Leadership Team and Advisors
Leadership Team
Dr. Gupta earned his bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Chicago and a PhD in Cancer Biology from MIT. Dr. Gupta was a member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and an Associate Professor of Biology at MIT. Dr. Gupta previously co-founded Verastem Oncology, based on his scientific research at MIT and served as a Director on its corporate board from the company’s founding through multiple rounds of venture capital financing and an initial public offering. His research has appeared in leading scientific journals and received international acclaim, including coverage by the MIT Technology Review, Bloomberg News, and as a lead story in the The New York Times.
James McNally is the Chief Executive Officer for Naveris. Previously, he was President and CEO of Digma Medical, a clinical stage medical device company developing novel therapeutics for metabolic disease. He has served as Sr. Vice President, Sales, Marketing, & Business Development, for GenMark Diagnostics (acquired by Roche) where he led the launch of the ePlex multiplex molecular diagnostics platform. He has also held roles in general management, sales, marketing, R&D, and corporate finance at Volcano Corp. (acquired by Philips), Boston Scientific, and Morgan Stanley. James graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University, holds a M.S. degree from the University of Arizona, and earned an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar and a Kaplan Life Sciences Fellow.
Dr. Berger was the Chief Medical Officer for Exact Sciences Corporation for 20 years, and developed advanced DNA based tests for colorectal cancer screening. Prior to Exact Sciences, Dr. Berger’s clinical career was spent at the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine of Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare. Dr. Berger is the past chairman of the Advisory Committee on Clinical Laboratories for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and is a currently serves on the executive committee of the Massachusetts Society of Pathologists and the Policy Committee of the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable. He has served as a panelist for the Medicare Evidence Development and Coverage Advisory Committee. He received his MD from the University of Pennsylvania where he also completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Immunology with Dr. Peter Nowell. Following a medical internship at Boston University Hospital, and two years as a general medical officer in the U.S. Air Force, he served as a resident and chief resident in Pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Dr. Kuperwasser is a Professor of Developmental, Molecular & Chemical Biology and Director of the Tufts Convergence Laboratory of Biomedical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences at Tufts University School of Medicine. She has over 20 years of experience in leading cancer R&D laboratories. Dr. Kuperwasser pioneered the development of innovative models of cancer and discovered biomarkers for early detection of breast cancer. Dr. Kuperwasser received her PhD at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and was a Jane Coffin Child’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT. She has also been a Howard Hughes Fellow, a Merck Fellow, and received multiple awards for her research including the ECOG/Aventis Young Investigator Award. She has authored more than 100 publications and serves as an external editor and reviewer for multiple scientific journals, the National Institutes of Health, and the American Cancer Society.
Michael Hicks is the SVP Commercialization Operations for NavDx, the flagship product at Naveris. Michael leads all NavDx Commercialization efforts and is responsible for sales, marketing, market access and billing. Michael comes to Naveris with deep expertise in diagnostic and pharma industries and developing high-performing organizations and profitable commercial strategies that launch products, penetrate new markets and drive consistent revenue growth. Prior to joining Naveris, Michael was a senior leader with MDx Health, Genomic Health, Bayer Healthcare, and Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Dr. Del Vecchio Fitz is the SVP of Medical Affairs and Data Insights at Naveris where she leads all evidence generation efforts, including medical affairs, clinical research and data analytics and insights teams. Catherine comes to Naveris with over 15 years of experience in oncology research, with deep expertise in multiple domains at the intersection of science, medicine, and technology. Prior to joining Naveris, Dr. Del Vecchio Fitz was Chief Scientific Officer for the oncology artificial intelligence company Reboot Rx. She additionally previously led the development of algorithmic clinical trial matching at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and ran her own independent precision medicine-focused consulting business. Dr. Del Vecchio Fitz earned her bachelor’s degree in biology from Bowdoin College, a PhD in Cancer Biology with Masters of Science in Medicine from Stanford University, and was an NDSEG Postdoctoral Fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT.
Dorina Kabashi is the Vice President of Finance for Naveris. She has two decades of experience as finance and accounting leader. Most recently, she was the Vice President of Finance of Hydrow, a connected fitness start-up, where she supported the company’s exponential growth during the pandemic. Previously, Dorina held senior finance leadership roles at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and also spent over 13 years at Ernst & Young where she served a number of medical device and life science companies either as an auditor or as a financial advisor. She is a Certified Public Accountant and holds an MBA from Texas A&M International University.
Dr. Naber is Laboratory and Medical Director. Dr. Naber is a board-certified anatomic pathologist with expertise in cancer diagnostics. Prior to joining Naveris, Dr. Naber served as the Chief of Pathology at Tufts Medical Center and was Director of its CLIA & CAP accredited diagnostic lab. Dr. Naber serves as an Associate Chair in the Department of Pathology at Tufts University School of Medicine, and has had a long and illustrious teaching and research career spanning more than two decades. He serves as a member of scientific advisory board of BioLegend CNS, Inc. He has received several National Institutes of Health and Department of Defense grants and awards for studies in studies of breast neoplasia, models of tumor development, and regulation of gene expression in human breast cancer. Dr. Naber received his MD from St. Louis University School of Medicine and his PhD in Physiology from the University of Houston.
Erik Duffy is the Vice President of Market Access where he plays a critical role in commercialization of Naveris products. In addition to Market Access, Erik oversees billing and regulatory operations. He brings 20 years of industry experience with 10 of those years in the cancer space. Prior to joining Naveris, Erik worked with Exact Sciences and Promethius Laboratories holding a variety of roles in sales, leadership and market access. When not working, Erik enjoys his family of 5 and all his kid’s sports activities. He enjoys coaching soccer and working with young athletes.
Advisors
Dr. Haydon is the Annetta and Gustav Grisard Professor and Chair in the Department of Neuroscience at Tufts University School of Medicine. He is an internationally recognized leader in the study of neuron-glial interactions in disease. He has received several prestigious awards, including a McKnight Investigator Award and the Jacob Javits Award from the National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Dr. Haydon was a founder and partner in Prairie Technologies, a privately-held company that developed state-of-the-art microscopy tools including two-photon microscopes for use in the neurosciences. Prairie Technologies was subsequently acquired by Bruker Instruments. He was also co-founder and president of GliaCure, Inc., which has developed a small molecule modulator of the P2Y6R as a potential therapeutic for Alzheimer’s disease and asthma. Dr. Haydon oversaw preclinical and clinical development of the compounds and led the company through successful rounds of fundraising.
Dr. Gaorav Gupta is a UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member and Assistant Professor in the Division of Radiation Oncology at UNC-Chapel Hill School. He received his MD and PhD from Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University. He was Chief Resident in Radiation Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and was among the few 2013 recipients of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award for Medical Scientists. Dr. Gupta’s lab studies DNA repair processes in cancer development, metastatic progression, and responses to therapy.
Dr. Chera is an Associate Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. He received his MD from the Medical University of South Carolina. He is the leader of the head and neck radiation oncology program at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and a clinical trials specialist. Dr. Chera has conducted three phase II clinical trials evaluating de-intensified chemoradiotherapy, and pioneered the innovation of treating patients with a substantial reduction of both radiation and chemotherapy.
Dr. Robert A. Weinberg is a Founding Member of Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and the Daniel K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research in the Department of Biology at MIT. He is world renown for his expertise and vision in the basic understanding of the mechanisms that underlie cancers. Dr. Weinberg is the author or editor of five books and more than 350 journal articles. He is an elected Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Among his honors are the National Academy of Sciences/U.S. Steel Foundation Award in Molecular Biology, the Sloan Prize of the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation, the Bristol-Myers Award for Distinguished Achievement in Cancer Research, the Landon Prize of the American Association for Cancer Research, the Gairdner Foundation International Award, the Keio Medical Foundation Prize, 1997 National Medal of Science and the Otto Warburg Medal in 2007. Dr. Weinberg is Co-Founder of Verastem Oncology and serves as the Chair of the company’s Scientific Advisory Board.