HUMAN-POWERED
DRUG DISCOVERY
Human biology, engineering,
data science,
and passion unite
to discover
medicines and improve lives

A vital human-first force in
biotech drug discovery

At Vyant Bio our human-powered approach to drug discovery maximizes the likelihood of clinical success. By integrating human-based microOrgan® technology, state-of-the-art engineering, advanced data science, regulatory rigor, and a deep personal commitment to the field, we accelerate and de-risk the process—identifying, with greater predictive value, the most viable, safe, and effective drug candidates capable of transforming lives.

Human-powered science—
from ID to IND

Vyant Bio’s dynamic drug discovery engine is powered by a convergence of innovative bioengineering technologies, industry-leading data science, and world-class IND-enabling development strategies—seamlessly coordinated in one reliable resource.

Our powerful AnalytiX platform, at the intersection of human biology and machine learning, is unmatched in its ability to quickly and comprehensively analyze robust functional data to identify the most promising drug candidates, targets, and biomarkers via a quantified, unbiased rank order approach.

Our proprietary microOrgan technology uses functional microtissues engineered from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) to facilitate high-throughput, human-based drug discovery without the risks or delayed timing of testing drugs in humans. As a result, we gain disease and biologic insights earlier than thought possible—in the lab rather than in the clinic.

We are passionately committed to advancing drug discovery success, from ID to IND, by harnessing state-of-the-art science, technology, data analytics, and regulatory rigor across our global footprint—to improve patient lives—while remaining human throughout the process.

Take a deeper dive into our discovery capabilities by visiting our subsidiaries’ websites.

Learn more about our unique microOrgan® technology and how it can accelerate drug discovery.

 

A pipeline powered
to speed drug
development

Our portfolio of novel human disease models and platforms are paired with powerful data science technologies to compress traditional drug-discovery timelines, improve clinical success and create a de-risked and ever-growing pipeline of promising drug candidates. With each human model and software algorithm pairing, our platforms become more predictive and our pipeline expands.

Our Platform/Disease Model Assets

Our Therapeutic Assets

Precision Therapeutics

Using genomic and functional biomarkers to stratify and develop the right treatments for the right patients

Disease Targets

Disease models are created from patient donors, tumor biopsies, genetic engineering, and environmental factors

Therapeutic Options

Our complex industrialized human systems drive the discovery of small molecules, natural products, and biologics

Leadership Team

Our management team has extensive expertise in biochemistry, cell biology, nanotechnology, regulatory affairs, and healthcare executive leadership.

leadership team

President, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial OfficerAndrew D.C. LaFrence, CPA

Andrew D.C. LaFrence joined StemoniX as its Chief Financial Officer in August 2019 and, since March 2020, he has also served as its Chief Operating Officer. Mr. LaFrence has 37 years of accounting and finance experience, including executive management positions at public and private life sciences companies. Previously, he was Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Biothera Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from May 2018 to August 2019, as well as Vice President Finance, Information Systems and Chief Financial officer at Surmodics, Inc. (NASDAQ: SRDX) for five years. Prior to Surmodics, Mr. LaFrence served as Chief Financial Officer for CNS Therapeutics, a venture- backed intrathecal drug development and delivery company. He was an audit partner at KPMG LLP where he focused on supporting venture-backed, high-growth medical technology, pharmaceutical, biotech and clean tech private and public companies. Mr. LaFrence is a certified public accountant and has a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a minor in business administration from Illinois State University.

Board of Directors

John FletcherChairman

Mr. Fletcher brings to the board more than 30 years of strategy and financing experience across the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry. In 1983, Mr. Fletcher founded Fletcher Spaght, Inc., a consulting firm that provides growth-focused strategy assistance to client companies, and since its founding has served as its Chief Executive Officer. Since 2001, Mr. Fletcher has also served as the Managing Partner of Fletcher Spaght Ventures, a venture capital fund. Mr. Fletcher’s current and past board experience includes both public and private companies. Mr. Fletcher currently serves on the boards of Repro Med Systems, Inc. (aka Koru Medical), ClearPoint Neuro, Inc., and Axcelis Technologies, Inc., all of which are public companies. He is Board Chairman at Koru, ClearPoint and Metabolon(privately held). Mr. Fletcher previously served on the boards of The Spectranetics Corporation, Marina Biotechnology, Autoimmune, Inc., Fischer Imaging Corp., Panacos Pharmaceuticals Inc., and NMT Medical Inc., all of which are public companies, and on the private boards of GlycoFi, Inc., Quick Study Radiology Inc., Pilot Software and Xvionics. In addition, Mr. Fletcher has served on the boards of many academic and non-profit institutions. Mr. Fletcher worked on the $2 billion acquisition of Spectranetics by Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Royal Philips) and the $400 million acquisition of GlycoFi by Merck & Co., Inc., and received the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) Director of the Year Award in 2018, reflecting the significant turnarounds at Spectranetics and Axcelis. Mr. Fletcher is a graduate of Southern Illinois University (MBA), Central Michigan University (Master’s Degree in International Finance), and George Washington University (BA) and has served as an instructor in International Business at the Wharton School of Business, and as a Captain and jet pilot in the United States Air Force.

Paul Hansen MBADirector

Mr. Hansen has been a member of the Board of Directors of StemoniX since 2015. Since 2014, Mr. Hansen has served as a Senior Fellow with the University of Minnesota’s Technological Leadership Institute. Mr. Hansen is a founder and, since 2016, has been President of Minnepura Technologies, SBC. From 1999 to 2014, Mr. Hansen held senior executive positions at 3M Company, including President and CEO of 3M Mexico. Mr. Hansen holds a BA in Chemistry and Economics from St. Olaf College and an MBA in Marketing Management from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.

Geoffrey Harris MSDirector

Mr. Geoffrey Harris is a managing partner of c7 Advisors (a money management and healthcare advisory firm) since April 2014. From 2011 to 2014 he served as a managing director and co-head of the healthcare investment banking group at Cantor Fitzgerald, and from 2009-2011, he held a similar position at Gleacher & Company. Mr. Harris is also currently on the board of directors of Telemynd, Inc., a tele behavioral health care company focused on improving mental health care; connectRN a healthcare workforce management company; and MoleSafe, Inc., a company focused on the early detection of melanoma. He is also on the strategic advisory board of Physician’s Weekly. Mr. Harris graduated from MIT’s Sloan School of Management with a Master of Science in Finance Management in 1986.

Joanna Horobin M.B., Ch.B.Director

Dr. Joanna Horobin is an accomplished drug developer and biotech leader with over 35 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech sector. Dr. Horobin serves as a Non-Executive Director on the boards of Kymera Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ, KYMR), Nordic Nanovector ASA (Oslo, NANO), Liquidia Corporation (NASDAQ, LQDA) and as Chair of privately held iOnctura SA. Dr. Horobin has held multiple C-suite roles in biotech companies, most recently as the Chief Medical Officer at Idera Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ, IDRA) and was also the CEO of Syndax Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ, SNDX). She worked initially in clinical development roles resulting in the development and launch of 8 products in the anti-infective, cardiovascular, and anti-inflammatory categories. Moving to general management roles of increasing responsibility in the UK, France, and US, she shifted to cancer drug development, which has been her major career focus. She led a joint venture between Rhone Poulenc and Chugai to develop and launch Chugai’s gCSF product Granocyte in Europe and, as VP Oncology, launched Rhone Poulenc Rorer (now Sanofi) as a major player in oncology with the global launch of Taxotere. After gaining her medical qualifications from the University of Manchester Medical School in the United Kingdom Dr. Horobin gained membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners and practiced as a general practitioner in London, England.

Howard McLeod, Pharm.D., FASCO, FCCPDirector

Dr. McLeod is a member of the Company’s Board and is the Medical Director, Precision Medicine for the Geriatric Oncology Consortium and a Professor at the USF Taneja College of Pharmacy. Until February 2020, he was Chair of the Department of Individualized Cancer Management and Medical Director of the DeBartolo Family Personalized Medicine Institute at the Moffitt Cancer Center and previously a Senior Member of the Moffitt Cancer Center’s Division of Population Sciences. He also chaired the Department of Individualized Cancer Management at Moffitt. Dr. McLeod was a Founding Director of the University of North Carolina Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy and held the prestigious title of Fred Eshelman Distinguished Professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy from 2006 to 2013. Dr McLeod was a recent member of both the FDA committee on Clinical Pharmacology and the NIH Human Genome Advisory Council. Dr. McLeod has published over 575 peer-reviewed papers on pharmacogenomics, applied therapeutics and clinical pharmacology. He had served as Chief Scientific Advisor and a member of the board of directors of Gentris Corporation before its acquisition by the Company in July 2014.

Jay RobertsDirector

Mr. Roberts has been the President and Chief Executive Officer of Cancer Genetics, Inc. since 2018. Mr. Roberts had previously served as the Chief Operating Officer of Cancer Genetics. Prior to joining Cancer Genetics, Mr. Roberts served as the Chief Financial Officer for VirMedica, Inc., an innovative technology solutions company that provides an end-to-end platform that enables specialty-drug manufacturers and pharmacies to optimize product commercialization and management. Before VirMedica, Mr. Roberts was the Chief Financial and Administrative Officer for AdvantEdge Healthcare Solutions Inc., a global healthcare analytics and services organization. Prior to that, Mr. Roberts also served as the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer for InfoLogix, Inc., a publicly-traded, healthcare-centric mobile software and solutions provider. He has also held CFO roles at leading public medical device and healthcare services firms including: Clarient, Inc., a publicly-traded provider of diagnostic laboratory services; and Daou Systems, Inc., a publicly-traded healthcare IT software development and services firm. In addition, he has held key senior executive roles with MEDecision, Inc., HealthOnline, Inc., and the Center for Health Information. Mr. Roberts earned a Bachelor of Science and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Maine. He is a member of the Fellows and a former member of the Board of Directors and Past Chair for the Drug Information Association, a global neutral forum enabling drug developers and regulators access to education and collaboration. Mr. Roberts also serves on the Board of Directors of Cohere-Med Inc., a clinical analytics company.

Ping YehDirector

Ping co-founded StemoniX in April 2014 and, since then, has served as its Chief Executive Officer and a Board Member. He cofounded the company after surviving blood cancer in 2013 - an experience that was the impetus for wanting to leverage his background in engineering, softare and manufacturing to find safer and more effective medicines for patients. Prior to co- founding StemoniX, Mr. Yeh commercialized multiple technologies to the tech industry. Highlights include serving as team lead for the first solid state drive product for Seagate Technology, leading the global partnership between Samsung and Seagate to create new flash technology and program managing the operating system software development for Dell enterprise storage systems. Mr. Yeh has successfully led through a multi-disciplinary approach for the last two decades of his career. Mr. Yeh holds a bachelor of science and master’s degree in mechanical engineering (nanotechnology emphasis) from University of California, San Diego, and a master’s degree in business administration from University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. He has attained professional certifications in program and project management from the Project Management Institute and Mergers and Acquisitions from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. Mr. Yeh serves on the UC San Diego Alumni Board of Directors and Medical Alley Board of Directors.

Partnerships that can
change medicine and lives

At Vyant Bio we recognize the importance of partnering to achieve the greatest good. By working together, we accomplish more – accelerating the discovery and development of life-changing medicines, getting them to patients and families who need them sooner, and making a positive difference in outcomes. The world is waiting.

We are ready to join forces with biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and academic research partners—applying our best-in-class drug discovery technologies and resources to work to de-risk and expedite the process and reduce costs.

Potential partnering
opportunities include:

  • Discovery platform partnerships—
    for novel drug or target insight discovery
  • Asset development partnerships—
    including collaborative in-licensing of clinical-stage compounds and joint development of existing pipeline candidates

Learn more

Important Investor Information

Vyant Bio is a vital new force in drug discovery. We are ready to efficiently, and with greater predictive value, identify the most viable, safe and effective drug candidates. We can accomplish this by uniting the leading human-based microOrgan technology, unsurpassed data science and machine learning, world-class IND-enabling development strategies, and global regulatory focus—in one seamless, comprehensive and reliable resource.

Cancer Genetics is now
Vyant Bio