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.
Katie Anderson
Target Biology
Isabella Apriyana
Fellow
Heather Arnett, PhD
VP, Research
Molly Blank, PhD
Digital and Diagnostic Solutions
Erin Burke, PhD
Biological Anthroplogy
Stephane Castel, PhD
Chief Technology Officer
Noah Collins
Medical Anthropology
Anne-Katrin Emde, PhD
Bioinformatics
Andrew Farnum
Chief Executive Officer
Rob Flickenger
Research Infrastructure
C. Scott Gallagher, PhD
Statistical Genetics
Paloma Guzzardo, PhD
Target Biology
Iman Hamid
Population Genetics
Melissa Hendershott, PhD
Partnership Operations
Leslie Hepner
Operations
Alon Keinan, PhD
Sr. Director, Population Genetics
Sarah LeBaron von Baeyer, PhD
Cultural Anthropology
Tony Lee
Software Engineering
Khanh-Dung Nguyen, PhD
Functional Genomics
Rindra Rakotoarivony, PhD
Fellow
Tom Rush, PhD
Chief R&D Officer
Samia Shamim
Business Development
Gregory Tranah, PhD
VP, Medical Biology
Mario Trejo, PhD
Medical Epidemiology
Holly Vance
General Counsel
Kaja Wasik, PhD
Chief Science Officer
Laura Yerges-Armstrong, PhD
VP, Computational Genetics
Our Board
Josh Wolfe
Co-founder and Managing Partner, Lux Capital
Elena Viboch
Investment Director, SoftBank Vision Fund
Bob More
Managing Director, Alta Partners
Stuart Nagae
Director, Vulcan Capital
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/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
Michael Schatz, PhD
Associate Professor, Johns Hopkins University
Bruce Stillman, PhD
President, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Our Ethics Advisory Board
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.
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.
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.
Huti Watson
Huti is Chair of Genomics Aotearoa’s Variome Project governance group and Deputy Chair of Ngāti Porou Hauora, a tribal health provider in New Zealand. She is an expert on the interface between Māori knowledge and science.
