Ritu Shah joined ClostraBio as CEO in December 2022. Ritu was previously a Managing Director at Portal Innovations, a Chicago-based venture development engine focused on early-stage life sciences enterprises, where she helped to position and accelerate seeded companies to the next round of funding.

Ritu is a seasoned biotech executive with over two decades of experience. She has a proven track record of success in leading four successful mergers & acquisitions along with new company formation and operations. Ritu has led several drug development campaigns with emphasis on strategic and therapeutic portfolio management across private and public pharmaceutical and biotechnology
companies.

​Ritu has spent the last five years in biotech. Most recently, she was Chief Operating Officer of Pyxis Oncology and assisted in taking the company public in 2021 (Nasdaq: PYXS). Ritu also led the integration of AveXis, a gene therapy company, following the $8.7B acquisition by Novartis. She spent the previous eight years at Shire (Baxter, Baxalta) managing the Immunology portfolio which included R&D, manufacturing, and commercial. Ritu started her career in consulting focusing on pharma R&D and supply chain. Ritu is a strong supporter of the local community and is a Board Member for the Northbrook Bank & Trust Company, A Wintrust Community Bank as well as an Advisory Board Member for the Glenbrook North High School Incubator Program. Ritu received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame.

As COO at ClostraBio, Brett focuses on managing the company's product development activities and business operations. He previously spent nearly 10 years at Xeris Biopharma where, as the first non-founding hire, he helped develop Gvoke HypoPen (glucagon injection), the first liquid-stable glucagon formulation in an autoinjector for treatment of severe hypoglycemia. Brett was involved in all aspects of Gvoke drug development including CMC, preclinical, clinical, regulatory and human factors, leading to the product's approval by FDA in 2019. Brett was also involved in Xeris' business operations and fundraising efforts, from a $1.5 million Series A and multiple non-dilutive grants ($10+ million) to a $98 million IPO in 2018 (Nasdaq: XERS). Prior to Xeris, Brett worked at Merck & Co. in vaccine manufacturing and at GSK in biopharmaceutical manufacturing. He received a B.A. from Ursinus College, a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University and an M.B.A from the University of Texas at Austin (Hook 'em Horns!).

Brian has been conducting research around the human gut microbiome for more than 20 years.  He earned his PhD in microbiology and molecular biology from Tufts University, where he elucidated biochemical pathways that enable strict anaerobes to thrive in the human gastrointestinal tract. He leveraged this knowledge during his postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School, where he worked to characterize small molecules that disrupt these critical physiological processes, enabling development of a new class of antibiotics. This sparked a strong desire to develop microbiome-directed therapeutics, leading Brian to transition into the biotech space at Kaleido Biosciences. 

At Kaleido he led a team of multidisciplinary scientists through the discovery and development of novel prebiotics for the treatment of liver diseases, and those efforts ultimately culminated in a successful IND. From there Brian became the first employee and Head of Microbiology at Pareto Biosciences, a group dedicated to treating and preventing food allergies using a consortium of gut microbes to induce immune tolerance. He was a major contributor to all aspects of Pareto’s mission, from overseeing the manufacturing of live microbes to scientific strategy, clinical design, and platform expansion. His experience uniquely suited him for his work at ClostraBio, where he oversees the manufacturing and development of CLB101™.