PolyCore Therapeutics – Meet Our Team

Who We Are

Kelly Beck, MBA
Chief Executive Officer

Ms. Beck brings over 20 years of knowledge and experience from biotechnology and clinical research organizations. She most recently served as vice president, investor relations and administration with Ocugen, Inc., where she played an instrumental role in the growth of the company, including through its reverse merger to become a publicly-traded company on the Nasdaq exchange. Prior to Ocugen, she held roles of increasing responsibility at PRA Health Sciences, DrugDev and Tengion. Ms. Beck holds a B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting from Millersville University, a M.S. in Human Resource Development from Villanova University and a M.B.A. with a concentration in Biotechnology and Health Industry Management from Penn State University.

Kelly Beck, MBA

Kelly Beck, MBA
Chief Executive Officer

Chief Executive Officer

Sandhya Kortagere, Ph.D.
Co-Founder & Chief Scientific Officer

Sandhya Kortagere is the Inventor, Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of PolyCore Therapeutics LLC. Dr. Kortagere is a molecular pharmacologist with over 15 years experience in Drug Discovery and Development. She is currently a Professor at Drexel University College of Medicine where she pioneered in the development of a platform technology called the Hybrid Structure Based method to design small molecule modulators to a variety of therapeutically relevant protein targets. Prior to her arrival at Drexel, she was a research and teaching specialist at Robert Wood Johnson Medical school of Rutgers University, NJ. Dr. Kortagere obtained her Ph.D at National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore, India in Molecular Pharmacology and pursued her postdoctoral fellowship at Mount Sinai Medical Center and Weill Cornell Medical College at NYC.

Sandhya Kortagere, Ph.D.

Sandhya Kortagere, Ph.D.
Co-Founder & Chief Scientific Officer

Sandhya Kortagere is the Inventor, Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of PolyCore Therapeutics, Inc. Dr. Kortagere is a molecular pharmacologist with over 15 years experience in Drug Discovery and Development. She is currently an Associate Professor at Drexel University College of Medicine where she pioneered in the development of a platform technology called the Hybrid Structure Based method to design small molecule modulators to a variety of therapeutically relevant protein targets. Prior to her arrival at Drexel, she was a research and teaching specialist at Robert Wood Johnson Medical school of Rutgers University, NJ. Dr. Kortagere obtained her Ph.D at National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore, India in Molecular Pharmacology and pursued her postdoctoral fellowship at Mount Sinai Medical Center and Weill Cornell Medical College at NYC.

Co-Founder & Chief Scientific Officer

Thais Sielecki, Ph.D.
Chief Operating Officer

Thais Sielecki is the COO at PolyCore Therapeutics LLC. Dr. Sielecki previously worked as Vice President, Preclinical Development of Cytokine PharmaSciences, Inc. At CPSI Dr. Sielecki ran programs from early lead discovery through to Phase I and assisted in Phase II and III study design as her primary focus. As part of the management team, she was also a member of teams to manage product portfolio, in-licensing, intellectual property management, and company strategy. Her experience spans oncology, inflammation, women’s health, CNS diseases, and antibacterials with a strong background in drug delivery and controlled release delivery systems. Dr. Sielecki has a PhD In medicinal chemistry from Colorado State University and completed a Post Doctoral research position at Stanford University. She has over 60 publications and patents over her career.

Thais Sielecki, Ph.D.

Thais Sielecki, Ph.D.
Chief Operating Officer

Thais Sielecki is the COO at PolyCore Therapeutics, Inc. Dr. Sielecki previously worked as Vice President, Preclinical Development of Cytokine PharmaSciences, Inc. At CPSI Dr. Sielecki ran programs from early lead discovery through to Phase I and assisted in Phase II and III study design as her primary focus. As part of the management team, she was also a member of teams to manage product portfolio, in-licensing, intellectual property management, and company strategy. Her experience spans oncology, inflammation, women’s health, CNS diseases, and antibacterials with a strong background in drug delivery and controlled release delivery systems. Dr. Sielecki has a PhD In medicinal chemistry from Colorado State University and completed a Post Doctoral research position at Stanford University. She has over 60 publications and patents over her career.

Scientific Advisor

Board of Directors

Jim Harris, MBA

Jim Harris, MBA
Co-Founder & Chief Scientific Officer

Jim Harris is the Co-founder and Chairman of the Board of PolyCore Therapeutics, Inc. Mr. Harris is a serial entrepreneur with 30+ years experience in the life sciences. His expertise is in business creation, commercialization and brand marketing. Mr. Harris is a former Merck executive (27+ years) most recently serving as Executive Director for Merck’s US Diversified Brands Franchise which he built, launched and led for the company. The franchise included 25 brands in nine therapeutic disease areas. He also serves as a commercial reviewer for the National Science Foundation and is a QED Business Advisor and steering committee member at the University City Science Center, located in Philadelphia. Mr. Harris received an MBA from California State University, Sacramento.

Chairman of the Board & Co-Founder

Kelly Beck, MBA

Kelly Beck, MBA
Chief Executive Officer

Chief Executive Officer

Chris Garabedian

Chris Garabedian founded Xontogeny in June of 2016 to support multiple promising technologies from early development through clinical proof of concept. In 2017, Chris joined Perceptive Advisors to develop their Venture Fund strategy and is Portfolio Manager of the Perceptive Xontogeny Ventures Fund which supports early stage companies with Series A investments across biotech, medtech and healthtech.

Chris has a broad base of experience and a track record of success over his decades long experience in the biopharma industry. Chris served as the President and CEO of Sarepta Therapeutics from 2011 to 2015, overseeing the turnaround of a company that is now a commercial stage leader in the genetic technology space after leading the development of the company’s Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy program. Prior to Sarepta, Chris led Corporate Strategy for Celgene from 2007 to 2010. Prior to Celgene, Chris served in a number of global commercial and corporate development leadership roles at Gilead from 1997 to 2005.

Chris serves on a number of Boards of life sciences companies and speaks at industry conferences on a wide range of important issues. Chris is also on the Board of Directors of MassBio, has served as a Senior Advisor for the Boston Consulting Group and is a member of the Corporate Relations Board for the Keck Graduate Institute.

Chairman & CEO, Xontogeny

Christopher M. Cashman

Chris has enjoyed a career in leadership of early and mid-stage biopharmaceutical companies and major divisions of big pharma spanning the last 4 decades.

Presently Chairman of MBF Therapeutics, Director of Noble Biomaterials, Polycore Therapeutics, Telesis Therapeutics, Glutalor Inc. and University City Science Center. Member of Mentor Connect Philadelphia.

Former Chairman and CEO of Marinus Pharmaceuticals, Chairman JDP Therapeutics. CEO of Protez Pharmaceuticals, Message Pharmaceuticals. President Novartis, VP Pfizer, VP SmithKline Beecham.

Former Chairman and CEO,
Marinus Pharmaceuticals

Fred Callori

Fred joined Xontogeny in September 2017 as SVP, Corporate Development. Fred’s responsibilities include due diligence, deal structuring and negotiation, company formation, and the operational oversight and management of Xontogeny’s seed investments. He provides corporate governance, transactional and strategic advice to Xontogeny’s portfolio of companies and serves on several portfolio company boards. In 2018, Fred joined the Perceptive Xontogeny Venture Fund to help manage and oversee fund investments in portfolio companies, including continued investments in companies seeded and incubated at Xontogeny.

Prior to joining Xontogeny, Fred was a Partner in the Life Science and Emerging Companies practices of Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP, a Boston law firm ranked among the most active firms worldwide for private equity and venture capital deals. During his 20-year tenure at Choate, Fred developed deep expertise in the formation, structure, financing and overall corporate development of early stage and emerging life science companies, including representing leading venture capital and institutional investment firms focused on investing in the sector.

Who We Are

Chief Executive Officer

Co-Founder & Chief Scientific Officer

Scientific Advisor

Board of Directors

Chairman of the Board & Co-Founder

Chief Executive Officer

Chairman & CEO, Xontogeny

Former Chairman and CEO, Marinus Pharmaceuticals

SVP, Corporate Development, Xontogeny

Former Chairman and CEO,
Marinus Pharmaceuticals