Jesus Gonzalez

Tito Gonzalez serves as Avelas’ Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Gonzalez joined Avelas as a founding member in 2009 as Vice President of Research and Development. He has led the discovery and development of the real-time intraoperative cancer visualization drug AVB-620 (pegloprastide) through IND, Phase Ib PoC, and Phase II/III pivotal clinical evaluation in breast cancer patients. A leader with a successful record of applying chemistry, biology, and instrumentation to develop leading technologies, products, and pharmaceuticals; Dr. Gonzalez has over 25 years of biotechnology, drug discovery, drug development, and management experience. Previously, Dr. Gonzalez held the position of Sr. Director, Biology at Vertex Pharmaceuticals where he led the ion channel program, drug discovery teams, and a biology function group to support projects targeting pain, cystic fibrosis, and multiple sclerosis. Prior to Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Gonzalez was the Director of Ion Channels at Aurora Biosciences, leading a multidisciplinary group that developed world-leading high-throughput ion channel drug screening technologies and provided assay development services to the pharmaceutical industry. He has played an integral role in the discovery, development, and commercialization of a variety of technologies and products prior to Avelas. Some examples include voltage-sensitive FRET probes, Voltage/Ion Probe Reader (VIPRTM), and electrical stimulation coupled with optical detection (E-VIPRTM), which provide important biological and drug screening advantages. The ion channel program at Vertex Pharmaceuticals has generated several first-in-class drug candidates that modulate Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Regulator (“CFTR”) and voltage-gated channels for CF and pain respectively. The most significant drugs are KalydecoTM, OrkambiTM, and SymdekoTM which are market-leading, FDA-approved CFTR potentiators and correctors/potentiator combinations. Dr. Gonzalez earned a B.A. in chemistry cum laude from Rice University and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Princeton University. He also held a postdoctoral fellow position at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute working with Professor Roger Y. Tsien at the University of California at San Diego.