The JayaBio Story
Jaya Biosciences’ platform is based on foundational discoveries by scientific co-founders whose work helped define the role of lysosomal enzyme gene heterozygosity in adult-onset neurodegeneration.
JayaBio’s team, proven in drug development and commercialization of lysosomal targets and gene therapies, is dedicated to addressing unmet needs in neurodegeneration and advancing solutions that transform patient lives worldwide.
Collectively, we have over 100 years of drug development and commercialization experience, including lysosomal targets, recombinant proteins, and gene therapies, and we are backed by an expert science advisory board.
Our team operates on the basis of integrity, innovation, and excellence in action with a patient goal in mind. We value internal and external collaboration, knowing that teamwork results in better solutions.
Our mission is to fulfill a promise of victory over neurodegeneration by identifying and targeting the key pathways involved in the etiology of these debilitating diseases.
Executive Team
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Pawel Krysiak is a life sciences executive with more than 20 years of experience in neurodegeneration, oncology, and rare diseases. Throughout of his career, Pawel has made meaningful contributions to the commercialization and market access of multiple orphan drugs (Cerezyme®, Fabrazyme®, Aldurazyme®, Myozyme®, Lumizyme®, Naglazyme®, Kanuma®, Soliris®), the discovery of novel oncology targets, and the development of emerging therapies for genetically defined diseases. Prior to Jaya Biosciences, his experience included President and CEO of M6P Therapeutics, President and CEO of Seva Therapeutics, VP of Sales and Business Development at EmpiraMed, VP of Commercial and Operations at Ceerdis Corporation, Area Director and General Manager at BioMarin Pharmaceuticals, as well as roles of progressively increasing responsibilities in sales, marketing, and commercial strategy at Genzyme Corporation. Mr. Krysiak started his career in specialty sales at Merck.
Pawel obtained a B.Sc. with Specialized Honors in Biomedical Sciences and Biochemistry from the University of Guelph and an M.Sc. in Molecular Physiology from Western University (Canada). He earned his MBA and Graduate Certificate in Healthcare Leadership from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, where he is also recognized as a Kellogg Executive Scholar in Nonprofit Management. In addition, he holds Certificates in Executive Healthcare Leadership and Healthcare Change Management from Cornell.
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Neal Goodwin serves as our Chief Scientific Officer responsible for all JayaBio research and development programs. With over 20 years of experience in drug discovery and development, Neal has contributed to three successful IPOs, multiple technology deals, and award-winning research projects. Neal’s core competencies include advanced translational platforms, gene delivery technologies, synthetic biology, and drug development. Prior to JayaBio, Neal served as CSO for Teknova (NASDAQ: TKNO), where he implemented gene-delivery technology platforms. Before Teknova, he was Vice President of Corporate Research Development for Champions Oncology (NASDAQ: CSBR), where his responsibilities included the development of a pharmacology platform portfolio for personalized and translational oncology. Before Champions, he served as the Director of Research and Development and the founding Program Director of JAX Cancer Services, where he established an oncology translational tumor biology program in collaboration with over 20 clinical trial centers. Neal is a co-founder and former CSO of ProNAi Therapeutics (Sierra Oncology; NASDAQ: SRRA; acquired by GSK).
Neal received a Ph.D. in Microbiology from The University of Montana and served an NIH postdoctoral fellowship in functional genomics at The Jackson Laboratory with John Schimenti (now at Cornell).
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Eric Grinstead is a life sciences executive with over 30 years of experience across commercial, operations, and leadership roles, including specific functional responsibilities for sales, marketing, supply chain, operations, pricing, reimbursement, policy, government affairs, strategy, communications, and early access programs, both in local and global domains. For the last 15 years Eric was a member of the executive management teams at M6P Therapeutics, Clementia Pharmaceuticals, Synageva BioPharma as well as Alexion Pharmaceuticals with general responsibilities for commercializing ultra-orphan drugs. Prior to this Eric led patient services group and Genzyme Corporation, and pricing at Amgen. Eric started his career in sales and government affairs at GSK.
Eric currently serves as a board member at New Horizon Family Health Services and Savita Institute, and previously served as President of the Safety Net Foundation and the Complement Foundation, two not–for–profit entities that provide drugs at no cost to qualified individuals.
Mr. Grinstead obtained BA in Religious Studies from Westmont College.
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Chris Dandrea is a 25-year veteran in the Biopharmaceutical Research, Development, Operations and Commercialization space. Previously Chris served as Zenas BioPharma’s Senior Vice President of Portfolio & Alliance Management focused on advancing Zenas’ lead program into late-stage clinical trials across multiple indications and multiple development alliances. Prior to Zenas, he served as uniQure’s Vice President of Global Program & Alliance Management and drove late-stage development, out-licensing and technology transfer of the First in Class/Best in Class gene therapy for Hemophilia B, Hemgenix® and transition of a Best in Class Huntington’s disease program into the clinic. Additional experience included a role as Sanofi’s Head of Oncology Project Management tasked to accelerate Sanofi’s innovative pipeline of Pre-clinical, Clinical and Commercial Oncology programs. Earlier experience includes Rare Disease Development Program Management/Leadership driving successful development and commercialization of Myozyme®, Lumizyme®, and a next generation Pompe ERT program at Genzyme. Additional roles include Life Science Management Consulting, Medical Device Field Service Engineering and service as a US Naval Officer. Chris has also served as a Board member for the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Parkinson’s Disease Association
Chris obtained Bachelor of Science in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering from Duke University and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University. He also holds multiple certifications, including 6Sigma Black Belt, American Prod & Inv. Control Society (APICS) Certification in Product/Inventory Management (CIPM), and Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification.
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Gavin Maitland serves as JayaBio’s fractional Chief Financial Officer (CFO), bringing over three decades of financial management experience across various industries and markets. Currently, he is the President and CEO of Fleming CFO, a fractional CFO firm supporting the early-stage and growing life sciences companies across the major biotech hubs in the US. Fleming CFO works with over 30 finance professionals at various levels and has been successfully meeting life sciences clients’ challenges for over a decade. Prior to Fleming CFO, Gavin co-founded a venture fund Axiomlab plc (now IP Group, plc), and took it from inception to an IPO on the London Stock Exchange, serving as the firm’s CFO throughout the entire cycle. Before Axiomlab, he was a CFO at APP Group BV (now Ness Technologies) and the international controller at TNT, where he worked onsite in over 25 countries across four continents, with primary responsibilities for subsidiaries in Singapore, France, and Central and Eastern Europe. Mr. Maitland started his career as an accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in the United Kingdom.
Gavin received a BAdmin (Honors) in Accounting and Economics from the University of Dundee and an MBA from London Business School. He is also a member of ICAS, a Professional Body of Chartered Accountants.
Scientific Co-Founders
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Mark S. Sands, PhD, is Professor Emeritus in the Departments of Medicine and Genetics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and Scientific Co-Founder of Jaya Biosciences. His research has focused on lysosomal biology, lysosomal storage diseases, and gene therapy approaches for CNS and systemic manifestations of genetic disease.
Prof. Sands has made significant contributions to the development of therapies for lysosomal storage disorders, including MEPSEVII® for MPS VII, and has extensive experience evaluating adeno-associated viral gene transfer vectors for CNS-directed applications.
His work helped establish the scientific foundation for JayaBio’s platform targeting lysosomal dysfunction in adult-onset neurodegeneration. Prof. Sands’ expertise in lysosomal disease biology and CNS-directed gene therapy continues to guide JayaBio’s scientific and translational strategy.
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Bruno A. Benitez, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience at Harvard Medical School and Principal Investigator at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. His research integrates human genetics, multi-omics, computational biology, and translational neuroscience to identify novel therapeutic targets and molecular biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and related neurodegenerative disorders.
While at Washington University in St. Louis in Prof. Mark Sands’ laboratory, Dr. Benitez led the foundational work that identified heterozygous mutations in lysosomal enzyme genes as novel genetic risk factors for adult-onset neurodegeneration. These discoveries helped establish the scientific basis for JayaBio’s platform and its precision-medicine approach to Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.
He joined the Harvard faculty in 2021 and collaborates across academia and industry to translate molecular insights into diagnostics and therapeutics that redefine precision medicine in brain health. Dr. Benitez’s work continues to advance JayaBio’s understanding of neurodegeneration by linking genetic variation, molecular disease signatures, and clinical phenotypes.
Scientific Advisory Board
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Mark S. Sands, PhD, is a Professor Emeritus in the Departments of Medicine and Genetics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO. The goals of Dr. Sands’ laboratory are to better understand the underlying pathogenesis and develop effective therapies for genetic diseases associated with the lysosomal pathway, specifically lysosomal storage diseases (LSDs) and genetically-defined neurodegeneration. A major focus of his group is to determine the safety and efficacy of adeno-associated viral gene transfer vectors for the treatment of both the CNS and systemic manifestations of these diseases. In addition, his group has developed lentiviral-mediated hematopoietic stem cell-directed gene therapy approaches, as well as small molecule drugs, and more recently, rational combinations of these approaches. The primary diseases that Dr. Sands studies are mucopolysaccharidoses, especially mucopolysaccharidosis type VII (MPS VII), Krabbe disease, Infantile Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis, and LSD-associated neurodegeneration. Dr. Sands made significant contributions to the development of MEPSEVII® (Ultragenyx) and is a scientific co-founder of Jaya Biosciences, a company developing CNS-directed gene therapies for genetically-defined neurodegeneration. He sits on numerous Science Advisory Boards, including Jaya Biosciences (Chair), M6P Therapeutics, National MPS Society, and Batten Disease Support and Research Association, and on the editorial boards of Molecular Therapy and Journal of Clinical Medicine.
Dr. Sands received his Ph.D. in Molecular Pharmacology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He completed postdoctoral fellowships at The Jackson Laboratory (Bar Harbor, ME) and at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine before joining the faculty at Washington University School of Medicine. Prof. Sands has published over 150 peer-reviewed publications (Google Scholar >12,000 citations, h-index = 66, i10 index = 145).
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Malu G. Tansey, PhD, is a Professor of Neurology and the James A. Caplin MD, Chair in Alzheimer’s Disease at the Indiana University School of Medicine. She is also the director of the Neuroimmunology Research Group and the Executive Associate Director of Education at the Stark Neuroscience Research Institute. Her lab focuses on the role of inflammation and immune system responses in brain health and neurodegenerative disease, with particular focus on central-peripheral neuroimmune crosstalk and the gut-brain axis. Specifically, Dr. Tansey’s lab employs rigorous multiple in vivo and in vitro models to define gene x environment interactions that protect or predispose individuals towards the development of neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and other ADRDs like Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD). The long-term goal of the lab is to develop better therapies to prevent and/or delay these diseases. Prior to joining Indiana University School of Medicine and Stark Neuroscience Research Institute, Prof. Tansey was the Norman and Susan Fixel Chair in Neuroscience and Neurology and director of the Center for Translational Research in Neurodegenerative Disease at the University of Florida. Her other experiences include a Professor of Neurology at Emory University School of Medicine, Associate Professor of Physiology at UT Southwestern, and Head of Chemical Genetics at Xencor, where she co-invented novel soluble TNF inhibitors that have now advanced to clinical trials in Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Tansey also served on the executive committees for the McKnight Brain Institute and Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases. She currently serves as the Vice President of the World Parkinson Coalition and a Member of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Group at Alzheimer’s Association.
Dr. Tansey obtained a B.Sc. and a M.Sc. in Biological Sciences from Stanford University and a PhD in Cell Regulation from UT Southwestern. She completed postdoctoral work in Neuroscience at Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Tansey mentored over 30 trainees and has won multiple awards for her efforts in championing early-stage investigators, women, and other underrepresented groups in STEM. She published over 150 peer-reviewed publications (Google Scholar >21,000 citations, h-index = 75 and an i-10 index = 137).
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Peter Lansbury grew up in Buffalo, NY. He received his AB (cum laude) in chemistry from Princeton University and his PhD from Harvard University in 1985. His postdoctoral fellowship was spent at the Rockefeller University. From 1988- 1995, he was assistant, then associate professor of Chemistry at MIT. He moved to Harvard Medical School in 1996 and was promoted to Professor of Neurology in 2004. He served as Chief Scientific Officer of Lysosomal Therapeutics, Inc. from its founding in 2013 until its sale in 2021 to Bial Pharma. He and his team developed a brain-penetrant, safe, and well-tolerated glucocerebrosidase allosteric activator for the treatment of GBA1-PD, a genetic subtype of Parkinson’s disease, currently in phase 2 clinical trials. Peter has recently founded CeraLink Therapeutics to develop a therapeutic for other subtypes of Parkinson’s disease.
Prof. Lansbury has published over 100 peer-reviewed publications (Google Scholar >57,000 citations, h-index = 90, i10 index = 157).
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Joshua M. Shulman, MD, PhD, is Professor of Neurology, Neuroscience, and Molecular & Human Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine; Co-Director of the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s Hospital; and Director of the Baylor Center for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases. Since relocating to Houston in 2012, Dr. Shulman's translational research program has focused on the genetics and pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. His research integrates genetic and genomic investigation in human subjects and model organisms, with the goal of understanding brain function and aging, and improving the treatment of neurologic disease. This includes, investigating the impact of genomic variation on directly measured Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease pathology and related biomarkers, quantitative measurement of motor impairment to capture disease clinical heterogeneity, and whole genome sequencing for precision medicine applications. In addition, Dr. Shulman’s lab is actively exploring links between inherited pediatric lysosomal disorders and oligogenic risk for late-onset, adult neurodegenerative diseases.
Dr. Shulman received his A.B. in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard College, and his Ph.D. in Genetics from Cambridge University. He subsequently studied at Harvard Medical School, where he received his M.D. and an M.M.Sc. in clinical investigation. Dr. Shulman completed his neurology residency and fellowship training in the Harvard/Partners Program at Brigham & Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Prof. Shulman has published more than 100 peer-reviewed publications (Google Scholar >17,000 citations, h-index = 57, i10 index = 78).
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Hans J. Moebius, MD, PhD, ECPN, FAAN has worked in the life science industry for decades, and currently serves as CMO at Exciva, Heidelberg, which he co-founded, developing new therapies for neuropsychiatric conditions in dementia. From 2019-2024, he served as CMO at Athira Pharma, Seattle, USA, and was part of their $430M IPO at NASDAQ.
Beforehand, he was CMO at several US (Chase, Rodin) and UK/Singapore (tauRx) biotechs, supporting successful trade sales. Hans started his industry career 1991 at Ciba/Novartis in Basel, Switzerland and has served in international leading pharma positions in neuroscience, resulting in the approval of several new CNS therapies, most notably memantine in Alzheimer’s disease. He also serves as Venture Advisor at Andera Partners, Paris, and scientific advisor at Kasvu, Helsinki.