Who We Are

Alan joined Polaris Partners in 2002 and serves as an entrepreneur partner. In this role, he focuses on building and investing in healthcare companies.

He has served in operating roles (as founder, CEO and/or Chairman) in building ten Polaris companies. Prior to founding and serving as initial CEO of Zag Bio, Alan co-founded Seismic Therapeutic, which uses machine learning to accelerate next generation immunology therapies, and Dyno Therapeutics, which uses artificial intelligence to design better viruses for delivery of gene therapies. Before Dyno, Alan founded Pandion Therapeutics to focus on tissue-specific immunomodulation for autoimmune disorders and transplantation. In four years from the Polaris seed funding, Pandion became a clinical-stage, public company and was acquired by Merck for $1.85B. 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. Momenta was acquired by J&J for $6.5B.

Alan’s past portfolio companies have collectively been involved in 12 IPOs and M&A exits. His current and past portfolio includes: Momenta Pharmaceuticals (acquired by J&J), Pandion Therapeutics (acquired by Merck), Visterra (acquired by Otsuka), Seismic Therapeutic, Dyno Therapeutics, KSQ Therapeutics, Sirtris Pharmaceuticals (acquired by GSK), Adnexus Therapeutics (acquired by BMS), Ocular Therapeutix, and Arsia Therapeutics (acquired by Eagle Pharmaceuticals).

Prior to Polaris, Alan was senior vice president of corporate development at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for generating over $2B in partner funding and acquiring 19 development stage products, including Velcade®, which became the main basis of the company’s $9B acquisition by Takeda.

Alan is a recipient of Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year award for New England. His current and former non-profit positions include: selection committee for the Harvard Life Lab, expert-in-residence at the Harvard School of Engineering, board member of the Boston Children’s Hospital Trust, founder of the Autism Consortium, and president of the board of Gann Academy.

Alan earned a BA in biology, summa cum laude, from Harvard College, an MA in biology from Harvard Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He also spent two years studying towards an MD at Harvard Medical School.

Shelley Chu, M.D., Ph.D. has served as a member of our board of directors since their seed investment in 2023. She leads Biotech investing at Lightspeed Venture Partners, where she co-heads the Healthcare Team. Dr. Chu has more than two decades of investing and operating experience spanning R&D strategy, clinical and business development, and commercialization. To date, her investments have led to seven New Drug Approvals (NDAs) by the FDA and 17 exits through M&As, IPOs, and partnerships. During her time at Gilead, where she led R&D strategy across all therapeutic areas and business development in immuno-oncology and HBV, three NDAs were approved and launched. At Lightspeed, she has led the firm’s investments across all stages, from Seed, Series A, to Growth. Dr. Chu is a current or former member of the board of directors of private and public companies, including Alpha-9, Antares, Diagonal, Dolomite, Enlaza, Protego, Seismic, Triana, Xaira, Zag Bio, Scorpion (acquired by Lilly), IFM Therapeutics (acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb), IFM Tre (acquired by Novartis), IFM Due (partnered with Novartis), Tizona (acquired by Gilead Sciences), SFJ Pharmaceuticals, and Phathom (NASDAQ:PHAT). Dr. Chu received her M.D. and Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Biophysics from the University of California at San Francisco and a BA in Molecular Biology from Princeton University.

Johannes Fruehauf MD, PhD, is a physician-scientist and life-science entrepreneur. He is the Founder and CEO of BioLabs and Founder and Executive Chairman of LabCentral, the leading international network for co-working laboratory spaces for life-science startup companies. Together, BioLabs/LabCentral have helped launch over 850 primarily venture funded startup companies in the life sciences in 17 different cities with a presence in the United States, Germany, France and Japan. The concept of these facilities is built around openness, transparency and shared resources and has changed the way biotech companies are built around the world. Companies launched at BioLabs/LabCentral have raised over $30bn while in residence since 2010.  LabCentral and BioLabs were also the recipient of the prestigious Prix Galien Award in 2022 for the best biotech startup launchpads in the “Incubators, Accelerators and Equity” category.

Dr. Fruehauf is also a Founding General Partner at Mission BioCapital, an early-stage venture capital fund providing capital to start-up companies in the life sciences. MBC collaborates closely with lab partners to offer support/expertise and opportunities for funding to both resident companies in the lab network including BioLabs, LabCentral and MBC BioLabs in San Francisco and additional high-quality start-ups.

Dr. Fruehauf studied medicine in Germany and France, while also conducting field work in Africa (Zimbabwe and Guinea). Thereafter, he practiced medicine (internal medicine and OB/Gyn) for several years in Germany before coming to Boston for a post-doc at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School.  He is a graduate of the University of Frankfurt and received his doctorate from the University of Heidelberg. He is also the author of over 30 peer reviewed publications and is named inventor on 9 issued patents on drug delivery and RNAi-based therapeutics.

Christian is a trained geneticist, neurobiologist, and biochemist with global big pharma and large biotech experience, and an ever-curious biotech startup mindset. He brings broad strategic and deep operational expertise in company creation, venture investing, external innovation, business development, and R&D to AbbVie Ventures. Passionate about drug discovery and value creation through scientific entrepreneurship to serve patients across the biopharmaceutical value chain, Christian has built and led successful partnering teams across biotech hubs in the US, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.

Sylvia Tobé is Managing Director at the T1D Fund and a seasoned biotech professional with over a decade of experience in early-stage company building and venture investing. Prior to joining the T1D Fund, she was a Principal at Omega Funds, where she focused on early-stage investments and company creation across therapeutic areas including neurology, immunology, and rare diseases. She currently serves on the Boards of DiogenX and Islex Therapeutics and has held Board observer roles at various biotech companies including Zucara Therapeutics, Vanqua Bio, Rectify Pharma and others.

Before her investing career, Sylvia spent seven years at Ra Pharmaceuticals, a peptide drug discovery company focused on rare diseases linked to complement dysregulation. She contributed to the development of the company’s discovery platform and the preclinical and translational efforts supporting first-in-human studies of Zilucoplan, now approved in multiple countries for generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG). She also provided scientific leadership for several internal and partnered discovery programs, including a collaboration with Merck.

Sylvia holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry, summa cum laude, from Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, earned while completing a full-time visiting fellowship in the Department of Genetics at Harvard University. She also holds an M.S. from Pierre and Marie Curie University and a B.S. in Biochemistry from Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble.

Jo is a seasoned biotech executive and entrepreneurial scientist who has taken more than a dozen drugs to clinic over her 30-year career.

Prior to founding Seismic, she founded Pandion Therapeutics in 2017 and served as President and Chief Scientific Officer until the acquisition by Merck for $1.85B in 2021. Prior to Pandion, she held research leadership positions at Biogen, Amgen and Immunex. She is an experienced director on both private and public company boards.

In 2024 she was recognized as a Distinguished Fellow by the American Association for Immunologists. In 2022 she was named as one of the Extraordinary Women Advancing Healthcare in Massachusetts by The Women’s Edge, and she was profiled in the Boston Business Journal’s Women to Watch. Jo has also featured in FiercePharma’s 2020 Fiercest Women in Life Sciences and in Endpoints’ 2019 Special Report on 20 Extraordinary Women.

Jo is an advocate for workplace inclusiveness and regularly volunteers her time with organizations focused on increasing diversity. She has served on the board of WEST, a non-profit organization supporting early to mid-career women, including as President 2017-18.

Jo has a PhD in immunology from the University of London, and a BSc (Hons) in biophysics from the University of East London.

Jason Cole has 20 years of executive-level experience in the biotechnology industry with a track record of success at public and private biotechnology companies, advancing first-in-class therapies from discovery through approval.  His most recent role was as Chief Executive Officer and Chair of the Board at SalioGen Therapeutics.  He also served as Chief Strategy & Financial Officer, Chief Business Officer and Chief Operating and Legal Officer at bluebird bio.  Previously, Jason served on the executive leadership teams of Zalicus and CombinatoRx.  He holds a J.D. from Columbia University and an A.B. in Government from Dartmouth College.  Jason serves on the executive committee of the board of directors for MassBIO.