Our Company

Zetagen

Founded in 2015, Zetagen is a private, clinical-stage, biopharmaceutical company dedicated to driving breakthrough innovation in the treatment of metastatic bone cancers and osteologic interventions. Our multi-patented, ZetaMet™ technology is a first-of-its kind molecular pathway designed to suspend cancer, inhibit pain, and regenerate bone. Zetagen exclusively-licensed the platform technology from the State University of New York in 2016. 
This novel therapy, a drug-eluting implant technology, has successfully passed its preclinical trials and is being prepared for its first human clinical trial in early 2022. In addition to ZetaMet™, the Company’s pipeline includes other oncologic treatments for Skeletal Related Events (SREs), i.e., ZetaMet Settable™ and ancillary osteologic treatments including, ZetaFuse™, ZetaSet™, ZetaDent™ and ZetaBase®. 

Leadership

Joe Loy
Joe C. Loy
Chief Executive Officer
“Patients are the center of everything that we do. Our goal is to provide breakthrough technologies to all patients that suffer from metastatic bone cancers, providing relief and hope”.
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Joe's Bio

In January of 2019, Joe joined Zetagen Therapeutics as the Chief Executive Officer, bringing with him a distinguished career in building and leading teams with first-to-market technologies. Joe is a serial entrepreneur with several successful exits to his credit. He has held multiple executive positions of increasing responsibility for such companies as US Surgical, Pfizer/Leibinger, Nuvasive, and Stryker. He also serves as an Advisor & Board of Directors for a variety of AI / Navigational surgical products and musculoskeletal device companies.
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Jess Pletka
Chief Financial Officer & Chief Operating Officer
“The company is doing more for patients, especially women, by producing something that can heal and improve the lives of people living with metastatic bone cancer.”
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Jess' Bio

Jess Pletka joined Zetagen Therapeutics in 2019 as the chief financial officer and chief operating officer bringing over 20 years experience in finance and manufacturing. Her commitment to quality, excellence, and creating a culture of enthusiasm, collaboration and achievement have been a mainstay of her entire career. Prior to joining Zetagen Therapeutics she was the CFO for HSM Packaging Corporation, and worked at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in a supervisory capacity for 15 years.  Jess earned an MBA from the Simon School of University of Rochester and an MS in Finance from George Washington University.
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Bryan Margulies, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
“I’ve spent my career studying the biology of destructive bone cancers, like metastatic breast cancer and pediatric sarcomas, while developing the tools to reduce tumor burden and heal the bone to prevent debilitating fractures. Our work has given me hope that we may have a therapeutic tool to effectively treat these patients”.
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Bryan's Bio

Dr. Margulies is a Visiting Professor of Biology and Bioimaging at the University of Notre Dame and an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology at the SUNY Upstate Medical University. He was formerly an Assistant Professor in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery with appointments in the Departments of Anatomy and Cell Biology and Pharmacology at SUNY Upstate Medical University. He was a founding member of the SUNY Upstate Cancer Center. Dr. Margulies obtained his PhD, MS and BS in bioengineering from Syracuse University. He trained as a fellow at Cornell University in the College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Margulies completed his postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania in the School of Veterinary Medicine as a part of the Biomedical Postdoctoral Program.

He has published 25 peer reviewed articles, presented over 100 talks at scientific conferences, and published seminal works on Ewing’s sarcoma tumor biology, developed novel animal models of bone tumor progression, published significant works on stem cell activity to promote bone formation via the application of small molecules. 
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Nikhil Thakur, MD
Chief Medical Officer
“Zetagen is producing revolutionary therapies which can be administered minimally invasively for cancer patients with the hope of improving their quality of life”.
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Nikhil's Bio

Dr. Thakur is the Director of Spine at Orthopedics Northeast. He specializes in adult spine reconstructive surgery and has over a decade of orthopedic surgical experience. He has won multiple awards for his orthopedic research and has over 25 publications. Dr. Thakur received his MD from Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and completed his fellowship training in trauma from Brown University and in spine surgery from Emory University.
Morakot Likhitpanichkul
Director of Scientific Operation
“Utilizing regenerative medicine and drug delivery approaches to develop products that can make an impact on patient’s lives by restoring daily function and improving their quality of life has been my lifelong career aspiration. At Zetagen, we are dedicated to developing tumor-targeting and tissue-regenerating innovation that may provide effective and life-transforming therapeutics for metastatic cancer patients”.
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Morakot's Bio

Dr. Likhitpanichkul joined Zetagen Therapeutics in 2023 as the Director of Scientific Operation, bringing over 10 years of experience in the development of therapeutic products with expertise in tissue regeneration and drug delivery application. She obtained her PhD from Columbia University and completed her postdoctoral training at the University of Toronto and the Ichan School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai. Her scientific background in biomechanics, biomaterials, tissue engineering, and drug delivery enabled her to pursue product development career involving effective design and development of regenerative medicine products in various areas including orthopaedic and soft tissue organ systems. Prior to joining Zetagen, she led scientific teams at various medical device and biotechnology companies and has successfully executed numerous product development programs to demonstrate product safety and efficacy for Investigational New Drug and 510(k) approvals, as well as enabled effective transfer of production process to cGMP manufacturing for clinical trials and commercialization.

Advisors

  • p-sanz

    Pedro Sanz-Altamira, MD

    Hematologist Oncologist
    Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
  • Areta Kupchyk

    Partner Foley Hoag
  • Nancy Chan, MD

    Director, Breast Cancer Clinical Research

    Co-Chair Protocols Review and Monitoring Committee

    NYU Langone Perlmutter Cancer Center
  • r-prebula

    Randy J. Prebula

    Partner Hogan Lovells
  • s-maebius

    Stephen B. Maebius

    Partner Foley and Lardner LLP
  • Jon Kirkwood

    Managing Director 
    Compass Regulatory Inc.

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