About Us
Senior Leadership Team
Board of Directors
Daniel S. Lynch has served as a member of our board of directors and as chairman of our board of directors since June 2020. Mr. Lynch has served as executive venture partner at GV, a venture capital firm, since March 2021. Mr. Lynch previously served as the interim chief executive officer of Surface Oncology, Inc. (Surface Oncology), a pharmaceutical company, from September 2017 until January 2018. He served as an advisor to Third Rock Ventures, a venture capital firm, from December 2016 to March 2021, as a venture partner from May 2013 to December 2016 and as an entrepreneur-in-residence from May 2011 to May 2013. Mr. Lynch serves as a member of the boards of directors of bluebird bio, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, SpringWorks Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, and Omega Alpha SPAC. Within the past five years, he served as a member of the boards of directors of the following biotechnology companies: Surface Oncology; Blueprint Medicines Corporation; Translate Bio, Inc.; and Sesen Bio, Inc. Mr. Lynch received a B.A. in mathematics from Wesleyan University and an MBA from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia.
Sara Bonstein has served as a member of our board of directors since August 2021. Ms. Bonstein has approximately 20 years of experience in the life sciences industry and has served as chief financial officer of Insmed since January 2020. Prior to joining Insmed, she served as chief financial officer and chief operating officer of OncoSec Medical Incorporated from May 2018 to January 2020 and as the chief financial officer, treasurer and executive vice president at Advaxis, Inc. (Advaxis) from February 2014 to April 2018. In these roles, she led multiple capital markets and licensing transactions, established strong financial controls, streamlined business operations, and was responsible for the overall leadership and management of operations, including corporate finance, investor relations and business development. Prior to Advaxis, Ms. Bonstein served in various finance roles of increasing responsibility at Eli Lilly & Company (Eli Lilly), ImClone Systems and Johnson & Johnson, including as a Six Sigma Champion and Black Belt, a program implemented at Eli Lilly to enable more efficient financial growth while increasing customer satisfaction. Ms. Bonstein has served as a member of the board of directors of scPharmaceuticals Inc. since July 2020. She holds a B.S. in finance from The College of New Jersey and an M.B.A. from Rider University.
Paul J. Clancy has served on our board of directors since July 2020. Mr. Clancy has more than 35 years of experience in financial management and strategic business planning. Mr. Clancy served as executive vice president, senior advisor of Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., or Alexion, a biopharmaceutical company, from November 2019 to July 2020, and as chief financial officer of Alexion from July 2017 to October 2019. Prior to Alexion, Mr. Clancy served as the executive vice president and chief financial officer at Biogen Inc. (formerly known as Biogen Idec), a biopharmaceutical company, or Biogen, since 2007. He also served as senior vice president of finance of Biogen Idec, with responsibilities for leading the treasury, tax, investor relations and business planning groups. Prior to the merger of Biogen and Idec Pharmaceutical Corporation, Mr. Clancy was the vice president of portfolio management at Biogen. He joined Biogen in 2001 as vice president of U.S. marketing. Before Biogen, Mr. Clancy spent 13 years at PepsiCo Inc., a food and beverage company, serving in a variety of finance, strategy, and general management positions. Mr. Clancy serves as a member of the board of directors of Agios Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Incyte Corporation, each a pharmaceutical company, and serves on the board of Exact Sciences Corporation, a cancer diagnostics company. Mr. Clancy is a Senior Visiting Lecturer of Finance at Cornell University’s Graduate School of Business. Mr. Clancy received his B.S. in business administration from Babson College and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
Daniel Curran, M.D. has served as a member of our board of directors since December 2020. He has more than 20 years of pharmaceutical experience in strategy, business development, project leadership and development roles. Since October 2012, Dr. Curran has held roles of increasing responsibility at Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd., or Takeda, a pharmaceutical company, and most recently serves as a senior vice president and the head of the rare genetics and hematology therapeutic area unit. Prior to Takeda, he served as vice president, corporate development at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., or Millennium, a wholly owned subsidiary of Takeda, from June 1999 to October 2012. Prior to Millennium, Dr. Curran held a business development role in the product planning and acquisition group at DuPont Merck Pharmaceuticals, a pharmaceutical company. Dr. Curran received an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in chemistry from King’s College.
Michael Ross, Ph.D. has served as a member of our board of directors since February 2020. Since 2002, Dr. Ross has served as managing partner at SV Health Investors LLC, or SV Health, an investment firm focused on healthcare investing. Prior to joining SV Health, Mike held various positions including serving as Vice President, Medicinal and Biomolecular Chemistry at Genentech, Inc., a biotechnology company, from1978 to 1990. Dr. Ross received a Ph.D. from Caltech.
Christina Rossi has served as a member of our board of directors since April 2021. Since October 2018, Ms. Rossi has served as chief commercial officer of Blueprint. From January 2015 to October 2018, Ms. Rossi served as the Multiple Sclerosis business unit head, North America, at Sanofi Genzyme, or Sanofi, a biotechnology company. Previously, Ms. Rossi served as vice president, Multiple Sclerosis Sales at Sanofiform May 2014 to December 2015 and vice president, Multiple Sclerosis Patient and Provider Services at Sanofi from June 2012 to May 2014. Prior to joining Sanofi, Ms. Rossi served in various roles at Biogen, including head, commercial strategy for Eidetica Biopharma GmbH, Biogen’s biosimilar-focused venture, and U.S. brand leader for TYSABRI®(natalizumab). In addition, Ms. Rossi consulted in the healthcare practice at the Boston Consulting Group. Ms. Rossi holds a B.S. in biology, cum laude, from Duke University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
René Russo, Pharm.D. has served as our chief executive officer and as a member of our board of directors since May 2019 and as our president since May 2021. Dr. Russo served as entrepreneur-in-residence at New Enterprise Associates, a venture capital firm, from November 2018 to November 2019. Prior to that, she served as president and chief executive officer of Arsanis, Inc., or Arsanis, a biopharmaceutical company, from April 2016 to November 2018, and as its chief development officer from July 2015 until April 2016. Prior to joining Arsanis, Dr. Russo served in various roles of increasing responsibility over an 11-year period at Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a pharmaceutical development company, focused on the development and commercialization of infectious disease therapeutics, from 2003 until its acquisition by Merck Research Laboratories, or Merck, a healthcare company, in May 2015, most recently as its vice president, global medical affairs. Prior to joining the biotechnology industry, Dr. Russo held clinical positions at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and Princeton Hospital. Dr. Russo received her Pharm.D. and B.S. from Rutgers University.
Yuan Xu, Ph.D. has served as a member of our board of directors since January 2022. Dr. Xu is a biopharmaceutical executive with more than 25 years of experience, most recently serving as chief executive officer of Legend Biotech Corporation (Legend Biotech) from March 2018 until August 2020. In this capacity, she played a leading role in Legend Biotech’s initial public offering, clinical development of Legend Biotech’s autologous CAR T-cell therapy cilta-cel, and a strategic partnership with Janssen Biotech, Inc. Prior to Legend Biotech, Dr. Xu served as senior vice president at Merck & Co., Inc. (Merck), where she led discovery, preclinical and technical development, and manufacturing for Merck’s biologics and vaccines subdivision. Dr. Xu also served as general manager and vice president of biologics at Gilead Sciences, Inc. (Gilead), where she led biologics and vaccines development and oversaw all operational aspects of Gilead’s Oceanside manufacturing facility as site head. Prior to Gilead, Dr. Xu served as vice president at Novartis and led several functions in the U.S. and Europe, including the biotherapeutics development unit focusing on innovative medicines. Earlier in her career, Dr. Xu held positions of increasing responsibility at Amgen Inc., Chiron, Inc., GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Genentech Inc. Dr. Xu currently serves as a member of the boards of directors of Fate Therapeutics, Inc. and Akero Therapeutics, Inc., as well as a scientific advisory board member and manufacturing advisory board member of Resilience. Dr. Xu received a B.S. in biochemistry from Nanjing University, a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Maryland and completed her post-doctoral training in virology and gene therapy at the University of California, San Diego.