Breaking down Barriers to Precision Medicine

Jessica brings a wealth of experience to her role, having served as corporate counsel for companies within 5AM Ventures’ 4:59 Initiative. Prior to that, she was responsible for overseeing corporate contracts and negotiated several major licensing and strategic transactions during her two-year tenure as associate corporate counsel at Editas Medicine. Preceding her time at Editas, she was an associate in the Life Sciences and IP Transactions groups at Ropes & Gray, LLP. While at Ropes & Gray, she specialized in licensing transactions, SEC compliance and public fundraising for life sciences companies. She earned her J.D. from Boston College and also holds a B.A. in Philosophy and a B.S. in Psychology from Boston College.

Carl is a renowned professional in the field of translational medicine and diagnostics with over 17 years of experience in drug development and technology advancement. In his previous role as the Vice President and Head of Oncology Translational Medicine at AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, he led a global team, spearheading biomarker strategy and translational sciences to support oncology drug development. Carl’s career also includes leadership positions at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research and the National Cancer Institute. He has made significant contributions to the field, with over 600 publications to his name and a reputation for mentoring future leaders in the pharmaceutical and biomedical sectors. Driven by a passion for lifelong learning and effective communication, he continues to shape the landscape of healthcare innovation. He holds a Ph.D. in Biophysical Chemistry from The Johns Hopkins University and a B.S. in Chemistry from the College of William and Mary.

Juliann brings experience in both cancer diagnostics and drug development to identify areas where Precede’s platform could have the greatest clinical and scientific impact. Previously, Juliann led translational medicine strategy across lung cancer programs at AstraZeneca where she identified mechanisms of resistance to Tagrisso (osimertinib) and explored novel applications of ctDNA for drug development. Prior to AstraZeneca, Juliann helped build the Cancer Genomics team at Foundation Medicine and led multiple collaborations with both academic and biopharma partners. Juliann has a PhD in cell and molecular biology from Weill Cornell Medical College and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute where she contributed to The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Juliann has co-authored dozens of scientific publications and her work has been highlighted at multiple cancer conferences.

Kristian is a seasoned technologist renowned for his expertise in cloud-native software engineering and computational biology. Over the course of his career, he's made significant contributions to genomics, including the development of groundbreaking methods like MuTect and platforms such as GATK and Terra. His leadership roles at the Broad Institute have seen him drive innovation, including a 1M participant whole genome variant storage solution on Google BigQuery and the launch of EUA COVID-19 diagnostic infrastructure delivering > 100,000 results per day. Kristian's extensive experience and commitment to advancing human health through technology make him a distinguished figure in the field. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Cornell University.

Travis is a seasoned scientist and developer with a track record of taking novel genomic technologies from conception through to clinical product launch. Travis has held key assay development roles at Ion Torrent Systems, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Foundation Medicine, Thrive Earlier detection, and Exact Sciences. At Foundation Medicine, Travis had a key leadership role in the development and launch of their flagship circulating tumor DNA assay, taking it through different stages of commercialization and ultimately through FDA approval. At Thrive Earlier Detection, Travis focused on the development of CancerSEEK, a blood-based diagnostic test for early cancer detection and a program that was acquired by Exact Sciences. Travis completed his PhD at the University of Toronto.

Matt brings 15 years of experience in computational biology and epigenomics to Precede, and is a leader at the forefront of this dynamic field. With a Ph.D. from Duke University and a postdoc from MIT, his expertise lies in applying computational and statistical techniques to unravel the complex relationships between genetics, epigenetics, chromatin, and gene expression in human disease. For almost a decade, Matt led computational biology at Syros Pharmaceuticals, a company focused on discovering novel therapeutic targets using an advanced analysis of the disease epigenome, leading to multiple ongoing clinical trials. At MIT, Matt worked in the Kellis lab jointly between MIT computer science and the Broad Institute, where he contributed to groundbreaking epigenomic discoveries such as the characterization of chromatin state of the diversity of cell types in the human body through the NIH Epigenome Roadmap Project.

Jen is an accomplished healthcare operator, having worked across all aspects of biotech, from leading discovery research to driving commercial product launches. Most recently, Jen served as Chief Operating Officer for a stealth Flagship Series A company and as Operations Lead within her broader origination team. In her role as COO, she was responsible for successfully growing the team, setting strategic direction, leading both R&D and operations, and driving financing activities. In her capacity as Operations lead, she supported the initiation of 6 seed stage companies and was responsible for driving key facets of operational excellence across this portfolio of early-stage companies. Prior to joining Flagship, Jen was the VP of Commercial & Launch Operations for North American EMD Serono, a role that included leading delivery of four new product launches in two years, including targeted oncology medicine in lung cancer launched with a CDx. Prior to this, Jen advised healthcare clients across R&D and commercial for over eight years as a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group. Jen is passionate about diversity in science and has taken a lead role in defining and driving diversity efforts in each of her prior roles. Jen received her PhD in Biological Chemistry from MIT.

Eric brings over 25 years of extensive industry and development experience in areas such as liquid biopsy, spatial biology, pharmaceutical discovery, non-clinical and late-stage clinical development, companion diagnostics, cell therapy, molecular diagnostics, and genomics. Following a nine-year tenure as Chief Medical Officer at RareCyte, he shifted his primary focus to clinical research and became co-founder of Paratrope Bio. Additionally, he is a board-certified pathologist specializing in oncology and immunology, having earned his MD and completed pathology training at the University of Michigan, where he also served as a research fellow at the National Cancer Institute. Prior to his role at RareCyte, he held positions such as Medical Director of Companion Diagnostics at Ventana Medical Systems/Roche Tissue Diagnostics. His pharmaceutical expertise spans discovery research, toxicology, and exploratory and late-phase clinical development at Hoffmann-La Roche and Parke-Davis/Pfizer and he has held positions as Director of Clinical Genomics at Gene Logic and Chief Scientific Officer at Transgenomic. Eric holds a degree in chemistry from Harvard and pursued music studies at Trinity College in Cambridge, England.

Eve is a seasoned and insightful strategist with a broad background spanning Corporate, Commercial, and Operational roles in both startup and publicly traded biotechnology companies. Prior to Precede, Eve was VP, Corporate Strategy at Generate Biomedicines where she secured the company’s first strategic partnership with Amgen, built the Corporate Strategy function, and helped rapidly scale the organization post a $370M Series B. Prior to Generate, Eve was on the management team at Bluebird Bio and a Principal in the Biopharma practice at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) where she advised global pharmaceutical clients in areas of corporate and commercial strategy, commercial effectiveness, and operational excellence. Eve holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and an AB in Neuroscience from Dartmouth College.

Adrian is a scientist and entrepreneur with significant experience in the life sciences space. Adrian was most recently Operating Associate for the 4:59 Initiative, the venture formation arm of 5AM Ventures, and played an instrumental role in establishing Precede during its incubation. Prior to Precede, Adrian held roles at Harvard University and Vaxess Technologies where he enabled commercialization of cutting-edge technologies. His journey showcases patents, publications, and leadership roles in early-stage ventures. Adrian holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Tufts University and also a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Northeastern University.

Geoff is committed to advancing precision medicine through the development of high-quality and accessible CLIA-certified and FDA-approved diagnostic products across tissue and liquid biopsies. Geoff serves as Chief Product Development Officer at Precede Biosciences, where he leads a team of awesome developers. Together, he and the team have worked to develop and operationalize Precede’s proprietary wet lab platform that profiles the transcriptional biology underlying cancer and other diseases from a simple blood test. Geoff has extensive experience developing NGS-based molecular diagnostic products having played leading roles at PacBio, Foundation Medicine, Thrive Earlier detection, and Exact Sciences. Geoff completed his Ph.D at Stanford University.

Corrie is a scientist and experienced leader. She has previous experience as a biotech consultant and deputy director for Count Me In at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, specializing in pioneering patient-partnered genomics research, particularly in rare cancers. She created the first decentralized national platform for generating clinically annotated genomic data sets, leading to significant changes in clinical practice for angiosarcoma patients. With numerous awards and a strong background in cancer research, Corrie is a trusted scientific advisor to several organizations and has a rich publication history in biochemistry and cancer genomics research. She obtained her Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Massachusetts Medical School and completed her postdoc in cancer immunology at UMass Medical School.

Kori is a dynamic leader and company builder who brings broad HR experience across biotech, pharmaceuticals, and venture capital. She previously held multiple HR leadership roles as she helped scale Relay Therapeutics from a pre-clinical startup to a publicly traded company with a broad oncology pipeline. She's recognized for her expertise in talent acquisition, leadership development, organizational design and compensation strategy. Kori previously held leadership roles at Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, partnering with therapeutic area executives to build high-performing teams. She serves as Head of People for 5AM Ventures’ early portfolio within its 4:59 Initiative, where she has played a pivotal role in launching multiple new companies. She holds an MBA from Northeastern University and is a professionally trained Co-Active coach.

Fernando is an expert in laboratory automation and leads these critical efforts at Precede. Over his career he has held automation leadership roles in drug development in the areas of high throughput screening, systems development and integration, and process optimization. Over the last 6 years, Fernando’s expertise has been applied to the development and commercialization of sophisticated diagnostic products at industry leading companies such as Exact Sciences/Thrive Earlier Detection and Foundation Medicine. He holds a MS in Biochemistry from the University of Buenos Aires and later studied Computer Science at Montclair State University.

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Rehan is the founding CEO of Precede Biosciences. Prior to co-founding Precede Bio, Rehan was a member of the Healthcare Executive Committee at Merck KGaA from October 2015 to March 2021. During this time, Rehan served as the President of EMD Serono and as the Chief Marketing and Strategy officer. In these roles, Rehan was responsible for growing the global, multi-billion dollar specialty medicine franchises of oncology, neurology, immunology and infertility, which included leading and transforming the North American business, co-chairing the R&D development committee (responsible for all R&D decisions from Phase 1 to approval), leading global business development, chairing significant global R&D alliances, and having responsibility for the launches of new medicines across the major markets of the USA, the EU, China and Japan. Rehan is currently a member of the board of directors of Tyra Biosciences and the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, and he holds a Master's degree in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry from the University of Oxford in the U.K.