Fred McCall-Perez, Ph.D., MBA

Executive Sponsor, Scientific Advisory Board

Dr. Fred McCall-Perez brings more than four decades of experience spanning clinical psychology, biomedical research, healthcare entrepreneurship, and pharmaceutical leadership. His career bridges academic medicine, health policy, venture-backed healthcare companies, and global pharmaceutical organizations.

His academic and clinical background includes service as Chief Psychologist and Director of Research at Banner South Kino Hospital and faculty instruction in schizophrenia at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. He also served as the first Medical Advisor to WebMD and later as President of HealthOnline, where he led the development of privately labeled medical internet platforms for integrated delivery systems and large healthcare organizations.

Dr. McCall-Perez has served as CEO or senior executive in multiple healthcare and internet startups, several of which were acquired or merged, and has guided organizations to market leadership and profitability, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in investor returns. He was a founding executive of American Biodyne (now Merit Behavioral Health), helping scale it into one of the nation’s largest network-based behavioral health delivery systems.

He has over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, holding senior scientific and medical affairs leadership roles at Bayer, Mitsubishi, Valeant, BioXcel Therapeutics, and others. He has launched three new drugs, served as lead scientist on eight products, and is recognized for aligning Medical Affairs, Commercial, and Market Access organizations.

• Published 25+ professional articles; author of Physician Equity Groups and Other Competitive Entities for Physicians (McGraw-Hill).
• Nationally recognized speaker; contributed to 100+ business plans for physician networks, integrated delivery systems, and insurers.

Ph.D., Neurological Disorders (Psycholinguistics)
MBA — University of Miami

Dusan Kostić, Ph.D.

Chairman, Scientific Advisory Board

Senior Vice President, Clinical & Medical Affairs, BioXcel Therapeutics

Dr. Kostić is SVP, Clinical & Medical Affairs at BioXcel Therapeutics and has more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including 18 years in global medical functions and 10 years in U.S. medical leadership. He has participated in all stages of development—from strategic leadership of early development programs to serving as medical lead for global launch activities of multiple blockbuster products. He is also experienced in building and leading high-performing teams across functions and geographies in multicultural environments.

Some highlights of his experience include:

• Therapeutic areas spanning CNS, hematology, oncology, renal, cardiovascular, and diabetes.
• Close involvement with 8 U.S. product launches and four global launches.
• Development and management of clinical trials.
• Strategic leadership of early development programs in oncology, cardiovascular, diabetes, anti-infective.
• Success building and developing effective teams.
• Past member of the Medical Executive Leadership Consortium of the Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS).

Ph.D., Molecular Biology — University of Utah
B.S. — University of Belgrade

Andrej Jedinak, Ph.D.

Scientific Advisor

Dr. Jedinak is an R&D leader with over 20 years of experience in preclinical and translational research across immunology, oncology, and rare diseases.
He guides multidisciplinary teams from target identification through IND-enabling studies and early clinical development. His experience spans multiple modalities including biologics, mono- and bispecific antibodies, antibody fusions, cytokines, peptides, nanobodies (VHHs), ADCs, nucleic acids (RNAi), and small molecules. His background includes consulting and progressively senior roles at several biotechnology companies, including Pledge Therapeutics, Agenus, and Phio Pharmaceuticals. He completed postdoctoral training at the Methodist Research Institute, Indiana University, and at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School.

Maëlig Morvan, Ph.D.

Scientific Advisor

Dr. Morvan is a tumor immunologist with 18+ years of research experience, with training in gene therapy and neurobiology. His work focuses on the immunobiology of Natural Killer and CD8+ T cells and the role of activating receptors in innate immune responses to disease. He has developed multidisciplinary models of viral infections and autoimmune disease and has led and mentored trainees across diverse backgrounds. Most recently, he served as Principal Scientist in Discovery Research (Cell Therapy) at Senti Biosciences in South San Francisco, CA.

Ph.D., Immunology — Nantes Université
M.S., Cellular & Molecular Biology — Université d’Angers

Nicholas M. Valiante, Ph.D.

Scientific Advisor

Dr. Valiante is Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Innovac Therapeutics. He is an entrepreneurial leader with over 25 years of industrial R&D, clinical, regulatory, manufacturing, and business development experience. His work centers on precise pharmacological control of biological systems to improve prophylactic and therapeutic outcomes.

• Thought leader in basic and industrial immunology research and clinical development.
• Author of scientific manuscripts (h-index > 50); inventor or co-inventor on 20+ patents.
• Track record of rapidly advancing projects to clinical trials and beyond.
• Led or co-led large, complex collaborations to open new medical fields and technology platforms.
• Experience across drug and vaccine platforms including small molecules, cell therapies, nucleic acids, live attenuated vectors, and protein biologics.
• Background spanning vaccines, immuno-oncology, infectious disease immunotherapy, personalized medicine, autoimmunity, allergy/asthma, aging, immunotoxicity, and anti-drug antibody responses.

Postdoctoral Fellowship, Immunology — Stanford University (1994–1997)
Ph.D., Immunology — University of Pennsylvania
B.A., Evolutionary Biology

Abdull Massri, Ph.D.

Scientific Advisor

Dr. Massri is a research scientist and bioinformatics expert based in Irvine, CA, with over a decade of experience spanning genetics, genomics, and computational biology, including roles at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Duke University, and UC San Diego. His expertise bridges experimental data and computational insight across single-cell multiomics, statistical modeling, and machine learning. He has authored publications in developmental and stem cell biology and advises on bioinformatics strategy and AI validation in the life sciences.

Ph.D., Biology — Duke University
NSF Graduate Research Fellow (Computational Biology, Bioinformatics & Biostatistics)