Dr. Barsan co-founded Kamau Therapeutics in 2023 and serves as President and Chief Executive Officer. A bioengineer and pediatric hematologist-oncologist, his career spans high-throughput sequencing, process engineering, clinical care in cell and gene therapy trials, and biotechnology investing.
At Illumina, he developed high-throughput manufacturing processes and helped define clinical requirements for oncology assays. At Stanford Medicine, he advanced deep-sequencing methods used to evaluate the genomic safety of ex vivo CRISPR editing while caring for patients in CAR T-cell and stem cell transplantation trials. This breadth informs Kamau’s approach to scientific rigor, clinical translation, and scalable manufacturing.
Dr. Barsan holds a B.S. in Bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego and an M.D. from Baylor College of Medicine. He completed his residency at UC San Diego and his fellowship at Stanford Medicine.
Dr. Porteus is a pioneer in genome editing. During his postdoctoral training with David Baltimore, he demonstrated that engineered nucleases could precisely modify human cells through homologous recombination.
His Stanford laboratory later established that gene correction could be achieved in human hematopoietic stem cells at levels with therapeutic potential, helping lay the foundation for curative genetic medicines.
Dr. Porteus is the Sutardja Chuk Professor of Definitive and Curative Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, President of the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy, and a scientific co-founder of CRISPR Therapeutics.
Dr. Krishnan leads technical operations, process and analytical development, supply chain, and CMC regulatory strategy at Kamau. Over more than two decades, he has advanced biologics and cell and gene therapies from development through global approval and commercial supply.
At Bristol Myers Squibb and Celgene, he guided CMC strategy supporting seven commercial biologics. He later led manufacturing and CMC for autologous CD34+ stem cell gene therapy programs at Rocket Pharmaceuticals and served as Chief Technology Officer at Celularity.
Dr. Krishnan holds a Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from the University of Connecticut.
Dr. Garcia brings more than two decades of experience in pediatric hematology-oncology and stem cell transplantation, with a record of advancing cell therapies from first-in-human studies through regulatory approval.
Before joining Kamau, he led clinical development and operations at Umoja Biopharma. At Juno Therapeutics and Bristol Myers Squibb, he held clinical leadership roles in the registrational program and Biologics License Application for lisocabtagene maraleucel. Earlier, he served on the clinical faculty at UCSF and Children’s Hospital Oakland.
Dr. Garcia holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Harvey Mudd College and an M.D. from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.
Reza Afkhami leads corporate development, commercial strategy, and partnering at Kamau. He brings more than 20 years of experience across therapeutic areas, including rare hematology and sickle cell disease.
Before joining Kamau, he led corporate development for the therapeutics businesses at 23andMe. At Global Blood Therapeutics, he led corporate development and strategy and played a central role in the company’s acquisition by Pfizer. His earlier experience includes roles at Surrozen and Prothena.
Reza holds a B.S. from Georgetown University and an M.B.A. from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
Dr. Lattanzi leads the integrated development of nula-cel across clinical development, technical operations, regulatory affairs, translational science, and research.
Before joining Kamau, she directed viral vector technology programs at Genentech. In the laboratory of Matthew Porteus at Stanford, she led development of the ex vivo CRISPR-Cas9 and AAV6 gene-correction platform underlying nula-cel. She advanced the program through preclinical and IND-enabling development and was first author of the foundational Science Translational Medicine paper on beta-globin gene correction in human hematopoietic stem cells.
Dr. Lattanzi holds a Ph.D. in Biotechnology and Molecular Biology from the University of Perugia.
Dr. Brambrink leads Kamau’s legal, intellectual property, and corporate governance functions. He brings more than 18 years of biotechnology legal and IP leadership, supported by more than a decade of research in cell and molecular biology.
Before joining Kamau, he built and led legal and IP functions at Chroma Medicine and directed intellectual property strategy for engineered hematopoietic stem cell and gene-editing platforms at Vor Bio and Editas Medicine. Earlier, as a postdoctoral fellow in Rudolf Jaenisch’s laboratory at the Whitehead Institute, he contributed to foundational research in cellular reprogramming and induced pluripotent stem cells.
Dr. Brambrink holds a J.D., magna cum laude, from Suffolk University Law School and a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Würzburg. He is admitted to the Massachusetts Bar and registered to practice before the USPTO.
Faith Pan leads finance at Kamau, bringing nearly two decades of biopharma experience across strategic finance, capital markets, controllership, transactions, and investor relations.
Before joining Kamau, she served as Vice President of Finance and Corporate Controller at IDEAYA Biosciences, where she built financial infrastructure supporting multiple clinical-stage programs. She previously held corporate finance, commercial finance, and internal audit roles at Gilead Sciences. Her earlier experience includes Bristol Myers Squibb and KPMG.
Faith holds an M.B.A. in Finance from the USC Marshall School of Business.
Alisha Bouge leads regulatory strategy and innovation at Kamau. She brings more than 18 years of experience across regulatory affairs, quality assurance, clinical research, and human subjects protection, with deep expertise in cell and gene therapy.
Before joining Kamau, she led regulatory strategy and operations for the AAV gene therapy portfolio at Exegenesis Bio. She previously spent ten years at Stanford University supporting stem cell and gene therapy programs, including the first-in-human hematopoietic stem cell genome editing work that gave rise to Kamau’s lead program.
Alisha holds an M.S. in Biomedical Regulatory Affairs from the University of Washington and is Regulatory Affairs Certified.
Dr. Roncarolo is a pioneer in cell and gene therapy and a pediatric immunologist whose work has advanced stem cell transplantation, immune tolerance, and gene therapy for inherited disorders.
Her contributions include the discovery of Type 1 regulatory T cells and the clinical translation of ex vivo stem cell gene therapy for ADA-SCID. She is the George D. Smith Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine at Stanford Medicine, where she established the Center for Definitive and Curative Medicine and served as co-director of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine.
