John Dobak, M.D.
John Dobak, M.D. is the Founder and President of JAKK Group. Dr. Dobak was most recently the CEO of Lithera, Inc. (www.lithera.com). Lithera was incubated by the JAKK Group and financed with ~$30 MM in venture capital from Domain Associates and Alta Partners. The Lithera technology, business plan, and intellectual property were developed by the JAKK Group.
Dr. Dobak has also been the founder and CEO of several venture backed start-ups including Leptos Biomedical, INNERCOOL therapies, and CryoGen. Dr. Dobak has led the establishment of these ventures through multiple financing rounds, management team formation, product development, clinical trials, FDA approvals and clearances, and intellectual property creation and procurement. Dr. Dobak’s investment partners include top rated venture capital firms such as Domain Associates, Alta Partners, Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield, and Byers, Thomas McNerney Partners, Spray Venture Partners, CS First Boston, Institutional Venture Partners, Invesco, and Technology Partners. Dr. Dobak has also conducted corporate financing and merger transactions with Boston Scientific and American Medical Systems. His Companies have won various awards for innovation including: UCSD Connect’s Most Innovative New Product Award and the AeA Lifescience Innovation Award, the T-Sector’s Biofusion Award for Innovation. Dr. Dobak is a recipient of the 1999 MIT Technology Review Top 100 Innovators of the New Millennium Award. Dr. Dobak serves on the Board of Directors of the UCSD Medical School Alumni Association. In addition, he serves as a course director on biomedical entrepreneurship in the UCSD Department of Bioengineering.
Dr. Dobak received an M.D. from the University of California, San Diego, and a B.S. from the University of California, Los Angeles. After graduating from medical school, Dr. Dobak completed a post-doctoral fellowship in molecular biology at the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla. He subsequently completed an internship in internal medicine at UCLA-Harbor County Hospital. Dr. Dobak is licensed to practice medicine in the state of California.
