Meet the Team
Leigh Hsu Ph.D.
CEO + Co-Founder
Leigh Hsu is a biotechnology executive with 25 years of experience in the biopharma industry. Dr. Hsu most recently served as SVP of Business Development with CARsgen for seven years, and prior to that, he was with Lpath for six years as VP of Corporate Development & Strategy. He earned his Ph.D. in molecular pathology from UC: San Diego and an MBA from UC: Irvine.
Dario Paggiarino, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
Dario Paggiarino, M.D. has served as Chief Medical Officer since November, 2024. He previously served as Chief Medical Officer at Eyepoint, a company developing therapeutics for serious retinal diseases. Dr. Paggiarino has over 35 years of experience in clinical development and has led development programs from phase 1 through commercialization. He has also worked at Pharmacia/Pfizer, Alcon/Novartis and Lpath. Dr. Paggiarino graduated magna cum laude with an M.D. degree from the University of La Sapienza, Rome, Italy.
Scott Pancoast
Executive Chairman + Co-Founder
Scott Pancoast, CEO + Founder of Zylö, has served on 17 boards, including four public ones; he served as a board member for the San Diego Venture Group for six years and was Chairman for two years. Mr. Pancoast holds a BA in economics summa cum laude from UVA and an MBA with honors from HBS.
Charles Hinkle
CFO + Co-Founder
Charles Hinkle began his career at Bain & Co. and Bain Capital and then joined an automotive foundry as CEO, where he led this manufacturer’s growth from $4M to $50M before selling to a PE firm. He graduated summa cum laude from W&L, earned his CPA certification, and graduated as a Baker Scholar from HBS.
Andrew Draganski Ph.D.
VP Research
Andrew completed his Ph.D. in Food Science at Rutgers where he focused on studying molecular mobility in model biological systems utilizing both intrinsic and GRAS-status optical probes. Soon thereafter, he joined Dr. Joel Friedman's laboratory at Albert Einstein College of Medicine; there, he worked on the advancement and further characterization of the lab's novel drug delivery platform, eventually becoming the primary inventor of the company’s Z-pod® delivery technology. He is now assisting with drug-development efforts and spearheading efforts to land and execute on NIH/DoD grants.