leadership

After a 30-year career in pharmaceutical R&D, John Leonard retired from his position as Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice President of Research and Development at AbbVie in 2013. Inspired by the opportunity to work with a new therapeutic modality and form a new company, he returned to his life’s passion and joined the Intellia team to direct the research and development effort to make CRISPR/Cas9 technology into a therapeutic reality.
John is among the leading R&D executives who have led breakthrough medicines through their discovery, development and launch into blockbuster drugs. While serving as the Global Head of Pharmaceutical R&D at Abbott Laboratories, John oversaw the development of numerous novel therapeutics. His ground-breaking work with HIV protease inhibitors Norvir® and Kaletra® led to new treatment paradigms for AIDS, his years of work with Humira® made it the all-time top-selling drug worldwide, and he led significant growth of the R&D pipeline at Abbott and Abbvie. John’s teams were twice recognized with the prestigious Prix Galien Award for excellence in pharmaceutical research.
In addition to serving on the Board of Directors of Intellia, John serves on the Board of Directors of QuintilesIMS (NYSE:Q) and IFM Therapeutics. He received his M.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine followed by a fellowship at the National Institutes of Health.

Glenn Goddard has nearly two decades of experience leading business and financial operations for public and private companies in the biotechnology industry. Prior to joining Intellia, Glenn served as the Chief Financial Officer at Generation Bio Company, where he led all financial functions, investor relations, information technologies and certain operational functions. During his time at Generation Bio, he closed a $100 million private financing and a long-term lease deal for 75,000 square feet of lab and office space. Before joining Generation Bio, Glenn served as Senior Vice President of Finance and Principal Financial Officer of Agios Pharmaceuticals, where he led the company’s strategic financings efforts raising more than $700 million in equity financings, including a private crossover financing, an initial public offering and several subsequent follow-on offerings. In addition, Glenn was responsible for all financial functions of the company, including strategic planning and analysis, investor relations, treasury, tax, finance and accounting. He also was responsible for information technologies, certain operational functions and supporting strategic partnering efforts. Previously, Glenn held various senior-level financial management positions at both Archemix, a privately held oligonucleotide platform-based biopharmaceutical company, and Immunogen, a publicly traded oncology-focused biopharmaceutical company. Earlier in his career, Glenn was an audit supervisor at Ernst & Young LLP and a business advisory manager at Feeley & Driscoll, P.C. Glenn is a graduate of Bentley College, where he earned a B.S. in Accountancy, and is a certified public accountant in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Nishla Keiser has been working with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies since 2004, building extensive experience in intellectual property strategy, management, and litigation in technologies ranging from nucleic acid and protein therapeutics, small molecules, formulations, analytics, and medical devices. Prior to joining Intellia, Nishla was an attorney at a leading global intellectual property law firm, where she worked on patent litigation to protect multiple branded pharmaceutical products and strategic IP counseling for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies ranging from start-up companies to large corporations. At Intellia, Nishla focuses on developing and implementing Intellia’s internal and external IP strategies, as well as general regulatory, compliance, and corporate legal matters for the company. Nishla received her Bachelor of Science degrees in Biology, Chemistry, and Chemical Engineering, a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a J.D. from Suffolk University Law School.

José Rivera has approximately over 20 years of experience managing complex legal and business issues in the pharmaceutical industry with extensive expertise in navigating the biopharmaceutical intellectual property, regulatory environment, and litigation.
José led Abbott’s global Intellectual Property group, and before that its IP Litigation, Regulatory Legal and Litigation departments. As the head of Abbott’s IP group, José was responsible for managing all aspects of the company’s intellectual property issues worldwide, including prosecution, acquisition, valuation, defense and enforcement. José was responsible for the enforcement of the IP protecting the world’s best-selling biological product, various multi-billion small molecule pharmaceutical products, and many other healthcare products and devices, as well as for defending these products against infringement claims from third-parties. He also formed a new department focused on counseling Abbott’s various business units regarding regulatory requirements of the FDA, European Medicines Agency and other international regulatory agencies. José also led Abbott’s litigation department, where he was responsible for providing pre-litigation and litigation advice regarding key issues facing healthcare companies, such as antitrust, healthcare compliance, fraud and abuse laws, contracts and financial laws. Before joining Intellia, he was the Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer at AbbVie responsible for its global compliance program.
José graduated from Boston College with a degree in economics, and received his J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Andrew Schiermeier has spent more than two decades as an executive in the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors, with experience ranging from managing the growth and operations for startups to directing the strategic and operational expansion of global brands for large pharma companies.

At Intellia, he is responsible for working with the board of directors and executive committee in establishing and overseeing the implementation of Intellia’s strategic direction in both in vivo and ex vivo (engineered cell therapy) areas. He also oversees the company’s development efforts.

Andrew joined Intellia in January 2017, having most recently served as SVP and Global Head of Merck KGaA’s Oncology Business, a global operation with revenues in excess of $1 billion across 66 countries. While at Merck, he was responsible for re-energizing the company’s oncology pipeline, continuing the growth and expanded indications of Erbitux®, and overseeing the development and launch of the world’s first commercialized blood-based biopsy based on circulating free DNA. After successfully partnering the company’s anti-PDL1 antibody (avelumab/ BAVENCIO®) in a landmark deal with Pfizer in 2014, he also held the position of General Manager for the Merck-Pfizer Immuno-Oncology Alliance.

Prior to Merck, Andrew served as chief operating officer of Aura Biosciences, a preclinical-stage biotech startup in Cambridge, MA. He also held executive leadership positions at Medicine in Need Corp.; LantiBio, Inc.; and Paramount BioSciences.

Andrew holds several advanced degrees, including an International MBA from the College Des Ingenieurs in Paris; a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University; and a Master of Science in Bio-Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.

Laura Sepp-Lorenzino oversees all drug research across in vivo and ex vivo (engineered cell therapy) areas as Intellia’s Chief Scientific Officer. Prior to Intellia, she was vice president, Head of Nucleic Acid Therapies, Research, and member of the External Innovation team at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Laura previously was vice president, entrepreneur-in-residence at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a leader in the development of RNAi Therapeutics. At Alnylam, she was responsible for the Hepatic Infectious Disease Strategic Therapeutic Area, championed extra hepatic siRNA delivery, and was active in licensing and partnering.

Before joining Alnylam, Laura spent 14 years at Merck & Co., most recently having served as executive director and department head, RNA Therapeutics Discovery Biology. In this role, she was responsible for identification and optimization of siRNAs and delivery vehicles, advancement of preclinical candidates, and development of an siRNA-conjugate platform to expand the repertoire of tissues accessible to in vivo siRNA delivery. Laura also has expertise in oncology drug discovery and development acquired earlier in her career by leading the Cancer Research Department at Merck West Point and working as an assistant lab member and assistant attending molecular biologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

She received her professional degree in biochemistry from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina and both her master’s degree and doctorate in biochemistry from New York University. Laura holds professional affiliations with key scientific organizations, including the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society, the American Society for Gene and Cell Therapy, the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy, and the New York Academy of Sciences, as well as a number of oncology societies.

Jennifer Smoter brings more than 20 years’ experience in the global biotech biopharmaceutical, and healthcare industries to her role leading Intellia’s external affairs and communications. She is a recognized expert in corporate identity, brand, advocacy, stakeholder engagement and communications. Jennifer oversees communications, corporate marketing, government affairs, public affairs, patient access and stakeholder engagement.
Jennifer oversaw the global communications, patient advocacy and corporate marketing organizations for AbbVie, after leading communications for AbbVie’s successful separation from Abbott, the single largest transaction in NYSE history. AbbVie was named a Top 5 brand by FutureBrand in 2015 and a Top 20 brand in 2014. Jennifer previously held a number of senior-level communications roles in Abbott, including head of communications for the consumer-facing Nutrition business and head of Public Affairs for global pharmaceuticals.
Jennifer holds more than a dozen awards for public relations and brand campaigns and founded and led Amicus Communications & Brand Management, a network of senior-level communication and brand management consultants working in regulated industries.
Jennifer received her Bachelor of Arts Degree from Alverno College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with focus areas of Philosophy, Communications and Social Sciences.

Perry Karsen brings decades of successful executive leadership and board experience to his role as Chairman of the Board of Intellia, a position he assumed in April 2016. He has served in senior executive positions in multi-national biopharmaceutical companies, has led start-up biotechnology companies, and is a member of the board of directors for both public and private biopharmaceutical companies. He also has been a board member and a member of the Executive Committee of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) and the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM).

Perry served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Celgene Cellular Therapeutics division (CCT) of Celgene Corporation, a global biopharmaceutical company. Prior to being named CEO of CCT, he served for nearly a decade in other senior executive positions at the company, as Chief Operations Officer and Executive Vice President, and before that as Senior Vice President and Head of Worldwide Business Development. Perry was also President and Chief Executive Officer of Pearl Therapeutics, Inc., a privately held biotechnology company subsequently acquired by AstraZeneca plc.

Perry has held executive positions at Human Genome Sciences, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company subsequently acquired by GlaxoSmithKline; Bristol-Myers Squibb Co; Genentech, Inc., a member of the Roche Group; and Abbott Laboratories. He previously served as a general partner at Pequot Ventures, a venture capital firm.

Perry currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors for both OncoMed Pharmaceuticals and Jounce Therapeutics, and serves as a board member for Voyager Therapeutics. He also is a member of the Gladstone Foundation Board and the Sonoma Land Trust Board of Directors.

Perry earned a masters of management degree from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management, and holds an M.A. in the teaching of biology from Duke University and a B.S. in biological sciences from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Fred Cohen is a founder and senior managing director at Vida Ventures. Prior to Vida, he founded and was a partner at TPG Biotechnology, where he served 16 years. Fred also was previously chief of endocrinology and metabolism and professor of cellular and molecular pharmacology, medicine, biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). At UCSF, he had clinical responsibilities as an internist for hospitalized patients, a consulting endocrinologist and the chief of the division of endocrinology and metabolism.
His research interests include structure-based drug design, prion diseases, computational biology and heteropolymer chemistry. Fred has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles, is a co-inventor on more than 10 patents and has been an editor or editorial board member of several international scientific journals.
He currently serves in many scientific and advisory roles in the biotechnology field, including on the board of directors of Genomic Health Inc., CareDx Inc., Veracyte Inc., Tandem Diabetes Care Inc. and UroGen Pharmaceuticals LTD, as well as various private companies. He also is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and serves on USCF’s board of overseers.
Fred received his bachelor’s degree in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale University, his D.Phil. in molecular biophysics from University of Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, his doctor of medicine from Stanford University and his postdoctoral training and postgraduate medical training in internal medicine and endocrinology at UCSF.

With a distinguished 30-year career as a top financial executive, Caroline Dorsa brings strong financial credentials and management expertise to Intellia’s Board of Directors, which she joined in 2015. In addition to her membership on Intellia’s board, she serves on the boards of directors for Biogen, Inc., where she chairs the audit committees, and Illumina, Inc. She is also on the board of trustees of several Goldman Sachs investment funds, such as the Goldman Sachs ETF Trust, the Goldman Sachs MLP and Energy Renaissance Fund and the Goldman Sachs MLP Income Opportunities Fund.
Caroline served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Public Service Enterprise Group, an integrated provider of regulated utility electric and gas distribution services, from April 2009 until her retirement in October 2015. Prior to that she served as Senior Vice President, Global Human Health, Strategy and Integration for Merck & Co. and Senior Vice President and CFO at Avaya, Inc., where she oversaw its leveraged buyout in 2007.
Caroline was honored in 2015 with the New Jersey Governor’s Jefferson Award for Public Service for her support of youth development in the state. She holds an MBA from Columbia University and earned her B.A. at Colgate University.

Jean-François Formela focuses on new advances in biology and drug discovery technologies as well as novel therapeutics.
He is chair of the board of IFM Therapeutics and serves on the boards of F-star, Kyn Therapeutics, Spero Therapeutics, and Translate Bio (formerly RaNA Therapeutics), which he co-founded.
Jean-François has been involved in the formation of companies such as Adnexus (acquired by BMS), ArQule (NASDAQ: ARQL), Arteaus Therapeutics (acquired by Eli Lilly), Cellzome (acquired by GSK), deCODE (NASDAQ: DCGN, acquired by Amgen), Exelixis (NASDAQ: EXEL), MorphoSys (Xetra: MOR.DE), NxStage (NASDAQ: NXTM, acquired by Fresenius Medical) and SGX Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SGXP, acquired by Eli Lilly). He also was an investor in Achillion (NASDAQ: ACHN), Annovation Biopharma (acquired by The Medicines Company), CoStim Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Novartis) and Horizon Pharma (NASDAQ: HZNP) as well as a board member of Biochem Pharma (NASDAQ: BCHE, acquired by Shire) and Novexel (acquired by AstraZeneca).
Jean-François joined Atlas Venture in 1993 to build the U.S. life sciences franchise. Prior to joining Atlas, Jean-François worked at Schering-Plough, where he directed U.S. Phase IV studies in all therapeutic areas. Before that, he was responsible for the marketing of Intron A, Schering-Plough’s alpha-interferon. Jean-François began his career as a medical doctor and practiced emergency medicine at Necker University Hospital in Paris.
Jean-François is a member of the Massachusetts General Hospital Research Advisory Council and a former trustee of the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art.
He received his M.D. from Paris University School of Medicine, and his M.B.A. from Columbia University.

Jesse Goodman brings to Intellia more than three decades of expertise in medicine and public health, including as a professor, practicing clinician and senior government leader. Jesse is currently a professor of medicine at Georgetown University, where he directs the Center on Medical Product Access, Safety and Stewardship (COMPASS). He also is an active clinician, serving as attending physician in infectious diseases.

He was the FDA’s Chief Scientist between 2009 and 2014, and previously served as the FDA’s Deputy Commissioner for Science and Public Health and as Director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER). Jesse additionally helped develop the FDA’s Regulatory Science and Medical Countermeasures Initiatives and served on the Senior Leadership Team for the 2010 White House Medical Countermeasure Review. As the FDA’s Chief Scientist, he led preparations and responses to major public health threats, including emerging infectious diseases, disasters and terrorism, such as West Nile Virus and the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic. Previously, he was professor and chief of infectious diseases at the University of Minnesota, where his laboratory first isolated and characterized the biology of the emerging tick-borne pathogen Anaplasma phagocytophilum and where he also lead clinical trials helping to develop new anti-infective agents.

Jesse serves as an independent non-executive director for GlaxoSmithKline plc, a global pharmaceutical company; as president and trustee of the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention; and on the Regulatory Working Group of the Coalition on Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI). Jesse graduated with an AB in biology from Harvard University; earned a master’s in public health from the University of Minnesota; and received his M.D. from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He completed his residency and fellowship training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and at the University of California at Los Angeles, where he was also chief medical resident. He is board-certified in internal medicine, infectious diseases and oncology and has been elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation and to the U.S. National Academy of Medicine.

After a 30-year career in pharmaceutical R&D, John Leonard retired from his position as Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice President of Research and Development at AbbVie in 2013. Inspired by the opportunity to work with a new therapeutic modality and form a new company, he returned to his life’s passion and joined the Intellia team to direct the research and development effort to make CRISPR/Cas9 technology into a therapeutic reality.
John is among the leading R&D executives who have led breakthrough medicines through their discovery, development and launch into blockbuster drugs. While serving as the Global Head of Pharmaceutical R&D at Abbott Laboratories, John oversaw the development of numerous novel therapeutics. His ground-breaking work with HIV protease inhibitors Norvir® and Kaletra® led to new treatment paradigms for AIDS, his years of work with Humira® made it the all-time top-selling drug worldwide, and he led significant growth of the R&D pipeline at Abbott and Abbvie. John’s teams were twice recognized with the prestigious Prix Galien Award for excellence in pharmaceutical research.
In addition to serving on the Board of Directors of Intellia, John serves on the Board of Directors of QuintilesIMS (NYSE:Q) and Chimerix (NASDAQ:CMRX). He received his M.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine followed by a fellowship at the National Institutes of Health.

Frank Verwiel brings more than 25 years of strategic, operational and international experience in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry to Intellia’s Board of Directors. Frank currently serves as chairman of the board of directors of ObsEva SA, a biopharmaceutical company focused on women’s reproductive health. He also holds membership and committee chair positions on the boards of AveXis, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVXS), Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ACHN) and Bavarian Nordic A/S (CPH: BAVA). Previously, he served on the board of directors of the Biotechnology Industry Organization.
Frank possesses significant biotech and pharmaceutical experience, having been the President and CEO of Aptalis Pharma Inc., prior to its acquisition in 2014 by Forest Laboratories. Frank also led the global hypertension franchise at Merck & Co. and served as the general manager of Merck Sharpe Dohme’s operations in the Netherlands and held numerous leadership positions in the commercial organization at Servier Laboratories.
Frank received a doctorate in medicine from Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Netherlands. He received his MBA from the Institut Européen d’Administration des Affaires (INSEAD) in Fontainebleau, France.

Rodolphe Barrangou is the Todd R. Kaenhammer Distinguished Professor in Probiotics Research in the Department 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. Until July 2016, he also served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Caribou Biosciences. Rodolphe was previously a Director of Research and Development at DuPont and Danisco. While with Danisco, he was part of the team that initially established the adaptive immune function of CRISPR. Rodolphe holds nine patents related to CRISPR and has published more than 100 papers and seven book chapters in the field. For his work as a pioneer in CRISPR-Cas9, he has been awarded the distinguished 2017 National Academy of Sciences Award in Molecular Biology, the 2016 Canada Gairdner International Award and the 2016 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize. In 2018, he was elected into the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), one of the world’s most important and influential scientific societies. Rodolphe received his Ph.D. in Functional Genomics from North Carolina State University and an MBA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Nessan Bermingham is a venture partner at Atlas Venture, where he is involved with the formation and leadership of groundbreaking new biotechnology companies as part of the Atlas platform. He has more than 15 years of experience in investments in life sciences, including small molecules, biologics, medical devices and diagnostics companies through private, public and secondary markets.

Most recently, Nessan was the first founder and CEO of Intellia. His vision and drive made Intellia “one of the top 10 biotech start-ups in 2014,” a “Fierce 15 biotech company,” and one of the first CRISPR/Cas9 companies to complete an initial public offering.

As a partner at Atlas Venture and Omega Funds, and founding partner of Bio Equity Capital, he successfully managed multiple investments including financing, licensing, M&A and IPOs across the United States and Europe. In his career, Nessan has co-founded a number of healthcare and biotech startup companies, and was previously the CEO of Tal Medical, a medical device company spun out of Harvard Medical School.

Nessan served on Intellia’s Board of Directors, the Board of Directors for the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine. Previously, he was on the Board of Directors for the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine, on the Advisory Board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and sat on the independent Advisory Board of Merck Serono. Nessan served as program co-chair of the 2018 Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) International Convention.

He received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Imperial College London and was a Howard Hughes Associate Fellow at Baylor College of Medicine.

Jennifer Doudna is redefining what’s possible with genetic engineering. As an internationally renowned and award-winning professor of Chemistry and Molecular and Cell Biology at U.C. Berkeley, in 2012, Dr. Doudna and her colleagues uncovered CRISPR-Cas9 – a simple way of editing the DNA of any organism using a common protein found in bacteria. Doudna’s research with her collaborators has opened the floodgates of possibility for non-human and human applications including assisting researchers in the fight against HIV, sickle cell anemia and cystic fibrosis.
Today, Jennifer is widely recognized as a leading expert on RNA-protein biochemistry, CRISPR biology, and genome engineering. In addition to her position as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and a faculty affiliate of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Doudna is Executive Director of the Innovative Genomics Institute and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Inventors and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and she is a Foreign Associate of the Royal Society.

Rachel Haurwitz is the CEO, President and co-founder of Caribou Biosciences, as well as a co-founder of Intellia. Rachel is an inventor on several patents and patent applications covering multiple CRISPR-derived technologies, and she has co-authored scientific papers in high impact journals characterizing CRISPR-Cas systems. She has a research background in CRISPR biology. In 2017, she was named by the MIT Tech Review as one of the “35 Innovators Under 35” and in 2016, she was named by Fortune to the “40 Under 40” Business Leaders Under 40 list. Rachel earned an A.B. in Biological Sciences from Harvard College, and received a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley.

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 understand this natural pathway to develop new technologies. He is a 2016 Howard Hughes Medical Institute-Simons Faculty Scholar, 2012 Rita Allen Foundation Scholar and 2011 Searle Scholar, as well as the recipient of the 2016 Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, the 2016 Earl and Thressa Stadtman Scholar Award and the 2015 Hans Sigrist Prize. Luciano received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago where he studied bacterial pathogenesis, and completed his postdoctoral fellowship at Northwestern University.

Andy May is the Senior Director of Genome Engineering at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, a non-profit medical research institute. Before joining the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, Andy was the Chief Scientific Officer at Caribou Biosciences, where he lead the development of the CRISPR/Cas9 technology platform. He has a strong background developing technologies and bringing innovative products from concept to commercialization. Prior to Caribou, Andy led development teams at Fluidigm Corporation that pioneered efforts in single-cell genomics, high-throughput amplicon sequencing and structural proteomics. Andy received a B.A. in Chemistry and a D.Phil. in Molecular Biophysics from the University of Oxford and was a Wellcome Trust International Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University.

Derrick Rossi is an Associate Professor in the Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology Department at Harvard University, an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, and an Investigator in the Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital, where he holds an endowed Chair. Derrick also is a faculty member of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. Derrick earned his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from the University of Toronto, Canada, and his Ph.D. from the University of Helsinki, Finland. Derrick is a hematopoietic stem cell expert who has made multiple important discoveries relevant to human health. In 2010, Derrick’s lab discovered how to use synthetic mRNA to reprogram stem cell fate and function opening the field of mRNA therapeutics. His lab was the first to publish on using CRISPR/Cas9 to engineer blood forming stem cells that are resistant to HIV infection. Derrick has co-founded several companies, including Moderna Therapeutics in 2010 and Magenta Therapeutics in 2016. Derrick was named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in 2011.

Erik Sontheimer is a Professor in the RNA Therapeutics Institute at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Erik’s lab studies the roles of RNA molecules in gene regulation and their applications in genome engineering. While a Professor at Northwestern University, Erik helped unravel the mechanism of CRISPR-mediated immunity in bacteria. He has been honored with the Burroughs Wellcome Fund New Investigator Award in the Pharmacological Sciences and a National Science Foundation CAREER Award. In 2016, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. Erik received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University and completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Chicago.