Good morning.  I am very pleased to announce two new advisory appointments at a very exciting and pivotal time for Mountain Valley MD.  As we actively advance our oncology work and broaden our commercial applications in our key desiccated liposome and solubilization technologies, broadening the skillset of our team is a critical part of the next phase of our growth strategy.

Please welcome Gokul Kannan and Mark Gelnaw to the MVMD family!

Gokul Kannan is a partner at Zephyr Venture Partners and a rising star in bioengineering & chemical engineering research. He earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of California, Berkeley in Chemical Engineering with a minor in Bioengineering. He has had 7 years of research experience at UC Berkeley, Johns Hopkins, and Gilead, working with doctors Sanjay Kumar, Richard Saykally, Takanori Takebe, and Sapna Kudchadkar, among others.

Mr. Kannan’s research thus far has focused on drug delivery, biomaterials, tissue engineering & regenerative medicine, and physical & medicinal chemistry/chemical engineering. Recently, his work has focused on studying using biomaterials and computational biology to study microglia, glioblastoma & cancer biology, and tissue engineering, with 8 publications in press or under review and multiple cover articles in prominent journals.

Mr. Kannan is an inventor on four pending patents including both therapeutic and device patents. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Science Magazine, The Economist, and more than 15 other major science news outlets. Mr. Kannan, at the young age of 21, has already received a number of major research awards from prominent societies including the American Academy of Neurology, and the Society for Biomaterials.

Mark Gelnaw is an esteemed financial executive whose career spans more than 35 years in financial management, business leadership, and corporate strategy, including acting as CEO and CFO for Cynvec LLC, a research-based cancer entity that partnered with NYU in the development of a Sindbis virus for the treatment of ovarian and colon cancer.

Mr. Gelnaw’s past executive roles include Chief Operating Officer of Deutsche Bank, Chief Operating and Financial Officer at Lehman Brothers, senior roles at Salomon Brothers and Arthur Andersen, and founder of Breakwater Ventures which manages a diverse array of investments and strategies across many industry platforms, including Medical Devices, FinTech, Cancer Research and Development, Health and Wellness, Covid 19 Testing and Collection, Real Estate, and financial enterprises.

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The collective knowledge and deep experience brought to our team with the additions of Gokul and Mark will be invaluable as we advance our key oncology and technology projects.  It is great to have them joining MVMD and supporting our pursuit of making a difference in the global animal and human health landscape.