leads technical operations for Upstream Bio. Prior to Upstream Bio, Pinky led CMC and Supply Chain activities at Pandion Therapeutics, progressing their lead program PT101 into clinic prior to Pandion’s acquisition by Merck in 2021. She also spent 14 years at Biogen, where she gained both technical depth and broad knowledge of the biotech/pharma industry in various Business Development and New Product Commercialization roles. In addition to progressing the Biogen pipeline, Pinky grew two important employee resource networks within the company, the Women’s Innovation Network (WIN) and the Parent Networking Group (PNG), to solidify the company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion. She currently serves on the External Advisory Board for the Georgia Tech College of Engineering and holds a BS in Biomedical Engineering from Georgia Tech with a concentration in tissue engineering, an MS in Manufacturing Engineering, and an MBA from Boston University (BU).

As VP and Head of Clinical Development, Sumathi Sivapalasingam, MD, leads the company’s strategic clinical development activities, providing clinical expertise and driving Upstream Bio’s innovative programs to approval. Sumathi joins Upstream from Excision BioTherapeutics, an in vivo CRISPR gene editing company, where she served as VP of Translational Medicine. Prior to Excision, Sumathi was a Senior Director in Early Clinical Development and Experimental Sciences at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, where she was responsible for the delivery and execution of pipeline assets, from clinical candidate selection through the end of late-stage clinical trials and approval. Sumathi was the medical lead for the clinical development of Inmazeb, the first-ever approved treatment of infection caused by Zaire ebolavirus in adult and pediatric patients. Previously, Sumathi was an Attending Physician and Clinical Scientist in the Infectious Disease Division at NYU School of Medicine/Bellevue Hospital and was a Director at the NYU School of Medicine – Kenya HIV clinic in Mombasa, Kenya through PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) funding. She was also an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sumathi earned her B.A. in Physics from Swarthmore College, and her M.D. from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University.

Rand Sutherland, MD, MPH, is CEO of Upstream Bio. He has more than 25 years of business and clinical experience, having most recently served as CEO of Seeker Biologics, and before that as President of Translate Bio prior to its acquisition by Sanofi. Previously, Dr. Sutherland held a number of R&D and medical affairs roles at Sanofi, providing leadership for the development of novel medicines in Immunology and Rare Diseases, and leading medical affairs globally for the Specialty Care business unit. Rand also serves as an independent director of Krystal Biotech and Vanqua Bio. Before joining the biopharma industry, Rand was a Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado and Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at National Jewish Health in Denver. He earned an MD from the University of Chicago, after which he trained in Internal Medicine at UCSF and in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Colorado.

As the Vice President and Head of Biometrics at Upstream Bio, Fang plays a crucial role in optimizing our clinical trial designs in close collaboration with R&D leaders. She oversees Biometrics functions and various aspects of our CRO to ensure high-quality data and analysis. With over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, Fang has held several positions of increasing responsibility and worked across various therapeutic areas. Prior to joining Upstream, Fang served as the VP of Biometrics at Insmed, where she established and grew the Biometrics organization. She has also held leadership roles at CSL Behring and Teva, supporting product development and approval across portfolios. Additionally, she has held positions at Pfizer, Amgen, and GSK. Fang holds a PhD in Biostatistics from Columbia University and a Bachelor’s degree from Peking University, China.

As Vice President & Head of Clinical Operations at Upstream Bio, Inc., Maryse is responsible for clinical program and trial operations strategy planning, execution, and global delivery across development phases and indications. Maryse has over 23 years of experience in the global pharmaceutical & biotechnology industry, working at companies such as Schering-Plough, Servier, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Novartis. During the span of her career, she has held a wide range of positions, from country, global trial and program management to departmental leadership, R&D business strategy and therapeutic area leadership. Prior to joining Upstream Bio, Maryse was a Senior Director at Biogen and headed the Multiple Sclerosis & Immunology Clinical Trial Delivery Unit, where she was accountable for the global clinical operations delivery of a portfolio of over 12 assets across all phases of development. Maryse received her Bachelor of Science in Biology with specialization in Microbiology & Immunology and her Master of Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Ronald C. Renaud, Jr., M.B.A. Ron is Chair of our board of directors and has been a member of our board of directors since November 2021. Since October 2024, Ron has served as President and Chief Executive Officer at Kailera Therapeutics, Inc. Prior to Kailera, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Cerevel Therapeutics through its acquisition by AbbVie in 2024. Previously, Ron was a partner at Bain Capital Life Sciences. Before Bain, he served as Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Translate Bio from 2014 until the close of its acquisition by Sanofi in 2021. Prior to this, Ron was at Idenix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from 2007 through 2014, where he served as Chief Financial Officer, Chief Business Officer and, finally, President and Chief Executive Officer at the time of its acquisition by Merck. Earlier in his career, he was a biotechnology equity research analyst at J.P. Morgan, Schwab Soundview and Bear Stearns. Ron also spent more than five years at Amgen, where he held positions in clinical research, investor relations and finance. Ron holds a B.A. from St. Anselm College and an M.B.A. from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California.

Mr. Chimovits is a Partner at OrbiMed Advisors LLC. Chimovits has 14 years of operational experience, including 10 years of senior managerial experience in public companies. Prior to joining OrbiMed, he was the CEO of NasVax. NasVax acquired Protea and struck agreements with GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis. Previously, Mr. Chimovits spent more than seven years with Compugen, as President, Compugen USA Inc. and Executive VP, Commercial Operations. At Compugen, he had P&L responsibility for more than 100 people and led multiple transactions including J&J, Novartis, Teva, Abbott, Medarex and others. Mr. Chimovits earned his MBA, MSc in Microbiology and his BSc from Tel Aviv University.

Dr. Edd Fleming joined Upstream’s Board of Directors in June 2023. Edd is the Executive Vice President of Enavate Sciences, where he works closely to invest in and build therapeutic companies. In 2022, Edd retired as Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company, where he worked extensively with both large and small biopharmaceutical companies on their priority strategic and operational priorities. He was the global leader of McKinsey’s R&D practice, where he was responsible for its client service and knowledge development on R&D topics. Edd earned his BA in Chemistry from Harvard University and his MD from Vanderbilt University, and completed internal medicine training at Johns Hopkins Hospital and subspecialty training in pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Edd serves on the Boards of CRISPR Therapeutics, Komodo Health, Egnite Health and the Board of Visitors for Vanderbilt’s School of Basic Sciences.

Dr. Ratcliffe is the head of Access Biotechnology, the strategic investment arm specializing in therapeutic platforms and products at Access Industries. Prior to his work at Access Industries, he was Managing Director at New Leaf Venture Partners, where he concentrated on biopharmaceutical investing. Prior to joining New Leaf in 2008, Dr. Ratcliffe served as Senior Vice President and Development Head for Pfizer Neuroscience, as well as Worldwide Head of Clinical Research and Development. Additional positions during his 12 years at Pfizer included Vice President of Exploratory Development for the Midwest region (based in Ann Arbor, Mich.) and Head of Experimental Medicine at Pfizer’s Sandwich, UK Laboratories. Dr. Ratcliffe received his MD and PhD in Immunology from the University of Cape Town and his MBA from the University of Michigan. He completed his internal medicine training and fellowship in Immunology at Groote Schuur Hospital and associated teaching hospitals in Cape Town, South Africa.

Marcie is currently the Chief Medical Officer at Tectonic Therapeutic, Watertown MA. She has over 18 years of experience in drug development across all stages of clinical drug development from translational/early development through post approval and across multiple modalities including small molecules, siRNA and biologics.

Prior to joining Tectonic, she was the Head of Clinical Development for the Immunology/Inflammation Therapeutic Area at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. In that role she led the clinical development of Dupixent® through over nine Phase 3 trial initiations and multiple regulatory approvals globally, including approvals for adult and pediatric asthma, pediatric AD, chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps. She was instrumental in the pivotal study design and its execution supporting the recent approval in eosinophilic esophagitis.

Over her career, which has included time at Merck and Alnylam and EMD Serono, she has built and led clinical development and cross functional groups across a range of therapeutic areas including respiratory, inflammation, bone, anemia and metabolic and rare diseases. Prior to entry into drug development, Marcie held a staff position in the Pulmonary Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School where she founded and directed the Adult Cystic Fibrosis Program. She holds an AB from Princeton University and a MD/ MS from Washington University, St. Louis and completed her internal medicine and pulmonary fellowship training at Harvard Medical School affiliated hospitals.

Daniella has been a member of our board of directors since October 2024. She has served as the Chief Financial Officer of Tango Therapeutics since September 2019, where she previously served as interim Chief Financial Officer from October 2016. Prior to this, she provided consulting and interim chief financial officer services for early-stage biotechnology companies. Previously, Daniella was the Chief Financial Officer of Idenix Pharmaceuticals until its acquisition by Merck in 2014. Prior to serving as Chief Financial Officer, Daniella served as Corporate Controller for Idenix. She previously held finance positions at Coley Pharmaceuticals, Biogen Idec and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Ms. Beckman holds a B.S. in business administration/accounting from Boston University.

Dr. Linda Armstrong’s career in the biopharmaceutical industry has spanned more than 20 years. She is currently the US Novartis Foundation President and leads the US Corporate Responsibility team at Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation.

Previously, Linda held executive roles in several pharmaceutical research and development organizations including most recently Head of Global Development for Respiratory and Allergy at Novartis. In this position, she supported the development and approval of innovative therapies to address unmet medical needs in disease areas such as asthma, COPD, and cystic fibrosis.

Linda has broad industry experience leading medical affairs, patient safety and clinical development teams over therapeutic areas including cardiovascular, respiratory and oncology. Prior to joining Novartis, Linda held management positions at Schering-Plough Corporation (now Merck) and Pfizer Inc.

Linda received an AB degree from Harvard University and an MD degree from Yale University. She completed medical training at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York and completed pulmonology training and served as a faculty member at New York University School of medicine prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry.

Ian D. Pavord, MA, DM, FRCP, FERS, FMedSci, is Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Oxford and Honorary Consultant Physician at the Oxford University Hospitals. He is a member of congregation at the University of Oxford and a Professorial Fellow of St Edmund Hall. He was a Consultant Physician from 1995 and Honorary Professor of Medicine from 2005 to 2013 at the Institute for Lung Health, Glenfield Hospital, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust. He was elected an NIHR Senior Investigator in 2011 and 2014, an inaugural Fellow of the European Respiratory Society in 2014, and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Science in 2015.

He has a research interest in the clinical aspects of inflammatory airway diseases and has pioneered the use of non-invasive measures of airway inflammation in the assessment of these conditions. He has identified a number of clinically important phenotypes of inflammatory airway disease, has discovered clinically important biomarkers, and has played a lead role in the clinical development of three of the most promising new treatments for severe airway disease.

Professor Pavord was co-editor of Thorax from 2010-2015, Chief Medical Officer of Asthma UK from 2008 to 2014, Associate Editor of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine from 2005-10 and has been Associate Editor of the European Respiratory Journal since 2016. He is the author of over 520 publications and has an H-index of 119 making him the 2nd highest-cited researcher in asthma worldwide.  He received the 2016 European Respiratory Society (ERS) Gold Medal for his research and gave the Cournand Lecture at the 2004 ERS meeting. He chaired the 2017 Lancet Commission on asthma.

Michael E. Wechsler, MD, MMSc, is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at NJH in Denver, Director of the National Jewish Health (NJH)/Cohen Family Asthma Institute and Associate Vice President for Innovation and Industry Relations at NJH. In addition to clinical work in pulmonary & critical care medicine, Professor Wechsler’s research focuses on clinical and translational asthma with emphasis on clinical trials in asthma, novel asthma therapies, bronchial thermoplasty, asthma pharmacogenomics, and management of eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (i.e. Churg-Strauss Syndrome, CSS). He has led studies focusing on novel biologic agents for asthma and related diseases, including benralizumab, dupilumab, mepolizumab, reslizumab, and tezepelumab.

Dr. Wechsler has published more than 250 peer-reviewed manuscripts relating to asthma, EGPA and eosinophilic lung diseases. He was a member of the Steering Committee and site Principal Investigator of the NIH-sponsored Asthma Clinical Research Network (ACRN, now called AsthmaNet), a multicenter asthma clinical trials consortium, and currently serves as the PI of the Denver site of the Precision Intervention in Severe/Exacerbating Asthma (PRECISE) network. A member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians, he has participated in many different task forces related to the study of eosinophilic lung diseases that were sponsored by the NIH, the FDA, the European Respiratory Society, and the International Eosinophil Society. He is currently Associate Editor of the journal Chest and has served as Associate Editor of the journal Allergy and on the editorial board of the European Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Dr. Wechsler received AB and MMSc degrees from Harvard University in Boston and an MD degree from McGill University in Montreal. He completed medical training at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, and as part of the Harvard Combined Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship Training Program.