Investors — Islex Therapeautics

Management

President and Chief Executive Officer, Board of Directors
Dr. Joel Schneider joined Islex in January 2026 as President and CEO and leads the company's development strategy for ILX-101 and platform of pancreas-targeted therapies. Joel brings extensive experience building and scaling biotechnology companies, from the first hire through public markets.
Before Islex, Joel was President and Chief Executive Officer of Carbon Biosciences, a genetic medicines company developing next-generation gene therapy vectors for pulmonary and cardiac indications. Joel spent nine years at Solid Biosciences, a company developing therapies for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. He joined as its first employee and helped build the organization from the ground up, serving as Chief Technology Officer and Chief Operating Officer. In those roles he oversaw research, technical operations, business development, and manufacturing strategy through the company’s initial public offering.
Joel received his PhD in Biological and Biomedical Sciences from Rutgers University and completed his postdoctoral training at Harvard.

SVP, Head of CMC
Dr Brian Collins joined Islex in 2026 to lead the tech development for ILX-101 and the pipeline assets. Brian brings over 20 years of development experience spanning early-stage development through commercialization for a wide range of therapeutic modalities, including leading AD, PD, QC and manufacturing activities.
Before joining Islex, Dr. Collins was SVP of Tech Development at Carbon Biosciences, where he oversaw the successful development, production, and characterization of novel gene therapy vectors. Prior to Carbon, Brian was SVP of Development at Solid Biosciences and the Program Lead for the Duchenne asset through IND. At Carbon, Brian had responsibilities for AD, PD, QC and Manufacturing. Before Carbon, Brian was at Momenta Pharmaceuticals, where he founded and established the biologics platform behind the biosimilars and the antibody therapeutic nipocalimab. He holds a PhD in Pharmacology from Johns Hopkins and trained as a postdoc at The Scripps Research Institute.

Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Laura Knecht joined Islex in 2026 as Chief Medical Officer and leads clinical development of ILX-101, including the company’s first-in-human study. She brings more than 20 years of experience in clinical research and endocrinology, with a focus on immunotherapies for type 1 diabetes.
Before Islex, Laura led clinical development of teplizumab, the first disease-modifying therapy approved to delay onset of stage 3 type 1 diabetes and delay the loss of insulin production in patients newly diagnosed with stage 3. As Vice President of Clinical Development at Provention Bio and Group Principal Clinical Research Director at Sanofi, she led the type 1 diabetes clinical program and clinical strategy for global regulatory submissions across stage 2, stage 3, and pediatric indications, resulting in approvals in the US, EU, UK, and other markets worldwide.
Dr. Knecht received her MD from the University of Arizona and completed her fellowship in endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolism through the Phoenix City-Wide program (now University of Arizona) and internal medicine residency at the Mayo Clinic.

ILX-101 Project Lead Management Principal, Pharma Directions
Dr. Michelle Higgin is a drug development, regulatory strategist and serial biotech entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience translating therapeutics from discovery into early clinic development. Since 2006 she has been President of PharmaDirections, which provides integrated drug development partnerships across therapeutic modalities (small molecules, biologics, mAbs, ADCs and gene therapies) and indications including CNS, oncology, cardiorenal and metabolic disease. She has led more than 60 IND-enabling programs into the clinic and has founded five companies, including Slate Bio, Navion, and Cypress Biopharma, where she serves as COO or CEO. She was previously Head of R&D Operations at Cavion, which Jazz Pharmaceuticals acquired in 2019, and she has supported multiple exits through IPOs and acquisitions. Michelle is an inventor on over a dozen patents across small molecule and biological platforms.
Michelle earned her PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and completed postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health.