About Us

Irina Antonijevic, M.D., Ph.D.
Chief Medical Officer

Irina has worked in drug development for over 18 years, with a focus on translational medicine and early development in neuroscience, but also ophthalmology and immunology. She has gained experience with development of small molecules, biologics as well as nucleic acid therapeutics, in a number of global pharma and biotech organizations in the US and Europe. Before joining Triplet Therapeutics, Inc., she was VP of Translational Medicine and Development at Wave Life Sciences in Cambridge, MA, developing stereopure nucleic acid therapeutics for rare genetic diseases.

Irina has an MD from the Technical University, Munich (Germany), and a PhD in neurophysiology from the University of Edinburgh, UK. She trained in psychiatry and neurology at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry (in Munich), and is board certified in Germany.

She obtained her venia legendi at the Charite, Berlin University in 2004; she is a reviewer for the German Ministry of Research and member of two supervisory boards in Germany: 4SC AG since 2012, and Paion AG since 2017.

Eva Asp, Ph.D.
Senior Director, Molecular & Cell Biology

As Senior Director of Molecular & Cell Biology at Triplet Therapeutics, Inc., Eva Asp leads a team of scientists to develop assays to screen therapeutics to treat triplet repeat disorders. Prior to joining Triplet, Eva worked at Proclara Biosciences where she developed therapeutics to treat neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. Eva holds a M.S in Genetics and a Ph.D. in molecular biology from Gohenburg University, Sweden.

Nessan Bermingham, Ph.D.
Founder/President & CEO

Nessan Bermingham is founder and CEO of Triplet Therapeutics, Inc. He is a serial biotech entrepreneur and investor who has founded several companies including Triplet, Korro Bio and Intellia Therapeutics, “one of the top 10 biotech start-ups in 2014” and a “Fierce 15 biotech company,” taking the company from concept to IPO and large partnering deals with approximately 200 employees. He has nearly two decades of experience in Life Sciences startups and investments, including small molecules, biologics, medical devices, and diagnostics through venture, public, and secondary markets. As a venture partner at Atlas Venture and managing partner at Omega Funds, he successfully invested in and managed multiple investments across the United States and Europe. Currently he is also a venture partner at Atlas Venture and is Chair of the Board of Directors of F-star and Akrevia Therapeutics. He served as Intellia’s President and CEO from inception until December 2017. Previously he was an independent advisory board member of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) and MerckSerono KGaA. He received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Imperial College London and was a Howard Hughes Associate Fellow at Baylor College of Medicine. He is an avid mountain biker, snowboarder and trail runner.

Brian Bettencourt, Ph.D.
SVP, Research

Brian joined Triplet Therapeutics, Inc. in 2018 and serves as Senior Vice President, Research. Brian has held various leadership roles in bioinformatics and biostatistics, including most recently leading the Bioinformatics group at Translate Bio. He led the development of siRNA efficacy prediction in Bioinformatics and founded the Biometrics department at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. Prior to moving to industry, Brian was a professor in Biology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell with a research focus on Drosophila models of triplet expansion.

Peter Bialek, Ph.D.
Director of Translational Sciences

Peter joined Triplet Therapeutics, Inc. in 2018 as Head of Translational Sciences. He has worked in drug development for over 13 years, focusing on translational biology and biomarker strategies from early development into the clinic. His broad experience across multiple rare disease areas includes neuromuscular, pulmonary, neuroscience, blood and liver diseases. Most recently, Peter was Director of Translational Science at Intellia Therapeutics where he worked across therapeutic areas to investigate appropriate biomarker strategies for target engagement, disease mechanism and safety readouts. Previously, he worked at Proteostasis, RaNA Therapeutics and Pfizer. Peter received his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Western Ontario, Canada.

Alan J. Buckler, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer

Alan joined Triplet Therapeutics, Inc. as Chief Scientific Office in August 2020. Previously, he served as Chief Scientific Officer of Scholar Rock where he was responsible for research, discovery, preclinical development, and manufacturing of the company’s novel antibody-based therapeutics. Prior to joining Scholar Rock, Alan held senior level research positions in Biogen and Novartis, where he led both target validation and drug discovery efforts for multiple therapeutic modalities. Prior to Novartis, Alan served as the Chief Scientific Officer of Ardais Corporation and as Vice President of Molecular Genetics at Sequana Therapeutics/Axys Pharmaceuticals from. Prior to joining industry, Alan served on the Neurology faculty of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where his collaborative focus was on the genetics of cancer and rare diseases, including Huntington’s Disease and Myotonic Dystrophy. Alan received his A.B. in Biology from the University of Chicago, Ph.D. in Microbiology from the Boston University School of Medicine and completed his post-doctoral training at the Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Jeffrey M. Cerio, Pharm.D., J.D.
Senior Vice President, General Counsel

Jeff Cerio joined Triplet Therapeutics, Inc. in 2019 and serves as General Counsel and has more than 10 years of experience leading and advising life sciences companies on various legal matters relating to corporate governance, business development, financing, securities law, compliance and intellectual property. Before joining Triplet, he served as Senior Corporate Counsel, Securities at Moderna, Inc. where he helped lead the team in support of that company’s initial public offering. Previously Jeff served as a member of the legal team at Alkermes plc in roles of increasing responsibility, and prior to that was a corporate attorney in the life sciences practice at the law firm Ropes & Gray LLP. Jeff received his Pharm.D. from Northeastern University and his J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law.

Pei Ge, Ed.M.
Director of Pharmacology

Pei brings over 20 years of experience in drug discovery and development in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries to her role as Head of Pharmacology at Triplet Therapeutics, Inc. Prior to joining the company, she was Senior Principal Investigator and Leader of Visceral Pain Research at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, where she led translational programs that considerably broadened the path for Linzess® and related guanylate cyclase-C agonist peptides of this class as novel drugs for the treatment of chronic pelvic pain syndromes. Prior to her role at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, she was a senior scientist at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, where she led the Huntington’s disease program and several other CNS siRNA delivery and therapeutic programs. Pei received her Ed.M. from Harvard University and her B.S. from Stonehill College.

Amar Ghodasara, Ph.D.
Director, Business Development & Strategy

Amar brings life science business development and corporate strategy experience to Triplet Therapeutics, Inc. Prior to joining Triplet, Amar was a management consultant in L.E.K. Consulting’s life sciences practice. While at L.E.K., Amar advised leading biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies on strategic planning, M&A, R&D, and business development strategy.

Amar received his Ph.D. in Biological Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he studied RNA engineering for therapeutic and industrial applications. His research resulted in numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals, including Nucleic Acids Research.

Deborah Gouveia
VP, Clinical Operations

Deb Gouveia joined Triplet Therapeutics, Inc. as Vice President, Clinical Operations in September 2020.  She has more than 25 years of experience in global pharmaceutical development and operations. Deb previously served as VP, Clinical Operations at Angion, where she played a critical role in establishing the clinical operations function and supporting both early and late-stage clinical programs. Prior to that, she held multiple senior leadership positions in clinical operations, clinical development, program management, and regulatory affairs across several companies including Stealth Biotherapeutics, Atreaon, MGI Pharma and Logical Therapeutics. Her experience spans across many therapeutic areas including Cardiorenal, Oncology, Infectious disease and Orphan/Rare disease. Deb holds a BS in Biology from the University of Massachusetts.

Satya Kuchimanchi, Ph.D.
Vice President, CMC

Satya joined Triplet Therapeutics, Inc. in January 2020 as Vice President, CMC. He has over 20 years of experience in oligonuceleotides, covering siRNA, aptamers and antisense platforms. Prior to joining the company, Satya was at Alnylam for 12 years, initially in R&D, leading the high throughput synthesis group, RNA lead development, and later as Director, Process Sciences, responsible for drug substance process characterization and pre-validation activities for late stage clinical programs. At Alnylam, Satya played a key role in RNAi chemistry platform development for multiple early and late stage programs including research to launch of two approved siRNA drugs, ONPATTRO, a treatment for TTR Amyloidosis and GIVLAARI, a treatment for Acute Hepatic Porphyrias. Prior to Alnylam, Satya was at Avecia Biotechnology, a CMO specialized in the GMP manufacture of Oligonucleotide therapeutics. Satya has a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad, India and post-doctoral fellowships from University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France and Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN.

W. George Lai, Ph.D.
Vice President, DMPK & Toxicology

George joined Triplet Therapeutics, Inc. in April 2020 and serves as VP, DMPK & Toxicology. With his 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, he is an expert in optimization and characterization of ADMET properties throughout the course of drug discovery and development.
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He most recently served as Senior Director and Head of Translational ADME & PK/PD at Schrödinger Inc. In this role, George provided strong leadership to establish ADMET and PK/PD function for fast-paced drug discovery operation of various formats, including internal programs and external partnership. Prior to this recent experience, George had served as Senior Director and Head of DMPK at Eisai, Inc. In this role, he led a team that successfully completed high-quality regulatory submission packages for over ten diverse clinical candidates for immunology, oncology, and neurology indications. In an earlier role at Eisai, George made translational ADME and bioanalytical contributions that helped ensure the successful development of HALAVEN® (eribulin mesylate) from preclinical to clinical stages. Prior to joining Eisai, George worked as a Principal Scientist at Boehringer Ingelheim. He holds a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical science from the University of Toronto.

Amy Lurier
Senior Vice President, Talent Acquisition & People

Amy has over 35 years in Recruitment and Talent Acquisition in the biotech startup arena. Prior to joining Triplet Therapeutics, Inc., Amy owned a search firm and was involved in a multitude of early stage start-ups including such companies as Akrevia Therapeutics, Korro Bio and Intellia. Prior to becoming a search professional, Amy was Director of Technology at a start-up instrumentation company in Boston. She holds a degree in Medicinal and Organic Chemistry from the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

Kathleen Moeckel
Operations Manager

Kathleen Moeckel is Operations Manager for Triplet Therapeutics, Inc. and has more than 25 years of experience working in administrative and operational roles in the biotech and venture capital industries. Before joining Triplet, she worked as Office Manager/Executive Assistant at Q-State Biosciences, Microchips Biotech, Aternity, Inc., NEHI (the Network for Excellence in Health Innovation), and Oxford Bioscience Partners. Kathleen earned a Master’s in French Language and Civilization from New York University in France and a Bachelor’s in French and Education from Tufts University.

David Morrissey, Ph.D.
SVP, Technology

David Morrissey has more than 25 years of experience in molecular and cellular biology, with a focus on nucleic acid and gene editing based therapeutic approaches. Prior to joining Triplet Therapeutics, Inc., he was Senior Vice President at Intellia Therapeutics, responsible for CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing platform development for therapeutic applications as well as delivery technology for in vivo and ex vivo therapeutic programs. Prior to Intellia, David was Executive Director at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, where he headed its RNAi Therapeutics Unit and the development of proprietary RNA chemistries and delivery formulations for therapeutic programs. As the Senior Director of Antiviral Therapeutics at Sirna Therapeutics, he led teams for the development of siRNA therapeutics to treat HCV and HBV infection. David has been issued a number of U.S. patents, and authored key publications in the RNA and gene editing fields. He received his Ph.D. in developmental biology from Wesleyan University and completed his postdoctoral fellowship in oncology at Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Eric Sullivan, CPA
Chief Financial Officer

Eric Sullivan is CFO of Triplet Therapeutics, Inc. and has more than 15 years of experience working in finance and operations at life sciences companies. Before joining Triplet, he led finance at Gemini Therapeutics and Oncorus, Inc. Previously Eric served as Vice President, Finance and Treasurer at bluebird bio and held various management positions at Merrimack Pharmaceuticals and PricewaterhouseCoopers. He received his undergraduate degree in accountancy from Bentley College and is a Certified Public Accountant in Massachusetts.

Jia Tay
Director, Program Management

Jia joined Triplet Therapeutics, Inc. as Director of Program Management in August 2020. He brings over 10 years of experience in nucleic acid drug discovery and development across various biotechnology organizations. Prior to joining Triplet, Jia was Associate Director of Program and Portfolio Management at Translate Bio where he was responsible for managing and guiding cross-functional project and platform teams on efforts ranging from target identification to clinical development of mRNA therapeutics. He received his degree in Biotechnology from Rochester Institute of Technology.