KisoJi Leadership Team
KisoJi is led by an experienced and entrepreneurial management team with a successful track record in antibody development, oncology, and life science finance / business development.
David S. Young, M.D.
Co-Founder and C.E.O.
Dr. Young is the C.E.O., C.S.O., and co-founder of KisoJi. Previously, he was the founder, C.S.O. and C.E.O. of ARIUS Research Inc., a publicly-traded biotechnology company developing therapeutic cancer antibodies and sold to Roche in 2008. ARIUS had secured partnerships with leading companies such as Genentech, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, and Protein Design Labs.
He is the inventor or author on over 200 patents and scientific papers. He is a recognized entrepreneur and has served on many non-profit boards. He is founding Chairman of the Ontario Biosciences Innovation Organization, a non-profit biotech industry group.
Dr. Young received his M.D., his M.Sc. and did his surgical and science training in the General Surgery and the Surgeon Scientist Program, all at the University of Toronto.
Michael Dixon, CPA, CA
CFO
Michael Dixon has over 20 years of experience working in an executive role for venture-backed companies including CFO of GeminX Pharmaceuticals which was acquired by Cephalon in 2011. More recently, Mr Dixon has been CFO or acting CFO for other venture backed pharmaceutical companies including DalCor Pharmaceuticals.
During his tenure as Chief Financial Officer of Gemin X Pharmaceuticals, he structured and negotiated equity financings leveraged with venture debt and other forms of non-dilutive capital to fund the company’s Canadian and US operations over an 11-year period. Gemin X was successfully sold to Cephalon (now Teva), at the time one of the largest private biotech deals in Canada. Mr. Dixon was Interim COO and vice president of finance at Morphometrix Technologies, a medical device company specialized in the automation of cervical cancer screening. Mr. Dixon began his career at Price Waterhouse with a focus on compliance services for entrepreneurial businesses, strategic financial modeling and management information systems. Mr. Dixon received his Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Toronto and his Chartered Accountant designation while at Price Waterhouse.
Luis da Cruz, Ph.D.
Vice President, Research
Dr. da Cruz has more than 16 years of experience in therapeutic antibody discovery and development, having led projects as a scientist and in management responsibilities, both in antibody and drug development from discovery to late clinical stage. Dr. da Cruz initiated his career as a Product Development scientist at MDS-SCIEX, in the development of label-free technologies for drug discovery.
After he worked as Senior Scientist at Arius Research Inc. responsible for the identification of cancer targets and in the pre-clinical scientific leadership of multiple cancer therapeutic antibody. Upon acquisition of Arius Research Inc. by Roche Pharmaceuticals, Dr. da Cruz worked as Principal Scientist at Hoffman La-Roche continuing his previous work in early antibody discovery and supporting the late preclinical development and early clinical development of an anti-CD44 monoclonal antibody for treatment of AML. Upon departure from Roche Pharmaceuticals, Dr. da Cruz worked as Senior Scientist at Astellas/Agensys in the discovery and development of biomarker strategies supporting the clinical development of ADCs. After, he worked as a Senior Clinical scientist at Boehringer Ingelheim Canada, Ltd in the operational management of Phase III clinical trials for diabetes and Oncology, the latter supporting the development and approval of the TKI Affatinib for use in the therapy of NSCLC.
Dr. da Cruz holds a B.Sc. and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Coimbra, Portugal and completed his post-doctoral training at the Samuel Lunenfeld Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, in the molecular and cellular Immunology of B cell development and function.
Gordon Ngan, M.B.A., CFA
Vice President, Business Development
Mr. Ngan has over 20 years of experience in life sciences, with a wealth of fundraising and global business development success across biotech startups and venture-backed companies, through to large publicly traded biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Mr. Ngan has directly led or facilitated over $1 billion in financing and partnership transactions.
Mr. Ngan previously held business development and corporate finance roles at SinoVeda, Cytochroma (now Opko Health), and Shire plc (now Takeda) in positions of increasing responsibility. His depth of experience includes equity research roles at National Bank Financial and Canaccord Adams, where he evaluated innovative products and technologies in the therapeutics and medical device industries. He started his career working in investor relations with the infectious disease specialist, BioChem Pharma.
Mr. Ngan holds an M.B.A. (Finance) from Queen’s University and an undergraduate degree in Immunology from the University of Toronto. He is also a CFA charterholder.