From Bonaventure Biochemistry to Biotech Founder
Long before Dr. Anthony Saleh was raising millions in non-dilutive funding and inventing a drug discovery platform, he would roam the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains during breaks from his studies at St. Bonaventure University.
"I really enjoyed my time at Bonaventure," said Saleh, founder of Brown and White Ventures portfolio company miRecule and a 2001 graduate of the university.
"I would I would hike up to The Heart all the time I enjoyed going and spending time with Dan Riley at The Mountain off campus. The friars and their philosophy and then a lot of the different different groups that would come and speak on campus from scientific intellectual to you know, intellectual on philosophy, religion."
Salehg took his B.S. in Biochemistry and built a career that spans the National Institutes of Health, Johns Hopkins University, and a string of biotech startups.
He says it all traces back to that foundation.
"It really gave me a well-blended liberal arts education," Saleh said.
Saleh's scientific roots run deep. He has spent more than 15 years in microRNA research, nucleic acid chemistry, and the design of therapeutic oligonucleotides, work he carried out at Johns Hopkins, the NIH, and in the private sector.
That research background is not a footnote to his business career; it is the engine of it. Saleh is the lead inventor on miRecule's discovery platform, the technology at the heart of the RNA therapeutics company he now leads.
But Saleh is as much an entrepreneur as he is a scientist. He has founded and served in a variety of roles across several startup companies, including MIMETAS US, Birich Technologies, and Nitron Therapeutics. As President of MIMETAS US, an affiliate of the Dutch company Mimetas BV, he raised over $2.5 million in non-dilutive funding and secured more than $1 million in commercial partnerships to develop organ-on-a-chip drug discovery models, a track record of building value without giving away the company.
His range extends beyond his own ventures. As an Entrepreneur in Residence at BioHealth Innovation, Saleh has consulted for more than a dozen biotech companies, leading technology diligence, market analysis, and business and product development. He participated in funding raises for two companies and ran scouting efforts for Roche and MedImmune, work that produced several academic collaborations.
For St. Bonaventure, Saleh's story is the kind the university likes to tell: a biochemistry graduate who left campus and built a career at the intersection of serious science and serious company-building.
"I also lived in the biology lab you know like after I was one of the honors thesis student so I got to do a research project and every day I would I would do my classes and then hang out with my friends for a couple hours then be back to lab for the evening," Saleh said.
From a 2001 diploma in biochemistry to the helm of an RNA therapeutics company with a discovery platform he invented himself, Saleh represents the full arc of what a Bonaventure science education can become.
"I liked having the natural environment around you, the Franciscan philosophy for you know, health and life. Those were really key to me, selecting the school."
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