Rectifying function, restoring hope

Rajesh (Raj) Devraj, Ph.D., is President and Chief Executive Officer of Rectify and a Venture Partner at Atlas Venture. Throughout his career, he has been focused on creating and building groundbreaking biotech companies. Prior to Rectify, Raj co-founded Disarm Therapeutics with Atlas and served as its Chief Scientific Officer prior to its acquisition. Before Disarm, he served as Chief Scientific Officer of Atlas-founded Padlock Therapeutics. Prior to his tenure at Atlas, Raj served in senior executive roles at Euclises & Deciphera Pharmaceuticals and at Jubilant Life Sciences. In addition, Raj spent 14 years in positions of increasing responsibility with Pfizer Global R&D and the legacy Pharmacia and Searle companies. Raj also serves on the boards of directors for several biotech companies. Over a 25-year career in large pharma and biotech, Raj has led discovery, early clinical development and strategic planning teams that have advanced multiple candidates into clinical trials for refractory cancers, autoimmune diseases, IPF, diabetic nephropathy, COPD, and pain. Raj received his B.S. in Pharmacy from University of Mumbai, and Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from Duquesne University.

Sachiyo Minegishi is the Chief Operating Officer at Rectify. Prior to Rectify, Sachiyo served as Chief Financial Officer at Akouos, Inc., where she helped lead the acquisition of the company by Eli Lily. Previously, Sachiyo was Vice President, Global Program Lead at bluebird bio and in charge of leading a cross-functional team through global development for a portfolio of gene therapies for Sickle Cell Disease.  Earlier, Sachiyo held leadership roles at Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, Human Genome Sciences, Genzyme, and Amgen. Sachiyo began her career in investment banking at Merrill Lynch, with a focus on execution of equity financing and mergers and acquisitions in the biotechnology industry. Sachiyo earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Xiaobing Li, Ph.D., is Chief Development Officer of Rectify. Xiaobing brings over 25-year deep experience in large pharma and biotech driving pipeline programs from discovery through investigational new drug (IND) applications, and onwards to clinical regulatory submissions and market authorization. Most recently, Xiaobing served as Chief Portfolio Officer at Clover Pharmaceuticals, leading Research and Development (R&D) pipeline program and portfolio strategy with executions across multiple disease areas including vaccines, oncology and immunology. Prior to that, Xiaobing was Vice President, Head of Program Leadership and Portfolio Management at Voyager Therapeutics focusing on developing AAV gene therapies for rare neurodegenerative disorders including Huntington’s Disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), and Friedreich Ataxia. Before Voyager, Xiaobing was Global Program Leader for ZULRESSO® at Sage Therapeutics, for LINZESS® Delayed Release at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, and for ARISTATA® at Alkermes. In addition, Xiaobing spent 14 years in positions with increasing responsibility at Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson focusing on advancing programs from conception to the clinical proof of mechanism across multiple therapeutic areas, including anti-infectives, oncology, cardiometabolism, pain, neurodegeneration, immunology and inflammation. Xiaobing holds a B.S. degree in Chemistry from Nankai University in China, a Ph.D. in Heterocyclic Chemistry with Professor Edward. C. Taylor from Princeton University working on antitumor agents that resulted in Alimta® in collaboration with Eli Lilly, as well as a postdoctoral training at the University of Notre Dame. Furthermore, Xiaobing earned an MBA from Colorado State University.

Robert Hughes, Ph.D. is EVP of Drug Discovery and Preclinical Development.  Prior to joining Rectify, Robert was an Atlas EIR and head of molecular discovery at Disarm Therapeutics, which was acquired in 2020 by Eli Lilly in a deal valued up to $1.36 billion. Robert has over 20 years of experience in drug discovery. Previously, Robert held positions at Boehringer-Ingelheim and Pfizer working across multiple therapeutic areas including cardiometabolism, neurodegeneration and immunology and target classes advancing programs from conception to the clinic. Robert is co-author/co-inventor on more than 65 publications and patents. Robert received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the Scripps Research Institute with Professor KC Nicolaou and B.S. degree in chemistry and mathematics from the University of Arizona.

Alastair “Al” Garfield, Ph.D., joined as Senior Vice President, Head of Biology in May 2021 to lead Rectify’s interdisciplinary biology research strategy. Al brings a deep background in rare genetic disease, translational biology and development of precision therapeutics. Throughout his career, Al has combined his expertise in mechanistic biology and genetics to drive value creating research from target identification to FDA approval. Al was most recently Head of Research and an executive team member at Rhythm Pharmaceutical where he built a multi-disciplinary scientific infrastructure to drive a precision medicine strategy for the identification, understanding and treatment of mechanistically rationalized rare genetic obesity disorders. Al joined Rhythm from Pfizer where he was a lab head in Pfizer’s Cardiovascular Metabolic Disease Research Unit and led target identification and validation for the Eating Disorders group. Al joined Pfizer from Harvard Medical School, where he was a Visiting Professor, from his position as Assistant Professor at the University of Edinburgh, UK. Al holds a degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology and a Ph.D. in Developmental Genetics and Rare Metabolic and Neurodevelopmental Disorders, from the University of Bath, UK. Al’s postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge, and subsequent independent research as an Assistant Professor at the University of Edinburgh was focused on the neural networks and genetics regulating metabolism, body weight and appetite. Al’s research has been published in leading scientific journals including Nature, Nature Neuroscience, Neuron, and Cell Metabolism.

Leif-Ann Tuohey is the Senior Vice President, Head of Business Development at Rectify.  Leif-Ann has over 20 years of biopharmaceutical experience and has held senior strategy and business development roles in startups and publicly traded biotechs, as well as at large multinational and specialty pharmaceutical companies. Previously, she served as Vice President, Head of Business Development at X4 Pharmaceuticals, which she helped take public in 2019. Prior to that, Leif-Ann held key corporate development and business development roles at Infinity Pharmaceuticals. Leif-Ann began her career as a life sciences strategy consultant at Health Advances, LLC and co-founded MEND, a Gates Foundation-backed non-profit biotech, while in college. She has an A.B. in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Todd Bosanac, Ph.D., is Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry at Rectify with over 18-years of drug discovery experience. Prior to joining Rectify, Todd was previously senior director of molecular discovery at Disarm Therapeutics, which was acquired by Eli Lilly in 2020 in a deal valued up to $1.36 billion. Previously, Todd held positions at Boehringer-Ingelheim working across multiple therapeutic areas including immunology/inflammation and cardiometabolism and target classes where he advanced programs from inception into the clinic. He is co-author/co-inventor on more than 100 publications and patents. Todd obtained his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh and postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania.

John Miller, Ph. D. is the Vice President, Head of Biology at Rectify. He comes to the role with over 12 years of experience in biotechnology. John most recently served as Senior Director, Discovery at CAMP4 Therapeutics Corporation, and before that led discovery biology teams and efforts at Vesalius Therapeutics and Ohana Biosciences. Prior to these, he spent nearly a decade at Proteostasis Therapeutics, working on the discovery and characterization of the company’s cystic fibrosis modulators from their initial identification through to their phase 2 clinical studies. Along the way, John made substantial contributions to the company’s initial public offering, its regulatory filings, and in overseeing the successful elucidation and publication of the mechanism of action of the novel amplifier class of CFTR modulator. John received postdoctoral training at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and obtained his Ph.D. in genetics from the University of Washington and his B.S. in biochemistry from Colorado State University.