Deep Genomics is a fully integrated, AI-driven drug discovery company built for reliable scaling and rapid dry- and wet-lab iteration.
We are a group of seasoned experts at the intersection of genomics, drug development and AI, with expertise in artificial intelligence, automation, cell and molecular biology, clinical development, in vitro disease models, machine learning, medicine, molecular genetics, preclinical development, organic chemistry and software engineering.
Brian O'Callaghan is the Chief Executive Officer and board member of Deep Genomics. With over 30 years experience as a senior life science executive, Brian brings extensive knowledge within the biotech, big pharma and clinical research organization (CRO) sectors. Previously, he held CEO positions at ObsEva SA, Petra Pharma, Acucela, Sangart and BioPartners. Earlier in his career, Brian held multiple senior management positions at Pfizer, Merck Serono, Novartis, Covance and NPS Pharmaceuticals. Brian received a Marketing Diploma from the Marketing Institute of Ireland and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Henley Business School at the University of Reading.
Brendan Frey is an internationally acclaimed entrepreneur, engineer and scientist. He is Chief Innovation Officer, Founder and board member of Deep Genomics and co-founder of the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Brendan made fundamental contributions in the fields of deep learning, genomic medicine, and information technology. He co-authored over 200 papers in these areas, including over a dozen that appeared in Nature, Science and Cell. His work with Geoffrey Hinton on the 'wake-sleep algorithm' helped to launch the field of deep learning (Science 1995). This work led to the founding of Deep Genomics in 2015, the first AI system for predicting pathogenic mutations and identifying therapeutic targets. Brendan is Professor of Engineering and Medicine at the University of Toronto and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Brendan received his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1997.
David B. Johnston, Chief Financial Officer, brings over thirty years of senior financial leadership experience. Currently he is principal of dbjconsulting llc, providing financial and strategic advice to emerging life science companies. Most recently he was Chief Financial Officer for ImmunoGen, Inc., an oncology-focused biotech based in Waltham, MA, where he led several public offerings as well as a creative, non-dilutive royalty financing. Prior to ImmunoGen, Dave served as CFO for Aveo Oncology and Genzyme Biosurgery, where he led both of their initial public offerings. Mr. Johnston earned a B.S. at Washington and Lee University and an MBA at the University of Michigan.
Clive Bertram is the Chief Business Officer at Deep Genomics. He comes with over 30 years of experience in commercialization, strategic, corporate and business development in the pharmaceutical industry. Most recently, he served as CCO at ObsEva, Petra Pharma and Sangart. Prior to his CCO roles, Clive held multiple senior management positions at Pharmion Limited, Chiron Biopharmaceuticals, Celltech and Eli Lilly. He holds a BSc (Hons.) in Pharmacology and Chemistry from the University of Sheffield.
Tom Masterson is the Chief Operating Officer at Deep Genomics. Holding responsibility for the Project Management Office and executive function, Tom brings structure and continuity to the company, ensuring that corporate goals are supported by the work of our employees. Prior to Deep Genomics, Tom spent time in medical devices, contract research, and healthcare design strategy, before launching his own startup, Caregiver Support Technologies. Tom received his B.Sc. from the University of British Columbia, where he focused on Cell Biology and Genetics. He later received his M.B.A. at Harvard Business School.
Greg Hoffman is the Chief Scientific Officer at Deep Genomics, leading the team responsible for generating rich data sets to train and validate our AI platform by applying state of the art capabilities in cell biology, molecular biology, robotics, screening, and animal models. Greg brings over 20 years of experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sector, including leadership roles at Arbor Biotechnology, Obsidian Therapeutics, Sana Biotechnology, and Novartis. Greg earned his BA in Biochemistry and PhD in Biophysics at Cornell and completed his postdoctoral studies at Harvard Medical School.
Monika Kowalczyk, MD, PhD, is the Vice President of Platform Technology at Deep Genomics. She brings extensive expertise in clinical medicine and genomics research to the team. In her former role as Head of Systems Biology at Decibel Therapeutics, she contributed to development of DB-OTO, a groundbreaking investigational gene therapy that significantly improved hearing levels for children facing a rare genetic disease. Monika leads the advancement of Deep Genomics' next-generation sequencing, genomics, molecular biology and cellular technology capabilities.
Shawdee Eshghi, PhD, is the Vice President of Platform Biology at Deep Genomics. In her former role at Ginkgo Bioworks, Shawdee helped lead the genetic medicine team from its inception to partnering with leading biotech and pharmaceutical companies on high throughput screening projects in cell therapy, gene editing, iPSC engineering and RNA therapeutics. She leads all data generation and therapeutic discovery activities at Deep Genomics.
Robert Goodnow (Rob) is the Vice President, Molecular Design at Deep Genomics. Prior to this role, Rob was the Vice President, Head Drug Discovery Sciences at Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, leading Takeda's multi-modality platform capabilities in drug discovery. Prior to Takeda, Rob was Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry at Stoke Therapeutics, and held research leadership roles at AstraZeneca and Roche. He has authored or co-authored more than 80 scientific papers, book chapters and patent applications. Robert holds a B.S. in chemistry from Georgetown University and a Ph.D. in organic/bioorganic chemistry from Columbia University.
Emily Lee is an accomplished HR leader with over 15 years of experience guiding organizations through growth and transformation. Currently serving as the Vice President of Human Resources at Deep Genomics, Emily brings a strong track record of building high-performing teams and cultivating workplace cultures where people thrive.
With a master’s degree in Human Resources from Suffolk University and a Bachelor’s in Business from Providence College, she has worked across diverse industries with a deep focus in tech and biotechnology. Emily partners closely with executive teams to drive talent development, foster inclusive environments, and align people strategies with business goals.
Vic Myer brings three decades of interdisciplinary experience to the Advisory Board, where he helps guide the company in applying its AI platform to the most critical problems in genetic medicine. He is currently an Advisory Board member for multiple genomic medicine and delivery technology organizations, as well as an advisor for Atlas Ventures and the NIH Somatic Cell Genome Engineering Initiative. His prior operational leadership includes serving as President and Chief Scientific Officer at Chroma Medicine and Chief Technology Officer at Editas Medicine.
Mark Edbrooke, Ph.D., has oligonucleotide experience spanning over two decades at AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline and as an independent consultant. After earning his PhD in molecular biology from the University of London, he ran a transnational gene interference department at GSK that generated target identification and validation data for all therapeutic areas across the company. He founded and led the Discovery Performance Unit (DPU) within GSK focused on the development of therapeutic siRNAs and on therapeutic antisense oligonucleotides. He then joined AstraZeneca, where he worked on alliances with Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Regulus Therapeutics and Moderna Therapeutics.
Yann LeCun is the Executive Chairman of AMI Labs and a Silver Professor at NYU affiliated with the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and the Center for Data Science. He was previously the VP and Chief AI Scientist at Meta and the founding Director of Facebook AI Research and of the NYU Center for Data Science. He received an Engineering Diploma from ESIEE (Paris) and a PhD from Sorbonne Universite. After a postdoc in Toronto he joined AT&T Bell Labs in 1988, and AT&T Labs in 1996 as Head of Image Processing Research. He joined NYU as a professor in 2003 and Facebook in 2013. His interests include AI, machine learning, computer perception, robotics and computational neuroscience. He is the recipient of the 2018 ACM Turing Award (with Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio), a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur.
Benjamin Neale is an associate professor in the Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit (ATGU) at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), where he directs the Genomics of Public Health Initiative. He is also an associate professor in medicine at Harvard Medical School, and an institute member at the Broad Institute. He co-leads the ADHD Initiative, is an active member of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC) steering and analysis committees, and currently co-chairs the International Common Disease Alliance Maps Workgroup.
Benjamin has worked with many international consortia, including the International Inflammatory Bowel Disease Genetics Consortium, GIANT and the Global Lipids Genomics Consortium. He has served as a statistical advisor to analysts in other PGC working groups including addictions, autism, cross-disorder, TS/OCD and schizophrenia groups.
Benjamin holds a B.Sc. in genetics from the University of Chicago and Virginia Commonwealth University, and a Ph.D. in human genetics from King's College London. He completed his postdoctoral training in Daly's Laboratory at MGH.
Richard Scheller, PhD, is an award-winning leader in drug discovery and therapeutic development. He previously served as Head of Therapeutics and Chief Scientific Officer at 23andMe and as Executive Vice President of Research and Early Development at Genentech, where he led major initiatives in research strategy and early drug development. Earlier in his career, he was a professor at Stanford and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, and he currently holds an adjunct faculty position at the University of California, San Francisco. Scheller currently sits on the boards of several respected biotech organizations.
Thong Q. Le brings more than two decades of investment experience in the life sciences industry, with a strong track record of making impactful investments that improve lives, shaping effective investment strategies and aiding deal-making processes.
Mr. Le currently serves as investment director and managing partner of the Strategic Investment Fund (SIF) for the Gates Foundation. He also serves as chairman of Accelerator Life Science Partners (ALSP), a venture capital firm focused on developing next-generation life science companies. He has served as a director, founding president and CEO of more than a dozen ALSP portfolio companies, including Petra Pharma, Rodeo Therapeutics and Lodo Therapeutics. Mr. Le currently serves on several private biotech and nonprofit organization boards.
Brendan Frey is an internationally acclaimed entrepreneur, engineer and scientist. He is Chief Innovation Officer, Founder and board member of Deep Genomics and co-founder of the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Brendan made fundamental contributions in the fields of deep learning, genomic medicine, and information technology. He co-authored over 200 papers in these areas, including over a dozen that appeared in Nature, Science and Cell. His work with Geoffrey Hinton on the 'wake-sleep algorithm' helped to launch the field of deep learning (Science 1995). This work led to the founding of Deep Genomics in 2015, the first AI system for predicting pathogenic mutations and identifying therapeutic targets. Brendan is Professor of Engineering and Medicine at the University of Toronto and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Brendan received his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1997.
Brian O'Callaghan is the Chief Executive Officer and board member of Deep Genomics. With over 30 years experience as a senior life science executive, Brian brings extensive knowledge within the biotech, big pharma and clinical research organization (CRO) sectors. Previously, he held CEO positions at ObsEva SA, Petra Pharma, Acucela, Sangart and BioPartners. Earlier in his career, Brian held multiple senior management positions at Pfizer, Merck Serono, Novartis, Covance and NPS Pharmaceuticals. Brian received a Marketing Diploma from the Marketing Institute of Ireland and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Henley Business School at the University of Reading.
Chip Baird is Chief Financial Officer at 2Seventy Bio (Nasdaq: TSVT), a commercial-stage oncology cell therapy company. Prior to 2Seventy, Chip served as CFO for Bluebird Bio, Amicus Therapeutics, and PTC Therapeutics. Chip has more than 20 years of experience leading innovative biotech companies and also serves as a Director of Axcella Health.
Adam is a partner at True Ventures.
Prior to True Ventures, Adam worked with True portfolio company B-Stock, an online marketplace for liquidating excess inventory, and initially joined the True Ventures team as an analyst in 2010.
Adam graduated magna cum laude from the University of Florida with a bachelor's degree in science and a master's degree in finance. As an undergraduate, he launched and ran an independent, donation-based record label and later created a course, Digital Frontiers, exploring how the internet and technology are changing the global business landscape, which he taught at the University of Florida.
Maryanna Saenko is a co-founder of Future Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in frontier technologies across diverse industries. She has an interest in robotics, quantum computing, biotechnology, aerospace, and the future of food.
Previously she was at Khosla Ventures, and prior to that at DFJ, where she focused on frontier technology investments. Maryanna was also an investment partner at Airbus Ventures where she led a series of venture investments strategically aligned with Airbus' future-of-aerospace initiatives. Before Airbus, she was a consultant at Lux Research and a research engineer at Cabot Corporation.
Maryanna graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and a B.S. and M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering.
Nessan (Ness) Bermingham, Ph.D., is Operating Partner at Khosla Ventures, where he focuses on life science companies involving nucleic acids, novel delivery systems, gene and cell therapy, novel target identification and data analytics. He is a serial biotech entrepreneur and investor, most notably having founded Intellia Therapeutics, Korro Bio and Liberate Bio. Ness was President and CEO of Intellia from its inception in 2014 until 2017, leading the company through partnering deals, financings and an IPO in 2016. Ness has held investment roles at Atlas Venture and Omega Fund Management and is Chair of F-star, Executive Chair of Korro Bio, and Executive Chair of Stylus Medicine.
Jacqueline (Jackie) Fok, Ph.D., is an Investment Vice President at SoftBank Vision Fund, focused on life sciences and health tech. She has over 10 years' experience in the life sciences industry and was previously an investor at IP Group and a scientist in the Oncology R&D unit at AstraZeneca.
Paul Sekhri is the current Chair, President and CEO of vTv Therapeutics Inc., Chair of the Board of Resolution Therapeutics, and Executive Chair of Violet Therapeutics Inc., bringing more than 35 years of experience in business development and strategy across top life sciences, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.
Most recently, he served as President and CEO of eGenesis Inc. and Lycera Corp. Previously, Mr. Sekhri held senior leadership positions at Sanofi, Teva Pharmaceuticals, TPG Biotech, Cerimon Pharmaceuticals Inc., Ariad Pharmaceuticals and Novartis. He currently serves on the Board of Veeva Systems, AdhereTech Inc., and Kayothera; is Chair of Young Concert Artists; and sits on the Advisory Council of the New York Philharmonic.
Dion Madsen has more than 25 years of experience working with innovative startups and major public companies and is the co-founder and Partner at Amplitude Ventures.
Prior to this, he was Senior Managing Partner of the Healthcare Venture Fund at BDC Capital, where the fund built two billion-dollar Canadian companies. He started his venture career with RBC Capital Partners and moved to San Francisco in 2002 to expand RBC's platform, then was recruited to lead Unilever's corporate venture fund in the USA and founded and was managing director of Physic Ventures, a pioneering investor in consumer-driven health. Dion is a founding member of the C100.
Dion received his Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Saskatchewan and is a C.F.A. charterholder.
Deep Genomics has offices in Toronto and Boston. The AI platform and preclinical research teams are located in the heart of Toronto, the fastest growing tech hub in North America and widely recognized as one of the most livable cities in the world.
The facilities are located in the MaRS Discovery District, right beside the University of Toronto, four research hospitals, three medical research institutes, and the AI research labs of Google, Uber and the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence. The clinical development and business development teams are led out of Boston.