Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Mass. Life Sciences Center taps three VCs for science board

By Mass High Tech staff

In its latest move forward in handling the $1 billion dedicated in the Bay State for life sciences, the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) has named three new members to its scientific advisory board, all from the venture capital community and all with strong focuses in life sciences investing.

The three new members are Jonathan Fleming, managing general partner of Oxford Bioscience Partners; Doug Cole, general partner at Flagship Ventures; and Jean M. George, partner at Advanced Technology Ventures.

The MLSC’s advisory board gives technical guidance and oversees the center’s scientific funding and program decisions. The board chairman is Harvey F. Lodish, member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, and a professor at MIT.

Fleming has been in the investment business for more than twenty years, and prior to joining Oxford in 1996, he was a founding general partner of MVP Ventures in Boston. He began his investment career with TVM Techno Venture Management in Munich, Germany.

Cole joined Flagship Ventures in 2001, bringing with him significant industrial experience and a strong academic background. In 1996, he joined Cytotherapeutics, in Providence, R.I., as medical director. In 1997, he was appointed program executive at Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Cambridge. At Flagship, Cole co-founded Ensemble Discovery with Noubar Afeyan and David Liu of Harvard University, and he served as CEO of the company in its initial stages.

Jean George joined Advanced Technology Ventures as a partner in 2002, with 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, including 10 years at Genzyme Corp. Prior to joining ATV, she was a director at BancBoston Ventures, where she led the health-care team’s investment activity in NuGenesis Technologies Corp., Microbia Inc., Syntonix Pharmaceuticals and Neurometrix Inc.

The MLSC is a quasi-public agency of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts tasked with implementing the Massachusetts Life Sciences Act, a 10-year, $1 billion initiative that was signed into law in June of 2008.