Scott F. Singleton, Ph.D. is President and Chief Scientific Officer.  Dr. Singleton is the company’s scientific founder and will maintain his role as Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to his appointment to the faculty of UNC in 2003, Dr. Singleton was an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry & Cell Biology at Rice University (1996-2003). Dr. Singleton’s areas of research interest lie at the interface of chemistry and biology, and his NIH-sponsored research program endeavors to understand the molecular basis for the evolution of drug resistance in pathogenic microorganisms.  His research to understand the molecular mechanisms of RecA’s functions and their roles in antibiotic resistance has been continuously funded by NIH since 1998.  Since 2001, He has been the corresponding author on 19 peer-reviewed publications concerning RecA and its inhibition. Dr. Singleton is also an award-winning teacher of Organic Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry for undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. Dr. Singleton holds B.A. degrees in Chemistry and Biology from Trinity University (San Antonio, TX) and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology. Following his doctoral research with Professor Peter B. Dervan at Caltech, Dr. Singleton was an NSF postdoctoral fellow with Professor Stephen J. Benkovic at the Pennsylvania State University.

W. Bennett Love is Vice President, Business Operation (also Corporate Secretary and a founder).  He has held financial, strategic and general senior management positions in biotech companies since 1990, most recently as Vice President, Business Operations for Ercole Biotech.  Prior to entering the biotech industry he was an investment banker with a regional securities firm.  He has played a material role in IPOs, start-up venture capital fundings, university technology transfers and spin-outs, corporate collaborations/joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, secondary offerings and management buyouts.  He led or contributed to the development and collaborations of Ercole Biotech and its subsequent sale to AVI BioPharma (Nasdaq); the management buyout of Medic Computer Systems; the $75 million IPO for Sphinx Pharmaceuticals; the $37 million IPO for what became Incara Pharmaceuticals; and the initial technology university spin-out funding of Renaissance Cell Technologies.

Stephen B. Bocckino, Ph.D. is Vice President, Preclinical Research (also a founder).  Dr. Bocckino has 18 years experience in the pharmaceutical industry and has held a variety of positions in drug discovery and development.  Most recently Dr. Bocckino was a consultant to Ercole Biotech in the areas of pharmacology, toxicology, drug development, project management and scientific due diligence.  He was Vice President of Preclinical Development at Entegrion and prior to that at Incara Pharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly and Sphinx Pharmaceuticals.  He received his B.A. in Biological Sciences from Rutgers College and his Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Toxicology from Rutgers University.  His post-doctoral training was at Vanderbilt Medical School.

Clayton I. Duncan serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors (also a founder).  He is an experienced financial and biotech executive who has served for the past 19 years as a CEO in the biotech industry.  He was founding Chairman of CRX Medical, Inc., which developed the first wound closure products manufactured by Closure Medical (Nasdaq:CLSR, acquired by Johnson & Johnson).  Mr. Duncan became CEO of Sphinx Pharmaceuticals Corporation and led the company through three rounds of venture funding, an IPO, and an acquisition by Eli Lilly.  Prior to its sale to Lilly, Sphinx moved compounds from early discovery through Phase 2 clinical trials in oncology and dermatology.  In 1995 Mr. Duncan became CEO of Incara Pharmaceuticals Corporation, which he took public in 1996. Under Mr. Duncan’s leadership, Incara conducted Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials for compounds intended to treat gastrointestinal and cardiovascular diseases, advanced a cell therapy program from start-up through an IND filing, and completed the preclinical development of a compound currently in clinical development for ALS. During 2005 Mr. Duncan was CEO of Entegrion, a company focused on hemostasis.  Beginning in 2006, Mr. Duncan was Chairman and CEO of Ercole Biotech, Inc., an RNA therapeutics company focused on directing alternative splicing to create therapeutic proteins for the treatment of a variety of diseases.  Ercole was acquired by AVI Biopharma, Inc. (Nasdaq:AVII) in 2008.