About

Joel F. Martin, PhD, is our President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), a co-founder, and serves on our Board of Directors. From 2012 to January 2015, Dr. Martin was the President and CEO of Cebix Incorporated, a company that advanced a diabetes drug rapidly through a large, international Phase 2b trial. From 2008 to 2010, Dr. Martin was President and CEO of Altair Therapeutics, a Phase 2 asthma company that was acquired in 2010.

Dr. Martin has extensive venture capital experience and maintains strong connections throughout the venture industry. He was a partner at Forward Ventures from 2001 through 2008, where he led successful investments in neuroscience and cancer companies such as Hypnion, Predix, and Cellective Therapeutics. He was previously an executive-in-residence and associate at Institutional Venture Partners and Avalon Ventures, respectively.

Dr. Martin is a skilled serial entrepreneur. He was the co-founder and CEO of Quantum Dot Corporation (acquired by Invitrogen), a company that pioneered quantum-confined luminescent nanocrystals, arguably the first commercial nanotechnology product. Prior to that, he was the co-founder and CEO of Argonaut Technologies, a publicly traded chemistry automation and solid-phase reagents company, which was acquired by Biotage AB. At Argonaut, he pioneered a new business model, where a consortium of pharmaceutical companies financed product development with non-dilutive capital.

Dr. Martin began his career as assistant professor of radiology at University of California, San Diego (UCSD) where he developed novel digital image processing techniques and invented the first medical device for MRI imaging of the prostate. Dr. Martin earned his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from UCSD and holds MBA and B.S. Chem. Honors degrees from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He did postdoctoral research combining MRI imaging with NMR spectroscopy at IBM. He is currently a member of the advisory boards of the Life Sciences Institute at the University of Michigan and the Rady School of Business at UCSD.

Olivier Laurent, PhD, is our Chief Scientific Officer, having joined the company in July 2015 as our Vice President of Development. Prior to joining Dauntless, Dr. Laurent held senior positions directing drug discovery, development, and production at several pharmaceutical companies.

Dr. Laurent was most recently a leadership team member and the Vice President in charge of CMC at Ambrx from 2013 until the sale of the company in 2015. Dr. Laurent was Director, Protein Science and Target Identification at Pfizer from 2009 to 2013 and Associate Director, Drug Product Formulation and Manufacturing at Pfizer from 2008 to 2009. Prior to Pfizer, Dr. Laurent held drug development positions of increasing responsibility at CovX, a clinical stage biotech company acquired by Pfizer in 2008, as well as Genentech, Bayer, and Aventis (now Sanofi).

Dr. Laurent conducted his graduate work with the French Atomic Agency and received his Ph.D. in Cell Biology from Grenoble University in 1997. He is an Alumni of the Ecole Normale Supérieure of Lyon.

Michelle Mazzoni, PhD, is our Regulatory Affairs and Quality Consultant and has served in this position since the company was founded in May 2015. Prior to joining Dauntless, Dr. Mazzoni held senior positions at multiple pharmaceutical companies where she directed regulatory affairs, quality, nonclinical, and project management activities for early to mid-stage clinical development assets.

Dr. Mazzoni’s past positions include Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Quality at Cebix Incorporated from 2009 to 2015; Senior Director, Regulatory Affairs at SGX Pharmaceuticals before its acquisition by Eli Lilly; and Senior Director, Regulatory Affairs and Drug Development at TargeGen. Prior to that, she held positions of increasing responsibility at Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp. and Imcor Pharmaceuticals.

Dr. Mazzoni received her bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). She also obtained a professional certificate in Regulatory Affairs for the Biomedical Industry from UCSD in 2004.

Ms. Basbaum is our Vice President of Business Development and has served in this position since 2017. Prior to joining Dauntless, Karen held positions in drug discovery and business development for several biotechnology and large pharmaceutical companies.

Karen joined Dauntless from Elcelyx, a biotechnology company developing a novel treatment for type 2 diabetes, where she was Vice President of Business Development.

Prior to that role, Karen was Director, Business Development at Amylin Pharmaceuticals where she worked on numerous transactions, most notably the sale of the company to Bristol Myers Squibb in 2012 for $7B. At Amylin, Karen established several partnerships with prominent institutions such as Biocon and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and was instrumental to licensing transactions for subsequently commercialized products with Amgen and Shionogi & Co. Earlier in her career, Karen held various scientific roles in drug discovery at Abbott Laboratories (now Abbvie) and Celgene Corporation.

Karen holds an MBA from the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine and a Master of Science in Organic Chemistry from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She holds two Bachelor of Science degrees (honors) in Biology and Chemistry from the University of North Dakota.

Mark Daniels is our Director of Clinical Operations and has served in this position since the company was founded in May 2015. Most recently, Mr. Daniels spent 5 years as the Director of Clinical Operations at Cebix Incorporated where he was responsible for leading the C-peptide clinical development program from the first-in-human study to the completion of a large-scale, proof-of-efficacy Phase 2b international study.

Prior to his role at Cebix, Mr. Daniels managed all phases of global clinical development studies at several pharmaceutical companies with a strong emphasis on neurology and oncology including Biogen Idec from 2007 to 2011, and Elan Pharmaceuticals from 2002 to 2007. Mr Daniels also held positions of increasing responsibility at Quintiles, a contract research organization, from 1997 to 2002.

Mr. Daniels received his Bachelor’s of Science degree in Psychobiology from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1997.