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2 Blavatnik Fellowship

Table of Contents

Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator at Harvard University 4

The Blavatnik Fellowship in Life Science Entrepreneurship 5

Professional Development 5

Looking for New Alternatives to Old Problems 6

Pursue the Breakthroughs by Checking All the Boxes 9

Applying Lessons Learned to Identify Optimal Opportunities 12

Great Ideas Merit Deep Investigation 15

Alumni Notes 18

Key Advisory Board 21

Blavatnik Entrepreneurship Network 22

3ANNUAL REPORT 2016

Dear Friends,

Scientifi c innovation drives tremendous societal benefi t and economic value. Creating and sustaining new science-based businesses, however, is enormously challenging, requiring the constant balancing of scientifi c and managerial input to ensure successful product development and commercialization.

The Blavatnik Fellowship was created to catalyze new science-based businesses by providing passionate young Harvard Business School graduates with a community of innovators, experienced entrepreneurs, and diverse business professionals. The goal of the Fellowship is to enable young business leaders to identify promising scientifi c breakthroughs, work closely with scientists to commercialize discoveries, and create new enterprises in the life sciences.

Over the past three years, 14 Blavatnik Fellows have helped create 12 new companies and raised close to $50 million. It is a strong start, owing to the commitment of the Key Advisory Board, the Blavatnik Entrepreneurship Network of mentors, and the leadership of Isaac T. Kohlberg, Senior Associate Provost and Chief Technology Development Offi cer of Harvard University, and Vicki L. Sato, Faculty Chair of the Blavatnik Fellowship.

I look forward to following closely the continued growth and success of the Blavatnik Fellowship in the years ahead.

Sincerely,

Len Blavatnik, MBA ’89Founder and Chairman, Access Industries

Sincerely,

4 Blavatnik Fellowship

Driving Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Accelerating Commercial and Societal Impact

To impact society, biomedical technology breakthroughs must fi rst make the leap from the research lab to the commercial sphere. The Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator at Harvard University is uniquely structured to bridge that gap, helping to propel groundbreaking innovations toward next-generation products.

We apply development resources and industry expertise to Harvard’s promising, early-stage biomedical research to speed successful commercialization. This unique strategy catalyzes innovation—benefi ting faculty, researchers, investors, industry partners, and the world at large.

Building on a proven model and a track record of success, the Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator was strengthened through the support of a major gift in 2013 from the Blavatnik Family Foundation. This support has greatly expanded our capabilities and our potential for impact.

The Accelerator has committed $15 million of direct research support in the form of grants to 80 technology development projects from across Harvard University. Approximately half of the completed projects have led to industry partnerships, either through collaborations and licensing transactions with existing pharmaceutical and biotech companies or through the formation of new startups. These partnerships have already led to more than $28 million in industry-sponsored research funding.

In one prominent example, the Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator supported Professor Matthew Shair in developing and validating preclinical compounds for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia. The technology was then licensed to Merck in 2016 for an upfront payment of $20 million, plus milestones and royalties—a testament to the signifi cant value added by targeted Accelerator support. The company also is engaging in a major sponsored-research collaboration with the Shair laboratory to drive further discovery and innovation.

BLAVATNIK BIOMEDICAL ACCELERATOR AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY

5ANNUAL REPORT 2016

THE BLAVATNIK FELLOWSHIP IN LIFE SCIENCE ENTREPRENEURSHIP

The Blavatnik Fellowship in Life Science Entrepreneurship offers Harvard Business School alumni interested in life sciences and entrepreneurship access to promising technologies and career development opportunities. Through the program, Fellows have the support they need to turn technologies into businesses that can have social and commercial impact.

Each Fellow starts the program with his or her own entrepreneurship journey in mind. Some Fellows begin with a clear passion for a specific idea or industry, and seek out the science. Others prefer to explore, seeking opportunities to quickly translate laboratory work into functional enterprises.

To help Fellows achieve their goals, the Fellowship provides both the practical materials for entrepreneurship—time, space, operating capital, and more—with access to strategic resources— mentorship, educational workshops, and fireside chats with leading industry experts—to foster successful enterprise creation.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Throughout the one-year timeframe of the program, Fellows are given the opportunity to investigate new business opportunities and work toward venture creation. They have access to a vast portfolio of research laboratories from Harvard University and its extended community of teaching hospitals.

Fellows benefit from multiple sources of guidance: a Key Advisory Board of leading business and biomedical authorities; the Blavatnik Entrepreneurship Network of business and life science experts; and ongoing access to speakers, workshops, symposiums, and conferences that expand their networks.

The Harvard Innovation Lab (i-lab), the Harvard Launch Lab, and the new Pagliuca Harvard Life Lab give Fellows the physical space to work. Informal conversations with mentors and guest speakers provide more casual opportunities necessary for strategic and tactical advice.

Fellows are supported by the Fellowship staff and through the leadership of Vicki L. Sato, PhD, Faculty Chair of the Blavatnik Fellowship, Professor of Management Practice at Harvard Business School, and an affiliate member of the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at Harvard University.

6 Blavatnik Fellowship – Jeff Engler

CHALLENGING IDEASAfter nearly three years spent developing a medical device that could detect sole temperatures (a key precursor to foot ulcers in diabetes patients), Jeff Engler (MBA 2012) was looking for “the next big thing.”

“It really came down to this: What am I interested in enough to wake up to every morning, and think about while falling asleep at night?” Jeff asked 10 friends to give him book recommendations: “encouraging mindfulness, preventing migraines, anything.” At a networking event organized by Ross Leimberg, a 2013–2014 Blavatnik Fellow, Jeff was introduced to the Fellowship as a way to explore entrepreneurship in the life sciences.

Once accepted, Jeff dived into the possibilities. “I started meeting with Harvard researchers through the Offi ce of Technology Development (OTD), who helped me prescreen ideas at appropriate stages for commercial application,” he says. By the end of September 2015, after “going person to person” interviewing investigators, Jeff had a list of approximately 10 ideas that he narrowed down in October.

On November 17, 2015, Jeff presented his ideas to the Fellowship’s Key Advisory Board. “I’m in a room with the other Fellows, Vicki Sato—and some of the world’s major leaders in healthcare,” Jeff says. “I told them I didn’t have a deep health care background, but I did have two or three ideas.” These included a treatment for pancreatic cancer that could extend life, a new approach to fungal infections, and a disease visualization map for researchers and investors.

Jeff EnglerMBA ’12

Looking forNew Alternatives to Old Problems

7ANNUAL REPORT 2016

Within a month, Jeff decided none of his ideas were viable. But the feedback he had received from the Key Advisory Board proved priceless. “They said, ‘Here are the critical things you need to ask about any idea,’ like, ‘Given the progress of current research, how does this approach compare with what we know will be out there in fi ve years?’”

FROM ROTATING RODS TO MACHINE LEARNINGArmed with new critical tools, Jeff returned to an area he had investigated before and during his years at Harvard Business School: machine learning. Through Professor Sato, he was introduced to Bob Datta, Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and director of the Datta Lab. Through his neurological studies of innate behaviors, Datta had become frustrated with the bench apparatus for evaluating mobility in mice.

“The industry standard is a ‘rotarod’; it’s literally a rotating horizontal rod on which you balance mice,” Jeff explains. Treatment and control group mice are placed on the rotarod, and researchers measure the amount of time the mice can maintain balance before falling off . “Right now it’s the best we have.”

Bob Datta, however, has plans for something much better: a machine vision tool with 3D cameras that can measure behaviors the human eye cannot see, improving clinical trials. “You can observe real mice interactions in a more natural habitat, not one in which each mouse is artifi cially isolated from the others,” Jeff says. “And the computer can detect motions, like the rate of acceleration of a mouse rising on its hind legs, that would otherwise be impossible to measure.”

The technology, called “motion sequencing” or “MoSeq,” may have huge implications for the study of motor disorder issues, especially in early trials. “At Datta’s company, Syllable Life Sciences, my job was to help with the business plan,” says Jeff . “I conducted stakeholder analyses to see what researchers liked about the idea and what they would be willing to pay for it. I did the market sizing and the competitor analysis. Mostly, I was testing the plan with ‘customers’, the researchers: ‘What do you think of this?’ or ‘So-and-so researcher said such-and-such a thing; what do you think of that?’”

TAKING TO THE SKIESJeff remains an adviser to Syllable Life Sciences while he pursues a very diff erent kind of venture: Wright Electric, an electric aviation startup. Long interested in social and environmental responsibility, Jeff had measured his carbon footprint through an online calculator, and the results stunned him. “The behavior with the single biggest impact? Flying. It turns out that fl ying creates more global warming, on a fi ve-year basis, than all the cars and buses in the world combined.”

Given the current limitations on battery technology, Wright Electric is starting with a hybrid electric, nine-seat “puddle jumper” that can handle short fl ights. “I’m an inveterate entrepreneur,” Jeff says of his latest project. “I’m eager to reduce my carbon footprint as much as possible.”

The physical environment of the mice infl uences module usage and spatial pattern of expression.

8 Blavatnik Fellowship – Jeff Engler

ACKNOWLEDGMENTSMy Blavatnik Fellowship experience was incredible because of the wonderful people who designed and led the program. Thank you to Len Blavatnik for creating and providing the opportunity. Thank you to Vicki Sato for countless hours providing guidance and feedback, to Tracy Saxton Perry and Matt Higgins for fantastic organization and caring, and to my Fellowship mentor Krishna Yeshwant for being an amazing sounding board. Thank you to Blavatnik mentors Srikant Datar, Joe Lassiter, and Willy Shih for wise guidance. Thank you to Isaac T. Kohlberg, Curtis Keith, Michal Preminger, Sam Liss, Jessica Duda, Jessica McDonough, and Mick Sawka for providing insights into Harvard’s patent portfolio and for helping me understand the Harvard ecosystem. Thank you to Bob Datta and Alex Wiltschko for allowing me the opportunity to work on Syllable. Finally, thank you to Barry, James, Jon, Theresa, and all the past (and future) Fellows for camaraderie and friendship.

Jeff EnglerJeff Engler was cofounder of Podimetrics, a medical device startup that aims to keep diabetic feet healthy. Podimetrics won the Life Sciences track of the MIT Business Plan Contest, attained $8m in venture capital, and received FDA 510(k) clearance. Previously, Jeff cofounded MatchLend, a fi nancial services startup. Before attending HBS, Engler worked for Unitus, a microfi nance nonprofi t, and Lehman Brothers. He has been an Entrepreneur in Residence at Rock Health, a digital health seed fund. Jeff is now the founder and president of Wright Electric, an environmentally responsible aviation company developing hybrid electric airplanes for short regional fl ights.

Bob Datta and Jeff discussing the latest results.

9ANNUAL REPORT 2016

COMPLEX MIX OF DISCIPLINESJames McLaughlin (MBA 2011) has long been attracted to the life sciences. “Fundamentally, it’s a sense of idealism,” he says. “I’m always drawn to ideas that can make a diff erence for patients with signifi cant diseases or disabilities.” James appreciates projects that depend on a complex mix of vocational perspectives. “Life science entrepreneurship is an incredibly complicated, inherently interdisciplinary challenge that involves economics, management, biology, medicine, government regulation, production, and strategy, among other areas.”

Like other business people eager for a broad, generalist education, James received his MBA from Harvard Business School. There, in his second year, he took the Commercializing Science class with Vicki L. Sato, Professor of Management Practice and Faculty Chair of the Blavatnik Fellowship. “Most HBS classes at that time were case based,” notes James, “but Professor Sato’s class was a rare opportunity for practical experience. Only approximately half the students were MBAs; the rest were scientists from other Harvard programs. Every team included a mix of diff erent scientifi c and business interests. Vicki led us, not from theory, but from practice—and not practice from 18 years ago, but from last week.”

After graduating from HBS, James joined Third Rock Ventures with one goal, “to focus on early-stage life science,” and one question: “How do you build great companies?” James spent the next three and a half years building Voyager Therapeutics, a startup using adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapies for disorders of the central nervous system.

James McLaughlinMBA ’11

Pursue the Breakthroughs by Checking all the Boxes

10 Blavatnik Fellowship – James McLaughlin

GAIN ACCESS TO THE BIG IDEAS, TAKE TIME FOR THE SPECIFICSJames’ previous experience with Professor Sato led him to the Blavatnik Program, which he saw as a way of “building a tight community of life science entrepreneurs within the HBS alumni network. What distinguishes HBS—and Harvard in general—is access to big ideas, its strong emphasis on breakthrough shifts, whether in business or biology.”

James embraces an investigative approach to company creation that “starts with a big theme” before settling on a precise technology. “In my experience, it takes one or two years to build a company, and often technology comes in the middle of the process,” he explains, “after you’ve decided that there’s opportunity in a given area. You want a space in which you have a lot of domain knowledge, and not too much competition. You have to answer a series of questions: Who are the interesting people? Where are the risks? What technology are incumbents using? What new technologies are available? What are those technologies good for? What are they bad for? The business evolves out of those answers—then you have a better sense how much money you need and the kind of team you’ll need to build.”

James believes in the necessity of being open minded yet focused. “You have to look at dozens of ideas before you fi nd one that’s ultimately good enough to build a company around,” he says. Throughout 2015, James traveled to labs and universities in Europe and across the United States, “discussing lots of ideas to fi nd something tractable.”

The Blavatnik Program was a good way to open doors at Harvard, specifi cally to investigators working on intercellular signaling systems that, James says, involve “how proteins and nucleic acids bound in vesicles move from cell to cell to transmit information,” and to other investigators working on new targets in metabolic pathways involved in a variety of diseases.

CHECK EVERYTHINGFor any potential life science opportunity, James applies a disciplined and in-depth process to ensure the approach “hits all the checkboxes. The science needs to make sense. The people have to

be interesting to work with, and they have to be interested in commercialization. The technology has to be in an area that holds industry and investor interests, and that area has to be one in which you can negotiate agreements for strong IP on reasonable terms. It’s hard to pull all the pieces together all at once, which is why you have to investigate multiple areas at the same time.”

“Part of the challenge during company building is that you don’t know if all the boxes are going to be ‘checked’ until you put the time in,” he says. “You hope that in 12, 18, 24 months, you’ll be able to check all of the boxes. Often, diligence uncovers something problematic, and you need to drop the idea. But eventually, if you’re doing it right and you’re a little bit lucky, you can check off all the boxes at the same time. At that point, you can talk to investors and partners with confi dence because you’ve already put in a signifi cant amount of work. You know your area with authority.”

“The steps of Baker Library at HBS—one route to research.”

In the fourth quarter of 2015, James began concentrating on an ophthalmology company applying precision therapeutics for the treatment of retinal diseases such as macular degeneration. He and his colleagues raised a round of capital in the spring of 2016 and now “are building it rapidly, with a disciplined focus.”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTSI’d like to thank Vicki Sato, Theresa Tribble, Jeff Engler, Barry Wohl, Jon Puz, and Tracy Saxton Perry for many interesting, unexpected, and inspiring conversations. You’re all brilliant in diff erent and diverse ways—I look forward to staying in touch and interacting with all of you in the community of life science entrepreneurs for years to come.

“ You have to look at dozens of ideas before you fi nd one that’s ultimately good enough to build a company around.”

James McLaughlinBefore receiving the Blavatnik Fellowship, James McLaughlin worked in life science venture capital at Advanced Technology Ventures (ATV) and Third Rock Ventures (TRV), where he focused on novel rare disease therapeutics. While at TRV, he cofounded Voyager Therapeutics, an adeno-associated virus gene therapy company, where he led operations for the fi rst year after launch. Previously, he ran a research and development group focusing on retinal disease, and was involved in business development at Ora, Inc., a full-service ophthalmic clinical research and product development fi rm. He founded Pathfi nder Biologics, an early-stage biotechnology company in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is now president and CEO of Gemini Therapeutics.

11ANNUAL REPORT 2016ANNUAL REPORT 2016

12 Blavatnik Fellowship – Theresa Tribble

DEVELOPING COMPANY THESESIdentify a target and review the literature. Form a hypothesis, then test and observe. Analyze the results with passionate integrity—a hunger for progress tempered by objectivity.

These are the familiar and necessary practices of any scientifi c pursuit. For Theresa Tribble (MBA 2009), they are also the foundation for a successful commercial startup. “I came into the Fellowship with a thesis I wanted to test,” she says, drawing a graph on which she traces an undulating line that resembles the silhouette of a Bactrian, or two-humped, camel. She divides the line into three sections.

The fi rst hump, Theresa says, represents the “quick builds”: “These are the low capital-cost opportunities with few regulatory hurdles and early exits—but relatively small returns.” The second hump represents an opposite approach—high initial costs with long regulatory paths, but with the potential for huge rewards. “These tackle big problems in big markets. They take a lot of investment capital and time, but if they work”—Theresa lifts her hands to the sky—“they really change healthcare.” The slump in the middle represents the least attractive kind of opportunity: high risk with weak returns.

“I was interested in those two peaks,” Theresa says. “My initial goal was to test both these directions, the quick exit and the high reward, to discover which had more potential to gain traction during the Fellowship.”

Theresa TribbleMBA ’09

Applying Lessons Learnedto Identify Optimal Opportunities

13ANNUAL REPORT 2016

TESTING HER OPTIONSTheresa’s fi rst forays into life science came through health policy, an interest she sustained through consulting assignments at Putnam Associates. While Theresa found the work intriguing, she wanted a more active role in something that could demonstrate real impact, faster. “I’m an impatient person,” she says. “Policy takes a long time—I just didn’t have the temperament for it.”

Theresa recognized the Blavatnik Fellowship as the ideal opportunity to test her commercialization theories quickly within an optimal environment for exploration. She asks, “How often will someone pay you for something you would do for free? Here, I’m surrounded by amazing industry leaders and a crop of next-generation biotech and life science entrepreneurs. It’s a real gift to have a year to work with them without worrying about a paycheck. Most importantly, it gave me room to think about the kinds of businesses I’d like to start.”

In tandem, Theresa pursued projects that represented the two peaks in her commercialization model. For the low-cost/rapid-exit approach, she considered four or fi ve projects, then focused on developing a medical tape that would reduce scarring and infections, and improve skin conditions, in neonatal intensive care units (NICU).

To explore the high-risk/high-return opportunities, she talked to a number of Harvard directors of business development to identify projects that fi t her criteria. Theresa found herself attracted to LuminOva, a startup that had been the focus of one of the previous year’s Blavatnik Fellows. “It seemed like a natural fi t,” Theresa says. “It was a clinical diagnostic in a space with a huge emotional pull—improved in vitro fertilization success rates.”

For both projects, Theresa identifi ed, and talked to, a large number of potential investors. Their feedback proved decisive. While the NICU tape idea had appeal, it was a better fi t for nondilutive capital. LuminOva was just more interesting to everyone I talked to.”

HELPING AN OFF-TARGET ASSAY STARTUP FIND ITS AIM

Theresa briefl y assumed the CEO role at LuminOva during which time she helped the team secure an initial prototype to propel their scientifi c progress. Near the Fellowship’s conclusion, Theresa decided to leave LuminOva while the scientifi c team continued to make progress in the academic setting.

Regarding any science startup, Theresa has learned to “watch the market for competitive technologies. You have to see how the science is evolving, not just in your project, but also in other scientifi c areas that could change clinical practices and challenge your business model.”

After leaving LuminOva, Theresa was introduced to Beacon Genomics, a startup that specializes in gene-editing off -target specifi city assays whose scientifi c cofounders are Keith Joung, Shengdar Tsai, and Martin Aryee. “The assays help researchers understand the off -target eff ects of gene-editing eff orts,” she explains. “These eff ects are a safety concern for companies and others using CRISPR/Cas-9 and other techniques to edit the genome. Beacon’s technology worked well, and they needed help building the business.”

Theresa’s role involves “both strategy setting and the blocking and tackling of company building: developing the business model, growing the team, pricing, setting up operations, and serving customers.” Beacon Genomics was selected as one of the inaugural residents at the newly opened Pagliuca Harvard Life Lab.

“I’m really enjoying learning more about the gene-editing fi eld as it’s the biggest thing to happen in biology in my generation. I believe I have found a company that is both capital effi cient and capable of having a large impact in an important space, so I am able to combine the best of both my original theses.”

14 Blavatnik Fellowship – Theresa Tribble

ACKNOWLEDGMENTSI want to thank the following people who have made this year possible: Len Blavatnik, for his generosity and vision; Isaac Kohlberg and Vicki Sato, for their leadership; Curtis Keith and the Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator staff for their mentorship and assistance; Dan Needleman and Tim Sanchez for working with me on LuminOva; Jeff Karp for partnering on the NICU tape; Martin Aryee and Shengdar Tsai for sharing the exciting work of Beacon Genomics; Barry, Jeff , and James for the camaraderie and fun; Tracy Saxton Perry for fl awless administration of the program; the many members of the Blavatnik Network whose mentorship and tough questions helped me learn and grow this year.

Theresa TribbleTheresa Tribble started her career at Putnam Associates, which provides strategy consulting to the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and medical device industries. At Harvard Business School, she cultivated an interest in strategic implementation, particularly in early-stage life science initiatives. Before coming to the Blavatnik Fellowship, she helped build SynapDx, an autism diagnostics company, where she served most recently as Vice President of Commercial Strategy. During her Fellowship, Theresa served as CEO at LuminOva. Theresa currently leads business development at Beacon Genomics. She is the principal and founder of Nebula Industries, a life science consultancy and incubator.

15ANNUAL REPORT 2016

VOICE OF PRACTICALITYSince his undergraduate days, Barry Wohl (MBA 2014) has been “a health care person—it’s the fi eld that makes the greatest impact on people,” he says. “It’s easy to get motivated in this industry.”

Barry began his Blavatnik Fellowship with passion, but without any particular target, or even a segment, in mind. “Coming out of Harvard Business School, I knew I wanted to be involved in healthcare, but didn’t know where. In a life science company? In hospital administration? Managed care? I suspected I’d dive into biotechnology, but from what angle? Venture capital? A small startup? I came in with a completely blank slate. My only criteria was to fi nd something of global importance with high clinical impact.”

In September 2015, Barry began his Fellowship by working with the Harvard Offi ce of Technology Development (OTD)—to review potential opportunities ripe for commercial development—and talking to mentors at the Blavatnik Accelerator, who are experts at “bridging the gaps between academic and industrial science.”

At this point, Barry’s previous career experience as a consultant with IMS Consulting Group came into play. “I take a detailed and analytical approach to accessing opportunities,” he says. “You’ll evaluate a large number of opportunities that look attractive, but when you dig deeper, you fi nd holes in the argument and key considerations left out of the initial assessment or vision.”

Barry WohlMBA ’14

Great Ideas Merit Deep Investigation

16 Blavatnik Fellowship – Barry Wohl

“Some entrepreneurs have a big vision for what could be the next billion-dollar idea, and they fi gure that they’ll fi x the details when they get to them. Not me. I think about implementation right away—which means that I take a pass on lots of opportunities. My job is to be the voice of practicality, to help analyze the situation from an up-to-date commercial perspective.”

LOOKING FOR BOTH PATIENT AND ECONOMIC IMPACTMany entrepreneurs begin with the science, then look for an application in which it could be commercially relevant. Barry prefers an opposite approach, seeking areas of “unmet need” in which the “marriage of patient impact and economic potential is greatest.”

Through Harvard OTD, Barry worked with scientists at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, the Harvard Medical School (HMS) Department of Genetics, and the Harvard Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. At the Wyss, he explored the commercial possibilities of a new drug delivery system for extended and repeatable chemotherapy dosing. At HMS, he prioritized therapeutic opportunities for novel targets in the serotonergic system. And through the Chemistry Department, Barry worked on “novel antibiotics in various classes” that showed signifi cant progress.

For each of these projects, Barry conducted thorough market analyses and “a list of next steps, a basic plan” for pursuing commercial applications. Although “they were doing great science,” says Barry, “the commercial opportunity was somewhat far off . They will ultimately be successful, but not on the timeline I needed. The Fellowship is only one year, so I wanted to identify something that was ready to rock right now.”

BRUTE FORCE RESEARCHBut looking for something “ready to rock” meant rolling out “three to four weeks of 12 hour days reading abstracts, reading online journals, doing keyword searches, and examining lots of conference posters and presentations—a real brute force method.”

Once again, Barry was attracted to antibiotics. “Theoretically, there are two broad approaches,” he explains. “You can target a well-known bacteria with something marginally better than available drugs, and get a small slice of a market that already exists. Or you can examine an area of emerging resistance, targeting a crisis that might never arrive. The latter approach is riskier, but you can capture most or all of the market. You can have the therapeutic solution ready to treat patients just as the emerging problem becomes a global epidemic.”

Barry chose the second approach and hit pay dirt in a new molecule that literally came from the dirt off a graduate assistant’s hiking shoe. “The drug is a natural product produced by a fungus. It’s been known for years and tested for other diseases without attracting interest.” But its time may have come.

Symbal Therapeutics was co-founded in early 2016 by Barry and local entrepreneurs Larry Miller (pictured) and Dennis Molnar.

17ANNUAL REPORT 2016 17ANNUAL REPORT 2016ANNUAL REPORT 2016

Barry WohlBarry Wohl started his career with Medtronic, fi rst as a product design engineer and later as a global clinical trial lead. At HBS, Barry worked on corporate and portfolio strategy for Biogen; after obtaining his MBA, he worked as a strategy consultant with IMS Consulting Group and concurrently in a sell-side transaction advisory role with IMS Health Capital. He also cofounded Respira Design, the winner of the Stanford BASES social enterprise competition, to create low-cost medical technology for the treatment of respiratory conditions in the developing world. Today, Barry is the Chief Business Offi cer at Symbal Therapeutics. He holds a BS in biomedical engineering, magna cum laude, from Columbia, and an MS in mechanical engineering from Stanford.

ANNUAL REPORT 2016

With a new resistance mechanism, metallo beta-lactamase, producing over 100,000 cases of antibiotic resistance in Asia, clinicians and epidemiologists now anticipate its spread and are looking for eff ective inhibitors.

“The lab I’m working with got lucky,” Barry says. At the very start of its high-throughput screening process, in fact in its fi rst set of 50 tested chemicals,

this inhibitor showed promise. “This one has jumped through a thousand hoops and has been picked up by the NIH for translational experiments—it’s held up.”

With two experienced biotechnology executives as his partners, Barry has formed a company, Symbal Therapeutics, that incorporated in February 2016 and has

the rights to license the new compound. By the end of April, he had “sorted out the company concept” and gathered all the relevant scientifi c data related to the compound. In May, he began reaching out to investors for $5 million in Series A money to fund fi rst-round testing. “Our goal is to reach the infl ection point that attracts big investments: completing Phase 1 testing that proves the compound is safe in healthy people. Phase 1 data is a major value infl ection point for a novel antibiotic.”

“My sole focus now,” he says, “is raising money. But whether or not the company gets funding, the Blavatnik Fellowship has been a great experience. I’m thrilled by how far we’ve gotten and what we’ve achieved. I now know what it takes to identify and start developing a novel therapeutic. I will look back at this experience as a turning point in my career.”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTSMost importantly, I am indebted to Len Blavatnik for creating this unique opportunity, and to Vicki Sato for her advice and support throughout the year. My cofounders Larry Miller and Dennis Molnar have been energetic partners and mentors throughout the fundraising process. Isaac Kohlberg, Curtis Keith, Leandro Vetcher, and Su Chiang provided expert insight and support. Jonathan Solomon stood out as an uninterrupted and steadfast adviser and advocate, dialing in to our weekly check-ins from all over the world. I am also grateful to my “fellow Fellows” for much candid feedback and the wonderful shared experience we had as entrepreneurs facing similar challenges. Lastly, our program was expertly managed by Tracy Saxton Perry, without whom we could not have had such a supportive and educational environment.

Symbal licensed and developed an antibiotic candidate targeted at some of the world’s most dangerous, drug-resistant bacteria

18 Blavatnik Fellowship

ALEXANDRA DICKSON – MBA 2013, FELLOW 2015Hello to the Blavatnik Fellowship community—It has been a whirlwind year since the Fellowship concluded. On the personal front, my husband, Royce, and I have been fortunate enough to celebrate our marriage two times—once at a Chinese-style banquet in LA where Royce is from and once for a traditional white gown ceremony in Detroit where my family lives. We are looking forward to traveling to Taiwan for a fi nal wedding celebration with the extended family over the holidays.

On the professional front, I am enjoying working on the commercial team at Biogen, and particularly to be working on MS, which, just like the infertility I worked on at LuminOva, is a disease that affects so many women my age. The experience of the Blavatnik Fellowship opened my eyes to all of the research happening in neurology, and I am happy to be at a company that is doing so many exciting things in that space.

Finally, I wanted to end my note by saying that I really do feel that the Blavatnik Fellows have become a community. In just the past couple of months, I have run into several Fellows at different life science events out and about in Boston and it is always so inspiring to hear about all the progress everyone is making on their respective endeavors!

CHRISTOPH JAEKER – MBA 2011, FELLOW 2015Professionally, 2016 has been quite a year for me. I departed the Fellowship pursuing an independent project to develop a novel antibiotic, but after three months of due diligence, plan development, initial investor discussions, and relationship building with the Principal Investigators who had discovered the molecules, realized that the risk-reward balance was not in my favor. Following this decision, I recognized that more deal experience on the corporate side would complement my entrepreneurial experiences during the Fellowship and beyond. An opportunity in the Business Development group at Vertex Pharmaceuticals opened up, and I did not hesitate to take it. The fi rst seven months have already been a whirlwind—I was part of the team responsible for outlicensing Vertex’s oncology portfolio for $230 million upfront plus royalties to Merck KGaA in January 2017. On the personal side, 2016 was also a year of change. My wife, Jillian, and I welcomed our son Caspar to the world in February—which has completely turned our world upside down, and we wouldn’t want it any other way.

ROSS LEIMBERG – MBA 2012, FELLOW 2014Hello again, Harvard family and friends. To be candid, I have been rather spoiled by the outsized 2015 and 2016 biotech investing market. As an investment professional in Boston with AbbVie Ventures, the corporate strategic venture capital arm of a multinational pharmaceutical company, I have enjoyed a busy and fruitful couple of years investing in and managing a portfolio of exciting early-stage biotech companies. I work with my AbbVie colleagues to source, diligence, transact, and manage preclinical investments across our core therapeutic areas of oncology, immunology, and neuroscience, and we actively syndicate with other top-tier investors. I like to think that my time at the Fellowship provided me a fi rsthand appreciation of biotech entrepreneurship in a way that makes me a much more effective scout, partner, and investor. (Perhaps the true test will come when the market isn’t as favorable!) I traverse the halls of Harvard and its affi liate institutions often. Please say hi!

Catch up with news and notes from the first two classes of Blavatnik Fellows.

ALUMNI NOTES

19ANNUAL REPORT 2016

LOUIS LEVY – MBA 2014, FELLOW 2015This past year has been a thrill. I have actively pursued my passion for opera by extending my help to the Boston Lyric Opera on a couple of promising initiatives. This coming year looks just as exciting as I will be moving to NYC.

With regard to Ultivue, 2016 was fi lled with instrumental milestones, starting with the hire of our CEO, Michael Natan. Over the year, the Ultivue team has signifi cantly grown to over 10 employees. We commercially launched our fi rst product in super resolution this past summer and ramped up our sales along with the publication of a white paper from Nikon on our product. Ultivue offi cially pivoted during the second half of the year to focus most of its resources on tissue pathology applications. Since then, we have opened many doors into pharma and will soon start to deliver on pilot studies.

I can never thank enough all the mentors that supported me throughout the Fellowship and still do today with utmost generosity and benevolence. With all my heart, thank you.

SID MISRA – MBA 2013, FELLOW 2015This past summer, we decided to focus Perceptive Automata on solving the problem of predicting the behavior and intent of pedestrians, cyclists, and other human agents for self-driving cars. In December, we saw that our neuroscience-based machine learning models could predict what’s in pedestrians’ minds. This is a big step forward for us, technologically speaking, and we’ll raise additional capital in 2017 on the basis of this progress.

Thanks to the NSF and Harvard PSEA for helping us get to this point. It goes without saying, of course, that we would not have arrived here, nor will we succeed, without the ongoing support of the Blavatnik Fellowship, Harvard OTD, and the Blavatnik Entrepreneurial Network. If you’re ever around Kendall Square, stop by for coffee. I’d love to show you some of our tech in action: sid@perceptiveautomata.com.

DAN OLIVER – MBA 2013, FELLOW 2014Hello, Blavatnik Fellowship community. It has been an exciting year. Voxel8, the startup I cofounded during the Fellowship, released its fi rst product. We also identifi ed a number of promising industrial applications for the technology. In April, I made the diffi cult decision to leave Voxel8 for a new venture. I learned so much and owe a lot to Professor Jennifer Lewis and her team for letting me work with her technology. I am happy to say Voxel8 is doing well and has hired an excellent full-time CEO.

My new startup is commercializing a longevity cure based off of a technology from HMS Professor George Church’s lab. My cofounder is a good friend of mine from Caltech, and it has been great getting to work with someone I know so well. We were lucky enough to secure initial funding from the Wyss Institute and are working toward a signifi cant fi nancing round in 2017. Please feel free to reach out to hear more if you are interested. The mentor network and people I have met through my participation in the Fellowship have been key advisers and resources thus far. I look forward to staying connected and trying to give back in the new year.

STEVE PORTER – MD/MBA 2011, FELLOW 2014Since my Blavatnik Fellowship, I have been completely re-immersed in my clinical training. I am now in my third year of a four-year residency in obstetrics and gynecology at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio. I am just now starting to look at opportunities post-graduation and am contemplating a career as an obstetric hospitalist, which will afford me time and fl exibility to re-engage with my interest in technology development related to reproductive and women’s health. Stay tuned! On the personal side, our family has expanded—my wife, Amy, and I are now the proud parents of two girls—Eloise (3.5) and Olive (18 months). Amy is completing her residency in pediatrics at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, and we are happily settled in Shaker Heights.

20 Blavatnik Fellowship

JOHN STRENKOWSKI – MBA 2009, FELLOW 2014Hello, everyone—2016 was a great year for my family and me. On the personal side, Jodi and I welcomed our son Max to the world in April, and we’re truly having a blast being fi rst-time parents.

On the professional side, I secured funding from a family offi ce in Florida to form a search fund in early 2016. I’m currently looking for a profi table business to purchase in the North Carolina area, and I’m identifying some fantastic opportunities. As I get closer to completing my acquisition, I’m already starting to look forward to running one of these great companies. In addition, Jodi’s wedding venue business continues to grow rapidly, and she recently opened a second location in Austin, Texas, in September.

I hope that everyone in the Blavatnik Fellowship community is doing well, and I look forward to catching up with all of you soon!

RIDHI TARIYAL – MBA 2009, FELLOW 2014NextGen Jane closed on their series seed round in March of 2016 and graduated from the Illumina Accelerator last summer. Since then, we have opened our own lab space in Oakland, California, completedour fi rst clinical trial for endometriosis, and are starting follow-on trials for ovarian and cervical cancer in 2017. We continue to advance the development of our product so that it is seamless and intuitive for a consumer to use. This year, we hope to close on our Series A, make our next few technical hires, and continue to push forward women’s health.

MERIDITH UNGER – MBA 2010, FELLOW 2015Hello, Blavatnik community. I am excited to report that Nix has raised a total of $720K in seed funding, achieved an alpha prototype, and grown the team with two recent full-time hires. We have expanded our IP portfolio, and achieved solid proof of concept data on our hydration sensor, and are just weeks away from having wearable prototypes in the form of a single-use patch for endurance athletes. Due to enthusiastic interest from professional sports teams, we are accelerating development of a digitally connected sensor for team sports, the military, and laborers. Nix will be joining Techstars Boston 2017 in February 2017 and looks forward to continued traction in the new year.

ALUMNI NOTES Continued

21ANNUAL REPORT 2016

VICKI L. SATOProfessor of Management Practice and Faculty Chair, Blavatnik Fellowship inLife Science Entrepreneurship,Harvard Business School

CURTIS KEITHChief Scientifi c Offi cer, Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator,Offi ce of Technology Development,Harvard University

JONATHAN SOLOMONBoard of Directors Member,MBcure Ltd.

SRIKANT M. DATARArthur Lowes Dickinson Professor of Business Administration; HBS One Harvard Faculty Fellow;Senior Associate Dean for University Affairs

ISAAC T. KOHLBERG Senior Associate Provost and Chief Technology Development Offi cer, Offi ce of Technology Development,Harvard University

MICHAEL SCHRADERCofounder and Chief Executive Offi cer,Vaxess Technologies

ROBERT F. HIGGINSSenior Lecturer of Business Administration, Harvard Business School;Founder and General Partner, Causeway Media Partners

TERRY MCGUIRE Founding Partner,Polaris Partners

KRISHNA YESHWANTGeneral Partner, GV

KEY ADVISORY BOARD

22 Blavatnik Fellowship

BLAVATNIK ENTREPRENEURSHIP NETWORK

BRIAN BAKER, Director – U.S. Food and Drug Administration

YANIV BEJERANO, Entrepreneur

BEN BERGO, Executive Director – Planet Innovation

KAMEN BLIZNASHKI, Entrepreneur

MITCHELL BLOOM, Partner & Chair, Life Sciences Practice – Goodwin Procter LLP

JOSHUA BOGER, Executive Chairman – Alkeus Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

ALEXIS BORISY, Partner – Third Rock Ventures

TOM BURKE, Chief Financial Offi cer & Treasurer – Hydra Biosciences

ROBERT CARPENTER, Chairman – Hydra Biosciences

DOUG COLE, Managing Partner – Flagship Pioneering

JIM CORBETT, Executive Vice President & President of Discovery & Analytical Solutions – PerkinElmer

ALAN CRANE, Partner & Entrepreneur – Polaris Partners

JOHN DEE, Board Member – Proclara Biosciences

MICHAEL ECKSTUT, Chief Operating Offi cer, Certara Strategic Consulting Group – Certara

JAMES FORDYCE, Managing Partner – MEDNA Partners

ADAM FRIEDMAN, Cofounder & Director of Corporate Development – Raze Therapeutics

BINK GARRISON, President – Bink, Inc.

KEVIN GORMAN, Chief Executive Offi cer – Krisander LLC

DAVID GRAYZEL, Partner – Atlas Venture

RUSSELL HERNDON, President & Chief Executive Offi cer – Hydra Biosciences

HAMPUS HILLERSTROM, Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Offi cer – Proclara Biosciences, Inc.

ROSANA KAPELLER, Chief Scientifi c Offi cer – Nimbus Discovery

MARK KELLEY, Director, Faculty Leadership Initiative, Dept. of Medicine – Massachusetts General Hospital

SOPHIE KORNOWSKI-BONNET, Global Head, Roche Partnering – Roche

DMITRY KOZACHENOK, Cofounder & Chief Executive Offi cer – Cryoocyte

MOREY KRAUS, Chief Scientifi c Offi cer, Diagnostics – PerkinElmer

Every entrepreneur knows the importance of a strong network. The life science entrepreneur, in particular, will encounter obstacles, both scientifi c and commercial, at almost every stage in the process that are best navigated with the advice of someone who has been there. The Blavatnik Entrepreneurship Network (BEN) is an exceptional community of business and scientifi c leaders who serve as informal advisers and mentors to the Fellows along their entrepreneurial journey. BEN members have years of experience and specialized expertise in areas such as R&D, marketing, regulatory aff airs, and general management. The network is made available to the Fellows when they enter the program. Fellows may seek out individual members as they progress through the stages of building a company.

23ANNUAL REPORT 2016

STANLEY LAPIDUS, Founder, President, & Chief Executive Offi cer – SynapDx

WEI LI, Founding Partner – WuXi Healthcare Ventures

MARCUS LOVELL SMITH, Chief Executive Offi cer – Diagnostics For All

KAREN MADDEN, Vice President, Technology & Innovation – PerkinElmer

ANKIT MAHADEVIA, President & Chief Executive Offi cer – Spero Therapeutics

MUZAMMIL MANSURI, Executive Vice President – Sanofi

JOHN MARAGANORE, Chief Executive Offi cer – Alnylam Pharmaceuticals

ANDREW MARKS, Attorney

LARRY MILLER, Chief Executive Offi cer – Macrolide Pharmaceuticals

FRANK MOSS, Cofounder & Chairman – Twine Health & Matter.io Inc.

CAMPBELL MURRAY, Managing Director – Novartis Venture Fund

ERIC OLSON, Chief Scientifi c Offi cer – Syros Pharmaceuticals

DARRYL PATRICK, Consultant – Pharmaceutical Early Development

ADELENE PERKINS, Chair, President, & Chief Executive Offi cer – Infi nity Pharmaceuticals

GERALD QUIRK, Chief Legal Offi cer – Syros Pharmaceuticals

ANDREA REID, Partner – Dechert LLP

LAURENCE REID, Chief Executive Offi cer – Warp Drive Bio

LEONIDE SAAD, President & Chief Executive Offi cer – Alkeus Pharmaceuticals

AMY SCHULMAN, Senior Lecturer of Business Administration – Harvard Business School

WILLY SHIH, Robert & Jane Cizik Professor of Management Practice in Business Administration – Harvard Business School

NANCY SIMONIAN, Chief Executive Offi cer – Syros Pharmaceuticals

CARLA SMALL, Senior Director of Innovation – Boston Children’s Hospital

MARK SPEERS, Partner & Managing Director – Health Advances

PATRICK SULLIVAN, President, Chief Executive Offi cer, & Director – Insulet Corporation

HALLE TECCO, Founder – Rock Health

JEFF TONG, Entrepreneur-in-Residence – Third Rock Ventures

JASON WALSH, Director, Strategic Growth – Corning Life Sciences

BARRY WERTH, Author

DOUGLAS WILLIAMS, President & Chief Executive Offi cer – Codiak BioSciences

MARTIN WILLIAMS, Executive Chairman & Founder – Yuma Therapeutics Corp.

PETER WIRTH, Executive Chairman – ZappRx, Inc.

SCOTT YAPHE, Managing Director – Schooner Capital

BENJAMIN ZESKIND, Cofounder & Chief Executive Offi cer – Immuneering Corporation

Harvard Business SchoolBatten HallSoldiers Field RoadBoston, MA 02163

617-495-1815

hbs.edu/Blavatnik

Emerging leaders depend on the support of experienced ones. At the Blavatnik Fellowship, this leadership comes from Faculty Chair Professor Vicki L. Sato. On behalf of all Fellows and the colleagues who make the Fellowship a success, we wish to express our deepest gratitude to Vicki for her wise counsel, ongoing dedication, and patient guidance.

Thank you