Blavatnik Fellowship in Life Science Entrepreneurship

Overview

The Blavatnik Fellowship in Life Science Entrepreneurship offers Harvard Business School (HBS) alumni and Harvard-affiliated postdoctoral researchers the opportunity to advance new ventures around promising life science technologies and develop their leadership talents during a 12-month fellowship year. This unique opportunity allows fellows to work closely with leading biotech industry and biomedical authorities, receive programmatic guidance and mentorship, and join a community of entrepreneurs shaping the future of science.

How to Apply

Ideal candidates are HBS alumni who have graduated within the last 7–10 years and Harvard-affiliated postdoctoral researchers within the first 5 years of their training program in a Harvard program or research lab. Postdocs can continue technical and commercial development of their existing scientific research during the fellowship year. Applications for the next cohort will open in early 2023.

Resources & Opportunities

Community

A network of over 90 business and life science leaders and 39 alumni Blavatnik Fellows can provide tactical and strategic guidance. Past fellows have created companies including devices, therapeutics, diagnostics, consumer health, and health IT and raised more than $485 million through angel investors, seed and funding rounds, seed, grants, and venture funding. An additional $244M was raised when a Blavatnik Fellow's venture went public.

Leadership

The Fellowship is led by faculty chair Peter Barrett, PhD and Tracy Perry, associate director. The members of the Key Advisory Board, leading industry and biomedical authorities, provide programmatic guidance as well as one-on-one mentorship to Blavatnik Fellows. The Health Care Leaders Network provides opportunities for developing industry contacts and networking in the Boston area through a variety of programs.

Professional Development

The program has hosted over 70 seminars with key industry experts. Workshop topics are based on Blavatnik Fellows’ current needs to build business acumen and executive leadership skills. Past topics include “Effectively Communicating to Win Financing,” “How to Lead as a First-Time CEO,” and “Building a Team in a Startup Culture.”

Industry Access

Fellows build a network of connections across the life science industry in various ways. They are matched with Key Advisory Board members who serve as their mentors throughout the program. In addition, Fellows attend industry conferences and events including the annual Harvard FUSION Symposium, cohosted by the Fellowship and the Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator, which integrates perspectives from science and business to explore the promise of an emerging field, bringing together entrepreneurs, scientists, business leaders, investors, and innovators for a day of exploration and networking.

“Bringing life science innovations to the global population is more crucial than ever. The Blavatnik Fellowship mentors future leaders who want to make important advancements, take risks, and commercialize biomedical discoveries.”

• Srikant M. Datar
• George F. Baker Professor of Administration
• Dean of the Faculty

2022–23 Fellows

Ilana Springer Borkenstein, RN

MBA 2022

Ilana Springer Borkenstein, RN (MBA 2022) is the co-founder and CEO of M7 Health, a technology company addressing the critical nursing shortage in the US. As a Blavatnik Fellow, Ilana will be focusing on M7 Health's product development and go-to-market strategy. Prior to business school, Ilana was a registered nurse on the bone marrow transplant and COVID-19 units at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. She also brings operational experience from her roles at two early-stage health-tech startups, Elektra Health and Alula, and as a health care consultant at Deloitte. Ilana earned a BS in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from HBS.   

Hunter Goble

MBA 2022

Hunter Goble (MBA 2022) is the co-founder and CEO of Transcera, a biotech startup harnessing the biology of sphingolipids to enable oral delivery and amplified distribution of biologic medicines. Hunter plans to use the Blavatnik Fellowship year to refine strategy and business development for the company’s novel drug delivery platform with his co-founders, Harvard Medical School Professor Dr. Wayne Lencer and Justin Wolfe, PhD. Hunter became passionate about life sciences at Eli Lilly & Company, where he worked on commercializing biologic therapies for autoimmune diseases. Leading market research and patient support program development gave Hunter a chance to interact with hundreds of patients and physicians who motivated him to learn more about sources of innovation in life sciences. He has also worked at Huron Consulting Group and Cured, a health tech startup. Hunter has a BA in political science from DePauw University and an MBA from HBS.

Matt Ross

MBA 2022

Matt Ross (MBA 2022) is the co-founder and CEO of Trove Health, which aims to become the world’s largest database of consented and identified patients for clinical research. During his Blavatnik Fellowship, he will focus on the development and commercialization of Trove Health’s core software platform, which is harnessing technology to solve the immense challenge around patient recruitment for clinical trials, where fewer than three percent of eligible patients enroll. Matt started Trove Health as a student with HBS Professor Satish Tadikonda, who developed their initial technology for patient identification and enrollment after decades of experience in the field. Matt has been passionate about helping patients through digital health platforms since he worked at Sanofi Genzyme and Medumo, a health tech startup acquired by Philips. Matt received an AB in economics from Dartmouth College and an MBA from HBS. 

Shardule Shah, PhD

MBA 2022

Shardule Shah, PhD (MBA 2022) is the CEO and co-founder of Lime Therapeutics, which he started as an HBS student. Lime is a Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center spinout from Dr. Dan Heller’s lab, utilizing a novel high-throughput screening approach for discovering lipid-targeting drugs for treating cancer and neurodegenerative disorders. Using its proprietary nanosensor-based approach, Lime has identified and patented a lead drug candidate that increases lifespan in a mouse model of a non-small cell lung cancer model by 50 percent. This lead drug is the first in Lime's planned pipeline of medicines that will be working their way towards human clinical trials. Prior to business school, Shardule worked in the Bay Area at Lucira Health and Roche Molecular Diagnostics, where he managed clinical operations and regulatory affairs for point-of-care diagnostic devices including COVID-19 testing. Shardule earned his PhD from Emory University in immunology, an MS from the University of Pennsylvania in cell biology, a BS from Case Western Reserve University in biochemistry, and an MBA from HBS. 

Alexey Youssef, MD, MSc

MBA 2022

Alexey Youssef, MD, MSc (MBA 2022) is the co-founder of Sky Therapeutics, which he started with an MBA classmate, Shad Faraz. As a Blavatnik Fellow, Alex will build the first discovery and development-oriented digital therapeutics company using an AI and digital biomarkers-enabled platform that will churn out highly potent and personalized therapies at a fraction of the current cost and time. Prior to HBS,  Alex worked with the World Health Organization to digitally transform health care systems in low-income settings using open-source electronic health records. He also worked as a physician on the front lines during the civil war in Syria. Alex gained valuable experience in the financial sector as a long/short equities hedge fund investor and mergers and acquisition financial advisor. He also co-founded a Y Combinator-backed biotech microbiome startup during school. Alex and Shad also co-host a popular podcast, “Physicians Off the Beaten Path,” interviewing physicians who have ventured into non-clinical careers. Alex is currently finishing a PhD in Computer Science at Oxford and an MS in Bioengineering at Stanford.  In addition to being the first Syrian Rhodes Scholar, he earned an MD at Tishreen University, an MSc in Healthcare Systems at Oxford, and an MBA at HBS.   

Faculty Chair

Peter Barrett

PhD, Senior Fellow at Harvard Business School

In addition to his work at Harvard, Peter is a Partner at Atlas Venture, an early stage life science venture capital firm. Since 2002, Peter has been involved in the creation of several novel therapeutic and drug discovery platform companies. Prior to Atlas he was co-founder, executive vice president, and chief business officer of Celera Genomics, and held senior management positions at Applera. Peter is currently chairman of Obsidian Therapeutics, Zafgen, Cadent Therapeutics, and Synlogic and sits on the boards of Indalo and Perkin Elmer.

Peter received a BS in chemistry from Lowell Technological Institute (now known as the University of Massachusetts, Lowell) and a PhD in analytical chemistry from Northeastern University. He also completed Harvard Business School’s Program for Management Development.