Operational Team & Board

Raju Kucherlapati, PhD
Board Member

Dr. Raju Kucherlapati is a Professor of Medicine and the Paul C. Cabot Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and the first Scientific Director of the Harvard-Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana. Formerly he served on the faculties of Princeton University, University of Illinois College of Medicine, and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He serves on the editorial board of the New England Journal of Medicine and was editor in chief of the journal Genomics. Dr. Kucherlapati was a founder of Abgenix, Cell Genesys, and Millennium Pharmaceuticals. He currently serves on the boards of Millennium Pharmaceuticals and Abgenix as well as on the board of privately held AVEO Pharmaceuticals.

Bennett Shapiro, MD

Board Member

Dr. Shapiro is a Senior Partner and Chairman of the Board of PureTech Ventures. He was most recently Executive Vice President, Worldwide Licensing and External Research for Merck. He joined Merck Research Laboratories in September 1990 as Executive Vice President, Basic Research, Merck Research Laboratories. In this position he was responsible for all the basic and preclinical research activities at Merck worldwide. Dr. Shapiro led the research program that resulted in FDA registration of approximately 20 drugs and vaccines. From 1999-2003 Shapiro oversaw all in-licensing activities for Merck.

Daphne Zohar
Board Member

Daphne Zohar is the founder and managing partner of PureTech Ventures, a Boston-based venture creation firm specializing in translating breakthrough research from top tier academic institutions into therapies that will impact human health and well-being. PureTech's senior partners include entrepreneurs and leaders from the highest echelon of pharma, biotech and academia. In 2010, Ms. Zohar was recognized by BioWorld, a widely-read biotechnology industry publication, as one of 28 leaders predicted to be the "movers and shakers" of the biotechnology industry over the next twenty years, previously she was named one of the world's top young innovators who will shape the future of technology by MIT's Technology Review magazine and one of the top "40 under 40" by the Boston Business Journal. A successful entrepreneur, Ms. Zohar created PureTech and assembled a leading team to help implement her vision for the firm. She sits on the Boards of Directors of PureTech Ventures, Enlight Biosciences (a technology development company whose backers include Merck, Pfizer, Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, and Novartis), Follica Inc. (where she was Founding CEO), Solace Pharmaceuticals (where she was Founding CEO), Libra Biosciences (where she is Founding CEO), Karuna Pharmaceuticals, and Satori Pharmaceuticals (where she was Founding CEO). She also sits on the Technology Development Fund Advisory Board at Children's Hospital Boston, the Tufts University School of Medicine Advisory Committee for Drug Discovery and Development, and is an Editorial Advisor to Xconomy, a national technology news blog.

Baruch Harris, PhD

Vice President, Strategy and Operations

Dr. Harris manages Enlight's day-to-day operations and is responsible for providing management support to Enlight's portfolio companies. Prior to joining Enlight, Dr. Harris was Executive Director and Head of Business Strategy and Operations for Novartis Biologics; Senior Manager in Novartis Pharma AG's strategic planning group; and a Engagement Manager for McKinsey & Company's healthcare practice. Dr. Harris also worked as a research associate at the University of California, Davis, the Weizmann Institute of Science, and Sankyo Ltd., and as an Intern at Burrill & Company. Dr. Harris received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology from the University of California, San Francisco, where he was a Howard Hughes predoctoral fellow, and his Sc.B. in Biophysics from Brown University with Honors, magna cum laude, where he was initiated into Sigma Xi.

Vijay Murthy , PhD
Director of Technology and Business Development

Dr. Murthy focuses on Enlight's technology sourcing and business development activities. Prior to joining Enlight, Dr. Murthy was a management consultant with the Boston Consulting Group where he focused on issues in R&D, commercial, and corporate strategy for Fortune 500 biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Prior to joining BCG, Dr. Murthy was a Graduate Research Fellow at Harvard University where he researched new approaches to drug design and novel biomedical applications of polymers, leading to 9 publications and 2 patent applications. He has also been a researcher at the UNC School of Medicine, and at Merck & Co. Dr. Murthy received his A.M. and Ph.D. in Bioorganic Chemistry from Harvard, where he received a fellowship from the US Department of Defense, and a B.S. in chemistry with Highest Honors and Highest Distinction (summa cum laude) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was initiated into Phi Beta Kappa and earned the Venable Medal as the top graduate in chemistry.

Meredith Fisher, PhD
Associate Director of Technology and Business Development

Dr. Fisher focuses on technology sourcing and business development activities at Enlight. Prior to joining Enlight, Dr. Fisher completed her MBA at the MIT Sloan School of Management with a focus on entrepreneurship and technology strategy and her PhD at Harvard University in molecular microbiology. While at Harvard, she was the recipient of an EPA STAR graduate fellowship and member of the Harvard Biotechnology Club. She has worked with a number of technology based start-up companies in business development and fundraising roles and spent several years in the biotech industry conducting drug discovery technology and assay development for Idenix Pharmaceuticals (formerly Novirio) and Anadys Pharmaceuticals (formerly Scriptgen). Dr. Fisher received her undergraduate degree Magna cum Laude with High Honors in Biology from Mount Holyoke College where she was a Clare Boothe Luce Scholarship recipient, a member of Sigma Xi, and a Phi Beta Kappa inductee.

Alan Koncarevic, PhD

Senior Manager

Dr. Koncarevic is responsible for technology sourcing, evaluation, and business development at Enlight. Prior to joining Enlight, Dr. Koncarevic worked as a senior scientist at Acceleron Pharma where he was involved in preclinical development of several therapeutic compounds in neuromuscular and metabolic diseases, hematology, oncology, and bone health. During his time at Acceleron, Dr. Koncarevic assumed roles of increasing responsibility and his work led to multiple peer-reviewed publications and patent applications, as well as several invited presentations at international conferences. Prior to Acceleron Dr. Koncarevic completed his Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Endocrinology Department at Boston University School of Medicine and received his PhD in physiology from Boston University. Dr. Koncarevic received his undergraduate degree in health sciences through the Honors Program at Lock Haven University where he was awarded multiple academic scholarships including a four-year International Student Scholarship.