InflammX Board of Directors

James Blair

Mr. Blair is a Founding Partner of Domain Associates. In the course of this experience, he has been involved in the creation and successful development at the Board level of over forty life sciences ventures, including Amgen, Aurora Biosciences, Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Applied Biosystems, Dura Pharmaceuticals, GeneOhm Sciences and Molecular Dynamics. A former managing director of Rothschild Inc., Mr. Blair was directly involved at a senior level with Rothschild/New Court venture capital activities from 1978 to 1985. From 1969 to 1978, he was associated with F.S. Smithers and Co. and White, Weld and Co., two investment banking firms actively involved with new ventures and emerging growth companies. From 1961 to 1969, Mr. Blair was an engineering manager with RCA Corporation, during which time he received a David Sarnoff Fellowship. He previously served as the Board Chairman of the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, the advisory boards of the Prostate Cancer Foundation, the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University, the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation and the Caltech Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Mr. Blair graduated from U. of Pennsylvania with his M.S.E. and Ph.D. in 1969 and from Princeton University with his B.S.E. in 1961.

Dr. David Boyer M.D.

David S. Boyer, M.D., is a renowned clinician, surgeon, and educator at the Retina-Vitreous Associates Medical Group in Southern California. He is an Adjunct Clinical Professor at USC / Keck School of Medicine. Dr. Boyer is board certified in ophthalmology and has completed formal sub-specialty training in medical and surgical diseases of the retina, vitreous, and macula. Dr. Boyer is a leading investigator for various national clinical trials on retinal diseases and serves as an advisor for multiple research, educational and charitable institutions.

He received a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Illinois at Champaign, IL, after which he completed a medical degree at the Chicago Medical School. In 1976, he finished his residency at the Los Angeles County – USC County Medical Center and completed his retinal surgery fellowship at the Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia.

Dr. Philip ROSENFELD M.D.

Dr. Rosenfeld is a Professor of Ophthalmology at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. A specialist in vitreoretinal diseases, Dr. Rosenfeld pioneered the use of the anti VEGF drug called Avastin to treat wet AMD while he was the lead investigator in the development of Lucentis. He theorized, and then showed that a small amount of Avastin, which was approved by the FDA for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer, could be injected directly into the eye to help prevent blindness. He determined that this unique therapy was effective in stopping blood vessels from growing, leaking, and damaging the retina. Not only was Avastin highly effective in treating a wide range of exudative eye diseases, but it was inexpensive and quickly gained global dominance as the anti-VEGF therapy of choice saving billions of dollars worldwide. He also developed OCT-guided therapy, which decreased the need for injections and, once again, saved healthcare agencies billions of dollars. He is leader in optical coherence tomography (OCT) research and has been involved in developing novel algorithms for diagnosing and studying the progression of retinal diseases. Dr. Rosenfeld has turned his attention to the development of novel therapies for the study of dry AMD, (GA) and has been involved in numerous clinical trials, including the first study using an intravitreal complement inhibiter. He and his team have developed OCT clinical trial endpoints that are ideally suited for the study of novel therapies for the treatment of GA. Dr Rosenfeld heads the medical retina division and is the medical retina fellowship director who has helped train a generation of medical retina specialists at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. As a clinician, researcher, educator, and lecturer, Dr. Rosenfeld brings his expertise and insights to InflammX.

 Jason Werner

Jason M. Werner brings 20+ years of multi-disciplinary experience within Life Sciences, Technology and Finance, prior to joining Kera Therapeutics Inc. as President and CEO. Mr. Werner most recently completed his tenure at Eyevance Pharmaceuticals as Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer. He led the company through a successful strategic exit as Eyevance was acquired by Santen Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. for $225mm in an all-cash transaction in September 2020. In addition to the sale of Eyevance, Mr. Werner led the spin out of Amber Ophthalmics from Eyevance in conjunction with the Santen transaction that enabled 2 programs to continue forward in clinical development, providing investors an additional liquidity opportunity. While at Eyevance, Mr. Werner was responsible for Corporate Strategy, Technical Operations, Product Development and Corporate Development & Licensing. In addition to the successful exit, Mr. Werner executed 7 transactions at Eyevance, resulting in 10 commercialized and development stage assets over a 26 month period. .

Prior to Eyevance Pharmaceuticals, Mr. Werner served as the Vice President of Strategy & Commercial Development for Sun Ophthalmics, a division within Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd. . He led the ophthalmic business on numerous strategic transactions, including the acquisition of Ocular Technologies Sarl, which brought OTX-101 (CEQUA®) to Sun, as well as the takeover of Insite Vision in 2015. In addition to Eyevance and Sun, Mr. Werner has additional, escalating experience in Ophthalmics; such as, Foresight Biotherapeutics, Nicox and Inspire Pharmaceuticals. He has executed over US$1.5bn in transactions at the various companies.

In concert to his industry achievements, Mr. Werner has spent time in global domain consulting within the Life Sciences focused on Commercial Solutions. Mr. Werner’s efforts were primarily focused on Collaboration and Patient Centric Solutions for Global Pharmaceutical clients.

His career started in Finance and Big Pharma and has worked for Pfizer and Fidelity Management and Research over the course of his career in various positions. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of New Hampshire.

 Richard Rubino

Richard Rubino is a highly experienced public market company Chief Financial Officer and has over 40 years of experience as a finance and business leader. He is currently the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Cedar Gate Technologies. Prior to joining Cedar Gate, he served as Chief Financial Officer of Aerie Pharmaceuticals from October 2012 through July 2021 and was a key part of the executive team that led the IPO of Aerie. Prior to Aerie, he served as Senior Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer of Medco Health Solutions, Inc. from March 2008 through April 2012, until Medco was acquired by Express Scripts for $29B.

Richard has consistently had oversight responsibility for all financial activities, including accounting, reporting, accounts receivable, treasury, tax, planning, analysis, procurement, audit, investor relations and financial evaluation. Prior to his role as Chief Financial Officer at Medco, he served as Medco’s Controller and also the Vice President of Planning, where he was responsible for financial, business and strategic planning. Richard also held various positions at International Business Machines Corporation and Price Waterhouse & Co. He is an inactive Certified Public Accountant and received his BS in Accounting from Manhattan College. 

Richard has been a Director of the Northside Center for Child Development since 2009 and has served as the Treasurer and is currently President of the Board where he is engaged in fund raising and strategic initiatives

 EMMETT T. CUNNINGHAM, Jr, MD, PhD, MPH

Dr. Emmett Cunningham joined the Inflammx Board of Directors in April 2024 bringing over 20 years of experience as a full-time investor and entrepreneur. Dr. Cunningham is currently a Senior Partner at HealthQuest and he most recently served as a Senior Managing Director at Blackstone Life Sciences group (BXLS) of Blackstone, Inc. (BX), joining that company through the acquisition of Clarus Ventures in 2018, where he was a member of the full-time investment team since that firm’s inception in 2006. Emmett has led or co-led investments in medical technology and biotechnology that have supported FDA approval for ten therapeutics. Prior to investing, his previous roles included Senior Vice President, Medical Strategy at Eyetech Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he was a key member of the leadership team responsible for the development of Macugen® (pegaptanib sodium), a pioneering, first-in-class VEGF-A inhibitor for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema. Emmett's extensive experience and leadership have been recognized further through his role as the founder and chairman of the Ophthalmology Innovation Summit (OIS) symposium for more than a decade.

Emmett currently serves on the Boards of Galera Therapeutics, Nacuity Pharmaceuticals, and Eyconis – where he is Executive Chairman.  Emmett previously held positions on the Boards of SARcode Biosciences (acquired by Shire), Neomend (acquired by Bard), Restoration Robotics (acquired by Venus Concept), Annexon Biosciences (ANNX), GrayBug Vision (GRAY), Lumos Pharma (LUMO), and SFJ Pharmaceutical Group. Additionally, he has played instrumental roles as a co-founder and personal seed investor in several companies, including Xeris Biopharma Holdings (XERS), Aiolos Bio (acquired by GSK), Placid0 (acquired by WALDO), and Pr3vent Medical. Emmett’s dedication to philanthropic endeavors is evident through his service on the Boards of The Alta Foundation and EverythingALS, contributing to meaningful unmet needs within the healthcare community.

Emmett earned his MD and MPH in epidemiology and statistics from Johns Hopkins University and holds a PhD in neuroscience from the University of California at San Diego for research conducted at The Salk Institute. He completed residency in ophthalmology and fellowship training in Corneal Disease and Uveitis at UCSF and The Francis I. Proctor Foundation, a medical retina and uveitis fellowship at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, and a fellowship in public health ophthalmology with Prof. Alfred Sommer at the Wilmer Eye Institute in Baltimore. In addition to his professional commitments, Emmett is actively involved in teaching and holds positions as an Adjunct Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at California Pacific Medical Center and Stanford University, as well as a Research Associate at The Francis I. Proctor Foundation, UCSF School of Medicine. He has co-authored over 400 papers related to his clinical and research efforts.