Jane Rhodes, PhD, MBA
Chief Executive Officer
Jane Rhodes, PhD, MBA
Chief Executive Officer
Jane Rhodes, PhD, MBA is Chief Executive Officer at AstronauTx Ltd., She is an accomplished leader with over 25 years of experience in the biotechnology industry. Previously Dr Rhodes was President and Chief Business Officer at Verge Genomics, and has held a variety of operational roles in business development, innovation, corporate strategy and R&D at Biogen and Forma Therapeutics.
A neuroscientist by training, she has a strong track record of company formation, successful equity financing and forging large enabling Pharma partnerships.
Dr Rhodes currently serves as Chair of the Board of Pheno Therapeutics, as a Non-Executive Director at Turbine AI and as a Trustee-at-Large on the Board and Chair of the Audit Committee at US Pharmacopeia.
Magnus Ivarsson, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Magnus Ivarsson, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Magnus is a highly seasoned neuroscience expert with more than 20 years of global experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. He has held a range of senior research leadership roles with responsibilities ranging from early discovery, translation and early clinical development for both small molecules and biologics with a focus on sleep, EEG and neurodegeneration.
Magnus career includes more than a decade at large pharmaceutical companies (Pfizer and Merck in the United Kingdom and AstraZeneca in Sweden) and over the last 10+ years, he has held senior leadership positions at multiple successful biotechnology companies in Boston, USA (e.g. Aliada Therapeutics, Vesalius Therapeutics, Alkermes Plc, Rodin Therapeutics and Proteostasis Therapeutics). In these roles, Magnus has been pivotal in advancing both small molecules and biologics into the clinic and he also played a key role in the acquisition of Rodin by Alkermes in 2019 and of Aliada Therapeutics by Abbvie in 2024.
He has also been an honorary associate professor at University of Melbourne, Australia, a research fellow at University College London, UK and earned his Ph.D. from Lund University in Sweden.
Hannah Pearce, PhD
Chief Operating Officer
Hannah Pearce, PhD
Chief Operating Officer
Hannah has more than 17 years’ experience in leading portfolios from early concepts through to launch and post-marketing commitments.
She joined AstronauTx at the early stages of the Company’s creation. Prior to this, she worked for Pfizer, initially as a project lead guiding the pharmaceutical sciences strategy before transitioning into a portfolio and project management role as one of the global Development Directors.
Hannah holds a pharmacy degree, a clinical diploma, and a PhD in Pharmaceutical Microbiology from Brighton School of Pharmacy.
Michelle L. Mellion, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Michelle L. Mellion, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Michelle L. Mellion, MD is a neurologist and clinical drug development leader with more than two decades of experience spanning academic medicine and biotechnology. She earned her undergraduate degree with honors in molecular biology from Colgate University and her medical degree from Wake Forest University School of Medicine. She completed her internship in internal medicine, residency in neurology, and fellowship in clinical neurophysiology at Brown University.
Dr. Mellion served in the neurology faculty at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University for over a decade. During her tenure, she led grant-funded research on various neuropathies, directed both the clinical neurophysiology fellowship and the neurology residency program, and provided care at the MDA neuromuscular clinic as well as her own general neurology practice.
Transitioning from academia to industry, Dr. Mellion joined Biogen, where she contributed to the remyelination program and the development of novel biomarkers. She later co-led the pain program at Vertex Pharmaceuticals and subsequently led the development of a novel therapy for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) at Fulcrum Therapeutics. As Chief Medical Officer at PepGen, she oversaw the development of enhanced delivery oligonucleotide therapeutics for rare neuromuscular diseases and as Chief Medical Officer at EveryONE Medicines, she brought her expertise to the development of individualized medicines for ultra-rare diseases.
Even after her transition to industry, she remained active in clinical care, serving in the MDA clinic at Brown and later in the pediatric neurology clinic affiliated with Tufts University. She continues to contribute to the FSHD community through her work with the FSHD Society.
Dr. Mellion’s academic and industry research has led to numerous original publications in top-tier journals.
Elliott Bayle, PhD
Head of Chemistry
Elliott Bayle, PhD
Head of Chemistry
Elliott has more than 10 years’ experience in drug discover leading programmes from target validation and hit finding through to candidate nomination and preclinical development.
Elliott joined AstronauTx in late 2023 from STORM Therapeutics where he led projects in multiple therapeutic areas. Prior to this, he was a Senior Research Fellow and member of the leadership team at the Alzheimer’s Research UK Drug Discovery unit at UCL. He has experience of drug design across multiple target classes, disease areas and chemical modalities gained from working in biotech, academic and CRO environments.
Elliott has a PhD in synthetic and medicinal chemistry from the University of Cambridge.
Bahareh Eftekharzadeh, PharmD, PhD
Head of Discovery Biology
Bahareh Eftekharzadeh, PharmD, PhD
Head of Discovery Biology
Bahar is an entrepreneurial biotech leader and drug developer with over a decade of experience across neuroscience, neuroimmunology, and oncology. As the founding team member at multiple venture-backed startups, including Nereid Therapeutics and Neuron23, she has driven programs from early discovery biology through IND-enabling studies, designed translational strategies, and played a central role in operationalizing companies by building high-performing scientific teams and partnering effectively with CROs. Bridging deep scientific expertise with operational and strategic execution, Bahareh has advanced innovative drug discovery platforms, shaped portfolio strategy, and collaborated with academia, venture capital, and industry to translate bold scientific concepts into first-in-human studies. Passionate about transforming complex biology into impactful medicines, she thrives at the intersection of science, strategy, and entrepreneurship.
Deborah Gouveia
VP, Clinical Operations and Development Strategy
Deborah Gouveia
VP, Clinical Operations and Development Strategy
Deb Gouveia is a clinical development leader with more than 25 years of experience driving global clinical operations and development strategy across emerging and mid stage biotechnology companies. She has built and scaled clinical development teams from Phase 1/first in human through late stage trials, with a focus on novel modalities and complex indications including individualized genetic therapies, ultra rare conditions, and CNS programs such as Huntington’s disease and pediatric neurodevelopmental disorders.
She is known for strategic, operational leadership—building lean operating models, aligning cross functional and external partners, and delivering outcome oriented execution in fast paced environments.
Deb has held senior leadership roles at EveryONE Medicines, Triplet Therapeutics, Stealth Biotherapeutics, and Angion Biomedica.
Antonella Pirone, PhD
Head of Translation
Antonella Pirone, PhD
Head of Translation
Antonella is a results-oriented neuroscientist with extensive experience in biotech and pharmaceutical companies, specializing in preclinical and translational studies. Recently she has contributed to two successful biotech acquisitions with strong preclinical and phase 1 data packages. Prior joining the biotech world, Antonella careers include more than 15 years of research work at multiple academic Institutions across many countries (Italy, Austria, Germany and USA). She has a solid professional experience as team and project leader in drug discovery from early research to clinical development. Strong interpersonal and networking skills, with a wide interest range from basic science to drug discovery and business development. Her passion for innovation and entrepreneurship led her to join the Startup and leadership program (SLP) in Boston.
Adam Croucher, PhD
Finance Director
Adam Croucher, PhD
Finance Director
Adam brings over a decade of financial expertise to AstronauTx, joining the team in 2026. His career began at KPMG, where he built a strong foundation in finance and strategic advisory. Subsequently he has held senior roles with international biotech’s (Abcam, Treos Bio Limited) and pharmaceutical companies (Evolus International), contributing to strategic operations to advance innovative therapies.
Alongside his financial background, Adam holds a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Sheffield, enabling him to combine financial and scientific expertise to support AstronauTx’s mission and is passionate about leveraging his blend of skills to accelerate the development of transformative treatments.
Keith Wafford, PhD
Scientific Fellow
Keith Wafford, PhD
Head of Biology
Keith has over 30 years’ experience in drug discovery with expertise in neuropharmacology and sleep mechanisms.
Keith has worked in preclinical research across many areas of neuroscience including pain, psychiatry and neurodegeneration while at both Merck and Eli Lilly, leading discovery programs from preclinical to clinical stages. He has extensive experience in academic partnerships with over 200 publications.
Keith has a BSc. in Neuroscience from the University of Sussex and a PhD in pharmacology from the University of Cambridge.
Alex Ceroni, PhD, MBA
Portfolio and Operations Director
Alex Ceroni, PhD, MBA
Portfolio and Operations Director
Alex joined AstronauTx in 2025 as Portfolio and Operations Director. He has held various scientific roles in academia—at the University of Edinburgh and Oxford University - as well as in both small and large pharmaceutical companies, including Adaptimmune Ltd (Immuno-oncology cell therapy) and Novo Nordisk (Metabolic and chronic diseases). Alex later transitioned into portfolio and project management roles at Sitryx Therapeutics (Immunity and inflammation) and Exscientia AI (Oncology), supporting teams and projects across drug discovery and development.
Alex holds a PhD from the University of Edinburgh and an MBA from Oxford Brookes University.
Angela Glen
Associate Director, Medicinal Chemistry
Angela Glen
Associate Director, Medicinal Chemistry
Angela has over 25 years of experience in drug discovery and medicinal chemistry, delivering therapeutic candidates across a variety of therapeutic areas including CVN-766, a selective Orexin-1 receptor antagonist for psychiatric and CNS controlled metabolic disorders.
From target identification to preclinical testing, in Big Pharma (Novartis, Takeda CNS) and Biotech (Millennium, Ionix, Phoremost and Storm), Angela has extensive experience of drug design, cross-functional collaboration and managing external strategic alliances.
Daniel Hothersall, PhD
Senior Principal Scientist
Daniel Hothersall, PhD
Senior Principal Scientist
Daniel has more than ten years’ experience as a pharmacologist in drug discovery research.
Daniel joined AstronauTx in 2021, coming from a role as Team Leader at Domainex, a UK-based drug discovery CRO. Prior to this he held positions as industrial and academic postdocs at Pfizer, AstraZeneca and the University of Dundee, focusing on receptor pharmacology.
Daniel holds a PhD in GPCR pharmacology from University College London.
Regina Reynolds, PhD
Senior Principal Scientist, Bioinformatics Lead
Regina Reynolds, PhD
Senior Principal Scientist, Bioinformatics Lead
Regina is a molecular biologist turned bioinformatician with experience in translating large-scale omics data into actionable insights for drug discovery. She joined AstronautTx in 2025 from CoSyne Therapeutics where she drove company-wide omics initiatives spanning whole-genome sequencing, transcriptomics and CRISPRi screens to support target discovery in glioblastoma multiforme. Prior to this, she worked as a Research Fellow at University College London within the Aligning Sciences Across Parkinson's (ASAP) initiative to investigate transcriptomic signatures of Parkinson's disease progression.
Regina holds a PhD in Bioinformatics from University College London, where she focused on cell-type-specific gene expression regulation in Parkinson's disease, and an MSc in Molecular Biomedicine from the University of Copenhagen.
Angela Cartwright
US Executive Administrator and Operations Coordinator
Angela Cartwright
US Executive Administrator and Operations Coordinator
Angela brings more than 15 years of experience supporting C-level Executives and managing day-to-day business operations and human resources functions. Prior to joining AstronauTx, she served as Executive Assistant and Business Operations Manager at Verge Genomics, where she worked closely with senior leadership in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.
Previously, she held the role of Director of Operations for a 160-person business development team in the payments industry, where she led operational execution while also supporting the commercial payments division.
Tanya Finn
Executive Assistant
Tanya Finn
Executive Assistant
Tanya has over 10 years senior team support experience, Before joining AstronauTx, she served as Executive Assistant to the Dementia Discovery Team at SV Health Investors for several years. Earlier in her career, Tanya worked in similar senior team support roles with Dementias Platform UK and with the Oxford University Pro-Vice Chancellor’s office.
She holds an Bsc Hons degree in International Relations and Modern History from the University of Essex.
