Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator

Rich Horgan (MBA 2018) comes to the Blavatnik Fellowship with a deep passion for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). With a younger brother impacted by the disease, Rich has a strong interest in accelerating promising DMD treatments. While at business school, he worked to scale his nonprofit, Terry’s Foundation for Muscular Dystrophy, and helped advance therapeutics in the academic lab while raising awareness for DMD. He also started a company, Myos, to focus on the commercialization of effective therapies for DMD and worked in collaboration with leading scientists in the field. Prior to making his foray into biotech, Rich had extensive experience working in new business development at Corning Incorporated where he led the successful launch of a new Willow® Glass product. In addition to his MBA at Harvard Business School, he holds a BS from Cornell University where he graduated summa cum laude.

Liz Kwo (MD/MBA 2011, MPH 2016) has a diverse background in health care and is the CEO and co-founder of InfiniteMD, a telemedicine company connecting Chinese patients with US physicians for second opinions. She is a practicing Preventive Care and Occupational Medicine physician at Cambridge Health Alliance and researches wellness of elderly populations in Taiwan on a Fulbright Scholarship. Formerly, Liz worked for Medtronic in Europe and the US, specializing in medical device product development, marketing, and operations. She also worked at American Well, a telemedicine company that offers online physician appointments to improve access to care and health monitoring. She has experience co-founding and selling New Pathway Education and Technology Group, a company specializing in high end counseling and preparing Chinese students to attend school in the US. Liz received her MD from Harvard Medical School, MBA from Harvard Business School, MPH from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and BA from Stanford University.

David Mou (MD/MBA 2014) is the co-founder and medical director of Valera Health, a behavioral health company that allows providers and payers to better manage chronic medical and mental health conditions. Valera engages patients using smartphones, making providers more efficient by increasing the quality of care while decreasing costs. In addition, David is a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he conducts research with Matt Nock on how technology can help better predict and prevent suicidal behaviors. David has been named “Top 10 under 35 for Health Care’” by LinkedIn, as well as “40 under 40” for health care innovation by MedTech Boston. David is a Soros Fellow, a Gates Scholar, a Horatio Alger National Scholar, and a member of the executive committee for the World Economic Forum Global Shapers in Boston. He graduated from Harvard College with a degree in neurobiology, and earned his MD and MBA from Harvard Medical School and Harvard Business School.

Tarran Pierfelice (MBA 2018) joins the Fellowship as a cross-disciplinary scientist with expertise in stem cell biology, neuroscience, and molecular medicine with a strong interest in developing therapies and diagnostics for neurodegenerative diseases. Tarran worked at Paragon Bioservices where she managed the deal-making process by leading the identification, structuring, and negotiation of industry partnerships and strategic in-licensing deals. During her PhD and postdoctoral fellowship, she studied mechanisms of signal pathway transduction in the regulation of stem cell fate specification in forebrain development and ocular cancer. Through a collaboration, Tarran contributed to the discovery of a novel role for neuronal Notch signaling in adult memory and learning. Since completing her PhD, Tarran has had success in the preclinical and clinical development and manufacturing of vaccines, cell and gene therapies, and other biologics in collaboration with biotech and pharmaceutical companies. She received a BS in molecular biology from Florida Institute of Technology, a PhD in cellular and molecular medicine from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and MBA from Harvard Business School.

Jayon Wang (MBA 2018) is an entrepreneur and engineer with experience designing and launching life-saving medical technologies. Currently, he is a co-founder of X-COR Therapeutics, an extracorporeal CO2 removal device company focused on COPD and respiratory failure treatment. In May 2018, X-COR was awarded the runner-up prize in the Life Science track for the President’s Innovation Challenge at Harvard University. Jayon leads X-COR's fundraising, reimbursement and regulatory strategy, and also assists in device engineering and laboratory testing with X-COR's two other co-founders, Brian Chang, PhD and Steve Keller, MD/PhD. Prior to X-COR, Jayon launched LifeShel, a medical and industrial connected-devices company, and has worked at big and small firms, ranging from corporations like ExxonMobil and Danaher to start-ups like Lumina Decision Systems, where he focused on decision systems modeling and managing uncertainty in multivariate problems. Jayon received a BS and MS in mechanical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Peter Barrett, PhD, is a Senior Fellow at Harvard Business School, where he teaches Commercializing Science to second year MBA students and directs the Blavatnik Fellowship program.

In addition to his work at Harvard, Peter is a Partner at Atlas Venture, an early stage life science venture capital firm. Since 2002, Peter has been involved in the creation of several novel therapeutic and drug discovery platform companies. Prior to Atlas he was co-founder, executive vice president, and chief business officer of Celera Genomics, and held senior management positions at Applera. Peter is currently chairman of Obsidian Therapeutics, Zafgen, Cadent Therapeutics, and Synlogic and sits on the boards of Indalo and Perkin Elmer. 

Peter received a BS in chemistry from Lowell Technological Institute (now known as the University of Massachusetts, Lowell) and a PhD in analytical chemistry from Northeastern University. He also completed Harvard Business School’s Program for Management Development.

Peter Barrett, PhD, Senior Fellow at Harvard Business School, Partner Legacy Funds at Atlas Venture, and Faculty Chair of the Blavatnik Fellowship in Life Science Entrepreneurship

Nessan Bermingham, PhD, Venture Partner at Atlas Venture, Founder and CEO at Intellia

Srikant M. Datar, PhD, Arthur Lowes Dickinson Professor of Business Administration, Faculty Chair of the Harvard Innovation Lab, HBS One Harvard Faculty Fellow, and Senior Associate Dean for University Affairs at Harvard Business School

Robert F. Higgins, Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, Founder and General Partner at Causeway Media Partners

Rosana Kapeller, MD, PhD, Biotech Executive on sabbatical, former Chief Scientific Officer of Nimbus Therapeutics

Isaac T. Kohlberg, Senior Associate Provost and Chief Technology Development Officer, Harvard Office of Technology Development

Terry McGuire, Founding Partner of Polaris Partners

Vicki Sato, PhD, Chairman and co-founder at Vir Biotechnology

Michael Schrader, Co-Founder and CEO at Vaxess Technologies

Jonathan Solomon, CEO and Board Member at BiomX Ltd.

Krishna Yeshwant, MD, General Partner at GV, Physician at Brigham & Women’s Hospital