Team
We are scientists, clinicians, innovators, and entrepreneurs redefining the treatment landscape for individuals with devastating neurodegenerative diseases.
Management Team
Dr
Kathryn Sunn
PhD
CEO
Dr Kathryn Sunn
PhD
CEO
Dr. Kathryn Sunn is a seasoned executive with a distinguished career spanning over two decades in research, intellectual property, and commercialisation. She concurrently serves as the Director of Commercialisation at Macquarie University.
Dr. Sunn is renowned for her dynamic leadership and strategic vision in fostering technology collaborations and expanding commercial opportunities within the Australian research and early enterprise sectors. With extensive experience in intellectual property management, strategy, and business development, Dr. Sunn has held roles in two of Australia’s leading patent firms and has spearheaded the technology transfer units at the Australia’s largest universities. Her expertise lies in forging impactful strategic partnerships and delivering commercially focused advice to transform innovations into valuable assets.
Dr. Sunn holds a PhD in Medical Science with a specialisation in genetics from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research. She is a trained patent and trademark attorney in Australia and New Zealand. Her governance experience includes serving on the Board of Knowledge Commercialisation Australasia (KCA), the premier body for research commercialisation in Australasia, as well as on the boards of several Macquarie University startup companies.
Professor Lars M Ittner
MD
Founder / Chief Medical Officer
Professor Lars Ittner
MD
Founder
Director, Dementia Research Centre at Macquarie University. Prof Ittner has over two decades of experience in neuroscience research with a focus on fundamental disease mechanisms and drug development in Alzheimer’s disease and brain conditions with neuronal hyper-excitation. He brings a deep understanding of the scientific field to the Celosia Therapeutics team. Prof Ittner trained in medicine in Germany and Switzerland followed by postgraduate training in biochemistry and biology at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.
Professor
Yazi Ke
PhD
Inventor / Chief Operating Officer
Professor Yazi Ke
PhD
Inventor / Chief Operating Officer
Co-inventor of CTx1000
Professor and Deputy Director of the Dementia Research Centre at Macquarie University.
Prof Ke has over 15 years of experience in pathophysiological mechanisms of neurodegenerative disorders, and a leading scientific figure in ALS research. She has over 15 years research experience dedicated to the development of novel therapeutics, leveraging deep-seated scientific insights to combat these debilitating diseases. Among her contributions is the co-invention of CTx1000, an innovative gene therapy designed to target the underlying disease mechanism for the treatment of ALS. Prof Ke serves as the Chief Operating Officer of Celosia Therapeutics, bringing her extensive background and forward-thinking approach to Celosia.
Company Board
Professor Dr. Med Iris Loew-Friedrich
Director / Chair
Prof Dr. Med Iris Loew-Friedrich
Director / Chair
Long-standing Chief Medical Officer, Head of Development and a member of UCB’s Executive Committee providing strategic global leadership for worldwide clinical development, medical affairs, regulatory affairs, real world evidence, patient safety/pharmacovigilance, quality assurance and the company’s data office. Profound and extensive experience in the worldwide Development of medicines, small molecules and biologics, in different disease areas including immunological, neurological and bone diseases, through executive leadership positions in the biopharmaceutical industry for more than 20 years, resulting in launches of more than 10 new molecular entities. Passionate about digitalization resulting in the early implementation of automated, heavily digitalized, data-enabled processes across the clinical development continuum. A long career as Chief Medical Officer with deep experience in benefit risk stewardship and oversight of the marketed portfolio and clinical-stage pipeline, including the representation of pipeline strategy and execution to the capital markets. As a member of Management Boards, uninterrupted from 2001 to 2024, in-depth knowledge and experience in general management, M&A, technology- and data-enabled innovation, risk management, financial reporting and sustainability.
Experience as a member of Supervisory Boards in the life sciences industry, covering a broad range from small biotechnology to large-scale healthcare companies (Wilex AG, Evotec SE, Fresenius SE), and of non-profit organization Boards (TransCelerate Biopharma Inc., MAPS, PhRMA Foundation) ensuring strategy development and oversight of operational execution, state-of-the-art compensation and risk management systems. Member of Advisory Boards to government-funded research institutions, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.
Professor
Dan Johnson
PhD MBA
Director
Professor Dan Johnson
PhD MBA
Director
Pro-Vice Chancellor Research Innovation & Enterprise at Macquarie University, Managing Director of Access Macquarie Ltd and former Managing Director at the Wine Research Institute (Adelaide). Prof Johnson has been involved in research leadership and innovation for nearly 20 years. He has expertise across a range of scientific disciplines and experience in managing research institutes, technology transfer programs and start-up companies. He holds a PhD in Chemistry from Flinders University and an MBA from The University of Adelaide, and has undertaken executive education at Harvard University, Oxford University, IESE Business School and INSEAD Business School.
Liza Yeo
Director
Liza Yeo
Director
Liza is an Investment Manager at Uniseed. She has spent 20 years of her career in Roche and a number of Global Contract Research Organisations (CROs). She brings expertise across the entire drug development continuum, including protocol design, regulatory advisory, clinical operations, and commercialisation.
As part of her clinical research career, Liza led and managed numerous global studies working across regulatory, medical, clinical operations, data management, and biostatistics functions. These clinical trials had culminated in successful drug launches in the global market.
Most recently, Liza held the position of Commercial Director with Parexel CRO where she supported Biotech clients in Australia, Singapore, and Taiwan. She played a key role in developing and implementing strategies for her clients, driving their Biotech ventures forward in the most time-efficient and cost-effective manner.
Liza holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy with Honours from the National University of Singapore and is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD).
Bill Cogan
Director
Bill Cogan
Director
Bill Cogan is a dual-qualified lawyer, admitted as a Solicitor in England & Wales and an Attorney-at-Law in the State of New York, following a master’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley. With over 15 years of legal and advisory experience, Bill has focused his career on advising early stage fast growth companies in the UK and US as a lawyer, advisor and investor. His expertise lies in aligning legal guidance with business strategy to support clients in navigating complex regulatory and commercial landscapes.
Scientific Advisory Board
Our advisory panel consists of individuals from around the world that are internationally recognised in the field of neurodegenerative disease (in particular Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) with significant research, clinical expertise and links to global clinical trial networks. This stellar panel will provide Celosia Therapeutics with guidance during the pre-clinical and clinical development phases, ongoing research and regulatory approval processes.
Professor
Merit Cudkowicz
ALS Advisory Panel Chair
Professor Merit Cudkowicz
ALS Advisory Panel Chair
Dr. Merit Cudkowicz is the Director of the Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS, Chief of Neurology at Mass General, Director and the Julieanne Dorn Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Cudkowicz’s research and clinical activities are dedicated to the study and treatment of people with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Dr. Cudkowicz is one of the founders and past Co-Chairs of the Northeast ALS Consortium (NEALS), a group of over 134 clinical sites in the United States, Canada, Europe and the Middle East dedicated to performing collaborative clinical trials and research in ALS. Dr. Cudkowicz received the American Academy of Neurology 2009 Sheila Essay ALS award, the 2017 Forbes Norris Award from the International MND Alliance, the 2017 Pinnacle Award from the Boston Chamber of Commerce and the 2019 Ray Adams American Neurological Association Award. Dr. Cudkowicz completed her undergraduate degree in chemical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and obtained a medical degree in the Health Science and Technology program of Harvard Medical School. She served her internship at Beth Israel Hospital in New York and her neurology residency and fellowship at MGH. She also obtained a master’s degree in Clinical Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Professor
Dominic Rowe
ALS Advisory Panel Member
Professor Dominic Rowe
ALS Advisory Panel Member
Professor Rowe is the Foundation Professor of Neurology in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Macquarie University. For ten years he was Chairman of the MND Research Institute of Australia and he is the current chairman of Macquarie Neurology, and Consultant Neurologist at Macquarie University Hospital. He has published on clinical, genetic and biological aspects of Parkinson’s Disease and Motor Neurone Disease as well as other fields of adult neurology. Professor Rowe was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2012 Queen’s Birthday Honour List for services to Medicine and Neurology, particularly Motor Neurone Disease and Parkinson’s. Professor Rowe is a member of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Neurologists; International Movement Disorder Society and a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. He is a Chairman of Neurology at Macquarie University Hospital and the founder of Macquarie Neurology; an adult neurology practice that performs more than 10,000 patient episodes per year. Macquarie Neurology manages the care of more than 200 patients with MND, 600 patients with Parkinson’s and 100 patients with Multiple Sclerosis. Professor Rowe has a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, University of Sydney, 1989. Fellow, Royal Australasian College of Physicians 1996.
Professor
Glenda Halliday
ALS Advisory Panel Member
Professor Glenda Halliday
ALS Advisory Panel Member
Professor Halliday is an Australian career neuroscientist and research neuropathologist specialising in neurodegeneration and has been a Research Fellow in the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and Australian Research Council (ARC) systems since 1988, attesting to the quality of my research ideas and ability to prosecute them. Professor Halliday appointed Professor of Medicine (2003) then of Neuroscience (2008), then NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow (2010) at the University of New South Wales, and is now a NHMRC Leadership Fellow located at the University of Sydney until 2025. Professor Halliday has successfully worked with many Australian and international researchers on important scientific questions on Parkinson’s disease, alcohol toxicity, dementia with Lewy bodies, frontotemporal dementias and motor neurodegenerative diseases. Professor Halliday has a BSc from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and went on to subsequently graduate with a PhD from the Faculty of Medicine at the UNSW.
Dame
Pamela Shaw
ALS Advisory Panel Member
Dame Pamela Shaw
ALS Advisory Panel Member
Professor Dame Pam Shaw is Professor of Neurology and a Clinician Scientist at the University of Sheffield and Director of: the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN); the NIHR Sheffield Biomedical Research Centre for Translational Neuroscience and the Sheffield Care and Research Centre for Motor Neuron Disorders. Her team investigates genetic, molecular and neurochemical mechanisms underlying ALS/MND; investigates new therapeutic targets and translates new neuroprotective and symptomatic treatment approaches into the clinic. She has authored more than 590 publications (H-index 123). She has received many awards for her research including DBE for Services to Neuroscience (2014), the Queen’s Anniversary Prize (2019) and the British Neuroscience Association Outstanding Contribution award (2022).
Researchers
Professor
Lars M Ittner
MD
Founder / Chief Medical Officer
Professor Lars Ittner
MD
Founder
Director, Dementia Research Centre at Macquarie University. Prof Ittner has over two decades of experience in neuroscience research with a focus on fundamental disease mechanisms and drug development in Alzheimer’s disease and brain conditions with neuronal hyper-excitation. He brings a deep understanding of the scientific field to the Celosia Therapeutics team. Prof Ittner trained in medicine in Germany and Switzerland followed by postgraduate training in biochemistry and biology at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.
Professor
Roger Chung
PHD
Founder
Professor Roger Chung
PHD
Founder
Professor of Neurobiology & Neurochemistry, and Deputy Dean (Research & Innovation), Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences at Macquarie University. Has led research programs for nearly 20 years that have developed peptide therapeutics for neuroprotection and nerve regeneration (licensed to an ASX listed company), and more recently a novel gene therapy for ALS (licensed to Celosia Therapeutics). His research program has broad expertise across biochemistry, cell and molecular biology, proteomics and animal models of disease. He holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Tasmania.
Professor
Yazi Ke
PhD
Inventor / Chief Operating Officer
Professor Yazi Ke
PhD
Inventor / Chief Operating Officer
Co-inventor of CTx1000
Professor and Deputy Director of the Dementia Research Centre at Macquarie University.
Prof Ke has over 15 years of experience in pathophysiological mechanisms of neurodegenerative disorders, and a leading scientific figure in ALS research. She has over 15 years research experience dedicated to the development of novel therapeutics, leveraging deep-seated scientific insights to combat these debilitating diseases. Among her contributions is the co-invention of CTx1000, an innovative gene therapy designed to target the underlying disease mechanism for the treatment of ALS. Prof Ke serves as the Chief Operating Officer of Celosia Therapeutics, bringing her extensive background and forward-thinking approach to Celosia.