The JayaBio Story

We are a group of experienced biotech executives, scientists, and clinicians unified by a common goal of addressing unmet needs in neurodegeneration and adding value to patient and medical communities worldwide.

Collectively, we have over 100 years of drug development and commercialization experience, including lysosomal targets, recombinant proteins, and gene therapies, and we are backed by an expert science advisory board. 

Our team operates on the basis of integrity, innovation, and excellence in action with a patient goal in mind. We value internal and external collaboration, knowing that teamwork results in better solutions.

Meet the Team

  • Mark S. Sands, PhD, is a Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Genetics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO. The goals of Dr. Sands’ laboratory are to better understand the underlying pathogenesis and develop effective therapies for genetic diseases associated with the lysosomal pathway, specifically lysosomal storage diseases (LSDs) and genetically-defined neurodegeneration. A major focus of his group is to determine the safety and efficacy of adeno-associated viral gene transfer vectors for the treatment of both the CNS and systemic manifestations of these diseases. In addition, his group has developed lentiviral-mediated hematopoietic stem cell-directed gene therapy approaches, as well as small molecule drugs, and more recently, rational combinations of these approaches. The primary diseases that Dr. Sands studies are mucopolysaccharidoses, especially mucopolysaccharidosis type VII (MPS VII), Krabbe disease, Infantile Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis, and LSD-associated neurodegeneration. Dr. Sands made significant contributions to the development of MEPSEVII® (Ultragenyx) and is a scientific founder of Jaya Biosciences, a company developing CNS-directed gene therapies for genetically-defined neurodegeneration. He sits on numerous Science Advisory Boards, including Jaya Biosciences (Chair), M6P Therapeutics, National MPS Society, and Batten Disease Support and Research Association.

    Dr. Sands received his Ph.D. in Molecular Pharmacology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He completed postdoctoral fellowships at The Jackson Laboratory (Bar Harbor, ME) and at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine before joining the faculty at Washington University School of Medicine. Prof. Sands published over 140 peer reviewed publications and sits on the editorial boards of Molecular Therapy and Journal of Clinical Medicine.

  • Pawel Krysiak is a life sciences executive with over 20 years of experience in rare diseases, oncology and neurodegeneration. Prior to joining Jaya Biosciences, his experience included President and CEO of M6P Therapeutics, President and CEO of Seva Therapeutics, VP of Sales and Business Development at EmpiraMed, VP of Commercial and Operations at Ceerdis Corporation, Area Director and General Manager at BioMarin Pharmaceuticals, as well as roles of progressively increasing responsibilities in sales, marketing, and commercial strategy at Genzyme Corporation. Mr. Krysiak started his career in specialty sales at Merck.

    Pawel obtained a Bachelor of Science with Specialized Honors in Biomedical Sciences and Biochemistry from the University of Guelph, Canada and a Master of Science in Molecular Physiology from the University of Western Ontario, Canada. In addition, he received executive business training from Kellogg School of Management and Ivey Business School, and he holds Executive Healthcare Leadership and Healthcare Change Management Certificates from Cornell.

  • Neal Goodwin serves as our Chief Scientific Officer responsible for all Jaya research and development programs. With over 20 years of experience in drug discovery and development, Neal has contributed to three successful IPOs, multiple technology deals, and award-winning research projects. Neal’s core competencies include advanced translational platforms, gene delivery technologies, synthetic biology, and drug development.Prior to Jaya, Neal served as CSO for Teknova (NASDAQ: TKNO), where he implemented gene-delivery technology platforms. Before Teknova, he was Vice President of Corporate Research Development for Champions Oncology (NASDAQ: CSBR), where his responsibilities included the development of a pharmacology platform portfolio for personalized and translational oncology. Before Champions, he served as the Director of Research and Development and the founding Program Director of JAX Cancer Services, where he established an oncology translational tumor biology program in collaboration with over 20 clinical trial centers. Neal is a co-founder and former CSO of ProNAi Therapeutics (Sierra Oncology; NASDAQ: SRRA; acquired by GSK).

    Neal received a Ph.D. in Microbiology from The University of Montana and served an NIH postdoctoral fellowship in functional genomics at The Jackson Laboratory with John Schimenti (now at Cornell).

  • Eric Grinstead is a life sciences executive with over 30 years of experience across commercial, operations, and leadership roles, including specific functional responsibilities for sales, marketing, supply chain, operations, pricing, reimbursement, policy, government affairs, strategy, communications, and early access programs, both in local and global domains.  For the last 15 years Eric was a member of the executive management teams at M6P Therapeutics, Clementia Pharmaceuticals, Synageva BioPharma as well as Alexion Pharmaceuticals with general responsibilities for commercializing ultra-orphan drugs.  Prior to this Eric led patient services group and Genzyme Corporation, and pricing at Amgen.  Eric started his career in sales and government affairs at GSK. 

    Eric currently serves as a board member at New Horizon Family Health Services and Savita Institute, and previously served as President of the Safety Net Foundation and the Complement Foundation, two not–for–profit entities that provide drugs at no cost to qualified individuals.

    Mr. Grinstead obtained BA in Religious Studies from Westmont College.

  • Doug Paul supports JayaBio’s business development and market access efforts. Doug has spent over 25 years in the bio-pharmaceutical and medical device markets passionately striving for innovations to effectively and efficiently address the unmet needs of patients. He is currently supporting commercial efforts as a fractional employee for several preclinical and clinical bio-pharmaceutical companies. Prior to this, he spent >20 years serving as a founding Partner of Medical Marketing Economics (MME) where he developed a broad experience leading projects across a myriad of disease states. These include marketing and launch strategies, pricing strategy and research, reimbursement dynamics, management/analysis of forecasts, and product acquisition assessments. Doug is considered a leading expert in the complexities of pricing and reimbursement of rare disease therapeutics, including gene therapies; experience with >150 orphan therapies for >100 rare conditions. In the last 10 years, Doug has been involved in total exit values >$35 billion. 

    He received a PharmD and a PhD in pharmaceutical marketing from the University of Mississippi. He holds an adjunct appointment as Assistant Professor at the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy.

  • Gavin Maitland serves as JayaBio’s fractional Chief Financial Officer (CFO), bringing over three decades of financial management experience across various industries and markets. Currently, he is the President and CEO of Fleming CFO, a fractional CFO firm supporting the early-stage and growing life sciences companies across the major biotech hubs in the US. Fleming CFO works with over 30 finance professionals at various levels and has been successfully meeting life sciences clients’ challenges for over a decade. Prior to Fleming CFO, Gavin co-founded a venture fund Axiomlab plc (now IP Group, plc), and took it from inception to an IPO on the London Stock Exchange, serving as the firm’s CFO throughout the entire cycle. Before Axiomlab, he was a CFO at APP Group BV (now Ness Technologies) and the international controller at TNT, where he worked onsite in over 25 countries across four continents, with primary responsibilities for subsidiaries in Singapore, France, and Central and Eastern Europe. Mr. Maitland started his career as an accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in the United Kingdom.

    Gavin received a BAdmin (Honors) in Accounting and Economics from the University of Dundee and an MBA from London Business School. He is also a member of ICAS, a Professional Body of Chartered Accountants.