Carlos Paya, MD, PhD

Head of R&D

Carlos is the former CEO of Immune Design Corp., a late-stage Immunotherapy company which was acquired by Merck & Co. in April 2019. He previously served as President of Elan Pharmaceuticals and spent several years with Eli Lilly and Co. in senior executive roles in discovery research and late-stage clinical development , including Global Leader of the diabetes and endocrine franchise. Prior to his industry roles, Carlos spent nearly a decade at the Mayo Clinic-Rochester as Professor of Medicine, Immunology and Pathology, and Vice Dean of the Clinical Investigation Program. Carlos has been or is a Non-Executive Director on the boards of Mallinckrodt, Highlight Therapeutics, Fluidigm (now Standard Bio Tools) and Vaxcyte. Carlos is a Venture Partner at Abingworth and YSIOS.

After receiving his medical and doctorate degrees from the Universidad Complutense of Madrid Medical School, Dr. Paya completed his specialty training in Internal Medicine, Infectious Diseases and Immunology at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine. He was a research scientist in a post-doctoral position at Institute Pasteur in Paris and completed the advanced management program at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.