We are scientists.
We are engineers.
We are drug hunters. We are insitro.

Adriana Tajonar

Adriana is the Head of External Innovation at insitro where she searches for technologies, collaborations, and expertise to accelerate and maximize insitro’s research and development efforts.

Prior to joining insitro, Adriana was a Principal at The Column Group (TCG), a life science venture capital firm. In her role, she focused on ideation, formation, and launch of several companies in the TCG portfolio, including Accent Therapeutics and A2 Biotherapeutics, and served as board director or observer of these and other companies.

Adriana was also previously Entrepreneurship Program Manager at QB3 (California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences) where she managed the Startup in a Box Program. In this role, she evaluated and guided over 200 teams of scientists from top institutions in California towards starting companies in the life sciences.

Adriana obtained her PhD in the laboratory of Prof. Douglas Melton at Harvard University where she studied mechanisms of self-renewal and survival in human embryonic stem cells. Previously, Adriana did research in the lab of Prof. Rudolf Jaenisch as an undergraduate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In her free time, Adriana enjoys spending time with friends and family, traveling, visiting museums and exercising.

Allison Lai

Allison Lai is the Controller / VP, Finance at insitro. She brings with her 18 years of experience in accounting and finance operations with most of her experience in the life sciences industry.

Prior to joining insitro, Allison served as VP, Finance & Controller at Adicet Bio, a pre-clinical stage biotechnology company engaged in the design and development of immunotherapies for cancer and other diseases, where she helped build and scale the accounting team. Before then, Allison was at Genomic Health, a global provider of genomic-based diagnostic tests, where she was most recently the Senior Director of Accounting and supported the organization’s increasing headcount and international growth. Allison has also held increasing roles at Affymax, a publicly-traded biotechnology company, and she started her career at PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP in their audit and assurance practice.

Allison received her BA in Business Management Economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz and she is a Certified Public Accountant in the State of California.

Outside of the office, Allison is constantly chasing after her two sons and cheering on the Golden State Warriors.

Britt Huber, VP of People

Britt Huber is the Vice President of People at insitro. She brings with her over 15 years of experience in People Operations / Human Resources, Organizational Development and business management leadership roles, in
the life sciences and technology industries, both in California and in Switzerland. Britt is passionate about developing mission-driven companies and coaching its people to evoke excellence.

Prior to joining insitro, Britt served as VP, People & Organizational Development at PaxVax, Inc., a fully-integrated specialty vaccines company, which she helped build and scale from start-up to a global, commercial stage company that was acquired by Emergent BioSolutions in 2018. Before then, Britt was the VP of People at Kiva, the world’s first personal micro-lending platform, where she supported the organization’s doubling in size, internationalization, and creation of an awesome culture.

Britt holds an MBA from St. Mary’s College, Moraga, California and a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR)-Certification. She’s also a Certified Professional Coach from New Ventures West, San Francisco, California. She speaks English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish.

When Britt is not cheer-leading the people she serves, she loves to explore the world traveling, enjoys the great outdoors while running, biking, hiking, swimming, skating,painting or striking a yoga pose somewhere.

Chelcy Hedgspeth

Chelcy serves as the Recruiting Coordinator at insitro where she combines her experience in recruiting with her passion for efficiency and organization.

Chelcy has always had an interest in health and science and attended Virginia Commonwealth University, where she completed her Bachelors of Science in Kinesiology. Previous to insitro, she served as a Recruitment Consultant building strong relationships throughout the biotech industry.

Outside of work, Chelcy can be found befriending unwitting dogs and soaking up any sun she is given. She enjoys the outdoors, good food, good music, and good company.

Daphne Koller, Founder & CEO, Board Member

Daphne Koller is the CEO and Founder of insitro.

Daphne was the Rajeev Motwani Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, where she served on the faculty for 18 years. She was the co-founder, co-CEO and President of Coursera for 5 years, and the Chief Computing Officer of Calico, an Alphabet company in the healthcare space. She is the author of over 200 refereed publications appearing in venues such as Science, Cell, and Nature Genetics, and has an h-index of 130. Daphne was one of TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people and is a MacArthur Fellow, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the International Society of Computational Biology.

In her spare time, Daphne enjoys spending time with her family, especially while traveling to exotic destinations (62 countries so far and counting), where they enjoy hiking, sailing, scuba diving, and eating fresh local food.

Duane Valz, General Counsel

As General Counsel, Duane is responsible for managing risk and structuring opportunities for insitro.

Duane has led the legal and IP functions at prominent Silicon Valley companies operating at a variety of scales and growth stages. He joins insitro from Zymergen, a company applying laboratory automation and machine learning to engineer microbial strains for industrial fermentation applications and new product development, where he served as the company’s first in-house lawyer and general counsel. Prior to Zymergen, Duane was a senior member of the patent team at Google, where he led strategic IP initiatives bearing on mobile, cloud, web and open source technologies. Before that, he served as associate general counsel in charge of patent development at Yahoo!

Mr. Valz began his career at Howard Rice Nemerovski Canady Falk & Rabkin (now combined with Arnold & Porter LLP). Over his career, Duane has been named multiple times to the IAM Strategy 300, recognizing the world’s leading IP strategists. He holds B.A. and J.D. degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, and serves on the boards of directors for the Level Playing Field Institute and the Berkeley Law Alumni Association.

In his free time, Duane enjoys cooking, traveling, live jazz, yoga, the outdoors and quality time with his family.

Ellie Javid

As Head of Financial Operations at instiro, Ellie brings over 15 years of progressive accounting and finance operations experience, including managing cross-functional projects and scaling teams for growth within the life science industry.

Prior to joining insitro, Ellie was an independent consultant for early-stage Bay Area life science companies and worked on various accounting projects, including the development of systems and infrastructure to support growing businesses. Before then, she was Controller at Invitae, a leading genetic testing company offering diagnostic testing for hereditary conditions. Ellie helped the Company prepare for IPO in 2015 and built the team to scale as a public company. Prior to Invitae, Ellie worked at Genomic Health, a publicly-traded global provider of genomic-based diagnostic tests, where she managed the US accounting operations and teams. Ellie also spent time at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals during phase III clinical trials of Linaclotide (FDA approval 2012). During her time at Ironwood Ellie supported the company’s 2010 IPO, ERP transformation and plans for commercialization.

Ellie is Certified Public Accountant and holds an active license in the state of California.

Ellie received a Master’s in Healthcare Administration and Management from City University in London where she focused on finance and delivery of healthcare services across UK and US healthcare systems. During her studies, she also worked at the University of Cambridge, Research Services Division, to support coordination of Medical School research contracts with industry sponsors, budgets and funding.

In her spare time, you can find Ellie mountain biking off the trails in Marin or sailing in the Bay with her husband.

Eva-Maria Krauel

Eva-Maria joined insitro from the Silicon Valley Innovation Hub of EMD Serono (an affiliate of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt Germany), where she worked as a technology scout and helped identify the next big innovative disruptors. Prior to this role she worked as a medicinal chemist first in the headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany and then in Boston, MA pushing a small molecule drug candidate from concept to clinical development.

Before joining EMD, Eva-Maria was a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Keisuke Susuki’s lab at Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan. Eva-Maria received her Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the ETH Zurich, CH in the group of Prof. Ryan Gilmour and a Diploma in Chemistry from the Julius-Maximilians University in Würzburg, Germany.

In her spare time, Eva-Maria loves to box, cook /eat good food and spend time with her family outdoors.

Gina Farrugia Ortega

As Executive Assistant, Gina provides administrative and organizational support to insitro’s senior leadership team and collaborates with everyone in aligning and executing on top priorities across the rapidly growing organization.

Gina brings with her over 27 years of experience as an Executive Assistant. Prior to insitro, Gina served as Senior Executive Assistant to the CEO and all C-suite executives at Electronics For Imaging, a global company specializing in digital printing technology, based in Silicon Valley. Furthermore, Gina is fluent in Spanish and an active member of the Administrative Center of Excellence, and she won the Silicon Valley Admins Loyalty Award in 2016, in recognition of her many achievements.

When she is not working, Gina plays percussion musical instruments, enjoys fishing, running, traveling and cooking.

Jason Ravenel

Jason is responsible for building and optimizing insitro’s Research Operations function. He also manages insitro’s internal discovery programs as well as partnered programs with external collaborators.

Prior to joining insitro, Jason spent 15 years at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research in both Oncology and Infectious Diseases groups. His roles spanned portfolio strategy, program management, and scientific operations. During his time in Oncology, Jason helped lead the team that discovered and developed Encorafenib, approved as BRAFTOVI for the treatment of B-Raf mutant melanoma. Prior to NIBR, Jason worked for McKinsey & Company serving primarily Boston area biotech companies. He earned his PhD in Oncology from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Jason enjoys the balance of Art with Science and TIG welds steel sculptures.

Jenny Lash

​​Jenny is a Talent Acquisition Coordinator, and at insitro she will be working closely with the People Operations team. Her work will be primarily focused on scheduling a high volume of candidate interviews, supporting new employee onboarding and collaborating closely with everyone to continue to build the insitro team.

Prior to joining insitro, Jenny was a Talent Acquisition Coordinator contractor at Cytokinetics where she handled scheduling interviews, improving the hiring process, including the new hire orientation and worked closely with hiring managers on successfully onboarding new employees. Before Cytokinetics, Jenny was a Recruiting Coordinator at Principia Biopharma where she focused mainly on candidate interview scheduling and also partnering with hiring managers to ensure a coherent recruiting process for everyone. She also assisted with event planning and acted as a point of contact for many employee HR related inquiries.

In her spare time, Jenny enjoys cooking, spending time outdoors, biking, swimming, and finding new and fun things to do with her family.

Katalin Janos

As the Office Manager/Administrative Assistant at insitro, Kate brings with her extensive knowledge and experience in Office Management and Executive Assistant roles in the finance and life sciences industries in the Bay Area. She is passionate about supporting and motivating mission-driven team members in a culture based on integrity and optimism.

Prior to joining insitro, Kate was a Sr. Executive Assistant at Immune Design, a small late stage immunotherapy company, acquired by Merck in 2019, where she helped with daily operations and workflow along with vendor and investor relations. Before then, Kate was an Office Manager at Northwestern Mutual, an investment services company, where she held roles of increasing responsibility, while supporting the organization’s tripling in size and creating an amazing culture and environment.

Kate holds a bachelor’s degree in Law, Transportation and Mobility Management from Romania and completed multiple Fred Pryor courses for Management, Supervision & Leadership.

In her free time, Kate enjoys and participates in all kinds of activities that keep her active. She loves to travel with a preference to exotic and tropical destinations. She speaks English, Hungarian, Romanian (born and raised in Transylvania) and is conversational in Spanish and Italian.

Mary Rozenman, CFO / CBO

Dr. Mary Rozenman is insitro’s CFO/CBO and maintains responsibility for a number of strategic and operational functions at insitro including strategic and operational finance and accounting, strategy, business development, investor relations and corporate communications as well as project and portfolio management.

Mary brings to insitro more than 15 years of scientific expertise, company building and transactions leadership in the biotechnology industry.

Prior to joining the insitro team, she served as the senior vice president of corporate development and strategy at Aimmune Therapeutics, leading business development and partnerships with companies such as Regeneron/Sanofi and Nestlé Health Science, and supporting the company’s strategic finance and investor relations efforts. In her time at Aimmune, she raised more than $650 million in capital through a range of private and public transactions including leadership of the company’s 2015 IPO.

Before Aimmune, Mary was a vice president at Longitude Capital, where she focused on biotechnology investments and participated in multiple therapeutics investments and boards of directors, including observing on Aimmune’s board. Mary was also previously a junior partner at McKinsey & Company, focused on pharmaceuticals and corporate finance. Her scientific work has been published in premier scientific journals, and she is a named inventor on several patents.

Mary holds a doctorate in organic chemistry and chemical biology from Harvard University and a bachelor of arts in biochemistry and Russian literature from Columbia University.

In her spare time, Mary likes to cook, enjoys hiking, going to the theater and hanging out with family — including her husband and young son and daughter.

Perry Palmedo

Perry is the Senior Director of Corporate Development and Strategy at insitro. He supports the executive team on initiatives at the intersection of machine learning and corporate strategy, including business development and the formulation of machine learning problems relevant to drug discovery and development.

Perry completed his Ph.D. in the Bioinformatics and Integrative Genomics program at Harvard Medical School where his research focused on using statistical models to predict protein structure from sequence variation. Prior to graduate school he spent five years working in finance for Morgan Stanley and BMGI, the investment office of Bill and Melinda Gates and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He majored in physics at Princeton University where his senior thesis focused on modeling viral gene regulatory circuits.

Having grown up in Sun Valley, ID, Perry is excited to be back west and enjoys spending as much time as possible outside, whether on foot, bike, or skis.

Sheetal Modi

Sheetal’s work at insitro blends project and product management to support cross-functional projects spanning internal technology development and therapeutic discovery.

Before joining insitro, Sheetal helped other early stage companies deliver on their scientific projects and scale operations for industrial biotech and health tech applications. Sheetal did her postdoctoral work at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and received her PhD from Boston University in Biomedical Engineering where she studied how bacteria adapt to stress. Upon leaving academia, Sheetal was motivated to apply her experimental and computational learnings to analyze industrially relevant dynamic and high-throughput data sets to garner novel biological insights.

In her spare time, Sheetal is actively interested in scientific engagements for non-scientific audiences and also enjoys consuming as much pizza as possible.

Stephen Meadows

As Executive Assistant to the CEO, Steve performs an extensive array of administrative tasks and sets a foundation for the smooth business operations of the company, making the entire team more effective and successful.

Steve spent his first nine years in Bay Area biotech at Amyris, moving from receptionist to executive support roles for the CEO and the President of R&D. He then moved to Calico to support Daphne Koller in her role as Chief Computing Officer. Steve has an M.A. in French from the University of Louisville and a B.A. in Foreign Languages/International Studies from Bellarmine University.

Steve used to have many hobbies but now has three young daughters.

Tom Stocky

As VP of Product, Tom is responsible for product strategy, planning, and user experience for our data systems and software tools.

Previously, Tom was a technology fellow at Denali Therapeutics, where he helped expand the use of machine learning techniques to support their discovery work, and helped further develop their digital strategy for engaging with patients.

Tom has built technology products for more than 15 years. As VP of Search at Facebook, he grew the service to more than 2 billion searches per day across the community’s more than 3 trillion posts. He also led teams responsible for profile, entity graph, and language technology. At Google, he helped start the developer products team and was part of the founding team for Google App Engine, which laid the foundation for Google’s Cloud Platform. He later led teams working on Google search, commerce, and travel products. As Head of Learning Platform at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, he oversaw the engineering, product, and design teams for their education technology efforts.

In addition to his work at insitro, Tom serves on the board of directors for the Banner Alzheimer’s Foundation and on the scientific advisory board for Denali Therapeutics. He holds an MEng and BS in Computer Science & Electrical Engineering from MIT and an MBA from MIT Sloan.

In his free time, Tom enjoys puzzle/escape rooms, anything baseball or softball, and going on adventures with his family.