ABOUT US

A multidisciplinary team dedicated to improving
the lives of patients with autoimmune and chronic
inflammatory diseases

Team

team member

Mohammad Khobreh MSc

Managing Partner, Co-founder
https://www.linkedin.com/in/khobreh/

Mohammad leads the strategic direction of the fund, leveraging his extensive experience in life sciences investments. He works closely with NG Bio’s limited partners and co-investors to maximise the potential of our investments. Mohammad is particularly adept at forging strategic partnerships with major pharmaceutical companies and funds, regularly collaborating with them to share deal flow and align on growth opportunities.

Mohammad is also deeply involved in guiding our companies through their financing strategies, helping them navigate the complexities of growth and exit planning from the very beginning. His hands-on approach ensures that our portfolio companies are well-positioned for success in the highly competitive biotech landscape.

Before co-founding NG Bio, Mohammad was a key life science investor at a family office, where he successfully founded and led the expansion of their life sciences strategy. Under his leadership, the portfolio achieved an impressive track record of over 3.5x returns in just six years. His responsibilities encompassed deal sourcing, due diligence, growth strategy, and exit planning. He also played a pivotal role as an Investment Committee member and served on the boards of several portfolio companies, where his insights and guidance were instrumental in driving value.

team member

Jason Goldstein MBA CA

General Partner, Co-founder
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbgoldstein/

Jason leads venture creation at NG Bio alongside overseeing the day to day operations at NG Bio. He is an active board member and observer for a number of companies in the current portfolio. Alongside the team, Jason has built three companies and led/co-led multiple investment rounds, including as the lead for NG Bio’s investment in Cellesce which was soon after acquired by Danaher.

Jason has worked with entrepreneurs across the life sciences as an advisor and angel investor for over five years. Before starting NG Bio, he helped founders in the biotech and mental health space go from ideation to funding and beyond. Prior to his entrepreneurial experience, Jason worked for EY in London and Tokyo, supporting Japanese biotechs and MNEs with restructuring, M&A and compliance.

He holds an MBA from London Business School, is a Certified Chartered Accountant, and earned a first-class degree in mechanical engineering.

team member

Richard Kaschula PhD

Principal
https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-kaschula-998674136/

Richard brings more than a decade of experience in research to NG Bio, where he is responsible for identifying life changing opportunities and evaluating their scientific and commercial viability as a potential new ventures. Before joining NG Bio, Richard was part of the LifeArc Technology Transfer Fellowship, where he held a similar role.

Richard has conducted research across several disciplines during his academic career. Still, his passion is understanding the fundamentals of the human genome and how its regulation shapes the function and development of cells and tissues. However, Richard’s broad experience and interest in fundamental biology and the biopharma industry give him the tools necessary to effectively identify great opportunities.

Richard earned a PhD in developmental genetics and a post-doctoral fellowship at The Francis Crick Institute, London. Most recently, he obtained a master’s degree in Finance, where he completed research on the role of acquisitions in shaping innovative output in the biopharma industry.

He loves to explore the countryside with his favourite 4-legged friend and recently took up a new hobby of woodworking. He particularly enjoys the creativity in the craft and the practical aspects of learning a new skill.

What does Richard bring to NG Bio?

Richard is a critical thinker who likes to take a systemic problem-solving approach. His time in academia has given him ample opportunity to work with others in breaking down problems and devising strategies to develop research. He is always open to discussing new ideas and theories and enjoys placing these contextually in the bigger picture.

team member

Tim Carlton PhD

Director, Drug Development
https://www.linkedin.com/in/timcarltonscientificprojectlead/

Tim is responsible for NG Bio’s approach to therapeutic development. Working closely with our network of industry boards, CROs, and KOLs, Tim assesses the pharmaceutical technology and its therapeutic potential, and then formulates the right plans for each therapeutic venture. Using the latest techniques to de-risk and optimise development, Tim supports each of our founders navigate the often tricky process of translation.

Before joining NG Bio, Tim previously worked as a Director of Autoimmune Research at Imcheck Therapeutics, Associate Director of Discovery at VHsquared, and Consultant Project Manager of Drug Development at LeanPharma. Throughout these roles, he completed several successful drug discovery programmes in inflammatory intestinal diseases, managed the preclinical development of a CNS-active small molecule drug, and devised drug development plans for novel autoimmune therapies. Before finding his passion in drug development, Tim worked as a trainee patent attorney at a prestigious London firm.

Tim has a PhD in Microbial Genetics from the University of Otago and completed a postdoctoral position at the University of Cambridge working on pathogenic bacteria. He translated these skills into the industry in the first position to treat bacteria-induced inflammation in GI disease.

When not cooking and discovering new cuisines, Tim can be found in the outdoors pursuing his favourite sports of mountain biking and snowboarding.

What does Tim bring to NG Bio?
Tim is known for his analytical thinking and loves nothing more than getting into the weeds on a topic. He uses these skills to help his team members achieve their goals, motivating them to problem-solve and express themselves freely.

team member

Deniz Bakkalci PhD

Associate
https://www.linkedin.com/in/deniz-bakkalci/

Deniz holistically evaluates NG Bio’s potential opportunities by examining disease mechanisms, therapeutic feasibility, and unmet medical needs. She is leading NG Bio’s women’s health thesis, actively expanding the network to advance therapeutics that aim to transform women’s lives. As the company’s ESG Lead, she is responsible for pushing the boundaries of sustainability within drug research and development.

Before joining NG Bio, Deniz was a research fellow at University College London (UCL) and served as the Sustainability Lead for the UCL Division of Surgery. Her PhD and post-doctoral research led to the initiation of a clinical trial at UCL, where she continues to serve as the clinical trial coordinator. Deniz also worked as a tissue bank officer with Tissue Access for Patient Benefit (TAPb) at the NHS, gaining a comprehensive understanding of oncology projects and clinical trials through her operational and administrative roles. Additionally, she contributed to research projects and clinical trials at The Royal Free in London during the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Deniz holds a PhD from UCL and two master’s degrees—one in Global Health and Economics from UCL and another in Cancer Research from Newcastle University. She is passionate about her daily yoga routine, enjoys barre classes, and looks forward to playing tennis every Saturday. A world traveler, food enthusiast, and devoted art lover, Deniz brings a vibrant energy to both her professional and personal life.

team member

Neil Gozzard PhD

Drug Development Advisor
https://www.linkedin.com/in/neil-gozzard-8a94935/

Neil is an Immunopharmacologist providing advice & expertise to support preclinical drug discovery projects in inflammatory & autoimmune diseases. He has over 30 years’ experience in the discovery & development of novel therapeutics at UCB-Celltech.

Significant contribution to UCB’s drug discovery research pipeline being instrumental for progression of 3 biological and 3 small molecule projects into clinical studies. He was also involved in the in-licensing of 2 early clinical candidates for the treatment of Fibrosis & Type 1 diabetes from academia.

He has performed numerous roles within pre-clinical research including group leader, project leadership, new target strategy, portfolio management, translational research, in-licencing and external collaborations. Most recent role was Senior Director of New Targets & Scouting to create a research pipeline of high value differentiated medicines from internal and external sources. External opportunities ranging from new targets to phase 2B drug candidates are identified from academic groups and biotech companies for internal assessment.

Over the past 15 years he reviewed and triaged hundreds of in-licensing project applications.

team member

Ted Parton PhD

Drug Development Advisor
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ted-parton-1608329/

Ted is a consultant to international pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical research and development, with 30 years’ experience in drug metabolism, bioanalysis, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and safety evaluation, from concept to post-marketing support. With a BA in Natural Sciences (Chemistry) from Cambridge and a PhD in natural product chemistry from Southampton, he has broad knowledge of a wide variety of technologies.

In eight years at Upjohn and 21 years at Celltech/UCB, he worked in most therapeutic areas and gained insight into many of the difficulties that patients, scientists, clinicians and executives face. He has worked on small molecule and biologic projects. He is first author on a patent for a kinase inhibitor in development (seletalisib) and has extensive experience of the in vivo properties of high molecular weight PEG. Through his involvement in Due Diligence for both in-licensing and out-licensing projects, he has investigated and assessed many technological developments.

team member

Christina Nesheva MBA

Venture Advisor
https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-nesheva/

Christina Nesheva is the former Co-founder and Director of the Innovation Lab of ViiV Healthcare and the author of “The Entrepreneur’s BattleBook”, battlebook.co, a step-by-step guide to turning ideas into viable business.

Christina has been leading the development of innovative products and services with both startups and leading healthcare organisations in the US and in Europe and ensuring the strategic focus and alignment of innovation activities.

Christina has extensive commercial and general management experience in the pharmaceutical industry with specialisation in new product commercialisation and launches.

She has led the development of GSK’s global approach to launching new medicines and the new product launch function for GSK Europe. Christina has held a number of senior commercial roles, including general manager of GSK Latvia.

Christina is often an assessor in startup and funding competitions and a mentor in the Business Growth Program of London & Partners. She was also a member of the Financial Times Advisory Board for the preparation of the FT Global Pharma and Biotech Conference
in 2018.

Christina has an MBA from the London Business School.

team member

John Weinberg MD MBA

Investment Committee Member
https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-weinberg-md-mba-1223bb4/

John is an experienced pharmaceutical and biotech physician with a track-record of success in building organisations and leading and managing product development programmes. His 25 year career has spanned multiple large pharmaceutical companies such as Wyeth and Novartis and smaller biotech organisations such as Veloxis, 4D Pharma, Enzon and MaaT, with roles in both the USA and Europe. John has been responsible for the development and launch of many drugs in the fields of immunology, oncology and transplantation.

John qualified as a medical doctor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and practiced cardiology at Baragwanath Hospital before obtaining an MBA from INSEAD in France.

team member

Chris Williams PhD

Investment Committee Member
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-williams-18367731/

Chris is responsible for leading Autolus’ business development activities. Prior to Autolus he served as a senior business manager at UCL Business where he developed extensive experience in early stage technology commercialisation of academic technologies including licensing, strategic partnerships, fund raising and company formation.

Chris has held non-executive directorships at Autolus and Orchard Therapeutics, two of the UCL spinout companies he founded during his tenure at UCL Business.

Previously Chris has held BD positions in UK biotech (Thiologics and Canbex) and for large pharma (Eli Lilly). Before moving into BD, Chris worked as a research scientist in industry (GSK and Inpharmatica) and academia (Imperial).

Chris holds a PhD in Biochemistry from Imperial College London, and worked as a Postdoctoral scientist in the MRC Lymphocyte Development group also based at Imperial College London.

team member

Adel Nada MD

Investment Committee Member, Venture Advisor
https://www.linkedin.com/in/adelnada70/

Adel Nada is biotech executive and serial entrepreneur. Currently, he advises several funds on new venture creation and is co-founder and executive chairman of Trutina and FytonBio, two early-stage companies in the immunology and inflammation space. Previously, Adel cofounded and was CEO of GentiBio, a biotherapeutics company developing engineered regulatory T cells programmed to treat autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Adel led GentiBio through two rounds of equity financing and the first transformative deal with large pharma in the Treg space. Prior to GentiBio, Adel was the Chief Medical Officer of Casebia Therapeutics where he worked on advancing engineered regulatory T cell (Tregs) therapeutics. In the past, Adel has held executive positions in various biotech and pharmaceutical companies, including Vice President at Intellia Therapeutics and Caladrius Biosciences, and various senior positions directing clinical development at Baxter and Abbott. He successfully led translational and immunology programs over past 15 years for experimental and approved therapies, spanning small and large molecules and engineered immune cell products, including Tregs products. Adel received his medical degree from Alexandria University in Egypt and his master’s degree in clinical research from the Pharmacology Dept. at Rush University in Chicago where he also held an academic position. Adel completed advanced studies in drug development at UCSF and University of Basel before becoming a Member of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine in the UK. Prior to joining the industry, Adel trained in surgery and internal medicine and practiced for 10 years in Chicago