PASSION LED US HERE
THIS IS WHO WE ARE
We are a committed team of hard working, passionate, pharmaceutical scientists, discoverers, researchers, biologists, chemists, business developers and collaborative partners on a mission to supply new therapies for defeating deadly cancers and related diseases. Our singular mission is to improve quality of life for patients with the greatest needs, which are not being met by current standards of care for cancer and liver disease.
Our company was founded in 2011 as a spinoff of The Moffitt Cancer Research Center located in Tampa, Florida with one peptide drug targeting an elusive form of relapsing cancer. We moved to Morgantown, West Virginia in 2016 to pursue research and development opportunities with new discoveries for targeting and defeating aggressive cancers. We now have 3 novel 1st in Class therapies targeting 9 diseases. Our mission is focused on moving the robust Modulation Therapeutics pipeline of targeted radio-therapy, small molecule and peptide based drug compounds efficiently through the clinic to achieve rapid FDA approval and patient access.
Operational Team
Lori Hazlehurst, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Lori Hazlehurst, PhD, is CEO and co-founder of Modulation Therapeutics. In addition to her leadership role at Modulation Therapeutics, Lori is a Professor and Co-Leader of the Alexander B. Osborn Hematopoietic Malignancy and Transplantation Program at West Virginia University. Dr. Hazlehurst received her Ph.D. at the University of Vermont in Molecular and Cellular Biology where her work focused on the early development of Pixantrone, which is currently marketed in Europe. She has extensive experience in preclinical models of cancer and delineating mechanisms of drug resistance. Her research has been focused on the identification of novel targets that mediate survival and tumor progression in the tumor microenvironment. Lori is also co-inventor on multiple Modulation Therapeutics patents.
Mark Mclaughlin, Ph.D.
Executive VP, Co-Founder
Dr. Mark McLaughlin, Ph.D., is Executive Vice President and Co-founder of Modulation Therapeutics. Dr. McLaughlin is also a Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at West Virginia University. Formerly, Professor of Chemistry at the University of South Florida and Senior Member of the Drug Discovery Department at the Moffitt Cancer Center. Mark is an inventor or co-inventor on 15 patents. He has an extensive peptide synthesis background as well as standard organic synthesis experience needed for developing beta-sheet mimicry scaffolds, preparation of unnatural amino acids, linkers, and the chelators used in the core Modulation Therapeutics pipeline compounds.
Tim Hazlehurst
Chief Operations Officer
Tim Hazlehurst, BS, COO and Business Development Manager. Mr. Hazlehurst has more than 30 years of entrepreneurial experience in start-ups, company development and management. As an executive leader in the electronics industry, Tim has directed domestic and international companies in all aspects of; fundraising, mergers, acquisition, R&D, manufacturing, distribution, marketing and sales. Tim joined Modulation Therapeutics in 2017 and is responsible for managing business projects, administrative development, and corporate fund raising.
Karen Hayes, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist and Project Manager – Biology
Dr. Hayes is Modulation Therapeutics Senior Scientist and Project Manager with over 15 years of experience in oncology research. Karen joined the company in 2018 after completing her postdoctoral fellowship at West Virginia University. With a strong background in cancer cell biology Karen performs several roles at Modulation Therapeutics as part of a multi-disciplined drug discovery team. Karen manages in vitro and in vivo model efficacy and toxicity to advance development of the MTI drug projects. Karen also provides oversight as a certified human clinical trial monitor, management of CRO toxic-kinetic studies and contributes to drafting of Investigational New Drug applications to the FDA.
Sridhar Reddy Kaulagari, M.Sc., B.Ed., Ph.D.
Senior Scientist and Project Manager – Chemistry
Dr. Sridhar Reddy Kaulagari is Modulation Therapeutics Senior Scientist and Project Manager with 19 years of synthetic-organic and medicinal chemistry experience. He has synthetic chemistry experience in small molecules, peptides and peptide nucleic acids and dyes. Sridhar received his PhD in Organic Chemistry from University of South Florida, Tampa. He has worked as Research Associate at Cadila Pharmaceuticals Ltd in Bangalore, Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia State University and West Virginia University before starting at MTI where he is responsible for the company’s efforts in developing the new chemical entities as first in class medicines for multiple projects. Sridhar develops SAR's and synthetic chemistry for high priority projects from early discovery to lead optimization and transferring technology to CROs for GLP and cGMP manufacturing of lead molecules. Sridhar also develops analytical methods including LC-MS/MS for detecting analytes and metabolites in the pipeline compounds and is responsible for drafting portions of Investigational New Drug applications to the FDA for pipeline therapies.
Board of Directors
William Steven Dalton, Ph.D., M.D.
Board of Directors
Dr. William (Bill) S. Dalton is Founder and Senior Advisor to M2Gen, a national biotechnology subsidiary of the Moffitt Cancer Center. He is the past President, CEO & Center Director of Moffitt Cancer Center, an NCI-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center. Prior to joining Moffitt as Center Director in 2002, Dr. Dalton was the Dean of the University of Arizona College of Medicine. His research interests include development of information systems to allow aggregation, organization, and sharing of patient data in real time to enhance discovery and delivery of evidenced-based precision medicine. While at Moffitt, he participated in the development of the “Total Cancer Care Protocol” designed to follow patients throughout their lifetime with patients donating their clinical data, tissue, and molecular data to support precision medicine. In 2014, the Moffitt Cancer Center partnered with the James Cancer Center at Ohio State University to form ORIEN, a cancer center alliance of eighteen cancer centers dedicated to data sharing and collaborative research. Dr. Dalton’s basic and translational research interests focus on molecular mechanisms of drug resistance and drug discovery. His research focused on both acquired and de novo drug resistance mechanisms in myeloma and other malignancies. Most notably, Dr. Dalton and his collaborators demonstrated that both cell adhesion and soluble factors originating from stromal cells conferred an ephemeral survival advantage to tumor cells and coined the terms “Cell Adhesion Mediated Drug Resistance, CAM-DR” and “Environmental Mediated Drug Resistance” or EMDR. He has over 200 publications, served on several editorial boards, and has numerous patents in the fields of drug discovery and computer/information networking. He has served on numerous boards, including the National Board of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society; he is the past-Chair of the Personalized Medicine Coalition and is the current Board Chair of the Institute of Human and Machine Cognition. He is also the past-President of the Association of American Cancer Institutes.
Anne Cress, Ph.D.
Board of Directors
Anne Cress, Ph.D., is a Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Arizona, College of Medicine, and the Deputy Dean for Research. Her laboratory is located at the University of Arizona Cancer Center in Tucson, AZ. Her research focuses on molecular mechanisms of cell adhesion and human tumor progression. Dr. Cress’s research group discovered cell adhesion-mediated drug and radiation resistance (CAM-DR and CAM-RR) as adaptive responses of tumors and major impediments to the eradication of epithelial cancers. Dr. Cress is a co-inventor of HYD1, which is an important part of the core IP of Modulation.
Lori Hazlehurst, Ph.D.
Board of Directors
Dr. Lori Hazlehurst, PhD, is CEO and co-founder of Modulation Therapeutics. In addition to her leadership role at Modulation Therapeutics, Lori is a Professor and Co-Leader of the Alexander B. Osborn Hematopoietic Malignancy and Transplantation Program at West Virginia University. Dr. Hazlehurst received her Ph.D. at the University of Vermont in Molecular and Cellular Biology where her work focused on the early development of Pixantrone, which is currently marketed in Europe. She has extensive experience in preclinical models of cancer and delineating mechanisms of drug resistance. Her research has been focused on the identification of novel targets that mediate survival and tumor progression in the tumor microenvironment. Lori is also co-inventor on multiple Modulation Therapeutics patents.
Mark Mclaughlin, Ph.D.
Board of Directors
Dr. Mark McLaughlin, Ph.D., is Executive Vice President and Co-founder of Modulation Therapeutics. Dr. McLaughlin is also a Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at West Virginia University. Formerly, Professor of Chemistry at the University of South Florida and Senior Member of the Drug Discovery Department at the Moffitt Cancer Center. Mark is an inventor or co-inventor on 15 patents. He has an extensive peptide synthesis background as well as standard organic synthesis experience needed for developing beta-sheet mimicry scaffolds, preparation of unnatural amino acids, linkers, and the chelators used in the core Modulation Therapeutics pipeline compounds.