About Us
Who We Are
Co-Founder
Jianxin Bao, PhD
Dr. Jianxin Bao is a prominent neuroscientist and researcher specializing in hearing disorders, noise-induced and age-related hearing loss, and tinnitus. He currently serves as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Head and Neck Surgery & Communication Sciences at Duke University, and is the co-founder of Gateway Biotechnology Inc., a company dedicated to developing diagnostics and therapies for hearing impairment. Supported by over $30 million in cumulative federal funding from organizations like the NIH, NIA, and NIDCD, Dr. Bao continues to lead advancements in preclinical and clinical platforms to prevent and treat hearing loss.
Rick Chole, MD, PhD
Co-Founder
Dr. Richard Chole is an internationally renowned otologist, neurotologist, and Professor Emeritus at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He serves as a co-founder of Gateway Biotechnology Inc. dedicating much of his career to treating and researching complex hearing disorders. For nearly four decades Dr. Chole operated an active research laboratory focused on inflammatory bone disease, implant infections, and the role of Pseudomonas bacterial biofilms in chronic ear infections. Through Gateway Biotechnology Inc., his active research concentrates on noise-induced hearing loss, cochlear implant optimization, and pharmaceutical interventions to address tinnitus.
Philip Perez, MD
CMO & Co-Founder
Dr. Philip L. Perez, MD, is an otologist, neurotologist, and surgeon who serves as the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Gateway Biotechnology Inc. As CMO, Dr. Perez aligns his clinical expertise with the company’s translational mission to bring new pharmaceutical therapeutics and diagnostics for hearing loss and tinnitus to market. He is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Clinically, he treats a broad spectrum of ear and skull-base disorders at the UPMC Eye & Ear Institute, specializing in cochlear implantation, acoustic neuromas (vestibular schwannomas), and complex chronic ear surgeries.
Chief Financial Officer
Jack Riccardi
Jack Riccardi serves as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Gateway Biotechnology Inc., joining the leadership team to oversee financial strategy, investment initiatives, and capital raising. He has over 30 years of experience leading strategic planning, treasury, and corporate finance within private and public startups, as well as multinational organizations. Over his career, he has built effective corporate finance teams, successfully secured equity and debt financing, prepared early-stage companies for initial public offerings (IPOs), and steered numerous Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) transactions ranging in size from $10 million to $250 million.
Chief Scientific Officer
Joseph Pinkl, AuD, PhD
Dr. Joseph Pinkl is an audiologist and translational scientist who serves as the Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) at Gateway Biotechnology Inc. His work aims to combine standard clinical insights into hearing loss with rigorous bench-science capabilities. His PhD research focused on middle ear pathology, specifically evaluating drug efficacy and oncolytic herpes simplex virus therapies for cholesteatoma using animal models. He leads Gateway’s 505(b)2 and New Chemical & Technological research programs and plays a vital role in bridging clinical audiology with advanced preclinical and clinical development for the company’s hearing health pipeline.
Our Story
Gateway Biotechnology traces its roots back to 2006, when co-founder Dr. Jianxin Bao and his co-workers at Washington University in Saint Louis performed a functional drug screening of ten families of FDA-approved drugs for the prevention and treatment of hearing loss. This research led to the discovery of a family of antiepileptic drugs capable of preventing both noise-induced and age-related hearing loss.
To accelerate the translational process from these preclinical findings to clinical applications, Drs. Bao, Chole, and Perez co-founded Gateway Biotechnology, Inc. in July 2011. Today, Gateway has four products in development as therapies for hearing disorders, including tinnitus.