Barnaby C. H. May, Ph.D.

Barnaby joined Aroa Biosurgery’s management team over 13 years ago. He completed his doctoral thesis on the design and synthesis of novel HIV protease inhibitors at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. He subsequently undertook postdoctoral studies in 2000 at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). During this time, he established and led a drug discovery program targeting human prion diseases, and successfully identified a compound that underwent immediate clinical studies. Barnaby developed additional related research programs in the areas of protein misfolding diseases, parasitic diseases, computational and structural biology.

In 2003, he accepted an invitation to a faculty role at UCSF where he built and led a drug discovery program. This program spanned target and lead identification, high-throughput screening, medicinal chemistry, and pre-clinical pharmacokinetics. In 2004, Barnaby joined InPro Biotechnology as Scientific Director to lead product development of prion-related medical devices and diagnostics. After 8 years abroad, he returned to New Zealand in 2008 and joined Aroa Biosurgery.