John Donello, Ph.D.

John Donello, Ph.D.

Chief Science Officer

John serves as Chief Science Officer at Syndeio Biosciences. John was previously Vice President, External Science & Innovation at Allergan/AbbVie, where he led R&D innovation efforts to develop strategic collaborations, in-license clinical stage assets, and evaluate M&A opportunities. Prior to Allergan, he was Vice President of various research functions responsible for identifying new targets, technologies, and program development through Phase 2.

John has over 25 years of pharmaceutical industry experience in drug discovery and drug development and is an inventor of over 130 granted U.S. patents. He has overseen the discovery, IND filing, and clinical development of more than 12 clinical candidates in pain, cognition, depression, and a range of ophthalmic and dermatologic diseases. John has directed multiple international scientific collaborations, and acquisition integrations as well as in-licensed and out-licensed numerous drug programs. Working in concert with industry and academic partners, John led global development of zelquisitinel with his research group demonstrating that rapastinel and zelquistinel act through a novel NMDAR modulatory site to enhance synaptic plasticity and symptoms of depression. He sits on University of California, Irvine Director’s Advisory Committee for the Center of Translational Vision Research.

John completed his thesis work at The Salk Institute and received his Ph.D. in biology from the University of California, San Diego. He earned a B.S., Honors in Biology degree from Indiana University.