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The Lucy Therapeutics team is relentlessly curious. We advance science and our company by embracing creativity and flexibility to achieve exceptional results in everything we do. Our diverse expertise from basic science to business is nurtured by our inclusive, equitable and compassionate culture.

Lucy Team

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Board of Directors

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Scientific Advisory Boards

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Investors

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Amy Ripka, Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer

Amy has over 20 years of drug discovery experience and was involved in the discovery of two marketed drugs (Daklinza® and Sunvepra®). She has participated in 5 biotech INDs and has more than 30 issued patents. She has held VP and Executive Director positions at prominent CROs. Amy has chaired the prestigious Medicinal Chemistry Gordon Conference and currently serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of Q Biomed Ventures, Caraway Therapeutics and Medtronic

Amy Ripka, Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer

Bryan Keaney

Chief Financial Officer

Bryan is a financial executive with over 25 years of experience managing biotechnology companies from the start-up phase through periods of rapid growth into complex publicly traded entities. He is experienced in building systems and infrastructure, successful at fundraising, and was instrumental in three successful IPOs. Bryan has served in senior roles at CombinatoRx, Synta Pharmaceuticals, Shionogi Bioresearch, and held management roles at Genzyme Corporation and Hybritech.

Bryan Keaney

Chief Financial Officer

Christopher J. Winrow, Ph.D.

Chief Scientific Officer

Chris is an experienced leader in neuroscience drug discovery and development with more than 20 years in large pharma and biotech companies. In his most recent position, he served as Vice President and Head of Translational Medicine at Cyclerion Therapeutics. Chris has led teams at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals and Merck & Co., advancing small molecules from target ID, validation and lead optimization through all phases of clinical development, including regulatory approval. He has been responsible for numerous INDs, NDA and international regulatory submissions, and patent submissions and has authored more than 70 peer reviewed articles.

Christopher J. Winrow, Ph.D.

Chief Scientific Officer

Allen Hopper, Ph.D.

Vice President, Drug Discovery

Allen brings his extensive drug discovery research expertise to Lucy Therapeutics, having most recently served as Senior Director of Medicinal Chemistry at Remix Therapeutics and Director of Exploratory Research at Sage Therapeutics. He held senior positions at Turing Pharmaceuticals AG, Lundbeck and Memory Pharmaceuticals, moving drugs from early metabolism and PK studies to regulatory filings as promising INDs.

Allen Hopper, Ph.D.

Vice President, Drug Discovery

Danielle Blackwell

Director of Pharmacology

Danielle is an experienced scientific leader in small molecule drug discovery with over 15 years in the biotech industry. She has led preclinical programs and supported projects from early discovery through candidate selection across therapeutic areas like oncology, inflammation, and neurodegeneration. Most recently, she worked at Ribon Therapeutics as Associate Director of Cellular and Biological Assay Development.

Danielle Blackwell

Director of Pharmacology

Jessica Garrant

Sr. Director, Operations

Jessica brings over 16 years of Human Resources expertise and a senior-level certification from the Society for Human Resources Management to her role at Lucy Therapeutics. In addition to her experience in various industries, she has spent over six years specializing in the development of the HR function and overall operational alignment within start-up organizations.

Jessica Garrant

Sr. Director, Operations

Jessica Sloan

Sr. Executive Assistant

Jessica brings more than two decades of experience supporting celebrities and C-Suite Executives to Lucy. She has held high-level support positions at The Life is Good Company, InterSystems, and InVisionapp during her career. Jessica believes in facilitating the thoughtful use of an executive’s time and has mastered the sport of “Extreme Calendaring” to ensure proper planning and execution of all tasks.

Jessica Sloan

Sr. Executive Assistant

Robin Grammer

Operations Manager

Robin is an Operations professional specializing in uniting scientific goals with administrative duties. She draws on past supervisory and laboratory experience to ensure smooth daily operations. Before joining Lucy, Robin spent over 15 years in the Veterinary field as a Certified Veterinary Technician, throughout which she co-authored and published two peer-reviewed articles.

Robin Grammer

Operations Manager

Vera Procaccia, Ph.D.

Senior Scientist

Vera brings more than 15 years of experience in academic and industrial biomedical research to her role at Lucy Therapeutics. Her research expertise ranges across fields such as cancer, metabolic diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and neuroscience. Vera holds a doctorate degree in Molecular Pharmacology from the University of Pittsburgh and served as a Visiting Assistant Teaching Professor at Carnegie Mellon University in the Computational Biology Department before joining Lucy.

Vera Procaccia, Ph.D.

Senior Scientist

Yipeng Du, Ph.D.

Scientist II

Yipeng brings over 10 years experience in the field of mitochondrial research to Lucy Therapeutics. He has published over 16 peer-reviewed articles and has centered his work on how mitochondria is linked to metabolic diseases. Yipeng is focusing on developing a series of mitochondrial platforms for drug screening.

Yipeng Du, Ph.D.

Scientist II

Minevere Sinani

Associate Scientist

Minevere is an Associate Scientist at Lucy Therapeutics, where she leads the day-to-day cell culture activities in the lab. She has focused her 25+ year career on cell culture in multiple disease models such as Cancer, Cystic Fibrosis, Alzheimer’s, Huntington's disease, and Parkinson’s disease.

Minevere Sinani

Associate Scientist

John Burnell

Research Associate, II

John is a recent graduate of the University of Maine. His focus on the mitochondrial toxicity of antimicrobial agents gave him a solid foundation to begin his scientific career at Lucy. John possesses a passion for hands-on work in the lab and a deep interest in the drug discovery process.

John Burnell

Research Associate, II

Amy Ripka, Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer

View bio

Amy Ripka, Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer

Designer

Rachel Sha

Director

View bio

Rachel Sha

Director

Designer

John Ripple

Mitochondrial Advisory Board

Giovanni is an internationally renowned mitochondrial expert who has made seminal contributions to the understanding of the molecular and biochemical mechanisms of mitochondrial dysfunction in neuro-degenerative diseases. Giovanni is a Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medicine, in New York City, where his research focuses on target discovery for bioenergetic and mitochondrial dysfunction in ALS and primary mitochondrial diseases.

Prof. Giovanni Manfredi, MD, Ph.D.

Mitochondrial Advisory Board

Designer