Moderator
Mark Turco, MD, is the president and CEO of the Rhode Island Life Science Hub. Dr. Turco has served in leadership positions across the biomedical and life science sectors, including clinical medicine, academic research, and early-stage startups. As the Chief Innovation Officer at the University of Pennsylvania, he established the Center for Penn-Health Tech, a partnership between the engineering school and the School of Medicine to develop medical technologies. He has guided research teams and innovators through the process of company creation and complex regulatory approvals to launch new medical technologies in the marketplace. Most recently, he led two cardiovascular start-up companies that were acquired by larger public medical device companies.
Dr. Turco received his MD from the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dr. Turco is a Providence resident.
Panelists
Theonie Anastassiadis, PhD, joined Flagship Pioneering in 2018 after completing the Flagship Pioneering Fellowship. Theonie works as part of a venture-creation team to develop the science, intellectual property, and business strategy to found and grow Flagship’s next breakthrough startups. She is a co-founder and member of the founding team of the tRNA platform company Alltrna where she also serves as Chief Innovation Officer.
Before joining Flagship, Theonie received her PhD in cell and molecular biology with a focus in cancer biology from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research on replication fork dynamics in the context of cancer development and therapeutics was supported through multiple fellowships, including a 4-year NIH F31 NRSA Predoctoral Fellowship. Theonie also completed a Wharton Business Foundations Specialization and holds a BS in biology with honors from Haverford College.
Theonie’s work has resulted in multiple patents and publications, including articles in Nature Biotechnology, Molecular Cell, and Journal of Biological Chemistry. She was honored in 2022 in Endpoints News’ 20 under 40 list of the next generation of biotech leaders and in Boston Business Journal’s 40 under 40 list for successful professionals giving back to their community. She is a Business Advisory Board member of the Harvard Institute for RNA Medicine and a member of the Bioscience & Investor Inclusion Group (BIIG) Diverse Talent Network Group.
Allan Jacobson, PhD, is a co-founder of PTC Therapeutics, Inc., and has served as a member of the board since its inception in 1998, and previously served as chairman of the board from 1998 to 2004. From 1994 to 2023, Dr. Jacobson was the chair of the Department of Microbiology and Physiological Systems at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, where he is currently the Gerald L. and Zelda S. Haidak Professor of Cell Biology. In 1982, Dr. Jacobson co-founded Applied bioTechnology, Inc., a biotechnology company, and served as its chairman until its sale in 1991. From 1987 to 1990, Dr. Jacobson served as special limited partner at Euclid Partners, a venture capital firm.
Dr. Jacobson received a PhD from Brandeis University in 1971 and has authored over 100 publications in the field of posttranscriptional control processes. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is a corecipient of the 2023 Gruber Prize in Genetics.
Eckhard Jankowsky, PhD, is vice president of RNA science at Moderna Therapeutics. Eckhard has worked over the last three decades on RNA-related topics ranging from RNA chemistry and biochemistry to RNA biology. Before joining Moderna in 2022, Dr. Jankowsky was a professor and the director of the Center for RNA Science and Therapeutics at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Jankowsky has published more than 100 research papers, reviews and book chapters, including high impact articles in Cell, Science, and Nature, and he has edited two books.