Floris leads Kano’s corporate strategy and technology development. She holds a PhD in Physics from the Technical University of Munich, with a focus on DNA nanotechnology. Most recently, she was a postdoctoral researcher in Mark Bathe’s BatheBioNano lab at MIT. Floris was awarded with a founder stipend from Activate Global as part of Cohort 2, Pillar VCs Founder to watch in Biotech award 2021, The wave summit 21 emerging woman founders award, and MIT’s 2020 Innovative Woman in Entrepreneurship award.

John is co-founder, Chief Business Officer, and Board Director of Kano Therapeutics. He leads Kano’s operations, finance, and business development efforts. He holds an undergraduate degree in biology and a master’s in finance from the University of Virginia, as well as an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. Previously, John worked as a life sciences strategy consultant, completing over 50 client engagements with companies ranging from pre-commercial biotech to Fortune 500 pharmaceutical companies.

Scott leads Kano’s process development and manufacturing efforts. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Maine’s School of Marine Sciences. He got his start in bioprocessing over ten years ago, working primarily in the upstream process development space. He has developed processes for the production of biofuels, small molecules, proteins and synthetic microbiome based therapeutics. He has led teams in both process development and the GMP manufacturing space, delivering multiple therapeutic programs into the clinic.

Christian is part of Kano’s process development team, leading downstream and analytical development efforts. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Denver. He has honed his expertise in nucleic acid biochemistry, design and manufacturing across the gene editing landscape at leading companies such as 4DMT, Mammoth Bio and Chroma Medicine; leading various efforts from early drug discovery and design to process development and GMP manufacturing.

Kim is part of the pipeline team and oversees Kano's in vitro and in vivo discovery efforts. Her expertise in gene engineering and disease biology spans multiple therapeutic areas, including immunology and neurodegeneration. She earned her PhD at Upstate Medical University and has led preclinical and translational research efforts at Boston Children’s Hospital, Biogen, and ReNAgade Therapeutics.

Beaven is part of Kano’s platform team, focused on synthetic biology. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Genetics from Trinity College Dublin.

Harper is supporting Kano's process development team. She is studying at Northeastern University working towards a Biology degree and is interested in biotech and medicine.

Floris leads Kano’s corporate strategy and technology development. She holds a PhD in Physics from the Technical University of Munich, with a focus on DNA nanotechnology. Most recently, she was a postdoctoral researcher in Mark Bathe’s BatheBioNano lab at MIT. Floris was awarded with a founder stipend from Activate Global as part of Cohort 2, Pillar VCs Founder to watch in Biotech award 2021, The wave summit 21 emerging woman founders award, and MIT’s 2020 Innovative Woman in Entrepreneurship award.

John is co-founder, Chief Business Officer, and Board Director of Kano Therapeutics. He leads Kano’s operations, finance, and business development efforts. He holds an undergraduate degree in biology and a master’s in finance from the University of Virginia, as well as an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. Previously, John worked as a life sciences strategy consultant, completing over 50 client engagements with companies ranging from pre-commercial biotech to Fortune 500 pharmaceutical companies.

Seth Ettenberg, PhD, is the President and CEO at BlueRock Therapeutics. Seth joined BlueRock as CSO in 2020 and led the rapid expansion and advancement of BlueRock’s pipeline. Prior to joining BlueRock, Seth was a founding member of Unum Therapeutics where he served as CSO. At Unum Seth built and led the strategy team that supported strategic partnerships, four first in class clinical trials, several rounds of fundraising, and a successful NASDAQ IPO listing. Previously Seth led the Cambridge site of Novartis’ Oncology Biotherapeutics group where he was responsible for developing and leading the strategy and implementation for oncology drug development projects at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR). In addition, Seth was responsible for building and leading the Novartis Cell and Gene Therapy research team in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania to develop chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapeutics. Seth received his formal scientific training at the Genetics Branch of the National Cancer Institute.

Vinny is a Partner at Engine Ventures. He was previously at Bain & Company where he advised private equity and corporate clients on investments across industry sectors with a primary focus on healthcare. He holds a PhD in Molecular Biology from, the University of Cambridge, an MSc in Biomedical Engineering, from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a BS in Biomedical Engineering, from the Czech Technical University.

Gilles is an investor at Launchpad Venture Group. He is the former CEO of Actylis, a global manufacturer and sourcing expert of critical raw materials for the life sciences and specialty chemicals markets. Previously Gilles was the head of Biosciences at Lonza and served for most of his career as an executive at Sigma Aldrich including Executive Vice President and President of SAFC. He holds a master degree in organic chemistry from École Supérieure de Chimie Industrielle de Lyon and advanced management program from Harvard Business School.

Dan is an Operating Partner at Engine Ventures. With over fifteen years in industry translating chemical biology platforms into clinical and commercial products as well as achieving successful M&A exits, he supports Kano with leadership experience in business development, licensing, corporate strategy, and operations, including scaling biotech ventures, driving fundraising, and establishing partnerships. He was most recently the first employee and VP of Corporate Strategy and BD at Bonito Biosciences, and previously held Senior Director of BD&L roles at BeiGene and X-Chem Pharmaceuticals. Dan holds a Ph.D. from the University of Colorado Boulder and a B.S. from Brandeis University.

Lise is a General Partner at Vsquared Ventures. Most recently, she was Founding Partner of Propagator Ventures, an early-stage deep tech VC with investments in North America and Europe. Before that, she was Investment Director at Nordic Impact and Investment Manager at the German Corporate VC Bauer Venture Partners. She also worked operationally at the company-builder Rocket Internet, being MP in several Nordic markets. She has a Ph.D. in Management, Technology & Economics (MTEC) from ETH Zurich.

Dr. Bathe is a Professor in the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT, a Member of the Harvard Medical School Initiative for RNA Medicine, and an Associate Member of the Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard. His research is at the interface of nucleic acid technologies, therapeutics, and vaccines. He obtained his undergraduate and doctoral degrees at MIT working in the Departments of Mechanical, Chemical, and Biological Engineering. He has published over 90 research articles and filed more than ten patents.

Dr. Sofen is an accomplished CMC leader and CTO at Abata Therapeutics with over 20 years of experience in technical innovation, product development, and manufacturing alliance management and strategy. Prior to Abata, he was an independent CMC consultant primarily focused on supporting biotech companies in the cell and gene therapy space and vice president of technical operations at CRISPR Therapeutics, where he built the manufacturing organization and led CMC efforts, which resulted in filing an IND for a hemoglobinopathy cell therapy in less than 18 months and transferring an allogeneic, gene edited CAR-T program to external CDMOs. Steve holds a Ph.D. in bioinorganic chemistry from the University of California.

Dr. Shy is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine at UCSF, a Member of the Gladstone-UCSF Institute of Genomic Immunology, and Director of the UCSF Investigational Cell Therapy Program. His research applies genome and epigenome engineering tools to enhance the safety and potency of cellular therapies, improve GMP manufacturing methods, and develop new cellular therapies targeting cancer, immune disorders, and infectious disease.

Jacob Corn is the Professor of Genome Biology at the ETH Zurich. His research aims to better understand and treat disease through next-generation genome editing technologies. Jacob’s career has bridged academia and industry, working in therapeutic areas that include infectious disease, neurobiology, and oncology. His research takes a multidisciplinary approach, combining cellular biochemistry, functional genomics, computational biology, bioengineering, and biophysics.