Driven by passion
and experience

Arie Belldegrun is Co-Founder and Senior Managing Director of Vida Ventures. He is also Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Allogene Therapeutics, a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on pioneering the development of allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor T cell (AlloCAR T™) therapies for cancer.

A visionary entrepreneur, Arie founded Kite Pharma, a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development of innovative cancer immunotherapies, where he served as Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer until the acquisition of Kite by Gilead Sciences in October 2017. Arie has had a distinguished tenure in the life sciences, having been closely involved with the founding and advancement of several successful biopharmaceutical companies including Cougar Biotechnology and Agensys. Abiraterone, developed by Cougar, is a mainstay of therapy for patients with metastatic prostate cancer. He currently serves as Chairman of Two River Group, UroGen Pharma, Kronos Bio, and Bellco Capital, and as co-Chairman of Breakthrough Properties.

Arie is a Professor of Urology, holds the Roy and Carol Doumani Chair in Urologic Oncology, and is Director of the UCLA Institute of Urologic Oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Prior to joining UCLA, Arie was at the National Cancer Institute/NIH as a research fellow in surgical oncology and immunotherapy under Dr. Steven A. Rosenberg. He completed his MD at the Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem, his post-graduate studies in Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science, and his residency in urologic surgery at Harvard Medical School. He has authored several books on oncology and more than 500 scientific and medical papers related to urological cancers, immunotherapy, gene therapy and cancer vaccines. He is certified by the American Board of Urology and the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons.

Helen S. Kim is a Senior Managing Director at Vida Ventures.

Ms. Kim has over 35 years of experience in leadership roles in biotechnology. Most recently, Ms. Kim was a Partner at The Column Group. Prior, Ms. Kim served as Executive Vice President of Business Development at Kite Pharma, Inc. where she led all business and corporate development initiatives successfully selling Kite Pharma to Gilead in 2017.

Previously, Ms. Kim served as Strategic Advisor of NGM Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. from January 2012 through November 2014. Ms. Kim served as the Chief Business Officer at NGM Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. from August 2009 to January 2012. Prior to NGM, she was the Chief Executive Officer and President of Kosan Biosciences where she restructured and repositioned the company prior to successfully selling the company to Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2008. Ms. Kim’s additional industry experience includes executive positions at Affymax, Onyx Pharmaceuticals and Chiron Corporation. Ms. Kim received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University and a M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.

Ms. Kim currently serves on the Board of Directors for ReCode Therapeutics, Inc., IconOVir Bio, Inc., Aktis Oncology, Protego Therapeutics, InduPro Labs and Prothena Corporation plc.

Dr. Rajul Jain is a Managing Director of Vida Ventures where he has served as an investor and as an investor-operator.

Prior to joining Vida, Dr. Jain was CMO at Kite Pharma where he led the development of multiple engineered cell therapies from preclinical development through global regulatory approvals, including approvals for Yescarta and Tecartus. Previously, he was Global Development Leader at Amgen. He earned his B.A. from Rice University and M.D. from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical school, where he was a Howard Hughes Fellow. He completed his post-doctoral fellowship at Rockefeller University, and oncology fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He was previously a volunteer Attending Physician treating underserved patients at UCLA Harbor Medical Center and continues to lecture regularly at UCLA.

Jean-Philippe (JP) is Chief Financial and Chief Operating Officer at Vida Ventures.

JP has over two decades of experience in venture capital, life sciences, strategy consulting and public accounting across Europe, Africa and the United States.

From 2017 to 2019, JP was Senior Vice President of Finance at Versant Ventures where had responsibility for all funds management activities and collaborated with Managing Directors on strategic financial matters, including fundraising, portfolio reviews, investment analysis and forecasts.

Prior to Versant, JP spent close to a decade at Genentech in roles of increasing responsibilities; most recently he served as Senior Director and Head of Finance for the U.S. Bio-Oncology Business Unit at Genentech where he oversaw 13 brands, 32 indications and more than $12B in annual sales.

JP received an MBA from Harvard Business School with a concentration in Finance and Business Strategy. He also earned a master’s degree in financial engineering from Ecole Superieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales in Paris (ESSEC-Paris) and an accounting degree from Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers in Paris (CNAM-Paris).

Chris Weyrer, M.D., Ph.D., is a Senior Associate at Vida Ventures.

Prior to joining Vida, Chris was a Consultant and Project Leader at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) for three years. At BCG, he worked with major biopharma clients and private equity firms, focusing on strategy, R&D, clinical development, and investment decisions. His work spanned multiple fields, including neurodegenerative diseases, immuno-oncology, gene editing, and genomics.

Chris holds a B.Sc. in Physics and an M.D., Ph.D. in Physiology and Neuroscience. He studied in Austria, at the University of Cambridge, and at Harvard University. During his studies, he spent time in Africa and worked at the Salk Institute on RNA biology. He won Harvard’s Healthcare Commercialization and Innovation Entrepreneurship course and collaborated with an NYC-based hedge fund on a breast cancer project.

After his studies, he secured independent research funding as a Brooks Research Fellow in Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School, where he explored potential gene therapy viruses to enhance synaptic function and plasticity.

Jill Goldstein, Ph.D.  is a Senior Associate at Vida Ventures.

Jill has over 10 years of experience in life sciences research. She earned a B.S. in Biochemistry and German Studies with high distinction from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Jill completed her Ph.D. in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at Yale University, where her research focused on skin stem cell biology in the context of tissue maintenance and cancer.

Jill was awarded an NIH F32 Fellowship to conduct postdoctoral research at Harvard University in the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology. There, she studied blood and muscle stem cell function in the context of aging and tissue regeneration. She chaired the 2019 Gordon Research Seminar on Stem Cells and Cancer and was a Fellow at Vida Ventures.

Jill has authored over 10 scientific publications and is a co-inventor on three patents.

Mark Springel, Ph.D., is a Senior Associate at Vida Ventures.

Before joining Vida in 2021, Mark completed his Ph.D. in Biological and Biomedical Sciences at Harvard Medical School, where he was awarded the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, NIH F31 Fellowship, and the HMS Neurobiology Quan Fellowship to study neural circuits of the somatosensory system.

During his time at Harvard, Mark co-founded Activate Bio, a venture program for Harvard life science entrepreneurs, served as a Senior Business Development Fellow at the Harvard Office of Technology Development (OTD) and was a Fellow at Vida Ventures.

Mark holds a B.A. in Biology and Neuroscience, graduating with Highest Honors from Williams College.

Alex Loftis, Ph.D., is a Senior Associate at Vida Ventures.

Prior to his current role, Alex was a life sciences consultant at L.E.K. Consulting in Boston, where he worked closely with biopharma clients on strategic initiatives, including due diligence, corporate strategy, and market assessments. Before his consulting career, Alex was a Fellow at Vida Ventures in the firm’s Boston office.

Alex earned his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where his research focused on antigen-specific tolerance induction, peptide drug discovery, and protein engineering. As a Biotechnology Training Program Fellow, Alex developed expertise in the intersection of immunology and drug development, working on projects aimed at advancing therapeutic strategies for autoimmune diseases and other immune-mediated conditions.

He graduated summa cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis with an A.B. in Chemistry, where he developed a strong foundation in the principles of chemical biology and molecular science.

David Chang, M.D., Ph.D. is a Scientific Advisor to Vida Ventures

He is the President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Allogene Therapeutics, a biotechnology company with a mission to catalyze the next revolution in cancer treatment through the development of allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR T) therapy directed at blood cancers and solid tumors. David previously served as Executive Vice President, Research & Development, and Chief Medical Officer of Kite, a Gilead Company. He has an industry-leading track record of innovation in the field of oncology drug development, including the development for Yescarta™ (axicabtagene ciloleucel), the first CAR T therapy approved for non-Hodgkin lymphoma. From 2002 to 2014, he held senior leadership roles at Amgen, including Vice President of Global Development and Head of Hematology-Oncology. During this time, David spearheaded personalized therapy strategies that underlied the success of Vectibix® (panitumumab). He also provided therapeutic area leadership to pivotal programs for Blincyto® (blinatumomab) a bispecific T cell engager antibody in acute lymphocytic leukemia and for IMLYGIC™ (talimogene laherparepvec) a first-of-its-kind oncolytic immunotherapy, in melanoma.

Prior to joining Amgen, David held dual appointments as Associate Professor of Medicine and of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. He obtained a B.S. degree in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University. David completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a fellowship in medical oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard Medical School, where he was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute postdoctoral fellow. David serves as a Director at A2 Biotherapeutics, and Peloton Biotherapeutics and is a member of the scientific advisory board to Kronos Bio.

Norbert Bischofberger is a scientific advisor to Vida Ventures.

Currently the President and CEO at Kronos Bio, Norbert has over three decades of experience in research and development in the pharmaceutical industry.

From 2007 – 2018, Norbert was Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at Gilead Sciences where during his 28-year tenure, Norbert presided over the development and approval of more than 25 medicines for a range of serious conditions which led the transformation of the treatment of diseases such as HIV, HCV and lymphoma. Norbert was part of the core management team that grew Gilead from less than 50 employees with no revenues to 10,000 employees with $25B in revenue.

Norbert joined Gilead in 1990 as Director of Chemistry after having worked as a Senior Scientist in Genentech’s DNA Synthesis Group from 1986 until 1990.

Norbert received a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Zurich’s Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule and performed postdoctoral research in steroid chemistry at Syntex. He also performed additional research in organic chemistry and applied enzymology in Professor George Whiteside’s lab at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Norbert received an honorary doctorate in Natural Sciences (2016) from The University of Innsbruck and an honorary doctorate in Letters in Medicine (2017) from Baylor College of Medicine. Norbert was elected a Fellow of The American Association for Advancement of Science (2018).

Joshua is a Co-Founder and Director of Vida Ventures.

Joshua Kazam is a Co-Founder and Partner of Two River, where he has served as Partner since its inception in 2004. He is a Co-Founder and Director of Allogene Therapeutics, and was a Co-Founder and Director of Kite Pharma, where he served on the Board of Directors from inception until its acquisition by Gilead Sciences in 2017. Joshua also serves as a Director of several privately held companies including Kronos Bio, Hubble Contacts, ByHeart Inc, and Breakthrough Properties, LLC. Joshua is a Member of the Wharton School’s Undergraduate Executive Board and serves on the Board of the Desert Flower Foundation. He received his B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

David Tanen is an Advisor to Vida Ventures.

David Tanen is a Co-Founder and Partner of Two River, which focuses on creating, operating and financing development stage life science companies. Prior to founding Two River, he served as General Counsel of a life science focused venture capital firm. David is also a Co-Founder of Kite Pharma, Inc., where he served as Corporate Secretary and General Counsel before its acquisition by Gilead Sciences in 2017.  He is a Co-Founder and Corporate Secretary of Allogene Therapeutics, Inc.   David received his B.A. from The George Washington University and his J.D. from Fordham University School of Law, where he has served on the Dean’s Planning Council since 2009.

Christine Cassiano is a Strategic Communications Advisor to Vida Ventures.

She is a communications executive with wide experience in investor relations, financial communications, corporate communications, media relations, brand strategy and public affairs. Christine previously served as Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations for Kite Pharma until the acquisition of Kite by Gilead Sciences in 2017.

Christine’s career is distinguished through the development of integrated communications strategies for companies with novel therapies such as Yescarta™ (axicabtagene ciloleucel) and Botox®/Botox® Cosmetic (onabotulinumtoxinA). She has held executive management positions in international communications agencies, including roles as the Head of Healthcare for the W2O Group and Senior Vice President & Co-Director for Healthcare at Hill + Knowlton Strategies. Christine co-founded ARC2 Communications & Media, a boutique agency that developed groundbreaking platforms for some of the largest companies in healthcare. She has also held senior global communications roles in biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies such as Amgen, Allergan and Abraxis BioScience.

Some of Christine’s career achievements include a SABRE Silver Anvil award for the launch of Botox® Cosmetic (Allergan), an In2 SABRE Award for the Most Innovative Brand/Agency Collaboration (Pfizer/ARC2), and PR Week’s 40 Under 40. She holds a B.A. from California State University, Fullerton and Investor Relations Certification (IRC) from the University of California, Irvine.

Kate Bechtold, M.B.A. is Senior Director of Investor Relations and Communications for Vida Ventures.

Kate leads Vida’s investor relations, fundraising and communications strategy and initiatives. She also works closely with Vida’s portfolio companies to guide them on their IR and communications activities.

Before joining Vida in 2020, Kate served as Senior Director of Investor Relations for UroGen Pharma where she developed and implemented a strategic IR program from the ground up and also played a central role in the communications efforts for the approval and launch of Jelmyto™, (mitomycin) for pyelocalyceal solution, the first and only non-surgical treatment indicated for adults with low-grade upper tract urothelial cancer. Previously, Kate served as a key member of the Kite Pharma Investor Relations and Communications team in multiple roles, including Associate Director of Investor Relations and Associate Director of Product Communications, where she supported the approval and launch of Yescarta™ (axicabtagene ciloleucel), the first approved chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T therapy for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma. With an extensive healthcare background, Kate’s prior experience includes roles of increasing responsibility at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

Kate holds a B.A. from Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences and an M.B.A. from the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business.

Cassidy Hayes is a Communications Associate at Vida Ventures.

Prior to Vida, Cassidy worked for Bottleneck Management and assisted with event coordination and scheduling resource allocations while serving as a point of contact for clients and guests. Prior to Bottleneck, Cassidy worked for Trisect (now known as Match Management) where she provided administrative support in a fast-paced agency environment and developed tools for client project tracking.

Cassidy completed her undergraduate degree at Columbia College Chicago in Advertising.

Alex Shen, Ph.D., is Director of Operations for Vida Ventures.

Alex was most recently a member of Kite Pharma’s Corporate Strategy team, where he drove development of long-range strategic plans and processes to scale up organizational agility. Previously, Alex gained a breadth of entrepreneurial experience through his work with early-stage companies, accelerators/incubators, and as a founding member of a Y Combinator-backed medical device company.

Alex received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering with a focus in Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) and Nanotechnology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Alex remains involved with academia, contributing to entrepreneurial programs at UCLA.

Victoria Stephens is Senior Controller at Vida Ventures.

Victoria brings over 25 years of experience in private equity, venture capital, consulting, finance, and accounting. In addition to her role at Tarrant, Victoria’s prior experience includes roles at TPG Capital, TPG Sixth Street Partners, and SandsPoint Capital Advisors. She received a BBA in Accounting from the University of Texas at Arlington.

Stephanie Ott, CPA, is an Accounting Manager at Vida Ventures.

Stephanie has over thirteen years of experience in small business and partnership accounting, private equity, fund administration, financial reporting, and investment management. Prior to her role at Vida, Stephanie worked as an Accounting Manager for Tarrant Management, TPG’s Family Office. Stephanie’s previous work experience also includes roles at MUFG Investor Services (Formerly UBS Fund Services (Cayman) Ltd.), Quantlab Financial and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Stephanie received her BSBA in finance and accounting from Trinity University in San Antonio, TX. She earned her master’s degree in accounting from Texas A&M University and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Cortney Elms is a Senior Accounting Associate at Vida Ventures.

Cortney has over eighteen years of experience in partnership accounting, private equity, fund administration, financial reporting, consulting, and investment management. Prior to her role at Vida, Cortney worked as an Accounting Manager for Tarrant Management, TPG’s Family Office. Cortney began her career in investment accounting in 2005 at Oak Hill Investment Management Services and has performed accounting and financial analysis duties for other family offices and high-wealth individuals throughout the years.

Cortney received her BBA in finance and accounting from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, TX.

Chanel Enz is an Accounting Associate at Vida Ventures.

Chanel has three years of experience in private equity fund administration and financial reporting. Prior to her role at Vida, Chanel worked as a Senior Associate for IQEQ on the fund administration team and her previous work experience also includes a role at UBS Financial Services.

Chanel received her BBA in finance with a minor in accounting from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, TX.

Jessica Kolowich is an Executive Assistant at Vida Ventures.

Previously, Jessica held a variety of administrative, operational, and managerial roles across companies focused in the health and wellness industry. Prior to that, Jessica worked for And Partners, a branding and design agency in New York City, where she supported the President of the company.

Jessica received her B.S. degree in Mass Communications (Public Relations, Journalism) from Miami University.

Alicia Dortona is an Executive Assistant at Vida Ventures.

Prior to Vida, Alicia worked as a Project Manager at InLine Mechanical LLC. As a Project Manager, Alicia was responsible for tracking project schedules firmwide, ensuring all deadlines were met in a timely manner, and building/maintaining independent and long-term relationships with General Contractor companies to ensure needs were being met. Alicia’s previous experience includes various roles in project management, operations, and marketing.

Alicia received her B.S. in Business Management from Roger Williams University.

Alex Mejia is an Executive Assistant at Vida Ventures.

Prior to joining Vida Ventures in 2022, Alex was the Executive Assistant to the Co-Founder andCo-CEO at Butterfly Equity where she was responsible for the daily operations of her executive. Previously, she worked at Saban Capital Group where she started in the Private Equity team supporting two Managing Partners before moving into the Finance Department where she assisted the CFO with high level tasks. Alex began her Executive Assistant career at California Capital Management where she worked for the CEO of this wealth management firm.

Owen Witte received his undergraduate degree from Cornell and his MD from Stanford University. He completed postdoctoral research at MIT then joined the faculty at UCLA where he presently is a University Professor of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics and holds the President’s Chair in Developmental Immunology. He is the Director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA.

Dr. Witte has made significant contributions to the understanding of human leukemias, immune disorders, and epithelial cancer stem cells. His work includes the discovery of tyrosine kinase activity for the ABL gene and the demonstration of the BCR-ABL oncoproteins in human leukemias. This has had practical impact in leading to the development of kinase targeted therapy as an effective treatment for these leukemias and other cancers. His work also led to the co-discovery of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) which is required for normal B-lymphocyte development, and when mutated leads to X-linked agammaglobulinemia, a form of immune deficiency. New inhibitors for BTK are entering clinical practice for the treatment of certain lymphomas and leukemias. Recent work has concentrated on defining the stem cells for epithelial cancers of the prostate and other organ sites to help define new types of therapy for these diseases.

Dr. Witte has extensive experience consulting in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry. He is currently on the Board of Directors and Scientific Advisory Board at Allogene Therapeutics, and a Founder and Scientific Advisory Board Chair at Kronos Bio.

He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Medicine. He has received many awards for his research including most recently the Association of American Medical College’s Award for Distinguished Research in Biomedical Sciences and the Stanford University School of Medicine’s Arthur Kornberg and Paul Berg Lifetime Achievement Award in Biomedical Sciences.

Dinah Sah, Ph.D. is a Scientific Advisor to Vida Ventures.

She most recently served as Chief Scientific Officer at Voyager Therapeutics, a biotech company that she helped launch in 2014, focused on the discovery and development of AAV gene therapy for the treatment of severe neurological diseases. Prior to Voyager Therapeutics, Dinah was Vice President of Research at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, and led research efforts from 2005-2012 to develop a new class of drugs based on RNA interference. She previously served at Biogen from 1999-2005 and Signal Pharmaceuticals from 1993-1999 where she provided neuroscience research leadership focused on protein therapeutics and neural stem cells, respectively. Dinah’s accomplishments include leadership of multiple programs from early research through Phase 1 clinical trials, and the discovery of novel therapeutic targets and drug candidates that advanced into clinical development. Her leadership of drug discovery and development programs based on RNAi therapeutics resulted in the landmark demonstration of human proof-of-mechanism for this novel class of drugs in TTR amyloidosis patients which led to the approval of ONPATTRO^® (patisiran).

Dinah obtained a B.S. in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Neurobiology from Harvard University. She serves as a member of the scientific advisory boards of Voyager Therapeutics

Ralph DeBerardinis, M.D., Ph.D. is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board at Vida Ventures.

Ralph has been on the faculty at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center since 2008. He is a Professor in the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute and an Investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Ralph serves as Chief of Pediatric Genetics and Metabolism and directs the Genetic and Metabolic Disease Program at UT Southwestern. His laboratory studies the role of altered metabolic states in human diseases, including cancer and pediatric inborn errors of metabolism. He has published over 200 research articles in genetics and metabolism and is on the editorial board of several journals. He has also served on the Scientific Advisory Boards of several companies, including Agios Pharmaceuticals and Peloton Therapeutics.

Ralph was born and raised in the Philadelphia area, earning a B.S. in Biology from St. Joseph’s University and M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. He trained in Pediatrics, Medical Genetics and Clinical Biochemical Genetics at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, ultimately obtaining board certification in all three areas. Ralph performed post-doctoral work with Craig Thompson, M.D., in the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute at Penn, where he began to establish versatile systems to assess metabolism in cancer cells and tissues. Work in the DeBerardinis lab at UT Southwestern has uncovered new pathways and new metabolic liabilities in human cancer, and has used clinical genomics and metabolomics to identify new Mendelian metabolic diseases in children.

Dr. DeBerardinis has received several awards for his laboratory’s contributions, including an Outstanding Investigator Award from the National Cancer Institute in 2017 and the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Medicine from the Academy of Medicine, Engineering & Science of Texas in 2019. He was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2012 and to the Association of American Physicians and National Academy of Medicine in 2020.

Stephen L. Mayo, Ph.D. is the Bren Professor of Biology and Chemistry and Merkin Institute Professor at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. He holds joint appointments in the Division of Biology and Biological Engineering and the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. He has been a member of the Caltech faculty since 1992 and served as Vice Provost for Research from 2007 to 2010 and Chair of the Division of Biology and Biological Engineering from 2010 to 2020. He received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from the Pennsylvania State University, his Ph.D. in chemistry from Caltech, and did postdoctoral work at both UC Berkeley and Stanford University School of Medicine in chemistry and biochemistry, respectively.

Dr. Mayo’s research focuses on the development of computational approaches to protein engineering – a field that has broad applications ranging from advanced biofuels to human therapeutics. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2004 for his pioneering contributions in the field of protein design.

Dr. Mayo co-founded: Molecular Simulations Inc. (currently Biovia), a computational chemistry company; Xencor, a publicly traded bio-therapeutics company focused on developing next generation biologics for treating cancer; and, Protabit, a privately held protein engineering company focused on the use of AI and machine learning for protein engineering applications. Dr. Mayo has also provided consulting and expert witness legal services to both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. He is currently serving on the Merck Board of Directors, the Sarepta Therapeutics Board of Directors, and on the Scientific Advisory Boards of Rubryc Therapeutics and Evozyne.

In addition to his academic and private-sector work, Dr. Mayo has held a number of significant positions including serving as an elected Board Member at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2010-2014) and serving as a presidential appointee on the National Science Foundation’s National Science Board (2013-2018).

Len Potter is a Co-Founder and Senior Advisor at Vida Ventures.

Len both founded and has served as the President and Chief Investment Officer of Wildcat Capital Management, LLC. In addition, Len has served as the Chief Executive Officer of Infinity Q Capital Management, a registered investment advisor that provides innovative hedge fund strategies to institutional and retail investors.

From 2002 through 2009, Len was a Managing Director – Private Equity at Soros Fund Management LLC (“SFM”) where, from 2005 through 2009, he served as co-head of the Private Equity group and a member of the Private Equity Investment Committee. From 2009 until founding Wildcat, Len served as a consultant to SFM and as the Chief Investment Officer of Salt Creek Hospitality, a private acquirer and owner of hospitality related assets that was backed by SFM.

From September 1998 until joining SFM, Len was a Managing Director of Alpine Consolidated LLC, a private merchant bank, and from 1996 through 1998, Len founded and served as a Managing Director of Capstone Partners LLC, a private merchant bank.

Prior to founding Capstone Partners, Len was an attorney specializing in mergers, acquisitions and corporate finance at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius and Willkie Farr & Gallagher.

Len has served and continues to serve on a number of boards of public and private companies, including Hilton Grand Vacations, where he serves as Chairman of the Board, Solar Capital Ltd (SLRC), Solar Senior Capital Ltd. (SUNS), and GSV Capital Corporation (GSVC). Len also served for several years as a Trustee of Brandeis University and as a member of the Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees.

Len has a B.A. from Brandeis University and a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law.

Len and his wife, Shari Potter, were co-founders of the Basser Center for BRCA at the University of Pennsylvania, a translational research and treatment center focused on BRCA related cancers.

Fred Cohen, M.D., D.Phil is a Co-Founder and Senior Managing Director at Vida Ventures.

Prior to Vida, Fred was a Partner and founder of TPG Biotechnology, a life science focused investment effort from 2001-2016.

From 1980 through 2014, Fred was at UCSF where he held various clinical responsibilities as a research scientist, an internist for hospitalized patients, a consulting endocrinologist, and as the Chief of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism.  His research interests included structure-based drug design, prion diseases, computational biology and heteropolymer chemistry.  Fred has published over 200 peer reviewed articles, participated as a co-inventor on over 10 patents and has served as an editor or editorial board member of several international scientific journals.

Fred received his B.S. degree in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University, his D.Phil. in Molecular Biophysics from Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, his M.D. from Stanford and his postdoctoral training and postgraduate medical training in Internal Medicine and Endocrinology at UCSF.  He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American College of Medical Informatics and a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and Association of American Physicians.  Fred has received several awards for his work including a Searle Scholarship, Young Investigator awards from the Endocrine Society and the Western Society for Clinical Investigation, and the LVMH Science pour l’art prize (shared with Stanley Prusiner).  Fred was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 2004 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008.

Fred currently serves on the Board of Directors of several biotechnology and pharmaceutical organizations including CareDx (NASDAQ: CDNA), Progyny (NASDAQ: PGNY), Veracyte (NASDAQ: VCYT) and UroGen (NASDAQ: URGN).  Fred was Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Cell Design Labs and a former Director of Quintiles (NYSE: Q), Aptalis Pharma, Rapid Micro Biosystems, Roka (NASDAQ: ROKA), Five Prime Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FPRX), Genomic Health (NASDAQ: GHDX) and Tandem Diabetes (NASDAQ: TNDM).

Fred and his wife, Dr. Carolyn Klebanoff, were founders of Sweetwater Spectrum, a non-profit organization that creates and runs planned communities for adults with autism. Dr. Klebanoff currently serves as the Board Chair and Fred is a member of the Advisory Board.

Arie Belldegrun is Co-Founder and Senior Managing Director of Vida Ventures. He is also Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Allogene Therapeutics, a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on pioneering the development of allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor T cell (AlloCAR T™) therapies for cancer.

A visionary entrepreneur, Arie founded Kite Pharma, a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development of innovative cancer immunotherapies, where he served as Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer until the acquisition of Kite by Gilead Sciences in October 2017. Arie has had a distinguished tenure in the life sciences, having been closely involved with the founding and advancement of several successful biopharmaceutical companies including Cougar Biotechnology and Agensys. Abiraterone, developed by Cougar, is a mainstay of therapy for patients with metastatic prostate cancer. He currently serves as Chairman of Two River Group, UroGen Pharma, Kronos Bio, and Bellco Capital, and as co-Chairman of Breakthrough Properties.

Arie is a Professor of Urology, holds the Roy and Carol Doumani Chair in Urologic Oncology, and is Director of the UCLA Institute of Urologic Oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Prior to joining UCLA, Arie was at the National Cancer Institute/NIH as a research fellow in surgical oncology and immunotherapy under Dr. Steven A. Rosenberg. He completed his MD at the Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem, his post-graduate studies in Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science, and his residency in urologic surgery at Harvard Medical School. He has authored several books on oncology and more than 500 scientific and medical papers related to urological cancers, immunotherapy, gene therapy and cancer vaccines. He is certified by the American Board of Urology and the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons.

Helen S. Kim is a Senior Managing Director at Vida Ventures.

Ms. Kim has over 35 years of experience in leadership roles in biotechnology. Most recently, Ms. Kim was a Partner at The Column Group. Prior, Ms. Kim served as Executive Vice President of Business Development at Kite Pharma, Inc. where she led all business and corporate development initiatives successfully selling Kite Pharma to Gilead in 2017.

Previously, Ms. Kim served as Strategic Advisor of NGM Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. from January 2012 through November 2014. Ms. Kim served as the Chief Business Officer at NGM Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. from August 2009 to January 2012. Prior to NGM, she was the Chief Executive Officer and President of Kosan Biosciences where she restructured and repositioned the company prior to successfully selling the company to Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2008. Ms. Kim’s additional industry experience includes executive positions at Affymax, Onyx Pharmaceuticals and Chiron Corporation. Ms. Kim received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University and a M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.

Ms. Kim currently serves on the Board of Directors for ReCode Therapeutics, Inc., IconOVir Bio, Inc., Aktis Oncology, Protego Therapeutics, InduPro Labs and Prothena Corporation plc.

Dr. Rajul Jain is a Managing Director of Vida Ventures where he has served as an investor and as an investor-operator.

Prior to joining Vida, Dr. Jain was CMO at Kite Pharma where he led the development of multiple engineered cell therapies from preclinical development through global regulatory approvals, including approvals for Yescarta and Tecartus. Previously, he was Global Development Leader at Amgen. He earned his B.A. from Rice University and M.D. from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical school, where he was a Howard Hughes Fellow. He completed his post-doctoral fellowship at Rockefeller University, and oncology fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He was previously a volunteer Attending Physician treating underserved patients at UCLA Harbor Medical Center and continues to lecture regularly at UCLA.

Jean-Philippe (JP) is Chief Financial and Chief Operating Officer at Vida Ventures.

JP has over two decades of experience in venture capital, life sciences, strategy consulting and public accounting across Europe, Africa and the United States.

From 2017 to 2019, JP was Senior Vice President of Finance at Versant Ventures where had responsibility for all funds management activities and collaborated with Managing Directors on strategic financial matters, including fundraising, portfolio reviews, investment analysis and forecasts.

Prior to Versant, JP spent close to a decade at Genentech in roles of increasing responsibilities; most recently he served as Senior Director and Head of Finance for the U.S. Bio-Oncology Business Unit at Genentech where he oversaw 13 brands, 32 indications and more than $12B in annual sales.

JP received an MBA from Harvard Business School with a concentration in Finance and Business Strategy. He also earned a master’s degree in financial engineering from Ecole Superieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales in Paris (ESSEC-Paris) and an accounting degree from Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers in Paris (CNAM-Paris).

Chris Weyrer, M.D., Ph.D., is a Senior Associate at Vida Ventures.

Prior to joining Vida, Chris was a Consultant and Project Leader at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) for three years. At BCG, he worked with major biopharma clients and private equity firms, focusing on strategy, R&D, clinical development, and investment decisions. His work spanned multiple fields, including neurodegenerative diseases, immuno-oncology, gene editing, and genomics.

Chris holds a B.Sc. in Physics and an M.D., Ph.D. in Physiology and Neuroscience. He studied in Austria, at the University of Cambridge, and at Harvard University. During his studies, he spent time in Africa and worked at the Salk Institute on RNA biology. He won Harvard’s Healthcare Commercialization and Innovation Entrepreneurship course and collaborated with an NYC-based hedge fund on a breast cancer project.

After his studies, he secured independent research funding as a Brooks Research Fellow in Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School, where he explored potential gene therapy viruses to enhance synaptic function and plasticity.

Jill Goldstein, Ph.D.  is a Senior Associate at Vida Ventures.

Jill has over 10 years of experience in life sciences research. She earned a B.S. in Biochemistry and German Studies with high distinction from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Jill completed her Ph.D. in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at Yale University, where her research focused on skin stem cell biology in the context of tissue maintenance and cancer.

Jill was awarded an NIH F32 Fellowship to conduct postdoctoral research at Harvard University in the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology. There, she studied blood and muscle stem cell function in the context of aging and tissue regeneration. She chaired the 2019 Gordon Research Seminar on Stem Cells and Cancer and was a Fellow at Vida Ventures.

Jill has authored over 10 scientific publications and is a co-inventor on three patents.

Mark Springel, Ph.D., is a Senior Associate at Vida Ventures.

Before joining Vida in 2021, Mark completed his Ph.D. in Biological and Biomedical Sciences at Harvard Medical School, where he was awarded the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, NIH F31 Fellowship, and the HMS Neurobiology Quan Fellowship to study neural circuits of the somatosensory system.

During his time at Harvard, Mark co-founded Activate Bio, a venture program for Harvard life science entrepreneurs, served as a Senior Business Development Fellow at the Harvard Office of Technology Development (OTD) and was a Fellow at Vida Ventures.

Mark holds a B.A. in Biology and Neuroscience, graduating with Highest Honors from Williams College.

Alex Loftis, Ph.D., is a Senior Associate at Vida Ventures.

Prior to his current role, Alex was a life sciences consultant at L.E.K. Consulting in Boston, where he worked closely with biopharma clients on strategic initiatives, including due diligence, corporate strategy, and market assessments. Before his consulting career, Alex was a Fellow at Vida Ventures in the firm’s Boston office.

Alex earned his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where his research focused on antigen-specific tolerance induction, peptide drug discovery, and protein engineering. As a Biotechnology Training Program Fellow, Alex developed expertise in the intersection of immunology and drug development, working on projects aimed at advancing therapeutic strategies for autoimmune diseases and other immune-mediated conditions.

He graduated summa cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis with an A.B. in Chemistry, where he developed a strong foundation in the principles of chemical biology and molecular science.

David Chang, M.D., Ph.D. is a Scientific Advisor to Vida Ventures

He is the President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Allogene Therapeutics, a biotechnology company with a mission to catalyze the next revolution in cancer treatment through the development of allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR T) therapy directed at blood cancers and solid tumors. David previously served as Executive Vice President, Research & Development, and Chief Medical Officer of Kite, a Gilead Company. He has an industry-leading track record of innovation in the field of oncology drug development, including the development for Yescarta™ (axicabtagene ciloleucel), the first CAR T therapy approved for non-Hodgkin lymphoma. From 2002 to 2014, he held senior leadership roles at Amgen, including Vice President of Global Development and Head of Hematology-Oncology. During this time, David spearheaded personalized therapy strategies that underlied the success of Vectibix® (panitumumab). He also provided therapeutic area leadership to pivotal programs for Blincyto® (blinatumomab) a bispecific T cell engager antibody in acute lymphocytic leukemia and for IMLYGIC™ (talimogene laherparepvec) a first-of-its-kind oncolytic immunotherapy, in melanoma.

Prior to joining Amgen, David held dual appointments as Associate Professor of Medicine and of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. He obtained a B.S. degree in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University. David completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a fellowship in medical oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard Medical School, where he was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute postdoctoral fellow. David serves as a Director at A2 Biotherapeutics, and Peloton Biotherapeutics and is a member of the scientific advisory board to Kronos Bio.

Norbert Bischofberger is a scientific advisor to Vida Ventures.

Currently the President and CEO at Kronos Bio, Norbert has over three decades of experience in research and development in the pharmaceutical industry.

From 2007 – 2018, Norbert was Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at Gilead Sciences where during his 28-year tenure, Norbert presided over the development and approval of more than 25 medicines for a range of serious conditions which led the transformation of the treatment of diseases such as HIV, HCV and lymphoma. Norbert was part of the core management team that grew Gilead from less than 50 employees with no revenues to 10,000 employees with $25B in revenue.

Norbert joined Gilead in 1990 as Director of Chemistry after having worked as a Senior Scientist in Genentech’s DNA Synthesis Group from 1986 until 1990.

Norbert received a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Zurich’s Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule and performed postdoctoral research in steroid chemistry at Syntex. He also performed additional research in organic chemistry and applied enzymology in Professor George Whiteside’s lab at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Norbert received an honorary doctorate in Natural Sciences (2016) from The University of Innsbruck and an honorary doctorate in Letters in Medicine (2017) from Baylor College of Medicine. Norbert was elected a Fellow of The American Association for Advancement of Science (2018).

Joshua is a Co-Founder and Director of Vida Ventures.

Joshua Kazam is a Co-Founder and Partner of Two River, where he has served as Partner since its inception in 2004. He is a Co-Founder and Director of Allogene Therapeutics, and was a Co-Founder and Director of Kite Pharma, where he served on the Board of Directors from inception until its acquisition by Gilead Sciences in 2017. Joshua also serves as a Director of several privately held companies including Kronos Bio, Hubble Contacts, ByHeart Inc, and Breakthrough Properties, LLC. Joshua is a Member of the Wharton School’s Undergraduate Executive Board and serves on the Board of the Desert Flower Foundation. He received his B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

David Tanen is an Advisor to Vida Ventures.

David Tanen is a Co-Founder and Partner of Two River, which focuses on creating, operating and financing development stage life science companies. Prior to founding Two River, he served as General Counsel of a life science focused venture capital firm. David is also a Co-Founder of Kite Pharma, Inc., where he served as Corporate Secretary and General Counsel before its acquisition by Gilead Sciences in 2017.  He is a Co-Founder and Corporate Secretary of Allogene Therapeutics, Inc.   David received his B.A. from The George Washington University and his J.D. from Fordham University School of Law, where he has served on the Dean’s Planning Council since 2009.

Christine Cassiano is a Strategic Communications Advisor to Vida Ventures.

She is a communications executive with wide experience in investor relations, financial communications, corporate communications, media relations, brand strategy and public affairs. Christine previously served as Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations for Kite Pharma until the acquisition of Kite by Gilead Sciences in 2017.

Christine’s career is distinguished through the development of integrated communications strategies for companies with novel therapies such as Yescarta™ (axicabtagene ciloleucel) and Botox®/Botox® Cosmetic (onabotulinumtoxinA). She has held executive management positions in international communications agencies, including roles as the Head of Healthcare for the W2O Group and Senior Vice President & Co-Director for Healthcare at Hill + Knowlton Strategies. Christine co-founded ARC2 Communications & Media, a boutique agency that developed groundbreaking platforms for some of the largest companies in healthcare. She has also held senior global communications roles in biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies such as Amgen, Allergan and Abraxis BioScience.

Some of Christine’s career achievements include a SABRE Silver Anvil award for the launch of Botox® Cosmetic (Allergan), an In2 SABRE Award for the Most Innovative Brand/Agency Collaboration (Pfizer/ARC2), and PR Week’s 40 Under 40. She holds a B.A. from California State University, Fullerton and Investor Relations Certification (IRC) from the University of California, Irvine.

Len Potter is a Co-Founder and Senior Advisor at Vida Ventures.

Len both founded and has served as the President and Chief Investment Officer of Wildcat Capital Management, LLC. In addition, Len has served as the Chief Executive Officer of Infinity Q Capital Management, a registered investment advisor that provides innovative hedge fund strategies to institutional and retail investors.

From 2002 through 2009, Len was a Managing Director – Private Equity at Soros Fund Management LLC (“SFM”) where, from 2005 through 2009, he served as co-head of the Private Equity group and a member of the Private Equity Investment Committee. From 2009 until founding Wildcat, Len served as a consultant to SFM and as the Chief Investment Officer of Salt Creek Hospitality, a private acquirer and owner of hospitality related assets that was backed by SFM.

From September 1998 until joining SFM, Len was a Managing Director of Alpine Consolidated LLC, a private merchant bank, and from 1996 through 1998, Len founded and served as a Managing Director of Capstone Partners LLC, a private merchant bank.

Prior to founding Capstone Partners, Len was an attorney specializing in mergers, acquisitions and corporate finance at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius and Willkie Farr & Gallagher.

Len has served and continues to serve on a number of boards of public and private companies, including Hilton Grand Vacations, where he serves as Chairman of the Board, Solar Capital Ltd (SLRC), Solar Senior Capital Ltd. (SUNS), and GSV Capital Corporation (GSVC). Len also served for several years as a Trustee of Brandeis University and as a member of the Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees.

Len has a B.A. from Brandeis University and a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law.

Len and his wife, Shari Potter, were co-founders of the Basser Center for BRCA at the University of Pennsylvania, a translational research and treatment center focused on BRCA related cancers.

Fred Cohen, M.D., D.Phil is a Co-Founder and Senior Managing Director at Vida Ventures.

Prior to Vida, Fred was a Partner and founder of TPG Biotechnology, a life science focused investment effort from 2001-2016.

From 1980 through 2014, Fred was at UCSF where he held various clinical responsibilities as a research scientist, an internist for hospitalized patients, a consulting endocrinologist, and as the Chief of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism.  His research interests included structure-based drug design, prion diseases, computational biology and heteropolymer chemistry.  Fred has published over 200 peer reviewed articles, participated as a co-inventor on over 10 patents and has served as an editor or editorial board member of several international scientific journals.

Fred received his B.S. degree in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University, his D.Phil. in Molecular Biophysics from Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship, his M.D. from Stanford and his postdoctoral training and postgraduate medical training in Internal Medicine and Endocrinology at UCSF.  He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American College of Medical Informatics and a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and Association of American Physicians.  Fred has received several awards for his work including a Searle Scholarship, Young Investigator awards from the Endocrine Society and the Western Society for Clinical Investigation, and the LVMH Science pour l’art prize (shared with Stanley Prusiner).  Fred was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 2004 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008.

Fred currently serves on the Board of Directors of several biotechnology and pharmaceutical organizations including CareDx (NASDAQ: CDNA), Progyny (NASDAQ: PGNY), Veracyte (NASDAQ: VCYT) and UroGen (NASDAQ: URGN).  Fred was Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Cell Design Labs and a former Director of Quintiles (NYSE: Q), Aptalis Pharma, Rapid Micro Biosystems, Roka (NASDAQ: ROKA), Five Prime Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FPRX), Genomic Health (NASDAQ: GHDX) and Tandem Diabetes (NASDAQ: TNDM).

Fred and his wife, Dr. Carolyn Klebanoff, were founders of Sweetwater Spectrum, a non-profit organization that creates and runs planned communities for adults with autism. Dr. Klebanoff currently serves as the Board Chair and Fred is a member of the Advisory Board.

Kate Bechtold, M.B.A. is Senior Director of Investor Relations and Communications for Vida Ventures.

Kate leads Vida’s investor relations, fundraising and communications strategy and initiatives. She also works closely with Vida’s portfolio companies to guide them on their IR and communications activities.

Before joining Vida in 2020, Kate served as Senior Director of Investor Relations for UroGen Pharma where she developed and implemented a strategic IR program from the ground up and also played a central role in the communications efforts for the approval and launch of Jelmyto™, (mitomycin) for pyelocalyceal solution, the first and only non-surgical treatment indicated for adults with low-grade upper tract urothelial cancer. Previously, Kate served as a key member of the Kite Pharma Investor Relations and Communications team in multiple roles, including Associate Director of Investor Relations and Associate Director of Product Communications, where she supported the approval and launch of Yescarta™ (axicabtagene ciloleucel), the first approved chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T therapy for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma. With an extensive healthcare background, Kate’s prior experience includes roles of increasing responsibility at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

Kate holds a B.A. from Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences and an M.B.A. from the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business.

Cassidy Hayes is a Communications Associate at Vida Ventures.

Prior to Vida, Cassidy worked for Bottleneck Management and assisted with event coordination and scheduling resource allocations while serving as a point of contact for clients and guests. Prior to Bottleneck, Cassidy worked for Trisect (now known as Match Management) where she provided administrative support in a fast-paced agency environment and developed tools for client project tracking.

Cassidy completed her undergraduate degree at Columbia College Chicago in Advertising.

Alex Shen, Ph.D., is Director of Operations for Vida Ventures.

Alex was most recently a member of Kite Pharma’s Corporate Strategy team, where he drove development of long-range strategic plans and processes to scale up organizational agility. Previously, Alex gained a breadth of entrepreneurial experience through his work with early-stage companies, accelerators/incubators, and as a founding member of a Y Combinator-backed medical device company.

Alex received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering with a focus in Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) and Nanotechnology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Alex remains involved with academia, contributing to entrepreneurial programs at UCLA.

Victoria Stephens is Senior Controller at Vida Ventures.

Victoria brings over 25 years of experience in private equity, venture capital, consulting, finance, and accounting. In addition to her role at Tarrant, Victoria’s prior experience includes roles at TPG Capital, TPG Sixth Street Partners, and SandsPoint Capital Advisors. She received a BBA in Accounting from the University of Texas at Arlington.

Stephanie Ott, CPA, is an Accounting Manager at Vida Ventures.

Stephanie has over thirteen years of experience in small business and partnership accounting, private equity, fund administration, financial reporting, and investment management. Prior to her role at Vida, Stephanie worked as an Accounting Manager for Tarrant Management, TPG’s Family Office. Stephanie’s previous work experience also includes roles at MUFG Investor Services (Formerly UBS Fund Services (Cayman) Ltd.), Quantlab Financial and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Stephanie received her BSBA in finance and accounting from Trinity University in San Antonio, TX. She earned her master’s degree in accounting from Texas A&M University and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Cortney Elms is a Senior Accounting Associate at Vida Ventures.

Cortney has over eighteen years of experience in partnership accounting, private equity, fund administration, financial reporting, consulting, and investment management. Prior to her role at Vida, Cortney worked as an Accounting Manager for Tarrant Management, TPG’s Family Office. Cortney began her career in investment accounting in 2005 at Oak Hill Investment Management Services and has performed accounting and financial analysis duties for other family offices and high-wealth individuals throughout the years.

Cortney received her BBA in finance and accounting from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, TX.

Chanel Enz is an Accounting Associate at Vida Ventures.

Chanel has three years of experience in private equity fund administration and financial reporting. Prior to her role at Vida, Chanel worked as a Senior Associate for IQEQ on the fund administration team and her previous work experience also includes a role at UBS Financial Services.

Chanel received her BBA in finance with a minor in accounting from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, TX.

Jessica Kolowich is an Executive Assistant at Vida Ventures.

Previously, Jessica held a variety of administrative, operational, and managerial roles across companies focused in the health and wellness industry. Prior to that, Jessica worked for And Partners, a branding and design agency in New York City, where she supported the President of the company.

Jessica received her B.S. degree in Mass Communications (Public Relations, Journalism) from Miami University.

Alicia Dortona is an Executive Assistant at Vida Ventures.

Prior to Vida, Alicia worked as a Project Manager at InLine Mechanical LLC. As a Project Manager, Alicia was responsible for tracking project schedules firmwide, ensuring all deadlines were met in a timely manner, and building/maintaining independent and long-term relationships with General Contractor companies to ensure needs were being met. Alicia’s previous experience includes various roles in project management, operations, and marketing.

Alicia received her B.S. in Business Management from Roger Williams University.

Alex Mejia is an Executive Assistant at Vida Ventures.

Prior to joining Vida Ventures in 2022, Alex was the Executive Assistant to the Co-Founder andCo-CEO at Butterfly Equity where she was responsible for the daily operations of her executive. Previously, she worked at Saban Capital Group where she started in the Private Equity team supporting two Managing Partners before moving into the Finance Department where she assisted the CFO with high level tasks. Alex began her Executive Assistant career at California Capital Management where she worked for the CEO of this wealth management firm.

Owen Witte received his undergraduate degree from Cornell and his MD from Stanford University. He completed postdoctoral research at MIT then joined the faculty at UCLA where he presently is a University Professor of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics and holds the President’s Chair in Developmental Immunology. He is the Director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA.

Dr. Witte has made significant contributions to the understanding of human leukemias, immune disorders, and epithelial cancer stem cells. His work includes the discovery of tyrosine kinase activity for the ABL gene and the demonstration of the BCR-ABL oncoproteins in human leukemias. This has had practical impact in leading to the development of kinase targeted therapy as an effective treatment for these leukemias and other cancers. His work also led to the co-discovery of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) which is required for normal B-lymphocyte development, and when mutated leads to X-linked agammaglobulinemia, a form of immune deficiency. New inhibitors for BTK are entering clinical practice for the treatment of certain lymphomas and leukemias. Recent work has concentrated on defining the stem cells for epithelial cancers of the prostate and other organ sites to help define new types of therapy for these diseases.

Dr. Witte has extensive experience consulting in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry. He is currently on the Board of Directors and Scientific Advisory Board at Allogene Therapeutics, and a Founder and Scientific Advisory Board Chair at Kronos Bio.

He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Medicine. He has received many awards for his research including most recently the Association of American Medical College’s Award for Distinguished Research in Biomedical Sciences and the Stanford University School of Medicine’s Arthur Kornberg and Paul Berg Lifetime Achievement Award in Biomedical Sciences.

Dinah Sah, Ph.D. is a Scientific Advisor to Vida Ventures.

She most recently served as Chief Scientific Officer at Voyager Therapeutics, a biotech company that she helped launch in 2014, focused on the discovery and development of AAV gene therapy for the treatment of severe neurological diseases. Prior to Voyager Therapeutics, Dinah was Vice President of Research at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, and led research efforts from 2005-2012 to develop a new class of drugs based on RNA interference. She previously served at Biogen from 1999-2005 and Signal Pharmaceuticals from 1993-1999 where she provided neuroscience research leadership focused on protein therapeutics and neural stem cells, respectively. Dinah’s accomplishments include leadership of multiple programs from early research through Phase 1 clinical trials, and the discovery of novel therapeutic targets and drug candidates that advanced into clinical development. Her leadership of drug discovery and development programs based on RNAi therapeutics resulted in the landmark demonstration of human proof-of-mechanism for this novel class of drugs in TTR amyloidosis patients which led to the approval of ONPATTRO^® (patisiran).

Dinah obtained a B.S. in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Neurobiology from Harvard University. She serves as a member of the scientific advisory boards of Voyager Therapeutics

Ralph DeBerardinis, M.D., Ph.D. is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board at Vida Ventures.

Ralph has been on the faculty at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center since 2008. He is a Professor in the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute and an Investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Ralph serves as Chief of Pediatric Genetics and Metabolism and directs the Genetic and Metabolic Disease Program at UT Southwestern. His laboratory studies the role of altered metabolic states in human diseases, including cancer and pediatric inborn errors of metabolism. He has published over 200 research articles in genetics and metabolism and is on the editorial board of several journals. He has also served on the Scientific Advisory Boards of several companies, including Agios Pharmaceuticals and Peloton Therapeutics.

Ralph was born and raised in the Philadelphia area, earning a B.S. in Biology from St. Joseph’s University and M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. He trained in Pediatrics, Medical Genetics and Clinical Biochemical Genetics at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, ultimately obtaining board certification in all three areas. Ralph performed post-doctoral work with Craig Thompson, M.D., in the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute at Penn, where he began to establish versatile systems to assess metabolism in cancer cells and tissues. Work in the DeBerardinis lab at UT Southwestern has uncovered new pathways and new metabolic liabilities in human cancer, and has used clinical genomics and metabolomics to identify new Mendelian metabolic diseases in children.

Dr. DeBerardinis has received several awards for his laboratory’s contributions, including an Outstanding Investigator Award from the National Cancer Institute in 2017 and the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Medicine from the Academy of Medicine, Engineering & Science of Texas in 2019. He was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2012 and to the Association of American Physicians and National Academy of Medicine in 2020.

Stephen L. Mayo, Ph.D. is the Bren Professor of Biology and Chemistry and Merkin Institute Professor at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. He holds joint appointments in the Division of Biology and Biological Engineering and the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. He has been a member of the Caltech faculty since 1992 and served as Vice Provost for Research from 2007 to 2010 and Chair of the Division of Biology and Biological Engineering from 2010 to 2020. He received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from the Pennsylvania State University, his Ph.D. in chemistry from Caltech, and did postdoctoral work at both UC Berkeley and Stanford University School of Medicine in chemistry and biochemistry, respectively.

Dr. Mayo’s research focuses on the development of computational approaches to protein engineering – a field that has broad applications ranging from advanced biofuels to human therapeutics. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2004 for his pioneering contributions in the field of protein design.

Dr. Mayo co-founded: Molecular Simulations Inc. (currently Biovia), a computational chemistry company; Xencor, a publicly traded bio-therapeutics company focused on developing next generation biologics for treating cancer; and, Protabit, a privately held protein engineering company focused on the use of AI and machine learning for protein engineering applications. Dr. Mayo has also provided consulting and expert witness legal services to both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. He is currently serving on the Merck Board of Directors, the Sarepta Therapeutics Board of Directors, and on the Scientific Advisory Boards of Rubryc Therapeutics and Evozyne.

In addition to his academic and private-sector work, Dr. Mayo has held a number of significant positions including serving as an elected Board Member at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2010-2014) and serving as a presidential appointee on the National Science Foundation’s National Science Board (2013-2018).