Leadership

Steve Holtzman is currently a Strategic Advisor for Decibel Therapeutics, where he formerly served as president and chief executive officer. Prior to Decibel, he served as Executive Vice President, Corporate Development at Biogen, Inc., where he led eight new drug approvals. Previously, Mr. Holtzman was the founder, chief executive officer and board chair of Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a cancer drug discovery and development company. He was also an early leader and the chief business officer of Millennium Pharmaceuticals (now Takeda Oncology), a pioneer in large-scale genetics and genomics, and was a founder, board member and executive vice president of DNX Corporation, the first transgenic animal company. He is chairman of the boards of Qihan Biotech and CAMP4, a board member of Molecular Partners, a strategic business advisor to Humatics and Compugen, a member of the board of the Berklee College of Music, and a senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School. He was appointed by President Clinton to the National Bioethics Advisory Commission and also served as a member and vice chair of the board of the Hastings Center for the Life Sciences. He obtained his undergraduate degree in philosophy from Michigan State University and his graduate degree in philosophy from Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar.

Josh Mandel-Brehm is President & Chief Executive Officer of CAMP4 Therapeutics and holds a dual appointment as entrepreneur partner with Polaris Partners.

Mr. Mandel-Brehm previously held key business development and operations leadership roles at leading biotech companies. Most recently he served as part of the Business Development group at Biogen, where he led multiple strategic activities and corresponding transactions, which included expanding Biogen’s non-malignant hematology franchise and overseeing seminal investments to enter the ophthalmology field. Mr. Mandel-Brehm also played an integral role advancing Biogen’s gene therapy strategy, executing a series of external collaborations. Prior to Biogen, Mr. Mandel-Brehm held several roles of increasing responsibility at Genzyme as part of the business development group for the company’s rare disease business unit.

Mr. Mandel-Brehm earned a BA in Biology from Washington University in St. Louis and holds an MBA from the University of Michigan.

James Boylan is Chief Executive Officer of Enavate Sciences and is an accomplished health care executive, entrepreneur, and innovator with nearly three decades of experience. Mr. Boylan most recently served as President and Head of Investment Banking of SVB Leerink, where he architected and led the firm’s transformation into an industry-leading health care investment bank that was acquired by SVB Financial in 2019. Across his 12 years at SVB Leerink and prior 12 years as a Managing Director at Merrill Lynch, Mr. Boylan has worked with hundreds of life sciences and biotechnology companies to develop strategy and complete transactions in capital markets and mergers & acquisitions.

Mr. Boylan earned an M.B.A in finance from the Columbia Business School and a B.S. in finance from Lehigh University.

Ingo Chakravarty is an Operating Partner at Northpond Ventures. He has 30 years of experience in building, scaling and leading high-performance teams and companies in the diagnostics and precision medicine sectors. Ingo was recently President and CEO of Mesa, which he successfully sold to Thermo Fisher Scientific in 2021. Prior to Mesa, Ingo held multiple executive roles in the diagnostics and precision medicine sectors, including CEO of Navican Genomics, SVP and GM of GenMark Diagnostics, (acquired by Roche), VP and GM of Gen-Probe (acquired by Hologic), and various leadership roles at Ventana Medical Systems (acquired by Roche). He received a degree in electrical engineering from the Friedrich Heacker School in Germany.

Michael Higgins is a serial entrepreneur who has helped launch and build numerous companies during his 30+ year career. Michael served as Voyager Therapeutics Interim Chief Executive Officer from June 2021 to March 2022. In that role, he was able to stabilize and relaunch the company through the completion of 3 major business development deals, the restructuring of the management team and research portfolio and the recruitment of a well-respected R&D leader as the long-term CEO. He gained venture experience as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Polaris Partners from 2015 to 2020 where he helped the founding team launch Camp4 Therapeutics. From 2003 through 2014 he served as Senior Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Inc. helping the company evolve from its early days as a $ 50 million venture backed start-up to a $2 billion fully integrated commercial organization. Prior to 2003, Mr. Higgins held a variety of senior business positions at Genzyme Corporation, including Vice President of Corporate Finance and Vice President of Business Development.

In addition to his extensive biopharma management experience, Mr. Higgins has been a long-time Board member and Board Chair. He is currently Chairman of the Board of Voyager Therapeutics. He was appointed Chairman in June 2019 and has been a member of the Board of Directors since July 2015. Mr. Higgins has also served as chairman of the Board of Directors of Pulmatrix, Inc., a publicly-traded biopharmaceutical company, since April 2020, and has served as a member of the Boards of Directors of Cyclerion Therapeutics, Inc., a publicly-traded biopharmaceutical company, since October 2023; Nocion Therapeutics, Inc., a privately-held biopharmaceutical company, since September 2020; Camp4 Therapeutics Corporation, a privately-held biopharmaceutical company, since October 2017; Sea Pharmaceuticals, LLC, a privately-held pharmaceutical company, since October 2016. Mr. Higgins previously served as a member of the Board of Directors of Genocea Biosciences Inc., a publicly-traded immuno-oncology company, from February 2015 to May 2022. Mr. Higgins Board experience covers numerous therapeutic areas and involves work with eight first-time CEOs. From a financing perspective, Mr. Higgins has experience from seed stage financing to IPOs and beyond.

Mr. Higgins earned a B.S. from Cornell University and an M.B.A. from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. Mr. Higgins’ financial and business expertise, including his diversified background as an executive officer in public pharmaceuticals companies, qualifies him to serve as a member of the Board of Directors. He is qualified to serve as Audit Committee Chair and has done so with numerous public companies. He also has extensive compensation committee and governance committee experience.

Amir Nashat 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, Dewpoint Therapeutics, Fate Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FATE), Freenome, Metacrine Therapeutics, Morphic Therapeutic (NASDAQ: MORF), Scholar Rock (NASDAQ: SRRK), Selecta Biosciences (NASDAQ: SELB), Syros Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SYRS) and TARIS Biomedical.

Additionally, Dr. Nashat has served as a director of Adnexus Therapeutics (Bristol Myers Squibb), Athenix Corporation (Bayer), aTyr Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: LIFE), Avila Therapeutics (Celgene), Living Proof (Unilever), Pervasis Therapeutics (Shire Pharmaceuticals), Promedior Pharmaceuticals, Receptos (Celgene), and Sun Catalytix (Lockheed Martin). At Dewpoint, Living Proof, Sun Catalytix, Olivo Labs, and Jnana, Dr. Nashat has served as the company’s initial CEO. Dr. Nashat also serves on the Partners Innovation Fund, the Investment Advisory Committee for The Engine at MIT, and helped launch the MIT Sandbox Innovation Fund as its active president.

He previously served on the board of the New England Venture Capital Association. He has been named to the Forbes Midas List of “Top 100 Venture Capitalists.”

Prior to joining Polaris, Dr. Nashat completed his ScD 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 his MS and BS in Materials Science and Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Ragan is a founder, as well as the Chief Executive Officer & President of X4. She has more than 19 years of experience building companies in the biotechnology industry. Most recently, Dr. Ragan consulted as Chief Business Officer at Lysosomal Therapeutics Inc (LTI), an Atlas Venture portfolio company, where she led the company’s business development activities. Prior to LTI, Dr. Ragan held leadership roles in corporate development and operations at Genzyme/Sanofi where she led strategic partnering efforts for Genzyme’s Rare Disease business and headed the supply chain planning for Genzyme’s flagship commercial products. Other professional roles include business roles at Hydra Biosciences, Oscient Corporation and Celera Corporation. Dr. Ragan received her BS in Mechanical Engineering from Tufts University and her PhD from MIT. She completed post-doctoral studies at Harvard Medical School.

Andy Schwab is a Founder and Managing Partner of 5AM Ventures. Prior to founding 5AM in 2002, Mr. Schwab was a Principal at Bay City Capital where he was involved with companies such as Cubist, PTC Therapeutics and Syrrx. Previously Mr. Schwab was Vice President of Business Development at Digital Gene Technologies and a Vice President in the life science investment banking group of Montgomery Securities. At 5AM, he has led the firm’s investments in and served on the Boards of Camp4 Therapeutics, DVS (acquired by Fluidigm), Enliven (NASDAQ ELVN), Escient Pharmaceuticals, Flexion Therapeutics (acquired by Pacira), Ikaria (acquired by Mallinckrodt and spun-out), Ilypsa (acquired by Amgen), Precision NanoSystems (acquired by Danaher), Radionetics, RareCyte, Scientist.com, SKYE, and TMRW. Mr. Schwab also serves on the Boards of Trustees of the California Academy of Sciences and Davidson College. He received a B.S. with Honors in Genetics & Ethics from Davidson College and was a member of its 1992 Final Four soccer team. Mr. Schwab is based in the San Francisco, CA office.

Ravi I. Thadhani, MD, MPH, is the executive vice president for health affairs (EVPHA) of Emory University, executive director of Emory’s Woodruff Health Sciences Center (WHSC), and vice chair of the Emory Healthcare Board of Directors. He began his role on Jan. 1, 2023.

As EVPHA and Executive Director of the WHSC, Thadhani oversees Emory’s renowned academic health sciences enterprise focused on advancing research, training, and health-care delivery innovation. The Woodruff Health Sciences Center includes Emory’s schools of medicine, public health and nursing; Winship Cancer Institute; Emory National Primate Research Center; Emory Global Health Institute; Goizueta Institute @ Emory Brain Health; Emory Global Diabetes Research Center; and Emory Healthcare.

As vice chair of the Emory Healthcare Board, Thadhani provides oversight of Emory Healthcare’s CEO and leadership team, ensuring the delivery of high-quality, patient-centered care focused on supporting the health and well-being of patients around the state. Emory Healthcare, with more than 24,000 employees, 11 hospital campuses and 425 locations, is the most comprehensive academic health system in Georgia.

Thadhani most recently served as chief academic officer and dean for faculty affairs for Mass General Brigham and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, both in Boston, Massachusetts. At Mass General Brigham, he was a member of the executive leadership team and oversaw graduate medical education, professional development, and a $2.3 billion research enterprise. Previously, Thadhani served as vice dean of research and graduate research education at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles (2017-2019), associate director of research at Mass General Brigham (2012-2017), and chief of nephrology at Massachusetts General Hospital (2013-2017).

With more than 30 years as a general and specialized internal medicine physician, Thadhani has extensive experience in patient care, research, and clinical trials. He has led a successful research lab with continuous federal funding for more than 25 years, with a focus on kidney disease and developing diagnostics and therapeutics for patients with preeclampsia. Thadhani has performed several clinical trials focused on effective treatments and preventative measures for preeclampsia, one of the leading causes of maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality.

He is the author or co-author of more than 300 scientific manuscripts and has published in top- tier journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, and Journal of the American Medical Association. Thadhani has been inducted into several honor societies, including the American Society for Clinical Investigation, Association of American Physicians, American Epidemiological Society, and the American Clinical and Climatological Association. He also serves as a board member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, a research organization that convenes a community of researchers from across many disciplines and partner institutions—MIT, Harvard, and Harvard-affiliated hospitals.

A recipient of several distinguished national awards, Thadhani has an extensive track record of recruiting and mentoring women and underrepresented staff, trainees, and faculty. He has been honored with the Harold Amos Faculty Diversity Award from Harvard Medical School, the Alumni Award of Merit from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the John P. Peters Award from the American Society of Nephrology.

Thadhani earned his doctor of medicine degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1991. He received a master of public health degree from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame. He also completed the LEAD Innovation Certificate Program in 2020 at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Richard Young studies gene regulatory circuitry in health and disease. His research accomplishments range from the development of genome-wide analysis technologies to discovery of the core regulatory circuitry of human embryonic stem cells. Dr. Young received his PhD in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University, conducted postdoctoral research at Stanford University and joined Whitehead Institute and MIT in 1984. He has served as an advisor to the National Institutes of Health, the World Health Organization, the Vatican and numerous scientific societies and journals. Dr. Young has founded and advised companies in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of CAMP4, Syros Pharmaceuticals and Omega Therapeutics. His honors include Membership in the National Academy of Sciences, the Chiron Corporation Biotechnology Research Award, Yale’s Wilbur Cross Medal, and in 2006 Scientific American recognized him as one of the top 50 leaders in science, technology and business.

Richard Young studies gene regulatory circuitry in health and disease. His research accomplishments range from the development of genome-wide analysis technologies to discovery of the core regulatory circuitry of human embryonic stem cells. Dr. Young received his PhD in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University, conducted postdoctoral research at Stanford University and joined Whitehead Institute and MIT in 1984. He has served as an advisor to the National Institutes of Health, the World Health Organization, the Vatican and numerous scientific societies and journals. Dr. Young has founded and advised companies in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of CAMP4, Syros Pharmaceuticals and Omega Therapeutics. His honors include Membership in the National Academy of Sciences, the Chiron Corporation Biotechnology Research Award, Yale’s Wilbur Cross Medal, and in 2006 Scientific American recognized him as one of the top 50 leaders in science, technology and business.

Dr. Zon is the Grousbeck Professor of Pediatric Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Director of the Stem Cell Program at Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Zon received his BS in chemistry and natural sciences from Muhlenberg College (1979) and his MD from Jefferson Medical College (1983). He subsequently did an internal medicine residency at New England Deaconess Hospital (1986) and a fellowship in medical oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (1989). His postdoctoral research was in Stuart Orkin’s laboratory (1990). Dr. Zon is internationally-recognized for his pioneering work in stem cell biology and cancer genetics. He has been the preeminent figure in establishing zebrafish as an invaluable genetic model for the study of the blood and hematopoietic development. He is founder and former president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research and chair of the Executive Committee of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. In 2005, he completed a term as President of the American Society for Clinical Investigation. That same year, Dr. Zon was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. In 2008, Dr. Zon was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. In 2010, Dr. Zon was awarded the E. Donnall Thomas Lecture and Prize from American Society of Hematology. In 2013, Dr. Zon received the ISEH Donald Metcalf Lecture Award. Other recent awards include the 2014 Boston Children’s Hospital Post-Doctoral Association Mentoring Award and the National Cancer Institute’s Alfred G. Knudson Award (2015).

Dr. Michael Hayden is a Killam Professor at the University of British Columbia. From 2012 to 2017, he served as the President of Global R&D and Chief Scientific Officer at Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. Dr. Hayden built and transformed research and development at Teva to become a highly productive research engine and led the approval of 35 new products.

Dr. Hayden has founded five biotechnology companies and has been the recipient of numerous prestigious honors and awards including being inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame, receiving the July 2012 Diamond Jubilee Medal, on behalf of HRH Queen Elisabeth II and the Margolese National Brain Disorder Prize, awarded to Canadians who have made outstanding contributions to the treatment, amelioration, or cure of brain diseases. He’s also received the Canada Gairdner Wightman award for his outstanding leadership in medicine and medical science as a physician-scientist. Dr. Hayden was awarded the Order of Canada, the Order of British Columbia, named Canada’s Health Researcher of the Year by Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and has received the Prix Galien for his contribution to Canadian pharmaceutical research. Most recently, Dr. Hayden was named one of the 50 Canadians born in the 20th century who have changed the world.

Dr. Adelman earned her PhD in 1999 from Universite de Paris VI, working at the Institut Pasteur under a fellowship from the National Science Foundation. She then joined the laboratory of John Lis, PhD, at Cornell University for her post-doctoral training. In 2005, she established her own laboratory at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIH), and was promoted to Senior Investigator in 2011. In 2016, she joined the Harvard Medical School faculty as a Professor in the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology.

Jason Buenrostro is an Assistant Professor at Harvard University in the department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology. At Harvard, Dr. Buenrostro is developing new approaches for understanding gene regulation across cell fate decisions. Dr. Buenrostro earned a B.S. in general engineering and a B.S. in biology at Santa Clara University. He did his doctoral work at the Stanford University Department of Genetics with William Greenleaf and Howard Chang. At Stanford, he developed new high-throughput genomics tools including ATAC-seq and single-cell ATAC-seq.

Dr. Benjamin Neale is an associate professor in the Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), associate professor in medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS), and an institute member at the Broad Institute. Dr. Neale is strongly committed to gaining insights into the genetics of common, complex human diseases. Dr. Neale and Mark Daly, both of whom are associated with the Broad Institute and MGH, lead the ADHD Initiative, a collaborative effort that focuses on genomic studies of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Dr. Neale’s research and training have focused heavily on statistical methodology. He has analyzed genetic data from large-scale studies of patients with ADHD, autism, age-related macular degeneration, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic disorders. Neale also analyzed data from the first ADHD genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analysis, which combined the results of four studies to boost statistical power. Neale contributed to the development of software tools such as PLINK, one of the most frequently used packages for GWAS analysis. In addition to his roles at both the Broad Institute and MGH, Dr. Neale is the head of the ADHD psychiatric genetics GWAS analysis committee and an active member of the broader Psychiatric GWAS Consortium analysis committee, which is charged with analyzing all psychiatric data from these large-scale genome-wide association studies. Dr. Neale also led the design of the exome chip, a genotyping array that captures rare coding variation in a cost-effective manner. To date, over 1.5 million exome chips have been sold.

Dr. Neale studied at the University of Chicago and Virginia Commonwealth University, earning a B.Sc. in genetics. He went on to earn his PhD in human genetics from King’s College in London, UK. Neale completed his postdoctoral training in Daly’s laboratory at MGH. In addition to many local research collaborations, he also serves as advisor and analyst to international genetic research consortia on psychiatric diseases.

Dr. Shendure is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Professor of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington, Director of the Allen Discovery Center for Cell Lineage Tracing, and Scientific Director of the Brotman Baty Institute for Precision Medicine. His 2005 doctoral thesis with George Church included one of the first successful reductions to practice of next generation DNA sequencing. Dr. Shendure’s research group in Seattle pioneered exome sequencing and its earliest applications to gene discovery for Mendelian disorders and autism; cell-free DNA diagnostics for cancer and reproductive medicine; massively parallel reporter assays, saturation genome editing; whole organism lineage tracing, and massively parallel molecular profiling of single cells. Dr. Shendure is the recipient of the 2012 Curt Stern Award from the American Society of Human Genetics, the 2013 FEDERAprijs, a 2013 NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, the 2014 HudsonAlpha Life Sciences Prize, the 2018 Richard and Carol Hertzberg Prize for Technology Innovation, and the 2019 Richard Lounsbery Award from the National Academy of Sciences. He serves or has served as an advisor to the NIH Director, the US Precision Medicine Initiative, the National Human Genome Research Institute, the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative and the Allen Institutes for Cell Science and Immunology. He received his MD and PhD degrees from Harvard Medical School in 2007.

Dr. Wahlestedt, M.D., Ph.D. is Leonard M. Miller Professor and Director of the Center for Therapeutic Innovation at the University of Miami where he also serves as Associate Dean for Therapeutic Innovation. A native of Sweden, Dr. Wahlestedt obtained his MD and PhD degrees from Lund University. Prior to joining the University of Miami, Dr. Wahlestedt was a founding professor and a director at The Scripps Research Institute’s Florida campus. Before that he was an endowed professor, founding genome center director and department chair at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. He has also been a faculty member at Cornell University Medical College and at McGill University. At different stages in his career, he has directed large R&D organizations in the pharmaceutical industry for Astra-Zeneca and Pharmacia/Pfizer. In recent years, he has co-founded several biotechnology companies. Dr. Wahlestedt is a drug discovery as well as a genome/transcriptome researcher with over 300 publications. He has extensive experience across different therapeutic areas with various therapeutic modalities, in particular small molecules and oligonucleotides.

Joanna Wysocka is a Lorry Lokey Professor in the Department of Chemical and Systems Biology and the Department of Developmental Biology at Stanford University, a Member of the Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine and an HHMI Investigator.

Dr. Wysocka has done her PhD work at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and, after graduating in 2003, postdoctoral training at the Rockefeller University. She became a faculty member at Stanford in 2006. Dr. Wysocka’s research is focused on understanding gene regulatory mechanisms in human development, disease and evolution. Her lab is employing a broad combination of genomic, genetic, biochemical, biophysical, single-cell and embryological approaches in a number of cellular and organismal models to investigate functions of the non-coding parts of the genome, understand regulatory mechanisms underlying stem cell function, cellular plasticity and differentiation, investigate how quantitative changes in gene expression dictate differences in human traits, and study craniofacial development and variation. Dr. Wysocka is a recipient of numerous awards, including the Searle Scholar Award, W.M. Keck Foundation Distinguished Young Scholar Award, ISSCR Outstanding Young Investigator Award, and Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2018 and as an EMBO international member in 2019.