About Us

Leveraging deep expertise

Hinge Bio, Inc. is a privately-held biotechnology company leveraging its powerful GEM-⁠DIMER™ platform to develop therapeutics that address the problems of resistance, inadequate efficacy, and side effects in the fields of autoimmunity, cancer, inflammatory disease and infectious disease.

The GEM-DIMER™ technology uniquely enables (i) cooperative binding to disease targets allowing for orders-of-magnitude enhanced activity and (ii) greater degrees of multivalency and multispecificity than possible with conventional approaches, to produce molecules with entirely new functionality for superior safety and efficacy.

Management Team

Harold E. “Barry” Selick, Ph.D., joined Hinge Bio as CEO in January 2023. He was most recently the Vice-Chancellor of Business Development, Innovation, and Partnerships at the University of California, San Francisco, a position that he had held since April 2017. Previously, Dr. Selick served as Threshold Pharmaceutical’s Chief Executive Officer from its Series A financing in June 2002 until its sale to Molecular Templates in March 2017. From June 2002 until July 2007, Dr. Selick was also a Venture Partner at Sofinnova Ventures, Inc., a venture capital firm located in San Francisco. From January 1999, he was co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of biotechnology companies Camitro Corporation and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Camitro UK, Ltd, until their sale to ArQule two years later. From 1992 to 1999, he was at Affymax Research Institute, most recently as Vice President of Research where he was responsible for drug discovery and technology development. During his tenure, Affymax was acquired by Glaxo Wellcome plc as its drug discovery technology development center for which Dr. Selick represented Affymax on the GW Lead Discovery 2000 committee, focused on improving the effectiveness of the company’s global drug discovery process. Before working at Affymax, he held scientific positions at Protein Design Labs, Inc. and Anergen, Inc. As a staff scientist at Protein Design Labs, Inc., he co-invented the technology underlying the creation of fully humanized antibody therapeutics and applied that to PDL’s first product, Zenapax (daclizumab), which was developed and commercialized by Roche for the prevention of kidney transplant rejection. Dr. Selick previously served as a director of Amunix Pharmaceuticals, Lead Director and Chairman of PDL, and as Chairman of Catalyst Biosciences. Aside from Hinge Bio, Dr. Selick currently serves as chairman of the boards of Protagonist Therapeutics as well as Molecular Templates, Inc., both of which are public drug discovery and development companies. Dr. Selick received his Bachelor of Arts in Biophysics and Doctor of Philosophy in Biology from the University of Pennsylvania and was a Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Cancer Fund Fellow and an American Cancer Society Senior Fellow at the University of California, San Francisco.

Ms. Rollins has more than 25 years of experience in the biotechnology industry, particularly in the areas of venture capital, management consulting and equity research. She was a co-founder of early-stage life science venture capital firm, 5AM Ventures, where she incubated and was a founding member of the Board of Directors of Marcadia (purchased by Roche) and KaloBios (IPO). She was previously an Investment Manager at Bay City Capital, an Associate in the pharmaceuticals practice of Booz Allen & Hamilton, and an Equity Research Associate at the investment bank Robertson Stephens & Co. Ms. Rollins holds a B.A. in Biology from Colgate University, where she served as a Trustee, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Dr. Capon is a molecular biologist with extensive experience in biotech invention and innovation. He holds forty-nine United States Patents covering recombinant Factor VIII for the treatment of hemophilia as well as several widely adopted foundational technologies including Fc fusion proteins, chimeric antigen receptors for T cell therapy, and genetically engineered mice using embryonic stem cells for the creation of fully human antibodies. His inventions have been broadly licensed and have led to the discovery and development of over twenty FDA-approved, marketed therapeutics including Enbrel for rheumatoid arthritis, Yescarta for B cell cancer, Vectibix for breast cancer, and Prolia/Xgeva for osteoporosis. Dr. Capon joined Genentech in 1981, serving in various positions including Staff Scientist and founding member of its Product Development Committee. He joined Cell Genesys in 1990, serving as Senior VP Research and Chief Technical Officer, and as a founder, director, and officer of Xenotech/Abgenix, a joint venture between Cell Genesys and Japan Tobacco, later acquired by Amgen for $2.2 billion. In 1995, Dr. Capon founded ViroLogic/Monogram Biosciences, today an operating subsidiary of LabCorp, serving as its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer to commercialize his invention of an HIV drug resistance diagnostic test used to guide HIV antiviral therapy. Dr. Capon has authored more than sixty peer-reviewed scientific publications. He received a B.S. in Biology and Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Juha Punnonen, MD, PhD, is a physician scientist with extensive experience as a biotechnology/pharma executive and has a track record in building and managing R&D teams from early-stage research to development in oncology and immunology. He joined Hinge Bio in April 2023 as Chief Development Officer. Previously, he served as Senior Vice President & Head of Oncology at Ascendis Pharma (ASND). He was a Member of Senior Management Team and coordinated oncology research and pipeline development, advancing two immuno-oncology programs through preclinical research and IND-filings to clinical development. Prior to Ascendis, he was Executive Director and member of the Oncology Leadership Team at Merck & Co., Inc. where he coordinated oncology research and early development programs. At Merck, he was also a member of Product Development Team for Keytruda External Collaborations and Keytruda Risk and Safety Management Team. Prior to that, he was CEO and Co-founder at STATegics Inc., where he was responsible for the company’s R&D and business development activities and was the Principal Investigator on six grant-funded programs. Prior to STATegics, Inc., he was Vice President, R&D and Head of Biology & Pharmacology at Maxygen, Inc. (MAXY), Redwood City, CA. His responsibilities focused on development of molecular evolution/DNA shuffling technologies as well as preclinical and early clinical development of next generation genetic vaccines and protein therapeutics, such as IFN-alpha, G-CSF, Factor VIIa, CTLA4-Ig and TPO agonist protein. Prior to Maxygen, he was a Scientist at DNAX Research Institute (SPG, now Merck Research Labs), Palo Alto, CA, where he also did his post-doctoral training at the Human Immunology Department. His clinical work involved patient care in pediatrics and internal medicine as well as hospital work as a consulting physician in medical microbiology. He has authored 93 scientific publications and 28 issued US patents, and he received MD and PhD (immunology) degrees from the University of Turku, Finland.

Joshua Carle is a cross-functional executive with over 20 years of strategic transaction and R&D investment experience while in Management Consulting and BioPharma. Mr. Carle has led or advised more than fifty potential strategic transactions, resulting in the successful execution of greater than $2 billion in disclosed deal value and committed R&D funds. Mr. Carle joins from Triumvira Immunologics Inc., a next-gen immuno-oncology biotech, where he served as Vice President of Business Development. In this role he executed multiple types of agreements to support the substantial growth of the company, including a clinical collaboration, innovative technology enabling collaboration, in-license, and investor interactions/outreach, while additionally providing key contributions to corporate strategy and R&D prioritization. Prior to Triumvira, Mr. Carle was at Pfizer Inc., where he drove BD strategy, commercial assessments, and broad transaction support for licensing/M&A efforts for Pfizer Oncology. Previously, Mr. Carle held roles of increasing responsibility in business development activities at Daiichi Sankyo Inc. and Clearview Projects Inc., a strategic advisory firm focused on licensing/M&A for the BioPharma industry. Mr. Carle received his undergraduate degree in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and MBA from the Villanova School of Business.

Ms. Siekevitz has more than 35 years of experience in science and the biotech industry with legal expertise in corporate, licensing, clinical and commercial matters. Ms. Siekevitz served as Corporate Counsel at PDL BioPharma, Inc., and its successor corporation, Facet Biotech Corporation. Previously, she was an Associate at Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe LLP and a patent agent, technical consultant and visiting scientist at Cell Genesys, Inc. Prior to that, Ms. Siekevitz was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. She has 20 scientific publications and is a co-inventor on 4 U.S. patents. Ms. Siekevitz received her B.A. in Biology from the University of Chicago, her Ph.D. in Cell Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her J.D. from the Stanford University Law School. She is admitted to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in the State of California.

Dr. Lucas has more than 30 years of experience in science and in the biotechnology industry, leading research and development teams in the early development of novel biomolecules from research through IND approval and first-in-human testing. She has worked in a number of healthcare industries in diagnostics, biotechnology and drug delivery, and has led multiple national and international teams, in small start-up companies and large pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Lucas was Vice President of Technical Development at IGM Biosciences for 4 years and worked at ALZA and Johnson and Johnson as Vice President of Technical Development for 10 years, developing long-term implants for the delivery of biomolecules as well as non-invasive technologies for the delivery of biomolecules to the central nervous system. Previously, Dr. Lucas worked at Cell Genesys on chimeric antigen receptors and on fully human antibodies derived from the XenoMouse. She worked at Genentech Inc. from 1985 to 1993, notably as part of project teams responsible for developing Fc fusion proteins, and a candidate HIV vaccine project. Dr. Lucas holds a B.A. in Biochemistry and a Ph.D. in Neurochemistry from the University of Sciences in Paris, France. She completed her post-doctoral studies in neurochemistry at Stanford University.

Dr. Hershberg has more than 40 years of experience in biotechnology in the areas of recovery process development and large-scale manufacturing operations. He worked at Hoffmann LaRoche, Genentech, Immunex, and Amgen and has consulted for developing and major pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Hershberg had a major role in the development of ten commercial products encompassing cytokines, hormones, vaccines, blood factors, and antibodies. In addition, he worked in Pharmaceutical Sciences and contributed to the development of formulations for several commercial products. Dr. Hershberg received his Ph.D. from University of Pennsylvania in Biochemistry and a B.S. in chemistry from University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Scribner is a board certified internal medicine specialist with long experience in drug development as a clinical investigator, regulatory reviewer, and strategic product life cycle consultant. He has extensive experience in virology and viral diseases, oncology, hepatology, infectious disease, rheumatology, immunology, very rare and Orphan diseases and gene therapy. Dr. Scribner was at the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), FDA, for 10 years, reviewing all phases of clinical development in a wide breadth of areas (including blood, plasma, recombinant proteins, cells, tissues, vaccines). Dr. Scribner was also Chief Regulatory Officer at a venture-based drug, biologic and combination development company (BioMedicines/Intarcia). He has more than 25 years of experience as a consultant to drugs and biologics companies working on everything from discovery and preclinical models through clinical trials, especially early stage clinical trials, Data Safety Monitoring Committees, and strategic and operational regulatory interactions in the US (FDA) and Europe (EMA and Member States). Dr. Scribner received his M.D. from the University of Colorado College of Medicine, an MBA from the University of Maryland School of Business, and a B.A. from Grinnell College.

Board of Directors

Dr. Petkevich has more than 30 years of financial and investment experience in biotechnology and investment banking. He is currently the Chief Investment Officer of V2M Capital®, an investment firm funding life science companies. He previously co-founded BladeRock Capital, LLC, the predecessor investment firm to V2M Capital®. Prior to BladeRock Capital, Dr. Petkevich founded The Petkevich Group, a biotechnology advisory firm, where he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Petkevich previously served as Managing Director, as well as Head of Healthcare and Investment Banking, at Robertson Stephens & Co. Dr. Petkevich began his career at Hambrecht & Quist, an investment bank, where he served as a Principal, Head of Healthcare Banking and as an Institutional Investor ranked biotechnology analyst covering Genentech, Chiron and others. Dr. Petkevich received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and his D.Phil. from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He also is a member of the Board of Directors at Cohbar, Inc.

Dr. Gefter is Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He founded Praecis Pharmaceuticals Inc. and was Chairman of the Board, CEO, President and/or Chief Scientific Officer until it was sold to GlaxoSmithKline. He founded ImmuLogic Pharmaceutical Corporation and served as its CEO and/or Chairman of the Board for 10 years. He has authored more than 200 peer reviewed scientific publications. Dr. Gefter received his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Maryland and his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Ms. Vitullo has more than 30 years of experience in the biotech industry. She is a Partner at Domain Associates and has extensive experience in both public and private investing in biotech companies and liquidation/distribution strategies for public companies. For more than a decade, Ms. Vitullo was responsible for Domain Public Equity Partners L.P., a fund focused on private investments in public companies. Previous to Domain, Ms. Vitullo was senior vice president at Rothschild Asset Management, Inc., where she had responsibility for the U.S. public market investments of International Biotechnology Trust plc and Biotechnology Investments Limited. Prior to that, Ms. Vitullo served as the director of corporate communications and investor relations at Cephalon, a publicly traded biotechnology company, and held a number of positions at Eastman Kodak, including corporate development. Her current board memberships include Exalys, Inc., Esperion Therapeutics, and Marinus Pharmaceuticals. She is a board observer at Antios Pharmaceuticals. Previously, Ms. Vitullo served as Chairman of the Board at Achillion Pharmaceuticals (sold to Alexion) and served on the boards of Celator Pharmaceuticals (sold to Jazz Pharmaceuticals), Durata Therapeutics (sold to Activas PLC), Cerexa Therapeutics (sold to Forest Labs) and Calixa Therapeutics (sold to Cubist). Ms. Vitullo received her B.A. in mathematics and her MBA in finance from University of Rochester.

Mr. Unger spent more than 20 years as a General Partner at venture capital firm Mayfield Fund where he was an early investor in industry leaders such as Sandisk, Silicon Architects, Calico Commerce, nChip, Newport Communications, Simplex Solutions, and Excess Bandwidth Corporation. More recently, he advised privately held companies, including Nextest, Berkeley Design Automation, D2S, Verplex and The @ Company. He also devotes significant time to philanthropic activities and currently serves as a director of CARE Enterprises, The Wildlife Conservation Network, and he is on the advisory board of the Dean of Engineering for the University of Illinois at Chicago. He received his B.A. from the University of Illinois at Chicago and is the recipient of an honorary Doctorate in Engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Scientific Advisory Board

Dr. Broder has extensive experience as a scientist, oncologist, immunologist, and medical researcher. He is the former Director of the National Cancer Institute where he oversaw the development of numerous anti-cancer therapeutic agents and helped launch a number of large-scale clinical trials related to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer and inaugurated the highly successful SPORE Program. His laboratory interests have included antiretroviral therapy, the relationship between immunodeficiency disorders and cancer, the human genome, and the proteomics of cancer cells. In particular, his laboratory was responsible for developing the first 3 agents approved by FDA specifically to treat the AIDS virus (Retrovir® (AZT), Videx® (ddI), and HIVID® (ddC)). After his tenure at the NCI, Dr. Broder served as Senior Vice President, Research and Development and Chief Scientific Officer at IVAX Corporation (now Teva Pharmaceuticals), as Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer at Celera Corporation and as Senior Vice President, Health Sector, Intrexon Corp. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Sensei Biotherapeutics and Geneos Therapeutics and sits on numerous scientific advisory boards. Dr. Broder is the author or co-author of over 340 scientific publications, and is an inventor on many patents. He has received numerous awards related to his research in cancer and AIDS and was elected to the National Academy of Medicine. He graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School, and did an internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Stanford and subspecialty training in medical oncology at the National Cancer Institute.

The Scientific Advisory Board is comprised of scientists and clinicians who have made major contributions to the development of therapies and treatment of patients living with autoimmune disease as well as cancer and inflammatory disease.