Management Team
Sean Ainsworth
CEO
Sean Ainsworth has fifteen years of experience in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. His experience includes research at Medical Biology Institute (now Avanir Pharmaceuticals developers of Abreva, the leading cold sore medication) in San Diego, intellectual property at Koyama and Associates in Tokyo, international corporate development consulting at The Mattson Jack Group in St. Louis, MO.
In 2004 Mr. Ainsworth launched Ainsworth BioConsulting to provide licensing, strategic planning, and business planning services to the life science and entrepreneurial community. Mr. Ainsworth’s clients include large pharma, small biotechs, universities, CROs, and venture investment funds. He has worked with clients at all stages of development. Mr. Ainsworth has also had deep involvement in the launch of two previous startup companies, Compendia Bioscience, Inc. and GeneVivo, LLC where he assisted in licensing technologies, securing capital and first customers. Compendia BioScience is a profitable and growing company.
Mr. Ainsworth holds a BS in Microbiology from University of California, San Diego and an MBA in strategy and finance from Washington University in St. Louis.
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Thomas Rea
COO
Thomas Rea brings over 25 years of scientific and management experience in research and development to his role with RetroSense Therapeutics. His pharmaceutical domain experience has ranged from big pharma (Upjohn, Parke-Davis/Warner Lambert, Pfizer) to startups in both North America and Europe with projects involving low molecular weight compounds or biotechnology-based pharmaceuticals. He was one of four co-founders of Esperion Therapeutics (Ann Arbor) in 1998.
Mr. Rea has contributed to drug discovery and development in a number of clinically relevant areas including viral disease, oncology, epithelial cell and plasma hyperlipidemia drug programs that led to specific new therapeutic entities such as pseudorabies virus vaccine, Rogaine (minoxidil), Lipitor (atorvastatin), synthetic high density lipoproteins and related lipid and peptide formulations. He has managed biopharmaceutical projects domestically and overseas. His primary management roles for these projects were in the areas of biopharmaceutical development with international manufacturing suppliers and contract research organizations, GMP production of clinical trial materials, and regulatory agency compliance. He has completed corporate development work in the areas of risk analysis, licensing evaluations, and strategic planning. He has a broad publication, scientific and business presentation record.
Mr. Rea received BS and MS degrees in Microbiology from Ohio State University.
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Peter Francis, BSc(Hons) BM MD PhD FRCOphth
Clinical Director
Dr Francis is an ophthalmologist clinician-scientist with expertise in ophthalmic genetics and retinal disease. Peter graduated from medical school in the UK and undertook residency in London, UK. He is fellowship trained in retina and genetics (Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, and Casey Eye Institute, USA).
Dr Francis has held academic faculty positions at St Thomas’ Hospital, London and most recently, Casey Eye Institute, Portland, USA in which he has gained extensive experience of translational medicine and early phase human clinical trials for retinal disease.
He has published over ninety peer-reviewed articles, together with more than one hundred presentations at national and international meetings on many aspects of retinal disease including gene identification, gene and stem cell therapy.
Peter is a fellow of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists (London) and member of both the Macula the American Ophthalmological Societies. He contributes chapters for several of prestigious textbooks including Duane’s Clinical Ophthalmology. He is the recipient of several awards including “best up-and-coming medical researcher in the United Kingdom 2002”.
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Edward “Ted” McGuire, PhD
Head of Pre-Clinical Development
Dr. McGuire has over 35 years of experience in pharmaceutical research and development, playing instrumental roles in the submission of numerous INDs, NDAs, and MAAs, including those for Lopid®, Accupril®, Neurontin®, Lipitor®, and Rezulin®.
Dr. McGuire’s most recent positions include, Senior Director, Toxicological Sciences and Development at Parke-Davis, and Senior Scientific Advisor, Drug Safety Evaluation at Pfizer. While in these roles, Dr. McGuire’s held primary responsibilities for developing and implementing toxicology strategies that were aligned to meet regulatory requirements and ensuring expedient development of investigative drugs. During Dr. McGuire’s tenure within pharma companies, he has supervised discovery and development teams – including gene therapy programs – coordinated and developed global toxicology plans, designed, conducted, and interpreted preclinical safety studies and study results, and led the resolution of issues impacting drug development.
Select accomplishments for Dr. McGuire include: Chairmanship of the Task Force that submitted the Lipitor® IND, presentation of the Rezulin® toxicology profile to the Endocrinology and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee, and extensive interactions with domestic and international regulatory agencies. Dr. McGuire serves as a consultant for numerous pharmaceutical companies and, until recently, was an expert witness for Pfizer in Rezulin® product litigation. Additionally, Dr. McGuire served as President and Director of Regulatory Affairs for Cognitive Pharmaceuticals, Ltd.
Dr. McGuire received BSc and MSc degrees from the University of Windsor, Canada, and a PhD from The University of Michigan. He received a Distinguished Dissertation Award for his PhD thesis addressing hepatic effects of marketed lipid-regulating agents. He has published extensively and presented at numerous scientific meetings.
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