James Tonra, Ph.D.

Tonra received his BS in Physics and PhD in Physiology and Biophysics from SUNY Stony Brook. Dr. Tonra has over 26 years of 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®. Dr. Tonra was a key contributor at Kadmon towards the eventual approval for marketing of belumosudil for the treatment of chronic graft versus host disease. At BeyondSpring Dr. Tonra was part of the team that discovered plinabulin’s differentiated mechanism of action and was instrumental in expanding plinabulin’s clinical indications through outsourced nonclinical research and collaborations with leading academic experts. More recently, prior to joining SEED as President and CSO, Dr. Tonra lead the preclinical discovery and advancement of broad-spectrum antiviral drugs at Evrys Bio.