1150 Eastlake Avenue E, Ste 600/700 
Seattle, WA 98109

Cajal Neuroscience is a drug discovery company focused on neurodegenerative disease.

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Cajal brings together an experienced, mission-driven team of scientists and operators committed to creating novel therapies and translating scientific advances into real impact for patients.

Our Team

Andrew Dervan is an accomplished physician-scientist and biotech leader with extensive experience spanning translational medicine, strategic partnerships, and company building.

Prior to co-founding Cajal, Andrew held multiple leadership roles at Celgene, including leading the execution of cell therapy partnerships and transactions. He also held previous roles in Translational Medicine at Celgene, focused on leveraging novel single cell sequencing techniques for target discovery in oncology.

Throughout his industry career, Andrew has continued to practice as a clinical geneticist at the University of Washington Medical Center and bringing a patient-centered and mechanistic perspective to the challenge of understanding and treating disease. Andrew also serves on the Board of Directors of Life Science Washington.

Andrew received his MD and MBA degrees from Harvard Medical School and Harvard Business School, before completing his residency and fellowship at University of Washington in internal medicine and medical genetics. 

Ian Peikon is a molecular biologist, engineer, and serial entrepreneur with broad experience in systems biology, platform design, and company creation.

Prior to co-founding Cajal, Ian was part of the founding team at Kallyope and was the Head of Platform Biology and Technology, where he built and led a highly integrated team of molecular biologists, neuroscientists, and data scientists in the discovery of new therapeutic targets that harness the gut-brain axis.

Ian is also a Venture Partner at Lux Capital, where he has been involved in the formation and early building of multiple companies, including Kallyope and VNV (acquired by Aera Therapeutics).

Ian completed his PhD at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he developed novel tools for high throughput mapping of brain connectivity using DNA sequencing.

Anju Chatterji is an experienced biopharmaceutical operations and CMC leader with over two decades of expertise spanning biologics development, manufacturing, and commercial readiness across multiple therapeutic modalities. She has led global teams and programs from early development through regulatory submission, bringing a deep understanding of end-to-end CMC strategy and execution.

Before joining Cajal, Anju served as Chief Technology Officer at HilleVax, where she oversaw manufacturing and CMC development, with a focus on advancing novel biologic assets toward global regulatory filings. Prior to HilleVax, she held senior leadership roles including SVP of Biologics Development and Manufacturing at Catalyst Biosciences and VP of Biologics Manufacturing at Exelixis.

Earlier in her career, Anju held roles of increasing responsibility at Grifols, Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, and Bayer HealthCare, building a broad foundation across biologics process development, scale-up, and late-stage readiness.

Anju holds a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and completed postdoctoral research at The Scripps Research Institute.

Ben Logsdon is a computational biologist with extensive experience in human genetics, large-scale multi-omics analysis, and the development of statistical and computational methods to uncover disease mechanisms.

Previously, Ben was Director of Neurodegenerative Research at Sage Bionetworks, where he led a team of researchers to integrate and analyze large-scale multi-omics data obtained from the AMP-AD (Accelerating Medicine Partnership - Alzheimer’s Disease) consortium. Ben also led Sage’s efforts in variant prioritization for generation of new mouse models of late onset Alzheimer’s disease and characterization of robust and reproducible transcriptomic signatures of disease. 

Ben started his career in research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and later the University of Washington, developing new computational methods to identify causal rare variants and disease drivers. Ben received a B.S. in biochemistry from Washington State University and completed his Ph.D. in computational biology from Cornell University.

Valerie Huang is a strategy and business development leader with experience spanning corporate strategy, portfolio planning, and competitive intelligence, and strategic partnerships.

Previously, Valerie was at ClearView Healthcare Partners, a global life sciences strategy consulting firm that specializes in working with biotech and pharmaceutical companies. At ClearView, she led engagements across corporate strategy, portfolio strategy, and business development, with a particular focus on neuroscience, rare diseases, and emerging technology platforms. She has also worked as an independent consultant for early-stage biotech companies and venture firms.

Valerie received her MBA degree from MIT Sloan School of Management and a BA in economics from Yale University.

Guy Breitenbucher is an experienced medicinal chemist with more than 25 years of drug discovery and development expertise, particularly in small molecule therapeutics for neurological and psychiatric disorders.

Prior to Cajal, Guy served as Head of Chemistry at Dart Neuroscience. At Dart, he oversaw the discovery of 6 clinical candidates for the treatment of various neurological disorders. Before Dart, Guy was Head of Pain Discovery Chemistry at Janssen Pharmaceuticals where he managed the discovery and development of 8 clinical candidates, including the company's FAAH inhibitor and P2X7 inhibitor programs for neuropsychiatric indications. Guy has also recently served as Vice President of Chemistry for Annexon Biosciences, developing small molecule complement inhibitors, Libra Therapeutics, developing small molecule autophagy modulators for neurodegeneration, and Convelo Therapeutics, developing remyelination therapeutics for multiple sclerosis.

Guy received his PhD in Chemistry from UC Riverside and completed postdoctoral studies at UC Berkeley in the area of natural product synthesis and synthetic methodology. He has over 100 peer reviewed publications and published patent applications, primarily in the areas of synthetic and medicinal chemistry.

Rob has over 25 years of experience as a physician, scientist, and entrepreneur. He is a Venture Partner at Frazier Life Sciences, where he co-founded and currently serves as the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of HilleVax. 

Rob recently was Executive Vice President and Head of Business Development and Alliances at Celgene until the acquisition of Celgene by Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2019. Rob joined Celgene in 2014 to lead their efforts in immuno-oncology and was promoted to Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer in 2016.

Prior to Celgene, Rob co-founded VentiRx Pharmaceuticals as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Frazier and served as President and Chief Executive Officer. He has also held roles as Chief Medical Officer of Dendreon and Vice President of Medical Genetics at Corixa (acquired by GlaxoSmithKline). Rob completed his undergraduate and medical degrees at the University of California, Los Angeles and received his Ph.D. at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

Josh is co-founder and Managing Partner of Lux Capital, a venture capital firm that focuses on early-stage science and technology investments. Josh is a Director at Kallyope, Variant Bio, Gandeeva Therapeutics, and Strateos, and helped lead the firm’s investment in Resilience. Josh also serves as a Director at several other companies across the physical sciences and technology industries, including Shapeways, Varda, Kymeta, and Kurion. Before founding Lux Capital in 2000, Josh worked in investment banking at Salomon Smith Barney and in capital markets at Merril Lynch. 

Josh is a columnist with Forbes and Editor for the Forbes/Wolfe Emerging Tech Report. He has been invited to The White House and Capitol Hill to advise on nanotechnology and emerging technologies, and a lecturer at MIT, Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Columbia and NYU. He is a term member at The Council on Foreign Relations and Chairman of Coney Island Prep charter school, where he grew up in Brooklyn. Josh graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in Economics and Finance.

Tim is a Managing Partner of The Column Group. Since joining the firm in 2007, Tim has contributed to the conception, formation, and management of more than a dozen portfolio companies. Tim serves on the board of Carmot Therapeutics, Surrozen, Neurona Therapeutics, Nura Bio, Kallyope, Plexium, and Synthekine. He was previously the founding CEO at Peloton Therapeutics and also served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Nurix Therapeutics.

Prior to joining The Column Group, Tim was a scientist at KAI Pharmaceuticals, where he focused on the discovery and development of selective protein kinase C inhibitors. Before KAI, Tim worked at UC Berkeley as a graduate student and postdoc in the lab of Dr. Robert Tjian. Tim received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University and completed his Ph.D. and postdoc at UC Berkeley in the lab of Dr. Robert Tjian.

Jennifer Jarrett is an accomplished executive in the healthcare and technology industries. She currently serves as the COO of Arcus Biosciences where she is responsible for a variety of functions including finance, investor relations, program management, corporate development, alliance management, commercial, and medical affairs. 

Previously, she served as Vice President of Corporate Development and Capital Markets of Uber Technologies, Inc. Prior to Arcus, Jennifer was Chief Financial Officer of Medivation, a commercial oncology company, which was acquired by Pfizer. Jennifer spent 20 years in investment banking, including an extensive tenure at Citigroup, where she ran the firm’s west coast life sciences investment banking practice, and prior to that at Credit Suisse and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. 

Jennifer previously served on the boards of Radius Pharma, Syndax Pharmaceuticals and Arena Pharmaceuticals, all of which were acquired. She currently serves on the boards of Arcus Biosciences, Syndax Pharmaceuticals, Zura Bio and LifeMine Therapeutics.  

Jennifer received a BA in Economics from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Jim has over 35 years of experience as a scientist, drug developer and entrepreneur. He is a Founding Scientist and EVP Drug Discovery & Early Development at Flare Therapeutics, a clinical stage company targeting transcription factors in precision oncology, and Founder/President of Audia Consulting, LLC. 

Jim previously was CSO at Constellation Pharmaceuticals where he provided drug discovery expertise to translate their fundamental science in chromatin biology and gene control into a clinical portfolio, including the BET bromodomain inhibitor pelabresib and the EZH2 inhibitor tulmimetostat, ultimately leading to the company’s acquisition by Morphosys. Jim transitioned to Constellation’s board of directors in 2017 and also served as an independent board director for Ribon Therapeutics.

Prior to Constellation, Jim spent 23 years at Eli Lilly & Company in a variety of scientific and leadership roles, retiring in 2010 as a Distinguished Lilly Scholar and having advanced 15 development candidates into the clinic from his laboratory. His work at Lilly was primarily focused in neuroscience, targeting both psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s Disease. He has served on a variety of SABs, including Ribon Therapeutics, the Tau Consortium of the Rainwater Charitable Foundation, and the Alzheimer’s Association and as a drug discovery consultant for a large collection of companies and institutions. Jim completed his undergraduate and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry at the University of South Carolina and post-doctoral studies at Yale University.

Dr. Huda Zoghbi is Professor of Pediatrics, Molecular and Human Genetics, Neurology, and Neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine, an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the founding Director of the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s Hospital. 

Huda's interests range from neurodevelopment to neurodegeneration. Her discovery that Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 1 (SCA1) is caused by expansion of a polyglutamine tract in the ATAXIN1 gene led to critical advances in understanding disease mechanisms and potential therapeutic interventions for SCA1. Her subsequent findings, that such expansion of the mutant protein leads to neuronal dysfunction and death, have had profound implications on other diseases, including in late-onset neurodegenerative diseases that involve similar accumulation of disease-associated proteins. Huda's work in neurodevelopment also led to the discovery that mutations in MECP2 cause the postnatal neurological disorder Rett syndrome.

Huda has been widely recognized for her contributions to neuroscience and neurological diseases. She has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her honors include the Kavli Prize in Neuroscience, the Brain Prize, the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, the Canada Gairdner International Award, the Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine, and the Pearl Meister Greengard Prize from Rockefeller University, among numerous others. 

Dr. Anthony Zador is the Alle Davis Harris Professor of Biology and Chair of Neuroscience at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York. 

The goal of Anthony's research is to understand how brain circuitry gives rise to complex behavior. His laboratory has developed a revolutionary new approach to map the connectivity of the mouse brain at single-resolution (the “connectome”) using high throughput DNA sequencing. His laboratory has also pioneered the use of rodents in complex sensory decision tasks, to help understand the neural circuits underlying cortical processing and how that is disrupted in diseases such as autism.

Anthony is founder of the annual Computational and Systems Neuroscience (COSYNE) meeting, which now draws over 900 participants. He has been named a Gill Symposium Transformative Investigator for his work on sequencing-based brain mapping, and previously received an NIH Transformative Research Award, granted to “exceptionally innovative and unconventional research projects.”. He has also been recognized as one of the “Top 100 Leading Global Thinkers “ in Foreign Policy for his contributions to neuroscience. 

Dr. Charles Zuker is a Professor of Biochemistry; Professor of Molecular Biophysics; and Professor of Neuroscience in the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University. He is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator (HHMI) and spent six years as a Senior Fellow at the HHMI Janelia Farm Research Campus. 

Charles studies how the brain represents our sensory experiences and how it transforms reception into perception. Charles and his lab have integrated molecular biology, genetics, and physiology to study the biology of photoreception, mechanoreception, and more recently taste reception. His lab has discovered mammalian taste receptors for the five tastes (sweet, sour, bitter, salt, and “umami”), and made significant advances in the understanding of sight and hearing.

Charles has received numerous awards for his work, including an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, the W. Alden Spencer Award, the Cogan Award, and the International Flavor and Fragrances Award. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies in addition to his American Academy of Arts and Sciences Membership. 

Niranjan Bose is the Managing Director of Health & Life Sciences at Gates Ventures, where he serves as the Science Advisor to Mr. Bill Gates.

Prior to this, he was the Chief of Staff to the President of the Global Health Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. During his time with the Global Health Program, Bose was responsible for managing a portfolio of investments, which included clinical development of enteric vaccines (rotavirus, cholera, enterotoxigenic E. coli and shigella).

Niranjan holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Dartmouth College and an MS in biological sciences and BS in pharmaceutical sciences from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India. He also received the Business Bridge Diploma from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

Dr. Martin Burke is the May and Ving Lee Professor for Chemical Innovation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the founding Director of the Molecule Maker Lab and co-Founder of the Molecule Maker Lab Institute at UIUC. He also helped launch the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, serving as its inaugural Associate Dean for Research.

Martin's lab pioneered the development of molecular prosthetics for neurodegeneration, anemia, cystic fibrosis and other difficult to treat diseases caused by loss of protein function. His group also illuminated how the inherent robustness of living systems can interface with imperfect molecular prosthetics to restore physiology. These advances were driven by his lab’s iterative lego-like platform for small molecule synthesis. This new modular brand of organic chemistry has been automated and used by hundreds of labs worldwide to produce many different natural products, pharmaceuticals and materials. It has also been coupled to artificial intelligence to enable closed-loop discovery of a wide range of new molecular functions and is beginning to democratize molecular innovation.

Martin is a scientific founder of four biotechnology companies which have yielded six drug candidates in clinical trials. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and American Society for Clinical Investigation, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is also a winner of the ACS Cope Scholar Award, Hirata Gold Medal, Mukaiyama Award, and Nobel Laureate Signature Award for Graduate Education in Chemistry.

Dr. Andrew Singleton received his B.Sc. from the University of Sunderland, UK and his Ph.D. from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. His research initially focused on genetic determinants of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia with Lewy bodies. His postdoctoral studies were spent at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville Florida. Andrew moved to the National Institute on Aging at NIH in 2001, becoming a principal investigator in 2002. In 2007 Andrew became a tenured senior investigator, in 2008 he became the Chief of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics, and in 2016 he was named an NIH Distinguished Investigator. In 2021 Andrew was named the Director of the new Center for Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias at NIH.

Andrew has published more than 700 articles on a wide variety of topics. His group works on the genetic basis of neurodegenerative disorders. The goal of this research is to identify genetic variability that causes or contributes to disease and to use this knowledge to understand the molecular processes underlying disease.

Andrew currently is a member of numerous scientific advisory and editorials boards. Andrew was awarded the Boehringer Mannheim Research Award in 2005, the NIH Director’s Award in 2008 and again in 2016, and the Annemarie Opprecht Award for Parkinson’s disease research in 2008. In 2012 he became the first person to win the Jay van Andel Award for Outstanding Achievement in Parkinson’s Disease Research. In 2017 Andrew was awarded the American Academy of Neurology Movement Disorders Award and an Honorary Doctorate from his alma mater, the University of Sunderland. In 2019 Andrew was awarded the Robert A. Pritzker Prize for Leadership in Parkinson’s Research. In 2024 Andrew was a recipient of the Breakthrough Prize for Life Sciences.

We are proud to be backed by a set of world-class investors

A passionate multi-disciplinary team

Leadership Team

Andrew Dervan, MD, MBA

Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer

Ian Peikon, PhD

Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer

Anju Chatterji, PhD

Chief Development Officer

Ben Logsdon, PhD

Vice President, Computational Biology

Valerie Huang, MBA

Vice President, Strategy & Corporate Development

J. Guy Breitenbucher, PhD

Vice President, Chemistry

Board of Directors

Rob Hershberg, MD, PhD

Co-Founder and Executive Chairman, Cajal Therapeutics

Josh Wolfe

Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Lux Capital

Tim Kutzkey, PhD

Managing Partner, The Column Group

Jennifer Jarrett, MBA

Chief Operating Officer, Arcus Biosciences

Jim Audia, Ph.D.

EVP Drug Discovery & Early Development / Founding Scientist, FLARE Therapeutics

Andrew Dervan, MD, MBA

Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer, Cajal Therapeutics

Scientific Advisors

Huda Zoghbi, MD

Co-Founder and SAB Chair

Anthony Zador, MD, PhD

Co-Founder

Charles Zuker, PhD

Co-Founder

Niranjan Bose, PhD

Martin Burke, MD, PhD

Andrew Singleton, PhD

We are proud to be backed by a set of world-class investors

“All outstanding work, in art as well as in science, results from immense zeal applied to a great idea.”

Cajal Neuroscience