Geoffrey von Maltzahn

Geoffrey von Maltzahn
Born	July 22, 1980
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (S.B.) University of California, San Diego (M.S.) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ph.D.)
Known for	Genome engineering, Bioengineering, Microbiome therapeutics, microbiome agriculture, communicating nanoparticles
Awards	Lemelson-MIT Student Prize (2009) National Inventors Hall of Fame Collegiate Inventors Competition Graduate Prize (2009), Massachusetts Institute of Technology Randolph G Wei Award (2003)
Scientific career
Fields	Genome engineering, Bioengineering, Microbiome, Microbiology, Nanotechnology, Microbiome Agriculture, Synthetic Biology
Academic advisors	Sangeeta N. Bhatia, Shuguang Zhang

Geoffrey von Maltzahn (born July 22, 1980) is an American biological engineer and businessman in the biotechnology and life sciences industry who has founded a number of companies including Indigo Agriculture, Sana Biotechnology, Kaleido Biosciences, Seres Therapeutics, Axcella Health, Generate Biomedicines and Tessera Therapeutics. ^{[1] [2] [3]} He has over 200 bioengineering and biotechnology patents and applications. ^{[4] [5] [6] [7]}

Early life and education

Geoffrey von Maltzahn was born in Arlington, Texas, and subsequently moved to Alexandria, Virginia where he graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. ^[8] He was awarded his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2003, his Master of Science degree in Bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego in 2005, and his PhD from the Harvard–MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2010.^{[ citation needed ]}

Career

Von Maltzahn is a general partner at Flagship Pioneering, a Massachusetts-based firm that creates start-ups in the healthcare and agriculture industries. ^[9] He joined in 2009, and focuses on inventing and building new life science companies. In the same year, he co-founded Axcella Health, a company focused on developing amino acid therapeutics. In 2010, he co-founded Seres Therapeutics ^[10] and served as the Chief Technology Officer. ^[11] In 2020, Seres’ SER-109 became the first microbiome-based drug to report positive phase 3 data. ^[12] In 2013, he co-founded Indigo Agriculture, a company focused on improving the microbiome of modern crops and is currently Chief Innovation Officer and a board member. ^[13] In 2018, he co-founded Generate Biomedicines, a generative biology company using machine learning to discover new therapeutics. ^[14] In the same year, he co-founded Tessera Therapeutics, a company that focuses on altering genes in the human genome using technology it calls gene writing. Tessera raised over $300m in funding in 2022. ^[15]

In February 2021, his company Sana Biotechnology raised the largest record IPO for a preclinical biotechnology company. ^[16]

Awards and recognition

• Bloomberg 50’s Ones to Watch ^[17]
• Fierce Biotech: The Most Influential People in Biopharma ^[18]
• Business Insider’s Power Players Fierce Biotech: The Most Influential People in Biopharma ^[19]
• Endpoints 20 under 40 biopharma executives ^[20]
• Business Insider's 30 Biotech Leaders Under 40 - 2017 ^[21]
• MSNBC's Inventions of the Year - 2009 ^[22]

References

1. Meet the 30 biotech leaders under 40 who are searching for breakthrough treatments and shaping the future of medicine Business Insider Retrieved 9 October 2017
2. "Former Juno execs unveil Sana, a new cell engineering biotech that's reportedly raising more than $800M". GeekWire. January 7, 2019.
3. "This Company Wants to Rewrite the Future of Genetic Disease". Wired. July 7, 2020.
4. Patents by Inventor Geoffrey von Maltzahn Justia Patents
5. Patents as Early Indicators of Technology and Investment Trends Frontiers - figure 3 Retrieved 20 June 2018
6. Geoffrey von Maltzahn at Bloomberg Bloomberg
7. Flagship Pioneering Unveils Kaleido Biosciences and First Chemistry Platform for Microbiome Health Market Insider Retrieved 18 September 2017
8. "Geoffrey von Maltzahn" . Retrieved August 19, 2022.
9. Geoffrey von Maltzahn at Bloomberg Bloomberg
10. Term Sheet Fortune Retrieved 21 July 2016
11. Seres Therapeutics IPO Soars, Raises $133 Million Investors Business Daily Retrieved 26 June 2015
12. Garber, Ken (2020). "First microbiome-based drug clears phase III, in clinical trial turnaround". Nature Reviews Drug Discovery. 19 (10): 655–656. doi:10.1038/d41573-020-00163-4. PMID   32917977. S2CID   221636309.
13. Indigo Agriculture on CNBC CNBC
14. Flagship Pioneering debuts new startup using AI to design disease-fighting proteins Fierce Biotech
15. Flagship-Backed Tessera Raises $300 Million for Gene-Fixing Tech Bloomberg
16. "Sana Biotechnology raises largest-ever IPO for preclinical biotech company".
17. The Bloomberg 50 Bloomberg
18. Most influential people in biopharma—the entrepreneurs Fierce Pharma
19. Power players: These 12 young serial founders are building the next generation of biotech startups Business Insider
20. "The under-40s: How does the next generation of biopharma executives view the future?". Endpoints. April 23, 2018.
21. "30 Under 40 Leaders in Biotech Pharma 2017". Business Insider . 2017-10-09. Retrieved 2017-10-09.
22. "MSNBC's Inventions of the Year". NBC News . 2009-11-10. Retrieved 2017-10-09.