Senior Leadership Team

Derek Proudian

Co-Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Derek Proudian is a Silicon Valley venture investor, start-up CEO, and entrepreneur.

He has served as the CEO of six venture-capital backed companies. Mr. Proudian has worked as a general partner at the venture capital firm Mohr Davidow Ventures (MDV), a venture partner at Morgan Stanley Ventures, and as an R&D manager at Hewlett-Packard Labs. As a general partner at MDV he was part of a team credited with delivering $3.5 billion in returns to limited partners from an initial $225 million investment.

As a founding board member, Mr. Proudian has helped shepherd a number of companies to highly successful exits on behalf of founders and shareholders, including: mSpot, which was sold to Samsung in 2012; Daintree Networks, which was sold to General Electric in 2016; SquareTrade, which was sold to Allstate in January 2017; and Newtrax Technologies, which was sold to Sandvik AB in June 2019.

He received a BS in Cognitive Science, a BA in Creative Writing, an MS in Computer Science, and an MBA from Stanford University.

David Sharp, Ph.D.

Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer

Dr. Sharp is is Professor of Physiology and Biophysics, Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, and Neuroscience at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. He is recognized as one of the world’s foremost experts on microtubules and cell movement, with numerous publications in prestigious journals including Cell, Nature, Nature Cell Biology, and Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences.

His career-long research focus has been on the roles and regulation of the microtubule cytoskeleton in cell migration, division, and morphogenesis, as well as harnessing these mechanisms for tissue repair. He has co-authored over 60 papers on this topic to date and has received multiple research grants from federal and state government agencies and private foundations. Dr. Sharp’s research has led to the identification of enzymes that can be targeted in vivo to predictably alter cellular motility in a variety of clinical contexts related to tissue repair and regeneration, for which he has been issued seven U.S. patents. He is now leading the therapeutic translation of these findings for MicroCures.

Dr. Sharp has been the recipient of numerous research awards from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense. He also has received the LaDonne H. Schulman Excellence in Teaching Award and is a scholar of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Dr. Sharp holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a Ph.D. in neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin.

Roy Chuck, M.D., PhD

Chief Medical Officer

Roy Chuck, M.D., PhD
CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER

Roy S. Chuck, MD, PhD, is Chairman and Professor, Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Montefiore Health System. He currently holds the Henkind Chair at Einstein-Montefiore, and previously served as the Tom Clancy Professor and Director of Refractive Surgery at the Wilmer Eye Institute of Johns Hopkins University and professor of ophthalmology and bioengineering at the University of California Irvine. Dr. Chuck’s clinical focus is in cornea and external diseases as well as refractive surgery.

After earning his Bachelor of Science in engineering at University of California, Berkeley, in 1986, Dr. Chuck attended Columbia University, earning his Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy in 1993. He started his postdoctoral training at St. Mary’s Health Center, completing a yearlong internship in internal medicine in 1994. From then until 1998, he pursued a residency in ophthalmology at Washington University and Barnes Hospital, acting as faculty chief resident in his final year. In 1999, he completed a yearlong fellowship in cornea and refractive surgery at the Doheny Eye Institute, University of Southern California.

Dr. Chuck’s research follows his clinical focus. His research has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals as well as shared through many patents, abstracts, book chapters and podium and poster presentations. He has been an editor and served on the editorial boards of many publications including the Lasers in Surgery and Medicine, Journal of Refractive Surgery, Current Opinion in Ophthalmology, BMC Ophthalmology, AAO Preferred Practice Patterns and Cochrane Reviews. He currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the major journal ARVO Translational Vision Science and Technology and is a member of the NIH National Eye Institute Council of Editors.

Dr. Chuck has been recognized for many achievements and contributions to his discipline and the community. Among his many accolades include being awarded the American Academy of Ophthalmology Senior Achievement and Secretariat Awards, Fight For Sight Physician-Scientist of the Year, the Lions Club International Melvin Jones Fellow/Humanitarian Award and the NYC Chinatown Honor Award for Community Service. He is board certified and is a member of many local, national and international professional societies including the American Academy of Ophthalmology, Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, the International Society for Refractive Surgery, the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery, and the Manhattan Ophthalmological Society. He currently serves as Secretary for Quality of Care for the United States’ American Academy of Ophthalmology.