Christian is the CTO and Founder of Ladder Bio, and inventor of Spiroligomer™ molecules for drug and diagnostic innovation. He also serves as a Chemistry Professor at Temple University. An acclaimed AMBER software developer, Christian has been pivotal in advancing biomolecular simulations for over 30 years worldwide. He notably synthesized the first artificial protein, 4HB1, as a graduate student and co-invented “stapled peptides” during his post-doctoral research. With two decades dedicated to Spiroligomer™ molecules, he has significantly scaled up their production with the Department of Defense and Energy’s backing. Through Ladder Bio, Christian aims to revolutionize therapeutics and diagnostics with Spiroligomer™ technology.

JD is the Principal Scientist at Ladder Bio, and has been with the company since its founding in 2020. He has worked on Spiroligomer™ molecules for over a decade. JD received his PhD in Organic Chemistry at Temple University in 2016, where he authored numerous papers with Christian Schafmeister on the development of Spiroligomer™ molecules and their chemistries. He did his postdoctoral work with Mark Sellmyer in the Department of Radiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, working on chemical biology and radiochemistry. During this time, he also pursued a course in translational research, receiving a certificate from the UPenn Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics.

Eric is a venture capitalist turned CEO turned venture capitalist again with extensive experience across the healthcare and life sciences industries. Eric joined John Prufeta in 2021 to help launch Medical Excellence Capital, LLC, an early-stage life science venture fund founded by patients for patients.  He currently holds board positions at Nobias Therapeutics, GC Therapeutics, Ladder Bio, and is the cofounder and board chair of ProJenX, an ALS company. In September 2025, Eric joined Ladder Bio as CEO.

Prior to MEC, Eric cofounded and led two venture-backed companies as CEO, including Upward Health (partnered with BCBS Venture Fund) and RightCare (acquired by naviHealth Inc., now part of UnitedHealthcare). In 2012, Eric cofounded RightCare as an EIR and an investment professional at Domain Associates, LLC, a leading life-science venture capital fund with over $2.5 billion under management. During his tenure at Domain, Eric also led business development at portfolio companies Corthera (acquired by Novartis) and Celator Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Jazz Pharmaceuticals). He began his career as a consultant with Easton Associates (now Navigant Consulting), a management consultancy dedicated to the medical industry, and an Equity Research Analyst at Bear Stearns covering the Managed Care sector.

Eric’s academic background includes a bachelor’s in systems engineering focused in healthcare systems from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Wharton.

He currently resides in Bucks County, PA with his family.

Brian Halak joined Medical Excellence Capital (MEC) in 2021 as Managing Partner.

As part of Domain Associates since 2001, and a Partner since 2006, Brian has invested in over a dozen companies, several of which he helped create. He and partner, Eckard Weber, licensed assets from a Japanese pharmaceutical company to create Tobira Therapeutics, which was eventually acquired by Allergan in 2016, for up to $1.7 billion. Brian also established and directed Domain’s prior initiatives in China including its collaboration with Beijing Elite to create new medical device companies in China based on technology licensed from US and European markets. One such company, Elite Neurovascular, was successfully sold to Terumo Corporation in 2017. Additionally, Brian joined with two scientific founders at Johns Hopkins University to create WindMIL Therapeutics, which is developing a novel cell therapy to treat a variety of cancers. Brian served as President and CEO of WindMIL from 2015 to early 2019, during which time he raised $43.5MM in two rounds of financing. Most recently, Brian formed Nobias Therapeutics alongside co-founders from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to develop drugs to treat rare pediatric disease. Other investments where Brian has served on the Board of Directors include: Esprit Pharma (acquired by Allergan), Dicerna Therapeutics (Nasdaq: DRNA and then acquired by Novo), Alimera Sciences (Nasdaq: ALIM and then acquired by ANI Pharma), and Vanda Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: VNDA). Brian remains involved as a Partner managing all existing Domain funds.

Prior to Domain, Brian was an associate with Advanced Technology Ventures where he participated in the firm’s investments in Plexxikon, Percardia and Emphasys. Previously, he was a consultant at the Wilkerson Group, where he developed strategies for pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Brian received his B.S.E. in bioengineering from University of Pennsylvania and his Ph.D. in immunology from Thomas Jefferson University.

Brian is currently an advisor to Elm Street Ventures, an early-stage venture fund with close ties to Yale University. He also teaches entrepreneurship at the University of Pennsylvania to undergraduate and graduate students in the School of Engineering.

Since 1981, Mr. Scheer has been president of Scheer & Company, Inc., a company that has had a highly successful track record of building companies, along with providing corporate strategic and transactional advisory services in the life sciences industry. Much of his company-building activity emerged from a nearly 10-year affiliation with Oak Investment Partners, as part of their Health Care Investing Team.

Mr. Scheer was a co-founder of Achillion Pharmaceuticals, a New Haven–based, publicly held, biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of small molecule therapeutics for complement-related diseases, and for 21 years, he served on its board of directors. Achillion was acquired by Alexion in February 2020. From 2010 through the end of 2018, he served as the company’s chairman of the board. He is also chairman of the board of the privately held companies BiologicsMD, Inc., and DNAMx, Inc.

He was involved in the founding and has been on the boards of a series of privately and publicly held companies, including Viropharma (acquired by Shire/Takeda), OraPharma (acquired by JNJ, now a unit of Valeant) and the original Esperion Therapeutics (acquired by Pfizer), for which he served as chairman of the board. Mr. Scheer also served as a co-founder and chairman of the boards of directors of Aegerion (now a part of Amryt), Optherion, Axerion (now ReNetx), ArRETT Neuroscience and several others. Additionally, Mr. Scheer serves as a member of the board of directors of BioCT, and on the executive board of the Center for Biomedical Innovation and Technologies (CBIT) at Yale University. He has also been an adviser to the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD), and serves as chair of the NORD Strategic Advisory Council. Mr. Scheer has also been an adviser to the Rett Syndrome Research Trust. He serves as a founding member of the Director’s Impact Advisory Committee for the Rutgers Global Health Institute, and as a founding member of the Compassionate Use and Preapproval Access (CUPA Working Group) at the NYU Langone Medical School. He also served on a variety of initiatives and advisory committees for the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, including the Harvard Malaria Initiative, Unfinished Agenda in Infectious Diseases and the Global Task Force for the Control of Cancer (GTF.CC), and he served as a global co-organizer of AIDS@30, commemorating the 30th anniversary of the diagnosis of the first AIDS patient.

He leads the CT BioScience Coronavirus Task Force, and has been a member of the Reopen CT Advisory Group. He is a member of the board of directors of the Global Virus Network, an organization founded by the co-discoverer of HIV, Dr. Robert Gallo, as a network of institutions and individuals with the goal of preparing for and responding to pandemic threats.

Mr. Scheer holds an A.B. degree cum laude in biochemical sciences from Harvard College and an M.S. degree in cell, molecular and developmental biology from Yale University.

Max Colbert MD, MBA is a physician-entrepreneur with a passion for transforming healthcare and improving lives through innovation and investment in the biotech industry.  Max serves as the VP, Business Development for Ladder Bio.  In addition, Max serves as an Associate at Medical Excellence Capital.  Prior to joining Medical Excellence Capital, Max served as Head of Business Development and Strategy for AI Optics, Inc. He also worked as a Venture Associate for Flying L Partners, a venture capital firm focused on the ophthalmology market. Additionally, he has consulted for various other life sciences start-ups guiding research and development, marketing planning, corporate and financing strategy, as well as clinical trial design and execution.

Max earned his medical degree from New York University Grossman School of Medicine. He attained his MBA degree from New York University Stern School of Business with a concentration in Healthcare and Finance.”

Joe has been advising Ladder Bio since 2024. He is a consultant to the pharmaceutical and biotech industry, acting as interim head of chemistry for several small startup companies, following his role as Senior Vice President of Early Success Sharing Partnerships at WuXi AppTec Limited, and a 30 year career at Merck Research Laboratories. During his time at Merck, he and his teams made major contributions to several approved drugs including the HIV protease inhibitor CRIXIVAN™ (indinavir sulfate); the HIV integrase inhibitor ISENTRESS® (raltegravir); the HCV protease inhibitor VANIHEP® (vaniprevir), the combination product ZEPATIER® (a combination of the second generation HCV protease inhibitor grazoprevir and the NS5A protein inhibitor elbasvir and the recently approved second generation HIV NNRTI inhibitor PIFELTRO® (doravirine). Joe has over 100 publications and patents and is the holder of many awards including a Merck Directors Award (1998); PhRMA Discoverers Award (1999); Intellectual Property Owners “National Inventor of the year Award” (1997); European Inventor of the Year (non-EU nation) (2007); ACS “Award for Creative Invention” (1999); and was a named a Merck Research Laboratories Presidential Fellow in 2008. He was named to the American Chemical Society Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame (Aug. 2012) and was also named a “Hero of Chemistry” (along with the research team) for his role in the discovery and development of the HIV integrase inhibitor Isentress(TM). Dr. Vacca earned his BS in Chemistry in 1977 from St. John Fisher College, Rochester, New York, and obtained his PhD degree in Organic Chemistry under Professor Peter T. Lansbury Sr. at the State University of New York at Buffalo (New York).

Tomi has been advising Ladder Bio since its founding in 2020. He is Chief Drug Hunter and President, Maestro Therapeutics, a consulting/advisory enterprise that is engaging academia, biotech and pharma to support peptide drug discovery. He retired from Merck Research Laboratories as Distinguished Scientist, Global Chemistry, where he provided leadership to the Peptide Drug Hunter Network as well as both peptide R&D programs and innovative technologies. Tomi is an entrepreneurial drug hunter with four decades of industrial experience in both pharma and biotech. He is well known for his contributions to GPCR, kinase, protease and protein-protein interaction drug discovery. Tomi has two marketed drugs, including Scenesse® (a peptide superagonist of MCR1 for the treatment of the orphan skin disease known as erythropoietic protophyria and related indications) and Iclusig® (a small-molecule inhibitor of Bcr-Abl kinase for the treatment of resistant forms of chronic myelogenous leukemia). Other examples of his drug development campaigns include the peptidomimetic renin inhibitor Ditekiren, a natural product macrocycle mTOR antagonist Ridaforolimus and the first stapled peptide dual MDM2–MDMX antagonist ALRN-6924 to enter into the clinic. Tomi is credited with >640 scientific publications, patents, and presentations and holds several Adjunct Professorships at the University of Massachusetts and Northeastern University Center for Drug Discovery. He is a Distinguished Alumni Scholar from his undergraduate alma mater, Minnesota State University at Moorhead, and served as a member of the MSUM Alumni Foundation Board of Directors. At his graduate alma mater, the University of Arizona, Tomi is a Distinguished Alumni Entrepreneur and has received a Professional Achievement Award from the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and the College of Science. Most recently, Tomi launched the Peptide Drug Hunter Consortium and the Saint Albert the Great Institute for Science, Faith & Wisdom.

Marius is a highly experienced drug hunter biologist with significant experience in the biotech startup environment where he fulfilled multiple key roles in the creation of new companies with novel technologies. In his last role he was a founder and Vice President Discovery at 76Bio, a company focused on targeting undruggable targets in the oncology and autoimmune space using mRNA encoded designer E3 bio-degrader macromolecules delivered via lipid nanoparticles (LNP). Prior 76Bio he was a co-founder and Director of Discovery Biology at Kronos Bio, a company focusing on targeting transcription regulatory networks and undruggable targets in the oncology space using small molecule microarray (SMM) platform. Throughout his industry career he oversaw building of successful research teams and multiple drug discovery platforms delivering various programs from concept to development candidates and IND stage. Dr. Pop obtained his PhD in 2004 from Freiburg University, Germany, working on bacterial toxins and small GTPases. His academic career includes world class institutions such as Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Broad Institute and MIT.

Sherry La Porte, PhD is an established pharma leader with a proven track record of delivering clinical candidates across oncology, immunology, neurodegeneration, and infectious diseases through innovative licensing and in-house development strategies. She has built pipelines of novel therapeutics using a combination of internal pharma resources while at J&J launching multiple clinical candidates, start-up biotech (CytomX CX-904), supporting multiple start-ups and virtual biotech models that integrate advanced CRO capabilities combined with cutting-edge technology. With deep expertise in antibody and protein engineering, multi-specific therapeutics, and strategic deal-making, she is driving the creation of transformative therapies to meet unmet medical needs. Sherry earned her Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy at the University of Connecticut, and her PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry (Biophysics) under Professor Robert Stroud at UCSF. She performed her post-doctoral work in Molecular Biology at the Antibody Engineering Laboratory of James D. Marks at UCSF, and in Immunology (Structural Biology) at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Angela received her B.A. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Reed College in 1997. There she worked under the guidance of Professor Arthur Glasfeld on structural and biochemical studies of proteins that recognize tRNA or DNA. In 2003, she received her PhD in Chemistry from Harvard University where she worked with Professor Stuart Schreiber to develop novel technologies for identifying and characterizing interactions between proteins and small molecules. Upon graduation, she became an Institute Fellow in the Chemical Biology Program at the Broad Institute and a Group Leader for the NCI Initiative for Chemical Genetics. She is also a Project Leader in the NCI Cancer Target Discovery and Development (CTD2) Center at the Broad Institute aimed at targeting causal cancer genes with small molecules.

Born in Brazil, Denise earned a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Campinas (UNICAMP). Following graduation and a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she spent 18 years as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Texas at Austin and later at Saint Joseph’s University whilst raising two daughters. She joined Ladder Bio in 2022 where she is currently working on the synthesis of Spiroligomer™ molecules, as well as taking on selective administrative tasks such as purchasing manager.

DJ joined the biology group at Ladder Bio in 2022. He obtained his PhD from the University of Georgia, where his thesis focused on sugar structures on the outside of mammalian cells. After completing his PhD, he worked as a lead scientist at Eurofins, conducting analytical studies on late-stage drugs. DJ then moved to Immunome (Exton, PA), where he worked in the high-throughput screening group. At Ladder Bio, DJ conducts screening of the Spiroligomer™ libraries and develops diagnostics using novel-binding Spiroligomer™ molecules.

Julia joined Ladder Bio as a Chemist in 2022. She received her BS in Chemistry in 2016 from Saint Joseph’s University. While at SJU, Julia worked with Dr. Jose Cerda studying thermodynamics of fluoride binding in Heme proteins. In 2018 she received her MS from Villanova University where her research focused on synthetic organometallic chemistry and studies in structure-function relationships in metallo-phosphine complexes, working with Dr. Scott Kassel. At Ladder, Julia primarily works to synthesize the functionalized building blocks that are used in synthesis of Spiroligomers™ molecules.

Tom is a Senior Scientist at Ladder Bio, joining the company in 2020. He has be involved with the synthesis and characterization of diagnostic and therapeutic properties of Spiroligomer™ molecules at Ladder. Tom received his PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 2020. Under the supervision of Prof. Marisa Kozlowski, he studied method development and mechanistic investigation of catalytic reactions, which resulted in numerous publications.

Hera has been with Ladder Bio since its founding in 2020. With over a decade of experience in research administration, Hera has been instrumental in securing multiple millions of dollars in funding for the Company’s research and development projects. Hera earned her BA from Ursinus College and a JD from Temple University Beasley School of Law.

Jesse graduated from the University of Vermont in 2012 with a BS in Chemistry and minors in Mathematics and Philosophy, after which he worked with APIs at Dow Water and Process Solutions. Jesse went on to get his masters in Chemistry at Villanova University with Dr. Jared Paul, researching hydrogen gas production for alternative fuels via electro- and photo-catalytic methods with ruthenium based catalysts. After completing his masters, he joined Dr. Christian Schafmeister’s group at Temple University as a PhD. student, but left early to join Ladder Bio to assist in manifesting the power of Spiroligomer™ molecules to solve problems in diagnostics and therapeutics.

After graduating from Washington State University with a BS in Computational Neuroscience in 2016, Alex worked with Dr. Schafmeister and the University of Bordeaux’s Dr. Robert Strandh on compiler development before joining Ladder Bio in 2022. Alex has worked in scientific programming since his undergraduate years, and has coauthored several papers on computational biology and software engineering.