about us
The Variant Bio Team
Our team has a passion for exploration, and expertise spanning genetics, molecular biology, therapeutics, anthropology, and ethics. We started Variant Bio because we share the belief that human genomics has the power to transform drug development.
Andrew Farnum
CEO
Andrew has deep experience both in biotech and structuring partnerships in geographies around the world. Before joining Variant Bio, Andrew managed the Gates Foundation's Strategic Investment Fund, where he led the foundation's $2 billion investment program and chaired the foundation's investment committee. Earlier he had a career in international private equity and investment banking. Andrew has a master's degree in international development from the Harvard Kennedy School and an AB in molecular biology from Princeton University.
Kaja Wasik, PhD
CSO & Co-founder
Kaja has spent her career developing novel sequencing platforms and bringing them to market. Before joining Variant Bio she was a co-founder and CSO at Gencove, one of the first companies to provide commercial, low pass whole-genome sequencing. Kaja completed her PhD in molecular biology at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and postdoctoral training at the New York Genome Center.
Stephane Castel, PhD
CTO & Co-founder
Stephane has deep expertise analyzing the genome to understand how genetic variation contributes to disease. Before joining Variant Bio he was a lead analyst on the GTEx Project, the largest study designed to understand how human genetic variation affects gene expression. He also co-founded Fiix Software, which develops cloud-based solutions for industrial asset management. Stephane completed his PhD in genetics at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and postdoctoral training at Columbia University.
Erin Burke, PhD
Biological Anthroplogy
Anne-Katrin Emde, PhD
Bioinformatics
C. Scott Gallagher, PhD
Statistical Genetics
Paloma Guzzardo, PhD
Target Biology
Leslie Hepner
Operations
Thi Hoang, MD, PhD
Neuropsychology
Sarah LeBaron von Baeyer, PhD
Cultural Anthropology
Tom Martienssen
Filmmaking
Tyler Standley
Cloud Architecture
Our Board
Josh Wolfe
Co-founder and Managing Partner, Lux Capital
Bob More
Managing Director, Alta Partners
Julie Sunderland
Co-founder and Managing Director, Biomatics Capital
Our Scientific Advisory Board
Karen Akinsanya, PhD
Executive Vice President, Chief Biomedical Scientist, Head of Discovery R&D, Schrödinger
Rob Hershberg, MD, PhD
Venture Partner, Frazier and Former CSO, Celgene
David McElligott, PhD
CSO, Petra Pharma
Rob Scott, MD
Former CMO, Abbvie
Our Senior Advisors
Jay Flatley
Former CEO and Executive Chairman, Illumina
Keolu Fox, PhD
Assistant Professor, University of California, San Diego
Tuuli Lappalainen, PhD
Associate Professor, Columbia University
Daniel MacArthur, PhD
Director, Centre for Population Genomics, Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Murdoch Children's Research Institute
Kiran Musunuru, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, University of Pennsylvania
Fernando Racimo, PhD
Assistant Professor, University of Copenhagen
Bruce Stillman, PhD
President, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Our Ethics Advisory Board
Adia Benton, PhD
Adia is an Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Northwestern University. She specializes in global health, biomedicine, and development and humanitarianism, and in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia in particular.
Māui Hudson, MHSc
Māui is an Associate Professor at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. He is an expert on the interface between Māori knowledge and science, ethics and new technologies, and Indigenous data sovereignty.
Laura Hercher, MS
Laura is the Director of Research for the Graduate Program in Human Genetics at Sarah Lawrence College. She has expertise in genetic counseling and the ethical, legal, and social dimensions of genetic medicine.
Misha Angrist, PhD
Misha is an Associate Professor of the Practice in the Social Science Research Institute at Duke University. His research and teaching focus on science writing and the governance of human participation in research and medicine.
