Rick Klausner, M.D.

Rick Klausner, M.D., is our founder and current Board Chair and was previously our Chief Executive Officer from September 2018 to July 2020 and Executive Chairman from August 2020 to October 2021. Dr. Klausner is the founder and Chief Scientist of Altos Labs, a private life sciences company. He is co-founder and Director of Prometheus, co-founder and Director of Catharos, and is a Director of Ohalo Genetics. He is the President of the Milky Way Research Foundation and founder and Managing Partner of Milky Way Investments. He was the founder and Director of Juno Therapeutics and the founder and Director of GRAIL. He is the Chairman of Sonoma Biotherapeutics and Co-Founder and Chairman of LifeMine Therapeutics and founder and Director of Pirabilis Therapeutics. He is the former Senior Vice President, Chief Medical Officer, and Chief Opportunity Officer of Illumina Corporation. Previously, he was Executive Director for Global Health of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Dr. Klausner was appointed by Presidents Clinton and Bush as the eleventh Director of the U.S. National Cancer Institute between 1995 and 2001. Dr. Klausner served as chief of the Cell Biology and Metabolism Branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and a past president of the American Society of Clinical Investigation. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Medicine. He has served in senior advisory roles to the U.S., Norwegian, Qatari, and Indian governments. Dr. Klausner earned an M.D. from Duke Medical School and a B.S. from Yale University.