About Us
Zena Therapeutics is a drug discovery company, spun-out of Rutgers University, designing new medications for mental health and addiction by improving safety profiles. Currently the work at Zena focuses on the design and development of fast-acting anxiolytic compounds that do not pose fatal drug-drug interactions by way of respiratory depression, fatal withdrawal from abrupt discontinuation, and have decreased abuse liability.
Our novel compound has shown, via preliminary studies, favorable pharmacokinetics, robust anxiolytic activity (in rats) and favorable safety characteristics. The commercialization of this compound will not only help individuals with general anxiety, panic, and social disorders but also those suffering from withdrawal induced-anxiety (namely from opioid use disorder and alcohol use disorder) who otherwise would not be candidates for other fast acting anxiolytics, due to the risk of overdose. Our overall mission is to ensure that the consequence for the misuse of medications is never death.
Dr. Eileen Carry is a medicinal chemist with over 8 years of experience in drug discovery and a deep commitment to developing safer, more effective medications for mental health and substance use disorders. As Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Zena Therapeutics, she leads the company's scientific strategy and the continued development of its novel class of GABA-A receptor positive allosteric modulators (PAMs).
Dr. Carry's journey with Zena began during her doctoral research at Rutgers University's Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, where her groundbreaking work led to the discovery of partial PAMs with promising preclinical anxiolytic activity and a critical safety advantage: a ceiling effect on respiratory depression. This research formed the foundation for Zena's exclusive technology license from Rutgers University and is protected by multiple patent applications.
As Principal Investigator for a NIH/NIDA STTR grant and multiple state-funded programs, Dr. Carry has designed and synthesized over 50 novel chemical entities, identifying 15 GABA-A receptor modulators with nanomolar potency. Her expertise spans synthetic chemistry, pharmacology, and drug discovery, complemented by deep insight into clinical needs gained through extensive customer discovery work with NSF and NIH Innovation Corps programs.
Dr. Carry is driven by the conviction that medication misuse should never result in fatal overdose—a philosophy that guides Zena's mission to raise the safety bar for neuroactive medications.
Dr. Ariane Vasilatis is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Zena Therapeutics, and helped start Zena with the mindset that the gap in the design of mental health and addiction medications, if addressed correctly, could save countless lives.
She has a background in natural products chemistry and applying plant derived products for human health. During her dissertation studies she met Dr. Carry and became greatly interested in her work, having had experience watching family members and friends battle mental health and substance abuse. Dr. Vasilatis decided to join Zena seeing firsthand the gap in drug design that could be addressed— a commonality she and Dr. Carry share. Dr. Vasilatis has helped the fledgling company earn over $1.7MM in funding, including a Phase I STTR grant from NIDA, funding from NJEDA, and a pre-seed investment from Foundation Venture Capital Group. She uses her entrepreneurial skills developed from programs such as the NSF I-Corps and Yale’s Innovation to Impact; to help guide the commercialization of Zena’s innovation and ensure it gets into the hands of those most in need.
