Pioneering cell-state and ferroptosis biology and cutting-edge drug discovery

Harvey J. Berger, M.D. was appointed as Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President of Kojin Therapeutics in January 2024.

A biotech-industry veteran, Dr. Berger is an experienced physician-scientist and entrepreneur, who brings over 35 years of global research and development (R&D), corporate, and commercial leadership experience to Kojin. He founded ARIAD Pharmaceuticals and led the company as its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer from a start-up to a fully integrated global-oncology company. In this and other leadership roles, Dr. Berger spearheaded the development and approval of six innovative, breakthrough medicines for patients with cancer (Iclusig®, Alunbrig®, and Exkivity®), cardiovascular disease (ReoPro®, EluNir® Ridaforolimus Drug Eluting Stent), and autoimmune disease (Remicade®), as well as a cancer-diagnostic blood test (CA-125). Dr. Berger started in the biopharmaceutical industry in 1986 at Centocor – one of the first-generation biotech companies dedicated to pursuing the therapeutic and diagnostic applications of monoclonal antibodies – where he oversaw the company’s R&D programs as executive vice president and president of research and development. Subsequent to his lengthy stint at ARIAD, he became Executive Chairman of Medinol, a leading world-wide medical-device company dedicated to the science of cardiovascular intervention.

Dr. Berger began his career in academic medicine at Yale School of Medicine and Emory School of Medicine, rising to professor with tenure. He received his M.D. from Yale School of Medicine and his B.S. from Colgate University and completed post-graduate training at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Dr. Berger has published over 150 original scientific articles and reviews.

In the past several years, Dr. Berger has devoted his efforts to supporting several not-for-profit organizations, including the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, whose mission is to defy cancer, as a governing trustee, chair of the trustee science committee, and a member of the executive committee, and The Cameron Boyce Foundation in Los Angeles, whose mission is to cure epilepsy, as a member of the board of directors.

Horst Hemmerle, Ph.D. joined Kojin as Chief Scientific Officer in September 2023.

Dr. Hemmerle has over 30 years of professional experience, ranging from medicinal chemistry and drug discovery technologies to in vitro pharmacology. He guided more than 200 drug-candidate programs across multiple disease areas like neuroscience, oncology, cardiovascular diseases, metabolic syndrome, respiratory diseases, immunology, and rare diseases.

Most recently, Dr. Hemmerle served as Executive Director of Global Discovery Chemistry at the Novartis Institutes of Biomedical Research, where he led global strategic initiatives enabling drug discovery technologies like high-throughput medicinal chemistry, computer-aided drug design, automated synthesis, synthetic biology, and drug delivery technologies. Prior to that, he was Senior Director, Quantitative Biology and Lead Generation at Eli Lilly & Co. and Head of Medicinal Chemistry at Aventis.

Dr. Hemmerle has co-authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications and patents and has a proven track record of bringing innovative drugs to the clinic.

David Dalgarno, D.Phil. joined Kojin as Senior Vice President, Digital & Data Science and Technology in February 2024.

Dr. Dalgarno has over 30 years of R&D experience in oncology, spanning broad areas of drug discovery and pre-clinical development leading to successful IND filings, with several compounds achieving regulatory approval. Dr. Dalgarno’s core expertise lies in the deployment and integration of advances in biophysics, structural biology, computational chemistry, and informatics, optimizing workflows and empowering data utilization to promote drug discovery.

Prior to joining Kojin, Dr. Dalgarno was Co-Founder of Theseus Pharmaceuticals. His biopharmaceutical career started with Schering-Plough Corp., followed by a 25-year period at ARIAD Pharmaceuticals with increasing management responsibilities and participation in a diverse array of drug discovery, development, and senior management teams.

Dr. Dalgarno earned his B.A. and D.Phil. in Chemistry from the University of Oxford, then moved to the U.S. for postdoctoral studies in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University.

Dr. Dalgarno is co-author of more than 60 publications and co-inventor on more than 15 patent applications in oncology drug discovery.

Wei-Sheng Huang, Ph.D. joined Kojin as Senior Vice President, Drug Discovery in February 2024.

Dr. Huang brings over 20 years of R&D experience to Kojin. Most recently, he was Senior Vice President of Chemistry at Theseus Pharmaceuticals, where he held a leadership role in advancing the drug pipeline, including the discovery of development candidate compounds THE-630 and THE-349. Prior to Theseus, he was Director of Discovery Chemistry at ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, where he served for 14 years and led the medicinal chemistry team that was the engine behind the discovery of Iclusig®, approved for patients with treatment-resistant Ph+ leukemias; Alunbrig®, approved for ALK+ non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC); and Exkivity®, approved for EGFR Exon 20 insertion+ NSCLC. Dr. Huang started his industrial career in 2001 as a senior scientist at UCB Pharma, where he focused on discovering sigma-receptor agonists and opioid-receptor-like-1 antagonists.

Dr. Huang conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Virginia and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. from Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Science and his B.S. from Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

Dr. Huang has co-authored over 50 publications in peer-reviewed journals and is co-inventor on over 30 granted patents or patent applications.

Narayana Narasimhan, Ph.D. joined Kojin as Senior Vice President, Preclinical Safety and DMPK in April 2024.

Dr. Narasimhan brings over 35 years of drug discovery and development and regulatory experience to Kojin. Dr. Narasimhan is a subject-matter expert in drug metabolism, bioanalysis, and clinical pharmacology. Most recently, he was Senior Vice President of DMPK & Preclinical Safety at Theseus Pharmaceuticals, where he played key leadership roles in the IND application and clinical development of THE-630 and the discovery of THE-349. Prior to Theseus, Dr. Narasimhan worked at Verastem Oncology and played a key role in the successful EU approval of Copiktra^®.

Prior to this, Dr. Narasimhan worked for 13 years at ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, where he successfully built a DMPK and preclinical safety department and contributed to the successful registration of Iclusig^® (worldwide) and Alunbrig^® (U.S. and EU), as well as the IND and Phase 1 clinical trial of mobocertinib. Earlier in his career, Dr. Narasimhan worked at Merck & Co., Inc. and Bristol-Myers Squibb in various scientific positions.

Dr. Narasimhan earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from Vanderbilt University and received postdoctoral training in drug metabolism at the University of Kansas.

Dr. Narasimhan is a co-author of more than 50 publications and has authored over 200 technical reports for regulatory submissions.

Vasanthi Viswanathan, Ph.D. co-founded Kojin Therapeutics and joined the company as Senior Director of Discovery Biology in June 2020.

Prior to joining Kojin, Dr. Viswanathan trained with Prof. Stuart Schreiber and Prof. Brent Stockwell, and made seminal discoveries into the molecular mechanisms and pathophysiological relevance of ferroptotic cell death in cancer and beyond. In addition to her work in basic discovery, Dr. Viswanathan co-led a multi-disciplinary academic-industry collaboration at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, aimed at therapeutic modulation of ferroptosis biology.

Dr. Viswanathan received an A.B. in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard College, completed her Ph.D. in Biology at Columbia University, and performed postdoctoral training at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

She has authored over 40 publications, including in top-tier journals and is a co-inventor on multiple granted patents and patent applications. In 2018, Dr. Viswanathan was awarded a STAT Wunderkind Award in recognition of her work on ferroptosis. Dr. Viswanathan has also been recognized by Endpoints as a young biotech leader to watch in Endpoints 20 under 40.

Stuart L. Schreiber, Ph.D. has been the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Arena BioWorks, LLC, a biomedical research institute based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, since 2023. He is a Co-Founder of Kojin Therapeutics.

He is also the Morris Loeb Research Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University and Founding Core Institute Member Emeritus of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Schreiber’s research integrates chemical biology and human biology to advance the science of therapeutics. He is known for his role in the development of the field of chemical biology. Key advances include the finding that small molecules can function as “molecular glues” that promote protein–protein interactions, the discovery of mTOR and its role in nutrient-response signaling, and the discovery of histone deacetylases and that chromatin marks regulate gene expression. His research has been acknowledged through awards including the Wolf Prize in Chemistry and the Arthur Cope Award. His approach to therapeutics discovery guided the development of many biotechnology companies that he founded, including Vertex Pharmaceuticals and ARIAD Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Schreiber received a B.S. degree from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard University, studying under Nobel Laureate Professor Robert Woodward and Professor Yoshito Kishi (after Professor Woodward’s death).

Benjamin Cravatt, Ph.D. is Professor and Norton B. Gilula Chair of Chemical Biology in the Department of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute. He is a Co-Founder of Kojin Therapeutics.

His research group is interested in developing chemical proteomic technologies that enable protein and drug discovery on a global scale and applying these methods to characterize biochemical pathways that play important roles in human physiology and disease.

Dr. Cravatt obtained his undergraduate education at Stanford University, receiving a B.S. in Biological Sciences and a B.A. in History. He then received a Ph.D. from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in 1996. He joined the faculty at TSRI in 1997.

Dr. Cravatt’s honors include the Wolf Prize in Chemistry, a Searle Scholar Award, the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry, a Cope Scholar Award, the ASBMB Merck Award, the RSC Jeremy Knowles Award, the AACR Award for Achievement in Chemistry in Cancer Research, and memberships in the National Academies of Medicine and Sciences.

Stephanie Dougan, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Immunology at Harvard Medical School, a Principal Investigator of Cancer Immunology and Virology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and is a Co-Founder of Kojin Therapeutics.

Dr. Dougan received a Ph.D. in Immunology from Harvard University where she studied lipid antigen presentation by CD1d and NKT cell development. She then performed a postdoctoral fellowship with Hidde Ploegh at Whitehead Institute, where she became adept in somatic cell nuclear transfer and embryo manipulations for the purpose of generating transnuclear and CRISPR genome-modified mice.

She joined the faculty at Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in 2014, where her lab uses an integrated knowledge of the immune system to study the response to tumors. She is particularly interested in tumors that do not induce a CD8 T cell response at baseline and has been using pancreatic cancer as a model to develop new immunotherapies for non-T cell infiltrated tumors.

Dr. Dougan is a Pew-Stewart Scholar in Cancer Research, a Bill and Melinda Gates Global Health Innovation Scholar, a Melanoma Research Alliance Young Investigator, and received a Pathway to Leadership Award from the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and AACR. She is also dedicated to training young scientists and received a Young Mentor Award from Harvard Medical School in 2019.

Sean Morrison, Ph.D. is the Mary McDermott Cook Chair in Pediatric Genetics and the Kathryne and Gene Bishop Distinguished Chair in Pediatric Research at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

The Morrison laboratory studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate stem cell function and the role these mechanisms play in cancer. They identified a series of mechanisms that distinguish the self-renewal of stem cells from the proliferation of restricted progenitors in the same tissues and identified niches that maintain stem cells in adult hematopoietic tissues.

The Morrison lab has also studied the mechanisms that regulate metastasis, discovering that melanoma metastasis is limited by oxidative stress. Rare metastasizing cells survive this stress by undergoing metabolic changes that reduce the generation of reactive oxygen species and confer oxidative stress resistance. This suggests the possibility of limiting cancer progression with pro-oxidant therapies that exacerbate the oxidative stress experienced by cancer cells.

Dr. Morrison completed a B.Sc. in Biology and Chemistry at Dalhousie University (1991), a Ph.D. in Immunology at Stanford University (1996), and a postdoctoral fellowship in Neurobiology at Caltech (1999).

Dr. Morrison is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator (since 2000) and the founding Director of Children’s Research Institute at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (since 2011). He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2018 and the National Academy of Sciences in 2020. Dr. Morrison served as the President of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (2015-16), testified before the U.S. Congress, and served as a leader in the successful “Proposal 2” campaign to protect stem cell research in Michigan’s state constitution (2008).

George Demetri, M.D. is Professor of Medicine and Co-Director of the Ludwig Center at Harvard Medical School. He is also Senior Vice President for Experimental Therapeutics and directs the Sarcoma Center at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Dr. Demetri has dedicated his career to translational research aimed at understanding and treating precisely defined subsets of sarcomas and other cancers. He was a pioneer in the development of Glivec®, the first cancer therapy targeting gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) as a molecularly defined subset of sarcoma. Subsequently, his work has contributed to the U.S. FDA and worldwide regulatory approvals of several other “smart drugs” for cancer, including Sutent® and Stivarga® for GIST, Tazverik® for epithelioid sarcomas, as well as Votrient®, Halaven®, and Yondelis® for other sarcomas. In a related contribution, Dr. Demetri served on the Scientific Advisory Board for Plexxikon to develop the first mutant BRAF inhibitor, Zelboraf®, as a mutation-targeted therapy for a subset of melanomas. He serves on the Board of Directors of two public companies: Blueprint Medicines in Cambridge, MA, which discovered and developed Ayvakit® for a mutationally defined subset of GIST previously resistant to all other therapies, and Translate Bio, which is developing mRNA technology for various indications.

He received his A.B. degree in Biochemistry from Harvard College, followed by a research fellowship at the University of Besançon, France before attending Stanford University School of Medicine. Subsequently, he completed residency and Chief Residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Washington Hospitals in Seattle, then Fellowship in Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Demetri has served on the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Board of Directors and chairs the AACR Science Policy and Government Affairs Committee; he is also a founding director of the annual AACR special workshop on Translational Cancer Research for the Basic Scientist.

Steven Davidsen, Ph.D. is former Vice President of Oncology Discovery Research at AbbVie, Inc., where he was responsible for discovery efforts across all Oncology programs and sites.

Prior to AbbVie’s separation from Abbott, Dr. Davidsen served as Divisional Vice President, Cancer Research. He joined the company in 1986 as a research scientist and has held various positions of increasing responsibility in the Discovery organization.

Dr. Davidsen has been a critical leader in building AbbVie’s Oncology pipeline, directing research teams and partnerships that have led to more than 300 current Oncology trials across a broad range of hematologic and solid tumor indications, and multiple FDA approvals. He has more than 70 scientific publications across a diverse range of topics including metalloproteinase inhibitors, kinase inhibitors and the discovery of histone deacetylase inhibitors. Dr. Davidsen was a member of AbbVie’s R&D Senior Discovery Leadership Team and the AbbVie Oncology Therapeutic Area Strategy Council.

He earned a B.S. degree in chemistry from University of Maryland and Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Texas, Austin. He held a postdoctoral position at the University of California, Berkeley before joining Abbott/AbbVie.

Morris J. Birnbaum, M.D., Ph.D. is the former Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of the Internal Medicine Research Unit at Pfizer, Inc.

Dr. Birnbaum is a physician-scientist who has led research teams investigating fundamental problems in metabolic regulation and their relevance to chronic disease in both an academic and pharmaceutical setting. Research in his academic laboratory included studies related to understanding insulin signaling and resistance, the regulation of glucose transport and lipid synthesis, and muscle metabolism. Among his scientific contributions, Dr. Birnbaum is credited with cloning the Glut4 glucose transporter, now recognized as the ultimate target of insulin action in muscle and adipose tissue, demonstrating in vivo that the protein kinase Akt is an obligate intermediate in insulin signaling pathways, and elucidating the control of hepatic lipid and carbohydrate metabolism. In 2014, Dr. Birnbaum accepted a position at Pfizer Inc. in Cambridge, MA as Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, initially of the Cardiometabolic and subsequently the Internal Medicine Research Unit, where he was responsible for the discovery and early clinical development of drugs designed to treat metabolic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, heart failure, and cachexia. Under his leadership, Pfizer has brought seven novel potential medicines into clinical development.

Dr. Birnbaum earned a Ph.D. and M.D. from Brown University and completed an Internal Medicine residency at Barnes Hospital at Washington University in St. Louis, followed by postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco and Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York. Dr. Birnbaum has held faculty positions at Harvard Medical School, the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He served as a member of the American Diabetes Association Research Policy Committee and the Board of Directors of Cerevel Therapeutics and currently is on the Editorial Boards of Science Signaling and Cell Metabolism.

Joel Barrish, Ph.D. is a Venture Partner at RA Ventures in Boston, Massachusetts.

Before joining RA Ventures, Dr. Barrish was Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of Jnana Therapeutics, a company dedicated to the discovery and development of SLC transporter therapeutics. Prior to Jnana, Dr. Barrish’s first biotech role was as Chief Scientific Officer of Achillion Pharmaceuticals focused on modulating the Alternative Pathway of Complement. Most of his career was spent as a medicinal chemist in the pharmaceutical industry, where he capped a 28-year career at Bristol-Myers Squibb, spending the last five years as Vice President and Global Head of Discovery Chemistry, working across all therapeutic areas. While at BMS, Dr. Barrish worked with teams responsible for advancing more than 50 compounds into clinical development, including Sprycel®, which he co-invented. Dr. Barrish and his colleagues made notable advances in the area of kinase inhibitor drug discovery, particularly in immunology and oncology. Prior to moving to BMS, he spent five years at Hoffmann-LaRoche as a senior scientist.

Dr. Barrish received a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Columbia University and a B.S. degree in chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania. He is co-author of over 130 peer reviewed publications and co-inventor on 40 issued US patents.

Harvey J. Berger, M.D. was appointed as Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President of Kojin Therapeutics in January 2024.

A biotech-industry veteran, Dr. Berger is an experienced physician-scientist and entrepreneur, who brings over 35 years of global research and development (R&D), corporate, and commercial leadership experience to Kojin. He founded ARIAD Pharmaceuticals and led the company as its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer from a start-up to a fully integrated global-oncology company. In this and other leadership roles, Dr. Berger spearheaded the development and approval of six innovative, breakthrough medicines for patients with cancer (Iclusig®, Alunbrig®, and Exkivity®), cardiovascular disease (ReoPro®, EluNir® Ridaforolimus Drug Eluting Stent), and autoimmune disease (Remicade®), as well as a cancer-diagnostic blood test (CA-125). Dr. Berger started in the biopharmaceutical industry in 1986 at Centocor – one of the first-generation biotech companies dedicated to pursuing the therapeutic and diagnostic applications of monoclonal antibodies – where he oversaw the company’s R&D programs as executive vice president and president of research and development. Subsequent to his lengthy stint at ARIAD, he became Executive Chairman of Medinol, a leading world-wide medical-device company dedicated to the science of cardiovascular intervention.

Dr. Berger began his career in academic medicine at Yale School of Medicine and Emory School of Medicine, rising to professor with tenure. He received his M.D. from Yale School of Medicine and his B.S. from Colgate University and completed post-graduate training at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Dr. Berger has published over 150 original scientific articles and reviews.

In the past several years, Dr. Berger has devoted his efforts to supporting several not-for-profit organizations, including the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, whose mission is to defy cancer, as a governing trustee, chair of the trustee science committee, and a member of the executive committee, and The Cameron Boyce Foundation in Los Angeles, whose mission is to cure epilepsy, as a member of the board of directors.

Stuart L. Schreiber, Ph.D. has been the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Arena BioWorks, LLC, a biomedical research institute based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, since 2023. He is a Co-Founder of Kojin Therapeutics.

He is also the Morris Loeb Research Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University and Founding Core Institute Member Emeritus of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Schreiber’s research integrates chemical biology and human biology to advance the science of therapeutics. He is known for his role in the development of the field of chemical biology. Key advances include the finding that small molecules can function as “molecular glues” that promote protein–protein interactions, the discovery of mTOR and its role in nutrient-response signaling, and the discovery of histone deacetylases and that chromatin marks regulate gene expression. His research has been acknowledged through awards including the Wolf Prize in Chemistry and the Arthur Cope Award. His approach to therapeutics discovery guided the development of many biotechnology companies that he founded, including Vertex Pharmaceuticals and ARIAD Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Schreiber received a B.S. degree from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard University, studying under Nobel Laureate Professor Robert Woodward and Professor Yoshito Kishi (after Professor Woodward’s death).

Eric de La Fortelle, Ph.D. has been a Managing Partner with Cathay Health, a global venture capital firm, since 2021, where he leads healthcare investing. Previously, from 2014 to 2021, he was a Venture Partner with Seventure Partners, a Paris-based venture capital firm, where he completed 17 new investments and 17 refinancing operations in Europe, Israel, United States, and Japan.

From 2011 to 2014, Dr. de La Fortelle was Chief Executive Officer of Delenex Therapeutics, a Zurich-based biotechnology company discovering and developing antibodies for topical application to the skin. From 2005 to 2011, Dr. de La Fortelle led Roche’s global function of External Research and Technologies. In this role, he had a dual mandate of BD&L (leading to more than 200 partnerships), and strategic advisory (R&D scenarios with a 20-years horizon and actionable recommendations). From 2000 to 2005, he was in charge of Asian and European business development for a Biotech company based in San Diego, California; seven deals were concluded with Pharma companies, patient associations, and other biotech companies.

Dr. de La Fortelle is a scientist by training, with contributions in the field of protein structure determination by X-ray crystallography, where his scientific publications have garnered 3,887 citations in aggregate. He was trained as an engineer and physicist at École Centrale de Paris, holds a Ph.D. in Biophysics from Paris XI University, a post-graduate diploma in biomedicine from IFSBM (Institut Gustave-Roussy), and an M.B.A. (honors) from INSEAD.

AJ Ferraro is a Partner at Newpath Partners, a Boston-based life science venture firm dedicated to building therapeutics companies around transformational scientific discoveries.

Newpath is a founding investor in the majority of their portfolio companies and prioritizes the efficient translation of basic science into impactful medicines. At Newpath, Mr. Ferraro has been involved in the founding and financing of Chroma Medicine, Exo Therapeutics, Kisbee Therapeutics, Magnet Biomedicine, Myeloid Therapeutics, and Prime Medicine, among others. In addition, Mr. Ferraro is a Board Observer at Chroma Medicine, Kisbee Therapeutics, Magnet Biomedicine, and Myeloid Therapeutics.

Amir Nashat, Sc.D. is a Managing Partner in Polaris’ Boston office. He joined Polaris in 2002 and focuses on investments in healthcare.

Dr. Nashat currently represents Polaris as a Director of AgBiome, CAMP4 Therapeutics, Dewpoint Therapeutics, Metacrine Therapeutics, Morphic Therapeutic (NASDAQ: MORF), Primmune Therapeutics, Scholar Rock (NASDAQ: SRRK), and Syros Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SYRS). Additionally, Dr. Nashat has served as a director of Adnexus Therapeutics (Bristol Myers Squibb), Athenix Corporation (Bayer), Avila Therapeutics (Celgene), Fate Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FATE), Freenome, Living Proof (Unilever), Promedior Pharmaceuticals, Receptos (Celgene), Selecta Biosciences (NASDAQ: SELB), Sun Catalytix (Lockheed Martin), and TARIS Biomedical (J&J).

In addition to his investment role, Dr. Nashat has served as the Chief Executive Officer of Dewpoint, Jnana, Living Proof, Olivo Labs, and Sun Catalytix. Dr. Nashat also serves on the Partners Innovation Fund and the Investment Advisory Committee for The Engine at MIT and helped launch the MIT Sandbox Innovation Fund as its active president.

He has been named to the Forbes Midas List of “Top 100 Venture Capitalists.”

Prior to joining Polaris, Dr. Nashat completed a Sc.D. as a Hertz Fellow in Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a minor in Biology under the guidance of Dr. Robert Langer. Dr. Nashat also earned both an M.S. and B.S. in Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.

Nagesh Mahanthappa, Ph.D. is an advisor to biotechnology companies with a particular interest in start-up and early-stage ventures focused on the discovery and development of novel therapeutics.

He was most recently the founding Chief Executive Officer of Scholar Rock, Inc.; during his eight-year tenure, Dr. Mahanthappa took the biotech company public and lead two distinct drug candidates into clinical testing. Previous experiences include being the founding employee and Vice President of Corporate Development at Avila Therapeutics, Inc. (acquired by Celgene in 2012), and founding employee of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals where he rose to Vice President, Scientific & Strategic Development. Prior roles include positions at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, and Ontogeny (now Curis, Inc.). Dr. Mahanthappa started in biotech as a scientist at Cambridge NeuroScience, and was a founder of TwistDx, a molecular diagnostics company (now a part of Abbott).

Dr. Mahanthappa completed postdoctoral training at E.K. Shriver Center for Mental Retardation (an affiliate of Massachusetts General Hospital) and Harvard Medical School after receiving a Ph.D. in Neurobiology from the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Mahanthappa received a B.A. in Biology and Chemistry from the University of Colorado, and an M.B.A. from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Management at Babson College.

Christina Vorvis, Ph.D. is Director of Venture Capital at AbbVie, where she leads investments in early-stage companies developing transformative therapies and technologies for cancer, immunology, neuroscience, eye care, and aesthetics based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Dr. Vorvis has over 10 years of experience in the life sciences, including bench-side research, digital health, investment banking, and deal origination and deal execution at global institutions like Amgen, OrbiMed, and Back Bay Life Science Advisors.

She earned a Ph.D. in Cancer Biology from the University of California, Los Angeles where she studied the molecular mechanisms of tumor growth and progression in pancreatic cancer. Prior to joining AbbVie, Dr. Vorvis advised biotech and pharmaceutical companies on mergers and acquisitions, financings, and other strategic transactions. Dr. Vorvis is currently a Board Observer for Kojin Tx and Accent Therapeutics.

Steven Neier, Ph.D. is a Principal at Binney Street Capital, the venture arm of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Dr. Neier helped launch Binney Street Capital to accelerate and invest in the development of new technologies and therapies within and outside the walls of Dana-Farber. Previously, Dr. Neier supported company builds through his position as the Alliance Manager for Dana-Farber’s collaboration with MPM Capital. As a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Dana-Farber, Dr. Neier advanced multiple platform technologies and helped launch several companies, including NextRNA Therapeutics, Dynamic Cell Therapies, and Microbial Machines.

Dr. Neier received a Ph.D. in Immunology from the Mayo Clinic and completed his postdoctoral work at Dana-Farber under Dr. Carl Novina.

Fabio Pucci, Ph.D. is an investor at Leaps by Bayer, the investment arm of the global life sciences company Bayer.

Dr. Pucci is responsible for developing investment theses and deal execution. He is also involved in the sourcing, screening, and mentoring of companies across a wide spectrum of therapeutic modalities and indications. As an investor, Dr. Pucci is also serving as board director or observer for Immunitas, Azitra and, previously, for Hemab. Before joining Leaps by Bayer, he worked at RA Capital, a biotech multistage investment fund. Before that he was a cancer researcher at the Francis Crick Institute in London.

Dr. Pucci obtained a Ph.D. from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology and has an M.B.A. from the London Business School.