Our Mission
Building high-performance genetic technologies that transform patient lives
Our team
Relentless problem-solvers
Our technologies are powerful–but our greatest strength is our drive and work ethic.

Demarcus Briers, PhD

Demarcus Briers, PhD
Gene Therapy
Demarcus has a PhD in Bioinformatics where he developed mathematical models to automate the design of spatial patterning in 2D and 3D mutli-cellular systems. He joins Dyno with four years of industry experience developing computational approaches for multi-omic target/biomarker discovery and metabolite identification in foods. In his free-time, he also enjoy playing soccer, rock climbing, and competitive games like dominos and poker.

Marissa Shallcross

Marissa Shallcross
Stewardship
Marissa joined Dyno’s People Team after spending nearly ten years supporting candidates through the hiring process as a career coach. She holds a BA in Human Development from Boston College and an MSW from Columbia University. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family, reading, traveling, and getting outdoors.

Theodore Sternlieb

Theodore Sternlieb
Machine Learning
Theo is a machine learning scientist with interests in geometric deep learning and applications of computational techniques to drug discovery. Prior to joining Dyno, Theo received his MA in computer science from Wesleyan where he worked on developing deep reinforcement learning algorithms for small molecule design. Theo also completed his undergraduate education at Wesleyan where he studied math with a special interest in differential geometry. Beyond math and computers, Theo enjoys fiddling with synthesizers, going to techno shows, and climbing up rocks.

Sam Sinai, PhD

Sam Sinai, PhD
Vice President, Head of ML & Cofounder
Sam is a computational biologist with expertise in evolution and machine learning. He received his PhD under George Church and Martin Nowak at Harvard, where he used mathematics and machine learning to develop models of biological systems. In particular, he developed the underpinnings of Dyno’s machine learning strategy in collaboration with Eric, and has co-authored multiple papers on the subject. He previously obtained his B.S. and M.Eng. in computer science at MIT with a focus on A.I., and had a brief stint in medical school. Sam enjoys techno, soccer, and philosophy.

Vivian Chow

Vivian Chow
Stewardship
Vivian is a collaborative relationship manager committed to the success of our partners. A Bay Area native, she received a BS in Biology from Dominican University and has since worked at various rare disease companies including Biomarin, Ultragenyx, and Astellas Gene Therapies. Vivian applies her project management and alliance management background to problem solve, organize, and effectively communicate among internal and external partners. In her spare time, Vivian loves puzzles, scoping the local farmers' markets, and cooking elaborate meals for friends.

Aiswarya Krishnamohan, PhD

Aiswarya Krishnamohan, PhD
Gene Therapy
Aiswarya is a biochemist specializing in NGS and RNA biochemistry. She received her PhD in Biochemistry from The Ohio State University and followed it up with a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Chicago. Prior to joining Dyno, she was at Skyhawk Therapeutics, where she was responsible for developing NGS based screening methods. In her free time, Aiswarya enjoys reading, taking her dog on walks, playing video games, and board games.

Arpan Ghosh, PhD

Arpan Ghosh, PhD
Gene Therapy
Arpan is a geneticist and molecular biologist with experience in leveraging classical genetics and advanced functional genomic approaches to investigate systemic metabolic traits. In his last role, Arpan worked as a Scientist optimizing methodologies for MERFISH based spatial transcriptomics. Arpan earned his PhD in Molecular Cellular Biology and Genetics from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, where he investigated the role of TGf-β signaling in sugar metabolism. Arpan completed his postdoctoral training in Dr. Norbert Perrimon’s lab at the Harvard Medical School working at the interface of exercise biology, muscle health and muscle-derived signals that regulate lipid metabolism. He enjoys analog photography, gardening, and cooking.

Chris Reardon

Chris Reardon
Gene Therapy
Chris is a high throughput vector production specialist for gene therapy development. He studied Biochemistry & Molecular Biology for a BS from Umass Amherst, and then spent two years at the Umass Med Gene Therapy Center in the Esteves Lab and two years with Obsidian Therapeutics. In the winter, Chris is an avid backcountry skier who settles for hiking in the summer.

Adrian Veres, MD, PhD

Adrian Veres, MD, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer & Cofounder
Adrian is a biologist most satisfied by combining experimental and computational approaches to study complex systems. He obtained his PhD in Systems Biology from Harvard University, working with Prof. Douglas Melton on differentiating pancreatic beta cells in vitro to create cell-based therapies for diabetes. He collaborated closely with Semma Therapeutics on applying single-cell RNA sequencing to map in vitro beta cell differentiation, and pooled genetic screening to control this process. He graduated summa cum laude with an A.B. in Physics and Chemistry from Harvard College, during which he studied the evolutionary dynamics of antibiotic resistance in microbes. He holds an MD with Honors from the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology program. Adrian loves to cook, travel and hike and always enjoys a good new board game.

Crystal Suri, PhD, JD

Crystal Suri, PhD, JD
Vice President, Head of Legal
Crystal has about 20 years experience in all aspects of Intellectual Property (IP) practice for biotechnological innovations. Prior to joining Dyno, Crystal was Head of IP at Iveric Bio, where she developed and executed the company’s overall IP strategy. Prior to Iveric Bio, Crystal developed and managed an extensive patent portfolio for REGENXBIO and was also instrumental in licensing, EP oppositions, US post-grant proceedings, and patent litigation. Prior to REGENXBIO, Crystal gained over 10 years expertise at international law firm, JONES DAY, in patent prosecution, patent licensing, IP due diligences, oppositions, and patent litigation. Crystal obtained her PhD in Biomedical Sciences from Mount Sinai School of Medicine and JD from Fordham University Law School. Outside of work, Crystal enjoys running, traveling, and spending time with family.

Eric Kelsic, PhD

Eric Kelsic, PhD
CEO & Cofounder
Prior to founding Dyno, Eric led a team to develop the technology underlying Dyno’s artificial intelligence powered capsid engineering platform in George Church’s lab at the Wyss Institute of Harvard Medical School. There he measured the first comprehensive fitness landscape of the adeno-associated virus (AAV) capsid protein and co-discovered the AAV MAAP gene. He earned a PhD in Systems Biology from Harvard University and a BS in Physics from Caltech. Under Eric’s leadership Dyno has raised over $100M in VC financing, including a 2021 Series A led by a16z and signed partnership with world-leading gene therapy companies (Novartis, Sarepta, Roche, Spark and Astellas). Dyno was named Xconomy’s 2020 Startup of the Year and Eric was recognized as one of Endpoint’s 20 under 40 next-gen biotech leaders in 2021.

Kosta Kleitsas

Kosta Kleitsas
Vice President, Head of People
Kosta has spent nearly 20 years developing, leading and executing human resources strategies, operations and processes that drive successful business, culture and people outcomes. Prior to joining Dyno, Kosta was Director, Organizational Effectiveness at Valo, where he was responsible for developing and expanding the talent capabilities to help the organization scale, this included talent acquisition, talent management, performance management and compensation. Before Valo, he held various talent and human resources positions for a number of companies, in the biotech and information technology industries. Kosta earned a BS in Economics and Finance from Bentley University. When not at work, Kosta enjoys spending time with family and friends, building things and relaxing in the sun.

Sam Sinai, PhD

Sam Sinai, PhD
Vice President, Head of ML & Cofounder
Sam is a computational biologist with expertise in evolution and machine learning. He received his PhD under George Church and Martin Nowak at Harvard, where he used mathematics and machine learning to develop models of biological systems. In particular, he developed the underpinnings of Dyno’s machine learning strategy in collaboration with Eric, and has co-authored multiple papers on the subject. He previously obtained his B.S. and M.Eng. in computer science at MIT with a focus on A.I., and had a brief stint in medical school. Sam enjoys techno, soccer, and philosophy.

Tyson Bertmaring, MBA

Tyson Bertmaring, MBA
Vice President, Head of Stewardship
Tyson is a team-oriented servant leader committed to the success of our partners. He has earned a BS in Management from The United States Air Force Academy and an MBA from Arizona State University. He began his career in the Air Force leading teams across diverse environments, spanning from nuclear deterrence to R&D. Since departing active duty, Tyson has transitioned those experiences to serve R&D teams across both large and small Biopharma companies and alliances. Most recently, Tyson successfully implemented an agile team framework for the AAV research team at CRISPR Therapeutics. Tyson helps Dyno scale to exceed partner expectations while preserving organizational agility. Tyson enjoys spending time with his growing family in any remote outdoor environment.

Yvette Leung, MBA

Yvette Leung, MBA
Vice President, Head of Business Development
Yvette brings a track record of success in biopharma business development, corporate strategy, and commercial launches. Prior to joining Dyno, Yvette served as a commercial brand lead in the U.S. Hematology Marketing organization at Celgene (now Bristol-Myers Squibb), where she successfully led the US launch of three hematology brands across the myeloid / lymphoma franchise. Prior to Celgene, Yvette was a strategy consultant at L.E.K. Consulting, where she advised a range of life science clients on R&D pipeline prioritization, organizational scale-up, and M&A / growth strategy. Yvette also brings scientific expertise from 8 years of conducting academic lab research, including work on gene therapy approaches for neuroregeneration to treat Parkinson’s disease. Yvette holds an MBA in Health Care Management from The Wharton School and a BA in Chemical and Physical Biology from Harvard. She enjoys hiking, dancing, and foodie adventures!

Alan Crane, MBA

Alan Crane, MBA
Executive Chairman & Cofounder, Polaris Entrepreneur Partner
Alan joined Polaris Partners in 2002 and serves as an entrepreneur partner focused on building and investing in healthcare companies. He has served as founder, chairman and/or CEO in building eight Polaris companies. Prior to Dyno, Alan founded Pandion Therapeutics, which raised a $58M series A and is focused on tissue-specific immunomodulation for autoimmune disorders and transplantation. Alan was also a founding investor in KSQ Therapeutics, the leading company using CRISPR to discover the best therapeutic targets for disease intervention. The company has raised over $150M, including a crossover round. Alan’s portfolio companies have collectively been involved in 9 IPOs and M&A exits. Previously, Alan was president and CEO of Momenta Pharmaceuticals. He joined Momenta as the fifth employee and built it into a public company, creating an advanced and diversified pipeline, entering into two strategic collaborations with Novartis and raising $275 million. The first product from Momenta’s pipeline achieved over $1B in sales during its first year. Alan received Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year award for New England for this work. Prior to Polaris, Alan was senior VP of corporate development at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for generating over $2B in partner funding and acquiring 19 development stage products. Among these products was Velcade®, which became the main basis of the company’s $9B acquisition by Takeda. Alan earned a BA in biology, summa cum laude,an MA in biology, and an MBA from Harvard. He also spent two years studying towards an MD at Harvard Medical School.

Dylan Morris

Dylan Morris
CRV General Partner
Dylan Morris is a General Partner in CRV’s Bioengineering practice. He has led the firm’s investments in Dyno Therapeutics, Deciduous Therapeutics, Plexium, System1 Biosciences, Recursion Pharmaceuticals, and 3T Biosciences. He previously invested at Innovation Endeavors, an early-stage venture firm backed by Eric Schmidt, of Google/Alphabet. At IE, Dylan drove investments in several companies operating at the intersection of computing and biology, including Freenome, a CRV portfolio company applying deep learning to liquid biopsy for early cancer detection. Previously, he co founded Integrated Plasmonics, a venture-backed point-of-care diagnostics startup. Dylan conducted graduate research in Biophysics at Caltech and received an A.B. in Computer Science from Harvard.Dylan is passionate about accelerating the future of biology. He is excited about opportunities that leverage data to make biological engineering more tractable. He cares deeply about human health and is eager to explore creative ways to stimulate research and hasten the pace of biomedical innovation.

Eric Kelsic, PhD

Eric Kelsic, PhD
CEO & Cofounder
Prior to founding Dyno, Eric led a team to develop the technology underlying Dyno’s artificial intelligence powered capsid engineering platform in George Church’s lab at the Wyss Institute of Harvard Medical School. There he measured the first comprehensive fitness landscape of the adeno-associated virus (AAV) capsid protein and co-discovered the AAV MAAP gene. He earned a PhD in Systems Biology from Harvard University and a BS in Physics from Caltech. Under Eric’s leadership Dyno has raised over $100M in VC financing, including a 2021 Series A led by a16z and signed partnership with world-leading gene therapy companies (Novartis, Sarepta, Roche, Spark and Astellas). Dyno was named Xconomy’s 2020 Startup of the Year and Eric was recognized as one of Endpoint’s 20 under 40 next-gen biotech leaders in 2021.

Jorge Conde, MBA

Jorge Conde, MBA
a16z General Partner
Jorge Conde is a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz where he leads investments at the cross section of biology, computer science and engineering. Prior to joining a16z, Jorge served as Chief Strategy Officer for Syros (NASDAQ: SYRS), which is advancing a new wave of medicines that control expression of disease-driving genes to treat cancer and other diseases. He previously served as the company's Chief Financial Officer and Chief Product Officer, leading the platform strategy for Syros' novel gene regulation technology. Jorge also cofounded Knome, a human genome interpretation company acquired by Tute Genomics in 2015. Earlier in his career, Jorge worked in marketing and operations at MedImmune and as a biotechnology investment banker at Morgan Stanley. Jorge holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MS from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, and a BA in Biology from Johns Hopkins University. Jorge was named one of the top 35 young innovators in the world by the MIT Technology Review and is a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. He previously served on the board of the Museum of Science, Boston.

Debora Marks, PhD

Debora Marks, PhD
SAB
Debora S. Marks, PhD is an Associate Professor of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School, and an Associate Member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. Dr. Marks has led a distinguished career in academia and industry, and is an expert in the application of machine learning algorithms for protein design and engineering. She earned her B.Sc. in Mathematics from the University of Manchester, U.K., and her PhD in Mathematical Biology from Humboldt University, Germany.

George Church, PhD

George Church, PhD
Scientific Cofounder, SAB
George is Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is Director of the U.S. Department of Energy Technology Center and Director of the National Institutes of Health Center of Excellence in Genomic Science. George leads Synthetic Biology at the Wyss Institute, where he oversees the directed evolution of molecules, polymers, and whole genomes to create new tools with applications in regenerative medicine and bio-production of chemicals. Among his recent work at the Wyss is development of a technology for synthesizing whole genes, and engineering whole genomes, far faster, more accurate, and less costly than current methods. George is widely recognized for his innovative contributions to genomic science and his many pioneering contributions to chemistry and biomedicine. In 1984, he developed the first direct genomic sequencing method, which resulted in the first genome sequence (the human pathogen, H. pylori). His many innovations have been the basis for a number of companies including Editas (Gene therapy); Gen9bio (Synthetic DNA); and Veritas Genetics (full human genome sequencing). He has received numerous awards including the 2011 Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science from the Franklin Institute and election to the National Academy of Sciences and Engineering.

Nicole Paulk, PhD

Nicole Paulk, PhD
SAB
Nicole Paulk, PhD is an Assistant Professor of AAV Gene Therapy at the University of California San Francisco Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics. She is a pioneer in next-generation AAV gene delivery and gene editing platforms. She has developed therapies for gene repair and gene transfer for numerous rare diseases, and has applied high-throughput comparative proteomic and epigenomic approaches to address challenges in fundamental AAV biology. She earned her B.S. in Medical Microbiology from Central Washington University, and her PhD in Viral Gene Therapy from Oregon Health & Science University.

Tomas Bjorklund, PhD

Tomas Bjorklund, PhD
Scientific Co-founder, SAB
Tomas is a tenured Associate professor of Neuroscience at Lund University in Sweden. He is the President of the Swedish Society for Neuroscience since 2016. His research focus is on the development of novel therapies for Parkinson’s disease, furthering our understanding of basal ganglia connectomics and developing novel genetic tools. This includes the development of novel AAV capsid engineering methods, spatial sequencing technologies, in vivo genome editing and massively parallel in vivo assays utilizing molecular barcoding and machine learning. Tomas is a founder of Genepod Therapeutics AB, translating gene therapy for Parkinson’s disease towards the clinic and is the inventor of a number of pending and awarded patents in gene therapy.
“We are building a world with genetic agency: where patients can transform their health using genetic technologies that are safe, effective and accessible to all.”
Eric Kelsic, PhD
CEO & Cofounder
dy•no
noun
In climbing, a powerful leap to a new hold, requiring total commitment.
Our team is making bold moves to unlock the future of genetic medicine.

2015
February
Kelsic joins Church’s lab at Harvard and starts engineering AAV

2018
May
Cofounders team up on Dyno Therapeutics, Inc.
November
Closed $9 million Seed financing co-led by CRV and Polaris

2019
November
Dyno research published in Science

2020
May
Began partnership with Novartis and Sarepta
October
Began partnership with Roche

2021
May
Closed $100 million Series A financing led by a16z
December
Began partnership with Astellas

2022
January
Moved headquarters to Watertown, MA

2023
May
Launched Dyno bCap 1 for CNS delivery
October
Launched Dyno eCap 1 for eye delivery

2024
May
Began collaboration with NVIDIA
October
Roche expands CNS partnership with $50 million upfront payment

2025
January
Roche licenses first Dyno capsid for a neurological indication for $7 million

Investors








