Our leadership

Scientific Collaboration Director

Jon Collins, PhD

Jon Collins recently joined Pinnacle Hill as CSO after a 24-year career at GlaxoSmithKline, with 8 years leading joint academia-GSK drug discovery collaborations across North America as Director of Discovery Partnerships with Academia. Dr. Collins has extensive experience leading multidisciplinary drug discovery research teams that span all phases of early drug discovery including therapeutic target selection and validation, compound screening, hit identification and lead optimization to clinical candidate selection in metabolic, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, hematological, and inflammatory diseases. He has served as a co-author on 80 scientific publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals and is an inventor on 16 patents or patent applications claiming small molecule composition of matter for 6 clinical development compounds which modulate nuclear receptors, a GPCR, and a transporter. Dr. Collins has also served as a scientific advisor for the University of Michigan Therapeutic Innovation Fund, a member of the Duke-Coulter Translational Partnership Oversight Committee, and a member of the Newco Selections Committee for BioLabs NC in Durham, NC. Dr. Collins received his BS degree in chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a PhD in organic chemistry from Indiana University at Bloomington. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University in the lab of Professor Stuart Schreiber.

Joint Steering Committee

  • Blossom Damania

    Blossom Damania is vice dean for research at the UNC School of Medicine and the Boshamer Distinguished Professor of microbiology and immunology. She is also a member and co-director of the Virology and Global Oncology programs in the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at UNC-Chapel Hill.

    Dr. Damania's research focuses on oncogenic human viruses, host-pathogen interactions and virus-associated cancers. She has received several honors for her work, including being named a V Foundation for Cancer Research Scholar, an AACR Gertrude B. Elion Research Scholar, a Burroughs Welcome Investigator in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease, an American Heart Established Investigator, and a Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Scholar. She was named a Kavli fellow of the National Academy of Science and a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. She served as a member for the Report on Carcinogens Monograph by the National Toxicology Program. Dr. Damania currently serves as senior editor for several academic journals and is also the chair of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Board of Scientific Advisors on HIV/AIDS Malignancies.

  • John Bamforth, PhD

    John Bamforth is the director of the Eshelman Institute for Innovation at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. The Eshelman Institute for Innovation was established in 2014 with a $100 million gift from Dr. Fred Eshelman. The Institute aims to accelerate the creation and development of ideas leading to discoveries of new medicines and technologies, and transformative changes in pharmacy/pharmaceutical sciences education and health care. Bamforth will vigorously pursue the mission and goals of the Institute, while developing new strategies to put the Institute on a path to sustained growth.

    Bamforth comes to the School after almost 30 years with Eli Lilly and Company. In his most recent role at Lilly, he served as the vice president and chief marketing officer for a broad portfolio including products for cardiovascular, immunological, pain and neuro-degenerative disorders. Bamforth completed his Bachelor of Pharmacy at the University of Bath in Bath, England; and earned his PhD at Aston University in Birmingham, England.

  • William Slattery

    William Slattery is a Partner on the Therapeutics team and joined the Firm in 2000. Prior to Deerfield, Mr. Slattery was a senior healthcare analyst for 10 years at Amerindo Investment Advisors, where he oversaw biotechnology investments. He has held various positions in research including those at National Medical Enterprises, Johnson & Johnson, and HMSS. Mr. Slattery is the Chairman of Gilda’s Club New York City, a non-profit organization supporting cancer patients and their families. He holds an undergraduate degree in Biology and Chemistry from State University of New York at Albany and completed coursework in Immunology at the Graduate School-New Brunswick, Rutgers University.