ABOUT Judo Bio
Judo Bio is pioneering oligonucleotide medicines delivered to the kidney, opening the way for new RNA medicines for systemic and renal diseases. With our STRIKE (Selectively Targeting RNA Into KidnEy) platform, we use a proprietary approach that harnesses a natural, endogenous mechanism to target oligonucleotide medicines to the kidney.
Our initial drug programs are ligand-siRNA conjugate drugs designed for receptor-mediated uptake by specific kidney cell types, resulting in gene silencing of disease-modifying target genes for systemic diseases.
A team delivering
INNOVATION
Judo Bio’s leadership team, board of directors, and advisors bring unparalleled knowledge of oligonucleotide therapies and a proven track record of discovering and developing transformative therapies.
Leadership Team
Rajiv Patni is a 25-year veteran of the pharma and public biotech ecosystem. Most recently, he served as Chief R&D Officer at Reata Pharmaceuticals until its acquisition by Biogen in 2023. Previously, he served as Chief Medical Officer at several clinical and commercial-stage companies, including Global Blood Therapeutics, Portola Pharmaceuticals, and Adamas Pharmaceuticals. He joined these companies at inflection points in their R&D trajectory. Earlier in his career, Rajiv held roles at Pfizer, Roche, and Actelion.
Rajiv has supported team efforts for initial drug approvals, indication expansions, and acquisitions by larger companies. Notably, these eleven medicines are used for the treatment of common and rare diseases, such as hypertension, heart failure, pulmonary arterial hypertension, direct oral coagulant induced hemorrhagic stroke, advanced Parkinson’s disease, sickle cell disease, and Friedreich’s ataxia.
Rajiv received his M.D. from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai through an accelerated B.S./M.D. program. He completed an internal medicine residency and an adult cardiology fellowship at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he remained as an attending physician-scientist before joining industry.
Alfica Sehgal has held multiple leadership positions at CAMP4 therapeutics and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, spanning from early discovery, new target search, platform biology, improvising delivery, and leading programs to the clinic. Her experience spans rare liver diseases like Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (Belcesiran), Bleeding disorders (Fitusiran); urea cycle disorders; kidney disease, neurodegenerative and neurodevelopment disorders. She graduated from Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai; received her post-doctoral training at Johns Hopkins and Yale University, studying lipid uptake, cholesterol and oxygen homeostasis in parasites, mammalian cells and mice. She has authored more than 60 articles and patents across various disease areas and technologies.
Mary has more than 25 years of experience in finance roles in the biotech industry. Prior to joining Judo Bio, Mary served most recently as Vice President, Finance at Akouos, Inc., where she was responsible for all finance, accounting, and operations functions from the early stage of the company through several private equity financings and successful initial public offering. Prior to Akouos, she acted as an independent senior finance consultant for a number of pre-clinical stage companies pursuing public market listings. Mary started her biotechnology finance career at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. She holds a BS in Finance from Bentley University.
Jonathan Lawrence joined Judo Bio in June of 2022. He has over 16 years of experience in the biotech industry, spanning both discovery and clinical development. Most recently, he was Executive Director at Kaleido Biosciences, where he served as both Head of Chemistry and Program Leader for clinical development programs in hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT), COVID-19, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). At Kaleido, Jon helped build the company’s discovery platform and translate multiple compounds into the clinic. Previously, he was at Macrolide Pharmaceuticals (now Eloxx) where he helped start the company, build the synthetic chemistry platform, and discover the first macrolide antibiotics with clinically relevant Gram-negative activity. He started his career as a medicinal chemist at Cubist Pharmaceuticals, working in both antibacterial and pain therapeutic areas. He has led multiple external grant opportunities, securing over $25 M in funding. Jon obtained a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Rochester, and a M.S. and Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry from Harvard University.
Board and Advisors
Board of Directors
Kevin Bitterman serves on the boards of Disc Medicine (NASDAQ: IRON), GRObio, Judo Bio, Kinaset Therapeutics, Nvelop Therapeutics and Remix Therapeutics. He is Board chair at Chroma Medicine and was the founding CEO of Editas Medicine (NASDAQ: EDIT), Morphic Therapeutic (acquired by Lilly) and Visterra (acquired by Otsuka). He previously served as a director of Akero Therapeutics (NASDAQ: AKRO), Mariana Oncology (acquired by Novartis), Vedere Bio (acquired by Novartis), and Taris Biomedical (acquired by Johnson & Johnson) among other ventures. Prior to joining Atlas Venture in 2017, Kevin was a partner at Polaris Partners, where he had been a member of the healthcare team since 2004.
Kevin serves as a member of the Harvard Medical School Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator and BTCA Steering Committees. He is also a member of the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum Board of Advisors. He received a BA in biology, with highest honors, from Rutgers University before completing his PhD in genetics at Harvard Medical School.
Samuel Bjork is a Partner at Digitalis Ventures, where he leads the firm’s life sciences practice. He serves as a director on the boards of Judo Bio, Bonum Therapeutics, Elemental Machines, EpiBiologics, T-Therapeutics, and Terray Therapeutics. He has also served as a board director of PetMedix (acquired by Zoetis) and board observer of Good Therapeutics (acquired by Roche), ScoutBio (acquired by Ceva), Nuvig Therapeutics, and Switch Therapeutics. Prior to Digitalis, Samuel was a member of the healthcare and clean energy practices at the Boston Consulting Group. He received graduate degrees from Cambridge and Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar and an A.B. in Chemistry from Harvard University.
Jeff Goater is a Partner at The Column Group (TCG) and Executive Chair of Judo Bio. Jeff joined TCG as a Venture Partner in 2021. Previously, he served as Chief Executive Officer of Surface Oncology. During his tenure at Surface, the company fostered an award-winning culture, advanced four programs into clinical development, completed its initial public offering and secured multiple strategic collaborations, including a transformative partnership with GlaxoSmithKline. Prior to Surface, he served as Chief Financial Officer of Voyager Therapeutics where he was one of the members of the founding management team. While at Voyager, he led its crossover financing, initial public offering and strategic partnership with Sanofi Genzyme. Previously, Jeff spent nearly a decade in investment banking, most recently as a managing director at Evercore Partners, advising on more than $100 billion in strategic transactions in the biopharma industry. He began his career as a research scientist in the field of AAV gene therapy and holds master’s degrees in microbiology/immunology (M.S.), pathology (M.S.) and business administration (M.B.A.) from the University of Rochester. Jeff serves on the boards of Atavistik, AviadoBio, Kallyope, Kenai Therapeutics, Nilo Therapeutics, Remix Therapeutics and Topo Therapeutics. He also serves on the board of advisors of Life Science Cares in Boston.
George Golumbeski is a partner at Droia Ventures. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Judo Bio, Actio Biosciences, Shattuck Labs, Carrick Therapeutics, and Sage Therapeutics, George was most recently Executive Vice President of Business Development for Celgene, where he was responsible for forging collaborations with biotechnology companies seeking to bring breakthrough medications to people suffering from cancer and chronic inflammation. He holds a PhD in Genetics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and conducted his post-doctoral research in molecular biology at the University of Colorado-Boulder. George also holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Virginia.
Ankit Mahadevia serves as a Board member or advisor to emerging life sciences companies, including Judo Bio, Vrata, and Caper Bio. He is also a co-founder of nine life sciences companies, including Spero Therapeutics where he is Chair of the Board, and former Chief Executive Officer. He was previously a Venture Partner at Atlas Venture. Prior to that, he worked in business development at Genentech, at McKinsey and Company, and in health policy in Washington. Ankit obtained his MD from John Hopkins University Medical School and his MBA from Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Rajiv Patni is a 25-year veteran of the pharma and public biotech ecosystem. Most recently, he served as Chief R&D Officer at Reata Pharmaceuticals until its acquisition by Biogen in 2023. Previously, he served as Chief Medical Officer at several clinical and commercial-stage companies, including Global Blood Therapeutics, Portola Pharmaceuticals, and Adamas Pharmaceuticals. He joined these companies at inflection points in their R&D trajectory. Earlier in his career, Rajiv held roles at Pfizer, Roche, and Actelion.
Rajiv has supported team efforts for initial drug approvals, indication expansions, and acquisitions by larger companies. Notably, these eleven medicines are used for the treatment of common and rare diseases, such as hypertension, heart failure, pulmonary arterial hypertension, direct oral coagulant induced hemorrhagic stroke, advanced Parkinson’s disease, sickle cell disease, and Friedreich’s ataxia.
Rajiv received his M.D. from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai through an accelerated B.S./M.D. program. He completed an internal medicine residency and an adult cardiology fellowship at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he remained as an attending physician-scientist before joining industry.
Advisors
Andrew Fraley brings over 20 years of experience in the field of nucleic acid technologies and therapeutics. A scientist and entrepreneur at heart, he has founded biotech companies including Judo Bio, Triplet Therapeutics, Korro Bio and Trucode Gene Repair. Previously, Andrew was a co-founder and served as CTO for Korro Bio, an RNA-editing company, leading the company’s formation and scientific strategy.
Dr. Fraley has authored and reviewed scientific publications and is listed as an inventor on patents in areas including nucleic acid therapeutics, oligonucleotide delivery, and macrocyclic drug discovery. He holds a B.A. from DePauw University, earned his Ph.D. in Bioorganic Chemistry at Boston College, and was a Chateaubriand Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Louis Pasteur University.
Chelsea Place Johnson is a principal and focuses on new company formation across areas of unmet medical need. Chelsea is a co-founder and formerly a board observer at Judo Bio, and a board observer for Chroma Medicine, K36 Therapeutics, Lifordi Immunotherapeutics, Rectify Pharmaceuticals, Scorpion Therapeutics, and several stealth newcos.
Prior to joining Atlas Venture in 2019, Chelsea was a member of the founding team at Tango Therapeutics, where she worked in business development. Prior to Tango, Chelsea was a senior associate at Third Rock Ventures where she contributed to the formation of multiple new biotech companies. Chelsea serves as member of the Q-FASTR steering committee at HMS and as project competition faculty and mentor of the Bridging Academia and Industry program at MGH. Chelsea obtained her PhD from the Biological and Biomedical Sciences program at Harvard University where she received the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award. Her doctoral work in the lab of Dr. Levi Garraway focused on genomic and functional genomic studies of uveal melanoma. Chelsea received a BA in biology from Dartmouth College and was elected Phi Beta Kappa.
Niranjan is an EIR at Atlas Venture and was most recently the COO of Resonance Medicine, an innovative discovery-stage protease therapeutics company. Niranjan was previously SVP, Strategy at Kala Pharmaceuticals with responsibility over Corporate Strategy, Business Development, and Investor Relations. Prior to Kala, Niranjan was Director of Commercial and Business Development at Civitas Therapeutics, where he played a lead role in managing a dual-path IPO/M&A process which led to an acquisition by Acorda Therapeutics. Before Civitas, Niranjan worked in life sciences strategy consulting. Niranjan holds Ph.D. in Bioengineering and M.S.E. in Electrical Engineering degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.E. in Electrical Engineering from Anna University in Chennai, India.
John Maraganore was founding CEO of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, where he led the advancement of RNAi therapeutics as a whole new class of medicines, bringing five approved medicines to patients around the world. At Alnylam, he forged over 20 Pharma alliances, built global capabilities for research, development and commercialization, raised over $7.5B in capital, and achieved over $25B in market capitalization. Previously, John held leadership roles at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and at Biogen, Inc., where he also invented and led the discovery and development of ANGIOMAX® (bivalirudin) for injection. Earlier, he was a scientist at ZymoGenetics, Inc., and the Upjohn Company. John serves on a number of public and private company boards, and on the boards of BIO and the Termeer Foundation. John received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Chicago.
Peter is a physician-scientist, an experienced company builder and a seasoned biotechnology leader with more than 25 years in translational research and all aspects of company building, target ID, drug discovery and early clinical development across broad indications including obesity, cancer, metabolic, cardiovascular, immune, neurodegenerative and kidney diseases. Peter currently serves as an advisor and board member of several biotechnology companies, including Judo Bio’s SAB. In 2021, Peter joined Atlas Venture as an EIR to build a stealth NewCo focused on genetically defined proteinopathies, serving as Co-Founder, Founding CEO/CSO and Board member until its recent successful partnership with Alexion/AZ. Prior to Atlas, Peter was recruited to Third Rock Ventures as an EIR to build Goldfinch Bio. As Founder and CSO of Goldfinch, Peter built the company from initial concept in his own laboratory at Harvard to a platform that generated a successful Phase 2 asset. Before Goldfinch, Peter served on the faculty at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where he worked on fundamental mechanisms in kidney diseases, metabolism, and neuroscience. For his many scientific contributions, Peter was recognized with the Marilyn Gist Farquhar Lifetime Achievement Award from NephCure International, the Young Investigator Award by the American Society of Nephrology and the American Heart Association, and by election to the American Society for Clinical Investigation. Peter has many patents and more than 150 high impact publications including in the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Medicine and many others. He earned his M.D. and Dr. Med. with honors from the University of Heidelberg.
Steven Robinette is a venture partner focusing on company creation within the Atlas Venture portfolio. Previously he was a principal on the investment team at Atlas, where he was a member of the founding teams of Kymera Therapeutics (NASDAQ: KYMR), Disarm Therapeutics (acquired by Eli Lilly), Disc Medicine (NASDAQ: IRON), Korro Bio (NASDAQ: KRRO), and Vigil Neuroscience (NASDAQ: VIGL). Before joining Atlas Steven was a consultant in the pharmaceutical R&D service line at McKinsey & Company. Steven received his Ph.D. from Imperial College London where he studied the biochemical genetics of rare disease as a Marshall Scholar and NSF Graduate Research Fellow and his B.S. in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of Florida.
Ora Weisz is Professor of Medicine, Cell Biology, and Clinical and Translational Science, and Associate Director of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Pittsburgh Center for Kidney Research. She received her BS from Yale University and completed graduate and postdoctoral training at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Weisz’ research program is focused on the mechanism of endocytic protein recovery by the kidney proximal tubule in normal and diseased states. Expertscape ranks her work on proximal tubules in the top 0.02% of published authors worldwide. Dr. Weisz is the recipient of the American Physiological Society Carl W. Gottschalk award and the American Society of Cell Biology Sandra K. Masur Senior Leadership Award. She is an elected member of the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars and a fellow of the American Physiological Society and the American Society of Cell Biology. Dr. Weisz has participated on numerous NIH study sections and on the Board of Scientific Counselors for the NIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and serves on several editorial boards.
