Mitchell Finer, PhD, has been instrumental in founding, building and leading a number of MPM portfolio companies. For three decades, he has focused on drug development utilizing the novel platforms of cell and gene therapy, cancer immunotherapy and regenerative medicine. Dr. Finer is currently Chief Scientific Officer of ElevateBio and President of ElevateBio BaseCamp.
Prior to ElevateBio, Mitch founded and is the former CEO of Oncorus, focused on the development of oncolytic herpes viruses for the treatment of solid tumors. He is also a founder and the former CEO of CODA Biotherapeutics, focused on developing achemogenetic neuromodulation platform for the treatment of severe neurological disorders. Mitch serves on several MPM portfolio company boards, including CODA, Oncorus, Semma Therapeutics and TCR2 Therapeutics.
Prior to joining MPM, he was the CSO of bluebird bio. He has also served as CEO of Intracel Corporation and Genteric, Vice President Research for Cell Genesys and the Gencell division of Aventis Pharma (now Sanofi) and Senior Vice President of Development at Novacell (now Viacyte). He also successfully co-founded a retinal disease gene therapy company Avalanche Biotechnologies (now Adverum Biotechnologies) where he serves as a member of the board of directors.
Mitch has been named inventor on 15 issued U.S. patents. He received his PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Harvard University and a BS in Biochemistry and Microbiology from the University of California at Berkeley. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.