Niall O’Donnell

Niall joined RiverVest Venture Partners in 2006 as a Kauffman Fellow and became a Managing Director in 2014. He focuses on biopharmaceutical opportunities, building and operating RiverVest portfolio companies. Prior to joining RiverVest, Niall spent five years as an immunologist at Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development in San Diego. He co-authored the first paper validating the newly-discovered histamine H4 receptor as a key regulator of immune pathologies. Niall was also a member of the scientific advisory board of Ziarco Ltd., a developer of H4 receptor antagonists. Ziarco was acquired by Novartis International AG in 2016. Niall earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Dundee and an M.A. in biochemistry from Oxford University. He also received an MBA from the Rady School of Management at UC San Diego. His professional affiliations include the American Thoracic Society and American Association of Immunologists.