Madera Therapeutics Management Team, Academic Investigators, and NCI
Madera’s management team brings extensive pharma, biotech, and operational experience to the development of ClpP agonists as potential treatments for human disease. Through a global open-innovation model, Madera integrates leading academic, institutional, and select CRO expertise to advance its therapeutic programs.
Management Team and Key Advisors
Madera’s management team combines complementary expertise across discovery, development, operations, and business strategy.
Our management group includes:
Ed Iwanowicz, Ph.D
President & Founder
Dr. Iwanowicz is the founder and president of Madera Therapeutics. Ed has over 30 years of experience in drug discovery and development in leadership positions in large pharma (BMS, Novartis, and J&J), a large biotech (Chiron), and startups with venture backing. In addition, Dr. Iwanowicz was a partner at the Forward Medical Science Partners. He has contributed to programs yielding drugs for the treatment of cardiovascular, immunological, and oncological diseases, including Dasatinib®, Acumapimod®, Raf-265, and BMK-120.
Lee Graves, Ph.D
Scientific Contributor
Dr. Lee M. Graves is Professor of Pharmacology at the University of North Carolina (UNC), a member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Faculty Director of the UNC Metabolomics and Proteomics (MAP) Core. His laboratory investigates mitochondrial-targeted therapies for cancer using integrated proteomics, metabolomics, and transcriptomics. In collaboration with Madera Therapeutics, his team identified the mitochondrial protease ClpP as the direct target of the TR compounds and ONC201, providing the mechanistic foundation for this novel class of anticancer agents. His current research focuses on defining the cancer-selective mechanisms of ClpP activation and developing next-generation ClpP agonists and rational combination therapies for drug-resistant cancers.
Donald Karanewsky, Ph.D
Advisor & Manager
Donald Karanewsky has nearly 40 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors with a proven record of drug discovery success. He has authored or co-authored 80 publications in peer-reviewed journals and is an inventor or co-inventor on over 120 issued US Patents. His pharmaceutical experience spans the areas of cardiovascular medicine, inflammatory, degenerative, and metabolic diseases, as well as oncology.
Margit Iwanowicz
Vice President of Finance & Operations
Ms. Iwanowicz brings over 30 years of business management experience to the team, including several leadership positions at GE, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman Corporation. Most recently, at Northrop Grumman, she managed $7+ billion in contracts in the unmanned aircraft product line. Her client base included well-known international organizations such as NATO, the Republic of Korea, US Fortune 500 companies, and the US military.
Henk Lang, Ph.D.
Advisor
Dr. Lang is an internationally recognized innovator in biotechnology. For over 25 years, he has had leadership roles in venture-backed companies in the US and China. Dr. Lang has been recognized in China as one of the top 100 innovators in biotech. He was a founding member and CEO of Sundia, LTD (acquired by BioDura), Nanjing Gator Meditech, and several other Chinese-based companies. Dr. Lang has also directly contributed as a scientific innovator to drug discovery and development programs, including the identification of Acumapimod®.
Collaborations
Madera’s collaborators are independently studying and validating Madera’s compounds
External Presentations and Publications
Dr. Derek W. Bartlett
Assistant Professor, Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics
UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, United States
Dr. Giles Best
Senior Lecturer, College of Medicine & Public Health
Flinders University, Australia
Dr. Agnieszka B. Bialkowska
Associate Professor, Department of Medicine
Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, United States
Dr. Blossom A. Damania
Boshamer Distinguished Professor, Department of Microbiology & Immunology; Vice Dean for Research
UNC School of Medicine / UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, United States
Dr. Jaydira Del Rivero
Associate Research Physician
National Cancer Institute, NIH, United States
Dr. Channing J. Der
Sarah Graham Kenan Distinguished Professor, Department of Pharmacology
UNC School of Medicine / UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, United States
Dr. Scott R. Floyd
Gary Hock and Lyn Proctor Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology
Duke University School of Medicine / Duke Cancer Institute, United States
Dr. Lee M. Graves
Professor, Department of Pharmacology
UNC School of Medicine, United States
Dr. Yoshimi Endo Greer
Staff Scientist, Women’s Malignancies Branch
National Cancer Institute, NIH, United States
Dr. Shawn D. Hingtgen
Professor, Division of Pharmacoengineering and Molecular Pharmaceutics
UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, United States
Dr. Walid A. Houry
Professor, Department of Biochemistry
University of Toronto, Canada
Dr. Stan Lipkowitz
Chief, Women’s Malignancies Branch
National Cancer Institute, NIH, United States
Dr. Andrew B. Satterlee
Assistant Professor; Director, Screening Live Cancer Explants Program and Core Facility
UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, United States
Dr. Jing Wu
Lasker Clinical Research Scholar, Neuro-Oncology Branch
National Cancer Institute, NIH, United States
