James Tonra, Ph.D.

Dr. Tonra received his BS in Physics and PhD in Physiology and Biophysics from SUNY Stony Brook. He has over 26 years experience in discovering and translating pre-clinical assets to clinical development, and expanding the utility of clinically advanced assets in leading innovative biotech companies including Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Kadmon Holdings and ImClone Systems/Eli Lilly. In the nearly 10 years Dr. Tonra spent at ImClone, his efforts were critical in the validation and IND filing for 10 preclinical assets, including Cyramza®, Portrazza®, and Lartruvo®. At BeyondSpring Dr. Tonra was instrumental in expanding plinabulin’s clinical indications and in spinning out SEED Therapeutics in 2020. In his present role as President and CSO of SEED Therapeutics, Dr. Tonra has translated a molecular glue discovery platform into an active pipeline, with the first clinical asset approved for human dosing in 2025.