Operational Team & Board

Frank DouglasFrank Douglas, PhD, MD
Board Member

Dr. Frank L. Douglas is a Partner at PureTech. Previously, he was Professor of the Practice at MIT, the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology, and Executive Director of the MIT Center for Biomedical Innovation. Dr. Douglas was also a member of the Board of Management and Executive Vice President, Drug Innovation and Approval, and Chief Scientific Officer of Aventis SA, where he oversaw global pharmaceutical research, development and regulatory activities. Prior to his positions with Aventis, Dr. Douglas was EVP of Global Research at Hoechst Marion Roussel, EVP of Research and Development at Marion Merrel Dow, and SVP & Director of Research at CIBA-GEIGY. He also served as Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Science and Regulatory Section of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA), has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Advisory Board of the Paul Ehrlich Foundation, and a member of the Board of Directors of Alantos, Gene Logic, Nitromed Inc., and Archemix Inc. Dr. Douglas has received the Lewis B. Russell Memorial Award from the American Heart Association, the J.W. von Goethe Frankfurt University Medal of Honor and was named the recipient of the Global Pharmaceutical R&D Director of the Year Award in 2001, and again in 2004. Throughout his career Dr. Douglas has led teams that have discovered, developed, or extended the indications of more than 20 drugs. As a senior executive, he pioneered organizational changes that were forerunners to the emerging field of Translational Medicine, and he introduced Chemical Biology Platforms to the pharma industry.

Raju Kucherlapati

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.

  

Daphne Zohar

Daphne Zohar
Board Member

Ms. 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 reviews approximately 800 academic projects each year and selects the most promising of those to form companies around. PureTech's Senior Partners include entrepreneurs and leaders from the top echelon of pharma, biotech and academia including Dr. Ronald Cape (founder, Cetus), Dr. Robert Langer (renowned MIT professor), Dr. Frank Douglas (former Chief Scientific Officer, Aventis), Dr. Bennett Shapiro (former EVP Worldwide Basic and External Research, Merck), and Dr. John Zabriskie (former CEO Pharmacia & Upjohn). Ms. Zohar 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, Solace Pharmaceuticals (where she was Founding CEO), Follica Inc. (currently Founding CEO), Enlight Biosciences , Endra, 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.

 

(Link to Xconomy: www.xconomy.com)


David Steinberg
Founding CEO, Board Member

Mr. Steinberg has worked in the biopharmaceuticals industry for over 13 years. As a member of PureTech, Mr. Steinberg has been on the founding teams of Enlight Biosciences and Endra Inc.as founding CEO. Previously, he served as Chief Business Officer of portfolio company Follica, Inc., and VP of Operations for portfolio company Satori Pharmaceuticals. He serves on the Board of Directors of Endra Inc. and Enlight Biosciences. Prior to joining PureTech, he was a strategy consultant with the Boston Consulting Group and Vertex Partners, focusing on R&D and product strategy and strategic alliances for Fortune 500 pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms. Mr. Steinberg also worked as a research associate in Procter and Gamble Pharmaceuticals' R&D organization. Mr. Steinberg received his BA in Biology with distinction from Cornell University and graduated with high honors from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business with an MBA in strategy and finance.

 

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.

 

 


 

 

 

 



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