Krisztina Zsebo, Ph.D. Named Venture Partner at Enterprise Partners

SAN DIEGO, Jan. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Enterprise Partners announced today that Krisztina Zsebo, Ph.D. has been named a Venture Partner in the firm's Life Sciences practice. Krisztina joined Enterprise Partners in 2004 as a Principal and subsequently assumed additional responsibilities as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence. For the past two years, Krisztina has been the CEO & President of Celladon, a company incubated by Enterprise Partners to develop treatments for congestive heart failure. As a Venture Partner, Krisztina will continue to guide Enterprise's life sciences incubations, as well as work with the firm's life sciences entrepreneurs and portfolio companies on business strategy and operations.

Krisztina said, "Southern California is the most dynamic biotech market in the country right now and Enterprise Partners has strong ties to the region's entrepreneurial and research communities. Enterprise offers a platform for discovering, funding and building some of the most exciting cures being developed in the life sciences and I am extremely excited to part of the firm's future."

Drew Senyei, M.D., Managing Director at Enterprise Partners and head of the firm's Life Sciences practice said of the promotion, "Kris has been a vital member of the Enterprise Partner life sciences team over the past two years. She not only brings an impressive scientific background to the team, but she is also an experienced biotech CEO with a successful track record bringing successful products to market."

Dr. Zsebo has 23 years of experience in the biotech industry in executive and R& D positions. She spent eight years at Amgen in research and product development where she worked on a number of successful products, including EPOGEN(R) and NEUPOGEN(R), both billion-dollar pharmaceuticals. Following her years at Amgen, Dr. Zsebo joined Cell Genesys as Executive Vice President of Research and Product Development where she was responsible for filing Cell Genesys' first IND for a gene therapy product for AIDS and for managing Cell Genesys' Xenotech Division, the predecessor of Abgenix. Dr. Zsebo left Cell Gensys to lead the Biopharmaceutical and Implant Division of ALZA Corporation, and was instrumental in filing the NDA for Viadur(R). Subsequently, she was Executive Vice President of Connetics Corporation and prior to joining Enterprise Partners she served as CEO & President of Remedyne Corporation, an early stage biotechnology company based on technology developed from University of California, Santa Barbara.

Dr. Zsebo received a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Maryland, a M.S. in Biochemistry from Oregon State University and a PhD in Comparative Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of California, Berkeley. She has published over 100 articles on biotechnology and holds 21 patents in the biotech field.

About Enterprise Partners Venture Capital

Enterprise Partners was founded in 1985 and is the largest venture firm headquartered in Southern California. Since its founding, the firm has invested in more than 155 companies, representing over $1.1 billion. Enterprise focuses on life sciences and technology companies across a broad spectrum of industries. During the past two years, the firm has invested in seventeen new companies and has realized eight acquisitions and two IPOs. The firm is investing its sixth fund.

http://www.epvc.com/