At Arbor, we envision a world free of disease by using genetic medicines to fundamentally shift the paradigm from treatment to functional cure, and ultimately to prevention. We aim to accomplish this through the discovery of programmable DNA editors with the power to enable bespoke curative genetic medicines for patients.
We believe gene editing therapeutics cannot be approached as “one size fits all” – as it is clear that each disease requires a unique approach to DNA editing. Guided by cutting-edge science and driven by a passion to deliver for patients, we have amassed one of the most talented and dedicated teams in the field to continue building upon the groundbreaking work of our founders.
The result is the most extensive toolbox of genomic editors in the industry to date, which covers more than 90% of the genome—allowing us to begin with the underlying disease pathology and then choose an optimal editing approach for that disease. We believe this approach can yield important medicines and put cures within reach for patients with a wide range of genomic diseases.
May: Closed on $15.6M Series A raise
2017
2019
2021
2016
Arbor founded by Feng Zhang, David Walt, David Scott, and Winston Yan
2020
2022
2016
Arbor founded by Feng Zhang, David Walt, David Scott, and Winston Yan
2017
May: Closed on $15.6M Series A raise
2019
2020
2021
2022
Feng Zhang, Ph.D.
Arbor Co-founder; Core Member, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard Investigator
David Walt, Ph.D.
Arbor Co-founder; Core Faculty, Wyss Institute at Harvard University; Hansjorg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard Medical School; Professor of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital; Associate Member at the Broad Institute; Institute Professor, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
David Scott, Ph.D.
Arbor Co-founder, Head of Innovation
Winston Yan, M.D., Ph.D.
Arbor Co-Founder, Head of Translational Strategy
Feng Zhang, Ph.D.
Arbor Co-founder; Core Member, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard Investigator
David Walt, Ph.D.
Arbor Co-founder; Core Faculty, Wyss Institute at Harvard University; Hansjorg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard Medical School; Professor of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital; Associate Member at the Broad Institute; Institute Professor, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
David Scott, Ph.D.
Arbor Co-founder, Head of Innovation
Winston Yan, M.D., Ph.D.
Arbor Co-Founder, Head of Translational Strategy
Paul Meister, MBA
Chairman of the Board; Co-Founder, Liberty Lane Partners
David Walt, Ph.D.
Arbor Co-founder; Core Faculty, Wyss Institute at Harvard University; Hansjorg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard Medical School; Professor of Pathology, Brigham and Women's Hospital; Associate Member at the Broad Institute; Institute Professor, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Keith Crandell, MBA
Co-Founder & Managing Director, Arch Venture Partners
Mark Angelino, Ph.D.
Venture Partner, Third Rock Ventures
Rami Harawi, MBA
President & Founder, Orion Advisory
Devyn Smith, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer
Chen Yu, M.D., MBA
Founder & Managing Partner, TCG X
Clotilde Lagier-Tourenne, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School; Associate in Neuroscience, Massachusetts General Hospital; Healey Family ALS Endowed Chair for Research
Le Cong, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Pathology and Genetics, Stanford University
Britt Adamson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology and the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University
Guangping Gao, Ph.D.
Co-Director, Li Weibo Institute for Rare Disease Research; Director, Horae Gene Therapy Center and Viral Vector Core; Professor of Microbiology and Physiological Systems; Penelope Booth Rockwell Professor in Biomedical Research, University of Massachusetts Medical School
Malin Parmer, Ph.D.
Professor, New York Stem Cell Foundation - Robertson Investigator; Research Team Manager, Professor, Developmental Regenerative Neurobiology, Lund University
Kevin Alexander, M.D., F.A.C.C., F.H.F.S.A.
Assistant Professor of Medicine - Cardiovascular Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine
Patrick Hsu, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor and Deb Faculty Fellow, University of California, Berkeley
Yizhou Dong, Ph.D.
Associate Professor Pharmaceutics and Pharmacology, Ohio State University, College of Pharmacy
Stephen Goff, Ph.D.
Higgins Professor of Microbiology & Immunology and Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University
Osamu Nureki, Ph.D.
Professor, Dept of Biophysics and Biochemistry, Dept of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo School of Science
We have attracted capital from top investors in the industry including:
Chief Technology Officer
David Cheng brings over 15 years of experience in technology and computer science to Arbor. David joined Arbor as its third employee and Head of Computational Search. He co-developed the Arbor computational discovery platform and is a leading contributor to the discovery of Arbor’s CRISPR nucleases and CRISPR-associated transposases. From 2019 through April 2021, David led Arbor as CEO. Prior to Arbor, David developed market-leading quantitative, automated trading strategies at JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs. Previously, David worked on parallel computing and information retrieval algorithms, and was an inventor of “autocomplete” predictions. David was also a member of the 4-person team that represented the United States at the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI). David received his M.Eng. and B.S. in Computer Science from MIT.
Chief People Officer
A 25-year veteran of Human Resources, Lee Ann Marchionna has extensive experience in leading transformations, driving company-wide organizational effectiveness initiatives, and establishing talent, culture, and engagement practices. Before joining Arbor in July 2022, Lee Ann was a principal at Vitality HR, a consultancy she founded to support both start-ups and growing biotechnology companies. At Vitality, she was instrumental in leading strategies to help attract top talent, bolster organizational culture, and establish people practices that are essential for business growth for a range of VC-backed life sciences companies, including many within portfolios of Atlas, Third Rock, 5AM, Versant, Polaris and OrbiMed. Prior to founding Vitality, Lee Ann served as Vice President of Human Resources at ThermoFisher Scientific, where she was responsible for the organizational development and talent strategy to help the company scale. Prior to ThermoFisher, she held HR leadership roles at Hologic, Dell EMC, Biogen Idec, Sanofi Genzyme, Jabil Circuit, Inc., and Kimberly-Clark. Lee Ann earned an MBA from Binghamton University and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Human Resources Management from the State University of New York. Outside of work, Lee Ann enjoys spending time with her three children, traveling to new places, and is an avid runner and triathlete.
Vice President,
Head of IP and Legal
Kelly Morgan leads Arbor’s legal team and drives IP strategy for short- and long-term growth. Prior to joining Arbor, Kelly worked with multiple startup companies at Flagship Pioneering to guide development of initial IP, as well as educate and train early team members. Prior to Flagship, Kelly developed legal skills managing key client portfolios at prominent New England law firms. Originally trained as a cancer immunologist, Kelly brings two decades of post-graduate experience, both from the research bench and law firm practices, aiding in opportunistic IP design and legal risk management with proven impact on corporate development. As a research fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Kelly was the recipient of the National Cancer Institute’s Howard Temin Research Scientist Development Award. Kelly received a J.D. from Suffolk University, and Ph.D. and B.S. from the University of Minnesota. Outside of Arbor, Kelly enjoys capturing and sharing the crazy antics of her pandemic bulldog and geriatric parrot, and traveling to experience new cultures, foods and drink.
Chief Scientific Officer
John Murphy brings over 20 years of experience in biotech and pharma to Arbor. His breadth of experience includes work on viral and non-viral gene therapy, genetic medicines, antibodies, and small molecules, as well as preclinical and process sciences into Phase 3 clinical trials and following FDA approval. John previously led the Discovery Biology Group in Rare Disease Research at Pfizer focused on hemophilia, sickle cell disease, beta-thalassemia, DMD, Friedreich’s Ataxia, Myotonic Dystrophy, and familial ALS. John has played key roles in developing Pfizer’s gene therapy collaborations with Spark, Bamboo, and Sangamo. Prior to Pfizer, John spent 15 years at Bayer, where he was an inventor of Jivi, a marketed third-generation FVIII product for treatment of hemophilia, worked in process sciences, and led a large group focused on large molecule discovery for non-malignant hematology. John began his career at Chiron working on gene therapies and non-viral delivery agents. John was a Damon Runyon Postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Harold Varmus’ lab at UCSF and received a Ph.D. from Columbia University and a B.A. from Brown University. John is a native New Yorker who enjoys taking long walks and runs to explore the side streets and hidden neighborhoods of Boston and whatever town he visits.
Chief Executive Officer
Devyn Smith, Ph.D., joined Arbor in April, 2021 as Chief Executive Officer and as a board member. Previously, Devyn served as Chief Operations Officer and Head of Strategy at Sigilon Therapeutics, a clinical stage biotechnology company. At Sigilon, he helped grow the company from 10 to over 100 FTEs in four years, build an IND engine with a novel platform focused on delivering 5 INDs in three years and move from product concept to a product entering clinical trials. Prior to this, he was head of Business Operations and Strategy at the Medicinal Sciences Division at Pfizer R&D. He was previously at Pfizer’s Neusentis Research Unit in the UK from 2011-2014 as Chief Operating Officer, responsible for strategy and operations for the unit where he helped bring two novel cell therapies and several small molecules from discovery through to clinical trials. Prior to joining Pfizer, Devyn was a principal for The Frankel Group, a boutique management consulting firm in New York City and Cambridge. In his consulting experience, he led a wide range of projects, across multiple therapeutic areas and a host of technology platforms, including basic R&D tools, regenerative medicine, gene therapy, and macromolecules/biologic products. Devyn currently serves as chairman of the Alliance of Regenerative Medicine (ARM), the industry group for nearly 400 gene and cell therapy companies and as an advisor/board member to several companies in the advanced therapies space. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard Medical School, M.S. from Idaho State University, and a B.S. from Brigham Young University. For relaxation, Devyn likes to climb high peaks, garden and raise chickens.
Chief Operating Officer
Pam Stetkiewicz is a 20-year drug development executive with a proven track record in building organizations, implementing right-size processes/governance, assessing business development opportunities, building portfolio strategy, and driving drug development programs from research through clinical proof of concept. Pam joined Arbor in July 2021 from Flagship Pioneering Ventures, where she was Senior Vice President, Global Program Leader responsible for driving the implementation of a newly formed innovation unit that spanned across early portfolio of Flagship platform companies. Prior to Flagship, Pam was at Editas Medicine where she was Vice President of Program and Alliance Management. Pam was brought into Editas to build the development organization, drive productive collaborations, and notably led the team that filed the first IND for an in vivo CRISPR therapeutic (EDIT-101 for LCA10). Prior to that, Pam worked at Novartis Institute of Biomedical Research (NIBR) for 13 years in a variety of roles across science, alliance, program, and portfolio management. While at Novartis, she founded and led the New Indication Discovery Unit that brought five novel drug discovery programs into development. Her last role at Novartis was as Executive Director of Strategic Alliances, which proposed business development partnerships and oversaw external collaborations for NIBR. Pam received her Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University and a B.S. from the University of Rhode Island. Outside of work, Pam enjoys spending time with her husband and two sons, relaxing at the beach and is an avid golfer.
Chief Executive Officer
Devyn Smith, Ph.D., joined Arbor in April, 2021 as Chief Executive Officer and as a board member. Previously, Devyn served as Chief Operations Officer and Head of Strategy at Sigilon Therapeutics, a clinical stage biotechnology company. At Sigilon, he helped grow the company from 10 to over 100 FTEs in four years, build an IND engine with a novel platform focused on delivering 5 INDs in three years and move from product concept to a product entering clinical trials. Prior to this, he was head of Business Operations and Strategy at the Medicinal Sciences Division at Pfizer R&D. He was previously at Pfizer’s Neusentis Research Unit in the UK from 2011-2014 as Chief Operating Officer, responsible for strategy and operations for the unit where he helped bring two novel cell therapies and several small molecules from discovery through to clinical trials. Prior to joining Pfizer, Devyn was a principal for The Frankel Group, a boutique management consulting firm in New York City and Cambridge. In his consulting experience, he led a wide range of projects, across multiple therapeutic areas and a host of technology platforms, including basic R&D tools, regenerative medicine, gene therapy, and macromolecules/biologic products. Devyn currently serves as chairman of the Alliance of Regenerative Medicine (ARM), the industry group for nearly 400 gene and cell therapy companies and as an advisor/board member to several companies in the advanced therapies space. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard Medical School, M.S. from Idaho State University, and a B.S. from Brigham Young University. For relaxation, Devyn likes to climb high peaks, garden and raise chickens.