Management

Bernie has over 20 years of experience in medicinal chemistry research and drug discovery and has held senior positions in both industry and academia. He has been involved in a number of spin-out companies and joint ventures between universities and big-pharma. Following the merger of one of his earlier start-ups, Iliad Chemicals, with ASX-listed Bionomics (2005), he played a key role in transitioning Bionomics from a target-focused micro-pharma to a clinical-stage mid-tier pharma company (2005-2009). This transition created significant value for Bionomics as reflected in the market capitalisation of the company: from under $20 million (2005) to over $200 million (2010). In 2009 he left Bionomics to join the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences where he leads a number of programs in basic and translational (drug discovery) research with a focus on lipid metabolism and signalling. Aspects of this research form the technology upon which Cincera Therapeutics is founded. Bernie is lead inventor on over 20 different patent families (pending and granted) and lead author on over 70 synthetic and medicinal chemistry research papers.

Stuart is an international leader in the biology and regulation of lipid signalling in mammalian cells during homeostasis and numerous disease states – ranging from metabolic diseases through to various cancers – with specific expertise in sphingolipid biology. Stuart is an inventor on over 15 patent applications, many of which have been the subject of option, research and/or assignment agreements with major pharmaceutical companies and biotech companies. Stuart is an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Cancer Biology and University of South Australia.

As a fresh professional to the pharmaceutical drug discovery field, Cassandra brings experience in novel therapeutic agent synthesis and compound library & data management to the team. One of the highlights in her PhD was being selected for a front-cover publication for renowned Medicinal Chemistry journal, ChemMedChem, and was featured in the ‘Special Collection on Cancer Research (2020 Hot Topic Series)’.

Cassandra has a PhD from Monash University and is also currently a Research Fellow at Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS). Cassandra was a participant in the 2021 QUT Bridge Program.

Originally trained as a medicinal chemist, Giang has over 20 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry. After receiving a M.Sc. and Ph.D. from Budapest University of Technology and Economics, he migrated to Australia to pursue a career in drug discovery research. This lead to him working at the leading Australian pharmaceutical research institutes IMB and MIPS, as well as the biotechnology companies Alchemia and Avexa. He is a co-inventor on 13 patent families, a co-author of over 40 synthetic and medicinal chemistry research papers, and played an instrumental role in the development of the VAST TM small molecule discovery platform. His medicinal chemistry experience spans Technology platform development through Hit identification and Lead Optimisation. Giang has been a project manager for a number of drug discovery programs dedicated to the design, synthesis, and testing of small molecules for the treatment of infection, pain, oncology, and respiratory diseases.

Melissa brings experience and expertise in enzymology, protein biochemistry, structure-based drug discovery techniques, mechanism of action studies and assay development to Cincera. Since 2008, Melissa has focussed her efforts on applying these key skills to understanding the sphingolipid pathway enzymes and how their regulation and modulation contributes to human disease. During a 16 year research career, these skills have led to 2 patent applications and 27 publications. Melissa has a PhD from Flinders University and is a Florey Fellow at the Centre for Cancer Biology, SA Pathology and University of South Australia.