Raquel Izumi, Ph.D. is the COO President of Vincerx and a member of the Vincerx board of directors. Before that, Dr. Izumi co-founded Acerta Pharma and served as its executive vice president of clinical development from February 2013 to May 2020. Dr. Izumi also co-founded Aspire Therapeutics LLC and served as its chief scientific officer from June 2011 to February 2013. Before founding Aspire Therapeutics, Dr. Izumi served as senior director of clinical development at Pharmacyclics LLC, a biopharmaceutical company, from February 2010 to May 2011, where she worked on designing and implementing seven clinical studies across various hematologic malignancies (including three studies that garnered breakthrough therapy designation) for the first BTK inhibitor (IMBRUVICA®) to enter clinical trials. Dr. Izumi began her research career at Amgen, where she held positions of increasing responsibility and participated in a successful BLA filing and approval for ARANESP®. Dr. Izumi was a Howard Hughes Predoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles where she obtained a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology. She received honors and distinction for her BA in biological sciences from the University of California, Santa Barbara.