Our Leadership

Strong leadership team to advance AI enabled drug discovery.

Izhar Wallach, PhD
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER / CO-FOUNDER

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, PhD
CHIEF SCIENTIFIC OFFICER

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.

Jeff Cerio, JD, PharmD
STRATEGIC CONSULTANT

Jeffrey Cerio, JD, PharmD, is serving on a consulting basis providing strategic guidance regarding legal matters, intellectual property, business development, financing, corporate governance, and compliance. Jeff has served as 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 has over 17 years of legal experience in the life science industry including roles of increasing responsibility at Alkermes as well as serving 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.
Medical Consultant

Neely Mozaffarian, M.D., Ph.D., provides strategic guidance for clinical drug development. Neely was previously CMO at GentiBio, VP at Janssen Pharmaceuticals and held leadership 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.