Navigating the Due Diligence Process

Jim Krenn, Moderator

Partner, Morrison & Foerster

Jim Krenn is a partner in the corporate group of Morrison & Foerster LLP’s San Diego office. Jim represents high-growth and established life science and technology companies from formation through exit, as well as strategic and venture capital investors in, and acquirers of, such companies. His practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, venture capital financings, and emerging company counseling. He has represented clients in over a hundred financings raising in excess of $2 billion ranging from seed rounds to $100 million plus later stage rounds. Additionally, he has guided numerous private and public targets and acquirers through M&A and other liquidity events. Jim serves on the Board of Directors of the San Diego Entrepreneurs Exchange. 

Joshua Windmiller

Co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer, Biolinq

Dr. Joshua Windmiller is a leading international authority in biosensor technology. His Ph.D. research in electrical engineering at UC San Diego, focused on the development of printed biosensors, bioelectronics, and biofuel cells. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Laboratory for NanoBioElectronics at UCSD, where he led a commercialization grant sponsored by the US DOE. He currently serves as the Chief Innovation Officer of Biolinq, a 40-person-strong startup that he co-founded devoted to the development of the novel microneedle-mediated biosensing modalities he has invented for application in chronic disease and general healthcare management.

Samantha Murphy

Corporate Development and Strategy Consultant

Samantha Murphy is a business development leader combining a strong scientific background with more than 15 years’ experience in gene therapy and nucleic acid medicine-based research and development.  She provides support for a number of start-up biotechnology companies, including establishing partnerships licensing/negotiations, fundraising, portfolio review, program and competitive landscape analysis, corporate communications, and alliance management. Dr. Murphy also served as Head of Business Development and Alliance Management at Arcturus Therapeutics, where she supported the organization’s transition from private to public, provided strategy and program analysis, and managed a portfolio of strategic partners. Prior to her tenure at Arcturus, Samantha led the Nucleic Acid Medicine Group at Kyowa Kirin.

Andrew Bartynski

Senior Vice President, NeuroBo Pharmaceuticals

Andrew Bartynski, PhD is Senior Vice President at NeuroBo Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Bartynski joined NeuroBo Pharmaceuticals after the acquisition of ANA Therapeutics where he was co-founder and Chief Operating Officer. ANA Therapeutics is working to develop niclosamide as a safe, widely accessible antiviral treatment for patients with COVID-19. Additionally, he is Chief Operating Officer of YourChoice Therapeutics working on the development of nonhormonal contraceptive and fertility products. Prior to that he was co-founder and CEO of AesculaTech working on medical devices for ophthalmology applications. Dr. Bartynski was an entrepreneurial lead in the NSF I-Corps program, was selected as a Rosenman Innovator by the Rosenman Institute, the medical device arm of QB3, and was part of the winter 2018 batch of Y Combinator. He holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Lehigh University and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Southern California.