We are a gene therapy company located in Philadelphia, PA’s thriving Life Sciences Corridor. Our diverse management team, researchers and partners focus on innovative treatments for respiratory diseases. At Spirovant, we are passionate about “CURES” – collaboration, urgency, respect, empowerment and science.
We are passionate about CURES for people living with cystic fibrosis and other respiratory diseases.
We value our partners
We know the patients are waiting
We embrace diversity, equity and inclusion
We speak up
We innovate with rigor, quality, transparency and integrity
Joan Lau is Chief Executive Officer of Spirovant, responsible for the strategic direction and growth of the gene therapy company. She delivers more than 20 years of biopharma leadership experience, including as CEO for several venture-capital-backed biotech companies. Dr. Lau co-founded Spirovant (then called Talee Bio), envisioning the potential for advanced gene therapy to treat cystic fibrosis and other patients in need. Within a few years under Dr. Lau’s leadership, Spirovant gained the prestigious scientific support of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and was acquired twice (in one year), most recently by Sumitomo Pharma. As CEO of Spirovant, she has been selected to receive the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2020 Award in Greater Philadelphia and was named a Woman of Distinction by the Philadelphia Business Journal.
Previously, Dr. Lau co-founded and served as Managing Partner of Militia Hill Ventures, focused on building and growing high quality life sciences companies. Dr. Lau also has served as President and CEO of Azelon Pharmaceuticals, a venture-backed clinical stage company; President and CEO of Locus Pharmaceuticals, a computational chemistry discovery company; and in various leadership roles at Merck, including roles in R&D drug development and business development.
In addition, Dr. Lau is an adjunct instructor at the University of Pennsylvania. She also serves on several boards including the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice and the Roy & Diana Vagelos Program in Life Sciences Management, and she co-founded the nonprofit PhillyBio, an organization focused on fostering relationships across Philadelphia-based biopharma.
Dr. Lau earned her MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, her PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, and her BS in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
Eric Yuen is the Chief Medical Advisor to Spirovant and a clinical development physician with over 30 years of experience in academia (7 years) and industry (>20 years). He has developed biologics and small molecules for a variety of diseases, including rare genetic, neurology, psychiatry, pain, and oncology disorders. Eric has held several senior positions at Merck (2000-2004), Johnson & Johnson (2004-2013), Ultragenyx (2013), BioClin (2014), RiboNova (2015-2019), and Inozyme (2017-2019) which included Vice President CNS Therapeutic Area Head at Johnson & Johnson, Vice President Head of Clinical Development at Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy, and Chief Medical Officer at Ultragenyx, RiboNova and Inozyme. He was a co-founder and Chief Medical Officer at Talee Bio, which was acquired by Roivant then Sumitomo Dainippon and renamed Spirovant Sciences (2016-2023), and continues there as Chief Medical Advisor. Eric also serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards at Asceneuron, Nitrase Therapeutics and RiboNova, and as a consulting Chief Medical Officer at Abyssinia Biologics and Nitrase Therapeutics. Eric has led departments responsible for Phase I-III and preclinical development and submissions of numerous INDs, CTAs, NDAs and MAAs. From 1996-2000, Eric was a faculty member at the University of Washington, serving as an assistant professor and clinical researcher, studying treatments for ALS, neuropathy and multiple sclerosis. Eric received his undergraduate education at Stanford University and his M.D. from the University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine. He completed his residency in neurology and post-doctoral fellowships at the University of California, San Francisco.
Roland Kolbeck, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of Spirovant, is an experienced scientific entrepreneur with over 20 years of executive R&D leadership in small and large biopharmaceutical companies with a proven track record of successful drug development. Dr. Kolbeck has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles in renowned scientific journals such as Nature, Immunity and New England Journal of Medicine.
Dr. Kolbeck is co-owner of Spirovant, subsequent to a management buy-out of the company from Sumitomo Pharma, realizing his vision to develop gene therapies for cystic fibrosis and other respiratory diseases. Committed to providing strategic leadership to advance therapeutics, he most recently served as chair of the American Society for Cell & Gene Therapy (ASGCT) Respiratory & GI Tract Gene & Cell Therapy Committee.
Previously, Dr. Kolbeck was Vice President, Head of Respiratory, Inflammation and Autoimmune Research (RIA) at MedImmune, AstraZeneca’s global biologics organization, where he provided strategic direction as Chair of the RIA Research Committee and as a member of the Research Leadership Team and Early-Stage Portfolio Committee. Six monoclonal antibodies originating from the RIA portfolio have since been approved by the FDA.
Dr. Kolbeck contributed to a successful partnership with AMGEN for the co-development of five monoclonal antibodies, a $250 million series A spinout of preclinical RIA autoimmune assets into VIELA BIO, later acquired by HORIZON for $3 billion, and a partnership with ETHRIS GmbH for the development of mRNA-based therapies.
In recognition of his contributions Dr. Kolbeck received the AZ President’s Award for Building and Developing Organizations and Capabilities, AZ Global Excellence Award for Inspirational Leadership, AZ Global Excellence Award for Scientific Publication of the Year and AZ Global Excellence Award for Scientific Breakthrough of the Year.
Before joining Medimmune, Dr. Kolbeck served as Director of Autoimmune Therapies at Peptimmune, and in various scientific leadership roles at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Takeda for $8.8 billion.
With a strong interest in fostering education and international relationships, Dr. Kolbeck served as Associate Professor, Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, from 2014-2022, and is a co-founder of the German International School in Boston where he served as president and chair of the Board for the first 2 years of operations. The school was inaugurated in 2001 by the then acting German President, Dr. Johannes Rau.
Dr. Kolbeck earned his PhD at the University of Regensburg and Max-Planck-Institute for Neurobiology, Munich, Germany.
Eric Pastor, Chief Technology Officer
Eric Pastor is an accomplished drug developer and biotechnology executive with over 20 years of experience operating in the gene therapy space. Over the course of his career with multiple companies, he has strategically guided the direction of viral vector products through multiple IND clearances and regulatory hurdles, balancing risk and innovation with phase-appropriate understanding. An advocate for creating good company culture, Eric has thoughtfully built and fostered high performing departments from the ground up for both start-up and established biopharma companies. Eric had devoted his entire career to bringing the highest quality gene therapy products to patients, with an affinity towards curing rare diseases, especially for those with unmet needs.
As the current Chief Technology Officer for Spirovant Sciences, Eric plays a key role in establishing the corporate strategy as a member of the Executive Leadership team. Under his leadership, Eric and his team have established commercially capable processes and analytics with strict attention paid to quality and cost-effectiveness, all aligned with company objectives and financial landscapes. Eric effectively partners with Spirovant’s CSO to align R&D goals and resources ensuring a seamless transition of drug candidates from research to the early development space. Prior to Spirovant, Eric was VP of CMC Operations at Vedere Bio Inc in Cambridge, MA where he, as one of the first hires, built a highly efficient team which established key, high value processes and analytics in less than a year under seed round funding. Eric gained early- to mid- to late-stage biologic development strategy experience over 8 years at Sanofi in Framingham, MA where he had separately led the gene therapy analytical and process development groups and represented CMC on Sanofi’s Global Gene Therapy Strategy Team. Eric began his career at Targeted Genetics Corporation in Seattle WA, where he led the gene therapy analytical group over the course of 9 years overseeing the full characterization of five different viral vector products used in clinical trials.
Eric earned a BS in Biology/Chemistry from the University of Northern British Columbia. He spends his downtime golfing in the summer, skiing in the winter and being a year-round dog-Dad to his Old English Sheepdogs
Jessica has over 25 years of drug development experience, including early discovery and Phase 1-3 clinical trial experience across a variety of therapeutic areas. Throughout her career, Jessica has had increasing levels of responsibility and currently serves as Chief Development Officer at Spirovant Sciences, Inc, where she has responsibilities for the clinical development and regulatory strategy of Spirovant’s Cystic Fibrosis and respiratory disease product portfolio. She has led groups responsible for Clinical Operations, Data Management, Epidemiology, Pharmacovigilance, and Compliance and was most recently SVP Clinical Science and Operations at Inovio Pharmaceuticals in Blue Bell, PA. Jessica has authored and submitted numerous INDs, CTAs, BLAs, and NDAs and has managed complex drug/biologic/device programs in collaboration with industry, government, NGOs, and academic partners.
Jessica received her MPH from Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health and her MS from Temple University School of Pharmacy.
David Whitwell is an entrepreneurially focused financial executive with more than thirty years of broad financial, accounting and management experience. He has been Spirovant’s CFO since May 2024 and was the acting CFO for Spirovant from 2019 - 2024. In 2021 David started Whitwell CFO LLC to provide CFO services to emerging biotech, healthcare, and technology companies. Prior to starting his own CFO consulting company, David was a partner for 13 years with B2B CFO® Partners LLC where he provided CFO advisory services to emerging companies including Circa Healthcare, Versify Solutions, Locus Pharmaceutical, and Onpath Technologies. He was CFO for two small public companies, IWT Tesoro and Clean Diesel Technologies Inc as well as Divisional CFO for a large multi-billion entity, Primedia, in NYC. He was Manager of Finance with Merck (Schering-Plough) and started his career in public accounting with the Philadelphia office of Ernst & Young.
David has a B.S. in Accounting from The Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from Lehigh University. He is a CPA (inactive) and was a certified management accountant.
Jane is Co-founder, Executive Chair of the Board and an Officer of Spirovant Sciences, Inc. She is also the founding Managing Partner of Militia Hill Ventures (MHV), a business focused on building and growing high quality life sciences companies. While at MHV, Jane co-founded and served as Executive Chair of Spirovant, co-founded and currently serves as Executive Chair of Eliksa Therapeutics, a regenerative medicine company, and served as CEO and Executive Chair of Immunome Inc. (NASDAQ: IMNM), a cancer immunotherapy company. Jane is currently a member of the board of directors of CervoMed, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRVO), Ribonova, Inc., Afimmune Ltd., Breastcancer.org and the University City Science Center. She previously served on the boards of various non-profit and cultural organizations, including The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and The Wilma Theater. Prior to MHV, Jane was co-founder and CEO of NuPathe Inc. (NASDAQ: PATH), a neuroscience focused biopharmaceutical company (sold to Teva). She also co-founded and served as EVP of Auxilium Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AUXL), a urology and rare disease focused biopharmaceutical company (sold to Endo Pharmaceuticals). Prior to founding and leading multiple biopharmaceutical companies, Ms. Hollingsworth was VP, Secretary & General Counsel of IBAH, Inc. (NASDAQ: IBAH), a multinational clinical research organization. Before joining IBAH, she practiced law at the Philadelphia law firm of Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhoads and served as law clerk to the Honorable Jane R. Roth of the United States District Court for the District of Delaware.
Dr. Davidson is the Chief Scientific Strategy Officer of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), Director of the Raymond G. Perelman Center for Cellular and Molecular Therapeutics and the Arthur V. Meigs Chair in Pediatrics at CHOP. She is also a Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Davidson serves on the board of directors for the American Society for Gene Therapy and was Associate Director for the Center of Gene Therapy for Cystic Fibrosis and Genetic Diseases at the University of Iowa. Dr. Davidson also serves on the scientific advisory board for the NCL Foundation, Stanford Institute for Neuro-Innovative and Translational Science Core Facilities, and the Hereditary Disease Foundation, and has served on the editorial boards for Gene Therapy, Molecular Therapy and EMBO Reports. Dr. Davidson received her PhD from the University of Michigan, where she was also a post-doctoral research fellow.
Dr. McCray is a pediatric pulmonologist and Professor of Pediatrics, Microbiology, and Internal Medicine at the University of Iowa. He is the Executive Vice Chair in the Department of Pediatrics, Associate Director of the Center for Gene Therapy of Cystic Fibrosis, and the Roy J. Carver Chair in Pulmonary Research. Dr. McCray’s research interests include cystic fibrosis, airway epithelial biology, and pulmonary innate immunity. Dr. McCray also focuses on integrating vector systems for the treatment of inherited diseases, including gene transfer to airway epithelia for cystic fibrosis. A goal of his laboratory program has been to better understand the pathogenesis of cystic fibrosis as a path to new treatments. Dr. McCray earned his BA in biology from St. Olaf College. He completed his MD, pediatric residency, and pediatric pulmonary fellowship at the University of Iowa. He practiced pediatric pulmonology at Children’s Hospital of Oakland and performed research at CHO Research Institute, where he collaborated with investigators at UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco.
Dr. Engelhardt is Professor of Anatomy and Cell Biology and Internal Medicine and the Roy J. Carver Chair in Molecular Medicine, Chair Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology and Director of the Center for Cystic Fibrosis and other Genetic Diseases at the University of Iowa. Dr. Engelhardt’s research focuses on the molecular basis of inherited and environmentally induced diseases and using gene therapy to treat those diseases. Dr. Engelhardt received a BS in biochemistry from Iowa State University and a PhD in human genetics from Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Welsh is the Roy J. Carver Biomedical Research Chair in Internal Medicine, Molecular Physiology and Biophysics and Neurosurgery at the University of Iowa. He has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator since 1989 and is director of the Cystic Fibrosis Research Center and the Pappajohn Biomedical Institute at the University of Iowa. Dr. Welsh served as president of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and president of the Association of American Physicians. He received the second annual Distinguished Mentor Award presented by the Carver College of Medicine. He has been elected to the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Welsh’s clinical activities center on pulmonary diseases, and his research focuses on the biology, pathogenesis and treatment of cystic fibrosis. Dr. Welsh received his MD at the University of Iowa and trained in pulmonary medicine and research at the University of California at San Francisco and the University of Texas at Houston.
Dr. Zabner is Professor of Internal Medicine, Pulmonary, Critical Care and Occupational Medicine at the University of Iowa and Director, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Occupational Medicine and Vice Chair for Translational Research at the University of Iowa. Dr. Zabner’s research focuses on gene transfer to airway epithelia to develop gene therapy for cystic fibrosis and fluid composition of the airway surface liquid and its effects on innate immunity. Dr. Zabner’s clinical focus is on cystic fibrosis and non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis. Dr. Zabner received his MD from the Universidad Central del Venezuela.
Every member of Spirovant’s team is, first and foremost, deeply passionate – both about the transformative industry-leading technology and the patients whom await better therapies. The company has an “all hands on deck” approach that fosters a dynamic, collaborative, and positive environment.
We’ve found that the best way to be successful is putting our employees front and center – prioritizing professional development while having fun together along the way.