Management Team

Scott Harper, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Advisor of Armatus Bio, Inc., is a molecular biologist with more than two decades of spearheading innovation in gene therapy, currently serving as a Principal Investigator at Nationwide Children’s Hospital Center for Gene Therapy. Dr. Harper has been awarded 15 patents with more than 30 pending. Prior to his work at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Dr. Harper developed and patented the first RNAi-based gene therapies for dominant neurodegenerative diseases, which was licensed by Spark Therapeutics. As a graduate student, Dr. Harper co-invented and patented ΔR4-R23 micro-dystrophin, the centerpiece of Sarepta Therapeutics’ Duchenne muscular dystrophy gene therapy product. Dr. Harper received the 2014 American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy Outstanding New Investigator award.

 

Dr. Harper currently serves as a Scientific Advisory Board Member of the Charcot-Marie-Tooth Association and is a standing member of the NIH Neurological Sciences and Disorders B (NSD-B) Study Section. Dr. Harper is currently Chair of the ASGCT RNAi and Oligonucleotide Therapy Committee and a program committee member of the FSHD Society International Research Congress. He completed his post-doctoral work at the University of Iowa College of Medicine, earned his Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Michigan, and his B.S. in Biology from Saginaw Valley State University (Summa cum laude).

Michael O’Beirne, SVP, Clinical and Regulatory Strategy at Armatus Bio, Inc., is a dynamic leader with over 25 years of industry experience in regulatory approvals. Mr. O’Beirne was previously Executive Director and Head of Regulatory Strategy for gene therapy products at Sarepta Therapeutics. Prior to and following his time at Sarepta, Mr. O’Beirne maintained and independent regulatory consultancy. He was also previously Senior Director of Regulatory Affairs at Elan Pharmaceuticals. Mr. O’Beirne has contributed to the development and original regulatory approvals for several novel therapeutics for Theravance Biopharma, Exelixis, Chugai Pharmaceuticals, Gilead Sciences, UniMed Pharmaceuticals, and Abbott Laboratories (now AbbVie).

 

Mr. O’Beirne earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois (Urbana/Champaign) and a master’s degree from Northwestern University.

Kenneth (Kenny) Morand, Ph.D., SVP, Emerging Technologies at Armatus Bio, Inc., has more than 25 years of research & development management and entrepreneurial experience in life sciences and technology commercialization. Prior to Armatus Bio, Dr. Morand served as an Executive-in-Residence with Cincytech, LLC, a seed-stage venture investment firm based in Cincinnati. Prior to joining Cincytech, he spent 25 years with The Procter & Gamble Company and Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals serving in several research and development leadership roles.

 

Dr. Morand has provided commercialization and technical mentoring at several renowned institutions, including the NIH Centers for Accelerated Innovations at the Cleveland Clinic. He earned a B.S. in Chemistry at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. at Purdue University under the direction of Graham Cooks, Ph.D. Dr. Morand was a Visiting Scholar at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg.

Michael Triplett, Ph.D., co-founder, President, and CEO of Armatus Bio, Inc., is passionate about translating world-class science and technology into transformative businesses, Prior to Armatus Bio, Dr. Triplett co-founded two early-stage companies including Myonexus Therapeutics, which was acquired by Sarepta Therapeutics in 2019, and Clarametyx Biosciences, Inc., and served as CEO of N8 Medical. Dr. Triplett previously held roles of progressing responsibility at Battelle Memorial Institute, and began his career at Procter & Gamble, prior to completing graduate work in nanoparticle engineering.

 

Dr. Triplett currently leads an InnovateOhio Gene and Cell Therapy Working Group for Ohio Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted with the mission of developing gene and cell therapy economic development strategies to grow the industry within the State of Ohio. He earned a B.S. (summa cum laude) and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from The Ohio State University as a United States Department of Defense National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellow and University Fellow.

Peter Kleinhenz, co-founder, COO and CFO of Armatus Bio, Inc., is an accomplished life sciences executive and entrepreneurial strategist with extensive C-suite leadership, VC partnership and board membership experience. Prior to Armatus Bio, Mr. Kleinhenz co-founded Clarametyx Biosciences, Inc. and served as CFO and CBO at Myonexus Therapeutics until its acquisition by Sarepta in 2019. He was President and CEO of Woodhall Consulting, LLC, a strategic planning and venture development consultancy focused on life sciences. Mr. Kleinhenz was also previously a General Partner/Managing Director at Fletcher Spaght Ventures and CID Capital, Inc., leading investments in medical device, diagnostic, and therapeutic companies, and serving in various board and advisory roles at numerous companies. He was Vice President of Commercialization Life Sciences for Battelle Memorial Institute, leading start-up formation, development of strategic partnerships, and internal corporate consulting teams. Prior to that he served as CEO of Progenics Inc. and was a member of the founding management team at Neoprobe Corporation, holding positions of CFO, VP of Manufacturing and VP of Product and Market Planning.

 

Mr. Kleinhenz has been active in technology-based economic development issues in Ohio and across the Mid-West. He earned an M.B.A. from Case Western Reserve University and a bachelor’s degree from Loyola University of Chicago.

Brian Price, Ph.D., CTO at Armatus Bio, Inc., has a successful track record of business development growth and product development in Chemistry Manufacturing and Controls (CMC) for therapeutic and vaccine development, toxicology and analytics. Prior to Armatus Bio, Dr. Price was Principal Consultant at Price Biologics Consulting, LLC, assisting in the development of scalable and efficient CMC processes for gene therapy products, and supported the development of an AAV-based COVID vaccine candidate in a COO role for Albamunity, Inc. Prior to that, he served as VP of Pharmaceutical Development at Myonexus Therapeutics until its acquisition by Sarepta in 2019. Dr. Price also served as COO at Blue Water Vaccines where he participated in the development of a universal influenza vaccine candidate. He previously held a range of leadership roles over the course of a 15-year tenure at Battelle Memorial Institute, most recently as the acting lead for business development in the Health business unit.

 

Earlier in his career, Dr. Price served as a technical consultant for the Joint Vaccine Acquisition Program at the Department of Defense (through the Camber Corporation) and Manager of QC at BioPort Corporation (now Emergent BioSolutions). He earned a B.S. and Ph.D. in Microbiology from The Ohio State University.