Best Startup
At Best Startup UK we track over 130,000 UK startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top Cambridge based Founder operating in the Biotechnology space. If you think a Founder is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.co.uk.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Companies House UK, Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Gregory Winter
Scientific Founders of Bicycle Therapeutics
Professor Sir Gregory Winter is a member of the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge and most of his scientific career was based there. He was Head of Division of Protein and Nucleic Acid Chemistry, succeeding Cesar Milstein and has served as both Deputy and Acting Director of the LMB. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, was knighted in 2004 for services to science and in 2012 was appointed by the Queen as Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. Sir Gregory is a graduate of University of Cambridge (1973), specialising in chemistry and biochemistry; for his PhD (1976) and postdoctoral work (1977-1981) he specialised in protein and nucleic acid sequencing respectively and with colleagues determined the genome sequence of influenza virus. From 1982 he pioneered the science of protein engineering, focusing first on enzymes (with A. Fersht) and then antibodies. He invented techniques to humanise rodent antibodies for use as therapeutics (1986–), working with H. Waldmann in the development of alemtuzumab/Campath-1H. Later, in competition with R. Lerner, he developed methods to make fully human antibodies (1989–) against human self-antigens using antibody libraries. His inventions are used in most of the antibody products on the market, including the humanised antibodies alemtuzumab/Campath-1H, trastuzumab/Herceptin, bevacizumab/Avastin, palivizumab/Synagis and the first human antibody (adalimumab/Humira) to be approved by the US FDA. Sir Gregory has acted as an entrepreneur to translate his scientific inventions to medicines. He was a founder of Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT,1989) and Domantis (2000); these companies pioneered the use of antibody libraries to make fully human antibody therapeutics. CAT was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1997 and was responsible for the co-development of the therapeutic antibodies adalimumab/Humira and belimumab/Benlysta. CAT was acquired by AstraZeneca in 2006. Domantis developed a range of product leads based on single antibody domains and was acquired by GSK in 2006 in a private sale. Sir Gregory has won several international scientific prizes, including the Prix Louis Jeantet de Medecine (Switzerland) in 1989; the King Faisal International Prize for Medicine (Molecular Immunology, Saudi Arabia) in 1995; the Biochemical Analysis Prize of the German Society for Clinical Chemistry in 1995; the Cancer Research Institute William B. Coley Award (US) in 1999; and the Royal Medal of the Royal Society in 2011. For his work with industry, he received the National Biotechnology Ventures Award (US) in 2004 and the BioIndustry Association Award (UK) in 2008. In March 2013 he was awarded the Gairdner Prize for the engineering of humanised monoclonal antibodies and their widespread use in medical therapy, particularly for treatment of cancer and immune disorders.
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About Ahren Innovation Capital, Bicycle Therapeutics, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Trinity College, Dublin: Bicycle Therapeutics is developing a technology for the creation of new generation biotherapeutics.
Christian Heinis
Scientific Founders of Bicycle Therapeutics
Christian Heinis is Scientific Founders at Bicycle Therapeutics.
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About Bicycle Therapeutics: Bicycle Therapeutics is developing a technology for the creation of new generation biotherapeutics.
Noubar Afeyan
Founder & CEO of Flagship Pioneering
Noubar Afeyan is Founder, Senior Managing Partner and Chief Executive Officer at Flagship Ventures, a leading early stage venture capital firm. Noubar also leads the firm’s VentureLabs unit that invents and launches transformative startups. Noubar is a Senior Lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management where he has taught courses on technology-entrepreneurship, innovation and leadership since 2000. Noubar lectures widely in the United States and internationally on diverse topics ranging from entrepreneurship, innovation and venture capital to biological engineering, drug discovery, medical technologies and renewable energy. During his 28-year career as inventor, entrepreneur, CEO and venture capitalist, Noubar has co-founded and helped build over 35 successful life science and technology startups. Noubar was Founder and Chief Executive Officer at PerSeptive Biosystems, a leader in the bio-instrumentation field that grew to over $100M in annual sales within six years from its first sales. After PerSeptive’s acquisition by Perkin Elmer/Applera Corporation in 1998, Noubar was Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer of Applera, where he initiated and oversaw the creation of Celera Genomics. Currently Noubar serves on a number of public and private company boards including CiBO Technologies, Epiva BioSciences, Evelo BioSciences, Joule Unlimited, Kaleido BioSciences, Moderna Therapeutics, Pronutria Biosciences and Seres Therapeutics. Previously, Noubar was a Member of the founding team, Director and Investor in several highly successful ventures including Chemgenics Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Millennium Pharmaceuticals), Color Kinetics (acquired by Philips), Adnexus Therapeutics (acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb) and Affinnova (acquired by AC Nielsen). Noubar received a Technology Pioneer 2012 award from the World Economic Forum in recognition of the breakthrough solar fuel technology being developed at Joule Unlimited. Noubar has served as Chairman of the Global Agenda Council on Chemicals, Advanced Materials and Biotechnology of the World Economic Forum as well as being a member of the Meta-Council on Emerging Technologies. Noubar is a Member of the Board of Overseers of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In addition, he serves on the board of AmeriaBank and of UWC Dilijan International School, both of Armenia. Previously, Noubar was a Co-Founder and Member of the Board of Directors at National Competitiveness Foundation of Armenia, a private-public partnership dedicated to promoting economic development in the former Soviet Republic of Armenia. In 2008 Noubar received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, an award granted to outstanding Americans who have distinguished themselves as United States citizens and who have enabled their ancestry groups to maintain their identities while becoming integral parts of American life. Noubar has authored numerous scientific publications and patents since earning his Ph.D. in Biochemical Engineering from MIT in 1987. Cygnal is a best-in-class team of biomedical experts and leaders collaborating to revolutionize how the world treats diseases.
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About BIND Therapeutics, Cogen Therapeutics, Cygnal Therapeutics, Ensemble Therapeutics, Flagship Pioneering, Generate Biomedicines, Harvard Business School, Indigo, Joule Unlimited Technologies, Laronde, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Moderna Therapeutics, Omega Therapeutics, Permeon Biologics, Ring Therapeutics, Rubius Therapeutics, Seres Therapeutics: Flagship Pioneering is a venture capital firm that invests in life sciences and healthcare companies.
Geraldine Harriman
CSO & Co-Founder of HotSpot Therapeutics
Geraldine Harriman is the Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of HotSpot Therapeutics.
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About HotSpot Therapeutics: HotSpot Therapeutics is a developer of a therapy platform designed to discover medicines and provide proper treatment.
Nick Lydon
Scientific Founder of Blueprint Medicines
Nick Lydon, Ph.D., is a scientific founder of Blueprint Medicines. Before founding his current consulting company, Granite Biopharma, LLC, Dr. Lydon served as vice president, small molecule drug discovery at Amgen. Prior to joining Amgen, he founded and led Kinetix Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of selective protein kinase inhibitors, a number of which are now advancing through clinical development. Kinetix was acquired by Amgen in 2000. Prior to Kinetix, Dr. Lydon worked at CIBA-GEIGY, in Basel, Switzerland, where he was responsible for the protein kinase inhibitor program. He and his team identified a number of protein kinase inhibitors. The most advanced drug from this program is Gleevec®, a selective Bcr-Abl inhibitor for the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). Dr. Lydon began his pharmaceutical career at Schering-Plough Corporation, where his research involved studies on recombinant alpha, beta and gamma interferons. In 2009, Dr. Lydon was awarded the Lasker-DeBakey Award for Clinical Medical Research for his work on developing Gleevec®, converting a fatal cancer into a manageable chronic condition. Other awards include the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize, the AACR-Bruce F. Cain Memorial Award, and the Charles F. Kettering Prize from the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation for his contributions to the discovery and development of Gleevec®. Dr. Lydon earned a B.S. in biochemistry from the University of Leeds, England, and received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Medical Sciences Institute, University of Dundee, Scotland. His thesis involved research work on adenylate cyclase and cAMP dependent protein kinase. Dr. Lydon served as an advisor and member of the board of directors of Ambit BioScience from 2004 to 2009 and assisted in the development of AC220, a FLT3 kinase inhibitor in Phase 2 clinical development in relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML).
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About Blueprint Medicines: Blueprint Medicines engages in the discovery and development of highly selective kinase inhibitors for genomically defined cancer subsets.
Michael Anstey
Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Proteorex Therapeutics Inc.
Michael Anstey is an Investment Director specialising in healthcare investments. Before joining CIC he was a Principal in the Healthcare Practice Area at The Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) Toronto office. Michael has experience in advising multinational healthcare businesses across North America, Europe, India, and Japan on a broad range of topics, including corporate strategy, sales and marketing, new launches, R&D and medical strategy, and M&A. Michael was co-founder and COO of an early stage biotechnology company focused on developing small molecule drugs that target protein-protein interactions implicated in disease. Prior to BCG, Michael worked in venture capital, where he focused on investing in early stage healthcare and life science businesses. Michael earned his DPhil in Zoology in the field of neurobiology, jointly supervised by professors at the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford. Michael sits on the board of Bicycle Therapeutics.
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About Cambridge Innovation Capital, Proteorex Therapeutics Inc.: Expanding horizons to find cures
Nick Davis
Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Theonys
Nick Davis is the Founder, President & Chief Executive Officer of Theonys — a therapeutics company developing new small-molecule medicines to selectively stop the translation of disease-causing proteins in cancer, chronic inflammation and other serious human diseases.
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About Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Theonys: Theonys is harnessing the power of tRNA to pioneer an entirely new class of genomic medicines.
Stephen Smith
Co-Founder of Pear Therapeutics
Stephen Smith received his B.A from Harvard University, J.D. from Columbia University, and M.Ed from Harvard University School of Education. After law school, Stephen served as an assistant district attorney in New York. He later joined the staff of the Senate Judiciary and Foreign Relations Committees. After leaving the Senate, Stephen worked at Conflict Management Group; a nonprofit associated with Harvard Law School, and taught in the advanced program on negotiation at Harvard University Law School. As part of his work at Conflict Management, Stephen consulted with global clients including the Organization of African Unity, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and the parties in the Irish Peace process. Stephen is a three-time recipient of the Danforth Award for excellence in teaching at Harvard University and is also the winner of the Lyndehurst Foundation Prize for social and artistic achievement. For the past twenty years, Stephen has been on the Kennedy board of Joseph P. Kennedy Enterprises, the Kennedy family investment office. He has delivered keynote presentations at the annual conferences of the Family Firm Institute and the Family Office Exchange– the two major family business organizations. Stephen has also served on the board of the John F. Kennedy Library, the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial, Citizens Energy, the Northeastern University School of Public Policy, and INCAE Business School and the advisory board of the Joslin Diabetes Center at Harvard Medical School. Stephen is a Fellow at the International Economic Alliance, an organization dedicated to promoting innovative international trade. As a partner and board member, Stephen is actively involved in a number of medical and green technology businesses, including Emlink, which develops, designs and manages sustainable technology; The Marwood Group, a healthcare-focused strategic advisory and financial services firm; and Pear Therapeutics, a medical software company. Stephen was Deputy Campaign Manager for Senator Edward Kennedy during his Presidential and Senatorial campaigns, Youth Coordinator for the campaign of Mario Cuomo, served on the New England Steering Committee for the Obama presidential campaign, and continues to be active in Democratic politics.
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About Pear Therapeutics: Pear Therapeutics is a software-based digital therapeutics platform designed to treat disease and enhance the efficacy of pharmaceuticals.
Nello Mainolfi
Founder, President & CEO of Kymera Therapeutics
Nello Mainolfi is the Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer at Kymera Therapeutics.
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About Kymera Therapeutics: Kymera Therapeutics is a biotechnology company that specializes in the field of targeted protein degradation.
Philippe Leboulch
Founder & Co-Chair of Scientific Advisory Board of Bluebird Bio
Head of the Institute of Emerging Diseases and Innovative Therapies of CEA and INSERM; Professor of Medicine, University of Paris; and Visiting Professor, Harvard Philippe Leboulch is a scientific founder of bluebird bio. He serves as the co-chairman of its Scientific Advisory Board and leader of the LentiGlobin® project. He is a professor of medicine and cell biology at the University of Paris and visiting professor at Harvard Medical School. Philippe is also the director of the Institute of Emerging Diseases and Innovative Therapies of the CEA near Paris and director of an INSERM research unit. He maintains a research laboratory in the genetics division of the Brigham & Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School, where he previously served as a full-time faculty member for 15 years after a postdoctoral fellowship at MIT. Philippe is an expert in vectorology and hematopoietic gene therapy, with special emphasis on the beta-hemoglobinopathies. He has been published extensively in high-impact journals and is a regularly invited speaker at major international conferences. Philippe was a member of the Editorial Board of Blood, the Journal of the American Society of Hematology. He has served on major committees of the National Institutes of Health and the American Society of Gene Therapy. Philippe has received numerous NIH grant awards and prizes that include the Grand Prize Etancelin of the French National Academy of Sciences.
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About Bluebird Bio: Bluebird Bio offers products based on the transformative potential of gene therapy for patients with genetic and orphan diseases.
Amy Schulman
Executive Chairman & Co-Founder of Lyndra Therapeutics
Amy Schulman is the Chief Executive Officer at Arsia Therapeutics since August 2014. Arsia, a biotechnology company focused on improving patients’ lives through new modes of drug delivery, and a venture partner at Polaris, a leading venture capital firm with approximately 4 billion under management in August of 2014. Amy joined Polaris Partner’s Boston office as a Healthcare Venture Partner in 2014, simultaneously assuming the role of Chief Executive Officer of Arsia Therapeutics, a Polaris-backed company. In July 2015 Amy co-founded Lyndra where she is Chief Executive Officer and President. Amy is an accomplished business leader, widely recognized for growing and stabilizing global businesses, commitment to people, strategic judgment, and efforts to advance women and promote inclusive workplace cultures. Amy joined Harvard Business School’s Faculty as a Senior Lecturer in July 2014. Prior to that, Amy led Pfizer Inc.’s $4 billion Consumer Healthcare business, which operates in 90 countries and includes well-known brands such as Advil, Centrum and Chapstick. Amy also served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Pfizer Inc. Key accomplishments include: revitalization of the ChapStick brand; regulatory filing for Lipitor OTC; rapid growth of Emergen-C and increased Europe profitability. Amy originally joined Pfizer in 2008 as General Counsel and saw the company through its $68 billion acquisition of Wyeth, the largest pharmaceutical acquisition in history. In 2009, Amy spearheaded an innovative approach to engaging outside counsel and became recognized as a leading voice for transforming the billable-hour model and for redefining the value of legal services. Before joining Pfizer, Amy was a Partner at DLA Piper, where she was a Member of the Board and Executive Policy Committees and built and led the international law firm’s mass tort and class-action practice handling some of the most complex legal, scientific and regulatory challenges facing the world’s largest and most reputable companies, including Kraft, Altria, Cisco, GE Healthcare and Pfizer. Amy began her career in litigation with Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton. Amy’s accomplishments have earned her accolades from leading publications and organizations. In 2013 Fortune magazine named her one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in Business.” That same year, The American Lawyer named her one of the “Top 50 Innovators,” and The National Law Journal named her one of “The 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America.” Amy also has been recognized by The American Bar Association, which honored her with the Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement award in 2012. In 2009 Forbes magazine included her on its inaugural list of “The World’s Most Powerful Women.” Amy serves on the Boards of Directors of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Arsanis, Biosciences, Arsia Therapeutics, BIND Therapeutics, Blue Buffalo, Lyndra, and SQZ Biotech. A Phi Beta Kappa Graduate of Wesleyan University, Amy earned her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1989.
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About Arsia Therapeutics, Harvard Business School, Lyndra Therapeutics, Polaris Partners, Suono Bio: Lyndra Therapeutics is a novel technology platform reinventing medicine for a healthier world.
Joseph Jacobson
CSO & Co-Founder of DeepCure
Joseph Jacobson is Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he is co-PI of the Center for Bits and Atoms and leads the Molecular Machine Group. His group at MIT is focused on pioneering the field of Avogadro Scale Engineering with applications in novel computing machines and synthetic biology. Jacobson received his PhD in Physics from MIT and was a post-doctoral fellow at Stanford in the area of Quantum Optics. He is the recipient of a 1999 Technology Review TR100 Award for Innovation, The 2000 Gutenberg Prize and a 2001 Discover Award. He has authored over 70 peer reviewed papers and conference proceedings in the fields of femotosecond lasers, quantum optics, molecular electronics, nano-chemistry and synthetic DNA. In the private sector Jacobson was co-founder of E Ink, Kovio and Gen9 and was a founding board member of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) which is focused on developing a $100 laptop for kids.
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About DeepCure, E Ink, Kovio, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: DeepCuris builds an AI engine for small-molecule drug discovery.
Richard Friesner
Co-Founder of Schrödinger
Richard A. Friesner is Professor of Chemistry at Columbia University and Director of the Columbia Center for Biomolecular Simulation. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and American Academy of Arts of Sciences, and has been awarded a Sloan Foundation Fellowship, Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, and an NIH Research Career Development Award. Current interests include quantum chemistry, development of potential functions for molecular simulation, continuum electrostatic models, and protein folding. Dr. Friesner is a co-founder of Schrödinger, and a member of Schrödinger’s Board of Directors.
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About Columbia University, Schrödinger: Schrödinger develops a chemical simulation software for use in pharmaceutical and biotechnology research.
Allen Lin
Co-Founder and CSO of Oncolinx
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About Harvard University, Oncolinx: Oncolinx is developing antibody-drug conjugates.
Tom Simmons
Founder & CEO of Supplant
Tom has over 10 years of experience in carbohydrate biochemistry. He formerly held fellowships at the University of Cambridge and at the World Economic Forum and has advocated sugar reduction initiatives through Sky News and Channel 4 television appearances.
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About Cambridge Judge Business School, Supplant: Supplant is a biotechnology platform that makes sugar substitutes.
Mark Kotter
Founder/CEO of bit.bio
Mark Kotter is the founder and CEO of bit.bio.
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About bit.bio: Bit.bio specializes in the fields of coding and biology that determine the identity of every human cell.
Tom Henley
Founder and CEO of Empyrean Therapeutics
Tom Henley is the founder and CEO of Empyrean Therapeutics.
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About Empyrean Therapeutics: Empyrean Therapeutics develops next generation cell therapies to enable global and affordable cures for diseases.
Giulio Ruffini
President, CTO, Co-Founder of Neuroelectrics
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About Neuroelectrics: Neuroelectrics is a digital brain health company that diagnoses and treats brain disorders, and improves overall brain health.
Thomas Schuetz
Co-Founder of Audentes Therapeutics
Dr. Schuetz, M.D., Ph.D., is the co-founder of Audentes Therapeutics and has served as a member of the board of directors since July 2013. Dr. Schuetz also provided consulting services to Audentes from July 2012 to June 2013. Dr. Schuetz is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Compass Therapeutics, LLC. Previously, Dr. Schuetz was a Venture Partner at OrbiMed. Dr. Schuetz served as the Chief Medical Officer of Therion Biologics Corporation and the Vice President of Clinical Affairs at Transkaryotic Therapies, Inc. (now Shire Pharmaceuticals, Inc.). Dr. Schuetz has also served as the Chief Medical Resident at Massachusetts General Hospital and completed a medical oncology fellowship at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Schuetz also serves on the board of directors of Relypsa, Inc. and Glypharma, Inc. Dr. Schuetz holds a B.S. in chemistry from Xavier University, an M.D. from Harvard Medical School and a Ph.D. in genetics from Harvard University. Dr. Schuetz is Board Certified in Medical Oncology.
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About Audentes Therapeutics, Compass Therapeutics, Inc.: Audentes is a biotechnology company that employs gene therapy technology to develop treatments for people with rare muscle diseases.
Venky Soundararajan
Co-Founder & Chief Scientific Officer of nference
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About nference: nference.inc, provides an AI based software platform that synthesizes siloed biomedical knowledge for insights and makes it computable.
David Heller
Co-Founder of C16 Biosciences
David Heller is a Co-Founder at C16 Biosciences.
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About C16 Biosciences: C16 Biosciences produces clean, safe alternatives to palm oil.
Alec Nielsen
Founder & CEO of Asimov
Alec Nielsen is the Founder & CEO at Asimov.
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About Asimov: Asimov builds tools to program living cells.
Raghu Kalluri
Scientific Founder of Codiak Biosciences
Raghu Kalluri is Chairman and Professor of the Department of Cancer Biology and the Director of the Metastasis Research Center at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he also holds the Rebecca and Joseph Brown Endowed Chair. CPRIT funding helped bring Raghu Kalluri to Texas from Harvard Medical School in 2012. Raghu Kalluri received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Kansas Medical Center and his M.D. degree from Brown University Medical School. He was a postdoctoral fellow and a research associate at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School and performed research in areas of immunology and organ fibrosis. In 1997, he moved to Harvard Medical School as an Assistant Professor of Medicine and as a faculty based in the Department of Medicine at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Subsequently, Kalluri was appointed the Chief of the Division of Matrix Biology and promoted to Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He held appointments in the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at HMS, Harvard MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Harvard Stem Cell Institute and was a research fellow of the HMS Peabody Society. Kalluri has trained more than 70 postdoctoral fellows and 20 graduate students in his career. He is a fellow of American Society of Clinical Investigation and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In addition, Kalluri serves on science and health advisory panels in the U.S. and European Union and on the editorial boards of several academic journals representing biology and medicine.
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About Codiak Biosciences: Codiak is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on pioneering the development of exosome-based therapeutics.
Hannah Sore
Founder and CEO of PharmEnable
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About PharmEnable: PharmEnable has developed a rapid and cost effective way to identify better chemical starting points to drive the discovery.
Jonathan Zhao
Co-Founder and Chairman of Hangzhou Just Biotherapeutics (Just China)
Asia strategy across small molecule, biologics and vaccine. He had also served as the interim head of Pfizer’s Bio-enhancement Development Unit during 2009-2010 in charge of the biosimilar and biobetter strategy development and business operation. Dr. Zhao received his B.S. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Fudan University (Shanghai, China), PhD. magna cum laude in Analytical Chemistry from Ghent University (Ghent, Belgium), and MBA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, USA). He has contributed more than 30 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters.
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About Hangzhou Just Biotherapeutics (Just China), Transcenta: Hangzhou Just Biotherapeutics is a comprehensive high-tech design company.
Glenn Robertelli
Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer of Admetsys
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About Admetsys: For people at diabetic risk, glucose control is at its most crucial while in hospital or surgery.
Shawn Marcell
Co-Founder, President & CEO of Torus Biosystems
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About Torus Biosystems: Torus Biosystems is a biotech startup that delivers molecular diagnostics for infectious diseases.
Zeel Patel
Co-Founder of Evera
Zeel Patel is the co-founder of EveraLabs.
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About Evera: Evera is a stem cell banking company that allows the world to invest in their future health and wellbeing.
Mehmet Toner
Founder of Torpedo Diagnostics
Mehmet Toner is the Helen Andrus Benedict Professor of Bioengineering at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and Harvard-MIT Health Sciences & Technology. He is internationally recognized for his research at the interface of nanotechnology, microsystems engineering, microfluidics, and applications in clinical medicine. Dr. Toner was born in Istanbul, Turkey. He obtained his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at the Istanbul Technical University, and his master’s degree and doctorate in Mechanical Engineering at MIT. He is the author of more than 300 original scientific and technical publications, and an inventor on more than 30 patents. Dr. Toner is a pioneer in the development of technologies to isolate extremely rare cells from blood, including circulating tumor cells. He is the founding Director of the NIH BioMicroElectroMechanical Systems Center, a nationwide center exploring the applications of microfluidics and nanotechnology in clinical medicine and life sciences. His work in cancer was awarded the Quantum grant from NIH as part of the “moon shot” program. His work has resulted in the formation of multiple companies servicing clinical diagnostics and biotechnology.
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About Massachusetts General Hospital, Torpedo Diagnostics: Torpedo Diagnostics is revolutionizing cancer detection, management and cure with a proprietary technology platform .
Daniel Haber
Founder of Torpedo Diagnostics
Daniel Haber is the Director of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center, the Isselbacher/Schwartz Professor of Oncology at Harvard Medical School, and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). He earned his BS and MS degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and his MD and PhD from Stanford. He completed his residency in internal medicine at MGH, his clinical fellowship in oncology at Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and his postdoctoral training at MIT, before joining the MGH faculty in 1991. Dr. Haber is known for his research in cancer genetics, including the discovery of genes implicated in the pediatric kidney cancer Wilms Tumor, the prevalence of founder BRCA mutations in young women of Ashkenazi descent. In 2004, his laboratory identified specific mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene that underlie exquisite sensitivity to targeted kinase inhibitors, a milestone in the development of precision oncology targeting genetically-identified subsets of common epithelial cancers. The MGH Cancer Center now conducts a broad range of first-in-human clinical trials of targeted anti-cancer agents. Dr. Haber’s research is currently focused on the use of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) as a non-invasive “liquid biopsy” to detect and interrogate cancer cells at different stages of treatment response and disease progression, a project for which he and his close collaborator Dr. Mehmet Toner were awarded a Stand Up To Cancer Dream Team Award. Dr. Haber is a member of the National Academy of Medicine (Institute of Medicine), the American Academy of Arts and Science (AAAS), the Association of American Physicians (AAP), and the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI).
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About Torpedo Diagnostics: Torpedo Diagnostics is revolutionizing cancer detection, management and cure with a proprietary technology platform .
Chris Mason
Founder & Chief Scientific Officer of Avrobio
Chris Mason is the Founder & Chief Scientific Officer at AVROBIO .
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About Avrobio, Cell & Gene Therapy, Krystal Biotech, Ori Biotech, University College London (UCL): Avrobio is a clinical stage company developing step-change cell and gene therapies targeting cancer and rare disease.
Jeffrey Medin
Scientific Founder of Avrobio
Jeffrey received his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Kentucky. He then trained at the NIH working on gene transcription and gene transfer/therapy. He was recently a Senior Scientist at the University Health Network and a Full Professor at the University of Toronto. In January 2016, Jeffrey started a new position as the MACC Fund Endowed Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. He is also Vice Chair of Research Innovation for the Department of Pediatrics, Research Director within the Section of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, and GMP Facility Director.
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About Association of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nurses, Avrobio, GMP Securities, Medical College of Wisconsin: Avrobio is a clinical stage company developing step-change cell and gene therapies targeting cancer and rare disease.
Christopher Paige
Scientific Founder of Avrobio
Christopher earned a PhD in Immunology at the Sloan-Kettering Division of Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences in 1979. He became a Member of the Basel Institute for Immunology in Switzerland in 1980 where he worked until joining the Ontario Cancer Institute as a Senior Scientist in 1987. In 1990, Christopher became the founding Director of the Arthritis and Autoimmunity Research Centre as well as Director of Research at The Wellesley Hospital. In 1997, he returned to OCI, now part of the University Health Network, to assume the role of Vice President, Research at UHN. Christopher is a Professor in the Departments of Medical Biophysics and Immunology at the University of Toronto.
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About Avrobio, University of Toronto: Avrobio is a clinical stage company developing step-change cell and gene therapies targeting cancer and rare disease.
Romesh Subramanian
CEO and Founder of Dyne Therapeutics
Romesh Subramanian is the CEO and founder of Dyne Therapeutics.
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About Dyne Therapeutics: Dyne Therapeutics is a developer of targeted therapies intended for serious muscle diseases.
Rajesh Devraj
CSO & Co-Founder of Disarm Therapeutics
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About Atlas Venture, Disarm Therapeutics, Rectify Pharmaceuticals: Disarm Therapeutics is a biotechnology company developing disease-modifying therapeutics for patients with axonal degeneration.
Edmund Sybertz
Founder of Lysosomal Therapeutics
Ted Sybertz, Ph.D., held various research leadership positions at Schering Plough, Geltex and Genzyme, focusing on cardiovascular and CNS diseases. At Genzyme, he played a leadership role in discovery and preclinical development of the glucosyl ceramide synthesis inhibitor, eliglustat. He has been associated with the discovery and introduction of over 20 molecules into clinical development, six of which were ultimately approved.
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About Lysosomal Therapeutics: Lysosomal Therapeutics deliver cures for neurodegenerative diseases.
Derrick Rossi
Founder of Intellia Therapeutics
In 2010, Dr. Rossi discovered a groundbreaking method to reprogram skin cells into stem cells utilizing messenger molecules. His novel technique eliminated the risk of cancer posed by previous methods and sparked a push to develop cellular and molecular therapeutic products using the technologies he developed. More recently, Dr. Rossi and colleagues again innovated in the stem cell field by applying the CRISPR/Cas9 system to generate hematopoietic stem cells resistant to HIV infection. Dr. Rossi continues to study CRISPR for application in human therapeutics.
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About Convelo Therapeutics, Intellia Therapeutics, Moderna Therapeutics, Stelexis Therapeutics: Intellia Therapeutics is a genome editing company that develops curative gene-editing treatments.
Rodolphe Barrangou
Co-Founder of Intellia Therapeutics
Rodolphe Barrangou is an Associate Professor of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences at North Carolina State University. His lab focuses on the biology and genetics of CRISPR/Cas immune systems in bacteria. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Caribou Biosciences. Rodolphe was previously a Director of Research and Development at DuPont and Danisco. While with Dansico, he was part of the team that initially established the adaptive immune function of CRISPR systems. Rodolphe received his PhD in Functional Genomics from North Carolina State University and an MBA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
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About Intellia Therapeutics, North Carolina State University – NCSU: Intellia Therapeutics is a genome editing company that develops curative gene-editing treatments.
Luciano Marraffini
Founder & Advisor of Intellia Therapeutics
Luciano Marraffini is an Assistant Professor of Bacteriology at Rockefeller University. Luciano’s laboratory investigates the underlying molecular mechanisms of CRISPR immunity, and seeks to employ this natural pathway to develop new technologies. He is a 2012 Rita Allen Foundation Scholar and the recipient of a 2012 NIH Director’s New Innovator Award. Luciano received his PhD from the University of Chicago where he studied bacterial pathogenesis, and completed his postdoctoral fellowship at Northwestern University.
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About Eligo Bioscience, Intellia Therapeutics, The Rockefeller University: Intellia Therapeutics is a genome editing company that develops curative gene-editing treatments.
Andrew Clark
Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Camallergy
Andy has been a consultant in paediatric allergy at Addenbrooke’s Hospital since 2003, gaining his MD Thesis in Allergy in the same year. He runs the paediatric allergy service at Addenbrooke’s and this work is complemented by a broad UK Government-funded research portfolio. In 2010 Andy was named in ‘The Times’ magazine list of top UK doctors, and again in 2012 he was recognised as one of the UK’s 100 best children’s specialist doctors. He plays an active role in the national parent allergy organisation (BSACI) as chair of the standards of care committee. He recently led writing guideline documents for managing egg allergy and in 2012 he was appointed chair of this committee. He now coordinates the writing of guidelines on multiple topics, such as peanut, milk and penicillin allergy, and adrenaline auto-injector use. Andy is also secretary to the taskforce on the allergic child in school, which produced European guidelines for school allergy and he is Chair of the expert scientific panel of the Anaphylaxis Campaign. Andy lectures frequently to undergraduates, primary and secondary care doctors and nurses and is a regular invited speaker at national and European allergy conferences.
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About Camallergy, University of Cambridge: Camallergy develops and provides new treatments for common food allergies.
Winston Yan
Co-Founder of Arbor Biotechnologies
Winston is a biotechnologist discovering and developing applications for novel molecular technologies. Prior to co-founding Arbor, Winston worked in the laboratory of Feng Zhang at MIT and the Broad Institute, where he focused on addressing challenges that limit the in vivo therapeutic applications of CRISPR-Cas nucleases. This included developing smaller orthologs of Cas9 for better packaging into the most therapeutically promising viral vectors for gene therapy, building assays that enhance off-target detection to evaluate the genomic safety of CRISPR-Cas enzymes, and additionally searching for new enzyme systems to power genome engineering capabilities beyond nucleases. Winston graduated magna cum laude with a BS in Physics from Harvard College, and PhD in Biophysics from Harvard University as a part of the Harvard-MIT MD/PhD program. Recognition for his research and entrepreneurship has included the Sir Peter Mansfield Research Fellowship, Herchel Smith Undergraduate Research Fellowship, Olken Brothers’ Award for Entrepreneurial Spirit, Harvard I3 Innovation Challenge Winner, Micron Science & Technology Scholarship Top Awardee, and the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship.
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About Arbor Biotechnologies: Arbor Biotechnologies is an operator of a bio-discovery company intended to provide human diagnostic development services.
David Scott
Co-Founder, Head of Innovation of Arbor Biotechnologies
David works at the intersection of computer science and biology, leveraging emerging data streams to create exciting new biotechnologies. Prior to co-founding Arbor, David completed his PhD in the laboratory of Feng Zhang at MIT and the Broad Institute, where he contributed to the early development of CRISPR-Cas systems for mammalian genome editing applications. As part of this work, David created experimental and computational techniques to enhance the precision of CRISPR-Cas applications and discover novel CRISPR gene editing systems. David is the recipient of the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the Henry E. Singleton Fellowship, and the Angus MacDonald Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. He received his BS in Cognitive Science from the University of California San Diego, where he co-authored several research studies illuminating the early progression of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.
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About Arbor Biotechnologies: Arbor Biotechnologies is an operator of a bio-discovery company intended to provide human diagnostic development services.
David Sabatini
Founder of KSQ Therapeutics
David Sabatini is a Member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, and he is Senior Associate Member at the Broad Institute, Member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, and a Professor of Biology, all with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. David and his lab at the Whitehead Institute study the basic mechanisms that regulate growth, the processes whereby cells and organisms accumulate mass and increase in size, as well as the role of metabolism in cancer and in the mechanisms that control the effects of dietary restriction on tumorigenesis.
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About Broad Institute, KSQ Therapeutics, Navitor Pharmaceuticals, Raze Therapeutics, The Howard Hughes Medical Institute: KSQ Therapeutics is using CRISPR technology within a powerful drug discovery engine to enable high-confidence drug development.
Timothy A. Springer
Co-Founder of Scholar Rock
Timothy Springer is an internationally recognized leader in structural biology and immunology. With over 500 peer-reviewed publications that have received over 90,000 citations, he is one of the most highly cited scientists in any field. Timothy Springer received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1976, and subsequent post-doctoral training with Dr. Cesar Milstein in Cambridge, UK. Timothy Springer has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Among numerous awards and honors, Timothy Springer is a recipient of the Royal Society of Medicine Medal, the William B. Coley Medal from the Cancer Research Institute, and the Crafoord Prize from the Swedish Academy of Sciences. Timothy Springer’s research laid the foundation for a new class of pharmaceuticals, the selective adhesion molecule inhibitors, which include the approved drugs, alefacept, efalizumab and natalizumab. Timothy Springer was the Founder of LeukoSite, a biotechnology company acquired by Millennium Pharmaceuticals in 1999. LeukoSite developed therapeutics for inflammatory, autoimmune, and cancer applications, including FDA-approved Campath™.
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About Harvard University, Institute for Protein Innovation, Moderna Therapeutics, Morphic Therapeutic, Scholar Rock: Scholar Rock is discovering and developing a new class of biologic therapies.
Paulina Chilarska
CEO & Founder of Cambridge Biolabs
Chilarska’s cutting-edge work at the University of Cambridge was funded by the prestigious 4-Year Wellcome Trust PhD award in Stem Cell Biology. Already at the age of 21 she worked with the Nobel Prize winner Sir Professor Paul Nurse on the cell cycle thus investigating the mechanisms underlying carcinogenesis. Dr Chilarska is an expert in the molecular basis of ageing and strongly believes that ageing is a disease which can be prevented and treated. She is currently wirting a book describing her revolutionary approach to Ageing Prevention and Ageing Reversal. She is fluent in five languages and has international consulting experience.
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About Cambridge Biolabs: Biotech-meets-tech startup developing personalised skincare solutions
Steven Paul
Co-Founder of Voyager Therapeutics
Steven Paul is our Interim President of R&D, a member of the Board of Directors and a Venture Partner at Third Rock Ventures. Steven Paul has had a distinguished career in neuroscience with an extensive track record in CNS drug discovery and development. He joined Third Rock in 2010, where he serves as a senior advisor to the firm and participates in the ideation and development of new companies. Steven Paul also currently leads the Appel Alzheimer’s Disease Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medical College. Preceding his appointment at Weill Cornell, Steven Paul spent 17 years at Eli Lilly, during which time he held several key leadership roles, including President of the Lilly Research Laboratories, and Vice President of Discovery Research and Neuroscience Research. As President of the Lilly Research Laboratories, he was responsible for the company’s overall R&D strategy, expanding its efforts in oncology and biotechnology and resulting in a pipeline of approximately 70 new molecular entities. Prior to Lilly, Steven Paul served as Scientific Director of the National Institute of Mental Health. He has also served as Medical Director in the Commissioned Corps of the United States Public Health Service. Steven Paul has authored or co-authored more than 500 papers and book chapters. He is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He currently serves on the board or as a trustee of several organizations, including Sage Therapeutics, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, the Sigma Aldrich Company and the Foundation for the NIH. Steven Paul holds a B.A. in biology and psychology from Tulane University and an M.S. and M.D. from the Tulane University School of Medicine.
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About Karuna Therapeutics, SAGE Therapeutics, Third Rock Ventures, Voyager Therapeutics, Voyager Therapeutics: Voyager Therapeutics is a gene therapy company developing treatments for fatal and debilitating diseases of the central nervous system
Peter M. Hecht
Co-Founder & CEO of Cyclerion Therapeutics
Peter Hecht has served as Ironwood’s CEO and a director since co‐founding the company in 1998. He started Ironwood because he was attracted to “the idea of working with a team of people who challenge, inspire and humble me,” and building an enduring organization dedicated to creating important medicines. Under his leadership, Ironwood has grown from nine Ph.D. scientists to a fully‐integrated research, development and commercial organization. Prior to founding Ironwood, Peter was a research fellow at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, an affiliate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He earned his Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of California at Berkeley as well as a B.S. in mathematics and an M.S. in biology from Stanford University.
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About Cyclerion Therapeutics: Cyclerion Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company.
James P. Allison
Founder of Jounce Therapeutics
James Allison is a co-founder of Jounce Therapeutics and currently serves as chair of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Department of Immunology and director of the Immunotherapy Platform. A leading tumor immunologist, Dr. Allison has a longstanding interest in mechanisms of T-cell development and activation, the development of novel strategies for tumor immunotherapy and is recognized as the first person to isolate the T-cell antigen receptor protein. His research led to the clinical development of ipilimumab (Yervoy™), which was approved in 2011 by the FDA for the treatment of metastatic melanoma. Previously, he was director of the Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy and the chair of the immunology program at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, as well as the David H. Koch Chair in Immunologic Studies and attending immunologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Allison is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, and is a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Previously, he served as president of the American Association of Immunologists. He has received numerous awards, including the Centeon Award for Innovative Breakthroughs in Immunology, the William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology, the AAI-Dana Award in Human Immunology Research and the C. Chester Stock Award for Distinguished Achievement in Biomedical Research. Dr. Allison recently received an AACR/SU2C/CRI cancer immunotherapy dream team grant, for which he will serve as the Dream Team leader. Dr. Allison received his B.S. in microbiology and his Ph.D. in biological sciences from the University of Texas.
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About Jounce Therapeutics, Memorial Sloan – Kettering Cancer Center, Neon Therapeutics: Jounce Therapeutics is developing cancer immune-therapies to harness the immune system to attack cancerous cells and tumors.
Cullen Buie
Co-Founder of Kytopen
Cullen R. Buie, Ph.D. is a Tenured Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT and co-inventor of the high-throughput genetic modification technology. He brings expertise in the areas of microfluidics, microfabrication, and experimental fluid mechanics to Kytopen.
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About Kytopen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Kytopen developer of a cell therapy platform for non-viral delivery of molecules into hard-to-transfect immune cells.
Paulo Garcia
CEO & Co-Founder of Kytopen
Dr. Paulo A. Garcia co-invented the Flowfect™ technology while he was a Research Scientist at MIT. He is currently leading the development and commercialization efforts of the proprietary cell engineering platform for therapeutic and biotechnology applications.
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About Kytopen: Kytopen developer of a cell therapy platform for non-viral delivery of molecules into hard-to-transfect immune cells.
Nick Morrell
CEO and co-Founder of Morphogen-IX
Nick is the British Heart Foundation Professor of Cardiopulmonary Medicine at the University of Cambridge, based in the Department of Medicine. He has 25 years of experience working in the field of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), and is the Research Director of the National Pulmonary Hypertension Service at Papworth Hospital. His research spans clinical translational studies, experimental medicine, genetics, cell and molecular biology and preclinical models of disease. He has published over 200 papers in this field and is an internationally recognised authority on the pathobiology of PAH.
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About Morphogen-IX, Papworth Hospital, University of Cambridge: MORPHOGEN-IX Limited is a drug discovery company founded in 2015 by Index Ventures to develop bone morphogenetic proteins
Wei Li
Co-Founder of Morphogen-IX
Wei Li, Co-Founder at MORPHOGEN-IX LIMITED.
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About Morphogen-IX: MORPHOGEN-IX Limited is a drug discovery company founded in 2015 by Index Ventures to develop bone morphogenetic proteins
Eric Kelsic
Founder & CEO of Dyno Therapeutics
Eric Kelsic is the Founder and CEO of Dyno Therapeutics. He is a graduate of Harvard University.
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About Dyno Therapeutics: Dyno Therapeutics is a biotechnology company that uses artificial intelligence for gene therapy.
Alan Crane
Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Dyno Therapeutics
Alan Crane is the Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Dyno Therapeutics. He earned a BA in biology, summa cum laude, an MA in biology, and an MBA from Harvard.
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About Arsia Therapeutics, Dyno Therapeutics, Navitor Pharmaceuticals, Pandion Therapeutics, Polaris Partners, XTuit Pharmaceuticals: Dyno Therapeutics is a biotechnology company that uses artificial intelligence for gene therapy.
George Church
Co – Founder of Dyno Therapeutics
George is a Co-Founder of Dyno Therapeutics. He is also a Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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About Dyno Therapeutics: Dyno Therapeutics is a biotechnology company that uses artificial intelligence for gene therapy.
Adrian Veres
Co – Founder of Dyno Therapeutics
Adrian is a Co-Founder of Dyno Therapeutics. He obtained his Ph.D. in Systems Biology from Harvard University.
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About Dyno Therapeutics: Dyno Therapeutics is a biotechnology company that uses artificial intelligence for gene therapy.
Tomas Bjorklund
Co-Founder & Scientific advisor of Dyno Therapeutics
Tomas Bjorklund is a Co-Founder and Scientific advisor of Dyno Therapeutics. He is also a Professor of Neuroscience at Lund University.
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About Dyno Therapeutics: Dyno Therapeutics is a biotechnology company that uses artificial intelligence for gene therapy.
Joshua Rabinowitz
Founder of Raze Therapeutics
Joshua Rabinowitz is Professor of Chemistry and Integrative Genomics at Princeton University. He is a Member of the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and the Lewis-Sigler Institute at Princeton University. Dr. Rabinowitz’s lab studies metabolism from the system biology perspective. His group develops methods that combine mass spectrometry, isotope tracers, and mathematical modeling to quantitate metabolic flux. Using these methods, Dr. Rabinowitz attempts to understand basic principles of metabolic flux control. His lab has found that most enzyme active sites are saturated, with competition between metabolites determining enzyme activity. It is now combining metabolomics with proteomics to investigate the relative importance of active site competition, allostery, and enzyme concentrations in overall metabolic regulation. Dr. Rabinowitz’s lab is also interested in identifying the contributions of different pathways to producing key high-energy cofactors, such as ATP, NADPH, and activated one-carbon donors. Recently, it identified an unexpected tie between two of these cofactor systems, with folate metabolism playing a significant role in redox homeostasis. The lab collaborates broadly, with one notable collaboration having led to discovery of the oncometabolite 2-hydroxyglutarate. Methods developed in the lab are widely used in the cancer metabolism community.
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About Raze Therapeutics: Raze Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company, engages in the discovery and development of oncology therapeutics.
Vamsi Mootha
Founder of Raze Therapeutics
Vamsi Mootha is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and directs a laboratory based at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is also Professor of Systems Biology and Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a Senior Associate Member of the Broad Institute. Dr. Mootha’s research is focused on mitochondria, often termed the “powerhouses of the cell.” Dr. Mootha’s group has utilized tandem mass spectrometry, computation, and biochemistry to characterize the mitochondrial proteome, which now serves as a molecular blueprint for clinical and systematic studies of mitochondria. Dr. Mootha and his colleagues have used this inventory to discover the mitochondrial calcium uniporter, a major channel of communication between mitochondria and the rest of the cell. He collaborates extensively with clinicians and researchers throughout the world, and together they have elucidated more than one dozen disease genes that underlie severe, metabolic diseases. His team has developed a number of computational tools that are used widely by the community.
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About Raze Therapeutics: Raze Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company, engages in the discovery and development of oncology therapeutics.
Abel Ureta-Vidal
Chief Product Officer & Founder of Eagle Genomics
With more than 12 years bioinformatics experience and a scientific background in molecular biology and immune-virology (PhD from the Pasteur Institute, France), Abel first mastered bioinformatics tools and code in the early 90s whilst working on viral phylogenetic studies. After his PhD, he joined the effort at Genoscope (Evry, France) in ramping up the human genome project, putting in place the automatic gene annotation system for human chromosome 14. In 2001, Abel moved to the European Bioinformatics Institute (Cambridge, UK) where he led the Ensembl comparative genomics team until 2007. He founded Eagle shortly before graduating from the Cambridge Judge Business School MBA program in 2008.
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About Eagle Genomics: Eagle Genomics is a enterprise software solutions company to enable the management, orchestration and exploitation of life sciences data.
Frank Reynolds
Chairman of the Board, CEO, CFO, CSO & Co-Founder of PixarBio
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About PixarBio: PixarBio Corp is a specialty Biotechnology company focused on pre-clinical and commercial development of new products.
Richie Bavasso
Founder and CEO of nQ Medical
Mr. Bavasso is one of the early pioneers of use of digital media, devices and the web as tools to support pharmaceutical sales and marketing strategies and tactics. Since 1999, he has worked with top 25 Pharma clients globally to introduce the Closed Loop Marketing (CLM) function. He has set procedure and precedent in the areas of sales force effectiveness, business-rule driven content management, multichannel marketing, and mobile technology. A frequent speaker at industry conferences and events, Mr. Bavasso serves as an advocate for the industry in promoting digital conversation as integral to the various enterprise functions within pharma and the medical community. Prior to his seven years as co-founder and President of Exploria SPS, Mr. Bavasso served for sixteen years as CEO of Pharmedica Holdings, LLC, and President of its INFLUENT Division, at the time one of the largest medical education companies in the world. He built Pharmedica holdings from its start as a meetings planning company in 1992, doubling its revenues each year until its sale in 2001. This growth included an ACCME accredited entity (Center for Medical Education, LLC), a digital content division (Influent, LLC), and a call center (ContextMedicus, LLC). He opened offices in California, Connecticut, Illinois, and North Carolina. After his three-year earn out, Bavasso partnered to co-found Exploria SPS, LLC, as the mobile devices division of Exploria, Inc. Within three years, Exploria SPS became the market leader for CLM with offices in Connecticut and France and currently licenses software in 33 countries and 18 languages. Mr. Bavasso’s introduction of CLM and subsequent influence over the growth and expansion of CLM globally led to his recognition in 2007, by PharmaVoice magazine as one of the top 100 most influential people in pharma. Foreseeing the trends in Pharma that have impacted its selling model and the changing influence dynamic of payors on prescribing, Mr. Bavasso incubated a new and disruptive concept meant to serve as the transaction-fed, new marketplace for healthcare. This led to the incorporation of RIMEDIO, Inc. in October 2012 intent on reshaping the dynamic of how healthcare interacts and transacts to achieve mutual stakeholder objectives. RIMEDIO leverages the power of social utilities with eCommerce, content management and communications tools to consummate transactions between healthcare stakeholders. He is currently co-founder and CEO of nQ Medical, Inc., a machine learning computational biomarker company leveraging keyboard data to manage neuromotor diseases. Everyone has a unique typing signature. Research has revealed that the way we interact with computers and mobile devices can reveal with startling accuracy the presence of certain neuro-motor diseases. This Massachusetts Institute of Technology discovered/Michael J. Fox Foundation validated artificial intelligence tool (neuroQWERTY) has opened a broad opportunity to better diagnose diseases, track disease progression, and monitor medication effectiveness and symptoms. Mr. Bavasso is also a licensed hospital administrator having served from 1981 to 1992 leading two health care systems in New England. A graduate of Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA, with a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration, he received his MBA in health care management and finance from Bryant University, Smithfield, RI.
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About nQ Medical: nQ Medical is a neurotechnology company allowing Data Defined Disease Management via digital biomarkers using AI.
Shuhao Wen
Co-Founder of XtalPi
Shuhao Wen is a Co-Founder at XtalPi.
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About XtalPi: XtalPi is a biotech firm that uses artificial intelligence and computing to accelerate the development of new pharmaceutical drugs.
Eoin McKinney
Chief Scientific Officer & Co-Founder of PredictImmune
Eoin is a Wellcome-Beit intermediate Research Fellow in the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge and an honorary consultant in nephrology and transplantation in Cambridge University NHS hospitals Foundation Trust. He obtained a first-class degree in pre-clinical medicine from Keble College, Oxford University in 1999 and graduated in clinical medicine with honours from Edinburgh University in 2002. His primary interest is the use of systems immunology approaches to translate high throughput analyses of autoimmune disease datasets into clinical practice.
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About PredictImmune: Providing tools to physicians in the treatment of patients with immune-mediated disease, through prediction of long term clinical prognosis.
Kenneth Smith
Co-Founder & Chief Medical Officer of PredictImmune
Professor Ken Smith is Professor of Medicine and Head of the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge. He trained in nephrology (FRACP, FRCP) and clinical immunology (FRCPA) and completed a PhD at the WEHI in Melbourne. His laboratory runs a translational programme in autoimmune disease (particularly inflammatory bowel disease, vasculitis and SLE) that has led to the discovery of a novel prognosis-predicting biomarker currently in clinical trials and the identification of genes and pathways involved in disease pathogenesis.
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About PredictImmune: Providing tools to physicians in the treatment of patients with immune-mediated disease, through prediction of long term clinical prognosis.
Paul Lyons
Vice President of Platform Delivery & Co-Founder of PredictImmune
Paul is a Principal Research Associate in the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge. He has over 25 years of experience in molecular and cellular biology including Senior Scientist positions in the Dept. Medical Genetics, University of Cambridge, Dept. Surgery, University of Oxford and the Rosalind Franklin Centre for Genomics Research. His primary research interest is the application of high throughput genomic approaches to better understand the genetic and molecular basis of autoimmune disease.
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About PredictImmune: Providing tools to physicians in the treatment of patients with immune-mediated disease, through prediction of long term clinical prognosis.
Alexander Klibanov
Co-Founder of Pulmatrix
Alexander Klibanov is the Novartis Professor of Chemistry and Bioengineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Alexander’s research interests include enzyme chemistry and biotechnology, protein drug delivery and formulation, stability and stabilization of pharmaceutical proteins and biochemistry in extreme environments. Alexander is a Member of the National Academy of Science and is known for greatly advancing the field of non-aqueous enzymology, the development methods for allowing enzymes to function in media such as organic solvents, rather than water. Alexander has authored over 270 scientific papers and has 16 issued U.S. patents. Alexander has given over 350 invited presentations and is a member of eight journal editorial boards. Alexander has received numerous prestigious professional awards including the Leo Friend Award, the Ipatieff Prize, the Marvin J. Johnson Award and the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, all from the American Chemical Society, as well as the International Enzyme Engineering Award. Dr. Klibanov is a member of both the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. In addition, Alexander has started several biotechnology companies and has been a Member of the Scientific Advisory Board at BIND Therapeutics and SiO2 Medical Products.
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About Arsia Therapeutics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Pulmatrix: Pulmatrix develops inhaled therapies for the treatment, prevention and transmission of infectious and progressive respiratory diseases.
Tim Guilliams
Founder, CEO of Healx
Tim is a social entrepreneur passionate about delivering the next generation of therapeutics to rare disease patients in need. He is the Founder and Chief Executive of Healx and the Co-Founder and Chair of the Cambridge Rare Disease Network (CRDN), a charity aiming to foster dialogue and awareness around rare diseases in Cambridge, UK. Prior to Healx and CRDN, Tim worked on University-Industry interactions and cluster dynamics in the area of Life Sciences for the UK Government Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). He obtained his PhD in the field of Biophysical Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, where his research related to the development of antibody fragments as novel biophysical and therapeutic tools for Parkinson’s disease. As a PhD student, Tim co-founded multiple successful student societies, including the Cambridge University Science and Policy Exchange (CUSPE), and was involved with Innovation Forum, Oxbridge Biotech Roundtable (OBR) and the Cambridge University Technology and Enterprise Club (CUTEC). He is also a Junior Associate Fellow of the Centre for Science and Policy (CSaP). Before moving to Cambridge, he obtained an MEng & BEng in Bio-Engineering from the University of Brussels (VUB).
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About Healx: Healx is an AI-powered, patient-inspired technology company, pioneering the next generation of drug discovery for rare diseases.
David Brown
Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Healx
David Brown has 40 years experience in the pharmaceutical / biotechnology industry both in research and in senior executive roles. He served with 4 of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies: Zeneca, Pfizer, GlaxoWellcome, and Hoffman La-Roche. Whilst at Pfizer he was named co-inventor on the patent for Viagra, and for 8 years he led the team that invented and developed Viagra through to proof of clinical efficacy in male impotence. The drug is also marketed for treatment of pulmonary hypertension under the trade name Revatio. He also had a pivotal role in the discovery of Relpax, a treatment for migraine. Together these drugs have achieved sales of over $30 billion. While at Roche in Switzerland, he was a Director of the company and, as Global Head of Drug Discovery, he had responsibility for productivity of over 2000 scientists at Roche’s five research sites in the USA, Europe and Asia. David subsequently co-founded antibody company Crescendo Biologics and serves on the boards of Healx Ltd (Chair), ProFactor Pharma Ltd (Chair) and Babraham Institute Enterprise Ltd (Chair). He is a Trustee (Director) of two charities, Antibiotic Research UK, dedicated to solving the looming problem of antibiotic resistance; and Friends of Manjushree Vidyapith School and Orphanage, a charity he co-founded in 2005 to help destitute orphans in South Tibet.
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About Healx: Healx is an AI-powered, patient-inspired technology company, pioneering the next generation of drug discovery for rare diseases.
Tuomas Knowles
Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Fluidic Analytics
Professor Tuomas Knowles holds a personal Professorship in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge and is also a Fellow of St John’s College Cambridge. Tuomas received his PhD in Physics from the University of Cambridge, and has held positions in Engineering in Cambridge and Harvard University before returning to Cambridge as a University Lecturer in 2010, Reader in 2013 and then Professor in 2015. His current research interests are focused on using physical approaches to study the self-assembly of protein molecules both in the context of disease and for the synthesis of novel functional biomaterials. Tuomas has received a number of distinguished awards, most recently from the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Newman Foundation and the European Research Council, and has co-authored over 60 peer-reviewed scientific articles.
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About Fluidic Analytics, Transition Bio: Fluidic Analytics designs, develops and manufactures tools that seek to revolutionise the way proteins are characterised.
Chris Torrance
Co-Founder and CEO of PhoreMost
Chris has significant oncology research and development experience, including six years as a senior manager at Cambridge-based pharmaceutical company, Vernalis. His principle expertise lies in cancer cell biology and drug discovery. In this field, he has led project teams taking drug targets from inception through to hit identification, lead optimisation and into preclinical studies. Chris holds a PhD from East Carolina University and completed a Post-Doctoral position in the world renowned oncology laboratory of Professor Bert Vogelstein (Johns Hopkins University) where he pioneered the use of X-MAN™ cancer models in high-throughput screening and drug discovery.
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About PhoreMost: PhoreMost is a new-model drug discovery company based in Cambridge, UK.
David Lester
Founder of Segterra, Inc.
David has more than 25 years of experience in various health and wellness sectors. He has been recognized as a leader in personalized medicine and diagnostics for his work at Theranos, Gene Express, Pfizer, Pharmacia, and the FDA.
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About Segterra, Inc.: Segterra provides science-based personalized health analytics such as blood.
Christian Reich
Founder of Segterra, Inc.
Christian has more than 18 years of experience in life sciences research, systems biology, computational biology, and medicine. He was previously VP of Scientific Research at Genstruct and held various positions at Millennium and the European Bioinformatics Institute.
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About Segterra, Inc.: Segterra provides science-based personalized health analytics such as blood.
Trey Foskett
Co-Founder and CEO of Watchmaker Genomics
Trey Foskett is the Co-Founder and CEO of Watchmaker Genomics.
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About Watchmaker Genomics: Watchmaker Genomics is a biotechnology company that focuses on breakthrough applications for reading, writing, and editing DNA.
Tony Kouzarides
Co-Founder of Storm Therapeutics
Tony Kouzarides is Founder at Chroma Therapeutics. He is Co-Founder at Abcam.
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About Abcam, Cambridge Gravity, Chroma Therapeutics, Milner Therapeutics Institute, Storm Therapeutics, University of Cambridge: Targeting pathways that modify RNA to deliver novel cancer therapeutics
Eric Miska
Co-Founder of Storm Therapeutics
Eric is the Herchel Smith Professor of Molecular Genetics and a Senior Group Leader at the Gurdon Institute at the University of Cambridge. He has an appointment as associated faculty at the Cambridge Systems Biology Centre and the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Research Institute. Eric was an EMBO Young Investigator and is a full member of EMBO since 2012. Eric is the 2013 recipient of the Hooke Medal awarded by the British Society of Cell Biology. He joined the faculty of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton in 2014 and is a Senior Investigator of the Wellcome Trust. Eric studied mathematics, physics and biology at Heidelberg, Berlin and Mainz and holds a BA in Biochemistry from Trinity College, Dublin. He received his PhD in Pathology from the University of Cambridge, UK, in 2000, working with Professor Tony Kouzarides, and was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Nobel laureate Bob Horvitz at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA from 2000 to 2004. He started his own research group at the Gurdon Institute in 2005.
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About Storm Therapeutics, University of Cambridge: Targeting pathways that modify RNA to deliver novel cancer therapeutics
Shankar Balasubramian
Co-Founder and Director of Cambridge Epigenetix
Sir Shankar is Founder of two companies and the principal inventor of the leading next generation human genome sequencing technology core to all Illumina sequencing platforms, estimated to be worth >$30BN. Sir Shankar’s technology has made routine, accurate, low-cost sequencing of human genomes a reality, has revolutionised biology and accelerated the development of genomic personalised medicine. Sir Shankar is the Herchel Smith Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Cambridge and Senior Group Leader at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute. His awards include the Royal Medal (2018), the RoyalSociety Mullard Award (2009), The BBSRC Innovator of the year (2010) and the Tetrahedron Prize (2013). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Academy of Medical Sciences and a member of EMBO.
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About Ahren Innovation Capital, Cambridge Epigenetix: Cambridge Epigenetix is using epigenetics to reduce several routine & important diagnostic tests for common cancers to a simple blood draw.
Marinna Madrid
Founder of Cellino Biotech
Marinna co-founded Cellino while finishing her PhD in Applied Physics at Harvard University. During her PhD, she developed expertise in cell biology, laser optics, and an array of nanofabrication processes, including photolithography, metal deposition, self-assembly, and template-stripping. She is a co-inventor of several laser-activated intracellular delivery techniques. Before her PhD, Marinna attended Riverside Community College, received a BS in Biophysics from UCLA, and an AM in Applied Physics from Harvard University. In addition to applying physics to complex unsolved problems in biology, Marinna is passionate about increasing diversity in STEM.
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About Cellino Biotech: Cellino Biotech develops intracellular delivery lasers and nanotechnology for gene editing applications.
Thomas Weaver
Founder & CEO of PetMedix
Tom holds a PhD in Experimental Oncology and has served in a variety of research, technology development and commercial roles. He has a proven track record of creating value in highly successful start-up companies applying genome-based technologies and contract services for fundamental research, clinical, and drug discovery purposes. He has also led large infrastructure programs in genomics and animal model genetics, serving as a Director at the Medical Research Council (Oxford, UK). He trained at the University of Cambridge and MRC Lab for Molecular Biology (Cambridge, UK), and the University of Wisconsin Medical School, (Madison, USA).
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About PetMedix: PetMedix is a pet therapeutics startup.
Kiran Musunuru
Co-Founder of Verve Therapeutics
Kiran Musunuru is an associate professor of cardiovascular medicine and genetics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where he has made outstanding research contributions in the use of gene editing to study and treat cardiovascular disease. He was honored with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from the White House in 2016, the American Heart Association’s Award of Meritorious Achievement in 2016, and the American Philosophical Society’s Judson Daland Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Investigation in 2018. Dr. Musunuru received his M.D. from Weill Cornell Medical College, his Ph.D. from the Rockefeller University, and his MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Before joining Penn Medicine in 2016, Dr. Musunuru trained in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and cardiovascular medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital, followed by postdoctoral work at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute.
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About Verve Therapeutics: Verve is focused on discovering and developing therapies that safely edit the genomes of adults to confer protection against coronary.
Issi Rozen
Co-Founder of Verve Therapeutics
Issi Rozen is the Chief Business Officer at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, where he is responsible developing innovative scientific and business collaborations with life sciences companies, technology companies and venture investors. He is also responsible for initiating and establishing new ventures around novel technologies and for overseeing strategy and licensing of the institute’s intellectual property portfolio. Issi joined the Broad in 2011 after a career in the biotech industry, where he led strategy and business development efforts at a number of venture-backed start-ups. Before that, he headed the business analysis group at a large biotech where he was responsible for evaluations in-licensing and M&A opportunities as well as commercial analytics and forecasting for pipeline and commercial products. Issi is also a co-founder of a number of start-ups and is an accomplished jazz guitarist and former professor at Berklee College of Music. He earned his MBA at MIT’s Sloan School of Management.
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About Verve Therapeutics: Verve is focused on discovering and developing therapies that safely edit the genomes of adults to confer protection against coronary.
Burt Adelman
Co-Founder of Verve Therapeutics
Burt Adelman, MD is Chairman and a co-founder of Clear Creek Bio. Burt was born in New York City and graduated Cornell University Medical College in 1976. He served as House Officer and Medical Resident at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital from where he completed his hematology fellowship. Burt was a full time faculty member for 10 years – first at Harvard Medical School and then the Medical College of Virginia. In 1991, he joined Biogen, including as Executive Vice President of Research and Development and Executive Vice President for Portfolio Strategy and led development efforts for Angiomax (bivalarudin) for anticoagulation during angioplasty, Avonex (interferon beta) for multiple sclerosis, Amevive (alefecept) for psoriasis, and Tysabri (natalizumab) for multiple sclerosis. Burt retired from Biogen in 2007 and was most recently Executive Vice President Research and Development and Chief Medical Officer at Dyax Corp where he led the successful development of lanadelumab, a breakthrough drug for the prevention of acute attacks of hereditary angioedema. Dyax was sold to Shire in 2016 for $6.5 billion. Burt is a board member for Catabasis Pharmaceuticals, Sirona-med (a private cardiac device company) and Syntimmune (aquired by Alexion), and a senior advisor to Novo Ventures. He serves on the Board of the Maine Coast Heritage Trust and is a member of the investment committee of the Partners Innovation Fund (Mass General and Brigham and Women’s Hospitals). Burt is a generous mentor to select physician-scientists and students in the Harvard – MIT ecosystem where he regularly lectures on life sciences innovation and drug development.
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About Clear Creek Bio, Verve Therapeutics: Verve is focused on discovering and developing therapies that safely edit the genomes of adults to confer protection against coronary.
Eric Schott
Co-Founder, Head of Translational Research and Clinical Development of Solarea Bio
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About Solarea Bio: Solarea Bio develops microbial therapeutics aimed to treat indications derived from chronic inflammation to aid human health.
David R. Elmaleh
Scientific Founder, CEO and Chairman of AZTherapies
David R. Elmaleh is the founder of [Mersana Therapeutics](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/mersana-therapeutics#/entity). Previously, he served as the chairman and president of AZTherapies. Elmaleh obtained a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and physics, and master’s degree and PhD in organic chemistry from Hebrew University.
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About AZTherapies, Mersana Therapeutics: AZTherapies is a clinical stage biotech company developing breakthrough treatments for neuroinflammation-related diseases.
Bert Vogelstein
Founder of Thrive Earlier Detection
Bert Vogelstein is a pioneer in cancer genomics, Dr. Bert Vogelstein was the first scientist to elucidate the molecular basis of a common human cancer. In particular, he and his colleagues demonstrated that colorectal tumors result from the gradual accumulation of genetic alterations in specific oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. His group’s work on colorectal cancers forms the paradigm for much of modern cancer research, with profound implications for diagnostic and therapeutic strategies in the future. His early work on the nature of cancer genomes was dramatically confirmed when he and Thrive co-founder Kenneth W. Kinzler, Ph.D., led a team that was able to determine the sequence of every gene in colorectal, pancreatic, brain, breast and other cancers. Bert and Ken have used this information to design a new generation of screening tests for various cancer types. In the process, they invented the fundamental technologies used to identify rare mutations in clinical samples. Bert is currently the Clayton Professor of Oncology and Pathology and co-director of the Ludwig Institute at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center (SKCCC) at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Inventors and has held editorial positions at Science and The New England Journal of Medicine, among others. He is the recipient of numerous awards for his ground-breaking studies on the pathogenesis of human cancer, including the 2013 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, The Gairdner Foundation International Award in Science, the William Allan Award from the American Society of Human Genetics and the Richard Lounsbery Award from the National Academy of Sciences.
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About Thrive Earlier Detection: Thrive Earlier Detection is a healthcare company that integrates earlier cancer detection into routine medical care.
Nickolas Papadopoulos
Founder of Thrive Earlier Detection
Nickolas Papadopoulos is an expert in cancer diagnostics and the development of diagnostic tests. He is internationally known as a co‐discoverer of the genetic basis of the predisposition to hereditary nonpolyposis colon cancer (HNPCC). His discovery that mutations in the mismatch repair genes predispose to HNPCC had important ramifications for the understanding of cancers with a very high rate of mutations and led to the development of diagnostic tests for the presymptomatic diagnosis of individuals with HNPCC. Nick part of the interdisciplinary team that was first to sequence all of the protein coding genes and determine genetic alterations and construct expression profiles in multiple tumors of four different common human cancers. Later, he identified novel mutations in chromatin remodeling genes, connecting genetic alterations to epigenetic changes. Currently, Nick is focused on translating the genetic information derived from cancer genome analyses to clinical applications in early detection, diagnosis and monitoring of cancer. Nick is currently professor of oncology and pathology at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
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About Thrive Earlier Detection: Thrive Earlier Detection is a healthcare company that integrates earlier cancer detection into routine medical care.
Kenneth Kinzler
Founder of Thrive Earlier Detection
Ken W. Kinzler is a world recognized expert on the molecular and genetic analysis of human cancer. He has been recognized for his role in uncovering the genetic alterations linked to the initiation of colon cancer; development of novel approaches for the molecular analysis of cancer; and more recently, for his role in deciphering the genetic blueprints of many types of cancer. In the late 2000s, Ken and Thrive co-founder Bert Vogelstein, M.D., led a team of scientists who decoded the genomes of many cancers, including breast, colon, pancreatic, brain, ovarian and liver. His work has spawned over 100 patent applications, most focused on the use of genetic approaches to improve the diagnosis and management of patients with cancers and other serious diseases. Ken is currently professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, co-director of the Ludwig Center at Johns Hopkins University and associate director for basic research for the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center (SKCCC). He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, and National Academy of Inventors and is a fellow of American Association of Cancer Research Academy. Ken is the recipient of numerous awards for his genetic analyses of human cancer, including the inaugural National Brain Tumor Society Founders Award, the 2013 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Team Science Award for Pancreatic Cancer Research, the 2014 AACR Team Science Award for Brain Cancer Research and the 2017 AACR Team Science Award for Liquid Biopsies. He has co-authored more than 400 peer-reviewed articles on the molecular analyses of cancer.
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About Thrive Earlier Detection: Thrive Earlier Detection is a healthcare company that integrates earlier cancer detection into routine medical care.
Nick Plugis
Co-Founder & Chief Innovation Officer of Cellarity
Nicholas joined Flagship Pioneering as an associate after completing the VentureLabs Fellows Program. At Flagship, Nicholas conducts explorations to discover unexplored biological mechanisms and new biotechnologies. As part of a venture team of entrepreneurial scientists, he develops the science, intellectual property and business strategy that form the foundation of breakthrough startups. Prior to joining Flagship Pioneering, Nicholas earned his Ph.D. in chemistry at Stanford University in the laboratory of Professor Chaitan Khosla, where he developed novel chemical tools and animal models to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying celiac disease. During his graduate studies, Nicholas completed the Stanford Ignite Program at the Graduate School of Business; he and his team developed the commercialization strategy for a Stanford-based medical diagnostic startup. Nicholas also served as vice president of SCIMALS, a non-profit organization that provides scientific and market due diligence to early-stage life science investors and aspiring entrepreneurs. Nicholas received his B.A. in both chemistry and economics from Middlebury College, conducting research with Professor Jim Larrabee on the reaction mechanisms of metal-containing enzymes utilizing inorganic electron microscopy.
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About Cellarity, Flagship Pioneering: Cellarity’s platform digitizes the molecular information in cells to elucidate how they behave in health and disease.
Dario Campana
Scientific Founders of Cogent Biosciences
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About Cogent Biosciences: Cogent Biosciences is a biopharmaceutical company that develops therapies for solid cancer tumors.
Danny Reinberg
Founder of Constellation Pharmaceuticals
Professor of Biochemistry, New York University School of Medicine Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator
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About Constellation Pharmaceuticals, Fulcrum Therapeutics: Constellation Pharmaceuticals develops drugs in the field of epigenetics focusing on selective regulators of its function.
Yang Shi
Founder of Constellation Pharmaceuticals
Professor of Cell Biology, HMS and Merton Bernfield Professor of Neonatology at Children’s Hospital
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About Constellation Pharmaceuticals: Constellation Pharmaceuticals develops drugs in the field of epigenetics focusing on selective regulators of its function.
James Heywood
Co-Founder of AOBiome
James Heywood is the co-founder and CEO at PatientsLikeMe. When his brother Stephen was diagnosed with ALS in 1999, Jamie founded the world’s first non-profit biotech, the ALS Therapy Development Institute. As its CEO for 8 years, Jamie grew ALS TDI to be the world’s largest ALS research program. He completed the first published stem cell transplant in ALS, developed a unique high throughput in vivo drug validation program, collaborated with dozens of companies, and brought 2 drugs to a clinical trial. An engineering graduate of MIT, Jamie’s unique approach to disease research and management has been profiled by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jonathan Weiner in the biography His Brother’s Keeper, 60 Minutes, The New Yorker, and in the Sundance award-winning documentary So Much So Fast.
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About ALS Therapy Development Institute, AOBiome, Confidential: AOBiome is a life sciences company that focuses on transforming human health.
Michael Schrader
Co-Founder & CEO of Vaxess Technologies
Michael Schrader is the CEO and co-founder of Vaxess Technologies, a company revolutionizing global health by creating heat-stable vaccines. Vaxess strives to not only lower the cost of vaccine distribution, but also increase access to life-saving products for people around the world. The company was the winner of the 2013 MassTLC Innovative Life Science Technology of the Year, 2012 Harvard Business Plan Competition and The 2012 Harvard President’s Challenge for Social Entrepreneurship. Prior to founding Vaxess, Michael worked at Google, Toyota, and Honda where he has earned fifteen patents. He holds a BSME from Purdue University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
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About Harvard University, MassChallenge, Vaxess Technologies: Vaxess Technologies engages in developing biomedical innovations with a focus on improving access to vaccines.
M. Charles Liberman
Founder of Decibel Therapeutics
M. Charles Liberman is the Schuknecht Professor of Otology and Laryngology at the Harvard Medical School and the Director of the Eaton-Peabody Laboratories at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear, one of the largest and best-known research groups devoted to the study of hearing and deafness. The laboratory comprises 27 investigators, with research foci spanning all aspects of the auditory system from sound transmission in the middle ear, through signal transduction in the inner ear and neural processing in the central nervous system. Dr. Liberman received his B.A. in Biology from Harvard College in 1972 and his Ph.D. in Physiology from Harvard Medical School in 1976. He has been on the faculty at Harvard since 1979, has published over 160 papers on a variety of topics in auditory neuroscience and is the recipient of the Award of Merit from the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, the Carhart Award from the American Auditory Society and Bekesy Silver Medal from the Acoustical Society of America. His research interests include 1) coding of acoustic stimuli as neural responses, 2) efferent feedback control of the auditory periphery, 3) mechanisms underlying noise-induced hearing loss, 4) the signaling pathways mediating nerve survival in the inner ear and 5) application of cell- and drug-based therapies to the repair of a damaged inner ear.
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About Decibel Therapeutics: Decibel Therapeutics is a hearing company focused on discovering and developing new medicines to protect, repair, and restore hearing.
Gabriel Corfas
Founder of Decibel Therapeutics
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About Decibel Therapeutics, University of Michigan, University of Michigan Medical School: Decibel Therapeutics is a hearing company focused on discovering and developing new medicines to protect, repair, and restore hearing.
Martin Jefson
Co-Founder, CSO of Rodin Therapeutics
Marty is chief scientific officer and co-founder of Rodin Therapeutics and Ataxion. Prior to joining Atlas Venture, Marty spent 27 years at Pfizer, most recently serving as head of neuroscience research. More than 30 development candidates were discovered during his tenure, including veranicline (Chantix), a widely used product for the treatment of nicotine addiction.
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About Ataxion, Pinteon Therapeutics, Rodin Therapeutics: Rodin Therapeutics develops novel therapeutics for neurological disorders by applying insights of epigenetics.
Adrian Fisher
Director and Co-Founder of Stemnovate
Co-founder and director, Adrian Fisher has over 20 years experience in the design, development, and application of integrated Microsystems, covering areas ranging from energy storage through to biological analysis. Adrian Fisher heads the electrochemical and micro engineering group in Cambridge in the Centre for Research in Electrochemical Science and Technology, and also within the Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise in Singapore.
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About Stemnovate: Drug Screening and Safety Testing Platforms
Ruchi Sharma
Founder and CEO of Stemnovate
Ruchi Sharma is driven by her passion for taking the benefits of research, and applying them to products and technology in order to make a significant and positive difference in the real world. Alongside over ten years experience in stem cell research, physiology, and biotechnology, Ruchi Sharma obtained a PhD from the world-renowned Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh, followed by a post-doctorate in the exciting field of cellular reprogramming at the University of Cambridge.
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About Stemnovate: Drug Screening and Safety Testing Platforms
Anthony Hyman
Co Founder of Dewpoint Therapeutics
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About Dewpoint Therapeutics: Dewpoint Therapeutics is a biotech company developing a drug platform that targets biomolecular condensates.
Yaron Galanty
Founder and VP Research Head of Adrestia Therapeutics
Yaron is a Senior Research Associate in the Gurdon Institute, University of Cambridge. Having carried out his PhD training in the laboratory of Prof. Yosef Shiloh in Tel Aviv, Israel, Yaron has played key roles in shaping DNA-repair research in the Jackson group through his own research and via his mentoring of other scientists. He has extensive experience in consulting for biotechnology start-ups. His wealth of expertise in multiple areas of cell and molecular biology allow him to play key roles in advising and shaping the science of Adrestia.
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About Adrestia Therapeutics: Adrestia is developing therapeutics that work in an entirely new way – restoring the biological balance in damaged, diseased or dying cells
Stephen Jackson
Founder, Chief Executive and Chief Scientific Officer of Adrestia Therapeutics
Steve is the University of Cambridge Frederick James Quick Professor of Biology and Head of Cancer Research UK Laboratories at the Wellcome/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute. He is a world expert in DNA repair and DNA-damage signaling. His academic laboratory there has played pioneering roles in shaping our understanding of how cells detect, signal the presence of and repair DNA damage. He has founded several companies, one of which, KuDOS Pharmaceuticals, developed the anti-cancer drug olaparib/Lynparza®. Steve is a fellow of the Royal Society and the Academy of Medical Sciences UK, and has received various awards, including the 2015 Gagna and van Heck Prize for Medicine, the 2016 King Faisal International Prize for Science, the 2016 AH. Heineken Prize for Medicine, and the 2019 Fondation ARC Léopold Griffuel Award for Translational and Clinical Research and the 2020 Royal Society Mullard Award.
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About Adrestia Therapeutics: Adrestia is developing therapeutics that work in an entirely new way – restoring the biological balance in damaged, diseased or dying cells
