About us

Bernard Ravina is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Vima Therapeutics. Dr. Ravina has over 20 years of drug development experience in government, academia, and industry, and has spent his career caring for patients with dystonia and related movement disorders. Most recently he was CMO of Praxis Precision Medicines. Prior to that he served as CMO of Voyager Therapeutics and worked in clinical development at Biogen.

Dr. Ravina holds an M.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a Master’s in Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the University of Pennsylvania, where he completed training in neurology. After training, Dr. Ravina held positions at NINDS/NIH in neurogenetics and at the University of Rochester School of Medicine where he was Associate Professor of Neurology and Director of the Movement and Inherited Neurological Disorders Unit.

Judy Dunn is President, and Head of Research & Development, at Vima Therapeutics. During her 30+ year career, she has held leadership positions in biotech and pharma. Judy served as the Global Head of Clinical Development at Hoffmann – La Roche in Basel, Switzerland and has held positions in both the research and commercial neuroscience divisions of Pfizer. In addition to her industry experience, Judy worked with government agencies in the establishment of the Empire Discovery Institute, an incubator focused on catalyzing the progression of academic discovery research to clinical application and served as the Institute’s first Chief Executive Officer.

Judy attended University of Rochester and Wesleyan University, obtaining undergraduate and graduate degrees in Neurobiology. She completed a Training Fellowship in Neuropharmacology at Strong Memorial Hospital’s Center for Brain Research and a Postdoctoral Fellowship in New Drug Development at Pfizer.

Ariel D. Jasie joined Vima Therapeutics as Chief Business Officer in July 2024 and now also serves as General Counsel. Ariel most recently owned and operated ADJ Advisory & Consulting Services where he served as senior advisor and fractional CBO to multiple public and private biotechs; providing and supporting business development, corporate strategy, and financings. Ariel has been in the biotech industry for over 20 years and has held a variety of leadership positions at a number of biotechs including Celgene Corporation, eGenesis Bio, and Codiak Biosciences.

Ariel completed his J.D. at Brooklyn Law School, and his B.A. in history, from the University of Maryland at College Park.

Tushar Misra is the Chief Technical Officer at Vima Therapeutics where his responsibilities include the CMC (Chemistry & Manufacturing Controls) Development of Vima’s products. Prior to Vima, he was the Chief Manufacturing Officer at Mersana Therapeutics, which develops antibody-drug conjugates to treat various types of cancers.

He has been in the pharmaceutical industry for over 32 years and has worked across the entire value chain from R&D to Commercialization at many companies including Wyeth, Sepracor and Takeda. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Rhode Island.

Mark Rogge serves as head of translational medicine and pharmacology where he oversees various research, preclinical and clinical activities related to pipeline creation and development. He brings significant experience in CNS drug development that encompasses genetic, neuroinflammation, psychiatric, and movement disorders.

During his 15 year tenure at Biogen, he oversaw preclinical and clinical pharmacology activities and most recently served as global head of translational science at Takeda. In addition to his responsibilities at Vima, he is an adjunct professor at the University of Florida and sits on several advisory boards.

James Thornton is Vice President of Corporate Development at Vima Therapeutics where he focuses on corporate strategy, business development, and communications. Prior to Vima, he was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Atlas Venture where he worked on early-stage company creation.

He spent 6 years at Codiak Biosciences in business development and strategy, where he completed a number of partnerships, and public and private financings. He also spent several years at a large law firm working in patent prosecution and strategy. He received his PhD in RNA biochemistry and stem cell biology from Harvard University.

Karl Whitney serves as Senior Vice President and Head of Regulatory Affairs. In this role, he guides overall regulatory strategy for Vima and its development programs, as well as works cross-functionally to implement all strategic and operational regulatory activities at Vima. He brings 25 years’ experience as a regulatory affairs generalist with a focus on regulatory strategy, clinical regulatory, and integrated product development. He has worked on a wide variety of cell, gene, and small-molecule therapeutics; ranging from early preclinical to marketing application preparation and submission; for oncology, infectious disease, metabolic disease, dermatology, hemophilia, ADHD, pain, dementia, and other CNS indications. In recent years prior to Vima, he led the regulatory function at Passage Bio (gene therapy programs for Frontotemporal Dementia, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, and Huntington’s Disease) and Precision Bio Sciences (cell and gene therapy programs for oncologic, metabolic, and infectious disease indications).

Karl also serves as President of the International FOXP1 Foundation, which fosters community and advocates for research into FOXP1 syndrome, an ultra-rare genetic neurodevelopmental disorder. He received his undergraduate degree from Yale and a Ph.D. in pharmacology from Duke.