Michael Tolentino

About Michael Tolentino

A Serial Entrepreneur, therapeutic researcher, clinical trialist and retinal surgeon. At Harvard Medical School, demonstrated Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) necessary and sufficient in macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, forming the basis for the development of Macugen, Lucentis, Eylea, Beovu, Vabysmo, and off label use of Avastin for retinal disease. First to test Avastin in the Laboratory of Judah Folkman at Harvard Medical School in an eye model of ocular neovascularization. At the University of Pennsylvania developed anti-angiogenic gene therapy, developed adeno associated viral gene therapy for protein therapeutic delivery, invented small interfering RNA (siRNA) against VEGF-A. The latter technology formed the basis of Acuity Pharmaceuticals which merged to become OPKO health (NYSE: OPK). Scientifically he helped develop Promedior PRM151/167 a recombinant pentraxin to treat macrophage mediated diseases such as age related macular degeneration, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and myelofibrosis. Promedior was acquired by Roche.Founded and directed one of the largest retinal clinical research program in the country in Central Florida having served as principal investigator in over 160 retinal and ophthalmic clinical trials. Integral for the FDA approval for Macugen, Lucentis,PDT, Eyelea, Beovu, Jetrea, Iluvien,Syfovre and others. He also was a physician co-founder of Vision Integrated Partners private equity ophthalmic practice consolidator with 23 practices and 56 locations across the US. He Co-founded and serves as the chief technology officer, chief innovation officer, board member for Aviceda Therapeutics an early stage biopharmaceutical company developing treatments for macular degeneration, inflammatory diseases, tumors and fibrotic conditions. He Co-founded and serves as the chief technology officer, chief innovation officer, board member for Aviceda Glycotech a Northern Ireland based company that focuses on developing the next generation glyco immune checkpoint inhibitors for solid tumors and PD-1/PDL-1 resistant cancers. He Co-founded and serves as the chief technology officer, chief innovation officer, board member for Avilect Biosciences a extra hepatic non viral nucleotide delivery platform company to enhance gene therapies, gene silencing and gene editing in cells and organs other than the liver.

Experience

1. Co-founder and Chief Development Officer

   Aikium Inc

   Jan 2026 — Present · Berkeley, CA, US

   Generating and Developing proprietary therapeutic protein binding molecules for high value pharmaceutical targets utilizing the Yotta protein learning language platform implememented by Akium co-founder Venkatesh Mysore pre-training with 10^24 protein structure data set (tokens) digitized using novel mRNA display proteomics invented by Aikium Co-founder Eswar Iyer. With Avdarna Therapeutics the Yotta model is fine tuned for the development of novel therapeutics with in vitro drug characterization and optimization data to shorten the drug discovery to lead identification and optimization phase of drug development from years to hours.

Education

• Nankai University

  Language Certificate, Chinese

  1986 — 1987

• University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

  Surgical Clinical Fellowship, Medical and Surgical Retina

  1999 — 2001

• University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

  ClinicalAssistant Professor, Ophthalmology and Retina

  2000 — 2004

• Deerfield Academy

  High School, High School

  1980 — 1984

• Brown University

  Bachelor of Arts - BA, Computer Science

• Harvard Medical School

  Post Doctoral Fellowship, Angiogenesis, Oncology, Retinal Disease, Molecular Biology

• University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

  Instructor , Cell/Cellular and Molecular Biology

  1999 — 2000

• University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

  Assistant Professor Tenure Track, Cell/Cellular and Molecular Biology

  1999 — 2005

• Taiwan Language Institute

  Language Certifiate, Chinese

  1987 — 1987

• Harvard Medical School

  Residency, Ophthalmology Residency Program

• Harvard Medical School

  Instructor, Ophthalmology

  1996 — 1999

• Shanghai Normal University

  College Credit, Chinese/ International Business

  1986 — 1986

Skills

• Medicine
• Clinical Research
• Molecular Biology
• Ophthalmology
• Animal Models
• Clinical Trials
• Pharmaceutical Industry
• Healthcare