About Us

Sean P. Nolan is the Chairman of the Board of Directors at Encoded Therapeutics. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer at Taysha Gene Therapies Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on advancing AAV-based gene therapies for severe monogenic diseases of the central nervous system.

Before joining Taysha, Sean served as the President and CEO at AveXis, Inc. and was a member of the company’s board of directors from 2015 to 2018 prior to its acquisition by Novartis. During that time, his team developed Zolgensma for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy, the first one-time systemic gene therapy approved in the U.S. Before AveXis, Sean served as the Chief Business Officer at InterMune from 2013 to 2015, leading the global marketing in Europe and the U.S. launch planning of pirfenidone for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. From 2011 to 2012, Sean served as the Chief Commercial Officer at Reata Pharmaceuticals and has held leadership roles in sales and marketing at Lundbeck Inc. and Abbott Laboratories.

Sean serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors at Taysha, Affinia Therapeutics, Inc., and Jaguar Gene Therapy, LLC. He is the Executive Chairman of the board at Istari Oncology, Inc., and a member of the board of directors at Ventas, Inc., and John Carroll University. He also serves as an advisor to the Goldman Sachs Life Sciences Fund.

Sean holds a B.A. in Biology from John Carroll University.

Kartik Ramamoorthi, Ph.D., is co-founder, chief executive officer and member of the board of directors at Encoded Therapeutics. He has received several recognitions for his work at Encoded: San Francisco Business Times 40 Under 40 (2021), Fortune 40 Under 40 (2020), Endpoints 20 Under 40 (2020), Goldman Sachs 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs (2019) and Business Insider 30 Biotech Leaders Under 40 Shaping the Future of Medicine (2017). Previously, Kartik served on the team that launched Voyager Therapeutics, a gene therapy company developing treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. He received his Ph.D. in Molecular & Cellular Neuroscience from MIT in 2014 and his B.S. in Cell Biology and Neuroscience from Rutgers University in 2008.

Stephanie Tagliatela is co-founder, chief scientific officer and member of the board of directors at Encoded Therapeutics. She is passionate about building and aligning cross-functional teams to move gene therapy beyond the technical limitations that exist today. Stephanie has helped shape Encoded’s sequencing-based technologies and apply them across a range of high impact disease areas. She has been named by Business Insider as one of the 30 biotech leaders under 40 searching for breakthrough treatments and shaping the future of medicine. Prior to Encoded, Stephanie conducted doctoral research in Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience at MIT. She received her B.A. in Biological Sciences from Mount Holyoke College.

Jacqueline Fok, Ph.D., is a life sciences and health tech investment vice president at Softbank Vision Fund.

Before joining Softbank, Jacqueline was a life sciences investment manager at IP Group plc. She started her career at AstraZeneca as a scientist in the Oncology Division.

Jacqueline received her B.S. in Biochemistry and her M.Res. in Cancer Biology from Imperial College London. She also holds a Ph.D. in Cancer Biology and Therapeutics from The Institute of Cancer Research.

Bryan Roberts, Ph.D., is a member of the board of directors at Encoded Therapeutics and a partner at Venrock. Bryan has partnered with early-stage entrepreneurs innovating across healthcare and life sciences. In addition to Encoded Therapeutics, Bryan is currently involved with companies across therapeutics, genomics, and health tech, including Aledade, Devoted Health, Element Biosciences, Included Health, Interdict, Kelonia Therapeutics, Lyra Health, Moonlight Bio, Mythic Therapeutics, SmithRx and Suki.ai.

Past investments include 10x Genomics (NASDAQ: TXG), Ariosa Diagnostics (acquired by Roche), athenahealth (NASDAQ: ATHN), Fate Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FATE), Ikaria (acquired by Mallinckrodt), Illumina (NASDAQ: ILMN), Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: IRWD), Receptos (acquired by Celgene), Sirna Therapeutics (acquired by Merck), and Zeltiq (acquired by Allergan).

He holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry and Chemical Biology from Harvard University. He received his B.A. from Dartmouth College.

Dr. Sato is currently a partner at ARCH Venture Partners, Chairman at Denali Therapeutics and VIR Biotechnology, non-executive Director at Allogene Therapeutics, Inc., a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) and a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicines’ Committee on Science, Technology and Law.

Previously, she was a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School and a professor in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at Harvard University.

Dr. Sato retired in 2005 from Vertex Pharmaceuticals, where she served as President since 2000. She joined the company in 1992 and had previously served as Chief Scientific Officer, Senior Vice President of Research and Development and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board.

Before Vertex, Dr. Sato was Vice President of Research at Biogen, Inc., where she led research programs in the areas of inflammation, thrombosis and HIV disease, and was part of the executive team.

Previously, she served as a board member for several U.S. publicly traded companies biotech and biopharma companies.

Dr. Sato received her A.B. in Biology from Radcliffe College and her A.M. and Ph.D. in Biology from Harvard University. She conducted her postdoctoral work at both the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford Medical Center.

John R. Stuelpnagel is a member of the board of directors at Encoded Therapeutics and co-founder and chairman of Fabric Genomics, 10x Genomics and Inscripta.

Previously, John co-founded Illumina (NASDAQ: ILMN) in 1998, serving as its first chief executive officer and later as its chief operating officer. He is a co-founder and was the executive chairman at Ariosa (sold to Roche) and was the chairman at Sequenta (sold to Adaptive Biotechnologies).

He holds a B.S. in Biochemistry and a doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from the University of California, Davis, and an MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Karan Takhar is a member of the board of directors at Encoded Therapeutics and serves as Managing Director at Matrix Capital Management Company, L.P. At Matrix he leads and oversees key portfolio investments.

Before joining Matrix, Karan spent time working for High Vista Strategies, Goldman Sachs Investment Strategies and Moody’s Investor Service.

He received his B.S. in Economics from MIT in 2013.

Dr. David Schenkein is a general partner at GV, where he co-leads the life science investment team. Previously, David spent 10 years as chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors at Agios Pharmaceuticals, where he remains chairman.

David has been a hematologist and medical oncologist for 30 years. He currently serves as an adjunct attending physician in hematology at Tufts Medical Center. Prior to joining Agios, David was the senior vice president, clinical hematology/oncology at Genentech, where he was responsible for numerous successful oncology drug approvals and leading the medical and scientific strategies for their BioOncology portfolio. While at Genentech, he served as an adjunct clinical professor of medical oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Prior to joining Genentech, he served as the senior vice president of clinical research at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, overseeing the clinical development and worldwide approval of Velcade, a first-in-class cancer therapy now approved to treat multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He serves on the board of directors of Denali Therapeutics.

David holds a B.A. in Chemistry from Wesleyan University and an M.D. from the State University of New York Upstate Medical School.