Who We Are

Management Team

Alex Yang, J.D., LL.M.

CEO and Chair of the Board

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Alex Yang, J.D., LL.M. is the CEO/owner of Mstone Partners, which serves as the major shareholder of Polaryx. Since 2016, Alex has served in senior management and chair of board roles for a number of biopharmaceutical companies. Prior to the biotech incubation platform, Alex has over 25 years of experience in advising and executing fund formation, cross-border transactions, and a diverse pool of investment experiences in multiple industry sectors. He currently serves investment and risk committee member roles for various regional and country-focused private equity funds. Alex was formerly a managing partner at Kim & Chang and a partner at the Ernst & Young Hong Kong office leading regional financial services practice, including banking and capital markets, asset management, and insurance.

Alex formerly worked at the Morgan Stanley Hong Kong Office in the capacity of its Asia Private Equity and In-house Counsel, focused on buy-outs and grow-capital investments, real estate, special situation, and infrastructure transactions across Asia. He also worked at Coopers & Lybrand and Ernst & Young New York offices in their international tax and consulting divisions.

Alex graduated from New York University School of Law with both Juris Doctor (J.D.) and Master of Laws (LL.M.) degrees and a bar with the State of New York and received an undergraduate degree from Binghamton University in Economics.

Ronald Moss, M.D.

Chief Medical Officer

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Ronald Moss, M.D., is a board-certified allergist/immunologist and has over 30 years of experience leading the clinical development of high-value pipelines that resulted in regulatory approvals and strategic alliances. Prior to joining Polaryx, Ron was most recently the Chief Executive Officer at Red Queen Therapeutics where he led clinical and preclinical research, business development, corporate strategy, and intellectual property management. He has held various executive roles of increasing responsibilities at Adamis Pharmaceuticals, Ansun Biopharma, Nexbio, Telos Pharmaceuticals, and Merck & Co., and oversaw clinical programs across multiple therapeutic areas. In addition to his executive roles, Ron also serves as a Director on the Board of Biosortia Pharmaceuticals.

Ron holds a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree from the Chicago Medical School and completed his residency in pediatrics at the State University of New York at Stony Brooks. He also completed his extensive post-doctoral fellowship training in Allergy and Immunology at the National Institute of Health.

Rama Abu Shmeis, Ph.D.

Chief CMC Officer (Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls)

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Rama is a highly accomplished senior scientific professional and visionary leader with over 20 years of achievements in pharmaceutical development, regulatory approvals, and commercial manufacturing.

Rama has a demonstrated record in leading strategic, operational, scientific and regulatory aspects of CMC development, manufacturing and supply chain across all stages: discovery, preclinical, clinical, regulatory approval, launch and commercialization. She has advanced 25+ new chemical entities on a speed to market timeline, with strong emphasis on science, innovation, and quality in various therapeutic areas, including Oncology, Autoimmune Diseases, Immunology and inflammation, Pain, Renal, Virology and Neuroscience.

Rama holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy from the College of Pharmacy, University of Jordan - Amman, Jordan, and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics at the College of Pharmacy, University of Iowa - Iowa City, IA.

Rama has also received the Upjohn-Enz Commitment for Excellence Award by Pharmacia, and the Pharmacy Graduate Program Excellence Award.

Luis A. Rojas, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Chief Clinical Development Officer

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Luis A Rojas M.Sc., Ph.D. is Polaryx’s Chief Clinical Development Officer. Luis is a highly experienced Research Scientist Statistician with 30+ years in the pharmaceutical, medical device, CRO, and academia industries. Luis is a Subject-Matter Expert in Study Design / Adaptive Design for Phase I through Phase IV studies and has amassed more than 20 years of leadership and project management experience, including managing global staff of 140+ Biostatisticians and Statistical Programmers.

Luis was the former Head of Study Designs / Adaptive Design unit within Advisory Service Analytics / Center for Statistics in Drug Development in IQVIA, while acting as lead Senior Research Scientist Statistician for the GI, Rare Diseases, Ophthalmology, CNS, Lupus, RA Center of Excellence. Luis received his Ph.D. in Research Statistics from Rafael Belloso Chacin, Venezuela.

Hahn-Jun Lee, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Chief Scientific Officer

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Hahn-Jun Lee, M.Sc., Ph.D. is a serial entrepreneur who founded or co-founded Polaryx, Epygenix Therapeutics and Focus Therapeutics, a business catalyst in the biotech-pharma industry. He also co-founded Curyx Partners, LLC, a drug development platform. Hahn-Jun has extensive experience in R&D, deal making, business development, and has consulted with several top-notch health care venture capital firms and global pharma and biotech companies, including Doman Associates, Shire Human Genetic Therapies, P&G Pharma, Melior Discovery, and CDI. He also consulted with several Korean biotechs, venture capital firms, and research institutes.

Hahn-Jun was an Assistant Professor of Biotechnology in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University in the City of New York. He also worked as a Staff Scientist at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Japan. He obtained a B.Sc. in Life Science from Sogang University, Seoul, Korea and completed his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in applied biotechnology in the Department of Applied Biotechnology at the University of Tokyo, Japan.

G. Michael Landis, C.P.A.

Chief Financial Officer

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G. Michael Landis, C.P.A., is a highly accomplished financial executive who brings an over 25-year track record of public company expertise, capital market transactions, investor relations, and financial report. Immediately prior to joining Polaryx, Mike was Chief Financial Officer at Epygenix Therapeutics, a late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company that was recently acquired in April 2024. Mike was also the Chief Financial Officer at Avisa Diagnostics Inc., a publicly traded medical device company. While there, he was responsible for strategic and tactical finance initiatives and was directly involved with investor relations and capital-raising activities. He also served as Principal Accounting Officer and Treasurer at Lannett Company Inc., a publicly traded pharmaceutical company, where he led acquisitions and related financing activities, and was a member of the executive team that successfully completed a $1.2 billion acquisition. Mike was actively involved in the Initial Public Offering (IPO) process in previous financial leadership roles at companies including Akrion Inc. and AlliedBarton Security Services, LLC. Mike has also worked at various other publicly traded companies after beginning his career within the Big Four public accounting firms.

Mike holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in accounting from Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA and is a Certified Public Accountant (C.P.A.)

Andrew O

Chief Investment Officer

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Andrew O has over twenty years of experience as an asset management and finance professional. Prior to serving as Polaryx’s Chief Investment Officer, Andrew held multiple positions within traditional fund management as well fundamentally-driven hedge fund investing roles at institutions such as Manulife Investment Management, Horizon Asset International, and FrontPoint Partners (Morgan Stanley). Andrew also worked at Goldman Sachs and the International Finance Corporation, the World Bank’s private investment arm.

Andrew graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and undertook Master’s level studies at Yonsei University’s Graduate School of International Studies.

Shrijay Vijayan, Ph.D.

Chief Business Development Officer

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Jay Vijayan, Ph.D. is the Chief Business Development Officer of Polaryx Therapeutics. Jay has worked at both public/private institutions as well as at eminent hospitals and Universities to assess, develop, and commercialize a wide range of technologies including therapeutics, diagnostics, and medical devices (from rare diseases to neurodegeneration, cancer, autoimmunity, and inflammation). He held several senior roles in technology commercialization in top academic institutions including as Director of Innovation at the Hospital for Special Surgery and Head of Technology Commercialization at Rush University Medical Center. Jay was Co-Founder and Director of Business Development and Scientific Affairs at Optimal Vision Corporation. In addition to executive roles, he has served as scientific advisor to several biotech companies and most recently as scientific advisor and board member of a publicly traded company (TLGY: NASDAQ).

Jay received his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the City University of New York and completed his postdoctoral training at the University of Chicago where he conducted research on trafficking and regulation of key components of the gamma secretase in Alzheimer’s disease.

Scientific and Clinical Advisory Board

Kalipada Pahan, Ph.D.

Chair of Scientific and Clinical Advisory Board

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Kalipada Pahan, Ph.D. is a Professor of Neurological Sciences, Biochemistry and Pharmacology and the Floyd A. Davis, M.D., Endowed Chair in Neurology at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Dr. Pahan is also a Veterans Affairs Scientist at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center. Currently, he is engaged in translational biomedical research involving Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer's Disease, and Batten Disease. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Multiple Sclerosis, Senior Editor of the Journal of Neuroimmune Pharmacology, Editor of three other journals, and a chartered member of the Clinical Neuroimmunology and Brain Tumors study section at the NIH.

Dr. Pahan has over 160 publications. He received the “Chancellor’s Council Silver U Award” in 2004, and the "Reinhardt Research Scholar Award” in 2005 from the University of Nebraska Medical Center. He also received merit awards from the US Department of Veterans Affairs and the Zenith award from the Alzheimer’s Association.

Raymond Wang, M.D.

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Raymond Wang, M.D. is the Director of the Multidisciplinary Lysosomal Storage Disorder Program at CHOC Children’s Hospital and a board-certified clinical geneticist and biochemical genetics specialist. He has participated in clinical trials for Type 2 Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis, Pompe Disease, Niemann-Pick C Disease, and Mucopolysaccharidoses. He also is the principal investigator for translational research involving gene therapy and gene editing for treatment of lysosomal storage disorders.

Dr. Wang graduated from Stanford University with Honors and Distinction in Biological Sciences. He earned his medical degree from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and completed his internship and residency in medical genetics and pediatrics at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center where he served as chief resident in his final year of training. Dr. Wang completed his fellowship in biochemical genetics at the UCLA Intercampus Medical Genetics Program. Dr. Wang has been named an Orange County Clinical Biochemical Genetics Physician of Excellence in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 and nominated for a 2018 Global Genes RARE Champion of Hope Award for his work with children with rare metabolic conditions.

Angela Schulz, M.D.

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Angela Schulz, M.D. is the director at Children's Hospital, NCL Specialty Clinic International Center of Lysosomal Storage Disorders (ICLD) University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf Hamburg, Germany. Her areas of expertise include palliative medicine and neuropediatrics.

Dr. Schulz was the winner of 2005 Wissenschaftspreis der Gesellschaft für Neuropädiatrie.

Saadet Andrews, M.D., Ph.D.

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Saadet Andrews, M.D., Ph.D. received training in both clinical metabolic genetics and pediatrics at the Department of Pediatrics, Vienna General Hospital, University of Vienna, Austria. Dr. Andrews completed her training on biochemical genetics fellowship and a one-year fellowship in pediatric neurology at the University of British Columbia's Division of Neurology, Department of Pediatrics. She established the first epilepsy genetics clinic at The Hospital for Sick Children between 2011 to 2020 and began working as a geneticist at the University of Alberta's Department of Medical Genetics in Edmonton. She has also developed the "Epilepsy Genetics Clinic" in the Department to provide genetic diagnostics to the children, teenagers and adults with epilepsy in Northern Alberta.

Dr. Andrews was the winner of the 2015 Epilepsia Clinical Science Prize for her clinical research study "Diagnostic yield of genetic testing in epileptic encephalopathy in Childhood."

Board of Directors

Alex Yang, J.D., LL.M.

CEO and Chair of the Board

Hahn-Jun Lee, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Chief Scientific Officer

Andrew O

Chief Investment Officer

We're seeking partners to help bring Polaryx therapies to patients and families fighting lysosomal storage disorders.
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