Meet the Team

Executive Director

Deepa Prasad

Deepa brings 25 years of biotech experience spanning operations, venture capital, and investment banking. She most recently served

as President/CEO and Board Member of vTv Therapeutics (Nasdaq: VTVT).

Previous to vTv, she was General Partner at WestRiver Group where she led the Healthcare Innovation Fund with investments in Design Therapeutics (Nasdaq: DSGN), Ginger (now $3B Headspace Health), and Curai. In June 2021, Deepa was the recipient of the Falk Marques General Partners Rising Star Award awarded by Deloitte.

She currently sits on the Board of Design Therapeutics (Nasdaq: DSGN) and has served as Strategic Advisor to several biotech companies as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer.

Previous to WestRiver, Deepa’s roles included Chief of Staff at Blue Shield, VP of Financial Strategy and Business Development at Coherus Biosciences (Nasdaq: CHRS) and a decade in biotech investment banking executing financings and buyside/sellside M&A.

Associate Director

Shobit Singh

As the Associate Director, Shobit handles programmatic activities. In addition to administrative efforts, Shobit coordinates events, assists with recruitment, is in charge of procurement, and much more. Shobit discovered his predilection for supporting departments during his time as a faculty support administrator at the College of Chemistry. Specifically, he brings on board his experience supporting two research groups in their financial and administrative endeavors.

Faculty Co-Director, Molecular and Cell Biology

Andrew Dillin

Program Role: Dr. Andrew Dillin is the Faculty Co-Director of the Robinson Life Science, Business, and Entrepreneurship program on behalf of the Molecular and Cell Biology Department where he is a Professor of Immunology and Molecular Medicine. He is also a Howard Hughes Medical Investigator, and in Spring 2022, he was awarded the Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences for his work on the aging process. As an entrepreneurial scientist, Prof. Dillin mentors LSBE students interested in life science commercialization and helps connect students to research opportunities. He lectures in both the first-year Intro to Biotech seminar and the senior capstone course.

Research: Prof. Dillin is interested in why an aging organism begins to lose control over the integrity of its proteome, and how this loss is communicated across its various tissues. Working in model systems ranging from stem cells to nematodes to mice, his team has developed and applied techniques that allow manipulation of signaling pathways or proteins within a tissue, a single cell, or a single organelle, so they can observe the effect of that small perturbation on the physiology of a whole organism. Dillin’s work aims to shed light on the developmental processes of human neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, and Parkinson’s diseases.

LSBE Lecturer

Julia Schaletzky

Program Role: Dr. Julia Schaletzky is an interdisciplinary biomedical scientist and entrepreneur active both in the private sector and in academia. She is a Drug Discovery and Biotechnology expert and the Executive Director of the Center for Emerging and Neglected Diseases at the University of California, Berkeley, as well as of the Drug Discovery Center and Immunotherapy and Vaccine Research Initiative. A lecturer at the Haas School of Business, she leads the first-year Intro to Biotech course, lectures in the senior capstone class, and serves as an LSBE curriculum consultant and biotechnology expert.

Research: After studying biochemistry in her native Germany, she moved to Harvard Medical School for graduate school. Interested in applied science, Dr. Schaletzky joined a biotechnology company, Cytokinetics, to develop new therapies for heart disease and neurodegenerative disorders, with several molecules in late-stage clinical trials. In her role at UC Berkeley, she focuses on interdisciplinary approaches and public/private partnership for the discovery and development of new therapies and tools, particularly for unmet medical needs. A lecturer at the Haas School of Business, she teaches Bioentrepreneurship, Access to Medicines and Drug Development for Neglected Diseases. She has received NIH-funded grants to support underrepresented minorities and women in STEM in the U.S., and runs a program in Uganda to build local research capacity. Dr. Schaletzky is broadly interested in bioentrepreneurship, global public health, health equity, and the governance of processes that end up influencing who gets care and who does not.