Alan Crane is a general partner at Polaris Venture Partners and was a Venture Partner from 2002 until 2009. From 2006 to 2009, he co-founded and served as CEO of Cerulean Pharma, a nanotechnology focused pharmaceutical company. From 2002 until 2006, Mr. Crane was President and CEO of Momenta Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: MNTA). He joined Momenta as the fifth employee and built the company into a public company, creating an advanced and diversified pipeline, entering into two strategic collaborations with the Sandoz division of Novartis, and raising $275 million. Prior to this, he was senior vice president of global corporate development at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for leading Millennium's strategic partnering, mergers and acquisitions, and licensing activities, generating over $2 billion in partner funding and acquiring 19 development stage products. He serves on the boards of Cerulean Pharma (Chairman), T2 Biosystems, Ocular Therapeutix, Seventh Sense Biosystems, Hydra Biosciences, and Vaccinex. Previously, he served on the boards of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SIRT, acquired by Glaxo SmithKline) and Adnexus (acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb). Mr. Crane received his MBA in 1992 and his BA summa cum laude and MA in 1986, all from Harvard University . He also attended Harvard Medical School from 1986 to 1988 before pursuing a business career.
Ram Sasisekharan has been a Professor of Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1996 and is Director of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology and Edward Hood Taplin Professor of Biological Engineering & Health Sciences & Technology. He is also a member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. Dr. Sasisekharan's research on complex polysaccharides has led to over 125 publications and over 50 patents. He is a founder of Momenta Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: MNTA) and Cerulean Pharma. He has won both the Burroughs Wellcome and Beckman Foundation Young Investigator Awards and was the recipient of the 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001 CaPCure Awards from the CaPCure Foundation. Dr. Sasisekharan serves on the steering committee of the Consortium for Functional Glycomics. He received his BS in Physical Sciences from Bangalore University (Bangalore, India), his MS in Biophysics from Harvard University, and his PhD in Medical Sciences from Harvard Medical School.
Ed Kania, Managing Partner and Chairman at Flagship Ventures, has 27 years of experience in the venture capital industry. Prior to co-founding Flagship Ventures in 2000, he spent 14 years as General Partner of OneLiberty Ventures and of its predecessor firm, Morgan, Holland Ventures. His direct investment experience covers over 100 companies. In addition, he has been intimately involved in the launch and development of more than a dozen companies as the founding and lead investor. He currently serves on the boards of Acceleron Pharma, DataCore Software, EXACT Sciences, INTIO, Pervasis Therapeutics, TARIS Biomedical and TransMedics, and is Chairman of the Board of VisEn Medical. Mr. Kania received his undergraduate degree in Physics from Dartmouth College and his MBA from Harvard Business School.
Mr. Brugger joined Visterra in November 2010 as CEO. He comes to Visterra with over 30 years of experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry, most recently serving as the Chief Operating Officer at Momenta Pharmaceuticals. During his 8 years at Momenta, Mr. Brugger held several leadership roles as the company grew from a private start-up to a successful public biotechnology company. Prior to this, Mr. Brugger spent 22 years in the industry holding various leadership and management positions at Millennium, Novartis, Ayerst (Wyeth) and Hoechst (Aventis) Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Brugger's responsibilities have included nonclinical and clinical development, strategic portfolio and program management, corporate development, alliance management, and product marketing. Mr. Brugger received his BA in Biology from Susquehanna University and his MBA from the Rutgers Graduate School of Management.
Kevin Bitterman is a Director at Visterra and a Principal at Polaris Venture Partners. He joined Polaris in 2004 and focuses on investments in the life sciences. Prior to joining Polaris, Dr. Bitterman completed his PhD in genetics at Harvard Medical School. He has authored papers in several top tier journals, is an inventor on multiple patents, and is a co-founder of Genocea Biosciences and Sirtris Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SIRT, acquired by Glaxo SmithKline). In addition to Visterra, Dr. Bitterman currently serves on the boards of Biolex Therapeutics, Follica, Genocea Biosciences, Kala Pharmaceuticals, and TARIS Biomedical. Additionally, he is a board observer to Pulmatrix.
Robert Paull is Co-Founder and Managing General Partner of Lux Capital, focusing on ventures in life sciences. Mr. Paull was founding CEO of Genocea Biosciences and Kala Pharmaceuticals. He is also Co-Founder of Lux Research, a strategic advisory firm for emerging technologies. Mr. Paull is also a member of Motorola's Research Visionary Board, and an invited lecturer at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the National Cancer Institute, Yale University, Georgetown, and the University of Virginia. Mr. Paull has also served as an advisor to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2009, Mr. Paull was nominated as Biotech CEO of the Year at the World Vaccine Congress. In 2010, Robert was selected as one of the "100 of the Most Inspiring People" by PharmaVoice Magazine. He graduated from the University of Virginia and was a member of the Regional Selection Committee for UVA's Jefferson Scholars Foundation.