Sergio Duron joined various Avalon portfolio companies in 2008. He brings an excellent track record with over 17 years of drug discovery experience in biotech. He currently serves as CSO at the Accelerator. In addition to his responsibilities within the Accelerator, he was CSO and cofounder for Calporta Therapeutics (acquired by Merck), Anexigen Therapeutics, SVP for Sitari Pharmaceuticals (acquired by GSK) and SVP Sova Pharmaceuticals. He also served as Vice President of Chemistry at Afraxis (acquired by Genentech) and Director of Chemistry at Zacharon Pharmaceuticals (acquired by BioMarin). Within all the Avalon portfolio companies he has been associated with he has been on the founding management team, directing drug discovery efforts and building efficient and productive drug discovery teams. In addition to his operational roles for the portfolio companies, he uses his experience in multiple therapeutic areas of drug discovery and preclinical development to identify new technologies and opportunities for investments.

Prior to joining the Avalon portfolio companies, Dr. Duron was at Kalypsys, where he worked on multiple drug discovery projects spanning CNS diseases, pain and inflammation, metabolic diseases and oncology. He was responsible for identifying two IND candidates, including one that was approved to enter Phase II clinical trials.

Dr. Duron served as a postdoctoral fellow at The Scripps Research Institute after receiving his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and his B.S. in chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin.