Dr. David J. Bearss is the co-founder and CEO of Halia Therapeutics. He is a seasoned entrepreneur and drug developer with over 20 years of experience in academic and industry settings. He possesses expertise in small molecule drug development utilizing structure-based drug design and computational approaches for drug discovery. He focuses on translational research in drug development and genetic markers to predict drug sensitivity. Dr. Bearss has discovered 16 compounds with accepted INDs by the FDA and has worked on two approved drugs. Dr. Bearss has cofounded eight biotech companies and is an inventor with over 75 patents and an author with 85 peer-reviewed research publications. He has won several awards for his entrepreneurial and scientific efforts and has recently been awarded the Utah Governors Medal of Science.