Co-founders & Board of Directors
Dr. Gary Ruvkun
Professor, Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Ruvkun is a Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School and Hans-Hermann Schoene Distinguished Investigator, Department of Molecular Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital. Winner of the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, the Dan David Prize for his work in aging research, and the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for his work in micro RNA pathway. Professor Ruvkun’s distinguished academic career includes memberships in NAS, The Institute of Medicine and The American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Major Research Interests are microRNA and RNA interference mechanisms, microbial diversity, neuroendocrine control of detoxification, immunity, metabolism, aging, host-microbe interactions, and life on Mars. He has over 150 publications in high impact journals and breaks through papers in small RNA, aging and host-microbe interactions.
Dr. Rudolph Tanzi
Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School
Dr. Rudolph Tanzi is the Co-Director of the McCance Center for Brain Health, Co-Director of the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, and Vice-Chair of Neurology, at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is also the Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Tanzi discovered several Alzheimer’s disease genes, including all three early-onset familial Alzheimer’s genes, and serves as director of the Alzheimer’s Genome Project. He is also developing therapies for treating and preventing AD using human mini-brain organoid models of the disease, pioneered in his laboratory. More recently, Dr. Tanzi introduced the “anti-microbial” hypothesis of AD implicating infection in the disease process. Dr. Tanzi has published 600 papers, received the Metropolitan Life Award, Potamkin Prize, Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award, and was on the 2015 TIME100 Most Influential People in the World list. Dr. Tanzi is a New York Times bestselling author, who has co-authored “Decoding Darkness” and three bestsellers with Deepak Chopra: “Super Brain”, “Super Genes”, and “The Healing Self”. In his spare time, he plays keyboards for guitarist, Joe Perry of Aerosmith and other musicians.
Priti Chatter
General Partner, NeoNet Capital LLC.
Priti is a successful entrepreneur and as a partner at NeoNet she focuses on investing on companies that translate groundbreaking science into innovative products. Over the years NeoNet has partnered with incredible entrepreneurs in fields ranging from healthcare analytics to energy efficiency. Prior to NeoNet, she was a founding team member at technology startups in the telecom and internet space. Priti holds six patents with additional pending. Priti is always striving to give back to the community and serves as an advisor to the Museum of Science, Boston. Together with her husband, she has supported several research projects and endowed two chaired professorships at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to research and develop ultra-low-cost innovative products to improve the quality of life in rural areas, globally.
Dr. J. Amaranath Govindan
Chief Scientific Officer
J earned his Ph.D. in Genetics and Molecular Biology from Vanderbilt University. His postdoctoral research in Professor Ruvkun's lab at MGH / Harvard Medical School includes four years of research on the microbiome. His work has focused specifically on identifying molecular mechanisms that are involved in host physiology, metabolism, and aging. He has pioneered in the identification and characterization of genetic pathways involved in the host as well as microbes. J has 11 publications in high impact journals including Nature Cell Biology, Current Biology, Developmental Biology, and PNAS.
Dr. Elam Jayamani
Chief Technology Officer
Elam completed his Ph.D. from Max-Planck Institute in Germany in the area of anaerobic microbiology. His Ph.D. research was focused on the metabolic pathways leading to short chain fatty acids production (metabolites) in anaerobic bacteria. In his postdoctoral research at Professor Ruvkun’s lab at MGH / Harvard Medical School, Elam isolated the microbes that have evolved to target specific host pathways, to benefit the host’s physiology and metabolism. Elam has over 20 publications in high impact journals including Nature Cell Biology, PNAS, Journal of Bacteriology, and Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.
Zachary Gund
Managing Partner, Coppermine Capital
Board Member
Zack is Managing Partner at Coppermine Capital a private investment firm he founded in 2002.
He is currently serving as Chairman of Coppermine Bakery Holdings and is on the boards of Accord Care, Autism Care Partners, and Swan Fabrics. He also serves as a director of the Kellogg Company. He received a BA from the University of Vermont and earned an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management. He is a trustee of the George Gund Foundation, Fenn School and the Epiphany School.
Mukesh Chatter
General Partner, NeoNet Capital LLC.
Board Member
Mukesh Chatter is a serial entrepreneur and currently co-manages an investment firm NeoNet Capital LLC. Earlier, he co-founded Nexabit Networks, a highly successful terabit switch/router company which was acquired by Lucent Technologies. Mukesh holds 20+ patents in Telecom, Data networking, Semiconductors, and Internet technologies, and has several more pending. Mukesh was chosen as one of the top ten entrepreneurs by the Red Herring magazine. He was also named Rensselaer Entrepreneur of the Year 2001. Over the years he has served in several boards and has been widely covered by prestigious US and international media outlets. Mukesh and his wife Priti have funded several research projects and two endowed chaired professorships at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to develop ultra-low-cost innovative products to improve the quality of life especially in rural areas, globally.