A NEW GENERATION OF IMMUNOTHERAPIES
Leadership Team
Suchi Acharya, PhD
Founder and CEO
Dr. Suchi Acharya brings over 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical drug discovery, development, clinical trials, and project management. Prior to AyuVis, she spent 12 years in leadership roles with Alcon Labs/Novartis and led R&D projects in ophthalmology. She is an innovative scientist, inventor of patents, and managed small molecule drug discovery projects from hit to lead, lead optimization, Phase 1-3 clinical trials, and commercialization. She is a trained regulatory professional with experience in interacting with the FDA. Dr. Acharya founded AyuVis in 2014 and designed and developed novel, small molecule immunotherapies that fight inflammation and infection with a unique mode of action. As the CEO of AyuVis, she has extensive experience in starting a private company, fundraising, writing and receiving government (NIH) grants, publishing in scientific journals, international business and tax benefit opportunities, and strategic planning in all areas. Additionally, as an Assistant Professor in the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth in the NTERI Ophthalmology Department, Dr. Acharya is leading research in neuroscience and receiving NIH grants for such projects.
Recent invited presentations by Dr. Acharya include Biotech Showcase Private Company Presenter 2023, Springboard Dolphin Tank 2022, and Pediatric Academic Society Annual Meeting 2022.
Awards -
2023 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist, Southwest Region
2023 Ignite Golden Ticket Pitch Competition Winner, Dallas
2022 D CEO Magazine Pharma Pioneer https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-ceo/2022/september/dceo-healthcare-annual/meet-four-of-dfws-pharma-pioneers/
2022 Selection for the Mass Challenge US Early-Stage Accelerator 2022 Cohort - https://www.citybiz.co/article/301458/ayuvis-selected-for-masschallenge-accelerator-2022-cohort/
2022 Tech FW Impact Showcase Rising Star Award and People's Choice Award - http://dallas.citybizlist.com/article/445140/techfw-client-ayuvis-honored-for-defense-innovation
2020 BioNTX ic3 Summit Rising Star Award
2020 RESI Innovation Challenge, Second Prize Winner
2017 Defense TechConnect Innovation awardee
David Riley, MD, MBA
Chief Medical Officer
Dr. David Riley is board certified in pediatrics and neonatal-perinatal medicine at Cook's Children Hospital in Fort Worth, TX.
Dr. Riley received his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from Cornell University, medical degree from Stanford University School of Medicine, completed his pediatric residency at the University of North Carolina Hospitals, and neonatal-perinatal fellowship at the University of Texas in Houston. His research interests include neonatal immunology and infectious disease, respiratory physiology and evidenced based medicine.
Head of CMC
Dennis Dean, PhD
Dr. Dennis Dean is an innovative process chemist with 30+ years experience in synthetic organic chemistry, heterocyclic chemistry, process development, route selection, and optimization and process validation. He is experienced in the synthesis of small molecules for medicinal uses such as steroids, prostaglandins, heterocycles, peptides and nucleotides.
In addition, he has extensive experience in CMC and compliance areas as they relate to GMP API manufacturing, in particular APIs for clinical development. This includes regulatory filings and GMP audits of API manufacturers.
Dale Christensen, PhD
Director of Early Development
Dr. Dale Christensen brings us over 25 years of of R&D VP/CSO experience from small and big pharmaceutical companies.
Dr. Christensen has an undergraduate degree in Chemistry from the University or Utah and a PhD in Chemistry from Utah State University. He has more than 20 years of experience developing novel therapeutics with an emphasis on IND-enabling toxicology and safety pharmacology studies. He specializes in developing and reviewing study protocols, managing preclinical CROs, analyzing data, and trouble-shooting toxicity, PK, and safety pharmacology studies for preclinical and IND-enabling studies.