Breakthrough Treatments for Autoimmune Diseases

Board Director

Partner, Red Tree Venture Capital

Dr. Jeremy Caldwell is a Partner at Red Tree Venture Capital and a veteran biotechnology executive and scientist known for building and leading innovative drug discovery companies. He has extensive ties across the San Diego and Bay Area biotech communities and deep relationships throughout global pharma. Before Red Tree, Dr. Caldwell was CEO of Inception Therapeutics, Versant Ventures’ San Diego discovery engine, and a Venture Partner at Versant. There he co-led the formation of Chinook Therapeutics (acquired by Novartis for $3.5B) and helped launch Lycia, Belharra, Adaxion and Light Horse Therapeutics, serving as founding CEO and board member. Earlier, as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Third Rock Ventures, he contributed to the founding of Revolution Medicines, Pliant, Decibel, Relay, and Nurix Therapeutics. 

Dr. Caldwell’s scientific expertise spans oncology, immunology, neurology, and

cardiometabolic disease, with contributions to four approved drugs. He has held senior

R&D roles at Ardelyx, Sirna, Merck Research Labs, and the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation. He currently chairs Biograph55 and serves on the boards of EBVio, Photinia and Inversion Therapeutics. Dr. Caldwell earned a B.A. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from UC Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Molecular Pharmacology from Stanford University.

Board Observer

Founder & Managing Director, FMB Research

Mr. Berger has more than 30 years of experience in capital markets and financial analysis. Franklin is the managing director at FMB Research as well as a consultant & advisor to the biotechnology industry, including major biopharmaceutical firms, mid-capitalization biotechnology companies, specialist asset managers and venture capital companies, providing business development, strategic advisory, financing, partnering and royalty acquisition advice.

He worked at Sectoral Asset Management as a founder of the small-cap focused NEMO Fund Prior to that, he served at J.P. Morgan Securities, most recently as the Managing Director, Equity Research and Senior Biotechnology Analyst and served in similar capacities at Salomon Smith Barney and Josephthal & Co. Franklin has served as a member of the board of directors of Five Prime Therapeutics (acquired by Amgen), Tocagen, Bellus Health (acquired by GSK), ESSA Pharma (acquired by XenoTherapeutics), Proteostasis Therapeutics, BioTime,  Seattle Genetics, (acquired by Pfizer), and Immune Design Corp (acquired by Merck), among others. Franklin received a B.A. in International Relations and an M.A. degree in International Economics from Johns Hopkins University, and an M.B.A. degree from the Harvard Business School.

Board Observer

Co-founder and Chief Scientific Advisor, Red Tree Venture Capital

Dr. Cochran is a Founder and Chief Scientific Advisor at Red Tree Venture Capital, a West Coast-centric, early stage-biased investment fund focused on therapeutics for unmet needs in the areas of oncology, neurology, and immunology. Dr. Cochran is the Senior Associate Vice Provost of Research and the Addie and Al Macovski Professor of Bioengineering (and by courtesy) Chemical Engineering at Stanford University. A founding member of the Stanford Bioengineering department, she served as its Chair from 2017 to 2022. She is a serial innovator with extensive entrepreneurial experience, having founded several companies, including TwoStep Therapeutics, Photinia Biosciences, xCella Biosciences (acquired by Ligand, now OmniAb (LGND and OABI) in 2020) and Combangio (acquired by Kala Pharmaceuticals (KALA) in 2021). In addition to EBVio, Dr. Cochran currently serves on the boards of directors of OmniAb, Kivu Bioscience, Rondo Therapeutics, Revel Pharmaceuticals, and Biograph55, and is a board observer at Excellergy Therapeutics. She is also a trustee of the Botnar Institute of Immune Engineering in Basel, Switzerland. 

Dr. Cochran obtained her Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and completed postdoctoral fellowships in Biological Engineering and Molecular Biophysics at MIT and the University of Pennsylvania. She was elected into the National Academy of Engineering in 2025.