BURLINGAME, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Genesis Therapeutics, a company pioneering artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to create breakthrough medicines for patients, today announced the appointments of three key members during 2024 to its senior leadership team and Board of Directors: Shifeng Pan, Ph.D., as Chief Scientific Officer; Alla Ivanova as Senior Vice President of Engineering; and Paul A. Friedman, M.D., as Chairman of the Board.
“We are thrilled to welcome to our team these exceptional leaders who share belief in our mission and approach to transforming drug discovery with groundbreaking predictive and generative AI technologies,” said Evan Feinberg, Ph.D., founder and CEO of Genesis. “Their industrial expertise across technology and drug discovery will enable us to further advance our GEMS (Genesis Exploration of Molecular Space) AI platform, expand our therapeutic pipeline, and ultimately create breakthrough treatments for patients suffering from severe diseases.”
Shifeng Pan, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer: Dr. Pan joined Genesis in April 2024 and oversees R&D activities for Genesis’ pipeline of AI-enabled therapeutics. He brings more than two decades of experience in medicinal chemistry and biopharmaceutical research, including a 22-year career at Novartis, where he served as Head of Discovery Chemistry at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation. At Novartis, he led the discovery of FDA-approved drugs ODOMZO®, BRAFTOVI®, and MAYZENT®, as well as numerous other programs across several therapeutic areas. Dr. Pan joins Genesis from Odyssey Therapeutics, where he was Executive Vice President and Head of Discovery. He earned a doctorate in organic chemistry from New York University.
“Genesis’ AI capabilities enable the discovery of novel and breakthrough molecules, making its platform well-suited to address challenging or historically undruggable targets,” said Dr. Pan. “It’s an exciting time for the field of AI-enabled drug discovery and our premier team of engineers, chemists, and biologists who are leveraging the GEMS platform to rapidly advance our broad therapeutic pipeline.”
Alla Ivanova, Senior Vice President of Engineering: Ms. Ivanova joined Genesis in November 2024 and brings over 25 years of experience driving innovation in software development; spanning data center management, large-scale infrastructure, and high-traffic web applications to cutting-edge AI/ML solutions. She has held executive leadership roles at notable tech companies including Head of Looker Engineering at Google Cloud, VP of Cloud & Data Infrastructure at Atlassian, Head of Core Infrastructure at Uber, Senior Director of Data Platform at Groupon, and Software Engineering Manager at Netflix. Ms. Ivanova earned her master's degree in applied mathematics and computer science from Kazan Federal University.
“At a time when AI is redefining the boundaries of what’s possible in drug discovery, I’m honored to be joining the Genesis team,” said Ms. Ivanova. “The company’s AI platform, GEMS, has the potential to unlock the promise of computational drug design and discover life-changing medicines for patients. I’m excited to continue advancing transformational AI work, not just for innovation’s sake but to make a meaningful difference in human health – a mission that resonates deeply with me and the future I envision for AI.”
Paul A. Friedman, M.D., Chairman of the Board of Directors: Dr. Friedman has served as Chairman of the company’s Board of Directors since April 2024. With decades of experience in biotechnology and drug development, he has held senior leadership roles at notable pharmaceutical companies, including CEO of Madrigal Pharmaceuticals (2016–2023), CEO of Incyte (2001–2014), President of Research and Development at DuPont-Merck Pharmaceutical, President of DuPont Pharmaceuticals Research Laboratories, and Senior Vice President of Merck Research Laboratories. He has also served as a board member for several publicly held pharmaceutical companies, including Incyte and Alexion. A diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine and member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation, Dr. Friedman earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School.
"Genesis is in an exciting period of growth following an outstanding Series B fundraise last year and recent collaboration with Gilead, positioning the company well to advance and expand its AI-enabled pipeline to develop breakthrough therapies for patients,” said Dr. Friedman.
This expansion of Genesis’ senior leadership team follows the company’s appointments of two industry veterans to its Board of Directors: Vijay Pande, Ph.D., Founding General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz’s (a16z) Bio + Health fund, joined as a Director in 2023, and Mohamed “Sid” Siddeek, Vice President and Head of NVentures, NVIDIA’s venture capital arm, joined as an observer in 2024.
About Genesis Therapeutics
Genesis Therapeutics is pioneering AI for biotechnology by leveraging its generative and predictive AI platform called GEMS (Genesis Exploration of Molecular Space) for small molecule drug discovery. GEMS synthesizes proprietary AI methods, including language models, diffusion models, and physical ML simulations, to generate and optimize molecules for complex targets. Genesis has raised over $300 million from leading life science, tech, and AI-focused investors, and is building a therapeutic pipeline for a variety of high-impact targets. Genesis is headquartered in Burlingame, CA, with a fully integrated laboratory in San Diego. For more information on Genesis, please visit the company’s website at www.genesistherapeutics.ai.
