Meet Our Leadership Team
Our leadership team embraces challenges and drives innovation, transforming the landscape of mRNA-based therapies and vaccines. With a commitment to seamless integration, we unlock the power of science and technology to accelerate the journey from discovery to market, empowering drug developers to bring their life-changing medicines to patients efficiently and effectively.
Jim Petrilla, MBA
Chief Executive Officer
With a career defined by transformative leadership and a commitment to innovation, Jim Petrilla stands at the helm of Vernal as its Chief Executive Officer. Bringing over 30 years of experience in the biopharma and clinical research sectors, he combines deep industry knowledge with a strategic vision honed in high-stakes environments. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Jim began his journey as an Information Warfare Officer in the U.S. Navy, where he cultivated a strong foundation in leadership and operations.
Jim’s impressive career spans pivotal roles at industry leaders like Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Biovail Corporation, and Becton Dickinson, where he successfully drove growth and innovation while leading diverse teams in global markets. He has effectively led large-scale operations generating up to $500 million in annual revenues—overseeing teams of up to 1,000 employees and consistently driving record-breaking sales growth.
At Bristol-Myers Squibb, Jim served as the Chairman of a Full Development Team, leading a worldwide, multi-disciplinary effort to perform late-stage clinical development and early commercialization for an HIV drug that achieved successful fast-track filing with the FDA and EMEA, later garnering multi-billion-dollar revenue.
As Chairman and Founding CEO of Lazaride BioSolutions, he pioneered transformative solutions in the biopharma landscape. He also served as President and CEO of VitaLink Research, which became one of the largest integrated networks of dedicated clinical trial sites in the Southeastern U.S. Additionally, Jim is the founding CEO of BioAgilytix Labs, where he led the company to significant growth before its successful sale in 2013, earning recognition as a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and a place on the Inc. 5000 list. As CEO of Stemco Biomedical, he led a team developing cutting-edge regenerative medicine.
At Vernal, Jim is dedicated to advancing the mission of revolutionizing medicine through mRNA-based therapies and vaccines. His vision harnesses Vernal’s extensive biotech expertise to deliver high-purity drug substances while ensuring operational excellence. Committed to helping developers overcome challenges, Vernal facilitates smooth transitions from lead identification to IND and commercial supply. Under Jim’s leadership, Vernal is poised to accelerate the path to life-changing medicines in cell therapy, gene therapy, and vaccines.
Christian Cobaugh, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer and Founder
Christian has been at the cutting edge of mRNA drug discovery for over fifteen years which allows him to build connections between customer needs and Vernal’s wide variety of technologies and solutions. He has extensive experience leading discovery and development teams in mRNA technology and was the first Alexion Pharmaceuticals scientist working on their partnership with Moderna Therapeutics to develop mRNA therapeutics. He has directed critical discovery, delivery, development, manufacturing, and quality control activities in the mRNA sector, having led mRNA R&D at Arcturus Therapeutics and Translate Bio; and served as Vice President of Process Development and Manufacturing at Omega Therapeutics.
With 15 mRNA patent applications, Christian brings strong scientific expertise in mRNA and LNP with broad experience in all phases of mRNA therapeutic development and regulatory requirements. He has also authored CMC sections for briefing books and developed ICH Q7-compliant quality management systems.
Christian earned his Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Texas at Austin and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Applied Biosystems in Redwood City, CA.
Robert Myers, MBA
Senior Vice President, Operations
Rob leads both the RUO and GMP business units at Vernal responsible for business and operational systems and processes for production, MSAT, analytical sciences, quality, and materials management. Rob has more than 25 years’ experience in biopharmaceuticals.
He pioneered business development and operations at Haematologic Technologies (now Prolytix), where he oversaw all marketing and sales activities for both the GMP analytical testing and RUO/POC research reagent divisions in addition to leading an RUO medical device business unit.
Rob received a bachelor’s degree in zoology from the University of Vermont and a master’s in business administration from UVM’s Grossman School of Business.
Grant Henderson, Ph.D.
Senior Director, Commercial and Technical Operations
Grant Henderson is responsible for process scale-up of pDNA, mRNA, and LNP-mRNA for cGMP activities. In addition to leading manufacturing sciences, Grant has been instrumental in facility design and process architecture, bringing more than 10 years of experience in process engineering in small and large molecules at Lonza Biologics and Mylan Technologies to his current role. His expertise also spans process development and regulatory filing.
Grant holds a B.E. in chemical engineering from the University of Connecticut and a Ph.D. in engineering from Dartmouth College.
Meet Our Board of Directors
With a career defined by transformative leadership and a commitment to innovation, Jim Petrilla stands at the helm of Vernal as its Chief Executive Officer. Bringing over 30 years of experience in the biopharma and clinical research sectors, he combines deep industry knowledge with a strategic vision honed in high-stakes environments. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Jim began his journey as an Information Warfare Officer in the U.S. Navy, where he cultivated a strong foundation in leadership and operations.
Jim’s impressive career spans pivotal roles at industry leaders like Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Biovail Corporation, and Becton Dickinson, where he successfully drove growth and innovation while leading diverse teams in global markets. He has effectively led large-scale operations generating up to $500 million in annual revenues—overseeing teams of up to 1,000 employees and consistently driving record-breaking sales growth.
At Bristol-Myers Squibb, Jim served as the Chairman of a Full Development Team, leading a worldwide, multi-disciplinary effort to perform late-stage clinical development and early commercialization for an HIV drug that achieved successful fast-track filing with the FDA and EMEA, later garnering multi-billion-dollar revenue.
As Chairman and Founding CEO of Lazaride BioSolutions, he pioneered transformative solutions in the biopharma landscape. He also served as President and CEO of VitaLink Research, which became one of the largest integrated networks of dedicated clinical trial sites in the Southeastern U.S. Additionally, Jim is the founding CEO of BioAgilytix Labs, where he led the company to significant growth before its successful sale in 2013, earning recognition as a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and a place on the Inc. 5000 list. As CEO of Stemco Biomedical, he led a team developing cutting-edge regenerative medicine.
At Vernal, Jim is dedicated to advancing the mission of revolutionizing medicine through mRNA-based therapies and vaccines. His vision harnesses Vernal’s extensive biotech expertise to deliver high-purity drug substances while ensuring operational excellence. Committed to helping developers overcome challenges, Vernal facilitates smooth transitions from lead identification to IND and commercial supply. Under Jim’s leadership, Vernal is poised to accelerate the path to life-changing medicines in cell therapy, gene therapy, and vaccines.
Christian has been at the cutting edge of mRNA drug discovery for over fifteen years which allows him to build connections between customer needs and Vernal’s wide variety of technologies and solutions. He has extensive experience leading discovery and development teams in mRNA technology and was the first Alexion Pharmaceuticals scientist working on their partnership with Moderna Therapeutics to develop mRNA therapeutics. He has directed critical discovery, delivery, development, manufacturing, and quality control activities in the mRNA sector, having led mRNA R&D at Arcturus Therapeutics and Translate Bio; and served as Vice President of Process Development and Manufacturing at Omega Therapeutics.
With 15 mRNA patent applications, Christian brings strong scientific expertise in mRNA and LNP with broad experience in all phases of mRNA therapeutic development and regulatory requirements. He has also authored CMC sections for briefing books and developed ICH Q7-compliant quality management systems.
Christian earned his Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Texas at Austin and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Applied Biosystems in Redwood City, CA.
As General Partner at Ampersand Capital Partners, David brings a wealth of experience from his 20 years in the healthcare industry. Over the last decade, David has supported Ampersand’s portfolio of successful CDMO businesses including Brammer Bio, Arranta Bio, Vibalogics, and Genezen. In addition, David works with other service businesses in the advanced therapies sector, including Cellero and Protagene. David holds a B.Sc. in immunology from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland; a Ph.D. in tumor immunobiology from the University of Sheffield, England; and an M.B.A. from Babson College, Wellesley, MA.
Daniella led Dynamk Capital’s investments in 13 portfolio companies, and sits on the board of several. Prior to founding Dynamk Capital, she was CEO and Founder of Dynamk Consulting, providing capital, strategy and business development consulting to leading life science companies and startups. Before that she was an entrepreneur and co-founded Wave Biotech LLC driving the start-up, growth and commercialization of a highly disruptive technology until the successful exit and acquisition by GE Healthcare in 2007 (now Danaher/Cytiva). At GE Healthcare, Daniella held a variety of strategic, M&A and business development roles including integrating the acquired Xcellerex business which enabled global commercialization of a several hundred million dollar enterprise solutions business.
Errik B. Anderson is the CEO and Founder of Alloy Therapeutics, a biotech ecosystem democratizing access to technologies and services for discovering and developing therapeutic biologics across six modalities including antibodies, TCRs, genetic medicines, peptides, cell therapy, and drug delivery. As the CEO of his single-family office, Ulysses Diversified Holdings, and as the previous co-founder and executive of successful biotech companies including Adimab, Compass Therapeutics, Alector, Avitide and Arsanis, Errik brings a breadth of operational and investment experience. Errik received his A.B. from Dartmouth and an M.B.A. from The Tuck School of Business and studied bioengineering at The Thayer School of Engineering.
Steve Favaloro is currently President and CEO of Genezen, a leading gene and cell therapy CDMO. He also serves as an executive advisor to Ampersand Capital Partners. Prior, Steve was CFO at Arbor Biotechnologies, a next generation gene editing therapeutic company. Steve also served as CFO at Arranta Bio, a leading CDMO for mRNA, from its founding in 2019 to its successful exit to Recipharm in February 2022. Prior to this, Steve was CFO at Brammer Bio, where he oversaw a period of rapid expansion and capital deployment from 2016 to 2019 – leading up to its successful sale to Thermo Fisher Scientific in May 2019 for $1.7B. Prior to joining Brammer, Steve held finance roles of increasing responsibility at MilliporeSigma, Merck KGaA, and Bruker Corporation. He received his MBA and Master of Science from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College. Steve also received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Boston College.
Pat Sacco is an accomplished biotechnology and life sciences executive with extensive experience in leading technical and general operations, including manufacturing, supply chain, CMC, quality, process sciences, and engineering. Over his 35-year career, he’s supported and made significant contributions to the development, manufacturing, and commercialization of REPLAGAL®, ELAPRASE®, and VPRIV®. He is currently the SVP of Manufacturing, Quality, and Operations at SalioGen Therapeutics.
Pat has also been an independent consultant and actively engaged with several advanced therapy medicinal product (ATMP) biotech companies and CDMOs, where he provided interim executive management, strategic advisory support, and technical, operational, and program management expertise. He was the SVP of Technical Operations at both Translate Bio (now part of Sanofi) and Shire plc (now Takeda), and prior to that held roles of increasing responsibility (from Project Engineer (1987–1990) to Director, Plant and Project Engineering (1998–1999) at Wyeth Biopharma (formerly Genetics Institute) and Genzyme. Pat holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). He is also a board member at QbDVision, Inc.
High-Purity mRNA
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