Dr. Akhila Kosaraju is the CEO and President of Phare Bio, a social venture pioneering the use of generative AI and deep learning to discover new classes of antibiotics, in collaboration with the Collins Lab at MIT. Under her leadership, Phare Bio launched with funding and support from TED’s Audacious Project, which backs bold solutions to the world’s most urgent challenges. The company has since been awarded $27 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), selected for Google.org’s Generative AI Accelerator, and named to Fast Company’s 2025 World Changing Ideas list. Phare has also received a Newsweek AI Impact Award and was chosen as Wired Health’s Startup Showcase Winner.

Dr. Kosaraju has spent her career building companies and driving innovation at the intersection of infectious disease and computational biology. She was the founding CEO of Variant Bio, a venture-backed genomics and therapeutics company, and previously served as an executive at SIGA Technologies, where she helped bring antiviral drugs to market. During her tenure at SIGA, the company secured FDA approval for a novel smallpox antiviral and partnered with the CDC, BARDA, and DoD to deliver 2 million treatment courses to the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile.

Earlier in her career, Dr. Kosaraju was a White House appointee at the Pentagon, where she served as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs. There, she provided executive leadership for the $50 billion Military Health System, overseeing military healthcare delivery, biodefense, and international humanitarian programs.

She is a recipient of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service, the highest non-career civilian honor within the Department of Defense. Dr. Kosaraju is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, co-founder of the Alliance to End Biological Threats, and a Lecturer at Stanford’s Center for Biosecurity and Pandemic Resilience. She earned her M.D. from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons and holds a B.A. in Human Biology from Stanford University.

Dr. Collins is the Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering and Science, a Professor of Biological Engineering at MIT, and a member of the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology faculty. He is also a core founding faculty member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and an Institute Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Between his three laboratories at MIT, the Wyss Institute, and the Broad Institute, he oversees the research of more than 30 postdoctoral researchers and graduate students. Collins’ numerous honors include a Rhodes Scholarship, a MacArthur Fellowship, and an NIH Director's Pioneer Award.

He is an elected member of all three national academies: the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Medicine. He is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Inventors, and the World Academy of Sciences. Dr. Collins earned an AB in Physics from the College of the Holy Cross and a PhD in Medical Engineering from the University of Oxford. He has decades of experience in antibiotic discovery and the application of machine learning techniques in biotechnology.

His work has led to important discoveries related to how antibiotics kill bacteria, including research showing that many common classes of antibiotics induce bacterial cell death via a common “oxidative damage” pathway; the paper describing this is the most highly-cited antibiotics study of the last decade.

Dr. Stokes is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences at McMaster University, and directs Phare’s computational and experimental work. He was previously a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow in the Collins Lab at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He received his BHSc in 2011, graduating summa cum laude, and his PhD in Antimicrobial Chemical Biology in 2016, both from McMaster University.

His research applies a combination of chemical biology and machine learning to develop novel antibacterial therapies with expanded capabilities over conventional antibiotics. Amongst his numerous antibiotic projects, he recently led the study published in Cell that resulted in the identification of antibiotic Halicin, a first new antibiotic scaffold discovery in 20+ years. This study shows how a trained deep neural network can predict antibiotic activity in molecules that are structurally different from known antibiotics, among which Halicin exhibits efficacy against broad-spectrum bacterial infections in mice.

Stokes is the recipient of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Master’s Award, the Colin James Lyne Lock Doctoral Award, and was ranked first of just 23 elite postdoctoral scholars to be awarded the prestigious Banting Fellowship.

Dr. Minall has spent her career conducting research at the interface of chemistry and biology in both academic and industrial settings. She holds a PhD in Chemical Biology from Oxford University, where she researched the chemical modification of viral DNA vaccine vectors. Leanne spent 3 years as a Senior Scientist in Pfizer’s Novel Delivery Technologies Group housed within the Pharmaceutical Research & Development Division. In this role, Leanne served as the lab lead for several projects—both late and early stage—including vaccines (such as COVID-19), oligonucleotide drug products, and nanoparticle-protein conjugates. Leanne oversees Phare’s preclinical development program, compound design, and pipeline strategy. 

Dr. Andrew Gasparrini brings over a decade of experience at the intersection of machine learning, genomics, bioinformatics, and drug discovery, with a track record of translating complex data into therapeutic insights. Before joining Phare, Drew was the first employee at Empress Therapeutics, where he helped shape the company’s scientific strategy and led AI-driven discovery initiatives that produced several advanced leads and one development candidate. He earned his Ph.D. in Genetics and Genomics from Washington University in St. Louis and holds a B.Sc. in Biochemistry from the University of Notre Dame. As the Head of AI and Computational Science at Phare Bio, Drew leads AI discovery efforts to uncover novel antibiotics and accelerate their path to the clinic.

Dr. Vacca has decades of experience in medicinal chemistry and antibiotic compound design. After receiving his PhD from the University at Buffalo, Joe spent 30 years as Medicinal Chemistry Lead at Merck Research Labs. He then spent 4 years at WuXi AppTec as Senior Vice President of Early Success Sharing Partnerships. In 2011, Joe started his own consulting group, J. Vacca Consulting LLC, and has since helped many pharmaceutical clients with their compound development, design, and strategy. Joe has over 100 publications and patents and is the holder of many awards, including a Merck Directors Award, PhRMA Discoverers Award, and Intellectual Property Owners "National Inventor of the year Award." Joe leads Phare’s analog compound design and helps manage Phare’s CRO relationships and data exchanges.

Dr. Pompliano is a drug discovery scientist, entrepreneur, and executive focused on creating and building transformative life science enterprises. Earlier in his career, as Vice President at GlaxoSmithKline and as Worldwide Basic Head of Infectious Diseases at Merck, he led drug discovery teams that produced preclinical credentials for >30 development candidates and five registered oncology (Tykerb, Votrient, Promacta) and anti-infective (Recarbrio, Altabax) drugs. He has also founded and led biotech companies, including BioLeap, Revolution Medicines (a Third Rock company), Lodo Therapeutics (an Accelerator company acquired by Zymergen), and most recently, Odyssey Therapeutics. He has helped to raise over $400mm in Series A and B financing. He earned the BS and PhD degrees in Chemistry from the University of Virginia and from Stanford University, respectively, and conducted research in enzymology and molecular biology as a National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellow in Jeremy Knowles’ laboratory at Harvard University. David advises on Phare’s preclinical development and pharma partnership strategy.

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Dr. Baldoni has over 43 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including 29 years at GSK R&D and 11 years on GSK’s Executive Leadership Team as SVP of Platform Technology and Science. Dr. Baldoni’s Platform Technology and Science team supported the development of small molecules, biopharmaceuticals and cell and gene therapy modalities from discovery through commercialization. Dr. Baldoni stepped away from that leadership role in 2017 to start the first AI-driven drug discovery unit at GSK. After retiring from GSK in 2019, he spent a year as the Chief Technology Officer of a stealth AI-enabled drug discovery startup.  Dr. Baldoni conceptualized and serves as the CEO of the non-profit ATOM Research Alliance (ARA), an open membership public/private partnership organization utilizing artificial intelligence and machine learning approaches to expedite drug discovery for public benefit. John was also the first Chair of the Executive Committee of the Alliance for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare, an organization formed to foster improved healthcare by responsible investment, invention, and innovation in artificial intelligence. In addition, Dr. Baldoni is an independent consultant, whose clients include emerging, cutting-edge drug and diagnostic healthcare companies and established companies seeking new strategic direction. Dr. Baldoni has participated in the research and development of scores of commercial products and is a proponent of seeking, integrating, and implementing innovative approaches to drug discovery and development.  Dr. Baldoni received his PhD in biological chemistry from Penn State University in 1980.

Dr. Holmes spent over 25 years in the pharmaceutical industry, working in a variety of leadership roles in antibacterial research. David headed the Bacterial Genetics group at GSK and was responsible for the early-stage portfolio, including target validation, high throughput, encoded library, and fragment-based screening. He led various small molecule lead optimization programs and the antibacterial monoclonal antibody program, and initiated efforts to investigate the role of the human microbiome in disease states. Since retiring from GSK in 2019, he has been consulting for pharmaceutical and biotech companies. At Phare, David advises on preclinical development, particularly on microbiology, animal models, and target product profiles.

Retired Army Colonel (Dr.) Kevin Chung is the past professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine at the F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Chung is a 1995 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and a 1999 graduate of Georgetown University School of Medicine. After finishing residency in internal medicine at Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center in Fort Gordon, Georgia and fellowship in Critical Care Medicine at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Dr. Chung was assigned to the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research (USAISR) in San Antonio, Texas, where he served in the capacity of Medical Director of the Burn Intensive Care Unit, Task Area Manager of Clinical Trials, and the Director of Research for 12 years. He also previously served as Chief of the Department of Medicine at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. Dr. Chung deployed as the Chief, Intensive Care Unit, for the 86th Combat Support Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq 2008, and as Director, Joint Combat Casualty Research Team in Bagram, Afghanistan 2012. Dr. Chung has authored over 300 peer reviewed manuscripts, reviews, editorials, and book chapters, and has been an invited speaker for over 150 lectures internationally on a variety of topics of to include burns, combat casualty care, critical care, organ failure, and organ support. Chung advises on Phare’s target product profiles and clinical development strategy.

Dr. Walker has over 20 years of experience leading both US Government and commercial efforts in high performance and data intensive computing in the life sciences. He has held the roles of Vice President of Research Computing & Data Science at Agenus Inc, Global Head of Scientific Computing at GlaxoSmithKline, and Biosciences Lead & Director of the Parallel Computing Center of Excellence at the San Diego Supercomputer Center. He has led teams with world class expertise in scientific computing and AI. His expertise is in the design, development and deployment of cutting edge computing resources, hardware and software, to enable the rapid discovery and development of successful medicines. Ross is also an Adjunct Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry at UC San Diego, an Affiliate Scientist at the San Diego Supercomputer Center, and a Fellow of NVIDIA Inc. Born in London, England he studied at Imperial College London, graduating summa cum laude with an MSci in Chemistry and Ph.D. in Quantum Chemistry before relocating to the United States to embark on a career in scientific research. Ross is the author of over 80peer reviewed articles and collected works as well as a principal developer of the AMBER Molecular Dynamics software, used in over 1000+ research labs and pharmaceutical companies worldwide. Ross Walker, Ph.D. is an advisor to Phare Bio on state-of-the-art AI approaches, scalable data systems and high-performance computing.

Pamela Peak, Founder and Principal of ALEA Strategies, is a philanthropy specialist who partners with non-profit organizations to build the internal capacity, strategy, and financial resources to achieve their mission and impact goals. Pam brings 25+ years of experience fundraising for mission-driven, entrepreneurial organizations, having raised over $175 million across the US and for global organizations. Pam has served as Executive Director, Chief Development Officer, and interim executive in multiple US and global non-profits, including The Field Museum, Right To Play US National Office, Malaria No More, Strive Together, The Wellesley Free Library Foundation, and KIPP charter schools, providing operational guidance to help organizations grow exponentially. Pam is a Senior Philanthropy Advisor to Phare Bio on fundraising strategy, major gift solicitations, and Board engagement. Pam holds a Masters degree in Public Policy from the University of Chicago’s Harris School and a B.A. in Economics from Wellesley College.

Haresh is a proven leader with 30 years’ management consulting and corporate experience in pharma and consumer healthcare, and across functions in Business Development, Commercial and R&D.

Haresh is currently immersed in the bioventure space. He has an embryonic consulting practice as well as a few advisory roles for promising start-ups. Haresh holds executive residencies at major academic centers of excellence to foster innovation in the mid-Atlantic corridor from NY (Columbia Technology Ventures) to NC (UNC KickStart Venture Services) and his new home state of VA (Virginia Tech RAMP).

Retired from Johnson & Johnson as VP, Business Development, Haresh is seasoned in licensing and acquisitions across TAs, and a variety of atypical deal structures and situations, such as external financing, royalty buyout & monetization, distressed asset transactions and public-private partnerships. Earlier, as Director, Strategic Business Analytics, he led global forecasting that facilitated portfolio decisions, internal stage gate reviews as well as licensing and acquisition opportunities.

Haresh started his career as GlaxoSmithKline (then SmithKline Beecham) as Senior Scientist, New Product Research. Haresh was a management consultant for Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories (Indian pharma company) alongside business school.

Haresh received his B.Pharm. from University of Bombay, Ph.D. from Rutgers University, and MBA from Columbia University.

Claire Nishioka Robinson has spent her career in the pharmaceutical industry as both a strategist and marketer. In her previous role as Content Strategist at Syneos Health, Claire worked in the Managed Markets division, where she helped pharmaceutical clients develop their market access strategies and execute payer marketing initiatives upon FDA approval/product launch. Her experience spans a variety of therapeutic areas, including oncology, rare disease, and biosimilars. Claire holds an MBA from Columbia Business School. She leads Phare's business strategy, operations, and communications efforts.

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Dr. Bedree has spent his scientific career building foundational technologies through leveraging his domain expertise in strain engineering, synthetic biology, microbiology, and microbial pathogenesis. As a NIH-Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Predoctoral Fellow, he gained his Ph.D. in Oral Biology from UCLA, focusing on quorum sensing and the genetic dissection of bacterial-induced periodontitis. Concurrently, as a visiting scholar at the ADA Forsyth Institute, Joe also investigated the intersection of microbiome dynamics and bone homeostasis during microgravity exposure as part of NASA’s RR-5 mission. Prior to joining Phare Bio, Joe scaled in-house cloning and strain development capabilities to enable a microbial-based peptide screening platform supporting initial discovery through early development of antimicrobial biologics for agricultural crop protection at Invaio Sciences, a Flagship Pioneering company. At Phare Bio, he also brings his extensive experience working in and leading cross-functional teams to drive Phare’s preclinical development program, compound design, and pipeline strategy.

Dr. Samuel Mattern-Schain is an organic chemist with expertise in cellular biology and preclinical drug development. He earned his PhD from the University of Tennessee, where he developed novel strategies for protein profiling in drug discovery and controlled release of nanocarriers in genetic medicine. His DARPA-funded postdoctoral work involved creating biomimetic smart materials capable of autonomously modulating their properties based on environmental cues. He brings over a decade of hands-on lab experience to the team at Phare Bio. Before joining Phare, Dr. Mattern-Schain lead proof-of-concept and application studies as the Associate Head of Platform Development for Orion Therapeutics.

As Director of Development and Grants, Christina oversees grant management and reporting for Phare Bio’s philanthropic and government grants and provides operational support for all fundraising initiatives. Christina has nearly a decade of experience in nonprofit fundraising and development operations and enjoys supporting mission-driven teams in securing philanthropic funding to achieve their goals. She is a graduate of Northeastern University with a dual BA in International Affairs/Economics.

As Phare Bio's communications specialist, Alden drives the narrative around the company’s AI-driven drug discovery platform and its critical antibiotic development work. She ensures Phare Bio's mission and strategic vision resonate with the public and key stakeholders alike. A proud Penn State University graduate with a BA in advertising and public relations, Alden has a passion for effective storytelling and strategic communication. Alden began her career at Keybridge Communications, a Washington, DC-based public relations firm. There, she drafted impactful op-eds, press releases, blog posts, and social media content for nonprofits, think tanks, and thought leaders. Alden also managed earned media campaigns, securing interviews and media placements in prominent local, state, and national outlets.

Dr. Andrew Ligeralde is a computational scientist working at the intersection of machine learning and biology. At Phare, he builds models and workflows that accelerate in vitro screening and enable the discovery of novel antibiotics. Previously, Andrew was the first computational neuroscientist at a stealth neurotherapeutics startup, where he developed the machine learning infrastructure to extract therapeutic insights from in vivo data. He earned his Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of California, Berkeley, and holds a B.S. in Chemical Physics from Rice University.