Executives

Prof. Stephen Hodges

Chairman & CSO

Prof. Stephen Hodges, Founder and Executive Chairman, member of Management and Scientific Committees and member of the Board of Haoma Medica. Stephen is currently a Senior Fellow of The Royal Veterinary College, London and holds a Professorial position at Tromsø University Hospital in the Institute of Clinical Medicine.

Stephen discovered NaQuinate/Osteopura and has expertise derived from several academic environments working with established pharmaceutical companies, biotech companies and University-based drug and intellectual property development companies.

Stephen trained as a chemist, bio-chemist, pharmacologist, cell biologist and has a background in analytical techniques, use of animal models through to supporting Phase I and II clinical trials; which ideally places him to oversee the early phase development of Osteopura.

Stephen has published over 70 peer reviewed papers and continues to publish on the developments at Haoma Medica.

Dr. Steve Deacon
Senior Advisor

Dr. Steve Deacon, joined the company in July 2019 and joined the Management and Scientific Committees as well as being a Board member until July 2022. Steve has 28 years experience in clinical research & development with 22 years in the pharma industry and 6 years in academia. Steve trained in human physiology & pharmacology and obtained his PhD investigating the use melatonin to manipulate the human circadian timing system. His industry experience covers all aspects of clinical research and development (Phases I-IV) from product and clinical development strategies to global program/operational management of internal and outsourced teams.

Over the last 10 years, his focus has been directed towards early phase development and establishing clinical proof of concept in support of out-licensing activities. Steve has gained broad development experience across several therapeutic areas and notably spent 7 years as clinical lead for new osteoporosis treatment. Steve has published over 70 articles including 46 peer-reviewed papers. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Biology and a current member of the Drug Information Association (DIA).

Carmen A. Greco

CFO

Ms. Carmen Greco, Founder and Chief Financial Officer, member of Management Committee and member of the Board of Haoma. Carmen has 22 years of global investment banking experience at the world’s leading financial institutions. She spent over fifteen years at Goldman Sachs as a Managing Director in New York and London and two years as a Managing Director at UBS in London. She created and built up five separate businesses within the two organizations. Her teams focused on creating, developing and distributing both developed & emerging market risk management products to High Net Worth individuals, Institutions and Hedge fund clients around the world.

Her considerable management skills, financial knowledge, tax & regulatory understanding, branding & marketing experience, combined with her professional contacts are invaluable to the company. Carmen works most closely on a day to day basis with Dr. Steve Deacon, Prof. Stephen Hodges and Dr. Cenk Oguz.

Dr. Cenk Oguz

CMO

Dr. Cenk Oguz, Founder and Chief Medical Officer, and member of both Management and Scientific Committees. Cenk is currently working as a Consultant at The North London University Hospitals NHS Trust. He is considered a rising force in the orthopaedic surgery community. Cenk has conducted the research in close co-operation with Dr. Soper in order to secure the information that led to a successful application to the MHRA for the human Phase I clinical trial.

Cenk will work in close consultation with the CRO, to ensure that the clinical trials are professionally completed with full compliance, thoroughness and precision. Additionally, Cenk will work closely with the payer community to ensure we have a full understanding of the thought process and regulatory procedures involved in the osteo drug prescription process. Along with making presentations to learned medical societies and conferences, Cenk will work closely day to day with Dr. Steve Deacon.

Dr. Nima Davoodi

Research Manager

Dr. Nima Davoodi, joined Haoma Medica in April 2020 as a Pre-clinical Research Manager. Nima graduated with a first class honours degree in Neuroscience from University of Sussex, where he also undertook his PhD project in collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline UK, which focused on investigating the neurochemical and behavioural mechanisms underlying atypical antipsychotic-induced weight gain. Nima subsequently started his Postdoctoral position at Johnson & Johnson in Belgium, where he spent over 4 years involved in a range drug discovery projects focused on psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and depression. Nima has since gained a significant level of experience in managing and interpreting a range of regulatory toxicology studies, working as a Study Director with a number of CROs including Charles River in The Netherlands. Nima's experience in project management and interpreting GLP toxicology studies in a regulatory CRO environment, combined with his broad scientific and drug discovery background within the pharmaceutical industry will lend great support to help coordinate pre-clinical development and toxicology studies at Haoma Medica, ensuring oversight and documented compliance where necessary.

Dr. Robin Soper

HM Principal Scientist

Dr Robin Soper, Scientist, member of Scientific Board: Robin worked directly on the early development of NaQuinate, from chemical synthesis through to testing its in vitro biological activity, leading to the successful in vivo demonstration of NaQuinate as a protective agent of bone loss in two mouse models. Following this, Robin pursued postdoctoral research at the Barts and The London Cancer Research UK Clinical Centre investigating the tumour microenvironment focussed on tumour associated macrophages and cancer immunology before moving into the drug discovery field at Cancer Research Technology. Robin continues his role as Principal Scientist for Haoma Medica at the Royal Vet College and oversees the scientific collaboration with the RVC.

Robin is also a Project Leader for early phase clinical trials at the Cancer Research UK Centre for Drug Development, where he is responsible for the strategy and management of multiple projects. Robin has extensive experience in drug discovery and has led, and been a senior team member of, many discovery stage projects.

Prof. Andy Pitsillides

RVC Lead Scientist

Andrew Pitsillides, Scientist, member of Scientific Committee, has been Professor of Skeletal Dynamics since 2009 in the Skeletal Biology Group at The Royal Veterinary College.

Andy has a very strong national and international standing in bone and joint mechano-biology and an established academic career. He has been honoured with the 2020 Fell-Muir Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to matrix biology and has 150 prominent research publications in skeletal disease and mechanobiology highly reputable journals. The successful in vivo prosecution of the murine models of osteoporosis which demonstrated the therapeutic potential of NaQuinate was originally overseen by Prof Pitsillides.

He has continued to strengthen our understanding of this therapeutic efficacy in other species and has recently extended this to the interplay between NaQuinate and mechanical loading. Andrew will retain his academic position and continue to add value on the efficacy animal testing and mechanism of action investigation.

Dr. Isabel Orriss

RVC Senior Lecturer

Dr Isabel Orriss obtained a first class degree in Biochemistry from the University of Southampton in 2001. She completed her PhD, on bone cell function by extracellular nucleotides at University College London, 2005. Isabel obtained a prestigious 5-year Career Development Fellowship from Arthritis Research UK in 2010 to continue her work in the Bone Biology laboratory at UCL. In 2013, Dr Orriss transferred her fellowship to the RVC to join skeletal biology as a new group leader. Now a senior lecturer at the RVC, Isabel’s research interests focus on the regulation of bone cell function and vascular calcification by local signalling factors such extracellular nucleotides and antioxidants.

Her research has been funded by grants: British Heart Foundation, Leverhulme Trust, Arthritis Research UK, Rosetree’s Trust and BBSRC together with internal grant funding (RVC) and collaborations with industry (UCB, HaomaMedica Ltd). She has published 47 papers and reviews and won numerous conference and teaching awards. Dr Orriss is an active member of both national & international calcified tissue societies. Currently, she is the secretary of the UK Bone Research Society, having also served on the committee as the new investigator representative. She is on the editorial board of the society’s journal (Frontiers in Endocrinology: Bone Research) and Scientific Reports.

Zahra Vahid-Assr

Clinical Trials Assist.

Zahra Vahid-Assr studied Biomedical Science at the University of Coleraine and graduated with Bsc Hons in 2014. After graduating Zahra started her first full time job in the pharmaceutical industry. She spent four years working at Richmond Pharmacology in various therapeutic areas of phase 1 and 2 clinical trials and left her role as Associate Clinical Quality Manager.

Zahra left Richmond Pharmacology and returned to her studies and completed Prince2 and Prince2 Agile project management methodologies to practitioner level.

Having four years’ experience working in this industry and having gained her project management certificates Zahra is now working at Haoma as a Clinical Trial Administrator. Within this role Zahra will be responsible for the preparation and maintenance of all aspects of clinical and pre-clinical documentation working closely with and reporting to Dr. Stephen Deacon. This is in anticipation of her progressing to the phase 1 clinical study manager at Haoma.

Jayde O'Neil

Doctoral Researcher

Jayde O’Neil studied at the Royal Veterinary College and graduated in BioVeterinary Science with a highly rated Bachelor of Science degree before continuing her studies through an integrated Master of Science degree course in BioVeterinary Research incorporating a research program focussed on vitamin K and kidney disease in the domestic cat.

Her academic years led to an interest in pathophysiology of bone and vascular dysfunction in kidney disease. Jayde has published a book chapter “Vitamin K2 in Animal Health: An Overview” in Vitamin K2 Vital for Health and Wellbeing, Ed; Professor Jan Gordeladze. Pub: Intechopen.

Jayde joins us in an exciting new research area in vascular biology, returning to the RVC to start her PhD studies investigating the regulation of important protein modulators of bone and vascular function, cell death and senescence.

Amy Lock

Research Assistant

Amy graduated with a first-class honours degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Bath.

During her studies, Amy completed a one-year placement with Cancer Research UK in which she assisted with early phase clinical trial management and administration for the Experimental Cancer Medicines Network.

After graduating, Amy completed a graduate scheme with Cancer Research UK before transitioning to the research sector in her current role with Haoma Medica.

Amy is based at the Royal Veterinary College and will assist with the ongoing preclinical and clinical development of Naquinate, working closely with Professor Andy Pitsillides and Dr Robin Soper.

Senior Advisors

Prof. Roger Emery (UK)

Orthopeadic Surgeon

Professor Roger Emery, Director, Clinical Consultant, member of Scientific Committee: Professor Emery studied medicine at St. Thomas's Hospital Medical School, London and trained in London, Cambridge and Hong Kong. He was awarded a Wellcome Surgical Fellowship at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology and wrote his master's thesis on "Metabolic Studies on Normal and Osteoporotic Bone". He was awarded the Zimmer Travelling Fellowship by the British Orthopaedic Association in 1989 and the first SECEC/ ASES Travelling Fellowship by the European Society for Surgery of the Shoulder and Elbow in 1993. In 1991, he was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon and honorary Senior Lecturer at Central Middlesex Hospital and moved to St Mary's Hospital in 1993.

He is currently Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, Imperial College, London. He serves as a Trustee of the Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery having previously acted as the International Editor. Past President of Société Européenne pour la Chirurgie de l'Epaule et du Coude(SECEC) and the British Elbow and Shoulder Society and past board member of the International Board of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery. Recently served as Chairman of the EFORT Speciality Societies Committee. His research interests focus on Osteoporosis and the effect of loading on bone cells in collaboration with the Royal Veterinary College, London and the University of Southampton College, London

Dr. Martin Shearer (UK)

Clinical Scientist

Vitamin K Specialist

Dr Martin Shearer, Scientific Consultant to Haoma Medica:

Dr Martin Shearer is a Consultant Clinical Scientist at St Thomas’ Hospital.

He is an internationally recognized expert in the field of vitamins, particularly in relation to the role of vitamin K in human health and disease and the development of analytical methods for the evaluation of vitamin K status.

Martin is the recipient of research grants & contracts from prestigious academic & government institutions including the Medical Research Council, UK Food Standards Agency; UK Department of Health, US FDA, and US National Institute of Health and the UK National Osteoporosis Society.

Since 1988 he has served on several National/International Expert Committees and Working Groups including those convened by the World Health Organization, the Food & Agriculture Organization of the UN, UK Department of Health, and UK MHRA.

Martin is author/co-author of over 150 peer-reviewed scientific articles, book chapters and has edited a book on vitamin K.

Prof. Richard Eastell (UK)

Endocrinologist &
Bone Metabolism

Prof. Philippe Clezardin (FR)

Bone Disease & Bone Metastasis

Richard received a clinical fellowship from the Medical Research Council to study osteoporosis at the University of Edinburgh in 1978. He began his training in endocrinology and diabetes at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh in 1980 and continued it at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow in 1982 and at the Mayo Clinic in 1987. He later joined the Department of Human Metabolism and Clinical Biochemistry at the University of Sheffield in 1989 as a Senior Research Fellow where he set up a metabolic bone service at the Northern General Hospital. Richard became Professor of Bone Metabolism in 1995 and received funding from the Arthritis Research Campaign to use biochemical tests of bone turnover to better understand the way in which older men and women develop osteoporosis and propensity to fracture.

He has published over 320 research papers and is currently the Director of the Mellanby Centre based at the University of Sheffield. Some of his recent contributions have been authorship on key papers describing new treatments for osteoporosis, such as tibolone, zoledronic acid, denosumab and lasofoxifene as well as addressing issues about safety of medications and provide guidelines to diagnose primary hyper-parathyroidism. Richard's work as a clinical investigator was recognised in 2014, by the Frederick C Bartter Award from the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.

Professor Philippe CLEZARDIN graduated with a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Lyon, France. He completed a postdoctoral training at the Medical Research Council/Scottish National Blood Transfusion Center in Edinburgh (1984-1986). Philippe was then appointed as Research Scientist at INSERM (National Institute for Health and Medical Research). He obtained his DSc from the University of Lyon and became Senior Research Scientist at INSERM.

He is now Research Director at INSERM and, since 2011, head of the INSERM Research Unit entitled: “Pathophysiology, Diagnosis and Treatments of Bone Diseases”. Before that he was head of the INSERM Research Unit entitled: “Mechanisms and Treatments of Bone Metastases” and Director of the Federative Research Institute entitled: “Cancer, Nutrition and Metabolism” (14 laboratories, circa: 500 people; 2007-2010).

He has authored 135 publications with over 6000 citations, and contributed to 15 chapters in textbooks on cancer research. Philippe is Associate Editor of BoneKEy Reports and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Bone Oncology.

Philippe is Past President of the Cancer and Bone Society.

Dr. Tim Arnett (UK)

Mineralised Tissue
Biology

Professor Tim Arnett, Scientific Consultant to Haoma Medica: Tim Arnett is Professor of Mineralised Tissue Biology at University College London (UCL). He is known internationally for his research in osteoclast and osteoblast biology, as well as for his widely reproduced bone images.

Professor Arnett has authored many publications and received research grants from industry, the MRC, BBSRC, Arthritis Research UK, Wellcome Trust and the European Union.

He currently serves on the editorial boards of several journals, is secretary of the European Calcified Tissue Society and president-elect of the Bone Research Society. Tim Arnett has over 60 publications in bone biology.

Prof. Alan Boyde (UK)

Bone Biology

Professor Alan Boyde, Clinical Consultant to Haoma Medica: Professor Alan Boyde began his career with a degree in dentistry, so it was somewhat natural to find himself interested in hard tissue biology and in particular bone.

With 44 years research experience in the Dept of Anatomy, University College London (over half as Professor) his depth of experience in the understanding of the dynamics of bone biology is considerable. Currently as Professor of Biophysics, Oral Growth and Development, Barts and The London, Queen Mary, he continues to bring a unique insight into bone biology.

Alan Boyde has over 200 publications in bone biology.

Prof. Harry K. Genant (US)

Radiology & Bone Disease

Harry K. Genant is a co-founder of Synarc and Professor Emeritus of Radiology, Orthopedic Surgery, Medicine, and Epidemiology at the University of California San Francisco. While at UCSF, he founded the Osteoporosis and Arthritis Research Group, which has been widely acclaimed as a leading source of research in noninvasive imaging methods applied to patients with osteoporosis, arthritis, and orthopedics. He completed his residency training in Medicine and in Radiology at the University of Chicago, after which he was Chief of Musculoskeletal Radiology at UCSF for the following 30 years. Dr. Genant founded the Osteoporosis and Arthritis Research Group (OARG) in the Department of Radiology at UCSF in 1986, and remains its Executive Director.

Dr. Genant has edited or co-edited more than 30 text books, authored or co-authored more than 170 chapters and invited articles, nearly 500 peer-reviewed articles in scientific and medical journals, and over 1000 abstracts presented at national and international scientific and professional gatherings. He is on the editorial boards of Bone, the Journal of Spine Disorders, Osteoporosis International, the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, and the Journal of Clinical Densitometry, and was recently named Associate Editor of Bone. In memorandum, 2021.

Dr. Allan Lawrie (UK)

Dr. Allan Lawrie completed his PhD “The effects of ultrasound on vascular gene delivery” in the Department of Cardiovascular Science at the University of Sheffield at the end of 2001.

He followed this with a post-doctoral position with Prof Marlene Rabinovitch at Stanford University, California where he developed his interest in Pulmonary Hypertension. He gained his first independent Fellowship to return to Sheffield at the end of 2004 (Russell Fellowship) and started to build a basic science research group focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying pulmonary hypertension.

He obtained a Medical Research Council Career Development Award in 2008 and now holds a British Heart Foundation Senior Basic Science Research Fellowship (since 2012). Within the newly formed Donald Heath programme, he leads a talented group of scientists and maintains strong translational links through the Sheffield Pulmonary Vascular Disease Unit at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital working towards his core research interests of drug target identification, novel therapies and early disease diagnosis.

Dr. Dominic Harrington (UK)

Vitamin K Metabolism

Dominic joined the Haematology Research Laboratories at Guy’s Hospital as an undergraduate in 1990 before moving to join the Centre for Haemostasis and Thrombosis at St. Thomas’ Hospital four years later. During this time Dominic became increasingly interested in the part that vitamins play in health and disease, leading him to set up the ‘Nutristasis Unit’ to develop and apply novel markers of vitamin status to support patient care in 2002. In 2005 Dominic completed his Ph.D which focussed on the development and application of methods to investigate vitamin K metabolism.

He is Director of the International Quality Assurance program for vitamin K; a steering group member of UK NEQAS Blood Coagulation; and scientific advisor to UK NEQAS Haematinics. Recent awards and recognition include: Serco Global Innovation Award Winner for ‘Improving Lives through Innovation’; Serco Civil Government Divisional Award Winner for Innovation; UK Department of Health ‘Extraordinary you – Healthcare Science’ recognition; Advancing Healthcare Awards ‘Research into Action – Nutristasis’; Advancing Healthcare Awards 2016, The Academy For Healthcare Science award for innovation

Senior Consultants

Prof. Klaus Engelke (DE)- Medical Physicist and Human Bone Imaging

Dr. Thomas Fuerst (US)- Medical Physicist and Human Bone Imaging

Prof. Roland Chapurlat (FR)- Rheumatologist and Bone Disease

Dr. Richard Abel (UK)- Senior Lecturer in Musculoskeletal Science

Prof. Cyrus Cooper (UK)- Rheumatology and Epidemiology

Prof. Felicia Cosman (US)- Clinical Medicine Columbia University

Dr Behzad Javaheri (UK)- Bone Biomechanical Specialist

Board of Directors

Prof. Stephen Hodges, Chairman, CSO- Director

Dr. Stephen Deacon, Senior Advisor

Dr. Stephanie Eltz- Investor Director

Dr. Cenk Oguz, CMO- Director

Carmen Greco, CFO- Director

Professional Work

Legal & Patents

Robert Stephen, CMS Cameron McKenna, London

Accounting & Payroll

Daryush Farshchi-Heidari, Simmons Gainford LLP, London

Regulatory Affairs & Quality Management

Sarah Fryer, QRCC, London