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
Alyson Barnes, PhD
Translational Genomics
Molly Blank, PhD
Digital and Diagnostic Solutions
Stephane Castel, PhD
Chief Technology Officer, Co-Founder
Tiffany Chan
Partnership Operations
Rebecca Crocker, PhD
Cultural Anthropology
Konstantin Deutsch, PhD
Discovery Research
Anne-Katrin Emde, PhD
Bioinformatics
Andrew Farnum
Chief Executive Officer
Rob Flickenger
Research Infrastructure
C. Scott Gallagher, PhD
Statistical Genetics
Olivia Gray, PhD
Population Genetics
Paloma Guzzardo, PhD
Target Biology
Iman Hamid, PhD
Population Genetics
Melissa Hendershott, PhD
Partnership Operations
Leslie Hepner
Operations
Christina Jarvis
Operations
Sarah Kaewert, PhD
Functional Genomics
Melanie Kirsche, PhD
Bioinformatics
Sarah LeBaron von Baeyer, PhD
Cultural Anthropology
Tony Lee
Software Engineering
Gautam Mehta
VP, Partnerships
Prathap Kasina
Partnerships
Jaye Moors, PhD
Fellow
Mehreen Mughal, PhD
Population Genetics
Sarbari Mukherjee
Human Resources
Khanh-Dung Nguyen, PhD
Functional Genomics
Ale Obregon, PhD, CGC
Partnerships
Gabriel Pérez
Information Technology
David Powell, PhD
VP, Therapeutics Discovery
Tom Rush, PhD
Chief R&D Officer
Samia Shamim
Business Development
Carole Smith
Discovery Research
Mayank Tandon, PhD
Bioinformatics
Gregory Tranah, PhD
VP, Medical Biology
Holly Vance
General Counsel
Kaja Wasik, PhD
Chief Science Officer, Co-Founder
Laura Yerges-Armstrong, PhD
VP, Computational Genetics
Our Board of Directors
Josh Wolfe
Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Lux Capital
Bob More
Managing Director, Alta Partners
Stuart Nagae
Director, Vulcan Capital
Julie Sunderland
Co-Founder and Managing Director, Biomatics Capital
Andrew Farnum
Chief Executive Officer
Stephane Castel, PhD
Chief Technology Officer, Co-Founder
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.
Our Scientific Advisory Board
Karen Akinsanya, PhD
Executive Vice President, Chief Biomedical Scientist, Head of Discovery R&D, Schrödinger
Evan Eichler, PhD
Professor of Genome Sciences, HHMI Investigator, University of Washington
Ryan Hernandez, PhD
Professor of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, UC San Francisco
Tuuli Lappalainen, PhD
Professor, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Senior Associate Member, New York Genome Center
David McElligott, PhD
Former CSO, Petra Pharma
Rob Scott, MD
Former CMO, Abbvie
Gosia Trynka, PhD
Group Leader, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Experimental Science Director, Open Targets
Our Advisors
Jay Flatley
Former CEO/Executive Chairman, Illumina
Keolu Fox, PhD
Assistant Professor, University of California, San Diego
Alon Keinan, PhD
Associate Professor, Cornell 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
