Our Management Team

Lindon Young, Ph.D.

Founder and Chief Science Officer

Dr. Young as founder and Chairman of the Board of Young Theraputics LLC brought in a team to advance the company forward as he remains Chief Scientific Officer. 

Dr. Lindon Young received his PhD in Pharmacology in 1998 from Philadelphia College of Pharmacy & Science. He then received postdoctoral training in the laboratories of Drs. Margaret Weis and Allan Lefer (1997-2001) and received a National Service Research Postdoctoral Fellow Award from the National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute (NHLBI) to conduct research related to discovering mechanisms (e.g. inhibiting oxidative stress) to help mitigate ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury. Such research would have clinical value to organ transplant, heart attack and coronary bypass patients to receive a cardioprotective therapeutic where currently none exists.

Thereafter, Dr. Young started his research career at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM) in 2002. He received NHLBI grants in 2004(protein kinase C (PKC) isoform modulation in cardiac I/R) and 2008 (in vivo and ex vivo mechanisms related to endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) uncoupling during reperfusion). Dr. Young’s discoveries led him to receive three US and two European patents related to a preservation/perfusion solution containing one of five PKC modulators to preserve postreperfused cardiac function and reduce infarct size when given to heart attack, coronary bypass or organ transplant patients.

Cell permeable PKC epsilon peptide inhibitor (ε-) elicited the most robust effects and restored postreperfused cardiac function by 99% of baseline values in rat myocardial I/R and reduced blood hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) levels in rat hindlimb I/R model to pre-I/R levels. These findings led Dr. Young to explore the role of PKCε- in other I/R models and received a Pennsylvania Department of Health grant in 2012 to foster his research initiatives.

In porcine myocardial I(1hr)/R(3hr), PKCε- dramatically restored post-reperfused cardiac function by 91% of baseline values and reduced infarct size by 70% compared to controls. In rat kidney extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL), PKCε- reduced post-ESWL renal blood H₂O₂ levels to pre-ESWL levels and reduced leukocyte infiltration in a rat mesenteric inflammation model to baseline values. Collectively, the data in all five animal models clearly demonstrate that PKCε- effects are translatable across animal species and in different tissues to restore function and reduce injury.

Dr. Young has mentored over 90 graduate/medical students and medical residents while at PCOM that has led to over 50 peer-reviewed publications and 60 national meeting abstract/poster presentations. Dr. Young also has several internal and external collaborations with scientists and business executives. Collectively, these activities document Dr. Young’s ability to work as a team to accomplish research/business objectives in a timely fashion.

In 2015, Dr. Young received a license to commercialize the intellectual property (IP) and founded a company called “Young Therapeutics” to develop the IP with interested partners. Young Therapeutics is committed to introducing new cardioprotective drugs, like PKCε-, into the clinic to expedite the recovery and enhance the quality of life of heart attack and organ transplant patients.

Steve Yelity

Interim Chief Executive Officer

Stephen Yelity is a long-term entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience. At a young age, he left a successful career at Johnson & Johnson Baby Product Company as Cost Accounting Manager to start ACCURATE Information Systems Inc. a cutting edge Information Technology Consulting firm. He built a management team around a group of PhD level, highly qualified software engineers, electrical engineers and computer experts from Bell Labs and academia. ACCURATE unleashed their skills and knowledge to work on some highly innovative and high profile projects.   Steve and his team built ACCURATE to an $18 Million–110 employee’s organization. For over 10 years, he teamed with other entrepreneurs to design/refine business models and structure alliances to start or expand their businesses. A few years ago, he observed the state of the industry in Big Pharma country and decided to pull together an organization to stimulate the situation with the creation of BusStim. As a result of his many years of experience in several successful ventures and startups, Stephen has the passion, energy level, consulting industry experience and creativity to build a vision for a team to follow. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting & Business Administration from Norfolk State University.

Douglas Greene, MD

Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Greene is Founder and Lead Consultant of Dagphamed. He was the Executive Vice President, Chief Scientific Officer at IKARIA from May 2014 to October 2015, before which he served as our Executive Vice President, Research, and Development. Prior to joining us, from April 2009 to April 2010, Dr. Greene served as Senior Vice President and Senior Scientific Advisor at Sanofi-aventis, a global pharmaceutical company. From August 2006 to March 2009, Dr. Greene served as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of the US business at Sanofi-aventis. From June 2003 to July 2006, Dr. Greene served as Vice President and Head of Corporate Regulatory Development at Sanofi-aventis. Dr. Greene was Executive Vice President of Clinical Sciences and Product Development at Merck Research Laboratories and Corporate Officer of Merck, Inc., a global pharmaceutical company, from May 2000 to January 2003. Dr. Greene also was a member of the US Food and Drug Administration’s Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drug Advisory Committee from 1988 to 1994 and acted as Chairman of the Advisory Committee from 1990 to 1994. From 1986 to 2000, Dr. Greene was Professor of Internal Medicine, Director of the Michigan Diabetes Research and Training Center, and Chief, Division of Endocrinology & Metabolism at the University of Michigan School of Medicine. Dr. Greene holds an MD from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and an AB from Princeton University.

Lawrence Chodoff, Pharm.D.

Senior Clinical Advisor - Organ Transplantation

Dr. Chodoff is a native New Yorker who received his undergraduate degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1976, and his Pharm.D. from the University of the Pacific School of Pharmacy in Stockton, California in 1979.

After completing his degree, he joined the staff of the Department of Pharmacy at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, where he was Clinical Coordinator for Organ Transplantation.  In this capacity, he worked extensively in patient care, medical education and clinical research as a member of the liver, kidney/pancreas, heart/lung and bone marrow transplant teams.

Larry began his industry career at Novartis in East Hanover in 1997 as Associate Director of Clinical Research in transplantation and immunology, where he managed Phase 1-3 global clinical development projects, among these the first phase 1/2 trials of fingolimod (FTY720) in kidney transplantation.

After leaving Novartis in 2002, he held various positions in global development and medical affairs in transplantation and autoimmune disease at Abbott Laboratories, Roche, and Lifecycle Pharma (now Veloxis) before returning to Novartis in 2009.  Upon his return, Larry became Program Section Leader for sotrastuarin (AEB071) leading a multidisciplinary team to advance phase 2 clinical trials in kidney and liver transplantation.  Subsequently, he became Clinical Scientific Director, working in Neuroscience to support global phase 3b/4 clinical trials of fingolimod for the treatment of patients with multiple sclerosis.

Since retiring from Novartis in 2014, Larry maintains an active consulting practice supporting global clinical development programs in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology.