Abe Heifets, Ph.D., is the Co-Founder and CEO of Atomwise. Abe, with our CTO Izhar, developed the technology and approach that formed the foundation of Atomwise as part of their graduate work at the University of Toronto. Abe has served as Atomwise’s CEO since its inception and led multiple rounds of financing and Atomwise’s development of a differentiated internal pipeline. Prior to Atomwise, Abe worked at IBM for a number of years. Abe received his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Toronto and a MEng and B.S. in computer science from Cornell University.
Izhar Wallach, Ph.D., is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Atomwise. Izhar oversees all technology and AI/ML development at Atomwise and has led the development of the Atomwise platform from inception. Prior to Atomwise, Izhar received a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Toronto and had previously worked on small molecule drug discovery algorithms at Keddem Bioscience.
Gavin Hirst, Ph.D., joined Atomwise as Chief Scientific Officer in September 2022 and leads all Atomwise drug discovery efforts. He brings over 30 years of drug discovery experience both in large pharma and biotech where he advanced multiple small molecule assets to the clinic and beyond. Most recently, Gavin was interim CSO of Turning Point Therapeutics prior to their acquisition by BMS in June 2022 for $4.1 B. Before Turning Point, Gavin held leadership roles at several large organizations including Janssen, Takeda, and Abbvie where he worked across multiple therapeutic areas including immunology and oncology. Gavin received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Southampton, followed by post-doctoral studies at the University of California, Irvine.
Jeffrey Cerio, JD, PharmD, is the General Counsel and Corporate Secretary where he leads all legal functions as they relate to intellectual property, business development, financing, corporate governance, and compliance. Prior to Atomwise, Jeff was the General Counsel at Triplet Therapeutics and was Senior Corporate Counsel at Moderna where he helped lead the team in support of Moderna’s $604M initial public offering. Jeff brings over 14 years of legal experience in the life science industry including roles of increasing responsibility at Alkermes as well as a life science corporate attorney at Ropes & Gray. Jeff received a PharmD from Northeastern University and his J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law.
Neely Mozaffarian, M.D., Ph.D., joined Atomwise in September 2023 as Chief Medical Officer leading our drug development efforts. Dr. Mozaffarian comes to us most recently from GentiBio where she served as the company's CMO. Prior to that, she was with Janssen Pharmaceuticals as a Vice President in Immunology and previously held roles at Ichnos Sciences, Gilead, Lilly, AbbVie, and Bristol Myers Squibb. She received her MD and PhD from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in NY, and trained in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology at the University of Washington in Seattle.