Our Story
Prelude was founded in 2016 with the vision of bringing together the energy and collaborative culture of a start-up environment with experience in developing cancer medicines to create a next generation cancer drug discovery company.
Senior Management
Kris Vaddi, Ph.D. founded Prelude and served as the chief executive officer and member of the board of directors since 2016. Previously, Kris had a 12-year career at Incyte starting as a founding scientist and an executive director in 2002 and most recently as a group vice president. Kris initiated and championed JAK research programs at Incyte that led to the discovery, development and approval of Jakafi® (ruxolotinib) for Myelofibrosis and Polycythemia Vera and Olumiant® (Baricitinib) for rheumatoid arthritis. Kris received his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from APAU in India and his Ph.D. from University of Florida.
Brian Piper, M.B.A., is Chief Financial Officer at Prelude Therapeutics since joining the company in 2019. Brian has over 25 years of experience in corporate healthcare finance, covering a wide span of financial and operational activities. Prior to joining Prelude, Brian served as CFO and Corporate Secretary at Aevi Genomic Medicine. Prior to his time with Aevi, Brian had a 13-year career at Shire Pharmaceuticals, with key roles in investor relations, corporate venture capital and numerous additional financial roles, including two years spent in Dublin, Ireland establishing Shire’s geographic expansion strategies. Early in his career Brian also spent time with Celera Genomics and Otsuka Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Brian received his B.B.A. from the University of Notre Dame and an M.B.A. from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland.
David Mauro, M.D. is the Chief Medical Officer at Prelude Therapeutics. David has over 18 years of experience in oncology clinical development at Bristol Myers Squibb, Merck, Advaxis and most recently as Chief Medical Officer of Checkmate Pharmaceuticals. David’s experience covers a wide span of oncology drug development including translational, early and late stage development as well as US medical affairs activities. David participated in 3 successful NDAs for Erbitux, Sprycel and Sylatron as well as EGFR and KRAS companion diagnostics. David received his undergraduate degree in Cornell and MD and PhD degrees from Temple University School of Medicine. He completed residency training at the NIH/NCI in Bethesda.
Peggy Scherle, PhD is Chief Scientific Officer at Prelude. Prior to joining Prelude, Peggy was Group Vice President, Discovery Biology and Preclinical Pharmacology at Incyte Corporation and oversaw the target validation and preclinical drug discovery efforts. Peggy was one of the original team of scientists that joined Incyte in 2002 and was involved in the discovery and development of the JAK inhibitors, Jakafi®, for the treatment of myelofibrosis and polycythemia vera, and Olumiant®, for rheumatoid arthritis, as well as the advancement of >10 small molecules into clinical studies for cancer, including both targeted therapy and immunotherapy approaches. Prior to Incyte, Peggy held scientific research positions with DuPont Pharmaceuticals Company and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Peggy received her PhD in immunology from the University of Pennsylvania and completed her postdoctoral training at the NIH.
Andrew Combs, Ph.D. is the Executive Vice President and Head of Chemistry at Prelude Therapeutics. Andrew has over 23 years of experience as a medicinal chemist at DuPont-Merck, DuPont Pharmaceuticals, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and most recently as Vice President of Discovery Chemistry at Incyte where he led teams in medicinal chemistry, analytical chemistry, enabling technologies, computational design and informatics. His passion for research embraces the application of innovative and enabling technologies to expedite the drug discovery process. He has led teams of creative chemists with whom he co-invented >10 clinical candidates, including Epacadostat and Parsaclisib which both entered late stage clinical trials in oncology. Andrew holds BS degrees in Chemistry and Molecular Biology from the UW-Madison, a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from UCLA, and completed his training as a HHMI post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University.
Aimee Crombie, Ph.D. is Vice President of R&D Operations at Prelude Therapeutics. Prior to joining Prelude, she was Vice President of Research at Trevena, Inc. where she oversaw drug discovery activities supporting target and hit identification, chemical lead optimization, and drug candidate selection. Aimee has contributed to the discovery of several small molecule including oliceridine, TRV734, and TRV250, biased agonists of GPCRs that are being developed for the treatment of CNS disorders. Prior to joining Trevena, Aimee was a member of the Discovery Medicinal Chemistry group at Pfizer (formerly Wyeth) where she contributed to research programs in a variety of therapeutic areas including oncology, inflammation, neuroscience, cardiovascular, and musculoskeletal diseases. Aimee received her B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh and her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Board of Directors
Paul A. Friedman, MD
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Paul Friedman, MD was appointed to the Board of Directors in July 2016. Dr. Friedman served as the Chief Executive Officer and a Director of Incyte Corporation from November 2001 until his retirement in January 2014. From 1994 to 1998, he served as President of Research & Development for the DuPont-Merck Pharmaceutical Company; and from 1998 to 2001 as President of DuPont Pharmaceuticals Research Laboratories, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the DuPont Company. From 1991 to 1994, he served as Senior Vice President at Merck Research Laboratories. Prior to his tenures at Merck and DuPont, Dr. Friedman was an Associate Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Friedman is a diplomat of the American Board of Internal Medicine and a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation. Dr. Friedman currently sits on the Board of Directors of Cerulean Pharma Inc., a publicly traded pharmaceutical company, Verastem, Inc., a publicly traded pharmaceutical company, Incyte Corporation, a publicly traded pharmaceutical company, and Gliknik, Inc. He has previously served on the Board of Directors of Auxilium Pharmaceuticals Inc., a publicly traded pharmaceutical company, and Durata Therapeutics, Inc., a publicly traded pharmaceutical company. Dr. Friedman received his A.B. in Biology from Princeton University and his M.D. from Harvard Medical School.
David Bonita, MD
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Dr. David Bonita, M.D., has served as a member of our board of directors since July 2016. Since June 2013, Dr. Bonita has held the position of Private Equity Partner at OrbiMed Advisors LLC, an affiliate of one of our principal shareholders. From June 2004 to June 2013, Dr. Bonita held other positions at OrbiMed. Dr. Bonita currently serves on the boards of directors of a number of public and private companies. Dr. Bonita has also worked as a corporate finance analyst in the healthcare investment banking groups of Morgan Stanley and UBS. He received his A.B. in Biological Sciences from Harvard University and his joint M.D./M.B.A. from Columbia University.
Kelvin M. Neu, MD
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Dr. Kelvin M. Neu, M.D. has served as a member of our board of directors since July 2016. Kelvin is a Partner at Baker Brothers Investments. Kelvin holds an A.B. Summa Cum Laude in Molecular Biology from Princeton University and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School and the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. He also trained for 3 years in the Immunology Ph.D. program at Stanford University.
Kris Vaddi, PhD
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Kris Vaddi, Ph.D. founded Prelude and served as the chief executive officer and member of the board of directors since 2016. Previously, Kris had a 12-year career at Incyte starting as a founding scientist and an executive director in 2002 and most recently as a group vice president. Kris initiated and championed JAK research programs at Incyte that led to the discovery, development and approval of Jakafi® (ruxolotinib) for Myelofibrosis and Polycythemia Vera and Olumiant® (Baricitinib) for rheumatoid arthritis. Kris received his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from APAU in India and his Ph.D. from University of Florida.