Naason Science Team

Founder & CEO (PhD)

Larry Chong Park, PhD, co-founder and CEO of Naason Science, Inc., has worked in pharma/biotech drug discovery and development for the last 20 years. Prior to Naason Science, Larry, as the director of preclinical research, led and directed drug discovery campaigns from lead optimization through IND filing at CHDI Management/Foundation, Inc for 13 years.  Working closely with academic and CRO partners, he has characterized several genetically engineered animal models of Huntington’s Disease and evaluated over 200+ lead compounds in vivo, some of which are now clinical candidates. 

   Prior to CHDI, Larry was a senior research scientist and group leader at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Cambridge, MA, USA, where he led the in vivo pharmacology group in developing small molecule kinase inhibitors for CNS, oncology and immunology indications. Prior to Vertex, he led the CNS cell biology group to develop various HTS-Driven biochemical and cell-based screen assays at Galileo Pharmaceuticals, Inc, Santa Clara, CA, USA.

   Larry received his BS in biology from UCLA, and his PhD in pharmacology and toxicology from University of California, Irvine. His postdoctoral research was in CNS metabolic diseases at the Burke Institute of Cornell Medical College. 

CSO, Senior Adviser (PhD)  

Jonathan Friedman has over 35 years’ experience in research and 20 years’ experience in drug development with startups, small enterprises and  a large, multinational corporation. He was most recently a  CNS Expert, Team and Project leader at TEVA Pharmaceuticals.
  Jonathan received his AB in mathematics from Oberlin College, a MSc in Physical Chemistry and PhD in Biophysics-Biochemistry from the Weizmann Institute of Science and did his postdoctoral research at Yale University, where he was also on the faculty of the medical school. His research focused on brain development and neuronal responses to stress and injury.  As the Director of Neuroscience at D-Pharm, Ltd., he led the research focusing on neurodegenerative disorders, behavior and pain as well as epilepsy and stroke. He has experience in the development of small molecule and biologic drug candidates, from the early discovery stage to regulatory submission. 

Team leader (DVM)  

Kyung Ho works as the team leader to manage a day-to-day operations in orchestrating and conducting preclinical studies. He is specialized in veterinary imaging and animal disease model generation from rodents to large animals. Prior to Naason Science, he worked as a DVM and study researcher in preclinical efficacy and toxicology evaluations in a national academic institution in Korea. He obtained BS in biochemistry and DVM in Korea.