miRagen’s Board of Directors
Bruce L. Booth, D.Phil.
Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors, miRagen Therapeutics
Partner, Atlas Venture
Chairman of the Board of Directors and Co-Founder of miRagen Therapeutics, Bruce L. Booth, D.Phil., is a Partner in the Life Sciences group at Atlas Venture. He focuses on novel biopharmaceutical products, therapeutic platforms and innovative biomedical technologies.
Bruce currently serves on the Boards of Atlas portfolio companies Avila, Bicycle, Miragen, Nimbus, OnQity, ProtAffin and Zafgen. He also works or has worked closely with portfolio companies ARCA Biopharma (NASD:ABIO), Archemix, NxStage Medical (NASD:NXTM), Prestwick (acquired by Biovail, Sept 2008), Proprius (acquired by Cypress Biosciences, Feb 2008), and Stromedix.
Previously, Bruce was a Principal at Caxton Health Holdings L.L.C., where he focused on the firm's private equity activities, ranging from early stage venture capital through late stage private equity. Prior to Caxton, he was an Associate Principal at McKinsey & Company, where he advised biopharmaceutical clients on R&D productivity, corporate strategy and business development issues.
As a British Marshall Scholar, Bruce earned a Doctorate in Molecular Immunology from the Oxford University's Nuffield Department of Medicine and the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine. He received his Bachelor of Science degree summa cum laude in Biochemistry from the Pennsylvania State University.
He serves as a Trustee of the New York Academy of Medicine, where he participates on the Executive Committee as Treasurer and helps manage the Academy's Endowment. He also currently serves in several life sciences advisory roles, including UCB Pharma NewMedicines Science Advisory Board, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center's Accelerating Bench to Bedside effort, and LifeTech Boston seed-stage loan program. Bruce has also authored numerous scientific papers and biotech venture capital review articles, including several in Nature Biotechnology and Nature Reviews Drug Discovery.
He lives in Wellesley, MA, with his wife and three wonderful kids.
Marvin H. Caruthers, Ph.D.
Co-Founder and Board of Directors member, miRagen Therapeutics
Marvin H. Caruthers, Ph.D., is a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Colorado and a pioneer in the biotechnology field. One of the co-founders of Amgen and Applied Biosystems, Dr. Caruthers’ groundbreaking scientific research in nucleic acid chemistry led to the development of DNA synthesizing techniques that remain the industry standard today.
Dr. Caruthers holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Iowa State University and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Northwestern University. A Guggenheim Fellow, he is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Caruthers was awarded the National Medal of Science for 2006, the nation’s highest distinction honoring scientific achievement.
In addition to his membership on the Board of miRagen, Dr. Caruthers currently serves on the Boards of Array Biopharma and Barofold and is a founding investor in several biotechnology companies.
Thomas E. Hughes, Ph.D.
Board of Directors member, miRagen Therapeutics
President and Chief Executive Officer, Zafgen Inc.
Thomas E. Hughes, Ph.D., is President and CEO of Zafgen Inc., a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of novel therapeutics to treat obesity. Throughout his career, Dr. Hughes has been involved in numerous drug discovery efforts in the metabolic and cardiovascular disease area, focusing on glucose homeostasis, lipid metabolism and the control of blood clotting.
Dr. Hughes joined Zafgen in 2008 as Chief Executive Officer following a 20-year tenure at Novartis, where he most recently served as Vice President and Global Head of the Cardiovascular and Metabolism Disease area. Prior to this position, he served as the Site Head for Research at Novartis’s facility in Basel, Switzerland. He also served as Global Head of Diabetes Research at Novartis, where he directed drug discovery research teams specializing in type 2 diabetes and metabolic disorders. From 1995 to 2001, Dr. Hughes led discovery efforts at Novartis that resulted in the validation of DPP-4 inhibition as a therapeutic approach to type 2 diabetes, as well as the identification and advancement of vildagliptin. In 2007, R&D Directions magazine named Dr. Hughes one of the 20 Most Notable People in R&D, and in 2009 he was named as one of the 100 most inspiring people in Pharmaceutical R&D by PharmaVoice magazine.
Dr. Hughes earned his Ph.D. in Nutrition from Tufts University and received an M.S. in zoology from Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University. He graduated with a B.A. in biology from Franklin and Marshall College.
Kyle Lefkoff, M.B.A.
Board of Directors member, miRagen Therapeutics
Founder and General Partner, Boulder Ventures Ltd.
Kyle Lefkoff is a Founder and General Partner of Boulder Ventures Ltd., a Boulder, Colorado based venture capital fund with over $300 million committed capital in five separate partnerships. In his 23 year career as a venture capitalist, Mr. Lefkoff has invested in 58 Colorado companies, resulting in 12 initial public offerings and 15 trade sales.
Including miRagen, Mr. Lefkoff’s representative life science investments include: Hauser Chemical Research; NeXstar Pharmaceuticals (bought by Gilead Sciences); Array BioPharma; Dharmacon (bought by Fisher Scientific); Genomica (bought by Exelixis); ARCA biopharma; and Barofold. Mr. Lefkoff also serves on the Board of Directors of: Centerstone Technologies; Metabolite Laboratories; and Trust Company of America. He is the Chairman of the Board of Array BioPharma and of BaroFold. He is the past Chairman of the Venture Capital Association of Colorado and is an Adjunct Professor of Finance at the University of Colorado Leeds School of Business.
Mr. Lefkoff received his B.A. summa cum laude in Economics from Vassar College then completed a Fellowship in Economic History at the London School of Economics. He earned his M.B.A. in Finance from the University of Chicago.
William S. Marshall, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, member of the Board of Directors, miRagen Therapeutics
President and Chief Executive Officer, miRagen Therapeutics
William S. Marshall, Ph.D., is miRagen’s President, Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder and Director. Prior to establishing miRagen, Dr. Marshall was Vice President of Technology and Business Development for Bioscience at Thermo Fisher Scientific. In this role, he was responsible for leading technology assessment and strategic planning for the Thermo Fisher Biosciences Division, a unit with revenues of approximately $1 billion that manufactures and supplies a wide range of products and services across the general-chemistry and life-sciences arenas.
Dr. Marshall was one of the scientific founders of Dharmacon, Inc., which was acquired by Fisher Scientific International, serving as the Executive Vice President for Research and Operations and General Manager. Prior to joining Dharmacon, Dr. Marshall served in many capacities at Amgen, Inc., most recently as Associate Director of Research, Site Head for Research and Head of the Nucleic Acid and Peptide Technology Department. In these positions, he participated in a wide variety of therapeutic development approaches throughout the drug discovery process leading to the development of clinical candidates.
Dr. Marshall received his B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Colorado at Boulder in the laboratory of Professor Marvin Caruthers. He is author and co-author of over 50 research papers and 30 patents.
