The Brigham Research Institute’s Scientific Advisory Board is tasked with providing strategic counsel and vision to further enhance research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Chaired by the President of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, JAMES (JAY) BRADNER, MD, the board is comprised of scientists, venture capitalists and pharmaceutical leaders.
Sangeeta N. Bhatia is a cancer researcher, Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor and biotech entrepreneur who adapts technologies developed in the computer industry for medical innovation. Among her team’s inventions are microlivers that model diseases of the liver, synthetic biomarkers for noninvasive disease monitoring, and living medical devices to support patients with organ failure.
Dr. Bhatia holds an M.D. from Harvard Medical School, a Ph.D. from MIT, and a Bachelor’s degree from Brown University. At MIT, she is the John J. and Dorothy Wilson Professor at the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, inaugural director of the Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine and a member of the Ludwig Center for Molecular Oncology – both part of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT. Bhatia is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, on the Board of Directors at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, and an elected member of the National Academy of Science, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Engineering, and Brown University’s Board of Trustees.
Dr. Bhatia has been honored with the Lemelson-MIT Prize for her research contributions, and the Heinz Medal for groundbreaking inventions and advocacy for women in STEM fields. She has presented her vision for the application of engineering solutions to solve medical problems on international stages such as the World Economic Forum, TED, the Gates Grand Challenges, and the Biden Cancer Moonshot.
James Bradner, MD (Chair)James (Jay) Bradner, MD is President of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR). Prior to joining Novartis, Dr. Bradner was on the faculty of Harvard Medical School in the Department of Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in the United States. He was also associate director of the Center for the Science of Therapeutics at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Dr. Bradner is a co-founder of five biotechnology companies and has co-authored more than 150 scientific publications and 30 US patent applications.
Dr. Bradner is a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Chicago Medical School in the US. He completed his residency in medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and his fellowship in medical oncology and hematology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He has been honored with many awards and was elected into the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2011 and the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society in 2013.
Gerald Chan, PhDGerald Chan co-founded Morningside in 1986 as a private investment group with venture capital, private equity and property investments.
In the life science sector, Morningside focuses on start-up biotechnology companies founded on novel scientific discoveries. Notable investments in oncology that Gerald led include novel approaches to cancer therapeutics such as oncolytic viruses (BioVex, DNAtrix), immuno-oncology (Aduro), modified cytotoxic agents (Nucana), modified tumor microenvironment (Vigeo) and novel targets for therapeutic intervention (CellCentric). Investments in the infectious disease area include novel antibiotics (MicuRx, Artugen), prophylactic vaccines (Matrivax) and antivirals (Atea). Other investments cover the therapeutic areas of autoimmune diseases (Kezar), CNS disorders (Orthogonal, Pinteon, Cognito, Cognoa), and rare orphan diseases (Stealth, Apellis).
Gerald is a member of Harvard University’s Global Advisory Council, the Dean’s Board of Advisors of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Harvard China Fund. He sits on the board of the Scripps Research Institute. He chairs the Overseers Committee of the Morningside College of Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Innovation Advisory Committee of the Wellcome Trust in UK.
Gerald received his BS and MS degrees in engineering from UCLA, his Master’s degree in medical radiological physics and Doctor of Science degree in radiation biology from Harvard University. He received his post-doctoral training at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Chinese University of Hong Kong, University of Glasgow, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Scripps Research Institute and University of Massachusetts Boston have conferred on him honorary degrees. He was elected to an honorary fellowship at Wolfson College of Oxford University in 2012 and membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017.
Susan Hockfield, PhDSusan Hockfield is Professor of Neuroscience and President Emerita at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; she served as the sixteenth president from 2004 to 2012, was the first woman and the first life scientist to lead the Institute. Prior to MIT, she was the William Edward Gilbert Professor of Neurobiology, Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (1998-2002), and Provost (2003-2004) at Yale University.
After earning a BA in biology from the University of Rochester and a PhD from Georgetown University at the School of Medicine, Dr. Hockfield was an NIH postdoctoral fellow at the University of California at San Francisco. She then joined the scientific staff at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York. In 1985, Dr. Hockfield became a faculty member at Yale University, where she focused her research on brain development and glioma, a deadly form of brain cancer, and also pioneered the use of monoclonal antibody technology in brain research.
Dr. Hockfield serves as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a director of General Electric, Partners Healthcare System, and the Council on Foreign Relations, a life member of the MIT Corporation, a trustee of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and a board member of the Belfer Center at the Harvard Kennedy School. She has served as co-chair of President Obama’s steering committee of the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, a working coalition of academic, government and industry leaders, a member of a Congressional Commission evaluating the Department of Energy laboratories and as Science Envoy with the U.S. Department of State. Dr. Hockfield is the recipient of the Charles Judson Herrick Award from the American Association of Anatomists, the Wilbur Lucius Cross Award from Yale University, the Meliora Citation from the University of Rochester, the Golden Plate Award from the Academy of Achievement, the Amelia Earhart Award from the Women’s Union, the Edison Achievement Award, and the Pinnacle Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. She has received honorary degrees from national and international universities, and is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Terry McGuire, MBA, MSAs a Founding Partner of Polaris Partners, Terry McGuire brings more than 30 years of successful early stage investing experience in medical and information technology companies.
Terry has invested in more than 50 companies. He co-founded Inspire Pharmaceuticals (public and sold to Merck), AIR (sold to Alkermes) and MicroCHIPS (private). Companies Terry has supported have touched more than 60 million patients and saved over 400,000 lives. These companies have raised over $6 billion in equity and corporate capital. As a group, they have achieved a combined peak enterprise value of over $50 billion.
In 2015, Terry was listed as one of Scientific American’s Worldview 100, visionaries who continue to reshape biotechnology and the world. In 2014, Terry was listed in Forbes’ Midas 100 List of Top Tech Investors, and also was chosen to receive the Irish America Healthcare & Life Sciences 50 Award. In 2013, Terry was listed as one of Forbes’ Top Life Sciences Investors. In 2011, Terry was listed in Forbes’ Midas 100 List of Top Tech Investors. He is also a recipient of the Massachusetts Society for Medical Research Award, and the Albert Einstein Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Life Sciences, awarded by Harvard and the City of Jerusalem. He was awarded honorary doctorate degrees from Ohio Wesleyan University and Canisius College for his work in translational science.
Terry is emeritus Chairman of the National Venture Capital Association.
Terry is chairman of the Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College. He also sits on the boards of MIT’s The David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, The Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School, and The Healthcare Initiative Advisory Board (HBS).
Terry holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MS in engineering from The Thayer School at Dartmouth College, and a BS in physics and economics from Hobart College.
Aviv Regev, PhDDr. Aviv Regev is Executive Vice President of Research and a member of the extended Corporate Executive Committee of Roche. She is the Founding Co-Chair of the international Human Cell Atlas project and a Professor of Biology at MIT (currently on leave). Previously she was a Core Institute Member, Chair of the Faculty, and Director of the Klarman Cell Observatory at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, where she also co-directed the Cell Circuits Program. She is formerly a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.
Dr. Regev’s pioneering work has been recognized by the inaugural FASEB Excellence in Science Mid-Career Investigator Award, the Paul Marks Prize, and the Innovator Award and Overton Prize from the International Society for Computational Biology. In addition, she is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Regev received her MSc from Tel Aviv University, studying biology, computer science, and mathematics in the Adi Lautman Interdisciplinary Program for the Fostering of Excellence. She received her PhD in computational biology, also from Tel Aviv University.
Michael Rosenblatt, MDDr. Rosenblatt’s career has been in academia, the pharmaceutical industry and biotech/venture. He is a physician, scientist, educator and leader in healthcare. He currently serves as Chief Medical Officer of Flagship Pioneering in Cambridge, MA. He was Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for Merck from 2009-2016. Previously he was Dean, Tufts University School of Medicine. Prior to that, he was Robert Ebert Professor of Molecular Medicine and then George R. Minot Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He was President of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) from 1999-2001, and earlier Director of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology and Senior VP for Research at Merck where he co-led worldwide development of alendronate (FOSAMAX) for osteoporosis. Before joining Merck the first time, he was Chief of the Endocrine Unit at the Massachusetts General Hospital.
Dr. Rosenblatt has been active in the biotechnology industry, serving on the board of directors and scientific advisory boards of several biotech companies. He was a scientific founder of ProScript, which discovered bortezomib (Velcade) for multiple myeloma, and Radius Pharmaceuticals, a company that has developed abaloparatide (TYMLOS) for osteoporosis. He is also currently on the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows, and research advisory committees of the Massachusetts General Hospital, and Children’s Hospital (Boston).
Dr. Rosenblatt received his undergraduate degree summa cum laude from Columbia and his MD magna cum laude from Harvard. His internship, residency, and endocrinology training were all at the Massachusetts General Hospital.
Geoffrey W. Smith, JDGeoffrey W. Smith is the Founder and Managing Partner of Digitalis Ventures, a venture capital firm that partners with entrepreneurs, inventors, and scientists across all stages of venture investing to back technology-driven solutions to complex problems in health. He currently represents Digitalis as a Director of GRO Biosciences and Terray Therapeutics.
He is also a Co-Founder and General Partner of Ascent Biomedical Ventures, a New York City-based venture capital firm focused on early-stage life sciences investments. Geoff currently represents Ascent on the Board of Directors of Azevan Pharmaceuticals, BlinkBio, and Orchestra Biomedical.
Geoff serves as a Trustee of The Jackson Laboratory. He also serves as the Chair of the Bard Early College Board of Governors. Previously, he was the founding Director of the Mount Sinai Institute of Technology and a Professor in the Department of Population Health Science and Policy at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Geoff received a B.A. (with honors) from Williams College and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Elias Zerhouni, MDDr. Zerhouni was most recently the President, Global Research & Development, and a member of the Executive Committee for Sanofi from January 2011 to July 2018. Dr. Zerhouni’s academic career was spent at the Johns Hopkins University and Hospital where he was professor of Radiology and Biomedical engineering and senior adviser for Johns Hopkins Medicine. He served as Chair of the Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Vice Dean for Research and Executive Vice Dean of the School of Medicine from 1996 to 2002 before his appointment as Director of the National Institutes of Health from 2002 to 2008. In that position he oversaw the NIH’s 27 Institutes and Centers with more than 18,000 employees and a budget of $29.5 billion (2008).
In November 2009, President Obama appointed Dr. Zerhouni as one of the first presidential U.S. science envoys. Dr. Zerhouni also served as senior fellow to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation from 2009 to 2010 and senior advisor to the CEO of Sanofi. Dr. Zerhouni has founded or co-founded five start-up companies, authored more than 200 publications and holds several patents. He has assumed positions on several Boards, including most recently, the board of the Lasker Foundation, Research!America and the NIH Foundation. He is also a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine and the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. He received the prestigious Legion of Honor medal from the French National Order in 2008, and was elected in 2010 as a member of the French Academy of Medicine and appointed as Chair of Innovation at the College de France in 2011.
Carole Greider, PhDCarol Greider, PhD is the Daniel Nathans Professor and Director of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Johns Hopkins University. Dr Greider is a molecular biologist who discovered the enzyme telomerase in 1984, working together with Elizabeth Blackburn at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr Greider pioneered research on the structure and function of telomeres, the ends of the chromosomes. She was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, along with Blackburn and Jack W. Szostak, for their discovery that telomeres are protected from progressive shortening by the enzyme telomerase.
Jeffrey Leiden, MD, PhDDr. Leiden is the Executive Chairman of Vertex Pharmaceuticals. He received his B.A., M.D. and Ph.D. degrees with honors from the University of Chicago. He is a physician and scientist who, for the last 40 years, has dedicated his career to improving the lives of people with serious diseases. His experience spans all aspects of the biotech and pharmaceutical industries.
He began his career in academia as a molecular biologist and practicing cardiologist. From 1987 to 2000, Dr. Leiden held several academic and hospital appointments, including roles as Chief of Cardiology, the Rawson Professor of Medicine and Pathology, and an Attending Physician at the University of Chicago; the Elkan R. Blout Professor of Biological Sciences at the Harvard School of Public Health; and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Leiden was named a Crain’s Chicago Business 40 Under 40 in 1994, and served as a member of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Board of Scientific Counselors from 1994 to 1999. During his academic career, he was also involved in starting several biotechnology companies including Vical and Cardiogene.
From 2000 to 2006, he served as President and Chief Operating Officer and Chief Scientific Officer at Abbott Laboratories where he had responsibility for running Abbott’s global pharmaceuticals business. While at Abbott, Dr. Leiden led the development and launch of multiple breakthrough medicines, including HUMIRA® (adalimumab) for rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases and KALETRA® (lopinavir/ritonavir) for HIV infection.
He also held a number of industry board positions, including as a director of Abbott Laboratories and TAP, non-executive Vice Chairman of Shire Pharmaceuticals Plc and director of Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. From 2006 to 2011, he was a Managing Director of Clarus Ventures, a life sciences venture capital firm. There he was dedicated to developing new treatments through the creation of innovative biotech companies.
Dr. Leiden has served as a member of Vertex’s board of directors since 2009 and was President and CEO from 2012 to 2020. Under his leadership, Vertex delivered the first and only precision medicines to treat the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis (CF). It is his mission and the basis of the company’s research priorities to bring transformative medicines to people with CF and other serious diseases. Dr. Leiden also cares deeply about inspiring and equipping under-resourced students and young women to become the next generation of scientific leaders. He established a signature program at Vertex to enhance science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM) education among students in our local communities, including an on-site Learning Lab, mentorship programs, internships and college scholarships. In 2017, Vertex announced a sustained corporate giving commitment of $500 million over the next 10 years, of which $50 million is focused on STEAM education.
In addition to his responsibilities at Vertex, Dr. Leiden is currently the chairman of PathAI and a director of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company; chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital; and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Leiden also serves on the board of directors of the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership and the Boston Private Industry Council, the board of fellows of Harvard Medical School, and as co-chair of Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker’s STEM Advisory Council and Digital Health Council. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the American Association of Physicians.
Dr. Leiden holds a number of industry and hospital board positions, including the Scientific Advisory Board of Boston Children’s Hospital. He is a director of Quest Diagnostics and the Massachusetts Mutual Insurance Company. A supporter of the arts and a longtime advocate for encouraging a love of science at a young age, he also serves on the boards of the Boston Museum of Fine Art, the Boston Private Industry Council and the Governor’s STEM Advisory Council, and MA Digital Health Council, both of which he co-chairs.
He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Sue Siegel, MSSue Siegel is CEO of GE Ventures, GE’s growth and innovation business comprised of new market development, equity investing, new business creation and licensing. Sue has more than 30 years of experience in corporate and venture capital. Previously, as a financial VC, Sue led investments in personalized medicine, digital health, and life sciences at Silicon Valley-based Mohr Davidow Ventures.
Before venture capital, she was President and Board Member of Affymetrix (NASDAQ: AFFX), where she drove the company’s transformation from a pre-revenue start up to a global, multi-billion dollar market cap genomics leader. Prior to that, Sue drove strategy, technology development, licensing, manufacturing, as well as new market creation at Bio-Rad, DuPont, and Amersham. Sue has served on many private and public corporate boards. She currently serves on the Boards of: Stanford Hospital Board’s IT Committee, Harvard Partners’ Innovation Advisory Board, the Cleveland Clinic’s Innovation Council, University of California’s Innovation Council, and serves on the Executive Committee of Santa Clara University’s Center for Science, Technology, and Society’s Advisory Board.
She is a member of YPO-WPO, Women Corporate Directors, and a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute. In the bestselling business book: Multipliers: How The Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter, Sue was a featured “Multiplier.” She was recognized as one of “The 100 Most Influential Women in Silicon Valley” and Fortune’s “34 Leaders Who Are Changing Health Care.”
